mm hmm. A little over a century ago, a bishop made it known in this community
through his preaching and through his writing that he thought that it was
against the will of God and impossible for anything heavier than air to take
flight. Now he was mistaken. And that honoree uh, irony really came to light
when his two sons, the sons of Bishop right? His son's Orville and Wilbur went
on to actually invent the first motorized aircraft. We get things wrong from
time to time, don't we? We make predictions, we make decisions and we just don't
always get it right. We long for. We hope for phoenix suns victory last night
and it didn't come still a little depressed this morning, but it's okay. And so
we walk through this life and we try to make things happened, but we don't
always get it right. So how do we function well? We're in the series that's
called Full Proof in Your life and we're taking a look at what's called the Book
of Wisdom or one of the wisdom books here in the book of proverbs and we want to
offer you some life hacks some really some practical biblical guidelines to help
you walk in the way of wisdom. And so today I want to talk about really this
idea of the choices we make. But before we jump into it, just a quick review is
that wisdom is different than knowledge? Knowledge means no wisdom means do
knowledge is required for wisdom because you want to know the right thing to do.
But wisdom comes into play when you actually go and do it. So the idea of wisdom
is discernment plus obedience equals way of wisdom. Well, today we are going to
talk about what I've entitled the paradox of God's Plan. The paradox of God's
plan because for thousands of years people have debated really the role of how
much is up to God and how much is up Two man, in other words, how much is
dependent on the sovereignty of God and how much is dependent on the free will
of man. And so we're not gonna solve that debate, that discussion in in 30
minutes here today. But what I wanna do is just give you a biblical guide or
discussion or starting point to have these conversations, because I believe
scripture gives us a foundation that allows us to practically live out our faith
so we can answer questions like, can you know the will of God? How much is up to
the will of God? How much is up to my will? Or what is the connection between my
plans in God's plans? So if you open up your bibles, go to proverbs chapter 16
and we're going to read a few verses there and these verses start here in verse
one says the plans of the heart belonged to man. But the answer of the tongue is
from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes. But the Lord
weighs his spirit, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be
established. And then a little bit later in verse nine, it says that the heart
of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. So the question I have
for you this morning is that when it comes to work in our lives, what is God's
part and then what is our part? I was studying in preparation for this message.
A message from tim Keller, pastor, author, writer, and I'm going to borrow a
language for two phrases that he shared because I think it really helps us paint
the picture to understand this passage, because we tend to lean one way or the
other. Either it's all God are all us. And so I'm I'm here to ask the question.
So what percentage is that? Is it? Is it 50% God? Is it 50% of us? Is that 90%
God 10% us? I'm here to tell you. Yes, There's a tension that's hard to describe
that somehow is both 100% God and 100% man. And it actually makes sense and
gives us some common ground and common sense that we can actually live out our
faith in a practical way. Here's why I say that first. If it's only up to God,
we could be passive, the temptation is to be passive in our faith that if it
doesn't matter what we do anyway, if God's going to do what is going to do, then
why why try to do anything If you've seen, there's like a whole group of movies
that are fatalistic and you know, you are destined for this one place or another
and that the characters in these movies tend to escape death or escape fate and
then spend the rest of the movie trying to escape there destined fate or things
there too. And and so there's this side of like a whole group of movies, but we
don't necessarily love that because why would we be motivated to do anything at
this point? If it's only on God and there's nothing up to you, then we can just
sit back and whatever happens happens, we lose our motivation because we don't
have a part to play. I mean, we love the idea that God has a plan, right? And
even, you know, people saying about God's plan, you know, I hold back sometimes.
