Inspired by Ray Comfort’s book, “God Has A Wonderful Plan For Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message” (Living Waters, 2000)
Rev. David Holwick ZD
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 5, 2014
Jeremiah 29:11
IS GOD’S PLAN ALWAYS WONDERFUL?
I. Bill Bright’s famous tract .
A. It is always profitable to start out positive.
1) His “Four Spiritual Laws” tract follows this principle.
a) God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
1> The middle talks about sin and judgment, but the
beginning and end are positive.
b) We want the gospel to be that way.
1> We want our lives to be that way.
2) Most evangelism promises a better life for you.
a) Humans naturally want something better.
b) Everyone is seeking true happiness.
3) This is why Jeremiah 29:11 is so popular with Christians.
a) God wants to prosper us and not harm us.
1> He wants to give us hope and a future.
b) If you are destitute and feel everything is crashing
in on you, this is a powerful promise.
B. Unfortunately, warm promises run up against harsh reality.
1) What happens when the promises don’t seem to pan out?
2) If I accept Jesus and my life still has disappointments,
has God failed me? Have I believed the wrong way?
II. Christians are invested in the positive .
A. Prosperity preachers and miracle workers get the biggest crowds.
1) Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland fill arenas and the
airwaves.
a) God wants you to be happy and rich and healthy.
b) It has certainly worked for them. (mansions, planes…)
2) Reinhard Bonnke and his massive rallies in Africa.
a) He has attracted some of the largest crowds in the
world and you probably haven’t even heard of him.
1> He is almost unknown in America but he is huge
news in Africa.
2> This German charismatic evangelist has had rallies
that attracted 1.6 million people.
3> He claims 72 million people have filled out decision
cards in response to his salvation invitations.
b) His big drawing card is miracles.
1> He claims he has seen the blind receive sight and
lame people walk again.
2> One of the most controversial healings was the
reported resurrection from the dead of a Nigerian
pastor in 2001.
Three days after the pastor was declared dead by a
local doctor, his wife took his body to a nearby
Bonnke-sponsored prayer service.
Pastors there prayed and massaged his body.
The dead body suddenly revived.
He has since resumed the ministry. [1]
B. Even ordinary Christians focus on Jesus solving our problems.
1) He rescues us from problems and makes us happier.
2) Doesn’t Jesus himself teach this?
a) He says in John 10:10b, “I have come that they may
have life and have it to the full.”
b) He heals the sick, gives rest to the weary and if we
have enough faith, he answers all our prayers.
3) Reading about Jesus, I can see where those TV preachers
get their emphasis. The Gospel truly is Good News.
III. There is another side to Christian existence .
A. Horrible things can happen to any believer.
1) Tragedies – we can suffer like anyone else.
It was the summer of 1972, a few months after Wendy Zoba’s
conversion at the age of 16.
That when she confronted, firsthand, Bill Bright’s
evangelistic mission.
She had taken a Greyhound bus cross-country from Ohio to
Dallas, Texas, to attend Explo ’72, Campus Crusade’s
week-long evangelism training conference.
She was trained to use the Four Spiritual Laws and then
unleashed on her hometown.
Her first target was her little sister.
Wendy hoodwinked her into meeting her on the swing set,
and then she laid out God’s blueprint:
1. GOD LOVES YOU AND OFFERS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE.
2. MAN IS SINFUL AND SEPARATED FROM GOD, THUS CANNOT KNOW
AND EXPERIENCE GOD’S LOVE AND PLAN.
3. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD’S ONLY PROVISION FOR MAN’S SIN.
4. WE MUST INDIVIDUALLY RECEIVE JESUS AS SAVIOR AND LORD.
Without hesitation her sister told her she wanted to
“receive Christ” and “pray the prayer.”
Wendy read the prayer from the booklet and her sister
echoed it.
She cried; Wendy cried.
Wendy thought, THIS IS EASY.
She believes that encounter saved her sister.
Fifteen years after that Ohio summer she and Wendy shared
another life-changing moment.
They buried her sister’s first-born child, who died of head
injuries sustained in a freak accident.
The little girl died the day before her second birthday.
The birthday cards were already in the mail.
During those dark days Wendy pleaded with God that the faith
her sister owned that day on the swing set would hold up.
In the end, it held, but both of their understanding of
God’s “wonderful plan” moved into a new dimension.
#4238
2) Persecution – we can suffer specifically for being Christian.
a) Our imprisoned Iranian pastor.
Pastor Saeed Abedini is a native Iranian.
In 2005 he moved to the United States and four years
ago he became an American citizen.
He never severed ties to his homeland and in 2012 he
returned to build an orphanage.
The Iranians accused him of setting up Christian house
churches and sentenced him to eight years in prison.
He has now spent two years there.
Radical Muslims in the prison have threatened to kill
him and he has been beaten up several times.
How is Pastor Saeed responding?
Last week, a Christian organization released a letter
from Pastor Saeed to his daughter for her birthday.
After wishing her happy birthday and telling her how
much he wants to see her, he wrote the following:
“I know that you question why you have prayed so many
times for my return and yet I am not home yet…
The answer to the why is who.
Who is in control?
