Decisions, Planning & The Will of God | Dr. Eric Mason

[Music] amen it made me feel like I'm real old or something that's become a pain talk real slow like a og you know I had a whole preacher talk after you do his little bio and says I'm so glad to be here I see that God has been doing the work here in this stock of the vineyard y'all know about that man quit it how y'all doing today hey all y'all could do better now how y'all doing today y'all glad to be here amen amen amen I'm so proud of the Tiffany Brooklyn God's work here you are loved like Colossians 1 says says the arm that you have borne fruit ever since that word went out to you and talking about bearing gospel fruit ever since the gospel went out and so we are excited and so many people are rooting for what God has done here and still doing here we want to thank really really quickly for Brandon and Ty let's give God a hand praise for them yeah the commitment the desire to to lead and um and all that good stuff so we're thankful here when acknowledge my my honey dip here in the front row amen amen my dimepiece this this Friday we will celebrate 22 years of marriage so you would never know it but she had two transplants and five bouts of cancer and don't look like what she's been through and so you uh you know she's still fine I see you little girl anyway um my sons Oh James our boys Oh your hands a boy quick amen glad to be here well let's stand and dig in let's stand and dig in proverbs proverbs 16 one through four and verse nine proverbs 16 one through four and verse nine we got some ground to cover here we go the reflections of the heart belonged to mankind but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord all a person's ways seem right to him but the Lord weighs his motives commit your activities to the Lord and your plans will be established the Lord has prepared everything somebody say everything for his purpose even the wicked for the day of disaster verse 9 a person's heart plans his way but the Lord that determines his steps I'll write salty today out of the subject matter was to put up the Alpha God that way there it is decisions planning in the will of God somebody say decisions planning and the will of God before I pray I'm gonna let you know you're not no we all from different backgrounds and everything but but you know I don't need you to format them up but I just need to know you to let me know you in the room every now and then you understand what I'm saying I had some dinner Asian retreat and they had charismatic worship for four hours and then when it was time for the word they took out all of their no pants and they began synchronized writing and and they said we were with you whenever we take notes that's our Amen you know and then I was some white sibling as I preached at their churches and their people are pretty quiet here and the guys say he said whenever we go like this he said he said that's he said you kill him you know he say are we going like that he said you're killing so I was like okay but so they give me give me just a tiny bit of herbage every time you know you're awake Amen father thank you for the vast amount of ways that we as brothers and sisters in Christ can laugh and enjoy our differences yet knowing that we're all in Christ that blowing us let the words of my mouth meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o God our strength and our Redeemer in whom we trust in Jesus mighty name we pray everybody with that said you may be seated in his presence how many of you been a believer less than a year less than anybody okay amen amen less than three years amen less than five less a men less than ten amen less than fifteen less than twenty okay 20 or more okay show man some of y'all so much y'all being a believer 20 you 21 years old so much you'll believe her pass volume oh I cuz that's what the Lord reason why I ask is because how many rumor that first year that first he was on fire wouldn't you been something about that first year you were just different you wanted the Lord in everything you know I'm saying I'm saying you pray you you prayed about everything everything but on the table was for you you know but we was judgmental in the month to you remember that that part would use real rich other cutting folk off somebody comes around you put out your oil and sprinkled it on them I mean you you you a you what you are hyper about it you know one things about being a young believer you're trying to figure out all of the spiritual senses of life if you will like a like everything surprising everything is it's a new initiative I know when I first you know we first when you first start walking with the Lord you are praying about everything I'm praying about you know who Lord Lord you know where am I supposed to work Lord where am I supposed to go to school you know Who am I supposed to marry you know some of y'all I know y'all perked up when I say a dad pulling us what the man I mean so so many things but did you pray about all kinds of stuff that I don't know if it's a prayer request you know you praying God I want to be in your will should I go to the right to go to the store or should I go to the left to go to the store because I don't know if the enemy got an assignment down that way and so you just you know I mean everything is micro prayed for because because you you you just have a desire and intensity to be in the will of God but at some point in time on your journey the Holy Spirit stops humoring your micro questions in other words many times those micro questions stop getting answered because the Holy Spirit wants you to grow up he wants you to know that it finding out God's will isn't going to be as easy as you've made it out to be I'm just saying God should I do this or God should I do that he wants you to grow up so that you can learn biblical discernment in other words he wants you to zoom lens your discernment and your ability to know what the will of God is into the Word of God and into the Bible and you know when you talk about this whole idea of discernment and understanding