S1E6: Make A Plan

Well, today's leadership lesson, what I want to do is I want to talk to us about the importance of making a plan. Being led by the Spirit to make a plan. I know that may sound a little off or different because when we think of the Spirit's work in our lives and our ministry, we think of the miraculous. We think of the supernatural. We think of things that sometimes aren't as simple as working with God and what he wants to do with people's lives. But I think that we need to understand that God not only works in the spontaneity, but he works Through plants, through structures, through systems, and he's actually a planner himself. God wants us to lead like he leads, and he is a planner. Now I don't know about you, but I am so ready for the fall. Well, I should say back to school. It's still August. My kids start school this week. ⁓ and it's sort of fall season here in South Florida, even though it's so hot still. But man, I love summers. ⁓ man, our family hits them hard. In fact, my teenage son didn't wake up until one o'clock last week, ⁓ yesterday. He's still ⁓ gonna be struggling this week as he's going back to school because we stay up late, we go to bed ⁓ late, we wake up late, we sleep in, ⁓ our normal rhythm is off in the summer, and I love it. And our kids love it. because it's vacation mode, it's more relational, but it is different. Than the normality of the school season. It's more spontaneous, right? ⁓ when fall hits, ⁓ we go back to school, we get a whole new rhythm, a whole new structure. We start going to bed early, waking up early, ⁓ we go back to school and have that rhythm and that discipline. Dinners become earlier. ⁓ we start going to the gym. You know, even a fall rhythm in the church season, ⁓ consistency, attendance start coming back. ⁓ we have ⁓ all these different things, women's prayer groups, ⁓ community groups, youth groups, all on a structure, all on a system. And there's just something about a consistent structure that helps us as humans thrive and actually be efficient. ⁓ now even though my kids love the summer break, the school year, right? ⁓ the school year is so much harder for them, but probably more fruitful. It's a little bit harder for them, but it's fruitful because of the discipline that the school year gives them. It's just the daily grind. It's not glorious, even though summer may be one quarter of the year, three quarters of the year they're in school, and yet both of these seasons are a part of their year and their life. Summers and falls are both great and a part of the year, even though they may prefer one season or the other. I start our time together thinking about seasons and this illustration because I want to remind us that in ministry we need balance. We can't just have one season or another. The Bible does talk about seasons, and we need to understand that God uses a lot of different seasons in our ministry. You know, in the first session we had together in the beginning of this ⁓ summer session, we talked about dreams, how God puts it in our hearts. And ⁓ so cool to hear stories and share stories of what God is dreaming in our minds and giving us and and giving us vision. And and then Billy did such another good good job on session two about you know having a strategy for that dream, ⁓ being intentional, being inspired. I'm still thinking about the 20 miles a day, man. You just 20 miles a day, you just go at it, you go hard, and you just do this, do this. ⁓ these sessions were very good, very insp inspirational. But what I want to do is Challenge us and bring us to some balance today and ask this question. So, what's the plan? Like, like what is the plan? What are the action steps now of the dream and the strategy? What are we going to do as we go back into a rhythm that may be harder, that may be more busy, that maybe need takes a little bit more discipline? What's the plan for our dream? What's the plan for the strategy? And I want to propose to you today. That we actually need inspiration and action. We need to rely on the Spirit while making the plan. Just like a year has both fall and summer, we need both to be balanced. And God uses both seasons. He uses the spontaneity or and of his spirit and leading us in very incredible ways, but also he uses the mundane and and the planning and the work and the discipline. And I would propose to you that. These things don't compete, they actually complement one another. They complement one another. Now, why is this? Why do we want to embrace a plan in our lives and for our ministries? Well, because God, who is spirit, is a planner. Turn to me with Galatians chapter four, verse four through five. It's a very familiar verse, especially with thinking of Christ's birth and the Christmas story. In Galatians chapter four, verse four through five. The apostle Paul says, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoptions as sons. Now, I love this verse. I love it because it reminds me of the glorious and supernatural birth of Jesus. He was born of a virgin ⁓ by the Spirit, and this supernatural birth was strategic. And intentional and planned out by God Himself. God executed an incredible plan for our salvation, for our redemption. This was God's doing. It was no accident. It was his perfect plan. And Paul says this plan, ⁓ well, it was when the fullness of time had come. This was intentional. It was at the right moment, at the right time in history for the redemption of all mankind. 