As Christians, we can usually accept the idea that God has big plans for us, but we also very easily accept the idea that these plans wither away for this reason or that.  We become complacent about these plans.  We lose hope and the plans that God has for us never come to be.  Things happen.  We make mistakes.  And His plans slip away, and we settle.

                God revealed to Abram these wonderful plans He had for him and then He sent him on a journey.  The first stop on the journey was wonderful.  It was at the great tree of Moreh at Shechem and God promised Abram that land to his offspring and Abram built an altar and worshipped the Lord. 

                It’s easy to worship the Lord when everything is going right.  When God is clearing your path to blessing just as He divided the waters for the Israelites, praise jumps out of your heart and mouth.  But soon things would change.  There was a famine and Abram went ‘down’ to Egypt.  He is still on the journey that God sent Him on and now this journey has led him ‘down’ to Egypt.

                Sometimes, you have to go ‘down’ before you can go ‘up.’  We like places like Shechem must more than we like going ‘down’ to Egypt, but both are part of the journey.  If we don’t understand this, the journey will frustrate us.  We might lose heart.  We might let go of God’s plans for us.  But we must realize that pain is part of the journey.  Hardship, trials, miscarriages, betrayal, and divorce are on the journey sometimes.  We each have a different journey, but one thing that is the same is that we all at some point will go ‘down’ to Egypt.

                Abram, afraid of losing his own life, willingly gives up his wife Sarai to Pharoah.  He tells Pharaoh that she is his sister knowing that if Pharaoh thought they were married and wanted Sarai for himself, he might kill Abram.  Remember the promise that God gave to Abram.  He was going to be a great nation.  At some point, if you are going to be a great nation, you need to have at least one child, but Abram, ‘down’ in Egypt handled everything badly and gave up his wife,  possibly giving up the plans that God had for him. 

                We do this all of the time.  We get stressed, become afraid or angry, and we do things that work against the plans that God has for us.  Egypt is a difficult place to be and hold on to the hope of God’s plan for your life.  It would be so easy to give up, but let’s look at God’s faithfulness in spite of Abram’s failure.  God gives Pharoah and all of his family a disease and somehow reveals to Pharaoh that Sarai is not Abram’s sister, but his wife and that he must not touch her.  The next day he calls for Abram and chastises him and then send him on his way with Sarai, who remained untouched.  He is truly faithful even when we mess things up.

                But here is the real kicker.  When Pharaoh took Sarai as his wife, he honored Sarai’s ‘brother’ Abram by giving to him much wealth.  And when Pharaoh sent Abram on his way, not only did Abram have his wife, but he had wealth.  When he left Egypt, though he had messed everything up, God had protected the plans He had for Abram and even brought him closer to the realization of those plans.

                If you find yourself in Egypt today, and you have messed everything up, just don’t quit!  Don’t give up!  Hold on to God and He will be faithful even if you have been faith-less.

               As you are making your plans for this year and goals for yourself and your family, don’t forget to first ask the Lord what plans He may have for you.  It is so easy to just begin planning and writing down things without first asking the Lord for His wisdom and His guidance.  Then we must be willing to submit to His goals for our life trusting that He knows what is best for us and that He knows what path will be the most fulfilling for us.  Never forget that the plans we make without God are made in vain.

                When God first set forth a plan for Abram, He explained that He was going to bless Abram and that He would be a blessing.  He promised that He would bless those who bless Abram and curse those who cursed him.  But before God said any of this to Abram, He first told Abram to ‘go.’  And with that word, Abram began a journey.  It was the journey that prepared Abram to realize the plans God had for him.  Without the journey, our eyes are not focused to see God’s pathway.  Our ears are not attentive to His direction.  Our feet tend to go wherever they want instead of following Him.  The journey is a necessary event for God to get us to the place of our greatest blessings. 

                The problem we have is that we want our blessings now, even yesterday.  The journey frustrates us.  It causes us to wonder if God’s promises are real or not.  So this morning, as you continue this journey with God, not yet seeing the greatest blessings He has promised to you, don’t give up.  Stay on the journey with God and His promises are ‘yes’ and ‘amen.’  Take comfort in that He is with you every step of this journey and with every step, every problem, every pain, every nightmare, every blessing and favor is all designed to prepare you for plans God has for you that are so wonderful, you have not yet even imagined anything so great.  Treasure the journey, every step whether good or bad.  It will lead you to the most blessed life for you and your family.

