"Our Plan B Might Be God's Plan A" - Pastor Wayne Cordeiro

if you have your bible i want you to take it out and over these next few weeks i'd like for you to begin to bring your bible because we're going to journey through the book of philippians and it will be a quite a few weeks before we get through this i'm going to stop along the way hit some mile markers talk about it as we will today finding out that paul is in prison and what seems like a bad deal actually is going to turn out for a good deal what seems to be his plan b or c or d god's going gonna turn it around and use it for his plan a and even though we don't understand why by the way do you know that paul travels from town to town he hardly writes but he's thrown in the jail and god uses him to pen half the new testament he's on his way to being beheaded sounds like a bad ending but a great beginning for you and me 2 000 years later where millions have come to christ because of that so often we see things as a bad ending and god sees it as a very auspicious beginning if we will trust him and we're going to talk about that today so i've been teaching a bible creed to our church and i'd like you to learn it too and it goes like this this is my bible the word of god and i boldly declare that this is the highest law in the land i am what it says i am i have what it says i have i do what it says i do i am a citizen of heaven you like that well we're going to learn that together so raise your bible if you don't have your bible raise your hand like you're taking an oath all right here we go repeat this after me this is my bible the word of god and i boldly declare that this is the highest law in the land i am what it says i am i have what it says i have i do what it says i do i am a citizen of heaven great give yourselves a hand great job so today we're going to talk about how often our plan b is god's plan a because remember we're going to experience valley lows as well as mountain highs but whether you're in a valley low or a mountain high god controls both however there are different lessons of character that we will learn that we will not learn on a mountain high that we will in a valley low like humility trust repentance dependency on god those you don't learn on top of a mountain you learn in the darkness of a valley i remember when a few years ago i had to be flown to stanford medical center because i had five blockages in my heart and and they were about to go down and put in three stents into my heart and i was already nervous and you get into that place and they dress you inappropriately do you ever notice that it's already cold and they only dress you halfway and it's not pants and shirtless it's front and backless it's so embarrassing it's like open theater and so i like when you're going to the bathroom you have to go against the wall and high nurse hello you and no they're fine and and and then they but when they put you on a gurney and you start to go into surgery you have to depend on those doctors you don't have a choice at first i was nervous a bit embarrassed but very nervous and anxious and then i had to come to a point where i said you know i don't have a choice i can sit here nervous or just if i die i die but i gotta depend on these guys and let it happen and it's at that moment i realized if i've got to do that with doctors how much more with the great physician the great physician but you see i don't learn those on a mountaintop i learn them on a gurney low when i'm about to go in for an operation paul the apostle is going to be talking about this how important it is for us to understand that sometimes when we are weak he is strong and though you can't see his hand you've got to trust his heart god knows now you can see these valley lows as a negative ending an epitaph to your grave or you can see it as an auspicious beginning the beginning of a new season you can choose to see it either way i love studying great leaders who can see things into something greater to give people hope so that what we think is our plan d can turn into god's plan a it was sir winston churchill when the nazi regime was flooding westward over europe came to fall in france and then it was about to launch an escapade over the channel where the german planes called the luftwaffe would come over the channel and then darken the skies over london to drop bombs to decimate the city but instead of being afraid sir winston churchill got on radio and he said this to all of the populists he said let us brace ourselves to our duties in such a way that if the british empire lasts a thousand years men will still say this was our greatest hour and though we've got all kinds of things happening around us in this era of hawaii i want people to point back to new hope and say you know it was a tough time for them but that was their finest hour that was their greatest hour that was their greatest honor but we don't see it at first but paul leaves us a wonderful stepping stone and let's read together it's at the top of your notes and we'll begin at verse 12 13 and then i'll read a few more throughout the chapter here would you read it with me go now i want you to know brethren that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel so that my imprisonment in the cause of christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else and let me continue that most of the brethren trusting in the lord because of my imprisonment now have far more courage to speak the word without fear he continues and he says now verse 19 for i know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and provision the provision of the spirit of jesus christ according to my earnest expectation and hope that i shall not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness christ even now just as always will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death for me to live is christ to die is gain but if i am to live on in this flesh it will mean fruitful labor for me and i don't know which to choose really i'm uh he says i'm a hard-pressed from both directions i have a desire to depart and be with christ oh that would be so much better yet to remain on as in the flesh is much more necessary for your sake he says to his readers and convinced of this i know i shall remain and continue with you all for the progress of your joy in the faith he said i don't know what to do i'm i'm happy to go home and be