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TITLE: Does
God have a Plan for my life?
TEXT: Psalm 37:23-25
PROPOSITION: God has great plan for you.
QUESTION: How?
KEY WORD: Controls
SCRIPTURE READING: Same
INTRODUCTION:
- This question comes from 2 sources
- Calvinism – Predestination – life is set and can’t be
changed – birth to death, how, where, when you will die is pre-set, can’t be
changed.
NOTE: This view removes any personal faith, obedience or action. All
events in my life are predetermined, beyond my control. If I am bad, it is
God’s fault.
- Belief in Providence – God is able to lead and direct
us, answer prayer
- Does God have a plan? Can I foil that plan?
Does God have a “plan” for a person’s life?
- Psalm 37:23 – The steps of a good man are ordered by
Jehovah
- Proverbs 20:24 – Man’s steps are of Jehovah
- Isaiah 47:13 – Exhausted by making own plans, let
astrologers and stargazers save you
- Micah 4:12 – They do not know the plans of Jehovah
- Proverbs 16:9 – Jehovah directs his steps
- 2 Samuel 14:14 – God does not take a life, but has
devised plans
- Jeremiah 10:23 – It is not in man who walks to direct
his steps
- Isaiah 45:13 – I have raised him up, I will direct all
his ways
- Proverbs 3:6 – He shall direct your paths
- Luke 1:76-79 – To guide our feet in the way of peace
- There are many more passages that teach this.
Does God “control” the events in your life?
- We are still free to make choices – good and bad
- We are free to follow His lead – or depart from it
- Read all the “whosoever” passages – John 3:15
- Study 1 Samuel 2:27-31
- God had a plan
- Man messed up – made wrong choices
- God changed the plans
What “Predestination” means?
- Ephesians 1:3-6 – Predestined to the adoption of sons
- The word means – determinate purpose (see Easton quote
below) – I decide what my purpose, plans and goals are. Then I determine to
seek fulfillment of that purpose.
- Do my plans fit in with God's plans?
Easton’s Illustrated Bible
Dictionary – Predestination
This word is properly used only with reference to God's
plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered "predestinate" is found
only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Romans 8:29-30; 1 Corinthians 2:7;
Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 1:11; and in all of them it has the same meaning. They
teach that the eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional decree or
"determinate purpose" of God governs all events.
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