This Wasn’t The Plan

Good morning everybody. It's great to see you. Great to see you today. Praise the Lord.

Hey, we finished First Corinthians last week, yes? So this week we're starting a new series called Before Easter. It's a three week series. Yes, what?

Before Easter, right? Three weeks until Easter and we're going to celebrate the risen Christ, the greatest event in all of history. But before then we get to before Easter and today's message is called, this wasn't the plan. How many of you hate when plans don't go according to your plan?

Yes. Okay, I sure do. There was this time a few years ago, it might have been three or four years ago, we were having men's Bible study at the time we were having them at one Roddess House. Tell us you remember this?

We met on Wednesday nights like once a month and we were meeting there for men's Bible study and it was one of the seasons I was a little discouraged because attendance was a little low and I was just feeling like, gosh, why can't we be more committed? Come on guys and I'm trying to rally him and I'm trying to talk to my leadership about saying, hey, let's make this a priority. Let's make sure we're there on time. Let's not be late to this thing.

And so I was really pushing that. And there was this one Wednesday where I think I forgot what it was, but I think my son had a game or something that I had to get him to practice or something and Julie was off working. And so I had to do this and I called and told the guys that they were going to lead that night. They were helping me lead.

I said, hey, can you just get it covered? I won't be there until I have to come in a little late. And so would you guys just get the thing running and stuff. They said, oh yeah, no problem.

Great, great group of men got the thing going all this stuff. So I got their late to Bible study. And this is after me telling everybody you guys we got to be on time. You got to be committed, right?

All this stuff. And now I'm late. And so I'm walking into this thing and I'm like, I hate as like in my position, I don't want to be late. I don't want to be distraction and other stuff.

And so I'm walking through like one says, for us, we came through the front door and I was walking to the back and the were the guys meeting in the backyard. And the kitchen's all dark. Everything's dark in the kitchen. And I hear that men are meeting.

And I'm like, oh man, I do not want to be a distraction here. I just want to slip right into that Bible study. I just need to like with a head down. I need to just go take a chair and nobody even noticed like a ninja.

I just want to walk in. I just want to be so silent. And I heard like I think I remember hearing Kirk's record share his heart about God's word. What God was doing.

I'm like, this is awesome. The man or meeting. This is great. I just need to be quiet.

It's dark in the kitchen. I'm ready to walk through the sliding door is already open. So I'm just going to walk right through the threshold that sliding door. And as I'm walking through with my head down like don't distract anyone.

Don't distract anyone. I'm walking through. The sliding door was open. But the screen door wasn't open.

And so I smashed into the thing. And every guy in the whole Bible study turned around and started belly laughing at me pointing their finger, calling me names, dancing around. Ah, the pastor's master in the industry. And I'm embarrassed.

I'm humiliated. I'm like, I just wanted to not be a distraction. And now I did this. And this wasn't the plan, right?

The plan was for me to go in undetected and my plans fell apart. But how many of you know that sometimes your plans don't always work, right? Yes. Okay.

So I went to Chinese food this week and I got a fortune cookie. And in the middle of planning this whole lesson about plans and about how our plans don't work and God's plans do, I got this fortune. Check this out. Your present plans are going to succeed.

And I just thought, isn't that funny? Here I am planning a whole Bible study about how our plans don't succeed, right? And thank God we have Chinese fortune cookies, right? Because now I can do it.

Right? And so anyway, that's a close up picture of my carpet on my office floor, by the way, you're welcome. Okay, so we're gonna open your Bible, say Isaiah chapter 55. And we're going to talk about how leading up to the Easter Easter, before Easter, the series, the title is this wasn't the plan we're talking about the Messiah.

We're talking about the long anticipated awaited Messiah that everyone was looking for the whole testament is pointed towards this coming Messiah. And everyone, you can imagine, yes, you can imagine everyone had an idea of who this Messiah should be. They had an expectation of what they thought the Messiah was going to be. And let me tell you, when Jesus comes in teaching an upside down kingdom and teaching the kingdom of God, people were blown away and it wasn't what they thought.

