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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 one 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. Amen. So I wanna begin by just quickly reading two 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 one is probably the one that is most quoted when it comes to graduation season. Does anyone wanna guess which one? Jeremiah 29 11. Yes. 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 one that is often also quoted, but not in the context of graduations and not in the context of Jeremiah 29 11. And it's Isaiah 55, 8 and nine. 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 nine, 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 two 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 are, our human brains can try to think of what his plan is, it's probably not his plan. And why I say this, when I came to Loma Linda, I had imagined God's plan for my life. It was twofold. The first one to become a godly psychologist, the second part B to God's plan or thought. 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 twofold 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, right? But I stand here before you all today, six years later with a hundred percent certainty that that was not God's plan for my life. And I'd even ventured to say, that's that's not God's plan for you either. God did not bring me here to become a psychologist. You might be saying what you're graduating tomorrow. And I'd even say that God did not bring you here to be a doctor, a dentist, a nurse, a chaplain, dietician, social worker, fill in the blank. God has and according to Jeremiah and Isaiah, a higher plan for our lives. So what is that plan? Let me share with you the story over the past six 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. So I never grew up in Loma Linda. Went to school, went to high school 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. So I came to Loma Linda, right? And I went during my experience here, my first year was very, very difficult studying 24 7, you know, you start sacrificing time with friends, with family, even sacrificing your health. And then towards the end of my first year, God started impressing upon my heart to start a Bible study in my department. And for those of you who don't know, the psychology department is very, very secular. And about three or four Adventists in the entire department, which is six cohorts. So very, very much so a minority. And when God started impresses upon me this idea to start 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 like atheistic and and agnostic backgrounds. The second excuse I remember saying like, Lord, I'm inadequate. I, you know, I did bible studies with my sister in college, but she mostly led out like no way. And my third excuse was a really good excuse it. I said, no. And the name of God's plan for me, I said, Lord, you brought me here to Loma Linda to study. I need a focus on my studies. And for many of you, you might be able to resonate with that, right? I need a focus on my studies cuz 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. And for that I didn't have any excuses, right? I thought that is part of Part B's, your plan, God. And so I started the relationship and then at the end of my second year, God started press upon me to do door to door ministry. And again, I had good excuses. I thought, Lord, I'm an introvert. Like no way. That is not my gift. I thought, Lord, you know, talking all day is draining. No way. And again, my best excuse was in the name of God's plan. I thought, Lord, I'm studying all week. I need the Sabbath to rest again for your plan. 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 with, especially in comparison to the large time commitment I was giving to my studies, right? All in the name of God's plan for me. But even through these minor commitments, my love for God and my dedication to serving him and others started to grow more and more. And I didn't know exactly what God had in store for me, that this was all going to change. So in a little bit, after doing these things, God started really unraveling his true plan for my life. I didn't quite understand it yet, but he started unraveling it. So towards the end of my second year and beginning of the third year, I then had broken up with my boyfriend at that time. And I remember clearly I was sitting on the couch, my living room, I was talking and praying with God, just, you know, that type of conversation you're having with God. And it was similar to like Jesus, Jesus' and Peter's conversation where God said, you know, Katie, do you love me? And I said, Lord, of course you know that I do. He said, do you Lord, do you love me more than everything? And I immediately said, yes, Lord, more than everything. And why I said immediately yes, is I thought he was asking me that because he was asking me as if I, do you love me more than my ex? And more than the failed plan, the part B of his plan at that time. But he again asked me, do you love me more than everything? As if he knew there was something else on my heart that I deeply cherished. So I thought, I said, you know, what do I love most at this time? And you see, we love most what we invest most in. And at that time I was investing most in my studies. And he then went to say, do you love me more than graduate school mercy? And before I could even answer that, he posed the most difficult form of that question. He said, do you love me more than graduate school? He said, if I were to ask you the day before your graduation, which is today, well time flies. If I asked you the day before your graduation and after investing six years of your life to drop out, to change careers, to you know, move to another country, would you do it? And to my surprise, I immediately answered, yes, yes Lord, anything In that moment I recognized that I was completely wrong about God's plan for me. You see, after that time, God started to ask me to do everything for him. He said, that was a dangerous prayer. You said anything, Katie. And I said, yes, Lord, anything I fully surrender everything to you. I don't quite understand what your plan is for me. But I understand that it wasn't limited to my thoughts, to my ways that you had, I had thought was your plan for my life. So God started to ask a lot of me. And