I won't. Okay, sorry, that was pretty bad. If you got that reference, you should
pray more. And if you didn't, you're probably more spiritual. Okay. I feel joy
sometimes. I don't. Okay, Okay. Sorry, I'll just stop right there. That was from
the theologian Drake and uh, talking about God's plan. But here's the thing is
that, well, we love the security of God's plan. What do we do then with our
personal desires and dreams? Because God has given you a personality, He's given
you goals. He's given you ambition. You have a desire for relationship. You have
all these things. And so what do you do with those? Because if it's only up to
God, then well, don't just sit back, be married, do whatever whatever you want
because it doesn't matter. Anyway. Actually, our world teaches this world view
from a standpoint of just do what you want, do what feels good you do you person
with the most toys wins it. This concept that whatever you like, just go for it
doesn't matter. That's actually kind of depressing, isn't it? But here's the
thing though that, wow, if it's only up to God, we might be passive, the other
side is just as scary, if not scarier, because if it's only up to us, we would
be paralyzed, we would be paralyzed because that's a lot of pressure. Have you
ever done something and just felt sweaty? I was sweaty watching the phoenix Suns
game last night and I had no part of the outcome, right? You get nervous? Like,
oh man. I remember, I remember when we had our first child, I had never changed
a diaper before in my life and so I'm sitting there in the hospital room and my
wife is just over there sleeping like she worked hard this process. Okay. She
did, I can joke joke, my wife was in first service, I could say honey, I love
you and you did all the work. I did nothing. Okay. So she was tired from giving
birth. I was tired from getting up from a nap and and so as he said, hey, can
you change this diaper? And I remember sitting over the little hospital crib
incubator fry box that they put in under the warmers. And I'm just like I got so
nervous like this little person, like I'm in charge of this person, this
breathing thing and then, and then you go home and you're like go home like the
book, you know what to expect when you're expecting does not prepare you for the
feeling of inadequacy that you have when you're driving home from the hospital
with your first child and you feel this pressure that has to be perfect. But
here's the thing, we are not perfect, right? That's a lot of way. Imagine if
someone's eternity was solely based on your actions. That's terrifying because
we mess up all the time. We make mistakes constantly and then even not our
mistakes, our desires change. Think back to elementary school or junior high or
high school. Like think about the different people that you had a crush on at
one point in time or what you desire to do, chances are things in your life have
dramatically changed, Right? What if you were still committed to that hairstyle
from 2030 years ago right? Like our desires change, our lives change and so we
think we know what we need. But most of times we don't, if there are up to the
kids, they would be on a steady diet of sour patch kids and pizza and bedtime
would be optional. And they go, what? I know Dad, I know mom well, no, you
don't. But neither do we. The other thing that's terrifying. That if it was only
on us, then how do you handle it when you face the consequences or the ripple
effects in the pond when somebody else through the stone? What happens when you
suffer? Because somebody else's decisions? That's paralyzing because how do you
move forward and how do you explain sometimes bad situations happen and they're
not a direct result of your decisions? How do you, how do you explain cancer or
betrayal or job loss? You know, If 2020 teaches us anything is that we're really
not in control at all. And so that's terrifying. If you stop and think about it,
even the reason we worry is typically one of two reasons First, we worry for
things outside of our control. It's not in our control. So that stresses us
right. We worry about our spouse, our kids, our friends, our parents, our
health, the team, whatever it is. And then the other side of it is we worry when
things are in our control. Have you ever stayed up late, stressed about a
meeting? You were gonna have the next day or a conversation, you're going to
have the next day or about a new job or position or activity that stresses you
out, doesn't it? There's a reason you can't go to sleep because you can't turn
your mind off for one reason, either because of circumstance, out of your
control or the weight of a circumstance in your control, both of which leaves
you paralyzed. Now, here's the thing we want control. But to quote theologian
Emmett Brown to marty McFly I at the end of the Back to the Future series is
really there that your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one.
And we all fly off in our hovercrafts and into the future. We want that, right?
But then we know that it's not reality. So here we find ourselves like, wow,
john, thanks for encouraging us today. And so where is the tension between God's
control and our responsibility? If it's only up to God, we could be passive. Is
it only up to us? We could be paralyzed. But I want to share with you a third.