It wasn't the plan. And so if you have your Bible opened to Isaiah chapter 55, we're going to read verses 6 through 11. Are you there? Okay, let's read the word of God.

I love this passage. This is again about the Lord and how knowledgeable He is and how His plans are just way better than our plans. Here we go. Verses 6 through 11 says this.

Now seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man His thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that He may have compassion on Him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. And now the Lord says this, listen, this is the key verse for my thoughts.

The Lord says, are not your thoughts. Yes, catch that. I know it's obvious. I know you've heard it a million times, but wrap your head around it.

Let's read that line again. The Lord says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. And then He says, neither are your ways, my ways. Because, Lord, and then He says, for as high as the heavens are, about the earth so my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

He continues, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return but there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I've sent it. Who's thankful that He's God and we're not?

Yeah. I mean, do you see how purposeful our God is and how He control He is, how sovereign He is? And we miss it all the time. Don't we church?

Come on. Somebody testify. We just go astray from this thing all the time. Well, let me get creative.

Let me do it my way, right? Let me keep on doing things my way. I know God says to do it his way, but I mean, the entire Bible is the story of man trying to do things his way and God calling us back to doing it his way, right? Instead of man's way.

And so when we submit to that, when we start understanding like, hey, this wasn't the plan, but wait, does God have a bigger plan? Yes. Somebody say, yes, right? Does God have a bigger plan?

Does God have higher ways? Yeah, and he just knows better and he's sovereign, he's omnipotent, he's omnipresent. God's everywhere. He's all powerful, he's all strength.

Like he's God and we're not. And so trusting Him, that's faith. that's what we just saying about I trust in God my state, right? He's the one who never fails.

Do you fail ever? A lot all the time, every day, sometimes every hour, does God ever fail? What a track record, right? I mean, God's amazing.

And so we look at this. So if you have your hand out, let's take a look at this expectations for the Messiah. First we have the subtitle on your hand up that says the plan for the Messiah. See, does anyone see what I underlined on that subtitle, right?

The little P there, right? Because it's not a capital P, it's the plan for the Messiah. It's not the plan for the Messiah, God's plan. It's just man's plan for the Messiah, right?

I wanted to underline the lowercase P so you guys can, yes. Thank you. All right, you move on? Yes?

Okay. Not groundbreaking, but I really wanted you guys to catch that because through life, no for real now, through life, you're going to have a lot of lowercase P plans, all right? And you just, you got to understand, maybe that's a good reminder at some point. You're going to have a plan and you got to say, hey, you know what, that's a lowercase P plan.

And you might be getting in some marital fights over using that phrase that throwing it out each other in the middle of something. Hey, remember that's a lowercase P, right? You might, this might happen to you, but remember that there's a capital P plan and that's God's plan. So the lowercase P plan, if for the Messiah was this, number one, fill this in.

The plan was for a political revolution. Now, remember the people of Israel of Jerusalem were looking for a political deliverer. They were looking for someone to overthrow the Roman government. Wouldn't that be great if they overthrew this evil?

But like, do you guys study history? Do you look at what the scriptures say about how it was? I mean, I've been to Israel a few times and during them, we studied about like Herod and Caesar and Nero and all these Roman leaders and government. The people were oppressed, you guys.

It was way worse than it is today here. I know everybody thinks that we have horrible things happening in America. Like we have no idea how oppressed people were, how much it hurt them. And so they're looking for like a political revolution.

Someone would come in and flip Roman rule and have the kingdom of God is their idea of what would happen to restore Jewish national power. This would solve everything. Look what Acts 1 says on the screen. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?

See, that's what they were thinking. Like, hey, the political revolution. Jesus, you came here. I see you raising people from the dead.

I see you giving sight to the blind. Is this next? Are you going to like restore the kingdom to Israel? It's our nation, Lord.

Can you make this happen? So fill this in at number one. Instead, Jesus does something not of this world. Completely not of this world.