at that time, so now it's my third year, God started asking me to then be a leader of that door-to-door ministry. He then asked me to ha do start Bible studies with the family, with my sister and fourth and fifth years I started being a leader here at Advent Hope. And this is not to give myself glory, but to recognize, to show you all that since that time of fully surrender, God started changing my heart. God started changing the idea of what his plan was for my life. Before I knew it, ministry was no longer something I did on the side. My whole life was about ministry. And what was amazing is that I was excelling in school like I never had before. It was a top of my class. And at this time, again, my whole life was ministry. It's almost as if I was doing graduate school on the side. God started blessing in a major way. And I didn't still quite understand what his plan was, but I remember the day that he clearly remembered, he clearly unraveled his plan for me. June 3rd, 2017. And somebody here might understand what that date means. It was, I was sitting in my home church in San Diego and I was watching two of my close friends give their lives to Christ through baptism. One of which I had been praying for seven years. And to sit there with the absolute greatest joy that you could ever experience to know that God used you to bring someone into the kingdom. And I was sitting there and I was praying and I said, Lord, this is why you brought me to Loma Linda, even for just one soul. At that moment, I recognize his true plan. His true plan is twofold. The first one is to be used by you, to save souls, to save your peers, to save your friends, to save your family, to save your coworkers, to save everyone and anyone in your sphere of influence. You see, when it says that God's plans are better, higher than our plans, and this is a point that I really want everyone to understand is his plans are higher because his plans are eternal. The consequences, the results of his plans ring forever in eternity, graduate school. And tomorrow, when I get that really expensive piece of paper, that piece of paper will burn. That's not eternal. There will be no Dr. ELS's or social workers or chaplains in heaven that is all earthly, that will perish, but save souls that's eternal, that will forever ring an eternity. Do you wanna know the second part? To God's eternal plan, as Jeremiah 29 11 says, the plans to prosper you, that as you collaborate with the heavily host to save souls, God also saves you. Amen. That's the part B, to God's true eternal plan to save others and to save you. You see, and I shared again this in my testimony before that, before I came to Loma Linda, I had a very good childhood, very strong childhood. But I had gone to, you know, a college where I started to sway in ways away from Christ. And God brought me here to Loma Linda, not just to save others, to be used by God, to be to save others, but he also saved me. I wouldn't be standing here this morning with you all if it wasn't for my experience here at Loma Linda transformed by his grace. And my true accomplishment is not tomorrow, it's today to be sharing with you all of what God has done in my life and those around me. So God's eternal higher plan is to to save others and to save you. So today I wanna plead with you all for students that are starting out especially, but students and professionals alike, where I have seen so many dedicated, faithful Christians slaving themselves to their studies and to their work all in the name of God's plan. I'm not talking about individuals who don't know the Lord, I'm talking about people who come to Loma Linda as I did with the idea that God brought me here for my studies. And again, that will perish. People that come here and including myself, slaving themselves to their work, their studies, losing their relationship with others, their relationship with God, sacrificing their health, becoming depressed, becoming anxious, saying no to the call to ministry, saying no to the call to save others. Again, all in the name of God's plan. But God did not call us here to become doctors, dentists, social workers, chaplains, et cetera. God called us here for an eternal hire plan. And don't get me wrong, God will use you as a doctor, as fill in the blank. God will use me as a psychologist, but it is not his plan. It is the means to which he will accomplish that plan. So I pray for you all, Lord, that you may not limit God and limit his plans for your life, fully surrender, accept his plan for you, and always have that eternal plan in mind, that God wants to save others through you. And in the process also save yourself. So to close, I just wanna pray for you all for those who have graduated, those who are starting out, and even those who are working here, that we may all have this eternal plan in mind that we may be able to have these results ring forever into eternity. So if you can bow your heads with me, dear gracious heley, father, Lord, we thank you so much for today. We thank you for the opportunity to hear from your word and and through the blessing of testimonies. Lord, I thank you for Felicia and her testimony. Lord, I thank you for the testimony that you've given me. I thank you for the testimonies of all those here. We all have a story to share. Lord, Lord, I thank you so much for teaching us that your ways are higher than our ways, Lord, that your plans are bigger and better than what we can even imagine. Lord, I pray special blessing upon every individual that's here today, those that are listening. Lord, I pray that we may not lose sight of the eternal plan that you have for our lives. Lord, you are a big God that wants to do big and amazing things through us. If we just fully surrender, Lord, help us Lord, we can't do it by ourselves. Lord, I just pray that we may one day soon be in heaven having the same conversation about how good you are, Lord, sharing testimonies of how great you are. Lord, thank you again for the Sabbath day. May we continue on throughout today, just praising you and how good you are in each and every one of our lives. We thank you. We ask all these things in Jesus'. Holy name, amen. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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My Plans Are Not His Plans

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