the will of God and planning it how am I designed and all these different things one of the things that you have to recognize is that you have to recognize who you're around at times because over the years I've found out that if you want to get to know person real quickly look at the decisions that they make not only look at the decisions they make look at the reasoning behind the type of decisions that they make not only that what is the fruit of their decision-making do they have a track record of making good decisions and god making things turn out amazingly the type of people they surround themselves with the knowledge that what type of decisions that people around them make well the book of Proverbs is an interesting book because the book of progress is about two types of people smart people and stupid people why do I say stupid that seems disrespectful well there's a Hebrew word that's used throughout the book of Proverbs calling the ball that Hebrew wording the ball doesn't just means fool it means stupid fool it means a fool on steroids it means next-level fool it means a fools fool who fools and teaches other fools it mean I mean its depth fool fool right then on the other side you got the you got the world honking my somebody hokhmah on your oven do better than Emma you got to go get it from back here you know like a sinus infection flu you got a hawk that thing out Hawking a right hook my mean stuff that is where we get our word wisdom from here in other words um it's about the community of those who make good not only make the decisions but skillfully live out what they know so the so the author or the sage in Proverbs is the OG Solomon for the most part the og teaching kids how to make goodness kids how to make good decisions many times in our course and we teach kids about the birds and the bees but we don't teach them about how to make good decisions and so one of the things that you see the king teaching his son is probably talking to I call a ray-ray but his name is rare Boehm he's teaching rare Boehm what it means to actually be a king and make great decisions and so he wants to teach him several levels of what it means to be a king and we'll learn and we'll we'll frame this out as the son of God if you let me introduce this that there are three ways breaking down the wills of God in their five ways of breaking down the wills of God number one we have the sovereign will somebody say sovereign will next we got moral will somebody say moral will and then finally the individual will say it and so we talk about sovereign will we're talking about those things that are decrees of God that's unchangeable no matter what you do so that's like that Deuteronomy 29:29 those things that I revealed for man the things that are not a forgot you know sin what I'm saying the moral will of God is those things where you begin in your life and I'll break it down even more in a second where you respond well based on the commands of God based on God's revealed will I'll come back to that and the individual willness is those things within your life that then it's not necessarily for other people but it's an individual tract in your life the question is is everything in your life already personally already fully laid out or does God give you wiggle room within the framework of his sovereignty I want you to stay with me on this because I think many times we as believers don't get clarity on what it means to walk with the Lord and have clear disposition about what it means to make good decisions in life and even the plan in life and how is my life conser one of the top things people want to know in their life as a believer is is this the will of God for my life and is this not the will of God for my life should I go this way Lord or should I go another direction um that there few more I want to talk of them we go back to sovereign will it's those big things I can feed yourself the one with God which talks about God's saving work that says mega narrative or his meta-narrative the big thing is that he's going to do Jesus is going to return no matter what you do so you can't you can't like chant like God you can't do anything about that he's just gonna come back now you can relate and respond based on him coming back but it's nothing you can do that's called God's that's the big stuff that's God's big wheel but then but then from there we also have what's called the commanded will of God those are things that you don't have to pray about whether or not you should do it's already in the word or what you should do know where somebody say Lord should I commit adultery or not I wonder you know I mean you know I'm just filling in my spirit something different yeah I know right but but the Bible already tells you which God on lah should I not lie sure like those are not things those are clear commands in scripture that don't distort so that's the that's the commanded will of God but then then hidden is what's called the preferential will of God what brings God pleasure that's that that's what the fees and sucks a lot about what brings God pleasure and what's a savoring aroma to him we're gonna come back to that not only that the directive will of God the Bible says be anxious for nothing but everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace somebody say peace you ever went to war something that you wanted to do and it look good and you should have went that direction but you didn't have no peace about it in other words you started going towards this particular thing and it looked great but it was a check at the old church call it a check in your spirit I had a check in my street in other words the closer you got to it the less peace you got that's the Holy Spirit nurturing your conscience in the right direction let me give you something for free never ignore that if you don't feel right about something don't try to make it right because succs there's some stuff in your life you won't have a verse for some stuff that the Bible does specifically talk about but you're like man something about this doesn't