Charlie Mitchell
Fort Myers Community Church Podcast
God's Plan
(upbeat music) - You're listening to Fort Myers Community Church. Together, let's grow in faith, hope, and love as we pursue God's purpose for our lives. - Well, good morning Fort Myers Community Church. How are you today? Good, good, good. I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas. That sounds like the working people just like, what? Christmas. I got something, they give us stuff. Yeah, once you hit a certain age, you know, it's just like ties and socks and whatever else they can find on the shelf they can give to you. So, well, I'm happy and honored to be able to open the word up with you this morning. As Bill said, my name is Charlie Mitchell and I was raised here. It's been a long time, me and my family actually moved back here the week of the hurricanes. And so, my poor daughter, you know, for months and months and months, we're not gonna stay if there's a hurricane, right? No, we're not gonna stay if there's a hurricane and we stayed for both of them. But I'm like, you gotta get baptized. No, you're a Floridian, you know what I mean? You're good now. So, yeah, it's good to be back. If you would, turn in your Bible to James chapter four. We're gonna be looking at James chapter four, verse 13 to 17. And I'm going to walk these passages of scripture out for you. Now, as you're turning to those passages and looking at that, this time last year, I was at home in Baltimore. And we had Christmas just like everybody else. We did our normal thing and had no idea that this time, this year, we would be residents in Florida again. And so, I don't know what your 2024 was like, but that was a huge difference in what I thought this year was going to turn out to be. It's not bad, it's not wrong, it was unexpected. Over the course of time, conversation, things happen, doors open, windows closed, hey, here we are. But there are many of us as we prepare in this time of year, this last week of the year. Some of you are on break, some of you are enjoying the time off. There are others of us who have to pay bills. There is no such thing as a break. And you're just going through life and but we're all kind of preparing or looking towards what's next. And I want to invite you into asking God to be a part of those plans as you prepare for what's next. And so, James, this portion of James is going to help us to do that. It's going to give us a bit of a framework or some principles to have in our pocket as we make plans for the future. And so, with that, I'm excited to share this passage of scripture with you in the sermon I've entitled, God's Plan. So, here's what the word of the Lord says. James chapter four verses 13 and following. "Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, "we will go into such and such a town "and spend a year there, trade and make a profit." I don't know about you, but I like reading the Bible because it's for regular people 'cause James don't seem that precise. Whoever's going to such and such a town, I like that kind of talk 'cause he don't care. It just doesn't matter, but he's keeping a real with us. You talking big about what's going to happen in the future. Verse 14. "Yet do not know what tomorrow will break. "What is your life? "For you are a mist that appears for a little time "and then poof, vanishes. "Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, "we will live and do this or that. "As it is, you boast in your arrogance. "All such boasting is evil. "So whoever knows the right thing to do "and fails to do it, for him, it is sin. "Let's pray together. "Heavenly Father, dear Jesus, holy spirit, "we ask you to come and just be a part "of what we've gathered here today. "God, we give you glory and honor "because we just celebrated your birth, "your incarnation that you are a manual. "God, with us, that you do not stand far back away from us, "but you chose to enter into history. "You chose to put on flesh and dwell among us. "And God, what a huge privilege it is "that we get to experience the good news of the gospel "because you loved us so. "And then as you were departing and ascending into heaven, "you said, I will send one who is greater, "who will dwell within you." So holy spirit, I pray that you would make this word come alive to us. As we look forward to the new year, the days, weeks, months, even moments ahead, Lord, help us to invite you to just walk with us as we look forward. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Now, by show of hands, if you wanna be honest and open, how many of you are the planners? You've already got your planner, your journal, you got your vision board, you're already making it right. All right, you know your PTO. You know that this is gonna be a special weekend. You got your vacation planned out. Okay, I see some of those hands and saw that. Great, good for you. Do we got any wingers in here? Hey, we winging it. We just, hey, happy to be here. Lucky I even made it to church this morning. You know what I'm saying? And so yes, I see those hands. God bless you, we made it, okay? And so we've got different types in there's a spectrum. We've got those that are free floating and just making it and you're always like, man, I don't even know how you survived this long in life. And