People are looking for the political revolution and Jesus comes in and flips things upside down. Look at the screen here. John 1836 says this. Jesus answered, hey, look, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Okay? And Jesus, and by the way, in real time, Jesus saying this stuff, it went right over their heads. You and I have the puzzle pieces that we can see what happened.

And so we read a verse like this and we say, yeah, amen, Jesus, way to go. But if you were sitting there back then, and Jesus said, I'd be like, okay, yeah, but for reals, when is this political revolution going to start? When are you going to overturn Rome? Because we're suffering here, Jesus.

And they wanted the political revolution. And they all they wanted instead of conquering Rome, Jesus came in and says, why am I not going to conquer Rome? But I'm going to conquer sin, death, and Satan. How does that sound?

And again to us today, we're like, yeah, that's eternal life. Sin, death, and Satan was conquered? Good news, anyone? That's real good news.

Back then, people were like, okay, cool. But again, what about this political revolution, Jesus? What are you going to do? When will Roman rules stop and when will the kingdom of God start?

Jesus like the kingdom's already here. You're missing it. You guys are all missing it. Right?

So number two, the plan, again, lowercase p plan, the plan was for an earthly king. They wanted right then and there you guys, a glorious ruler to come in to reign over Jerusalem and Israel think like Solomon or something, right? They wanted this big buff dude to come in and be like this earthly king to ride in on a big white horse and to like proclaim his kingdom over everybody. Look at what John 614 through 15 says on the screen here.

It says, when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said this, they said this to Jesus, this is indeed the prophet who was to come into the world, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. So ready to just like, yeah, we want this earthly king. Here it is. It's happening right in front of us.

But instead, fill this in on your handout. Instead, Jesus became the suffering servant and earthly king, where everybody would bow down to him and kiss his ring and he would just wipe everybody out. Instead, he becomes this suffering servant and people were like, huh, how does this work? This isn't the plan, Jesus.

And look at what Isaiah 53, 3 through 6 says here on the screen, that Jesus, he was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds, we are healed and all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned. Everyone of us, to his own way. And the Lord is laid on him, the iniquity of us all. You see the end of that?

All of us, every single one of us, we've turned to our own way. And the Lord is laid on the equity of Jesus, all of our sins. Unbelievable what Jesus has done. Jesus is so amazing.

Jesus was rejected. He was despised. He was dispersed. He was pierced for our sins.

And he chose suffering before glory, which is something that I don't think any of us can say in life. Can we like overall? Can you say I choose suffering over glory in all my decisions in life? And Jesus set the bar here for us.

Remember, and he told his disciples the whole way, but we missed it. They missed it. They missed it as it was happening. You guys remember in Luke 24 on the road to a mass when Jesus walked alongside those two guys and they were so downtrodden because like, yeah, we thought we had the Messiah and now he's dead.

Like they crucified him and now he's in a tomb. And Jesus is like walking right with them. Really, tell me about it. It was such a great passage.

And as he's going, Jesus explained to these two guys on the road, all the scriptures leading up to it. And it said, you know, Jesus, saying to these two guys, hey, the Messiah was supposed to come do this, this and this. Yeah, that happened. Messiah came to do this, this and this and that.

Yeah, that happened. And all this happened so that the scriptures would be fulfilled. And now he's risen from the dead and Jesus explained this and then their eyes became open and they saw it was Jesus and then poop. Jesus was gone.

Like amazing, right? And all this happened. And when Jesus was saying, look, you wanted an earthly king, I came to be a suffering servant to serve you, to show you the example of what the kingdom of God is about, of what really the Messiah was to be. Number three on your hand out, build this in the plan.

Lord case be the plan was to stop oppression. To stop oppression. Acts 1, 6 on the screen says this. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Okay, again, they were just looking for like, hey, we're so beat down here, Jesus, you got to give us a break here. The plan is for you to stop oppression instead, fill this in on your hand. Number three, instead, Jesus gives us true freedom. And that's what Jesus came for.

