I hope you're enjoying your Labor Day weekend.  Carol and I are completing our 15th Annual Labor Day Weekend Singles Retreat.  We've been married 15 years so we've spent a good share of all our summers planning and carrying out this retreat for single men and women.  But next year will be our last.  Another couple or some single persons will have to carry on this important work, but we know it will be according to some one else's plans.  Or it might not take place.  We've been praying and asking for someone to step forward, but so far no one has.  So much of life depends on the plans we make.

          It was about this time five years ago that I visited Harry, a 32-year old husband and father, a big strong man who was dying from heart failure.  He had spent his short life working 18 hours a day, smoking heavily and the past year building a house for his family while carrying on a full-time job.  He barely slept and didn't realize there were serious heart problems in his family.  For years his heart was a walking time bomb, ready to explode, and one day it did.  And when I went to see him Harry was sleeping a long sleep, with a damaged heart and severe brain damage.  I baptized Harry there in the ICU, and we all committed him to God's care.  He died five days later and each of his brothers seemed shocked.  After hearing how he lived, I wasn't.  You can't burn your candle at both ends without going up in smoke.  Harry's wife told me how he loved telling her of his future plans, but now all those plans were gone.  Life quite lives up to the plans we make.

          We hear much today about how we should plan our work and even plan our life.  James, half brother of Jesus, gives us a rude reminder that we dare never depend on our plans alone, for our life belongs to God.  Yes, "Plan your work and work your plan," but don't ever forget God is the One in charge, and we must all, by faith, place our lives into His hands.

          I have found some biblical principles in life that are helpful.  Here they are:

          Principle #1:  God wants us to join our plans with HIS.  Rather than just asking blessings on our plans, we should look for where He is working and join our plans with His.  Consider Moses.  He had a good life.  He was raised in luxury and no doubt had plans for an easy life.  Then God spoke to him from a burning bush.  He told him of His plans to free His people and how Moses fit into those plans.  When Moses finally let go and let God take over, great things happened.  But they happened by God's plans, not Moses'.  Only when he joined God's plans did his life make sense.  The same is true for Jonah.  He knew God's plans but wanted to pursue his own, but God brought Him around.  You see, God gets His work done either with or without our cooperation.

          That brings us to Principle #2:  If we want to join Him, we must first give OURSELVES to Him for use according to His plans.  We do not belong to ourselves.  All our time, our talents, our treasures, even our very lives, are to be used in His kingdom.  Many Christians don't believe this today.  More and more of them are saying, "It's all mine."

          It's very tempting to live according the world's standards.  The world says, "Get what you can for your own purposes."  God says, "Use what you have for My purposes."  The world says, "What you get belongs to you."  God says, "What you have has come from Me." When God calls us to blend our plans with His, we will have conflict.  Our sinful natures don't want to listen to God.  "What's mine is mine.  I worked for it and I deserve it."  But God says, "I have given you all to use wisely."

          We know what happened to Moses.  God finally moved stubborn Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, but they wandered 40 years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land.  They could have gotten there in one year, but their whining and griping about God's plans moved Him to make them wander 39 more.  God had to get rid of the whiners and complainers, including Moses.

          This brings us to Principle #3:  Giving God our self means TRUSTING Him for all else we'll need in life.  When Joshua led the people across the Jordan River, the first city they conquered was Jericho.  They destroyed this city and every living thing in it except Rahab who was spared because she hid the spies.  Trusting God has its rewards.  God blessed her by making her an ancestor of Jesus.  But God told them never to rebuild Jericho.  Joshua 6:26 tell us, "Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho:  At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations;  at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates."

          It was their first big conquest, and God wanted them to give it up, to leave it deserted, and never live in that beautiful city of palm trees and cool weather.  Why?  Because He hated Jericho?  No, but to give Him the "firstfruits" of their conquest.  They didn't know if they would ever conquer another city, but they gave God their first one.  For 550 years people obeyed Joshua's command.  But then along came a man named Hiel who rebuilt it with the permission of evil King Ahab.  And when Hiel rebuilt Jericho, it cost him the lives of his sons, just as Joshua had said.

          You and I also need to give God our "firstfruits."  Whether it's of our time, our money, our plans or our abilities, God deserves the best.  A farmer once heard his pastor say a Christian should give God a tithe - 10%.  So he said he would.  The crops looked wonderful that year.  But one day it hailed.  The insurance adjuster said it was 10% loss, so the farmer said, "There goes your 10%, God!"

          That story is more true than we think, and of most Christians.  We too often give Him the "lastfruits," the leftovers.  Giving God our firstfruits is an act of faith.  When the Israelites gave God their first win in the battle for the Promised Land, they didn't know if they would conquer any more cities.  But they gave Him their first win anyway.  They trusted Him for all that was to follow.  When we give to God, we don't know if we'll get any more either, but we trust He will provide us our needs.  And He will.  A loving father always provides for His children.  In these days of great prosperity, the greatest act of faith a Christian can make is to give up his money and trust God.

          This brings us to Principle #4 - If we choose to use God's gifts for SELF only, we risk missing His eternal blessings.  Hiel rebuilt Jericho for his own purposes and he lost everything.  This a big temptation in today's world.  "Use it on yourself - you deserve it."  So we get and spend on stuff we don't need.  We take what belongs to God and waste it on self.  We look for happiness at Joslins or at the new car dealer or in a new camper trailer.  We know we don't really need that, but we've always wanted it, so we go get it.  Our kids see this, and then we wonder why they don't value things the way we do.  Actually they do.  Our children learn our values very well.  They can spend money just as fast and foolishly as their parents can.

          There is a Fifth Principle here and it's about Jesus Christ.  JESUS CHRIST is the true and real "Firstfruits" of our salvation.  1 Cor. 15:20 says: "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."  If Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection, that means more resurrections will follow - your resurrection, my resurrection, and that of every man, woman and child who trusts and believes in Him as Savior.

          That includes you in the pew, trying to get a better job, that includes me up here trying to figure out what to do next.  That includes that guy and his wife over there who have a good living and want to keep it all for themselves, and it includes a teenager who thinks his problems are all his parents' fault.  It also includes Harry who finally died in the Aurora hospital, a 32 year old man whose plans were forever changed when God called him home.

          Jesus is the first person to be raised for our salvation.  Others have been raised - the widow's son, Jairus' daughter, Lazarus.  But Jesus was the genuine "Firstfruits" of the resurrection of believers.  And because He was raised, so you and I will also be raised.  Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 15:  "If Christ wasn't raised, our faith is in vain.  But truth is, He has been raised, and so we too will rise."

          Jeremiah 29:11 gives us wonderful words of encouragement:  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  That hope and future belong to us in Christ - that's what God wants for us, a life with Him forever because of Christ.  What a future we have, and part of it is happening right now.

          Today we all should ask, can we join God at work in our society?  Can we see Him working with our elders in nursing homes?  Can we see His concern for our stay-at-home moms with little ones?  Can we join God at work building churches?  Are we willing to make a public stand against things God considers wrong?  Are we willing to lay aside difference for the sake of the Gospel?  Will God see us living our faith or just mouthing some words now and then?

          God wants us to stop thinking of ourselves only and align our lives with His plans.  But this will take great faith to do so.  May God make us all here this morning a bit uncomfortable with how we live, and then give us courage to live according to His plans.  Amen!

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.