In his sermon titled 'Seven Principles on Making Plans for Your Life,' Jeffrey D. Johnson addresses the complexities of planning one's future, particularly for young adults. He identifies three types of planners: 'jumpers' who act spontaneously and may make rash decisions, 'circulars' who overthink and struggle to execute plans, and 'couch potatoes' who lack ambition and vision. Johnson advocates for a balanced approach to planning, drawing on the Apostle Paul's method in 1 Corinthians 16. He emphasizes the importance of determining one's goals, making plans while submitting them to God's will, and fulfilling present obligations. He warns against letting obstacles deter one from their path and stresses the significance of collaboration and seeking counsel from others. Faith and love are central to his message; faith helps manage anxiety about the future, and love should motivate all actions and plans. Johnson concludes by encouraging individuals to plan with eternity in mind, trusting in God's guidance and focusing on serving others.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn to 1st Corinthians 16. My wife and family love coming to this conference. Not only is it just a beautiful area to come to, The people here and the conference here are so well organized and such a great event for my family. So I think we're kind of, I mean you don't have to have me to be a speaker for to get us to come. I think we're kind of stuck coming because my family loves it and I love it too.

I suppose most of you have one thing you want other than the Lord Jesus Christ. I suppose you're all hoping to get married. I suppose that's if you could push one button for your life that you could get resolved. And maybe some of you are not, you're just here at the Singles Conference for the preaching, right, or hopefully, you know, that you would love to get married. And I want to help you as you think about your future, because most of you are younger and you've got your future ahead of you.

You're young adults and you're trying to plan your life I want to help you plan your life according to the way the Apostle Paul Made plans now when you think of planning there are three types of planners There are the jumpers the jumpers or the leapers they like to just jump into something and think about it later. They're spontaneous. They, that's the way I am. I think, I jump before I think. I do things on a moment's notice.

I don't like to plan. I don't even like any type of organization where I have to call ahead and get my haircut up scheduled. I don't like that. I like to go and walk in and do it when I need to and do it on the spur of the moment. And so planning and scheduling is not my thing.

I just love to fly on the seat of my pants. And some of you are like that. You're just kind of free-spirited, just let's do it. And in so doing, you may make mistakes. You may go to war without counting the army and counting the resources or start building a tower and not realize you have the funds to finish it so you can make irresponsible decisions as I have done because you are spontaneous and you don't like to plan.

You don't like plans. You don't like to be scheduled in. You don't like that type of commitment. Others are, I think, are circulars. They're the ones that fly around the airport but can't land the plane.

You think, you think, you plan, you plan, and you over plan, you over think, and you never get anything done because you're scared you're missing a detail. You're scared that it's not yet perfect. So you're such great planners, you don't execute your plans. You never seek to go beyond the planning stages. And some people are like that when they're looking, some people just marry the first girl they find, others will never get married because they can't ever discover the right person because they're scared of the unknowns.

Then you got the couch potatoes. The couch potatoes are those who have little to no ambition. They don't plan at all. Those are just kind of content with whatever, where do you want to eat? I don't care.

You know, they just don't have much motivation or goals or aspirations. They don't have much vision. And so they're not, they don't want to plan, but neither do they really want to execute anything. So they just kind of sit around and wait to be told what to do. And so maybe you're in one of those categories and we see that Paul has a good balance for us as you're thinking about your future and how to plan your future.

We got some help in 1st Corinthians 16, and though this is not a prescriptive passage, it's more of a descriptive, we can learn from the Apostle Paul's planning. That we see here he's planning his future at the end of this book and we see that he has seven principles that we can learn from in our own lives. Read with me in verse 5. I will visit you after passing through Macedonia for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now, just in passing.

I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in evidence until Pentecost for a wide door for effectual work has opened to me and there are many adversaries. When Timothy comes see that you put him at ease among you for he's doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me.