then there are those of you that are like minute to minute, moment to moment, hey. Got things to do, money to make, things to make, decisions to make and all of that. The question I'm going to ask you as you prepare, this is an interesting week 'cause it's kind of a weird week. We're in between holidays and things kind of influx, but we're all kind of thinking, what's next? And so as you're preparing and planning and looking towards the future, all I wanna ask you is this, what or who drives your plans? What is it? Who is it that is driving your plans? I'm gonna encourage you in a few moments to make a plan, have something, don't gotta be as super detailed like some of the folks in here, but it's gotta have something. But who or what is the driving force? Is it just what I want? Is it just what our family needs? Or is there another voice at the table with you? Instead of just winging it or just making plans, I wanna encourage you to seek God's wisdom and direction on making your plans. We don't know what will come. We don't know this year, many of you are looking back going, man, that was not what I was looking forward to. Or maybe it was better than you ever anticipated. All I'm asking and inviting you into it saying, hey, Jesus, Holy Spirit, would you just, hey, just come on, take a seat and help me to navigate. Don't do it apart from him, do it with him. And what we're gonna see in James chapter four, verse 13 to 17, is that James is going to give us some parameters, he's going to give us some categories, some principles as we go about making plans. And these are very helpful for us. But I'm not gonna assume, 'cause James, he has the liberty to assume that if you're reading this, you already understand the goodness and the grace of God. You already believe and know and follow in the way of Jesus. I can't make that assumption. So I'm going to lay out some plans and they can see, some principles and they can see constraining if you don't know or have not trusted in Jesus. But that's not the case. For those of us who have trusted in Christ, what we've realized is this, that Jesus has come, entered into human history so that we could enjoy and actually flourish in this life. There's a sense in which we've gone through life navigating it, trying to figure it out on our own, and we made a mess. We made a mess. And I can't tell you, if I call you, come to my house, fix something, and you make more of a mess, I'm firing you. And you know what we did to this life in this world, based on Genesis chapter three, we messed it up. And what Jesus did in his infinite love and said, hey, I'm going to come and show them how to live. And not only am I going to show them how to live, I'm going to send my Holy Spirit so He can show them how to navigate all the contours of their life. And one day I'm going to make all things new. So rather than hearing these principles, I'm going to lay out in a moment for you, as constraints know, they actually liberate us from the anxiety of having to make everything right, perfect, and everything has to go our way. Because many of us are living with regret and disappointment or anger at God because our plans didn't meet our expectation. When in reality, Jesus never promised to make your plans a reality. He promised that He'll never leave you or forsake you. And that's the promise that we hold on to, no matter what may come in the days ahead. Amen? So here are the five things I want you to think about as you make your plans for the new year. Number one, number one, your life should have plans. Somebody say plans. All right, your life should have a plan. Now, I want you to know that God wants you to make plans regarding your life. There's sometimes we get in different Christian circles or reading the scriptures or whatever, and it can feel like there's either two ways. Man, either you need to make a deep, detailed plan, or we got that God will make a way, and we don't have to worry, and God's going to return it doesn't really matter. Well, this scripture wouldn't help us to see that, nah, biblically you need to have some side of plan, so I really respect this guy. Listen to what he says in James, chapter four, verse 13. Come now, he's all right, James is talking to these type of people who say, come now you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town, spend a year here and there, and trade and make a profit. So this guy sounds like a good, detailed oriented, type A personality. How do we know? 'Cause he's answering all the right questions. Who, what, where, when, all of it? He knows exactly what he wants to do. What does he want to do? And that passages says he wants to make a profit. When does he want to start, today or tomorrow? He's not a procrastinator like me, and maybe some of you, but we're not going to call each other out. He wants to get things done soon or right away. Where will he do this in a certain town? He's got a town in mind that he's planning on doing these things. He's narrowed it down. He's got focus. How long will the job take? Based on what it says here, he gonna stay there probably a year or so. So this guy, I mean, if you're a business owner, this guy sounds like a good hire to me. Here's the issue with all of that. On the surface, it's great, but it's missing one