with the lord i was having bible study just the other day at starbucks with a group and this elderly gentleman came by and he said you're pastor wayne gudero i said yes he said god bless you god bless you god bless you i said you too he said uh i hope jesus comes today because i'm ready to go home and me too but not right now i got coffee in my scone that i want to finish verse 27 but in the meantime just make sure only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of christ just conduct your life in a manner that's worthy of the gospel of christ that word worthy means the same weight as in the greek what does that mean it means the gospel the weight that you put on the gospel of christ has to be the same weight that your life has that your life has the same value as the gospel that you sow a spouse the gospel that you believe in the weight of that gospel should be seen as the same weight by which you live it's not one is lighter than the other that we really hold the gospel we worship like crazy but our life doesn't show it no it's gotta have the same weight and that's what it means to walk worthy of the gospel verse 28 in no way being alarmed by your opponents which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you and that too is of god for to you it has been granted for christ's sake not just to believe in him but also to suffer you see what god is saying is there's some stuff that's at the mountaintop that we celebrate and rejoice in but there's lessons that could be defining moments for your life that you'll only find on the valley's floor and what you say is my plan d may for that moment be god's plan a and he'll redeem it if you'll live in a manner worthy of the gospel of christ during that time and not bail out and see it as dark but to say lord i don't understand what's going on but i'm going to keep shining your light and i'm going to keep going trusting you what you're about to see is a short story of a pilot a pilot who thought him being bumped is not the best because now i lose day's pay or more man's name was steve scheidner of american airlines but what is going to be his plan b it's god's plan a and what you might not see on this video is that his ministry today is a strong ministry as he disciples men in the gospel of christ but let's take a look at the story of steve scheidner well i've been with american airlines since 1991 so we're coming up on my 20th anniversary with american i've been a pilot a little bit longer than that i was first employed by the navy i flew p3s and then i got hired by american airlines and currently i fly the boeing 757 and 767 airplanes september 10th is a date that means you know a great deal to me because i did what i normally do on september 10th the day before i become available to go flying and my flying is in blocks of days of availability so i was available to go flying on september 11th so at about three o'clock in the afternoon and september 10th i sat down at the computer and i i logged in like i normally do and to check to see if there was any unassigned flying for the next day and sure enough there was one trip that was available on september 11th it was american airlines flight 11 out of boston's logan airport to los angeles and i looked at it and there was no pilot assigned to it yet it just so happened on september 11 2001 there was only one guy available to go flying on that day and that was me the the final assignment comes via the phone call so they make you know positive contact communication with you it's not just in the computer they'll call and they'll say hey we want to let you know you've been assigned a trip and now at that point once you have that phone conversation even if a line pilot wants to they can't bump you off that trip so they've only got a 30 minute window of opportunity once that phone call gets made it's a done deal i waited for the phone call and the phone never rang what was taking place uh unaware i was unaware of was the fact that a fellow by the name of tom mcginnis who was one of those line holding pilots a little bit senior to me tom was celebrating his birthday on september 10th with his wife and his children and tom did what i did that afternoon about three o'clock in the afternoon he went over to the computer and he logged in and he looked and he saw that that flight was open but my name had been penciled in and he knew he was in still in that 30 minute window of opportunity so tom called down to american airlines and said hey you know i just want to check with you am i legal to take this trip in other words can i bump scheibner off that trip and uh they did what they do with the computer down there and they got back to him and said yep you're legal for that trip but you've got to give us a call back in the next you know 20 minutes or else we're going to finalize the assignment i assume that tom had some sort of conversation with his wife uh and he called back he called american airlines and he said yeah i'll take that trip so at that moment they erased my name off the trip they assigned it to tom i didn't know any different because they never called and uh they flipped about 23 000 feet and tom engaged the autopilot to take him the rest of the way to los angeles and at that moment uh all hell broke loose on the airplane there's not another way to to express it 20 years ago i wrote a life objective and my life objective goes like this it's to seek trust and glorify god through humble service and continual prayer to raise up qualified disciples as quickly as possible so that someday i might hear god say well done my good and faithful servant the events of september 11th took that life objective that i already had and it intensified it for me but someday i want to stand in the lord's presence and i want him to say well done i think we we live in a world where everybody's kind of out to get the most for them this is not about me this is about the distinct privilege i've been given to know that somebody died in my place what i know is that somebody died in my place not once but twice that's where god comes into the whole thing for me see tom sat in a seat that i was qualified to sit in and by all rights that was my seat that day i should have been in that seat in fact i've sat in the very seat of that airplane that tom was in i've flown all of the the 757s and 767s american airlines owns so i know what it's like literally to sit