God Has A Wonderful Plan For Your Life

Chapter 2. The way out of problems. In the light of the alarming statistics cited in the previous chapter, few would deny that the church as a whole has fallen short of the powerful, disciplined, sanctified church we see in the book of Acts. This has happened because the Enemy has very subtly diverted our attention away from our core message. Instead of preaching the good news that sinners can be made righteous in Christ and escape the wrath to come, we have settled for a gospel that implies that God's primary purpose in saving us is to unfold a wonderful plan for our lives to solve our problems, make us happy in Christ, and rescue us from the hassles of this life. One of America's largest Christian publishers produces a full-color tract that epitomizes the promise of a hassle-free life. Titled, Is There a Way Out?, it reads, Everyone is looking for a way out of their problems. There's no easy way out. You won't get respect by joining a gang. You won't find love in the backseat of a car. You'll never find success by dropping out of school. And the chances are about one in a million that you'll win the lottery. If you're really serious about making your life better, then try God's way. God gets right to the source of most of our problems—sin. It may sound admirable and even biblical to imply to sinners that Christianity promises to solve their problems and make their lives better, but it's just not true. In another publication, a list of pleasure-producing things is cited—sex, money, friends, fame, love, and so on. The question is posed, can we be truly and continually happy? The answer, provided, is, of course, that knowing Jesus produces, quote, ultimate happiness, your happiest moment magnified a million times over, end of quote. It seems that some are so entrenched in the wonderful plan message that they don't equate real life with the message they preach. Based on many years of itinerant ministry, I know that it's no exaggeration to say the following scenario is commonplace in many pulpits each Sunday morning, quote, God has a wonderful plan for your life. He wants to give you true happiness and to fill the God-shaped vacuum in your heart that you've been trying to fill with sex, drugs, alcohol, and money. Jesus said that he came to give you life and that you might have it more abundantly. So come forward now and give your life to Jesus so that you can experience this wonderful new life in Christ. While they're coming, let's pray for the Smiths who lost their two children in a car accident this week. Brother Jones is being diagnosed with cancer. Remember to uphold the whole family. His wife had another miscarriage on Tuesday and both of the children are chronic asthmatics. Sister Bryant fell and broke her hip. She's such a dear saint. She's had trial after trial in her life, especially since the death of her husband Ernie. Elder Chambers lost his job this week. That'll make things difficult for the Chambers family, especially with his upcoming triple bypass operation. Sister Lansing died of kidney failure on Monday night. Keep the Lansing family in prayer because it's their third tragedy this year. How many of you this morning need prayer for sickness and have problems with depression? Oh, that many. You better stay in your seats or I'll have corporate prayer. This makes no sense. The preacher promises a bed of roses to those who come to Christ, but those who are in Christ are evidently sitting on a painful bed of thorns. He promises a smooth flight, but those who are already on board are suffering terrible turbulence, and no one seems to notice the paradox. Let me tell you about a few of my friends, my Christian friends who live in the real world. One went with his wife to a meeting. Their teenage son drove there alone. On the way home, my friend came across an accident, so he stopped to help. When he looked into the vehicle, he saw his beloved teenage son dead and paled on the steering wheel. The senior pastor of a church who was on staff was roused from his bed at three o'clock in the morning to counsel a man who had come to his door and was waiting in the living room. As the pastor stepped into the room, the man began to slash him with a machete. The pastor almost died and was irrevocably scarred, both physically and mentally, so much so that he was unable to minister and required 24-hour care. Another pastor friend learned that his wife had multiple sclerosis. The crippling disease left him as the only one in the family able to take care of their three young boys. Then he was diagnosed with cancer. His wife died after struggling with the disease for many years. One of my friends, a graphic artist, married a woman whose Christian husband had died of cancer, leaving her to rear five kids. The marriage seemed fine until she ran off with another man. She left my friend with one child that was his. Sometime after that, someone broke into his home and beat him to a pulp. He had to be rushed to the emergency room for treatment. On June the 19th, 2000, five trainees with the New Tribes Mission pitched a tent during a violent storm in Mississippi. Jenny Knapp, an attractive 20-year-old, noticed that rain was causing the roof to cave in, so she lifted the tent pole to raise the height of the roof. Suddenly, a bolt of lighting struck the pole and tore through her body, giving her second-degree