He came to give us freedom. And John 8 34 through 36, it says this Jesus answered them truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin and the slave does not remain in the house forever. The sun remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed.

They mentored, right? He's came to give us freedom. See, we want to be free from oppression. And now Jesus comes to give us true freedom.

These people, the Jews, they wanted liberation from political and economic hardship. Sound familiar? Doesn't this world just scream out? We want freedom from political and economic hardship.

And it doesn't ever change, does it? You could say that people are screaming that today. You could say they were screaming it four years ago, eight years ago, 12 years ago, 16 years ago. You get what I'm saying?

It doesn't matter. People are still going to be screaming for this on both sides. And these people had Roman taxes, laws, rules that were ruining their families and livelihood. And people were saying, Jesus, if you just came to fix the government, we'd be okay.

And Jesus is like, no, that's the end of my sentence there. No. Okay, our biggest problem is in the government church, it's sin. sin takes us away from God.

It takes us away from who we were created to be and restored to be. Jesus didn't comfort political freedom for us. He came for spiritual freedom, true freedom, that we would walk in Christ and be free from sin and the bondage of sin. So Jesus isn't just a therapist or a life coach or a comfort provider, which is what everyone's looking for today, right?

So many life coaches, so many therapists, right? And Jesus is so much more than these things. This isn't who the Messiah came to be. This wasn't the plan, people.

Jesus is life. He is life. Somebody can say amen there. Yes.

Jesus is life. Okay, number four, the fourth facade here of the plan for the Messiah, or case P, is the plan was that the Messiah was just for us, just for us, like a selfish us in that sense. Micah 5, 2 says this, right on the screen, but you will be able to be back with him, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you shall come forth from me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, who is coming forth is from old from ancient days.

And see the Jews were just basically thinking like Israel, like, hey, the Messiah would walk to the Jewish people and all the blessings were just for them. And we see this again happening today. And again, it doesn't matter what side you are on or where you see things politically, like people are just thinking like, yeah, I'm most comfortable with the Messiah being for me and my kind of people and my kind of thoughts and my kind of ways. And Jesus is flipping it down saying, I came for everybody.

Fill this next one in. Number four, instead Jesus came for all. He came for all. He came for every one of us.

And that's what disturbs me so much, you guys. We can look at this Messiah and point to people, point to the Jews and say, do they really just think that Jesus came just for them? And yet today you look at how comfortable we are. And I'll speak right to us.

We live in this very safe suburban, South Orange County culture where we have everything we need. And we're like, yeah, Jesus is right. And we get very uncomfortable with people that aren't like us sometimes, whether it be class or race or wealth or anything else. And we get uncomfortable with that.

And Jesus is saying, I came for all of you. And if you look at the Bible, if you look at actually people that Jesus encountered, we're a lot further away from the people that Jesus actually encountered than we're comfortable with, aren't we? Like Jesus was going around touching lepers and prostitutes. Would you be okay if a prostitute walked into this church like naked?

Would everybody be like, praise God, a sinner came into the church? Or would you kind of like, whoa, I can't, somebody better take care of that. We better control this. Nobody's answering me.

Does that make anyone uncomfortable? It makes me uncomfortable. I'm like, man. And so we have a mindset of like, who's okay for the kingdom of God?

And Jesus comes to the Messiah and say, you guys are kidding. You're picking acting like this. Careful, you'll turn into a Pharisee. And those are the ones that are on the outside of who's in the kingdom of God, because they thought, well, we've got it all together.

We know all the answers, and it's just for us. And now the Jews are slipping into this category where they thought that the plan for the Messiah was just for us. But Jesus came to save all nations and all tribes. He was not a national liberator.

He was the savior of the world. Amen? So we move to number five. And why don't you take your pen for me?

I should have done this. Now that I see it, why don't you make that P a capital P in number five? But the real plan, make that a capital P right there, make it big people. All right.

But the real plan, the Messiah came to save sinners. That's the real plan. And then second, fill this in also instead of human plans, Jesus fulfilled God's mission. Jesus fulfilled it.