in that seat but i am still all these years later still qualified to sit in that seat and i could have but tom didn't die for my sins you see god sent his own son to die for my sins jesus christ was the other one who died in my place and he hung and he bled and he suffered on a cross to pay a price for me that i wasn't qualified to pay i couldn't have hung on the cross i didn't have the same qualifications so one guy sat in a seat that i should have sat in the other hung in blood on the cross one is far more significant than the other that's not to trivialize what happened to tom it's to elevate and glorify what god did for me and for mankind on the cross that a tremendous story sometimes we don't understand what's going on but god knows exactly and how many of you know and you write in your notes that nothing takes god by surprise isn't that right i was thinking about it when the roof fell in god didn't go oh sorry yeah i never know about it no he knew that that was going to happen long before we did god knew the bills that would face our legislature and the danger of this precipice that we're hanging on right now and the decisions that have to be made otherwise it opens a floodgate of even more problems into the future he knew that we would be sued by a harassment suit he knew all of these things long before and nothing takes god by surprise absolutely nothing and that's why the scripture says in the book of jeremiah would you read it with me go for i know the plans i have for you says the lord plans not for your calamity but for your welfare that you might have a future and a hope think about all of these lows that people hit that god turned into highs because they lived correctly in the midst of it joseph when he was framed and thrown into a prison cell and forgotten now joseph could have seen it as a bitter pool instead he saw it as prep school and god made him into the pharaoh that he needed him to be see god might see things differently and the sooner we get to god's perspective the better isn't that right moses moses was extradited pushed away into the desert but as he went oh that's plan b god's plan a he was purchased by god he was thrust out by egypt he was embraced at the burning bush you see our plan b can all often be god's plan a it was samson whose eyes were blinded by the philistines but at the end of his life as they pushed those pillars down god opened his eyes to his assignment finally in the end you take a look at all of these examples even paul the apostle he could have seen prison or something horrible in fact he was chained to a praetorian guard but instead he switched it he didn't say no i'm not chained to a praetorian guard that praetorian guard is chained to me no it's not that i cannot run away and escape from him he can't run away or escape from me and that's why it says the gospel was preached throughout the praetorian guard because that guy couldn't leave so paul just started to share with him about christ the truth of god's word then it began to spread throughout the praetorian guard you see the way you see something is very important in fact would you write in your notes it's not the circumstance but it's how you define it that'll make all the difference in the world oh sometimes god takes us to a valley low and if you define it as low that's exactly what it'll be because as is thy faith so shall it be done unto you if you see it as bad guess what it is if you see it as no good that's exactly what it's going to be but if you see it the way god sees it the redeemer begins to move and change everything behind the scenes and you begin to trust god as i said on that gurney i learned to trust god let's read what the scripture says right under that would you read it go most of the brethren trusting the lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of god without fear see if we will define it correctly it will actually give us courage when anna and i went to hilo i was 31 years old and we had two kids in tow about two years old and three years old and we took a fledgling congregation of about 23 people and started our ministry of planting churches now they could only offer us 500 a month and so we found a house for 500 a month and i bet that year they just thought this young family must have been so committed to the church and ministry because every potluck we would show up with our kids every party every gathering that had food we would be there and the first thing i'd say is hallelujah kids go eat quick quick hallelujah even other churches when they had potluck i would show up praise the lord go eat quick praise the lord but you know during those days god taught us how to pray hard god taught us to be humble enough to ask for help god taught us to be satisfied with little i mean we learn how to cook ramen 25 different ways because sometimes we go to kta and that's all we could buy was 20 cents per packet so we'd buy about five dollars worth and that would last us nearly the week i remember once when we were praying because we had nothing in our cupboards and anna and i prayed god we really need some groceries and sure enough i mean within about three hours or so our front door bell rang and we went out there in this true store you can ask my wife she's sitting right over here and uh we went to answer the door and no one was there but there were three i think packages of groceries full of groceries on our front porch and i began to understand that i can trust the lord and you know even though some people say oh a poor you no no no very few pastors have the privilege of starting that way and learning how to trust god and believe god and ask god and be humble enough to just ask because you are desperate you don't have a choice to me that was prep school that was prep school for me speaking of god providing i heard a story of this lady she's very poor she'd come out of her cottage has a little front porch she'd every morning breathe in the fresh air and then she would say thank you jesus for providing for me today the next morning she'd take a deep breath thank you jesus for providing for me today well next door to her lived an atheist and the atheist was getting a little irate and she'd say shut up there is no god he ain't gonna provide for you and she'd look over thank you jesus for providing for me today well this lady got so upset her next-door neighbor harassing her finally she said you know