feel right that's probably if you save the Holy Spirit letting you know that something's off limits but sometimes it'll be something that you don't want but you'll feel peace about it you need to do the same thing some things that the Holy Spirit will lead you to - you won't want but it's best for you and you got to move towards it you got to move towards it you got to move towards that I'm just building a foundation somebody say bill so you got it you got to be willing to to make those moves that we're gonna we're gonna eventually in the message talk about the discern whether God somebody say discernment sometimes there's no clear verse and there's no clear feeling God just puts the information out there and let you make a decision see one of the things I want believers to understand is that much of the million of us think of the Christian life like this we think of everything as a dot there's only one person for me oh oh you mean there's no such thing as soul mate show me in the Bible ouch ouch show me show me in the Bible it's nowhere in the Bible I'm supposed to be on this particular job at this particular time what I'll do if I got the same job making it making this money in this manner well if I make that kind of money would I be able to still go to live group small group and when I'd be out of community not being able go to church but I'm gonna make more money I'm gonna be able to do this do I take that job what does the wise person do but then there's the big circle usually and we want to talk about this most of us think everything's a dot but most of the Christian life is a circle of freedom that you get to fully enjoy and decide within and nothing within it is wrong how do I know that when God told Adam and Eve in the garden he says eat from any tree you want except for the one in the middle of garden if in the east part of Eden the east side Eden God I want to know should I eat these blueberries no God said eat many of us Street life like that and there's some things you don't have to pray about so so so so so so let's dig in here as we look at this sex point one point one number one whatever you are serious about in life you plan for whatever you're serious about in life you plan for look at the text it says the reflections I love this the reflections of the heart belong to mankind but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord it's a powerful word now the word therefore actions and like the ESV the NASB and a couple of other translations translated plans now some translations say many are the plans of a man's heart right when it's talking about that the idea of of plans or the word for river people work for reflections means to order things means to meet some Italy or things in other words the text is saying that plans are the law of demand in other words God expects you to plan that don't sound deep but most of us don't think of the fact that there's some things in your life that God won't do in your life until you decide the plan and so what he begins to do as he begins says he says in the text that plans God puts in your mouth what plans am I talking about those micro plans for your life personally that means the personal will stuff in your life God wants you to begin planning out he wants you to be can begin planning out your finances CC seems like it like minister like somebody told me one time at a certain church I go sell up and tell you on you know they said they got three hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of debt from school now I'm not talking nobody so don't raise your hand enough and get mad walk out but my question is somebody saying I want to go to school good plan imma just go I don't care how much that I get I have no plan I'm just it's just gonna happen that that's gonna just take care of itself then I'm gonna just go in school and then when I get out because I don't have to deal with the debt day to day guess what I do I don't plan for it but I'm just planning for my desire to get through school beyond that I don't have any plan because I'm expecting that God's just gonna give me a job making a whole bunch of money that I don't have the experience for that's gonna give me the ability to pay off my loan really really quickly and I'm gonna be able to take care of a family and or about houses listen we have to begin we have to begin thinking long-term about our life and God wants to do that but what's interesting about the word is this is the same word used in Genesis chapter 22 verse 6 when he says this he says it talks about Abraham going up he says this boy and I will go up and worship and return to you the word for planner reflections is a worship word in other words it means it talked about them arranging everything in the order which means planning is an act of worship and so when you look at the reality that planning as an act of worship if were ever in your life you don't have a plan for you don't love God in whatever you're not thinking strategically about based on a biblical rubric and a biblical way of thinking in a biblical way of doing it God wants you to begin playing as fellas you gotta have play listen you can't hold it no harlot no no sister with no else ladies smiling already said Telecaster I ain't gonna you look at the dude I want to live well she's you happy to the mug that I'm saying it but dudes need a plan for life kate says what's your five-year plan man you know I'm saying Dawg I'm just you know I'm Road or whatever God got for me you know that's how I roll pastor you know trusting in the Lord you know but um but naw you're supposed to be planning how you gonna talk to a woman you understand I'm saying you say you know let me let me give you some game fellas give you some game see let me tell you how you doing sister how you doing my name is Eric Mason I notice you just been around at some events but see you don't know you already planned everything out hallelujah you say I'm say I would love to take you out but what what I want to do is I want to get your number but I'm you wonder why this guy standing he's not here