He fulfilled the whole thing. We'll get Mark 1045 on the screen. And so this, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. This verse is so overlooked in all the great verses of the Bible, you know, pantheon, like I'm telling you, this verse is so rich and so good.

You guys want to go deeper in your faith, you want to understand more about the heart of God, you want to understand who Jesus is and what He came to do and what learn this verse is a really good one. Take a look at it. Don't look at me right. Look at that verse.

Like even the Son of Man, like God Himself coming down in flesh, even Him, even Jesus, you have no excuses. Everything's out the door for this now. You can't say, well, I deserve, yeah, but what about my status? So yeah, but look how great I am.

No, even the Son of Man, He's higher than you. Even Jesus Christ Himself came to, came not to be served, but to serve. Yeah, but I, I've earned this and I expect this. No, even Jesus came not to be served, but He came to serve.

And then even to give His life as a ransom for many. The point is the Kingdom of God is about laying down your life, not gaining it, not saying, look at how much I've accomplished, not saying, look how important I am. It's about laying down your life. And that's the real plan.

And we say, this wasn't the plan, Jesus. I thought you were going to come and be a political revolutionary. I thought you were going to be an earthly king. I thought you were going to stop all of our oppression.

I thought this Messiah was just for us and Jesus saying, no, I came to be, do something not in this world. I came to be a suffering servant. I came to give you true freedom. And I came for all of you.

My mission was fulfilled when I came to save for the sinners of the earth. And that's the plan. The plan is to show us what God's like, to show us this Kingdom of God and everything in it, to live and die a sinless, perfect life for us sins which He's did and then to rise and defeat death. To rise from the dead, which again, we're three weeks away from the greatest event in history, celebrating Easter.

And we're going to have a greater Easter celebration. I hope you guys are starting to prepare and plan for those three services because, man, we're going to just blow the roof off this place because of how good God is. All right, let's go to the next section on our handout. In the middle here, I put false plans versus God's plans.

Now the false plans I put in Princees are bad. This is bad. If you think this way, false plans versus God's plans. And it says this.

And there's two columns here. We'll take them one at a time. Nothing to fill in, but I want you to really get this. Number one, these four things on the left are these ideas that Christians all across the country, maybe even the world, somehow have adopted some of these ideas and think this is what my theology is about.

This is what my relationship with God is about. And I can tell you right now, Jesus would say, no, that's not the plan. This isn't the plan. Let me show you my plan.

It's a better way. Your thoughts are limited, your ways are limited. Let me show you my plan. So this first one says this.

Jesus will fix all my problems. Have you ever heard that before? It could come to Christ and all your problems will go away. Huh?

What a deal. Is that biblical? And how many times have you not just heard that, but it's been in that same conversation of that kind of thought across your life? I'm telling you, I've been a ministry 35 years.

I have heard that kind of theology and that kind of thinking my entire way. I can think about 35 years ago when I just became a Christian hearing it right around then. I could hear five years in the ministry. I could hear it 10 years later.

I could hear it 10 years ago. I could hear it five years. I could hear when this church started or other churches or whatever. Sometimes I might even start thinking, well, Jesus will take care of it.

I'll fix all my problems. All my problems will go away. Once I'm with Christ, it'll be smooth, silent. No problem.

I got Jesus on my side. What could go wrong? I don't have any more problems in life. Jesus is going to fix them all.

And God's plan is so much bigger. And it's said on the right of your hand out the amigo to that is, yes, we get trials and his presence. So we're not alone in the trials. It's not like you're just tortured because you become a Christian, but you get the presence of God.

He says, I'll never leave you or forsake you. Look at this first John 1633 says this. And I think on your hand out, did I screw up the verse? Yes, I did.

So just scratch off that Matthew one. I changed it this morning. It's Matthew 1633. And it says this.

Jesus said, I've said these things to you that in me, you may have peace. And in the world, you will have will somebody say, will you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Jesus let you know as clear as day.