For I am expecting him with the brothers. Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urge him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." So in this passage we see Paul is giving the Corinthians a schedule of his life. He's saying, here are my plans.

And in looking at his expectations for the next six months to next year, we see some principles that we can take from him and apply to our lives, especially as young people as we seek to plan our future. Seven principles, if you're taking notes, let's look at these. The first principle that we see is we need to determine what we want to do. I mean this is the basic first step and it's not rocket science, it's not overly spiritual, simply we need to know what we want to do. So what do you want to do?

What's your plans? We see that it's not wrong to make plans. Some people say, well, I'm just going to trust the Lord and I'm just going to wait till He leads me. And that gives us an excuse to not make plans, to not look at plans for our lives. But it's not wrong to have goals.

It's not wrong, biblically speaking, to have aspirations. It's not wrong to even, if you're in ministry, to have ministerial objectives that you want to accomplish. We see that in this text. Look at verse 5. I will visit you.

He's making plans. He's saying, this is what I plan to do. I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend, I'm planning to pass through Macedonia." So here Paul is simply making plans about the next phase of his life, his next step. Paul was an Methodist And he wants to go to Corinth, but first he has to go, or he wants to go to Macedonia. He says, I plan to visit you.

That's my plans. My objective is to come see you. See, God is not against us planning our lives. In fact, God is a planner. We can look at his decrees and see that he didn't just play it by ear.

God is not figuring it out as he goes. He has a perfect plan and he's executing his plan as he is purposed. And if we're going to model God, we too need to plan our lives. Having plans and objectives is really the key to having self-control. You can't have self-control.

I taught anger management for 10 years, And my basic analysis of people who can't control their emotions, don't have the self-control to have their emotions under control or their anger under control is that they don't have objectives that are bigger than the moment. When your moment is the biggest part of your life, living for now, living for the day, then your emotions will overtake you and it'll shipwreck the rest of your life because you'll do something foolish that will be a detriment for your future. And so you have to know what you want that's bigger than the moment to have discipline to control the moment So having plans is essential knowing where you want to be or where you need to get is Essential to have self-control to get there. So without plans there's really no such thing as self-discipline and self-control. You want to be sanctified, you want to be holy, you want this, you need that, and you don't have what you need, therefore you need to be saving, you need to do this, you need to prepare, you need to get an education.

And so if you want to get married, there's steps that you need to take in order to be able to execute that when the time comes. This is the basics of self-control. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 29 and 18, where there is no vision, where there's no plan, the people perish. Proverbs 21 and 5, the plans of the diligent lead to profit, and surely as haste leads to poverty. That is, people who just jump into things, who are hasty like I am, it can lead to some foolish decisions and poverty in the end of the day.

But the plans of the diligent one leads to prosperity. You can see the people even in the physical realm that are successful, You can go back and see that they had a business plan. They had an objective. They may have adapted that objective and changed it and tweaked it as they went, but they weren't just shooting out in the dark. And your life, young men and women, don't just go forth in the future, hey, I don't need to have plans.

I don't need to have objectives. I don't need to know what I'm doing. I'm just going to take it day by day and live moment by moment. And listen, that's the message of Satan. Live for now.

You know, don't worry about the future, especially the eternal future. Don't lay up your treasures in heaven. Don't look for eternity, but just live for now. Have fun and just enjoy the moment. And so we've got to be careful that we don't plan.

That's a terrible place to be if you're not a planner. Again, I've seen people waffle back and forth trying to figure out God's perfect plan. They can't decide what they're going to do because they don't think they can discover God's will. And so they cease to even try. But Let me imagine me taking my son, I got three boys and one daughter, what if I took one of my boys or all three of them to the super store and I said, listen, I want you to go and pick out a toy.

