Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Proverbs 16
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  October 8, 2023

People make all kinds of plans. We have plans for our money. We have plans for our children. We have plans for vacations. We have plans for the future. Planning is part of who we are. It’s how God created us to be. 

But plans don’t always work out. Plans can change rather quickly. And as a planner, that can be frustrating. I had planned on preaching on a different part of Scripture this weekend months ago. But when I got to this week, and I started to look at it and work on it, it just wasn’t right. It just didn’t fit the way I originally planned. A year ago, Eastside’s leadership team spent two full days making plans for the ministry of the congregation. Just this week, we sat down and reviewed those plans. Not surprisingly, not everything went according to the plan. 

As we continue focusing on the stewardship of our time, today we want to spend some time talking about proper planning. And to do that, we’re going to look at the book of Proverbs. Hopefully, you recall the series of articles in the Eastside Evangelist, our church newsletter, that spent time in the book of Proverbs. It’s a book of wisdom, but more than that. Proverbs doesn’t just offer us good advice, it is God’s own invitation that we might learn the truths of wisdom which run in line with the grain of his universe. And interestingly, the book of Proverbs talks a lot about planning. Let’s listen again to what Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, shares with us about proper planning. 

“A person may have thought things through in his heart, but an apt answer from his tongue comes from the Lord. All of a person’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs motives. Commit what you do to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for his own purpose, even a wicked person for a day of trouble….When the Lord is pleased with a man’s ways, he causes even his enemies to live at peace with him. Better a little with righteousness than a large income without justice. A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord makes his steps secure.” 

The first thing that we learn about proper planning is that God needs to be part of it. Look again at verse 1. “A person may have thought things through in his heart, but an apt answer from his tongue comes from the Lord.”  We can do all of the planning that we want, but only God is going to make it successful. And it seems that the people that James was writing to had forgotten about this. We heard in our second reading: “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city, spend a year there, do business, and make a profit.”  What do you notice about their plan? God wasn’t a part of it. It seems as if they had put all of their trust in themselves, all of their trust in their plan rather than trusting in God. This is why James continues. “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? Indeed, it is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.”

Are we prone to the same temptation? We are and Satan knows it. Satan will use even good intentions to lead us away from trusting in God. No one sets out to make an idol out of a plan, but it happens. We believe that if we just follow this plan for outreach or this plan for worship or use this plan for technology and social media, then things will work. We have a very godly desire to spread the gospel and to grow the kingdom of God, but rather than trusting in God to bring about the results, we put our trust in the plan. 

So what happens when life reminds us that it is a mist that quickly disappears?  If everything depends on the plan and the plan doesn’t work, does that mean that God isn’t with us, that God isn’t blessing us, that God isn’t good, that this isn’t God’s will? Solomon writes later in Proverbs, “There are many plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that will prevail.” We know that God promises that his Word will work in the way that he wants it to work. So how do we avoid this ditch of trusting so much in our own plans? James writes: “Instead, it is better for you to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live, and we will do this or that.”” 

Proper planning keeps God in the planning. “Commit what you do to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”  When we plan with God’s will in mind, when we plan, trusting that God will bless, God promises that our plans will be established, they will succeed. And isn’t that comforting? Because we’ve seen the proof of this, haven’t we? We know that God is a God of order, a God who plans. Just look at the days of creation. God doesn’t just randomly create things. He starts by creating the heavens and the earth, and then he proceeds to carefully and purposefully form them and fill them. And then when sin ruined that perfect creation, God had a plan to send a Savior. And we see throughout all of Scripture how God carried out that plan, how he protected that plan, how he made sure that Jesus would be born at just the right time to fulfill God’s promise, to complete the plan. And we follow the life of Jesus and we see how at every step of the way, Jesus was following the plan. Even as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, God’s plan was his priority. “Not my will, but yours be done.”  That’s what we are saying when we “Commit what you do to the Lord.”  We ask for God’s guidance, we make our plans, we commit them to God’s will, and we leave the results to him. And while we don’t always understand God’s will and plans, we rejoice that God’s plans are higher than our plans. Why? Because we know God is a God of goodness, wisdom, love, and power. That new man that God has created in us wholeheartedly trusts our future to our loving God. 

So why do we need to plan? Proper planning shows that what we are doing here is important, it’s valuable. Like it or not, the planning and organization of big picture items in the church communicates a message. For a church that does not take planning seriously, the church unintentionally communicates that the future is not important to the congregation. To state it even stronger, the church unintentionally communicates that the gospel does not matter that much. No Christian would intentionally want to communicate that message, yet disorganization and lack of planning communicates that very message.  The message a church wants to communicate is that the gospel is the most important, most precious message in the world. That means churches want give their best to whatever it is they are doing because they know that their efforts are a testimony to the gospel.

When we properly plan, when we put God at the center of those plans, God promises to bless. Solomon writes: “When the Lord is pleased with a man’s ways, he causes even his enemies to live at peace with him.”  God has given us the wonderful gift of intelligence and reason. He’s given us the ability to make plans, to think about the future, to recognize the gift and the opportunities he’s placed before us to carry out the work he’s given us to do. And so we plan. And when you really stop to think about it, planning is nothing more than thanking God for his gracious gifts and also a concrete way to trust in God’s good and gracious will for our lives and ministries.

Eastside recently sent out a survey looking for your feedback as we try to properly plan for the future. Thank you for your participation in that survey. Over the next few weeks and months, the leaders of the congregation will be digesting the results and developing a plan to carry out the work God has given us to do. Those plans are going to involve you. Those plans are going to make use of you as we strive to help our members to grow in Jesus and tell of his love. And yet, as we make and communicate those plans, we need to hold on to those plans loosely. What do I mean by that? We need to recognize that our plans are not the final authority. God’s plan will always succeed and will always be the final authority. Yes, we want to plan responsibly, but by holding on to those plans loosely, we are trusting that God is going to do what is best whether that fulfills the plan or not.

We all make plans. But how often aren’t those plans upset. We plan a vacation, but we can’t go because someone gets sick. We plan to go to college but instead have to get a job to pay the bills. Exactly how our plans turn out is beyond our control. But thankfully, it is God who controls the outcome and he gives us the strength to trust in him. He reminds us that he is working all things for our eternal good. He tells us that the tools that he’s given us in his Word and Sacraments will accomplish his purpose. “A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord makes his steps secure.” That’s why, it is our goals and our prayer, that  as we plan and go about our work, God’s will will be our focus and God will be a part of everything we do. Amen.