Hey, church, you follow me, you will have tribulation. Okay. So don't ever listen to somebody trying to tell you some kind of Bible hokey-dokey that says like, hey, if you come to Jesus, they'll fix all your problems. No, Jesus said, actually, in me, you're going to have all kinds of tribulations.

You will face them, but take heart because I've overcome the world. He's saying, like, I've got this covered. I'm not shaking by it. I'm not moving.

I'm not freaked out. I don't like panic. Like, can you imagine Jesus? Oh, no, this happened?

What am I going to do now? Jesus doesn't do that. He's sovereign. He's the Lord.

He's in control. He says, take heart. I've overcome the whole world. I've already conquered sin, death and Satan himself.

This is nothing. Like this is just a bump in the road. And I do this so that you can have your character built and your perseverance and your faith. You can grow in me.

You can be tighter and close. You can understand my heart better when you trust in me. Right? So take heart.

He's overcome the world. Second one. And this is the dangerous one out of my four. I realize, oh, could I get in trouble in this one?

Maybe. Okay. Number two is Jesus wants me to be happy. Some of you are saying, what's wrong without Pastor James?

I even, I sometimes, after I planned these lessons, I sometimes showed these lessons to my kids. And I was showing it to him. One of my kids said, what's wrong with that? Yeah.

So I was like, okay, perfect. Let me tell you. So it's this idea that like, look, you get this idea in life that, well, Jesus wants me to be happy. That's the end goal, right?

All my problems go away, not only when you fix all my problems, but Jesus wants me to be happy. So it gives you liberty and freedom to do what you want, say what you want, say what you want. And you get this idea. I just need to be happy.

Happy is the most important thing. But the counterpoint is God's plan is this, that we're called to deny ourselves, which is so far opposite. Then I just need to be happy. We're called to deny ourselves.

Look at Luke 9, 20, the call to follow Jesus says this on the screen. And she said to them this, if anyone would come after me, if anyone's going to be my disciple, if anyone's going to be a Christian, if anyone's going to be following Jesus, he says this, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now this was before Jesus went to the cross. So with the listeners, what would they hear when he said to them, take up your cross?

Anyone? Yeah, he would hear it like today, somebody would say, hey, come follow me and bring your electrocution chair. You're going to sit in it. Right?

I mean, that's what Jesus is saying to these people. Go ahead, if you're going to follow me, take up your cross. And people are like, crucifixion, reserved for the worst scum of the earth that is like the most torturous form of death. People would hang up there up to three weeks.

Sometimes they keep on feeding them water and food and they would suffer like crazy. And you want what? And she's like, yeah, but that's just going to die for me. Like I'm also going to ask you to deny yourself a daily basis.

You know what that means? I do a lot of marriage counseling, premarital counseling and stuff. And I talk about this all the time. And one of the books I have couples read is this book called Sacred Marriage.

And the whole theme of the book is this idea that marriage is not for your happiness, it's for your holiness. But I just want to be happy. Is it marriage going to make me happy and solve all my problems? And God's like, I've created this beautiful institution of marriage so that you can actually see my heart.

You can see what it means to lay down your life for someone. You can see what it means to deny yourself and serve that person even when they don't deserve it. Yeah, but that's not fair, God. Shouldn't we get what we deserve and do what we say?

And God's like, would you have liked it if I did that to you? Should I have not gone to the cross because you turned your back on me? Should I have not forgiven you? Should I have not had mercy?

And you should I not give you a second chance? Oh, God, you've given me lots of chances yet you're right. Oh, yeah, but God, you did things for me when I deserved nothing. Yeah, you're right.

And God would be like, this is what it means to deny yourself. But I just wanted to be happy. Yeah, you'll get the joy of the Lord. And we all know, I hope you know, come on church, we are happy as Christians a lot of times, aren't we?

Praise God. I mean, it's not what your happiness is and a swear word. It's just this idea that us going through life thinking, I'm a Christian, so all I need is to be happy. And that's it.