In fact, I do that with my children. Once a year I have a son, daughter day, or son, daddy day, daddy daughter day, daddy Sunday. And I take one of my child with me to work. And before we get to my office, I take them to the store and I get them a little treat, get them a little drink, and then I give them a budget and we go to Walmart and I said, now pick out something. And they know they're gonna get a little gift and and they're gonna play with that gift typically while I'm studying or working at the office and they're gonna hang out with me, we go out to eat wherever they want to go, and we just hang out for the day.

And they look forward to that, I look forward to that. But when we go to pick out a toy, what toy do you think I want them to get? I give them a budget, I give them parameters, But what toy do I want them to pick out? Now in my mind I might be thinking that toy is going to break in a couple days. That's not a good choice.

That one I really like. Maybe if they got that I'd play with it with them. You know so I might have my my suggestions, I might have my preference, but in the end of the day as long as is within the parameters that I lay out, what toy do you think I want my kids to choose? Which one's gonna make me the happiest as the parent? It's the one that brings the most joy and delight to them.

And so I want my kids to be able to have the freedom to go, this is what I want. And so within the parameters of God's revealed will, we have freedom. You know, you want to buy this house or that house or buy this car or that car, there's parameters, and there are things that are wiser and things that are not as wise, and we need to be discerning and all that. But then what color of car you should choose. That's your preference.

You've got freedom to make plans and not be stalled out if you would over every decision because you don't know exactly what God would want for your life. You don't necessarily know the perfect will of God. And so sometimes that can hinder our planning. But here we see Paul is just making basic plans. I'm here in Exodus.

I want to come see you. And that's a good desire. It's within the permissive will of God. So he's making plans for that. But that's the first principle.

Determine what you want. Think about that. Think about that for the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years. Think about that ultimately for all eternity. Ultimately have eternity in your mind to guide your planning process.

Second principle, though you make your plans and it's okay to make plans, submit your plans to God. We see this in verse 7. For I do not want you to see you now just in passing. I'll hope to spend some time with you. Now look at this is the key phrase.

If the Lord permits. You see there's a difference between the permissible, what is permissible will of God. All things are lawful within God's realm of what is permissible. All things are lawful. But not necessarily all things are profitable.

And so we need to be willing to say, though I'm making plans, I want to get married, I want to buy a house, I want to get a job, I want to get an education, I want to pursue this career path, though we're making plans for our life, which is good and suitable and even helpful, we still need it to, after we make our plans, go if the Lord permits. We need it after we plan, submit our plans back to the Lord. For instance, the further something out is out in the future, the less predictable it is. The closer it is to the present, the more predictable. Like I assume that I'm going to eat lunch and it's a pretty safe assumption.

So I'm planning to eat lunch afterwards. We're all probably planning on eating lunch and most likely, I can't say for certain, but most likely those plans will come to fruition. We all suspect that 99.9% we're going to be eating lunch. So the closer it is to the moment, the more predictable, we can count on eating lunch in a second. But the further something is removed from our present, the less predictable it is.

See, the laws of nature allow us to make plans. If the laws of nature were unpredictable, then we wouldn't know the next couple seconds, so we couldn't make plans. But things down the road, six months, a year, two years. How do we make plans for that which just has so many variables that we can't account for? So the further something is, the less likely it may come to bow.

So we can't be certain about our future. The future is unknown. The future is in the hands of God and not in our hands. So we must submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We must trust our future and our life to God's hands and not take control of our plans as if our plans have to be executed for us to be happy.

It's a terrible thing to make plans and then make our plans our God. You've seen people like that, they're so task focused and so oriented on accomplishing this or that for their life they get so frustrated when there's road bumps or inconveniences that hinder them from their plans. And this is an unhealthy state to be. And Paul warned, James warns us about trying to plan and we should not say I'm going to do this or that, but we would rather say or should say if the Lord wills we'll do this or we'll do that. Because we don't even know the future.

We don't know if we're going to be alive tomorrow. We don't know if we're going to get married. And so we shouldn't make our plans our God. We shouldn't make marriage our God. We shouldn't make our career our God.