for moral support he's here for accountability I want to lovingly engage you in court you I'm not saying I'm marrying you today but I but I have the Bible says without vision a person is unrestrained but best of all those who keep his law so I have a plan before us sweetheart now we're gonna go out and he's gonna come out with it with his girlfriend and we want to just we're gonna get to know each other community we already know each other and I really think you fine I just really do but the other part of this you know but before I date you first Corinthians 7 talks about that your father is your is over your soul so what I want to do is if you have a father or guardian allowed right I want to ask his permission to court you and allow him in the realm of which see the girls are they I did summer or the lord jesus' or the lord jesus' and then me and you walk through that thing because let me tell you something men women when they try to holla at you when you try to highlight them and they like you they don't plant our everything mentally listen to me they know what your house is gonna look like what kind of fence what kind of plants are gonna line the driveway what kind of dress she gonna wait who's dimension of Honor what are the colors we're just gonna be on top of the cake listen what type of hors d'oeuvres gonna beat it and you said this I just wanted to go out but if you're gonna if you're gonna be a biblical man you have to plan because God is a planner God is a planner before God listen before God made man he made everything to have men in order when man came into existence in other words God created the universe before he created man because he loved us enough to plant everything in place and put man in place so he'd have something to do as a matter of fact before he gives man to woman and woman to man he gave man a job order planning so they Adam already knew what work was by the time he took Eve out of them in other words God is a God of order and because God is a God of order he calls us to be a people of order there's nothing in your life that God haphazardly does nothing together under one note why God I'm not going this direction and why am I doing this and why am i both you own this brain and then God take you through it and then you look back hindsight 2003 she was working on oh that's just working out because guess what God is a God of order even when your life seems in disorder he's working things out for the good of those so why is that so important why that's so important because that's if we're gonna live really Marvel Marvel crystal we have to reflect Oz planning now that we understand God plans we should be planners what is the response to our planning that God has look at what the verse is so the answer to son is from the Lord that means you can plan all you want but God has to okay it or thumbs it up thumbs it down now we have to be careful of how we deal with God's know how you respond I'm gonna go get ahead of myself but God how we respond to God's no and Godsey yes is very very important is interesting on when I um I wanted to be author years ago I want to be all three years ago I wrote out my plan for what I wanted to do I I went to these big publishers put my stuff in and that's up again to put my stuff in I was getting no they were telling me you needed a doctor in michelle's like I do have a doctor in Missy Odyssey and I began getting frustrated because I was I was wanting I was wanting to write but it seemed like God had put that on my heart but as I began to plan and do what I'm supposed to do on my end the doors kept closing so what I began to do is I put I put my my work away my my proposals away in everything I'm gonna name drop but this dude well-known do calls me says Eric we want out we want out we want to we want to work with five different people who have who have a growing platform that we want to boom we want to invest in them writing they fly me to this company that this without me even asking but I'd already planned I already played and already tried but then but but but then they they threw me in Rome in this room I felt like I was you know in Manhattan getting a you know some type of record deal you don't sounds I'm thinking I'm executives around like coming in I don't know writing and stuffing telling me stuff and I go out a room and say we want to give you a contracting boom-boom otters come on and it's funny several years ago I you know I was like god I wanted to do this few years ago but god I was the thing that I was gonna write on wasn't what God wanted me to write on first and so God protecting me from making my first book something that it shouldn't be and he wanted these two works to be this in order for me to go out one of the things is you have to be careful of God will give you detours in your planning god it's not that God has a problem with your plan he has a problem with the timing and you have to be careful that you let the lack of time and that you wanted something to come to pass you begin divorcing yourself of aborting the mission of what God has put in your bosom what God has put your soul what God wants to do there's some things that God wants to do in you where he didn't say no to the plan he said notes at the time and getting God as God is a huge God like that when it comes to his work oh my god I got to move so much ground to cover it's interesting he says many other reflections of a man's heart somebody say heart censors things that the word heart here and it's different than in our culture now in Western culture heart means you know just you know feelings that's it heart means feelings follow your heart you know follow what you feel right but what's interesting is in the Hebrew mindset heart met mind emotions and will it admit mind met values what do you value emotions mean affections and finally will means the execution of what you believe and have affections for so when you look at this whole idea what God wants is us to have God shaped mind emotions and will what does the gospel do based on Ezekiel chapter 36 verses are 25 