Make me happy, self service to me, build up Jason Carson and make my kingdom happy. Then I'm complete. Jesus is like not zero. That's not it.

It's about glorifying the Lord. It's about submitting your life to him. And so again, Jesus wants me to be happy, but we're called to deny ourselves. We're not just called to be successful.

Successful could be another word there. You put there next to happiness, right? It could be Jesus just wants me to be successful. No, he doesn't.

He wants you to be humble. He wants you to serve. He wants you to love like he loves. He wants you to have mercy like he loves.

And you know, all these things will take care of himself too, right? We know that through scripture, we trust the Lord. It'll be okay. Seek first the kingdom of God and then all these things they'll be added to you as well.

You'll be taken care of God's not a mean God. He doesn't just like look to, you know, beat you over the head with something. He's like, he just is just be humble. And then I'll exalt you like love and forgive and then watch what happens.

Watch how things flourish and you know, give be generous and I'll just pour out the floodgates of heaven and open it up for you. Like God just keeps on telling us like if you do it my way, watch what happens. You'll be so blessed. You'll be so happy.

All these things you will be successful. It's going to be okay. But that's not the point. Number three, the third one under false plans, bad plans is Jesus lets me be whoever I want.

This has got to be Satan's biggest sneak attack. And it's not even sneaky is it? I mean, it's so blatant. It's right there in front of us.

But it's such a sneak attack from Satan himself that I would I would bet my life every person in this church is going to struggle with this one for sure. Because the idea of saying Jesus left me be whoever I want. We operate that in that on a daily basis, don't we? Don't we, don't we, church?

Like, well, I want to do this. Yeah, but I, yeah, but I don't want to do that. I want to do this. Yes.

All day long. And it might be stuff that doesn't matter. It might be, well, I want a ham sandwich instead of a turkey sandwich. That's fine.

You're choosing like just what you want. But then it bleeds into other things. Yeah, I don't really want to call that person because I was offended by what they said. Yeah, well, I don't want to do it this way because this is how I was treated or this.

Yeah, I'm too tired to do this. And even though I know it's right, blah, blah, blah, you have all these things. And pretty soon you're like, wait, I'm just doing whatever I want. And Jesus called us to live a life of service.

The God's plan is this we're called the transformation. This idea that we're completely shaped and different. Like if anyone is in Christ, Corinthians says, there are new creation. The old is gone and the new has come, right?

The old is passed away. The old and new has come. Like this is what Christ does in us. He's called us to transformation.

It's not just about being whatever I want, whoever I want, however I want. That is such a foothold. Satan can get in our lives. Well, because I'm saying this, I'm thinking, man, if you hear one thing, this whole sermon and you walk away, this church, you walk away today with something to work on this whole week, it's this.

It's just like, realize your life isn't about doing whatever you want, whatever you want, whenever you want, whatever you want, it's about putting your life in God's hands and saying, God, I want to do what you want. Not what I want. Finally, the fourth one, the fourth false plan that's a bad plan is Jesus has some good ideas, right? Or Jesus was a good teacher.

You know, oh, that's nice Jesus. Go ahead and pat him on the head. Oh, that's nice Jesus. And so you say, yeah, I like a lot of the Bible.

It's cool. Like I love when they say to how loved I am and that I'm going to get a mansion in heaven one day. And this is great. Jesus had some really good ideas.

You know, I love that he says, do not murder. I'm great with that, man. He's not never murdered anyone, right? Amen, somebody?

So Jesus has some really good ideas. But then you're like, wait, Jesus said not only should I not murder someone, but even if I have a little hatred in my heart towards someone, it makes me a murderer. I don't like that. Jesus was being kind of extreme with that one.

And so I'm going to pass on that one. Let's move on to a new one. Yeah, amen, Church. Right?

Let's go. Something a little more comfortable. I don't want to be called a murderer. I'm not a murderer.

Have any of you guys murdered anyone by the way? No. Isn't that great to not murder someone? Yeah.

Come on, you guys. Don't you feel good about yourself now? You didn't murder anyone. So you're not a murderer.