1 Timothy 2 6 says that Jesus came to give himself as a ransom at the proper time. At the proper time. There's no accident. It's a part of God's plan. He planned this out, the moment in history for Jesus to come to be sent at this proper time, this miraculous thing. So much so that he would prophesy about it and he would tell people and then execute it. Perfectly. I I just I love that. I love seeing God take action and implement a plan. And this is so important for us to understand. You know, growing up, I watched this show called the A-Team. ⁓ yeah, that's right. You may or may not know about the A-Team, but actually it's sort of coined from a phrase that the US special ops or special forces would call their elite people or group, the A-Team, right? ⁓ it was a show about these four guys that were on the run. They were ex ⁓ special forces, but they actually would be hired by money to help people out because of their incredible skills. They were this awesome team accomplishing these awesome missions ⁓ each episode. And of course they were doing all this in a black awesome van. Okay. You should totally Google it. Now, if you haven't heard of the show yet, ⁓ you probably have heard of one of the main characters, BA ⁓ Barackus. ⁓ his name was just called him BA. B A stand for bad attitude. You also may know him in his real life name, I guess, called Mr. T. That's right. Mr. T. If you haven't heard of Mr. T, okay, you're not clearly living. Check out A-Team, check out Mr. T. It's incredible. Mr. T had this catchphrase called ⁓ he would say, I pity the fool. It's a terrible impression, but he would say, I pity the fool. And ⁓ he was known for this. And In this show, the A Team, the fool catch prep phrase was I pity the fool that steals my van. I I I pity the fool that acts so stupid that they would compose me and steal my van, meaning they would regret meeting him because he would give vengeance and he was sort of like the cool, tough character, the muscle. ⁓ he actually wore all these gold chains around his neck, had a a super ⁓ long mohawk and shaved head, and was this big buff black guy. ⁓ so much so that I remember even watching the show and seeing in stores he had his own action figurine doll, ⁓ real life, ⁓ because he was just so cool. He got most of the attention of the show. But he wasn't the only main character. He just got the most attention. No, no, no, my friends, this was a team. This was ⁓ the a team and there was Templeman Faceman Peck. He was called Face. ⁓ he was the beauty ⁓ he was the womanizer. ⁓ he was the one on the team that that had the good looks. There was Howlin Mad Murdoch. They called him Murdoch because he was a little bit crazy but creative. He was like the one that can get those ⁓ crazy ideas and implement these things and just do nutty stuff. ⁓ little wacky, but part of the team. There was John ⁓ Hannibal Smith. Now he was the boss, he was the leader, he was the brains, he was the older sage. The wiser guy. Hannibal, the boss, wasn't the strong muscle guy, but he was smart. He was had a plan. He was the brains behind the operation. And he had another catchphrase. ⁓ he would always say, I love it when a plan comes together. He'd always be smoking a big cigar, big stogie, saying it at the end of almost every episode. ⁓ I love it when a plan comes together. You see, the team needed all of these characters to and jobs and roles to accomplish the task at hand. Even though Mr. T was the most popular, he was the flashy, the muscle, the cool guy. The team needed the brains, the structure, the organization. just like you and I may think of how the spirit moves is the gifts of the spirit and charisma and the flashiness and all this different stuff, the spirit also uses planning. See, we often Get excited about the miracles and the supernatural, but God also works through the mundane and the natural. Now, growing up in the Calvary Chapel movement, I think that there was an emphasis on having a balanced approach in ministry as we taught through the word, right? And I love and appreciate this about our movement. It's the word, but it's also the spirit. We're charismatic, but there's an order. And I think unintentionally, I was led to believe that the spirit primarily works. Through spontaneity, not so much planning. Spontaneity. I mean, with the catchphrase from Chuck Smith, like, Blessed are the flexible, for they will not be broken. Things change and God changes, and you gotta be sensitive and moved to that. And there was often times when you are sensitive and moved to that that he does miraculous, incredible things. ⁓ coupled with Proverbs 16:9, man plans his ways, but God directs his steps. Or Zachariah 4, not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit, says the Lord. You are trained and taught to intentionally lean on the spirit and always die to yourself, die to your plans and look to the Lord, which is so good, so great. But in my false thinking, there was some thing in the back of my mind, look, well, my plans, my efforts, well, they don't really matter as much because God's just gonna do something anyway and spontaneously happen. ⁓ because this is how the spirit moves. Even an example of afterglow services, which our church still does, ⁓ where we would wait on the Lord and have his spirit manifest ⁓ the gifts of the spirit through the body really with no agenda no plan and God would just show up and so it got a lot of attention rightly so ⁓ in our movement and I really appreciate that I embrace the gifts of the spirit I love how God works in the supernatural how he leads through spontaneity because it's a biblical approach God does move in this way ⁓ Jesus said in John chapter three the wind Well, man, it blows where it wishes, and so too it is with the Spirit. You know, Jesus would even be interrupted by the Spirit of God ⁓ against his own plan. If you think about this, Jesus was going to heal a young woman in Luke chapter eight, but then there was an another older woman with the issue of blood who