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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

K'dee Elsen Crews

My Plans Are Not His Plans

Dear Heavenly Father, Creator of the universe, Lord, we thank you so much for this Sabbath day.

Lord, you set apart this holy day to spend time with us, your children.

Lord, thank you for your presence here this morning.

We also ask for the presence of your Holy Spirit, Lord, to speak through me, Lord, to be able to fully express my heart's desire to praise you and how good you have been to me.

And Lord, I just pray that people here may not hear how good Katie's God is, But how good you are to each and every 1 of us if we just truly surrender our lives to you.

Help us surrender, Lord, we cannot do it on our own.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

So I wanna begin by just quickly reading 2 main passages in God's Word that begin to give us a better understanding of what God's true plan is for our lives.

The first 1 is probably the 1 that is most quoted when it comes to graduation season.

So you can either turn there with me or many of you might know it by memory.

But it says, for I know the thoughts or some versions say plans that I think towards you, says the Lord.

Thoughts or plans of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

This verse is often quoted because it's beautiful, right?

It tells us of a good God who gives us good plans to prosper us, to give us a future and a hope.

The second passage is 1 that is often also quoted, but not in the context of graduations, and not in the context of Jeremiah 29 11.

And so if you wanna turn there with me, these verses in conjunction with Jeremiah began to teach me of what God's true higher plan is for our lives.

So as we read it, I want you to think about What is God telling us in Jeremiah and Isaiah about his true plan for our lives?

So Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, it says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts, and your ways higher than my way, says the Lord.

So in these 2 passages lie the life-changing lesson that God has for us and for me.

First off, Jeremiah tells us that God's plans are good to prosper us, to give us a future and a hope.

Isaiah then adds that those same good plans are higher than our plans.

And not just higher than our plans, but higher than even the thoughts that we have of what God's plans are for us.

I don't know if I've lost anyone quite yet, but what this is really saying is that God's plans for us are unimaginable.

So if you can try to think about what God's plan is for your life, it's probably not his plan.

If your finite mind, our human brains, can try to think of what his plan is, it's probably not his plan.

Why I say this, when I came to Loma Linda, I had imagined God's plan for my life.

The first 1, to become a godly psychologist.

The second, part B to God's plan, or so I thought, was to find a godly spouse.

And many of you shouldn't lie this morning, you would agree that that's the main reason why we come to Loma Linda, right?

The two-fold plan of a career, to be used by God, and to find a godly spouse.

And if I were to ask any of you, you'd say, yeah, that's a good God-ordained plan to be used by God in your profession and to find a partner in ministry.

But I stand here before you all today, 6 years later, with 100% certainty that that was not God's plan for my life.

And I'd even venture to say that that's not God's plan for you either.

God did not bring me here to become a psychologist.

And I'd even say that God did not bring you here to be a doctor, a dentist, a nurse, a chaplain, dietitian, social worker, fill in the blank.

God has, and according to Jeremiah and Isaiah, a higher plan for our lives.

Let me share with you the story over the past 6 years of how God revealed to me his true higher plan for my life.

And I alluded to many aspects of this already in my testimony that I shared a year ago.

So I'll just be quickly highlighting some aspects of my story for those of you who weren't here.

So I was born here at the Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.

It was somewhat of a miraculous birth and I didn't grow up here.

My father's a pastor so we moved quite a bit in Southern California.

When I was in high school didn't think much about college.

Went to college, majored in psychology, realized you can't do much with a bachelor's in psychology, so I started to think about graduate school.

And at that time, my sister was thinking about going to Loma Linda.

So I thought, you know, I wanna be with my sister, it's close, it's close to my family, it's Adventist, Why not, right?

And so I started the application process.

And again, for many of you who heard my testimony last year, it was the hardest trial of my entire life.

Attacking me, attacking my family, just so many things that as I was even trying to apply, I just thought, wow, Satan really doesn't want me to come to Loma Linda.

And then God orchestrated events and opened doors and got me into Loma Linda and I thought, wow, God really wants me in Loma Linda.

And again, for that twofold plan, to become a godly psychologist and to find a godly spouse.

During my experience here, My first year was very, very difficult.

Studying 24-7, you start sacrificing time with friends, with family, even sacrificing your health.

Then towards the end of my first year, God started pressing upon my heart to start a Bible study in my department.

For those of you who don't know, the psychology department is very, very secular.

And about 3 or 4 Adventists in the entire department, which is 6 cohorts.

And when God started to impress upon me this idea to start a Bible study, I thought, no way, Lord, right?

And I started to come up with all the good excuses, right?

First off, I don't know if they'll even want Bible studies.

They come from a lot of atheistic and agnostic backgrounds.

The second excuse I remember saying, Lord, I'm inadequate.

I did Bible studies with my sister in college, but she mostly let out, no way.

And my third excuse was a really good excuse.

I said no in the name of God's plan for me.

I said, Lord, you brought me here to Loma Linda to study.

And for many of you you might be able to resonate with that, right?

I need to focus on my studies because God brought me here for that reason.

But God continued to insist and no matter how inadequate, how busy, how unqualified I felt, he insisted, I reluctantly said yes, And it was such a blessing.

My second year, at that time, I entered into a relationship.

Right, I thought that is part of, part beats your plan, God.

And so I started the relationship, and then at the end of my second year, God started to press upon me to do door-to-door ministry.

I thought, Lord, you know, talking all day is draining.

And again, my best excuse was, in the name of God's plan, I thought, Lord, I'm studying all week.

Plus, I'm already doing Bible study during the week." But God insisted.

I reluctantly said yes, and it was such a blessing.

So at this point in my life, I'm doing a weekly Bible study.

I'm occasionally doing door-to-door ministry, and I would consider ministry as something I was doing on the side, especially in comparison to the large time commitment I was giving to my studies, right?

But even through these minor commitments, my love for God and my dedication to serving him and others started to grow more and more.

I didn't know exactly what God had in store for me that this was all going to change.

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My Plans Are Not His Plans

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