Don't worry about what Jesus said. Let's skip over that one. Okay. And like adultery?

No problem. Like I've never committed adultery. And this is so easy. And Jesus says, oh yeah.

But even if you look less, what are you going to want to woman? You've committed adultery within your heart. Whoa, I don't like that. Jesus, let's go back to just saying don't come to adultery.

I'll be good. I get an A plus again. I get a passing grade. Yeah.

Good. Okay. And Jesus says, you know, that again, I can't even have anger in my heart towards someone. I don't like that idea either.

Sometimes my anger is justified because of how I was treated that day. Right? Yes. Okay.

So you guys see how ridiculous this is. We say Jesus has some good ideas. He was a good teacher. But the God's plan is Jesus is Lord.

He's Lord of all of it. John 14 six says that I'm the way the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus saying, this is it.

I am the path. I'm the gate. I am the entry point. If anyone hears my voice and obeys, I will come in.

I'll fellowship with them. Like I'm not going at the door of your heart. Trust me. I'm Jesus.

And that's the Messiah. That's God's plans is that Jesus is Lord. So we'll close with this. Four points on the bottom of your hand out.

You realize that's number one. This is the plan. Capital P number one. Our plans are limited.

We'll start there. That our plans are limited. We've already read these Isaiah verses that like my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

They're not like your ways. They're not like your thoughts. Like the Lord is so much bigger and our plans are limited and life's frustrations can be summarized in the title of this message. Can't they?

This isn't the plan. And that's when we get frustrated. You guys ever say that? This isn't the plan.

This wasn't the plan. How did this happen? I didn't sign up for this. This wasn't the plan.

And God's plans are holy and complete. And he's writing a better story for us. The second one on the bottom there says that God has you on a journey. God has you on a journey.

He's not done with you. He's building your character. Look at it. Look on the screen at Romans three five three three five.

I love these verses. This says this not only that but we're going to rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Praise God. So we're on a journey.

He's taking us and building us into who he wants us to be. God works through detours people. He works through detours all the time. Your roads might change but the destination never changes.

You might have a detour in life right now. You might have something you're facing where it's just like God when am I going to get out of this? And God's like I'm going to get you to the destination. I'm God.

Number three. When we can't see we need to trust. When we can't see we need to trust some of my favorite verses. Proverbs three five two six says trust in the Lord of all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him.

A knowledge him every time and he will make it pass straight right. Don't lean on your own understanding. Trust him when you can't see. Some of you might be saying well this isn't the way I would plan it but Lord I trust you more.

Okay again this isn't the way I would plan it but Lord I trust you more. Start saying that. Start getting into habit of saying those things because faith moves us from confusion to trust. Finally number four God's plan is always best.

Captain obvious give us the final answer there. God's plan is always best. Jeremiah 29 11 through 13 you know these verses I hope you hear them in a fresh way. Don't check out just because it's the last point.

Check out these verses on the screen here. The Lord says for I know the plans I have for you. Declare the Lord. They are plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope.

And then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with what? All your heart it's a transfer there. Someone you're saying still this hey this wasn't the plan but hey I know God still has one God still has a plan even though this wasn't the plan.

God still has a plan and our plans are usually too small. They might be the wrong timing. They're simply not at the Lord but God shows us and his patience and his grace. He loves us and his plans are best.

And when that Messiah came this is remember the series is before Easter. When the Messiah finally came and after he rose from the dead and after Jesus even then went and still explained to them hey this is written so that all the scriptures were fulfilled. Do you see now? And it started one of the greatest revolutions the world has ever seen.

It wasn't a political revolution but it was a spiritual revolution and God moving in the hearts of his people is what he has called you to do. And you're going to spend all eternity with the Lord. All eternity with him. And you're not going to be worried about politics and you're not going to be worried about finances.

And you're not going to be worried about the things of this world and a broken down carburetor in your car. Well you're not going to be worried about these things. You're going to be focused on eternity. What God has called you to live for for your whole life.

Amen. Amen.