what one day she said i know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna trick her i'm gonna trick her i'm gonna get something for her and when she says that i'm gonna say i provided it there's no god so she actually went out bought a bag of groceries put it on her porch hid behind some bushes and the lady came out thank you jesus for providing for me whoa you did thank you just then the lady jumped out from behind the bushes ha i provided that for you god didn't provide it for you i did and the lady stopped and she said thank you jesus for providing food for me today and you even had the devil deliver it far more courage to speak the word of god without fear so you say wayne what if things don't happen you know you're doing your best to trust and and hear god and live your life in such a way that's worthy of the gospel but you don't see any change for a month for weeks what do you do because i sometimes get tired of trying to be a freedom fighter you know and fight for the truth i i was at a radio interview the other day and uh the host don o'brien said you know wayne i feel that way because this these stuff come this comes up every other year or so and and i'm just tired of fighting i just get weary and i said yeah you're you're like a fighter for the truth she said yeah i said the bible didn't ask us to be fighters for the truth huh no no because you see if you're a a truth boxer you're going to get pummeled you're going to have a black eye but he didn't say to be a truth boxer he said that we are to be a truth bearer or standard bearers of the truth to hold it up that's why the bible says what then only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth christ is proclaimed and in this i rejoice it's in the truth see the lord is saying i want you not to be a truth boxer but a truth bearer and you let the truth do its own work because if you try to fight for the truth you're going to get weary but if you just hold the truth up the light the people have to make a decision when that light shines into their darkness they're going to have to make a decision are am i going to respond to the truth or reject the truth and regardless of what they do that's between them and god god's saying you let me shine the light and let them be responsible to make a decision with me but you keep just holding that banner up you see our problem with the churches we sort of recede and we take the truth away because that way people won't bother us the lord says no no you don't fight for the truth just hold that thing up remember you are the light of the world you don't put a light under a pec measure or under a blanket but you put it up high so that all will see and in the midst of the battle you just hold do you remember those six men on iwo jima that fabulous picture of that photograph that when the bullets were whizzing by they made sure that they kept that flag flying and a photograph was taken of that and that photograph went throughout the united states and inspired the people to end this protracted war because they realize that that's what we're supposed to do is freedom and the bible says you shall know the truth and the truth will not us we're not freedom fighters we're not boxing people saying you're going to hell you're no good no no no no you just hold it up now will people always respond well not really not really but you got to make sure that you let the truth do its own work john 3 19 says it says now this is the final verdict that men love the darkness more than the light for their deeds were evil so even though we put the truth up is going to shine on what's going on and people don't like it but that's not between you and me that's between you and the truth you see so i'm just going to keep holding the truth up you make the decision well take that light down you know i can't because this is who i am and i'm going to keep shining the light because the bible says that i am the light of the world and so god's saying just keep that light up so the men will see it because some people need to find their way home and if we say we'll just take this light down what about the what about the hundreds of thousands of people caught in sin that are looking for a way out honestly you lose them now that not everyone's going to respond but a whole bunch will some time ago i was fishing uh night fishing in hilo out of the hilo bay towards la pahoy hoy and and we were done fishing like it's three o'clock four o'clock in the morning uh just when it's starting to you know the sun is just starting to peep up around five-ish so we start going back into the bay but the ocean is pitch black because there's no headlights on a boat you know there's one little light but no headlights so the ocean around you is pitch black i was gonna say as black as molasses but i better not say that yeah you know so it was just pitch black pitch black we couldn't see anything but there's some buoys with lights on it and so all we did was keep the boat towards that line of buoys and it helped us track our way back into the bay if those lights were out we'd be on the rocks i'm glad those lights didn't go out and the same thing is true with us we've got to hold our light high because there's people finding their way out of darkness and if we get bullied enough and pull those down what about all of those that we're trying to find their way home and into port that'll end up on the rocks because we pulled our lights down because some people didn't like it no i'm going to let the light do its own work and we're going to keep that up because people are trying to find their way home light does that mean we take the boats and bring them home no you just hold it up i i was uh at the dentist a month or so ago and and i was laying back there and uh i guess the dental hygienist was new or wasn't watching but they turned on that big old bright light you know and poof that was in my eyes so i'm laying there and they're doing stuff and it's like man this thing's like i'm getting a sun tan on this thing and so she looked oh sorry and she put that thing back on my mouth the light down there and then the doctor came and he has another light on his head he looked like one of those d you know deep sea fish with the light on his head and he poked it in my mouth and man just my the cavern of my mouth just lit up why because the more light the better so the physician can do his work right