     In Genesis 12, God called Abram.  When He called out to him, He told Abram the plans that He had for him.  God called him Abram.  The interesting thing about Abram's name is that it means 'Father.'  God was calling Abram a father before Abram ever had kids.  And the plans that God had for Abram was to become a great nation.  At some point, Abram was going to have to become a father.  But God was calling Abram according to the plans He had for him before it ever came to be.  Abram was seventy-five years old when God declared the plans that He had to Abram.  But the plans that God had for Abram had been established at birth.  In fact, I would even say that the plans that God had for Abram were established before he was ever born.  Read the following Scripture of how God has established plans for our life even before we are born:

Psalms 139:13-16

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

     The plans that God has for you, and they are great plans, were established before you were.  They were written down in God's book before you were even placed into your Mother's womb.  God has known what every day of your life was going to be even before He laid out His plans for your life.  Too many times we think that God has nothing special for our life or we think that we have forfeited whatever blessed plans they may be because of our sin or mistakes.  But when God wrote His plans for you down, He already knew everything that you would do, good and bad.  He knew every decision that you would make and every word that would proceed out of your mouth.  None of these things made Him reconsider.  He did not put down His Heavenly quill because He saw what you were going to do when you were sixteen or twenty-two or fifty-seven.  No, He just kept writing.

     Before you ever sinned, God established wonderful things for your life.  Before you ever lied, cheated, hated, or acted stupid, His plans for your life were established.  So nothing you have done or will do will cause God to erase what's been written.  The choice is still ours as I wrote yesterday.  But God's plans never go away.  They are always there waiting for you.  He's waiting for you.  God's plans of things so wonderful that we can not even conceive them were established before time and they will endure as long as we have breath.  Let's take them and make them ours!

-Pastor Lee

                Every person on this Earth will live a life that brings glory to God.  Yes, every person.  Whether a preacher or prostitute; deacon or devilish; holy or hellish, every person will live a life that brings glory to God.  This thought may not make sense at first, but consider Pharoah.  In the book of Exodus we read how Pharoah’s life gave glory to God.  Not through his obedience to God, but through his hard heart.  Though Pharoah retained a hard heart, each time he did so, it gave God the opportunity to display His power.  Pharoah hardened his heart and God turned the water into blood, rained down hail on Egypt except where the Israelites lived, covered the Egyptians with boils while His people remained healthy, not to mention the flies, frogs, and of course the final blow-the death of every Egyptian firstborn.  Moses would stand out and pray to God. God would send the plague, and all of Egypt would witness this.  By the end of this saga, the Egyptian people believed that the God of Moses was real and Moses was held in high regard. 

                God received glory through the life Moses and Pharoah.  God will be glorified through each and every person in this world.  He will receive glory by the way He reacts to our actions.  When we sin, we may be disciplined and people will take note that God deals with His children.  When people reject Him, nothing bad may happen and God will receive glory for His mercy.  If they continue to reject Him, their path may be filled with trouble and God will receive glory as the Final Judge.

                You were created by The Creator for this very purpose.  He desires that everyone will go to Heaven.  This is only possible if He is revealed to the world and He reveals Himself through people, all people.  No matter what you plan for your life this year, God will be glorified.  The question is if He will be glorified as the one who blesses abundantly, disciplines thoroughly, or as with Pharoah, punishes eternally.  The answer to this question is completely up to us. 

                The Bible says in Isaiah 32 that the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands. (Isa 32:8)  This year may we dare to bring God glory by living for Him fully and enjoying the full measure of His grace and blessing.  I am quite sure this would be better than selfish plans that would bring greater difficulties and struggles.  Trust me in this one thing though: God would rather see you blessed than cursed.  But either way, He will be glorified.

               When God called Abram into a Covenant with Himself, it was a great covenant.  God promised to bless him and to make him a blessing to other.  God promised to bless those who blessed Abram and to curse those who cursed Abram.  But to enter into this Covenant, God told Abram to leave his country, his home, his people except for his own family and go to a place that He would later show him.  This past Sunday I said this was like God saying, “I have great plans for you. Pack up the car.  Pack up the kids.  Now, just start driving, and I’ll let you know where you are going later.”  He did not tell Abram where to go.  He did not tell him where not to go.  He just said “Go.”  And Abram went.  Abram was content with the plans that God had for him even though he did not know exactly what those plans were.

                Usually, we do things just the opposite.  Rather than asking God what He wants for our life and being content with His plans, we develop our own goals for our personal life, family, career, etc.  And then we pile it all up and ask God to come and bless our pile.  We never even consider what God wants for our life.

                As we journey through this new series GOALS together, I hope that we all seriously evaluate our goals for this next year, but before we actually set any goals, let’s ask God first, “Lord, what plans and goals do you desire for my life?”  Then, let’s listen and write them down.  Go ahead, right now.  Pray and ask the Lord to show you where He wants you to go in your life this next year and may it be the best year of your life.