to 27 God gives us a new heart when he gives us a new heart it's not this thing in our chest all the feelings merely but it's the way of thinking and the way of doing things and the way of what our of sections are connected to so when you get saved everything in your life should change you get a new way of thinking and the capacity to think the thoughts of God first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 says that we have received the mind of Christ but but then our feelings changed because we used to do we used to wile out but now we get to experience and worship God with both knowledge and feeling but then our will is taken out of bondage Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 so all of that put together now gives us the capacity to plan in other words God never tells you to do something that he doesn't anoint you to do listen listen listen God never says do something and then make you Finn for yourself that's tough that's the beauty of this and so when he talks about uh uh uh we're some of the plan that means plans belong to man the answer of the plan belongs to God let me said it again plans belong to man answers belongs to God that means you plan but God's not gonna plan for you that's somebody I know you're quoting I know the plans I have for you those are mega plans those are the sovereign things that God's gonna do no matter what in your life that he's going to direct you in that the micro plan God is not gonna come in and be your accountant gotta go come in and teach you how to buy a house and be your realtor that's your job to find that for yourself well because he's giving you the divine capacity through the ahmad Bourdain to think and do for yourself help me today God I'm by myself so so so so whew well because many of us are waiting for God but God's waiting on us the Bible says write the vision down and make it plain so the question is when are you gonna write it down what God has placed in you you said you want to do it but it's just up here but it's not in here oh I gotta move to the next verse next point next point next point plans are judged on a heart level plans are judged on a heart level he says and it's X all a person's ways seeing right to him but the Lord weighs his motives oh my god do I ever say God you know my heart it's funny the Bible says the heart of the sea from the wicked who can know it so yeah he knows what's in your heart amen but it's interesting here because when he restores and redeems your heart it has the potential for the wouldn't wickedness but it's put its positionally renewed so now when we look at the text here we see that he's saying all the person's way seem right to us with he said but the long ways motor so most of the time we think we have pure motives but your best attempts at holiness is filled with ill motive so God has to work you through see y'all even Melanie and get that but what you gotta recognize is the day you spent time with God that one time real for real for real youyou journaled that day you prayed that day you got in the word and felt the Holy Ghost and cried on that day you still have a broken heart so what God has to do is God takes you what you say you want to do put it on this side and he takes your heart and put it on the other side and he wants to see where the balance is tip in relation to what you said you wanted to do versus what is actually in your heart let me see if I can make it plain I mean when I first I didn't want to pass that first I never want to be pastor guy they'll calling me to bit past them you know what you finally you know when you finally submit to the law you come to the altar call God do it how am i doing I'll Shepherds your people I'll lead your people I love your people got hot in the order that God like okay we gonna see so what God did first he sent me two easy people to love first see somebody easy ones in love he's on man this is great they listen to counsel tapes before all of this God says that's not the test God sent me some hard people some roids if you will y'all don't know what I mean by that so I get on the way home um he sent me some people that are hard to love and God sent me those hard people to love to see if I really wanted to pastor he said cuz the test of whether or not you're gonna pass their impurity is not loving on people that's easy to love because Jesus says what reward is it for you if you love those who love you sometimes God puts in your life people that don't love you to test where your heart is some of us are trying to rebuke people out of our life that God put in our life for our sanctification listen now I'm sure let you know that this whenever you have a plan and you and you're saying you want this particular thing from God God is going to test whether or not the purity of what you're saying is actually what you want listen listen when God sent them hard people I resurrected some pre salvation words some I get that on the home I said what that joy was gone you know it was other tongues I was speaking in you know I want to do you my hands started itching back in the day with my hands I you know they was just you know in other words God was saying see what's still in you see what still in you but know what God is doing God doesn't show you where you're broken to keep you there I need to go back to the first service because I'm telling you right now God never shows you what's wrong with you to leave you in it God shows you what's wrong to you so that you can see where he needs to grow you because he wants you to have the thing that you're asking for that he planned for in your life but what he brought that person in that situation in your life for is to show you how ready you not fall the other stuff that he wants to do so he says I'm not gonna let you embarrass yourself or embarrass me so before I put you on the big stage in this thing I gotta work on you in this stuff so that I can shape so that I can nurture you so that I can work on you so that when you get there you're not embarrassing my glory you're not embarrassing your family name I want