And I believe better way that comes from this passage this morning. And it's the
tension between both. And it's this when it comes to work, be peacefully
persistent. When it comes to work, be peacefully persistence. See, our peace
does not come from within ourselves, but from God, there is peace in knowing
that God is in control and that God can give purpose to your pain and that God
is bigger than your mistakes. Have you ever made a bunch of mistakes? But then
ended up in the right place, Have you ever been exactly where you needed to be
and think, man, I can't believe I ended up here. See God works through your
mistakes. Guess what? God actually can work through the mistakes of other people
in the old testament is the story of joseph, joseph didn't do anything wrong. It
was his brothers that threw him into slavery. He actually was pure and and
stayed pure. And so as part of his wife that had him thrown into jail, it was
the other people in the jail that forgot about him. And so we had all these
difficult and bad circumstances which if he's thinking man, it's up to me, what
did I do? But God actually worked in all those situations and ultimately
position joseph to ultimately become the second command and then to save a
nation, we just walked through the series and ruth a couple weeks ago and ruth
experience hardship after hardship after hardship. Yet God was present that
whole time. And that's where our peace comes from. In the New Testament Mark
Chapter four, the disciples who are fishermen are in a storm so bad that
fishermen are afraid for their lives, but they could end up with peace. Why?
Because they have jesus and their boat and that jesus and a word to rebuke the
storms and so we can have peace because God is in control. But then God also
tells us to follow him and to be obedient. So here's what's interesting, Jesus
says both of these statements, Jesus says follow me then he also says fear not
follow me, that there's this idea of responsibility on our part, but this is
where God's sovereignty and predestination comes into play, that he actually
empowers us and gives us the ability to then follow him and we mess up and the
world mess up and and we are surrounded by storms and darkness and uncertainty
all around us, Jesus commands us then to fear not the same. God tells us to
follow him and to fear not. And so that allows us to be both peaceful and
persistent in that passage in proverbs when it says commit your work to the
Lord. At first glance when I read that I thought it said, okay, commit my plans
to him. But actually it goes more simple than that and just as commit your work,
commit your daily tasks to him. That word, commit. That same root word is most
commonly translated in other places as role when someone would roll a
heavyweight or a stone into its proper position. So imagine for a moment that
you have something that you can't carry, it's too heavy and this idea that it's
so heavy, you can't even carry it that you would just roll it into its proper
position because what's heavy for you is not heavy forgot that means that God
wants your to do list. God wants your email, you're meeting your conversation,
your attitude, your morning, your, your afternoon, what you say to him and now
he wants that work. She says take that weight off of your life and committed
roll it towards proper position because what's heavy for you is not heavy for
God as we prepped further Arizona oven summers as they've become. You know, I
moved terror. It was like, oh, it's a dry heat 1 20 though. Like I don't care
how dry it is. Like, like, you know, pizza ovens are dry too, but that puppy is
hot. And so we got one of those little pop up pools, you know from like walmart
kind of thing, pop up pools for the kids. So I'm putting together, but
apparently they don't want to stand on rocks and so I um, I got sand to put
underneath and sounds pretty cheap. You can get a lot of it. So I, I bought over
£1000 of sand from home Depot. That's all that's heavy. Okay. Even for me, I
know, I know you think I'm fairly strong. I am not, that was all wait. And I
can't move my car to the backyard, so how I'm going to carry £1000 of sand. So
wait, I got a wheelbarrow so I rolled it out. I was like, this is gonna be
great. And I loaded up the wheelbarrow. It was a lot tougher than that. It was
more like I'm at the age where I just make noises, you've reached that point in
your life. If you haven't, you will worship team you guys, you guys will get
there where you're just like, get up from a chair and uh, and like, people will
ask you if you're okay and you're like, yeah, I'm fine. And you don't even
realize you're doing it anyway. It's coming not to scare you, but to prepare you
okay? And so I'm making those bag of sand, boom, boom, boom, like, all right? I
go to lift it up and it goes and chips over and falls everywhere. I'm like mike.
I thought this was supposed to be easy. Well, I didn't realize that sitting out
in the sun, the tire was flat, the wheel barrel and there was no weight in the
wheel barrel. So like I didn't notice it wheeling it and then when I tried to
roll it, it did not work. So I hit one bump and sandwich everywhere and I
thought to myself that kids don't need a pool. I think we're good. I think we're
good. We tried right. Like it's trying. We're almost there. And so no. So I got
the pump filled up the tire and then put this hand and we got it all good to go.