thing, where's God? There's no consideration. There's no openness for what God may have or want him to do. So before you go say, well, see, he's too detail oriented, we don't need to make plans. Nope, let's pause right there. God is not against you making plans, okay? God is not against you making plans. How do I know that? Psalm 20 verse four says, may he God give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. Proverbs 20 verse 18 says, man make plans by seeking advice. So don't make haphazard plans. Actually get counsel for the plans that you are making. Proverbs 22 verse three says, a sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences. Proverbs 16, nine, we should make plans counting on the fact that God will direct us. Proverbs 16, one, we may make our plans, but God has the final word, okay? So it's clear biblically that we need to be people who are intentional with our time. Here's the key essential ingredient. Include God in your plan making. So much ideation, so much forecasting, so much preparation, so much a visioneering and pioneering in doing all the things that we are called to do. But first and foremost, we invite Jesus into the process, asking a simple question. God, what would you want me to do? And what's amazing is he wants to be included. We don't have to go through this life trying to figure it out all on our own. You've been given the scriptures, you've been given the body, you've been given the Holy Spirit, we don't have to figure this out, but we can begin to make a simple plan. The second principle I want you to see as you're preparing for this next season that we enter into is your life is uncertain. Like I told you, this time last year, I was sitting in a completely different world with no thick, my wife said we're never going back to Florida. I guess that didn't work out. So here we are, something along the way changed the direction of what we expected and what you need to understand is this, your life is uncertain. And I'm not just coming up with this, Jane 414 says, you're saying all these big plans, what town, how much profit, how long? But then he goes on to say, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. If we will call, Jesus says something very similar. He said, hey, don't worry about tomorrow. 'Cause today has enough trouble of his own. Man, you don't know what's coming tomorrow. So yes, you can make your plans, but always remember that those plans are not set in stone. And what really happens is many of us have scars and wounds on our hearts. Many of us have disappointments, our shoulders are heavy and we're very anxious because we subtly, subtly, subtly, set our hope and expectation on our desired plans. And we drifted a little bit away from, I don't know what God is going to do, but I really want this thing to work out. And we know that that's not always the case, is it? Life's so uncertain. There were people that were planning to be here this year that didn't make it through the year. Just ask the person who, man, they thought they were going to have the perfect marriage and now they sit here divorced. Relationship didn't work out. I mean, it's uncertain. Man, just ask the young person who had a bright future ahead of them, big expectations, big goals, big dreams, big all the things, all the potential in the world. And nothing came to fruition. Just ask the young father who went to work one day and didn't know that that would be his last day. And that we would be spending Christmas season together like this. Can't tell you how many Christmas seasons I go through where there's a seat that was supposed to be filled, that is no longer filled. Your life is uncertain. And so because we don't know what tomorrow will bring, we anchor our hope in the one who will be in tomorrow. I might not be in tomorrow, but you know who will be? God is. He is today, tomorrow, and forever. But my plan, man, put that thing on a piece of paper, look at it, refer to it. But man, at the end of the day, we don't know what will happen. So when your life gets derailed, man, you don't want to find yourself standing in the quicksand of broken expectations. And many of us, man, I just wish. God regret, disappointment. And we're going, no, Jesus never promised that. A few moments ago, we were singing the song together. I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail. Y'all don't want me to sing it, but you get the point. The reason you sing that, you're not singing that for God's benefit. He's never going to fail. You know what's going to fail though? Your plan. How many of you had the most laid out, detailed, perfect, pretty plan? And it just didn't work out the way you thought it would. No plan I've ever made that wasn't a wrench. All of a sudden, it gets thrown into it. Where'd that wrench come from? The plan is perfect. Yes, but life isn't. But you know what? I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail. So my plans may not live up to my expectations, but God never fails. So you don't have to be disappointed in the coming season because we know life is uncertain. Number three, James wants to remind us as we prepare, he goes on to say your life is short. James 414 says, what is your life? What is it? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then it's gone. Some translations say your life is like a vapor or a fog. And even this morning, some of you got a cup of coffee and you saw the steam rising off that coffee. And before you know it, steam was gone. That is God's perspective from an eternal vantage point of how long our life lasts. So we have to, as these people realize, that we got a pay attention to the time that we've got. I don't have forever. You don't have forever to Netflix it away. You don't have forever to just chill it away, to just throw it away, to not pay attention to it. That's why we need to listen to my man Moses. My man Moses in Psalm chapter 90, verse 10 says this, 70 years are given to us. 70 years are given to us. Some even lived to 80, but even the best years are filled with pain and trouble. Soon they disappear and we fly away. So here's the deal, whether your life, whether your life has been filled with a lot of joy or pain, listen, the mixture of both, no matter what happens, it's gonna go by quick. It's gonna go by quick. Can I be honest with you? I'm 41, I think, I'm 41 right back, all right, I'm 41. Listen, I was just 14 two weeks ago. So y'all are laughing 'cause y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. So listen, if you're a teenager in here, I need you to pay attention to what I'm saying. It's magic that happens that all of a sudden you wake up and you have to go to the doctor for serious issues because you're old, okay? And all of a sudden you're like, okay, I've got, my son is 13. I was just 13 two weeks ago. How did I get here? I think I'm in a quantum leap or something. This isn't real. And so I'm trying to give you an insight teenager if you're paying attention as this. Your parents don't really know what they're doing because two weeks ago they weren't parents, okay? I can't imagine what it's like to be a grandparent and still be like, there's three generations of us. Oh my gosh, where did they come from? Anyway, life is short. It goes so fast, it happens so fast. And so Moses is like, man, teach us to number our days that we might grow in wisdom that we might gain a heart of wisdom. I don't have time to waste. I don't have the luxury of 150 years, 200 years. No, we only get what we've been given and I don't know how many days we've been given but I wanna make the most of the time that we got. So when you think about how life is short, I don't want that to damper you or depress you or to lower you a little bit, know or discourage you. No, from God's perspective, that means, hey, you get a shot at it. Come on, let's make the most of it. Hey, I'm not gonna be here for a long time but I wanna be here for a good time, okay? And so let's make the most of it. Don't waste it. So if you see an opportunity, even though it may be brief, it's still an opportunity. So let's leverage it. It's not an obstacle to be overcome. You see people nowadays, they're spending millions of dollars to try to extend their life forever. Hey, listen, Jesus already promised us, "Hey, you're going to die. "It's gonna happen." But here's the deal, you have been given eternal life and what I'm doing now, it's gonna be even better. You're gonna get a new heaven and a new earth and a new body, you're gonna get everything new. So just trust me with the life you've been given. Don't waste it. So we see here, okay, I'm making plans. I don't got a lot of time, but whatever I got, we're gonna maximize it. We're gonna make the most of it. We're not just gonna waste it on just trivialities. We're gonna make it meaningful. We wanna make it count. And that could just be counting to your family. It could just be counting to the people around you, but we want to make it count nonetheless. So before we go on to number four, I wanna recap with you for a little bit. Here's what we know so far. In your life, you should have plans. Why? Because God gave you a life. So make plans, use it. You should live your life with intentionality. We should have a purpose. We should have some type of North Star that we're going after. But our life is uncertain, so don't be surprised when things don't go as we expect. And even with that, our life is short, so let that motivate us to make the most of life. And that brings us to point number four. Your life is not your own, it belongs to God. Your life belongs to God. How do we know that? James chapter four, verse 15 and 16 says, I know you got all these plans. I know you wanna do all these things. You go all these places, but instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boasting your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So a couple of things that we see in this passage here. First, I want you to embrace a Lord willing mindset. A Lord willing mindset. A Lord willing mindset is, hey, my life ain't my own. So I'm gonna do the best I can, but many of us are walking around racking with anxiety and stress and misguided hope and all these things because you think you have to make everything work the way you think it should go. But if you embrace a Lord willing mindset, it should allow us to lay our shoulders back a little bit. As a church planter in a pastor, what I see here, even, I gotta give a shout out to Fort Myers Community Church. Many of you don't know, you'll probably never know. Me and Bill's, before I left to move up