touched him and he was shocked. He's like, wait, hold on, I had a plan, but wait, something is happening. I need to be sensitive. What's happening right here? The power has left me, and then he ministers to this. lady with the issue of blood. ⁓ We should expect the spirit to move and to work spontaneously. So I want to make sure you hear that. I want to make sure you know that. That we need to be sensitive. ⁓ not he doesn't have to tell us the plan. So it's going to be spontaneous to us. In fact, Henry Blackaby in his book Experiencing God, he says, watch to see where God is working and join him in his work. And so I I love that about our movement. I love that we are being led and ministered and trained to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His leading, not trusting in our own plan because it's scriptural. Colossians 2 6 says, Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, man, walk in him. We need to walk in the spirit, and this is exciting and spontaneous. And it reminds me of Mr. T. I know it's a terrible analogy, but just go with me there, okay? He gets a lot of attention. He has the cool catchphrase. He has the action figure doll. But he's not the only person or part of the team. There's Hannibal, the brains, the smarts, not the muscle, not the cool person, but the person working behind the scenes. I think so too like the spirit, oftentimes we have a primarily way or an idea that God works just this way. Just like how some people can lean on only planning and not lean into the spontaneity of the spirit and the leading of the spirit in certain ways to do things that he may have not have directed us until that moment. We have a tendency, and the false thinking was a primary way that the spirit works, when yet it's not an either or, it's a both and. Let us not forget that the spirit of God not only works in the miraculous and supernatural, but in the mundane and in the natural. And spontaneity, but also in planning. You see, Galatians 4 corrected my thinking and encouraged me because it shows me that our God is a planner and he works in that way as well, even though oftentimes it may not be mentioned a lot or even thought about a lot, especially maybe if you've grown up in a more charismatic Pentecostal way where you're seeing a lot of the spirits leading, and it's awesome. And so you lean and bend towards that. But you could also start thinking that planning is bad or ungodly. And I'm here to tell you there's both. You see, Jesus came at the appointed time when the fullness had come, the scripture says, according to God's purpose and plan, the Holy Spirit works through planning. Jesus knew this plan. As he would often say, Hey, I must do the will of the Father. In fact, the disciples in one gospel account shares a story where Jesus is oftentimes praying, like Luke says, and he's out with the Father, meeting with him, getting the plan, praying, listening to God, talking to him, and all of the people from the town, they hear that Jesus come, they want healing, they come to Jesus. And the disciples are like, listen, ⁓ we're trying to find you because all these people are here now. They want to be healed, and so you got to do this. And Jesus is just like, Nope, we're gonna go and preach the gospel. They're like, What? I've met with the Father. I know my role. We have to go to the next town to preach the gospel. That was a part of the plan. He got his orders, he moved and obeyed God. And this is so important for us to understand. Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. The Bible says he was full of the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit, but yet God's plan led him to fulfill God's will and purpose in this life. And so too with I. So too with you and me. You see, it's not an either or, it's a both and and the spirit works both in the natural and in the supernatural, just like the A team using both the muscle and the brains, Mr. T and Hannibal. Man, we need to embrace all of the works of the Holy Spirit and in our ministry and how he works, not just in the spont spontaneity, but in planning, because both are important aspect of leading. Again, people love to embrace miracles, but not the mundane. Because miracles are awesome. But God also uses the everyday normal stuff of life, putting faith into action and making a plan. Little steps of faith he does honor. For it's impossible to please God without faith. And our faith needs to have action. And so when we plan and execute our faith out, God blesses us in a very supernatural, natural way. And he works through. Intentionality, strategic planning, vision. And I love that and encouraged me because those are some of my primary giftings. When you think about leadership or administration, these type of gifts are from the spirit, not just speaking in tongues or prophecy. There's teaching and helps and all different types of gifts from the spirit, but coming together, he works to minister and bless the body. You know, my dad, Joe Williams, he's a Calvary Chapel pastor for 40 years now in Tacoma, Washington, the Pacific Northwest where I grew up, he would always tell me, Daniel, God gave you a brain to use it. God gave you a brain to use it. Meaning, hey, wisdom is a good and godly thing. Making a practical plan and praying through it, taking steps of faith is actually a good and wise and spiritual thing to do. He would also tell me growing up, listen, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. If you fail to plan, you've planned to fail. It's pretty hard to hit a target if just by random chance. You have to have some intentionality, some action steps, a plan of action to do this. And I think I see a pretty ⁓ balanced view when I look at it being filled with the