And I realized that you had to have a device. You have to have something that
was ready to carry the weight. Here's the thing that God is ready to carry what
weighs you down. But he wants you to commit that daily activity to him. Are you
willing to give even the simplest things to him? Because it requires persistence
and obedience. And following on our part author and psychologist and researcher,
Angela Duckworth's defines grit in this way. She says, Grit is defined as
perseverance and passion for long term goals. Perseverance and passion for long
term goals. It's the day in day out, day in day out and it's a grind. But
through her research, she discovered that the number one factor between success
and failure wasn't like it wasn't talent, it was work ethic and grit that made
the difference. If you take this idea of grit, the major biblical characters all
had to go through stuff. They did No uh 120 years building an Ark Abraham, 25
years waiting for his promised child to be born. You have joseph that I
mentioned earlier being sold into slavery and into prison and all these
movements and before he was in a position of leadership, You see Daniel going
through a lion's den, you see moses in the wilderness for 40 years, coming back
freeing the people, but then back in the wilderness for 40 years, you have David
watching sheep in the fields before he faced Goliath. You have ruth who was
gleaning in the fields before she connected and then married to bo s. You end up
in the new testament. You have, Jesus didn't start his ministry to roughly 30
years old and they experienced hardship after hardship, after hardship, peter
paul, the disciples, everyone experienced conflict and hardship. Why do we think
that the christian faith that if we believe will just be hashtag blessed and
then nothing bad will ever happen to us? You want to know how many chapters in
the bible are without conflict three, three are without conflict, Genesis one
and 2. And by Genesis three, we've messed it up for all humanity. Thanks Adam
and Eve and then every chapter is felled and if it's not over, it's, it's
indirectly and people complaining and crying and crying out and feeling the
emotions and the effects of it. And then Jesus comes onto the scene and jesus is
perfect, he is God and every chapter, he experienced difficulty and if jesus is
going to experience conflict and betrayal and doubt and and loss and temptation
and all these hard things, why do we think it's going to be absent from us? And
the the church starts and they have inward conflict and outward persecution and
all these things happening. And then finally, in Revelation 20 upon the return
of jesus, he finally has the final conflict and deals with satan once and for
all. And then in Revelation 21 everything is perfect. Again, That's three out of
the whole book. So as christians, we have to be ready for it. It's coming. We
have to have the grit, the perseverance and the passion to go after it.
Parenting is hard, marriages are hard. Friendship work is hard, but it's worth
it when you're feeling down and you're feeling frustrated and you're struggling.
Whether in your own mistakes, the mistakes of someone else. This is where the
sovereignty of God comes in. And it's comfort Pastor Rick Warren puts it this
way. He says that the sovereignty of God is meant to comfort us, not the club
us. The sovereignty of God is meant to comfort us, not to club us. If you've
experienced a religious person who uses the word of God as a weapon, like, wow,
that's not what it's for now. Don't be mistaken. Because we also love to say
this, don't we don't You can't judge me, You're not my judge. God's my judge.
Okay. He's a scarier judge. Just F. Y. I okay. His standards much higher than
mine. We love to play judge, but we don't want to be judge. So unless you know,
God sees and hears everything you say and do so. Let us walk humbly before him
and understand that. But then as we hear his word and we see the sovereignty of
the fact that he's in control, lets you bring us comfort. Have you ever been or
ever seen a child try to get out of a jacket or piece of clothing they don't
want to wear, they can't get the button or the zipper and they're like, I'm
going to start flailing everywhere. I had this really cool moment and by cool. I
mean it was super embarrassing when I was in high school. I was, I like your
friends were out in the field just outside of the school. There's about 100
people out there. I could have just walked around the gate. But you know, I'm a
basketball player and playing sports, I'm gonna show my athleticism so I'm gonna
hop this fence. So I went sprinting up, hopped the fence, cleared it. I was
sailing was like, I believe I can fly. I'm just like, here. I'm like, hey,
what's up? What's up? What's up? Well, I didn't plan on is that as I was flying,
my jacket was flying and caught the top pole of the fence and then next thing I
know I'm like, stuck like this and I'm hanging from the fence and I'm six ft
five. And the fence was like, You know, about seven ft. So my feet are just
like, can't touch the ground. And there in front of all my friends and everyone
I was trying to impress. I'm like, flailing like this. And so, so I was like, as
quickly as I could just start trying to like, zip and I'm just like, with a lot
of this thing just kind of like, and then I stand up and so did not look cool at
all. Okay, Some of us look like that when it comes to understanding God, but the
sovereignty of God is not like that that we're trying to break out of. Instead
picture a warm blanket next to the fireplace on a freezing night, right? There's
security. There's comfort. They're saying, God, I don't know, I don't know about
this diagnosis. I don't know how I'm gonna break this addiction. I don't know
what I'm gonna do. But you do. And that's enough. See God predestined and calls
us and draws us to him. And that should be a comfort in our lives because God
moves and has purpose, even in our pain. So he he tells us to fear not. And so
we can lay our head down on the pillow at night and sleep soundly because he's
in control. And we can wake up the next morning and we can roll the weight,
commit our work to him and enter that meeting. That email, that conversation
that carline whatever the responsibility, maybe we may enter with courage and
with faith and with strength and endurance because God also gave us a job to do.