if you take the light out the physician can't do his work but you've got that light there and the more light the better so what so i can do the work for him no so that what so the physician can do the work now listen carefully god is not asking you to do his work but he's asking us to hold as much light up as possible so he can and maybe one of the reasons why god doesn't do as much work as we'd like him to is because where's the light because churches have a tendency to recede thinking oh people are bothered by the light no you hold that light up now the light will do its own work the great physician will work but you got to hold that light up that's our banner we're we're not truth boxers we're truth bearers but what if people don't respond i'm gonna get tired no no no the scripture says this would you read it with me go only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of christ in no way alarmed by your opponents which is a sign of destruction for them but of salvation for you and that too is from god now you notice he's saying you conduct yourself in a manner worthy or the same weight as the gospel should be seen in your life now don't be alarmed by your opponents because you're going to have opponents but you don't do the work of the light you sinner you're going to hell no once we try to do the work of the great physician the patients are in trouble and we'll get black eyes so you just hold the light for the great physician just hold the light now will some people reject it vehemently absolutely and with vitriol they'll come at you but sorry you have to take it up with this one well you just take your light down you're showing up our deeds you have to make a decision about your deeds and that could be happening right now in fact a gay person came to me and said to me why do you keep condemning me why do you hate me oh i don't hate you at all i'm just gonna let you know what god says well that's it don't be telling me i said you know i'm just gonna keep holding the light and the truth because you have to make a decision and and this is what the person said you think that me being gay is my biggest problem i said no actually being gay is not your biggest problem huh yeah that's not your biggest problem really no what is your unwillingness to admit that that lifestyle is not god's best you see the problem is if you refuse to repent then how can forgiveness happen if you refuse the great physician how can he do his work of healing so your greatest problem isn't being gay your greatest problem is you refuse to repent and recognize that there may be a better best for me but remember with repentance cometh forgiveness without repentance what are you going to do that's your biggest problem it's not your lifestyle it's your heart it's your heart because if it were your lifestyle your heart would repent and the great physician can do his work we just hold the light you see the light is going to have to make people it's going to force people to make a decision very defining moments in people's lives but that's all right you just keep holding that up but what if people don't respond wayne then you have to remember would you write it down your last point you got to believe that god will redeem all we do in his name god will redeem it if you're doing this in god's name no not in your own name but in god's name and he's holding the light for the great physician because he wants to work his work in hawaii hold that light up the truth and god will redeem it you got to think about it this way the bible says even a cup of cold water that's given in my name you will not lose your reward so god is saying if you gave a dixie cup of water in my name i'll redeem it wow so what if i just hold a sign that says uh something about christ or or about god's best is that good if you're doing it in his name god says i will redeem that whatever you do in my name just holding the light i'll redeem that i'll redeem it you got to believe that but what if i don't see it oh god has a much bigger picture because your plan b could be his plan a and when you're at the lowest of the valley it could be where god is going to do his greatest work that's why the scripture says this for i know that all of this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and provision of the spirit of jesus christ we have a redeemer in the end how many of you believe that our redeemer still lives amen he still is alive he's still alive and so his role is to fix and redeem you just hold the light i'll do the work you've got to believe that whatever we do in his name god is our redeemer now it might not happen right now might take years but i tell you god has a way of redeeming and whatever you do in his name god will redeem because my redeemer lives what you're about to see is a video it's a foreign language video so watch the bottoms and you'll see at the bottom the the subtitles but it's a story about redemption and even though at first you think this is not making any difference you continue to live your life in such a way that's worthy of the gospel of christ even when things seem to get worse you should keep living conduct your lives in a manner worthy of christ you keep holding the truth because i know my redeemer lives let's take a look at this video okay um hello oh who taught the sun where to stand whose words alone can catch my this yeah the very same god that spins things when i'm broken please is to take away my he yes let our creations no no no no no no no no no no no this morning me wow we've got to believe that god's going to redeem everything that we do for his name he doesn't ask us to hit people he asks us to be truth-bearers to live our lives worthy of the gospel to know that even in the valley lows because our redeemer lives because the great physician is available he just asks us will you hold the light still i'll do the work but if we drop the light if we don't hold it high then how will people be inspired well there's bullets whizzing by just hold the light you'll be all right i promise and the great physician will do his work and i want one day people to look at new hope in this era and say that was their finest hour amen

Channel: NewHopeOahu

Views: 17,254

Rating: 4.8773007 out of 5

Keywords: Wayne Cordeiro, New Hope Oahu, Weekend Message, W1338

Id: 7Ec-0mzvBQQ

Length: 47min 37sec (2857 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2013