Read Proverbs 16:1-3 “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. 2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. 3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.”
A. Proverbs 16: 9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
B. And Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”
2. Intro: The Book of Proverbs speaks a lot about human planning.
3. In particular, it warns us against acting impulsively and not taking the time to think through the long-term implications of our decisions.
A. Prov.21:5 "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty."
B. The picture that is painted in Proverbs of the wise person is a person who takes great care for his life. He does not just DO things, he thinks and considers and plans and gives thought to his ways.
C. He doesn’t just act out of impulse but out of conviction and conscience.
D. He is always asking, "Is this the best thing to do? What is the wise path here? What can I do that will be the most godly thing to do? How can I bless the Lord in this situation? How can I best use my time and my money and my abilities and my energies?"
E. He weighs, he evaluates, always striving to make a wise decision. He doesn’t do the most pleasant thing but thinks about the long-term implications of each decision.
F. “Proverbs frequently denigrates those who make quick, non-reflective decisions.” Tremper Longman III, Proverbs
G. He knows that the things he reaps in the future will be largely determined by the seeds he sows now, so he is always thinking about and preparing for the future.
H. Analogy: In the last few weeks in our congregation, there have been three surgeries, when people’s bodies were opened up in order to do significant work inside. In cases like this medical professionals today are very concerned about infection: leaving germs which might spread harmful infections inside after things are sowed back up.
1. Contrast this with the situation in 1881 when President James Garfield was shot after four months in office. There was a bullet lodged inside his body. Even though it was not a life-threatening wound, and even though many Civil War veterans were still walking around with similar bullets in their body, the doctors felt it was unfitting to leave a bullet in a president. In those days in the medical community there was a debate over germs. Recent discoveries had led most young doctors to believe in the reality of germs and the importance of cleanliness when dealing with an open wound. But the old “establishment” doctors scoffed at this danger which couldn’t be seen, and proceeded to stick unwashed hands into the president’s wound over and over again fishing for the bullet (which they never found). Two and a half months later he died of infection caused by the unclean probing of a wound which shouldn’t have killed him.
2. The protocol of modern medicine provides an excellent analogy of the way Proverbs calls us to live: with scrupulous care, alert to the dangerous consequences of foolish choices. You can’t see the germs and you may not be able to even imagine the potential infection, but germs and infections are very real and very dangerous. So it is with careless, impulsive, unreflective decision-making.
3. As a result of careful living the wise person "smiles at the future" (31:25b): like a surgeon who’s followed all the proper protocols.
I. How many times folks regret how they failed in a certain stage of their lives? For me, there have been a litany of bad consequences for my lack of effort in school when I was young, for the lack of care to the environment of our marriage during our first year, and for foolish parenting decisions when our children were young: mistakes made and opportunities lost.
1. Oh! If only we could go back in time and take advantage of those opportunities! But alas, it is too late. It is water under the bridge, never to be recaptured again.
2. To some extent everyone goes through this. Wise people learn from it and start taking advantage of the opportunities before them now. Fools continue missing opportunities because they never learn their lessons.
4. Proverbs also warns us about some dangers of planning. Proverbs 16:1–2, 9
A. Prov.16:1 and 9 are virtually synonymous: 1 “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD... 9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
1. Also Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
2. People make their plans, but God determines what actually happens. People may decide where they want to go but the Lord determines their actual destination.
3. Which of us has not seen this over and over again?
4. You may have heard the joke: How do you make God laugh? Make a plan.
B. Prov.16:2 adds another dimension to this: “All the ways of a man are pure (or clean) in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit.”
1. People often think they are doing the right thing, but God knows better. It is rather easy for man to convince himself that his plans are good and wise, but God knows that often they are selfish or fleshly or pleasure-seeking or vain. We are very flawed in our ability to know what’s best. Human beings are very prone to self-deception.
2. This is why God has to trump our plans, and this is why we shouldn’t trust ourselves to come up with the best plan, why we should trust God’s plan above our own.
3. And this is the reason why the wise person seeks counsel from others about plans..
a. Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
b. Proverbs 20:18 Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.
C. Plans can be dangerous because we can become too attached to our plans.
1. There is a subtle process where plans evolve into expectations. We begin to imagine the plan as fulfilled and take comfort in that fulfillment, even though it hasn’t happened yet. And we begin to base our sense of security and happiness on the assumption that our plans will come to pass.
2. And a lot of times this is what happens: God in heaven takes pity on us when we get so attached to our plans. He sees that we have become so attached to them that they hold us down like a ball and chain around our leg. So He graciously steps in and changes things. He makes things happen contrary to our plans, He makes things go differently than we had been counting on in order to free us from the enslavement of our plans. Isn't God good?
3. Let me give you an illustration. I preached on this theme at new years 1990. Here is a quote from that sermon:
a. “Some of us are going to go through some very hard things in 1990. There is going to be pain, there is going to be catastrophe, there is going to difficulty. This I can guarantee you.”
b. Well, you who were around in 1990 might remember that year.
1. House fire: move out for 3 months with 6 kids and a pregnant wife
2. my best friend, next-door neighbor and associate pastor left the church and joined RC
3. our dear friends’ marriage split up, folks who were also in the church
4. my only surviving grandparents both died
5. Christopher Rice brain cancer
6. all within about 3 months time
6. So much for our spring plans for 1990! This is when God began to pop the balloon of my youthful idealism and my lofty expectations for our lives on this earth.
6. The question isn’t whether God is sometimes going to change your plans, the question is: How are we going to respond? What we are going to do about it. Are we going to yield our plans or fight God over them? Are we willing to let go of our plans? Are we willing for God to change them, even change them radically (or do you just give God permission to modify them slightly)? Do we really believe His ways and plans are better than ours?
7. It is fooling to trust in our own plans.
a. Prov.27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."
8. Though it’s not wrong to make plans, we must always remember God’s veto power. This means we must be willing to not know what is going to happen.
a. Prov.20:24 "Man's steps are ordained by the Lord, How then can man understand his way?"
b. We must yield not only our plans but even our understanding of what is happening.
9. Make your plans and preparations, but don't forget that preparations are useless in and of themselves.
a. Prov.21:31 "The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord."
6. All this means we need make our plans, choices and decisions under God. Prov.16:3 “Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.”
A. This verse does not mean that everything will happen just as we've planned it. It means that if we let His will become our will, if we let His desire become our desire, if we let His agenda become our agenda, then His plans become our plans, and our plans will never be frustrated, because His plans are never frustrated.
B. This follows from v.1-2. Since our view of things is prone to be skewed, since God knows much better than we do, since there are so many potential bad consequences of our foolish decisions and choices, we have to make our plans, choices and decisions under God.
1. Jm.4:13-15 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
2. Remember that His thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8–9)
3. We see this attitude exemplified by Jesus in Gethsemane, where He said, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Luke 22:42
a. If our plans are made in service to and in honor of the Lord, then we will not be so attached to our plans as we are to His will.
C. Commit your plans, your decisions, your choices to the Lord, adopt the Lord’s agenda (even though you don’t understand it all): that’s the way to make sure the path of your life is a prosperous one.
1. Our agenda has to be to follow the Lord’s agenda.
2. Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ...Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31–33)