Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

1 Chronicles 17:1-4; Galatians 1:10

“So God, Here’s My Plan”

Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

1 Chronicles 17:1-4

Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.” Nathan said to David, “Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.” But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: You shall not build me a house to live in.

Galatians 1:10

Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Today’s message is about my plan, your plan, and our plan vs. God’s plan. Talking about this is always timely and always hits a couple of people right between the eyes, because the struggle to live at peace right in the center of God’s plan is just that- a struggle- a constant struggle for many, if not most of us. The reason for this is simple: We want to be in control. We want to be in charge. We want to be able to settle into things according to our own plan (see how in the 1 Chronicles passage, David had just settled into his house?) We want to manage things so that things come out just the way we want them to come out. We say, “Oh, I’m very flexible.” We say we’re “laid back.” But when something doesn’t fit where we planned it should fit, we often find ourselves unsettled, tense, off balance, suspicious, frustrated, and sometimes filled up with anger.

Some people even write their plan down. Some tell others what their plan is. Others just dream and think about where they are going to be in one year, what they will be doing, and with whom they will be doing it.

In a roundabout way, David spoke his plan out loud. “I’m living in this nice house, and God is living in a tent.” He didn’t come right out and say, “I’m going to build a house for God,” but it’s clear that’s what he was thinking. It seemed like a good plan. How could this plan not be the same as God’s plan? It would honor God among his people. It must be God’s plan! I doubt whether it even entered David’s mind that God wouldn’t be all for this plan! So David set his mind on building a house for God. And God said, “Thanks, but no thanks. This isn’t my plan for you, David. I am going to have a house, but you are not going to be the one to build it for me.”

Now, at that moment, David had two choices.

Ignore what Nathan said that God said and do it anyway, figuring that Nathan had just heard God wrong. (Or figuring that God didn’t know what was best for him.)
Listen to God.

The apostle Paul, before he was renamed Paul, was called “Saul.” His life was a life of violence towards followers of “The Way.” (The way of Jesus.) He was a faithful Jew. He worshipped the God of Israel- the God of the Bible. But he had determined that God’s plan for his life was to wipe out Christians- whether by his own hand- or by organizing and leading other to kill. But then, one day, God picked him out and turned his life’s purpose into something that gave life instead of taking life. When Saul became Paul, human plans gave way to God’s plan in one of the most dramatic conversions in ancient biblical history; Paul became absolutely sold out to doing God’s will. He didn’t care who was offended by what he taught along the way. He spoke the truth, lived the truth, and was persecuted for the very truth he once despised. When he wrote the letter to the church in Galatia, he was totally frustrated because those he had taught about Jesus had turned away to believe something that was only a shadow of the truth. You see, some false teachers came in and got the people confused; they got them to doubt what they thought they knew, and they began to believe something different than what Jesus had spoken. In our verse for today, Paul is upset. He had poured himself out for those folks, and here they are going down the wrong path. “Hey,” he said. “Who do you want to please here?” “God?” “Men?” “If you want to please men over and above God, then you aren’t who you say you are. You aren’t Servants of Christ.” Whose plan are you on anyway?

Some of us here today have big decisions to make: decisions about jobs, education, homes, health issues, relationships, etc. Others aren’t in that “big decision” moment, but clearly understand that every day consists of a decision either to go God’s way, or go our way.

What did David do? Let’s look at 1 Chronicles 17:16-27.

David prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord. He thanked the Lord that though he (David) wasn’t going to get to build a house for God, that God had promised him that he (God) would build a house for David. (Look in the second part of v. 10-14 chap. 17) God promised David that he would love and care for his son and all those who came after who would choose to live in faithfulness to his covenant promise. David said (v. 23), “And now, O LORD, as for the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, let it be established forever, and do as you have promised. Thus your name will be established and magnified forever in the saying, ‘The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel’s God’; and the house of your servant David will be established in your presence. For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him; therefore your servant has found it possible to pray before you. And now, O LORD, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant; therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you. For you, O LORD, have blessed and are blessed forever.”

David could have decided to build God a house anyway. Then the temple would have been called “David’s Temple,” instead of “Solomon’s Temple.” That would have been amazing for David. But he chose to do the more amazing thing: He listened to God, and thanked him for his plan that had a vision far beyond anything David could see. He chose to please God, and not “men.” (meaning others or himself.)

How do you know what God’s plan is for your life?

Read the Word. God will not direct you in a way that is contrary to his Word. But, you have to know the Word in order to know whether what God is saying is in here or not.