We shouldn't make the future of this present life our objective, ultimate objective, but rather submit ourselves to the Lord. We see the uncertainty of these things. Look in verse 5, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, which means Paul's pretty certain that that's going to happen. But then he's hopeful, he says about the next part in verse 5, for I tend to pass through Macedonia, that is I intend, I'm not 100% certain, but this is my intentions, and I'm however not as certain about how long I'm going to stay there. He says perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter.

It's like, hey I plan on coming to you, I'm not sure when, and perhaps I'll be there for the whole winter. But why is he not saying it with concrete terms? I'm gonna come, I'll be there before winter, I'll stay the whole winter with you. He can't say that because he knows he doesn't know what's gonna happen between here and then. So he's understanding that this is in the hands of God.

And then the far distant future, he's even less certain. Look he says in verse 6, so that you may help me on my journey wherever I go. That is, hey, my plans only extend so far. I can't go beyond that because there's way too many variables for me to consider. So ultimately, Paul is making plans, but he submitted his plans in his future into the hands of the Lord.

This is what Proverbs 16, 9 says, the heart of man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes steps. Proverbs 19 to 21, many are the plans of the in the mind of man, but is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Now look back over your life, especially if you're older. I'm almost 50, and it's unbelievable. I had no idea I'd be not just here when I was 20.

I had no idea that I'd be a president of a seminary. I didn't have an idea that our church would be what it was. I had no idea that I would have four kids. I had no idea that what God had in store for me is as good as I am now enjoying. I had no idea.

And it's like, where did I get here and how did I get here? And I look back and say it was the providence of God, it was the hand of God. And so we got to recognize that though we make plans for the future, for this present life, and that's good and wholesome, ultimately your life's in the hand of God, and that's where it should be. Trust the Lord is the principle. Plan but submit.

Do not be anxious if your plans don't come to fruition. Don't make that the objective. Make serving the Lord your objective. Trust Him with your future. You see the uncertainty of the future is the leading cause of anxiety.

In fact I would say is the principal cause of anxiety. You know do not be anxious about what not the past. You know Depression is about the past, anger is about the present, anxiety is about the future. And so it's the future, the unknown. And it's because we have plans, but we're scared, you know, that they may not transpire or we're worried about our kids or worried about if we're going to get married or not.

We got all these concerns because Ultimately, anxiety is the feeling we have when we want to be God and we realize we're not. It's fighting the sovereignty of God. It's a lack of faith. It's a lack of trust. It's wanting to be in control of the future.

But let me ask you, if the plane was going down and you never experienced flying at all, you don't know how to fly. If the plane is going down and right next to you is a seasoned pallet, who do you want to get in the cockpit? Would you rather be in control or have someone who knows what they're doing in control? Be honest with yourself about the future. Would you rather map out your future and get everything you want, or would you rather say, God, I'll just trust you.

I'll wait on you. I know that you know what you're doing. Which would give you more peace? If you were actually in control, this is the irony of anxiety. Anxiety is when you want to be in control, but you feel like you're not.

Anxiety is when you're going down the slopes, the ski slopes, or on a snowboard, and your snowboard is starting to wobble. You get the speed wobbles, and you realize, hey, I'm not in control. It's the feeling I'm losing control and the feeling of I'm losing control is the feeling of anxiety But the irony is do you really want to be in control? Would you really want to be able to to plan your future and your future come out exactly the way you planned it. Or would you think God knows best and it would be better for me to trust him?

Which would be more hopeful for you or God to be in control? So Submit your plans to the Lord. Trust in the Lord, Proverbs 3.5 says, with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. And all your ways, all your planning, acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.

Commit your ways to the Lord, the Bible says, and your plans will be established. Cory Tamboon says, never be afraid to trust the unknown to the known God. And don't be upset when God disrupts your plans. Do not be upset with speed bumps and obstacles and difficulties. In fact, when I taught anger management, I explained that Those who have good emotion control, that can control their anger, can control their feelings and emotions, are those who can make the fastest readjustments to obstacles.