you up there and I want you to go ballistic for my glory God God loves you enough to show you that you're not where you think you are that's an act of love and he loves to do it in secret so that you won't be embarrassed in public and so he wants to purify our motives third point there point good decisions involve radical faith good decisions involve radical faith now I hate that I have to put a radical in front of faith because faith is already radical but because we have a number of faith we don't see the the weight of what faith is what is faith I know you say something faces the sums of things hoped for in other words without so so so so faith faith is the is is is believing that God told you the truth and acting on it that's that's crazy now look what the text says commit your activities to the Lord and your plans will be established you know sense so sort of the word commitment here means to roll somebody say roll it means to roll something that means that you came up with you worked on it but now you're not keeping it to yourself you're you're making plans now as you made those plans you take those plans to the divine editor you know one of the things that you want to be able to do is you don't want a plan absent of God you want to plan with God in the mix how do you get God in the mix you take what you plan to him let him work on it so that he can edit out what you're supposed to do and not do let me see if I can make it plain y'all looking at me funny when I was in college how's the college you know my first year college huh I know I killed this paper Marsh Strasse does were like yeah that was back when the pages folded over you know and you had to open tear the pages out then flip it back over and make them straight y'all movin on some but I'm sorry you know and I took it to my chin I knew I killed I laid that John on the table I like go ahead take a look at that go ahead take a look at that you're gonna use that for examples for students for ages to come in this school and I want you to thank me and advance for what's about to pop off in this paper right so in the next class period when I come back to the to the class I'll come back to the class I get my paper bag and I'm confused cuz I don't see what I wrote no more because she has so red mark that showing up I didn't know where what I wrote was some looking at the pavement like dog this is discouraged and frustrated and she said mr. macey she tapped on my taste she's so sweet said mr. Mason I see this is not the example we were talking about worried you know she put me on little blast a little bit but she said you know what wherever you see the red markings I want you to correct it turn it back in and I'll give you credit as if you did it right the first time Oh y'all y'all don't know where the shout listen god when you plant something you hand it in to the Lord and he washes Christ's blood all over top of it where there are errors and where their mistakes and when there are unnecessary detour the thing and what God will do is once the blood dries on the ink of your plan you begin to see a branch making a new plan of him taking you to where you want to go with clear direction that is anointed and appointed to do exactly what God wants to do in your life what's the interesting it's interesting here because you got several types of people though this difference eyes me when the role is three times would be one is wrong everybody fits under one of these some of you won't think both but you're not you one you have the free spirit you got the methodical and you have the motionless now the free spirit as a planner is a nightmare because the free spirit is RT don't plan anything you know I'm you know I'm what are you doing today you know I'm just feeling the wind today just feeling the wind you know what I think I'm gonna quit my job today and I think I'm gonna start a business with no classes I just think I'm just start a t-shirt company today if I see one more t-shirt company come to my feed I'm a scream in holy tongues you hear me you know I just I just I just saw hey I'm just gonna make my handprint the t-shirt you know what you doing today I think I'm going to Florida today I think I just should go how you getting there I'm just gonna hitchhike on 95 I'm just going see that you know that's the free spirit then you got that you know you got the methodical they're hyper methodical everything gotta be spelled out they got a statistic for everything you understand what I'm saying they got a stat for this they got a idea for this then I read periodicals on everything so everything is highly researched and footnote in and in noted and highlighted in asterisks and brackets and apparently I mean they are hyper of everything is that but they don't do nothing about what they written now they think because it's written down that it's actually gonna work itself then you got the motionless they just don't do did Lamont Sanford in the basement Imam house just nothing I know ain't got none of them in here Amen but I'm trying to put the motionless but guess what all three of these types of people God has anointed to make specific plans and that means no matter what your wiring is your divine wiring is bigger than your natural wiring and that means you have the capacity to the plan even if you needed help look at what the verse says the Lord has prepared everything for its purpose for his purpose even the wicked for the day of disaster that's beautiful because it talks about the big way in which God plans are all big things all things and in other words everything has a purpose in why God created the Colossians 1:16 says all things were created for Jesus that means that for that explanatory preposition means that Christ has a purpose for everything that means that God has a purpose in it for you look at verse 9 this is crazy which says verse 9 it says a person's heart plans his way but the Lord orders or determines that person step and so when we look at the work of God in our life as we as believers begin to begin to say God I know that I'm supposed to be