THINGS JUST NEVER WORK OUT THE WAY I WANT.

Philippians 1: 8 – 18


Do you ever feel frustrated over plans that you made that just won't go the way you planned?
Funny thing is, when things don't go the way that we want them to, it's not always a bad thing.
God has a habit of making things work for His glory, all the while dragging us along for the ride.
And, what a wild wonderful ride that is.
Paul had times like that. He knew that God wanted him to go to Rome and bring the Gospel, he just didn't know that he would go there in chains.
God took advantage of Paul's discomfort (?) and used his imprisonment to spread the word to the Roman guard, to the faithful already in Rome, and to the preachers both true and false. It didn't matter to Paul how he was treated, or how the Gospel was spread to others, the fact that the word got out there,
was good enough for him.
And, by the way, it was okay with God too.


15 It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world.
16 One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help.
17 The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them.
18 So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! And I’m going to keep that celebration going

So, there it is laid out for us to see.
God makes sure that His truth gets out there by any means necessary.
There is an old saying that goes,
“If you ant to see God laugh, tell him the plan that you have for your life.”
There's another one that says,
“If you feel as if God is calling you to preach His word in China, it's probably because there is one baggage handler at Logan Airport, that needs to hear the Gospel.”
Go out there. Make the plans that you need to, and sit back and watch how God changes things for His agenda.