You know, when you feel like, okay, okay, I didn't see this coming, this is frustrating, I don't like this. But as soon as you can go accept that as a new reality and rework that in your plans to say this is good, God it means this for good, and I'm glad this is happening. And rather than looking at the disruptions as difficulties or hindrances, Look at them as means to a greater end. Once you can trust the Lord with things you don't like in your life, the better you're able to cope with your anger and anxiety and all the other emotions that all of us deal with. So the first step we see in Paul's planning is make plans.

Second one is submit your plans to God. But the third principle we see in verses 8 and 9, make sure you're fulfilling your present obligations. Now we don't need to live for now, but we also don't need to forsake now. We see this in 8 and 9. But I will stay in Exodus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effectual work has been open to me.

That is, hey, I want to come see you and I need to go through Macedonia, but I can't leave Ephesus now. Why? Why can't I not just start executing my plans immediately? He says, because I got a responsibility here, A wide door. God has opened this door of opportunity for me here.

And it would be wrong. It would be wrong for me to neglect my current present responsibilities in order to jump into a future responsibility. You say to me, you're like, Pastor Jeff, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to do tomorrow. I don't know how I'm supposed to marry.

I don't know what kind of job I'm supposed to take. I don't know the future. Okay, maybe you don't, but in your worrying about the future, don't neglect what you knew you already know you need to do today. I can tell you something about all of your life right now, though I don't know your future and you ultimately don't either. I know that you know what you're to do right now.

You're to listen intently to the sermon. Amen? I mean, you know what you're to do today. You know what God has set before you today. I tell myself that every time I go to work because I've got all these desires of this commitment, that commitment, I need to write this, I need to respond to this email.

And so I go every day to work with this set of objectives and I come back home and my wife says, what did you do? I said, well, none of my objectives. I got this phone call. I got this person counseling, this person coming in. I have all these interruptions, right?

I had all these unexpected interruptions. But am I to go, oh, these interruptions, I have to, I can't do these things? No, that's what I'm called to do is take care of the interruptions. These interruptions are divine appointments that God sends me. If someone calls me and is in need and has a counseling problem, I can't go, well, hey, hey, I got other things to do.

No, a wide door of opportunities opened up with this interruption. God has set this before me, and this is what I'm supposed to do now. So never put your future plans above your current responsibilities. You know what you need to do today and that's sufficient. That's why Jesus warns us about anxiety.

He says don't worry about tomorrow. Sufficient are today's troubles. Sufficient are today's responsibilities. Yes, you can make plans, but do not neglect obedience today and faith today. This is how you build your future is being a solid Christian in the moment.

Being a man of faith, a woman of faith that's, as we've already heard, who's reading and the scriptures and praying daily. These are your responsibilities. So Paul is in evidence and we look in Acts chapter 19, and we learn that a revival is breaking out. All these people coming in and burning their social books and they're being converted from Idolatry and I mean he's having a revival says I can't leave this I've got to walk through this is this open door. I have to stay here.

So if you want to know what to do tomorrow, the best thing you can do is do what you're supposed to do today. God loves to entrust more to us in the future if we're faithful to what he's committed to us today. So we should expect God to bless us with greater responsibilities if we're not faithful to today's little responsibilities. And all of us have enough responsibilities to prove ourselves today. That's the third principle.

Now we see a fourth principle in this text, don't run from resistance. We see this in verse 9, 9 part B. Though he has this door of opportunity and there's a lot of conversions, it's an amazing moment. It doesn't mean it was not without its difficulties. It says, and there are many adversaries.

The Holy Spirit is with us, people are being converted, but also we're having many who are opposing us. This work is difficult. It's not altogether easy. Just because a door is wide open doesn't mean there's not obstacles in the door. And so we don't need to think about just because there is a roadblock that God is telling us to abandon ship.