doing this particular thing but God I want to plan but I want to work this out and I want to trust you with our exes I'm a gift you did said I'm a gift to get out of your way it's interesting that um we bet I mean we've outgrown our building where we are you know it sounds like you know I'm gonna go ahead and we're gonna go look for another bird so I have a prayer drive hours and hours and hours so I community we found this this church with city block you know and I was like oh we bought it's about to be lit you know we got city blocks we got parking finally you never sent us a commodity in the city God is in this sense where was a little small I said we got this you know same I said and then we had the money you know yeah you ever listen when you have the money it's different looking when you bro so we ain't got nothing you like Lord in the name of Jesus I don't know how let's go where but we need that but when you got the money you like yeah we need that but thank you God for providing right so we got everything was going on and then God sent a prophetic word called by the block from Rick Ross I was like oh that's a prophetic word from God right there we brought the by the block hallelujah right there even though a false prophet is coming out um you know yeah so I was like man I'm gonna go ahead and grab this John I'm thinking this is Lynn God says no they sell to a developer and you I felt in myself I imagine what the ministry is gonna look like I imagine what the building was gonna look like I was disappoint it but I had the plan written and I prayed then we then I found this 166 thousand square foot warehouse in the middle with North footage on his lid no park here but it's little strip to the bricks ready I'm winning there I'm you normally you know I'm laying hands on the wall I'm he BB I shine everywhere and I'm you know I'm throwing oil around you know I'm excited you know this is it I'm imagine everything since the do sells to somebody and he doesn't sell it he keeps upping the price now you don't know how matter to make you when you got the bread and God still says no but see I thought it was them saying no to me see some of us don't know that when every man is saying no it's actually God saying no where's my Bible verse for that where's my Bible verse for the Bible says nothing can be given of a man unless has been given from heaven if God hasn't given it to you it's not yours unless he tells you to keep pressing because there's demonic forces in the way but but but sometimes it's not the devil you're praying against you're praying against your own died then all of a sudden I'm driving the neighborhood I'm driving neighborhood you know I've been praying I see this young here parking lights on 2.88 is only he imagined best I have a 2.8 acres like I didn't know this existed in North right 133,000 square foot - James - Saint - I'm caught on a st. you areas already that's not you you walk in it you know auditory essentially it has a gym on the roof that's enclosed and a gym outside has parking laying all around the job and it's interesting I'm like God is moving us towards the opportunity some of the stuff and when we look back on the stuff that God said no to us if we were settling because we wanted to go into a new season too quickly but God was saying when I want to bless you I don't want you to settle so what's not gonna maximize what I want to do in your life and through your life I want to give you the top level stuff that you need to use and out of my name for your glory so so so never settle for Less when God has more for you I'm out of your way and guess what Jesus does this to Jesus submitted to the sovereign will of God how did he submit he was slain before the foundation the world he was told he was gonna die by God the Father he agreed that he was gonna die before he ever can before he came he got the earth he walked in God's moral will why because he never sinned walked in God's will follow God's commands it is written followed him all the way through his ministry but then finally he walked in the individual world because he embraced it for herself and the beauty of it is he always was seeking God but he was if you read the Gospels Jesus was always knowledgeable that there was a plan going on in his life that was bigger than him remember that your plans are supposed to be a part of a larger plan of what God wants to do on this earth some much away I want y'all to write this down going straight down what you'd write W then I P then II write they're going straight down vertically write that down and there beside the W I want you to write worship next to the I want you to write ink next to the P I want you to write present and pray and then next to the e I want you to write edit and expect before you start your plans you need to worship once you worship begin to Inc write it down once you begin to ink present it to the Living God and pray once you present and pray God's going to give you some edits and make the edits and then expect that God's gonna do something expect that God is going to do some without faith it is impossible to please him and the one that comes to him let's come to him knowing that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him father we thank you honor you for your mercy and your grace that you are the guy the who gives us the grace to plan you give us the capacity to plan the strength to plan even the world takes advantage of this commodity that's given to all people but our ability to plan is always connected to something redemptive so God I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that you would guide your people strengthen your people and help them to make amazing decisions that impact time and eternity and Jesus mighty name we pray everybody that's it amen

Channel: Epiphany Church Brooklyn

Views: 8,961

Rating: 4.8834953 out of 5

Keywords: Epiphany Church Brooklyn, Dr. Eric Mason, Eric Mason, Brooklyn, Sunday Service, 2020, Planning

Id: XvE_Lhq2LcI

Length: 46min 0sec (2760 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 17 2019