Pray. This includes speaking and listening. The Holy Spirit will come and bring you a sense of anticipation and peace when you are moving in God’s direction.

Speak with other Christians whose counsel you trust. Ask others to pray with and for you.

Act. Once you sense you know God’s plan, step out in faith. Often we don’t know for 100% certainly if a way is right or not until we actually move in faith. This is God’s way of making sure we are relying on him all the way, and not relying on our own wisdom and strength.

For our congregation, I think there will be many moments in the next year that will challenge us to either please God by sticking with his plan, or please ourselves by holding too tightly to our plan. I think our new partnership with Head Start and the School District is going to be quite a challenge for us. I think we have rightly discerned that it is God’s plan for us to reach out to our community by opening our doors for the children, but I also can see and hear the doubts and the fears about how this is going to affect so many aspects of our life together, how it is going to cramp our ministry style and space for our own children, how it is going to cause extra work and energy on an ongoing basis, how it is going to cause wear and tear on our building.

Yep. Yep. Yep. And yep. This new partnership will affect our life together as we have known it. It will cramp our current ministry style and space for our own children, and it will definitely cause extra work and energy to be expended probably every single day, and it will cause wear and tear on newly renovated areas.

We can say to the Lord, “We want to build our church for you, Lord, and boy oh boy, do we ever have a plan.” But, ultimately, if we really are a church with Jesus as the Head, we will say to the Lord, “We want to build our church for you, Lord. What’s your plan for us?”

God’s plan is usually a bit messier than we would choose. Living out God’s plan always takes more faith than we think we have; it always pushes us to do things we have never done before, it always forces us to think more about what God wants than about what we want. And, God’s plan pushes us to our knees in prayer so that we can grow in confidence in Him and his faithfulness to care for and bless us in our obedience to his call on our lives.

One last thing must be said now on this first Sunday after the General Assembly.

The actions taken at the 217^th General Assembly of the PC(USA) were not exactly what we had hoped and prayed for. I hope many if not most of you read the letter in the last newsletter from your session members. If you didn’t read it, pull a newsletter out of the rack when you leave today. We took our stand. Our stand is based on pleasing God, not pleasing men. We stand firmly on God’s truth as revealed in Scripture. We will not allow the 240 year reputation of this congregation to be covered by anything- whether in be mud- or whether it be some cotton candy fluff- or whether it be some nebulous smoke screen. The actual consequences of the vote that was taken have yet to be realized. On paper, it doesn’t look too bad. In practice, loopholes now exist that either will or will not be stretched. We’ll see.

One thing I do know: God has a plan, and I am sure that part of the plan for this congregation is that God has called us to be together for the changes that lie ahead.

I’m excited about bringing Head Start to our building. God has made me a person who likes to start stuff, and because of those gifts, for most of my adult life, God keeps placing me in places where stuff needs to be started. I know what it will take, and I know God will help us do whatever it takes to expand our Christian witness in the valley. And, as we approach the end of our fourth year together, I think that we have come to trust each other. I think you trust that I want what is best for you according to Scripture, and I trust that you want what is best for me according to Scripture, and together we want what is best for bringing honor and glory to God from one end of this valley to the other! So- praise God for that!

I also believe that my being her with you as an evangelical, theologically conservative female leader; is an important part of God’s plan for you and for me as our denomination enters what many are calling a period of crisis. I am going to watch out for you. I know your heart. I know your passions. I know what you will not tolerate- and I partner with you in all of those things. We will walk this way together, and we will study God’s Word. We will pray by speaking, and by listening. We will talk with other pastors and other congregations who are holding firm. And, when the time is right, we will act in faith to fulfill God’s plan for us. May we be given the grace to welcome it with joy, with thanksgiving, and with an ever-growing faith in the goodness and faithfulness of our God.

I want to close by praying, with some alterations that apply to us today, the prayer that David prayed in thanksgiving to God from 1 Chronicles 17:

“Who are we, O LORD God, and what is our house, that you have brought us thus far? And even this was a small thing in your sight, O God. It is amazing to us that You regard each one of us as someone of high rank, O LORD God! You have made us your adopted children. You have made us heirs with Jesus Christ. And what more can we say to you for honoring us in this way? You know us. For our sake, and the sake of your Church, O LORD, and according to your own heart, you have done great deeds, making known all these great things. There is no one like you, O LORD, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

“And now, O LORD, let your Word be established forever, and may the good things you have promised to those who trust you, come to us. May it please you to bless the houses of you servants, and this house of prayer, that they may continue forever before you. For you, O LORD, have blessed and are blessed forever.” Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

06-25-2006