Just because there's difficulties doesn't mean that it's not God's will for you to carry on. You cannot necessarily look at obstacles as God's way of communicating to you that you're on the wrong trajectory or the wrong path. There's going to be objections to your life and obstacles in your life. There's going to be difficulties. That's part of God's plan for your life.

In fact, the more you're in the way of the Lord, the more spiritual obstacles and difficulties you'll face. When I was young, I went to this conference in Louisiana that I loved, similar to this one, and there was a man that led it that I deeply respected. He was one of my mentors in the faith. And this man would say, I believe this is going to be a great conference because there was many difficulties hindering us in the preparation. And I think there's truth to that.

When you're doing the work of the Lord and in the way of the Lord and seeking to please Him in your life, don't be surprised when Satan is opposing you. Don't be surprised if there's not some roadblocks and difficulties. These are things that hinder us but should not deter us. Resistance and setbacks and oppositions are not necessarily a reason to change our plans. Okay, here's the fifth principle we see in verses 10 through 12.

Don't go at it alone. That is, don't be selfish in your planning your life. Don't go at it alone. Notice in verses 10 through 12 how Paul included the working alongside others in his ministry. Look at verse 10.

When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he's doing the work of the Lord as I am. So let no one despise him, help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers. Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urge him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity. That is, this future planning includes multiple people that he's working alongside with, he's working with.

Very rarely is it a good idea to go at something alone. Proverbs 18.1, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desires. He breaks out against all sound judgment. This is the danger of a two career family. When you have a man and a woman that are both seeking their own plans and their own careers that are not colliding together.

They're not singular. When you've got a husband and wife saying, this is what I'm doing, and the wife saying, this is what I'm doing, and they're seeking to do their plans alone. And It divides the family and splits the family and it's very unhealthy and ultimately unbiblical. And this is why we're to be united and be help meets. A wife is to come alongside of her husband and be a help meet.

They have a singular objective in life. And so if you're seeking to be married, you're really seeking to unite your plans with the plans of your spouse so that you can work together for the same purposes, ultimately for the glory of God and the service of His church. But This is not to be alone. This is the way of the Lord. I mean, the way of the world.

This selfish planning, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, this is about me. And those who plan for themselves, and their plans only include their own execution, ultimately don't get much done. But what they do get done is done for selfish reasons. And I think about my life where God has brought me, I've done nothing alone. And it really, I don't, I'm not, I look back and say, look at the church.

I'm one small piece among thousands of other pieces, not just within our church, but outside of our church that have helped us. There's no way that could have happened by just the efforts of a single person. And look at anything that anything gets done, you have to have the help of others. Thus, when making decisions, we should seek the counsel of others. Proverbs 15-22, plans fail for lack of counsel, but where there are many advisors, they secede.

Proverbs 20-18, plans are established by counsel, by wise guidance wage war. And so look to the people that you trust. Count on your parents. A lot of young people just want to launch out without consulting or counseling with seeking the counsel of their other parents, or their grandparents, or their pastors, or their good trusted friends. So if you're making plans, seek the counsel of others and then seek to work together with others in the execution of your plans.

Six, the sixth principle of Psalms verse 13. Stand strong in the faith. It says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like man, be strong. That is, to move forward in this dark world, in this life of so many uncertainties and difficulties, the only way to move forward without being scared to death is to have faith in God. We must have faith in what God is doing in our lives.

One of the verse key verses have been helpful for me over the years and I would love to instill it in you as you think about your future. And I've used this verse over and over and over because I'm the hasty one. I'm the one that likes to jump. I'll do things spontaneous. I'll just, I'll do things quickly.

I get excited and I want to execute with my excitement and I need others to say, hey, that's not reasonable, or my wife to say, hey, we cannot physically and financially afford that. You know, I need to be grounded back down to reality because I'm the visionary, if you would. I wanna just go and let's do it. But here's a verse that's been helpful. Isaiah 28, 16, it says, "'He who believes does not make haste.