spirit and how the spirit works in Ephesians chapter five, verses fifteen through eighteen. It shows us this both and mentality approach, how we're to use our time wisely and plan accordingly unto the Lord. Being led by the Spirit. Through a plan. Look carefully then how you walk, the Bible says, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is a debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. We are to be wise and make the best use of our time. Having a plan, a step of action while relying on the Holy Spirit. It's both. And so I I've learned now to celebrate more of having a plan in my leadership, in my life. And it's actually helped me. And it's helped me, I think, in three primary ways. ⁓ one, planning helps with perspective. I would challenge you to do this exercise even as a leader for your church. One thing I like to do is map out a church year, a calendar. To map out a calendar and just to start writing out all the events to see if the events that ⁓ we're doing align up with our values that are important to us. For example, I was recently doing this and I noticed that all of these events were great events, but they were focused on fellowship, which is an important aspect. But I got perspective and noticed there wasn't a lot of evangelistic events either. And so I needed to add that to my calendar. ⁓ just mapping it out planning gave me perspective to get the big picture. And so this simple exercise of just ⁓ you know, counting out each event, what category it goes into, and it helps me understand and see and gave me perspective. And and when you plan, you get perspective on the big picture, not only for yourself, but for your team. ⁓ if if if the worship leader knows what topic the message is, he's able to plan it out and choose a song that could have a great impact. ⁓ an emphasis on your teaching or the creative team can work better and flow better with the slides or creativeness of a series that you're wanting to plan out and teach through. And so it just gives people perspective of where you're going when you plan out. But planning also helps with prioritizing. Once you see the big picture, you can prioritize because I've found in my life I can't do it all. ⁓ I'm limited and planning helps me see this. You see as I designate time and write things out on the calendar. like to study or to pour into my team, I realize that my calendar gets full real quick. But that's o okay because now I can say no to other things and opportunities they come up. And I've learned from a very young age that you have to actually say no to some good things. So you can say yes to some God things, the things he's called you to do. And so as I start putting the big rocks and plan out, hey, this is a really important thing, like my my anniversary trip. I'm gonna have to say no to go to the the conference in California. Or, you know what, ⁓ this is really an important event for my son. I'm gonna make sure I go to that. ⁓ it it holds me accountable on my calendar to walk out what I value and prayerfully as a spirit leads what I want to do to hit my goals and my targets. Umpportunities, they come, but they go. And how will I know what to choose, what not to choose? Well, unless the Lord says do this, I can look. God, I know that you've called me to be a father. I should spend time with my family. So what are some big important family days in my calendar that I can block out to do that? Maybe I shouldn't spend seven nights a week out in ministry because I made it priority ⁓ to say no to some things so I could say yes to my family, which God's called me to. And so you get the idea. Once you get perspective, You can start prioritizing and then it helps you prepare. It's helped me prepare in such a great way to focus my time to action. Like I knew I was going to do this teaching, so I blocked on my calendar. I need to study, I need to think through, I need to record it, need to upload it. That's all gonna take time. So I'm gonna block out this amount of time for this teaching, and it helped me prepare to actually get something I wanted to accomplish this video. And so, man, when we know where we're headed through a plan, it actually helps us to move forward. And so I I just thinking about this summer and coming to conclusion with this last session ⁓ and thinking about just inspiration and and we all have dreams and and a strategy and and just ⁓ we want to move forward, man, as we plan, as we write out things on our calendar and take action steps. Know that the Spirit uses this as well. Listen, do things always go according to our plan? Absolutely not. You know that as much as I know that. That's why we have the verse man plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. But that's okay. Because even though they may not go according to our plan, no one will thwart God's plans. And we don't trust in our plan. We trust that God uses a plan. We trust in him. And the person of God, his spirit, to be a planner and to use people like you and I forth our little efforts to multiply and to do gay great things through it. And so be intentional. Let's just finish this summer strong by asking and praying God and and just going to him and saying, God, what's the plan? Could you help me make some action steps to accomplish my dream? I have a strategy. I know the big picture. What do you want me to do next? What does it look like for you to move into the fall and have a new rhythm in this school year for you personally, for you as a family, for you as a church family and in leadership? I would encourage you to make a plan. The Spirit uses not only spontaneity, but he can use a plan as well. Let's not over-emphasize one or the other. Let's do both and let's rely on the Spirit of God.