Because when it comes to work, we can be peacefully persistent. See how that
relieves a lot of tension. It actually makes a lot of sense. So is it up to God?
Yes. A resounding Yes. Do we have responsibility? Yes. Because God wants us to
be apart. So I was wrapping up um serious. I was looking through passages and
and so what came to mind was proverbs three, which we looked at a couple weeks
ago. And in three verse five and six, it says, trust in the Lord with all your
heart and do not lean on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge
him and he will make straight your paths, see that connection. Then in
colossians, chapter three verse 23 it says whatever you do work heartily as for
the Lord and not for men, you might not like your boss, but I hope you like your
God because you're not working for him. You're working for him. Does that make
sense when we first read our passage today? I'm guessing that most of you in
this room focused on words like heart paul, heart or Plans or man because we're
pretty self focused. All right. Like have you ever been at a sporting event or
anything shot on tv and you were in the crowd? What do you do when you go home?
You try to spot yourself right like right there. Right. So we look for ourselves
and so we try to find ourselves in those passage. But did you notice in the
first verses and in proverbs 16 that we read today? Did you notice God in these
verses? Because if you do you see the strength behind them? 1st 1. The plans of
heart belonged to man. Okay. But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. How
many of you could use an answer right now? I could all the ways of a man are
pure and his own eyes. But the Lord weighs his spirit. So the Lord knows our
heart and our motives. 1st 3 commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be
established. That's passive. If you're not establishing your plans, who is God
is right. When you align your heart with God's heart, you start to see the world
as God sees the world and you start to walk in the way of wisdom. And then in
verse nine the heart of man plans his way. But the Lord establishes his steps.
If you want to see answers to prayer, if you want to know a motive of your
heart. If you want your plans to be established, your steps to be laid out, it
starts with committing your life and your work to the Lord. I was trying to wrap
up sermon prep on an afternoon earlier this week. I'm sitting in my chair in the
living room and on my laptop trying to figure out an illustration to how to
close the service when just then I hear the door open up and my youngest Chloe
wakes up from a nap but kind of semi wakes up like my I love kids bed head, you
know, I'm talking about like kids walk out that kind of shuffle, their eyes are
open and hurt like they go to sleep. The hairs like this, they wake up hairs
like right, so she's kind of wobbling out eyes kind of like this, she walks up,
doesn't say anything, I don't say anything and she crawls on my lap and then
just lays her head down and she falls back asleep. Now there are moments as a
parent that you want to pull your hair out, but when your child lays on you and
just peacefully rest, there's nothing better. And in that moment Chloe is not
worried about anything, just simply resting in the arms of her father. And
that's what God wants for you for me. Will you pray with me during my father?
Just thank you for your son. God, thank you that you came and you loved us so
much, jesus that you came and died on the cross for us and that you rose again,
defeating death and God because you rose, we can rise and God help us to walk in
this way of wisdom, God, you are fully sovereign and in control. And they've
called us to do things and become men and women after your own heart. And so God
because of that, we don't have to be passive. We don't have to be paralyzed
because you are in control. And then you've also given us a job to do. Help us
to love you more today than we did yesterday and help us to love others. The way
that you have loved us. Let us find rest and peace in your sovereignty. Let us
fear not. But then let us turn and commit our lives, commit our work and our
daily task to you because we have a job to do and you give us a purpose. So let
us walk in that purpose today. We love you. God help us to be peacefully
persistent. This week. Didn't let me pray Amen. Yeah.