Lord Jesus Christ is in control…
“God is in control of the whole world and everything
that is happening in it is for His good purpose, for
His glory, and will be worked out for our good…
“…my dear beloved daughter Rebekka Grace, I pray God
will bring me back home soon.
But if not, we will still sing together …’Hallelujah,’
either separated by prison walls or together at home.
“So, let Daddy hear you sing a loud ‘Hallelujah’ that
I can hear all the way here in the prison!
“Kisses and Blessings,
“Daddy”
John Stonestreet challenges us to ask how our faith
would hold up if we were put into prison.
How would you handle the separation from your family?
#64600
What if you were one of those prisoners of ISIS?
Would you be able to see your beheading as part of God’s
wonderful plan for you?
b) The New Testament Christians knew what it was to suffer.
1> Paul’s life was fulfilled, but often not happy.
A> He was beaten up, rejected by friends, starved,
and left for dead.
B> At times he wished he was dead. 2 Cor 1:8
2> Many early Christians didn’t just suffer, they died.
3> Gordon-Conwell Seminary, where I studied, estimates
171,000 Christians are martyred every year. [2]
B. Christianity doesn’t solve your problems.
1) It can help you overcome many things, but there are no
guarantees you will overcome everything.
2) We learn to make better choices in life.
3) And God can intervene supernaturally for us.
4) But we still live in a fallen world and can suffer like
anyone else.
IV. The background of Jeremiah 29:11 .
A. The context is very interesting.
1) God is promising nice plans to a people who have been
driven into exile.
2) Their temple had been destroyed, their land devastated.
3) Perhaps hundreds of thousands had been killed.
4) Tens of thousands had been force-marched to other places.
B. Jeremiah predicts they will have 70 more years of this. 29:10
1) He tells them to make the best of it.
2) Settle down, pray for the pagans, don’t rock the boat.
3) And then, finally, you will be able to go back home.
C. God’s plan is always good – in the end.
1) Just like Pastor Saeed wrote, God will eventually work
everything out for our good. Rom 8:28
2) But you may have to wait a lifetime to see it unfold.
V. The Christian message is for everyone .
A. Christianity is not just for unhappy people.
1) We often assume only miserable people want to get saved.
a) It is not uncommon for troubles to drive us to God,
of course.
b) But plenty of self-satisfied people need Jesus, too.
1> You may have a happy family, money in the bank,
and great health – you still need Jesus.
2> You need him because you are a sinner.
A> Every one of us has broken God’s law.
B> We are all fighting God in our own way.
3> Only the blood of Jesus can bring us spiritual peace.
2) All we can offer is truth.
a) Other religions offer happiness, too.
b) But they cannot wipe away your sins.
B. It is about Jesus, not us.
1) Move beyond personal fulfillment and satisfaction.
a) Note the emphasis in many of our appeals:
“God loves YOU and has a wonderful plan for YOU.”
“Live your best life now!”
b) We are not the center of the message. #32955
1> The cross should be at the center.
2) Have a faith that rises above your current circumstances.
a) The Christian hope is for the long-haul.
b) As Paul wrote in Romans 8:18 —
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
1> That hope kept him going.
2> It should be good enough for us, too.
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] The Bonnke material comes from Wikipedia.org and from the articles
“The Crusader: Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke brings old-time gospel
back to America,” John W. Kennedy, Christianity Today, October 22,
2013, < http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/november/crusader.html >
and “Daniel: Raised from the Dead,” Susan Mann and Ken Hulme, The 700 Club,
< http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/raised_from_dead091603.aspx >.
One of my younger members asked me about the validity of the claim
the Kenyan pastor was raised from the dead. The best analysis I have
found is “’Raised From The Dead’ by Reinhard Bonnke: Oh Really?”
Sandy Simpson, < http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/bonnke2.html >
[2] Ray Comfort, “God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the
Modern Message (Living Waters, 2010), p. 28.
# 4238 “Evangelicalism’s Power Couple Closes In On Their Radical Mission,”
Wendy Murray Zoba, Online Christianity Today, page 14, July 14, 1997.
#32955 “The Big Narrative,” I’Ching Thomas, A Slice of Infinity: Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries; http://www.gospelcom.net/slice/ ,
July 20, 2006.
#64600 “God’s Wonderful Plan In An Iranian Prison,” John Stonestreet;
edited by David Holwick; September 30, 2014.
< http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26155 >
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Congregational handout:
IS GOD’S PLAN ALWAYS WONDERFUL?
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Jeremiah 29:11
I. Bill Bright’s famous tract.
A. It is always profitable to start out positive.
B. Unfortunately, warm promises run up against harsh reality.
II. Christians are invested in the positive.
A. Prosperity preachers and miracle workers get the biggest crowds.
B. Even ordinary Christians focus on Jesus solving our problems.
III. There is another side to Christian existence.
A. Horrible things can happen to any believer.
B. Christianity doesn’t solve your problems.
IV. The background of Jeremiah 29:11.
A. The context is very interesting.
B. Jeremiah predicts they will have 70 more years of this. 29:10
C. God’s plan is always good – in the end.
V. The Christian message is for everyone.
A. Christianity is not just for unhappy people.
B. It is about Jesus, not us.