burns on her face, arm, and back. Her friends resuscitated her lifeless body and rushed her to the hospital, where she was placed in the intensive care unit. The young missionary recovered, but she's terribly scarred and partially blind. It's a sad fact of life, but in the real world, lightning strikes the just and the unjust. At least one church I know of may have noticed the paradox. They were called the Happy Church, but recently decided, for some reason, to change their name. The wonderfulness of martyrdom. If we still want to cling to the message that God has a wonderful plan for your life, we'd better hide Fox's book of martyrs from the eyes of non-Christians. Speaking of martyrdom, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be huddled together with your family in a Roman arena as hungry and ferocious lions rush in? Have you ever considered what it would be like to be eaten by lions? I have. My fertile imagination runs wild. What do you give the lion first? Your arm? How long would you remain conscious as he gnawed on it? Can you imagine the feelings you'd have if you had led your loved ones in a sinner's prayer using the wonderful plan hook? Suppose you had read to them from a booklet by a well-known and respected man of God in which he writes, everyone is seeking happiness. Why then are more people not experiencing this happiness? According to the Bible, true happiness can be found only through God's way. What would you tell your beloved family as you looked into their terrified eyes? How could you reconcile the words wonderful and happiness with having the fierce teeth of a lion rip you apart limb from limb? These are terrible thoughts, but they're not merely my fantasies. Multitudes of martyrs have suffered unspeakable torture for the cause of Christ. It should not have been a surprise to the early church when persecution hit them. Jesus warned them that they may have to give up their lives for his namesake. He even said, brother shall deliver brother up to death, and a father his child and children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And you'll be hated by all for my namesake. That's in Matthew 10. Church tradition tells us the fate of several apostles and early evangelists. Philip crucified, Phrygia AD 54. Matthew beheaded, Ethiopia AD 60. Barnabas burned to death, Cyprus AD 64. Mark dragged to death, Alexandria AD 64. James the Less clubbed to death, Jerusalem AD 66. Paul beheaded, Rome AD 66. Peter crucified, Rome AD 69. Andrew crucified, Achaia AD 70. Thomas speared to death, Calamina AD 70. Luke hanged, Athens AD 93. Persecution has always been the portion of the godly. According to scripture, others were tortured. Still others had trial of mockings and scourging. Yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sown in two, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world is not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 10 35 to 38. Perhaps some would argue that the Christian life is a wonderful plan because all things work together for good to those that love God. Romans 8 28. That fact is wonderful in the truest sense of the word. No matter what happens to us as Christians, we can rejoice because of that promise. But the promise does not guarantee that our lives will be without suffering, trial and pain. In 14 13, John Hus was summoned to appear before the Roman church council in Constance. When he was thrown in prison for 19 months awaiting trial for his faith and then sentenced to death, he no doubt knew that God would work things out for his good. When he was burned alive at the stake and his charred lifeless body fell among the ashes, the wonderful promise that God would work out for his good such an unspeakable horror remained unwavering. On November the 9th 2006, three Christian girls were beheaded by Indonesian militants. The severed heads were dumped in plastic bags in their village along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks. If these girls love God and were caught according to his purpose, they too could claim this incredible promise. In Malatia, Turkey, when three Christian men working in a Bible publishing office were accosted by Muslims on April the 18th 2007, they no doubt knew that God would work all things together for their good. As their hands and feet were bound and they were tortured for two hours with butcher knives, the finally of the throats were cut. The promise remained steadfast. According to Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 2006, an average of 171,000 Christians worldwide are martyred for their faith each year. The promise of Romans 8 28 is also true for each and every one of those children of God. If indeed our creator works all things out for good, if he brings ultimate good out of every agony suffered by his children, why then shouldn't we use that truth as bait when fishing for men? For one thing the wonderful plan has positive connotations. It doesn't typically invoke negative images of machetes, hatred, persecution, beatings and martyrdom. If non-Christians respond to the gospel message only to improve their lives, they'll be disillusioned when persecution comes. They may even fall away from the faith. This is because many respond experimentally simply to see if the wonderful life is as good as Christians say it is. But the most important reason not to use the wonderful plan message is that it isn't biblical to do so. Go through the book of Acts and see if you can find any of the disciples telling sinners either that God loved them or that he had a wonderful plan for their lives. Instead they confronted their heroes as guilty criminals, enemies of God who desperately needed righteousness, not to be told that they could enhance their lives with God's wonderful plan. Jesus didn't shield the newly converted soul of Tarsus from that which was in store for him as a Christian. Instead Jesus said that he would quote show him how many things he must suffer for my namesake. Stephen was cruelly stoned to death for his faith. James who told his brethren to count it all joy when you fall into furious trials was murdered with a sword. John the Baptist also felt the sharp steel of persecution. Down through the ages Christians have been hated, persecuted, thrown to lions, beheaded and like John Hus even burned at the stake for the sake of the gospel. In the light of the fact that in February 2000 Christians in Central Africa were being burned to death for their faith and Christians in Indonesia and China are yet today suffering persecution for their faith, perhaps the message that God has a wonderful plan for your life applies only to the United States. One might have offered that argument until the shooting death of Cassie Burnell and other Christians in Littleton Colorado on April the 20th 1999. It was reported that Cassie was shot in the head when she answered yes to the question do you believe in God? Not so wonderful. If you still want to hold on to the modern approach to evangelism let me try one other thought that should convince you that the wonderful plan message is erroneous and misleading. Imagine that you've been supernaturally taken back to September the 10th 2001. You've been asked to address the people who work in tower one of the World Trade Center. Your topic is quote the benefits of the Christian life. What an incredible opportunity you have to reach the lost. You look at the vast sea of faces in front of you. There are mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters. Many have already made retirement plans. Others have made plans to be with their families for Christmas. Just like you they have hopes dreams and fears. What are you going to tell them? Are you going to tell them what a wonderful plan God has for them? How could you do that? You know that within 24 hours many of your hearers will die in unspeakably horrible ways. In an instant some will become human torches as jet fuel saturates them and their bodies ignite and burn to ashes. Others will be terribly suffocated in a huge ball of fiery poisonous gases as their burning lungs grasp for breath. Rather than face the horror of dying in the flames some will jump more than a hundred stories in inconceivable terror to their deaths on the unforgiving sidewalks of New York City. Those who manage to stay alive on the upper floors will eventually come crashing down along with the earth-shaking weight of twisted metal and concrete. Their bodies so horribly mangled and ripped apart they'll be unidentifiable. Many others working on the lower towers will be crushed like helpless spiders as the building collapses. Again what will you tell them? Can you in good conscience say God has a wonderful plan for your life? You may be thinking, hold on, God does have a wonderful plan for their lives for their eternity. You believe that if they give their lives to Christ they will go to heaven after they've been burned to death or smashed on the sidewalk. But sinners don't equate the promise of a wonderful plan for your life with eternity. They think of the here and now. I would say that I could never tell those people that God has a wonderful plan for their lives and I trust you feel the same. The reality is that every 24 hours 150,000 people around the world die and enter eternity. Most without the Savior. Every year in the United States alone 562,340 people die of cancer. That's 1,500 every day and 40,000 annually die through car accidents. According to the CDC around 36,000 people die in the U.S. each year from seasonal flu. More than 2,500 Americans die from heart disease every day and 100,000 are helped out of here through hospital related infections, that is dirty hospitals. If the dirty hospitals don't get you incompetence may take you out. Between 40,000 and 100,000 people die every year because of doctors mistakes including surgical mishaps and drug mix-ups. We never know when death will seize upon someone so if that popular message isn't appropriate for the people who worked in the World Trade Center or for those with terminal diseases, those who will soon be killed through accidents or violence, those who'll be facing suffering in this life and so on, how then can it be the biblical gospel? The gospel message recorded in scripture transcends time, space and circumstances. It's the same message for all mankind throughout history. Perhaps you're thinking this guy is destroying my gospel presentation. Now what am I going to tell non-Christians? What would bring someone to the Savior if it's not the promise of a wonderful new life in Christ? If that's your view, please be patient with me. We will answer these questions in a subsequent chapter. But before we look at the biblical approach, we'll first consider some additional concerns with using the wonderful plan message.