And what does that mean? He who believes does not become hasty. Well, you know what Satan does to get you to buy something? You know, he allures you. Commercials do this.

Call in the next 10 minutes, right? And the next 5 minutes be the first 15 to call. It gives you this sense of urgency and it's a sense of pressure on you. Sometimes you feel that way, you know, some of you are getting older, if I don't get married in the next two years I'm going to be old-made. You get this sense of urgency and a sense of desperation And when you feel pressured by the time and the clock, and you feel like you're going to be hasty, you lose judgment and wisdom.

And so you start making hasty decisions because you feel pressured. And that's never a good place to be. There's been, when we sold our house seven years ago, we sold our house because we had another house picked out, but the time our house sold, the house that we wanted was already sold, and now we sold our house and we had no place to go. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, I got 30 days, I better find something. And that puts the pressure on you, I gotta find something.

I don't wanna have to rent, and the hassle of moving twice, and we start looking at houses, and at one point I was like, man, this house is not as good as the one we left. I'd rather be in the one that we left, but maybe we have to buy this one. And I was kind of tempted to make a foolish decision because of the pressure. But that's how the world wants to work. That's how salesmen's work.

That's how the pressure, peer pressure works. But he who believes God, he who trusts the Lord, you don't have to feel hasty. You don't have to be this sense of urgency. If this doesn't work out, I got this is gonna fail. You can just trust the Lord and wait.

You can wait on the Lord and not feel like your life's going to be wrecked. You don't have to jump into something because if you trust the Lord, it takes that anxiety out. It takes the hastiness of decisions out of the equation. And you'll know when it's right. It'll be right.

It'll be a door of opportunity that's like, this is wise, this is good. And you can just walk through without having to jump through. And so be strong in faith, trust the Lord. This is really the key to life. Stand the course, that is, stay strong.

Hopefully that your objective in life is not temporal, that is, earthly minded, not just marriage and business and success and retirement. Hopefully, your objective in life is God's glory, living for eternity. That's your objective. And this life is just transient. You're just a pilgrim in this world.

And yes, you're going to have to make decisions when you live in this world. And you need a career or you need to get married or you need this or that and those are good to plan, but that's not the ultimate objective. And so you have to have an ultimate objective, which is God's glory that guides you. And then you have to have faith in God to lead you. And then you have to have faith to stand strong in the midst of trials and difficulty.

Be strong. The encouragement is act like men. Don't be fearful. Don't retreat. Don't go backwards.

I've seen women, I've seen women, godly women that seem to be singularly minded on Christ and are growing spiritually. And after a couple years, they get fretful and then they desire to marry someone that's not on their spiritual level. It's like that. No, keep being strong. Keep going the way you were going.

Trust the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Don't be hasty here. And so this brings us to the final principle, and we're almost done. Do all things through love.

Be motivated through love. Look at verse 14. It's a great principle here. Let all that you do, all your planning, your present life, your future life, let all that you do be done in love. This is the motivation.

Not selfishness, not greed, not jealousy, and not desperation, not anxiety. Let the emotion of love for God and love for your, for God's church and God's people, let love be the objective of all that you do. It says let all, not just most of what you do, all that you do, every decision you make be done through love. If love is not your motive then you're doing it for the wrong reasons. Your plans are backwards or wrong.

Think of the plans of Christ. Christ had a plan in his incarnation, and everything about his plan was love. There was not one single action Christ ever performed that wasn't motivated out of love for the Father and love for us. And love, what is love? Love is the pouring out of yourself, emptying of yourself.

Love is self-sacrificing. But it's not this gloomy do, gloomy martyrdom, like, woe is me, I'm always serving. Woe is me, I'm giving up everything. Look at me, that's a selfish form of service. Where you want the attention, you want people to pity you for what you've given up.