north, me and Bill sat in Starbucks down the street. What we see, what you're experiencing right now was a dream. Like Charlie, I'm gonna do this stuff and we're gonna do this. We're gonna plan a church and okay, cool. But to be able to come back the number of years later in the stand before you, as a testament to what can happen, yo, that's all Lord willing. That's all Lord willing. I don't know what was gonna happen, but Lord willing, we gonna move forward. So we make plans, but because of my life belongs to God, I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's not my job. So as a pastor in a church planter who planted churches up north and all of that, listen, Lord willing, we gonna try this and see, Lord willing, we're gonna keep doing what we can, but I don't know, but you know what? It's not my responsibility. You know what Jesus said? And that I have to remind myself as a pastor in a church planter, upon this rock, I will build my church. You know what that does to me when I show up on a Sunday morning, nobody showed up? Jesus, remember, this ain't my church, this is your church, so they didn't show up for you, they didn't not show up for me, okay? So take that with them, it's not me though. Send out a flyer, knock on some doors, but they didn't show up, that's on you, that's not me, okay? But what does that do for many of you? Man, what are we gonna do with our kids? How are we gonna manage all this money? How are we gonna do all this stuff? Man, man, Jesus loves your kids more than you ever could. So man, relinquish yourself from the pressure having to make it happen. Trust God, do what you can, but Lord willing, and adopt the Lord willing mindset. Paul did all those amazing things, and we have recorded all throughout scripture, the Acts and Romans, 1 Corinthians, Paul will hit 'em quick. Hey, Paul, are you coming back? Paul, are you gonna do this? Paul, are you gonna do that? Lord willing, we'll see. We'll see. But what are the time I've got? I'm gonna do what I can. So I pray that as you enter into this new year, you're not holding on to all these things. My life belongs to God when I trusted in Jesus, and he became my Lord and Savior. Man, hey, hey, we roll together. And when I gotta be honest with you, I don't always like that. I shared earlier that when I was preparing to plant a church in Baltimore, we were still living in New Jersey, and I had a list of cities that we could potentially plant in. And down the line, we made all these work, we did all this stuff, we navigated, we went and visited different cities, praying, asking God, and literally got my wife to cosign planting a church in Baltimore. I don't know if y'all understand how difficult that is to get your wife to cosign going to a dangerous city after they just had riots and all the police quit, okay? So I got her to cosign. All right, we're gonna go to Baltimore. I wasn't satisfied with that answer. It's a big decision. It's a big decision. I needed Jesus, come down. She kind of glory, angel, something. Charlie, go this way. Okay. I don't know about you, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And I'm like, man, I don't wanna make a mistake. How many of you slow to make a decision 'cause you don't wanna make a mistake? I say, I wanna make a mistake. I can't make this a big decision. It's my whole life. And so I remember driving from North Jersey, back to South Jersey. And it's 10 o'clock at night and I'm like, Jesus, I need you to show me where we're gonna go. You need to tell me, where do we go? What do we do? I need to know. So I'm driving, driving. I hear the Holy Spirit say this, I'll go with you, wherever you go. I'm about to try to hear that, bro. (audience laughing) No, no, no, no. Tell me where to go so that if this fails, it's not my fault, it's your fault, okay? 'Cause God said, go here, it didn't work. And then it's not my fault. I just did what God told me to do. And I felt the Holy Spirit say, I'll go with you, wherever you go. Now that's, I don't like hearing that. I didn't like hearing it in the moment. When I got home that night, I said, babe, I still don't know where to go. I don't know what we're gonna do. She said, I and the kids are going to Baltimore. You talk me into it. That's where we're going. You figure it out and then meet us in Baltimore. So I said, okay, I think we're going to Baltimore. So from there though, we have to really lean into the promise. Lean into the promise that God said He will never leave us or forsake us. Even the best made plans, even the highest levels of expectations. There are things that you have experienced and dealt with in this life that you would never have wanted yourself to go through. But you know where Jesus was in your darkest moment? What does Psalm 23 remind us of? We remember this as a kid. Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not have to fear evil. Why? 'Cause God is with us. You're rodting your staff and comfort us. To me, I don't know what next year's gonna bring. Lord willing, it'll be great. But even if it's not, you know who's rolling with us. He goes before us, he goes behind us. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. So don't make plans apart from God. Don't get so arrogant and high and just say, man, we don't need God. We don't even need to think about that. And don't just make plans in spite of God. Some of you, you know God wants you to speak up and say something. You know he wants you to reach out to that person and you're just like, man, I don't wanna do it. I wanna do what I wanna do. Don't do that. James tells us that's arrogant. All such boasting is evil. And that leaves us down to point number five. As you make your plans moving forward, any facet of life, no matter where you may find yourself, here's what I want you to know. Point number five, your life is to be a blessing. The goal of this life is to glorify God and love others. James 417, he makes it real clear, remember it is sin to know what you ought to do and then don't do it. Some of us are going through life, knowing what we should do and avoid doing it and then asking God, well, what should I do? Where should I go? What can I do? Since I have you done the last thing I asked you to do. And I love Jesus. I love the Scriptures because they make it so easy. I know it's 66 books. I know it's very long. I know there's a lot of translations, but you know, it gets reduced down to a couple of things. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then love your neighbor as yourself. Go therefore to all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you. He simplified all of that content down into a couple of things. So your life is supposed to be a blessing. Why? Because even though my life ain't always turned out the way it was supposed to. Even though my plans seem like they always get something that gets thrown in the mix. Even though I get nervous sometimes when I say, "Man, will I live as long as I hope I live?" That doesn't matter because in the time that I've been giving, I'm gonna try my best to be a blessing. Why am I gonna be a blessing? Is it duty? No, it's because God has been so good to me. Every single one of my worst days and your worst days you've survived by the grace of God. So that when people ask me, "Charlie, how do you do it? "How do you do it?" I say, "I don't know how I do it, "but I know that God did it." And it's the same for you. That's how we're a blessing. By remembering that God has been a blessing to us. So no matter what happens, bad diagnosis, end up in the hospital, something crisis happens, something goes unexpected, or you win five million dollars and decide to give Charlie a couple million. No matter what happens, do what you ought to do. Love God, he says, "Remember, remember, remember." It is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. So, whether you have a short life, and I'll tell you, 2017 I was diagnosed with kidney disease, stayed four. I had just moved to Baltimore, three weeks. Ended up in the hospital for five days, had 35% kidney function. What do you do with the time? What do you do? You give up? That was not in the plans, let me tell you. My vision board, it was nice and pretty. It did not have kidney disease on there. But you know what you do? You do your best to be a blessing and to serve. Praise be to God last year, 2013, 2023. God provided a kidney for me. And I was able to receive a transplant. (audience applauds) But in the time that I got, I didn't stop doing what I was called to do. I still did my best to be a blessing for what I was given. And now that I've given new life, I keep giving. So all I'm asking you to do this week, all I'm asking you to do is you move into 2025. It's one thing. Ask God to join you in your making of plans. As you look toward the future, some of you are very anxious. Some of you are saying economically, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. If these storms keep coming in the way they keep going, I don't know how I was gonna figure this out. I don't know about my kids. I don't know about political. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, none of us know. But what I do know is Jesus says, "Hey, I'm with you and we're gonna be all right together." Amen. - Amen. - Amen, let me pray for you. Jesus, we are grateful for your grace because you chose not to leave us (laughs) and every right in the world to just say, "Man, these knuckleheads, they get what they deserve." But by your grace and your mercy, you rescued us, and not only rescued us, you commissioned us to work alongside you, Lord, thank you. But Lord, many of us are walking around with a bit of anxiety, not in our chest, afraid to go to the doctor's office, afraid to follow up with that phone call, afraid to open the bills on the counter. Lord, there are so many things that we are afraid of because we don't know what's on the other side. Lord, I pray that as we look towards the future, that Lord, we will be reminded that behind us, you laid down your life for us. And before us, you are making all things new. And in the meantime, you are transforming us to be more like you, so we have nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear. So Lord, I pray Holy Spirit, remind us to invite you to the table when we're making our plans and come hell or high water, and we've gone through both. Lord, I pray that we will remember that you are worthy, you are the lamb that was slain, but you are victorious over sin, death, hell, and the grave. So thank you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.