That's not love. Love is the joy of self-sacrifice. Love, it doesn't say look at me. Love is happy for the spotlight to be on God and the Father. Love is happy for others to be blessed and be in the shadows and to be self-sacrificing in order to lift other people up and you finding joy because your object of affection is not yourself.

The object of affection is God. The object of affection is other people. This is so opposite of the way the world works. The world plans because they're planning their own objectives, because they're selfish, and they're planning their lives because they want more of this world for themselves. But if you're planning on getting married, it's because you're lonely.

And I'm not saying loneliness is not a good thing. I'm not saying you shouldn't seek companionship because it is a good thing. But don't go into marriage selfishly. Go to serve. I want to help.

I want to give myself. I don't want to give myself to my career or my path. I want to give myself to the one that God gives me to serve. I want to serve God's church. I want to serve the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I want to give my life sacrificially because this is where my joy, this is where my heart is, this is where my affections are. And it's not, look, poor, pitiful me. This is not the way Christ lived. He never felt sorry for himself, though he worked hard, tirelessly, and poured out himself to the last drop. He had nothing left to give.

He gave not only his time, his energies, his efforts, his affections, his service, he gave his life. But not once did he feel sorry for himself. Not once did he go look at me for what I've done. He was the joy that was set before him. He endured the afflictions of the cross For his affections and love for you he was happy to give it He's still happy to serve you And this is the way we should live our lives This is the biblical method of godliness and holiness and purity This should be our plans Lord I don't care about the details and you can give me interruptions and you can keep me single the rest of my life, but one thing Lord I ask that you give me is that I can love you with all my heart.

That I can live for you with all that I've got, that my life will be for your glory. At the end of the day, it's not what I've gained, it's not what I've earned, it's not what I'm leaving behind when I die. I don't want my treasures on earth. Lord, At the end, I pray what you give me in the future, you give me more love for you, and that I'm able to pour myself out for your service. This is how we're to live.

Philippians 2, 4, let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others. And this is the way our plans are. It's like, this is my interest. This is my goal. This is my objectives.

Paul says, listen, this is bigger than your objectives. This is not just about your retirement. You know, as much as we might like Dave Ramsey, ultimately it's not about just having a big savings account. Of course I'm thankful that Dave Ramsey says we need to give. Ultimately we were wise with our money not so that we could spend on ourselves and retire on the beach, but so that we might be spent out.

1st Corinthians 10 24, no one should seek his own good but the good of others. Let all that you do be done for love. And are you living today for love? Your plans for tomorrow out of service and love for God. Are you finding joy in that?

And is that your joy? I can say, hey, you need to love others. You go, oh man, I don't know how. It's like, no, you see the joy in it. It took me a long time.

I'll just be honest with you. It took me a long time to practice, experientially understand the verse is more blessed to give than to receive. When I was a kid, that verse seemed so backwards. I mean, honest, it seemed so backwards to me. It's like, I've been the recipients of gifts and I can tell you I like that.

I mean I love gifts. I love my birthday. I love presents. I'm like how could it even be possible to give gifts is more happy. It makes us more happy than to receive gifts.

That just seems so backwards to me. And I'm 48 years old now and I haven't reached that point yet because I still love gifts. We all do. I've denied it. You want to buy me something?

I'll tell you my address. We all like it. But I'm starting to see by the grace of God and just barely touching it I think How joyful it is not to be a dependent, but a giver. The joy of knowing that my life is helping others in some way. This is what we're made for, to model God in this way, to be one who is motivated out of love.

So how are you gonna use your life to love others? That's the planning that you need to think through. How are you gonna plan your future where you can extract more service out of yourself with joy For the glory of God and the good of others. So here in review in conclusion Seven principles to take home from us from this passage. One, make plans.

That's good. Two, submit your plans back to God. That is, trust God with them. Three, do what is set before you today. Four, don't run from resistance.

Five, don't go at it alone. Six, stand strong in faith. Seven, do all out of love. As Psalm 24 says, may He grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans.