[00:00:00] Well, hi everyone. It is hard to believe that this is week number eight of our exclusive online community. We're the way we're doing church. I'm so glad that you're a part of this. Thank you for inviting us into your home and for just going along this journey with us, and I'll tell you what, who'd a thunk this would have gone this long? [00:00:20] I want to let you know, I've in conversations with other pastors around the valley, also with the government. And the governor, and it looks like we got at least four to six more weeks of this just to forecast, give you an idea. But you know what? The church is doing great. You all are doing great. And I've just been thrilled to watch what's happening. [00:00:39] And I also want to say this, I love what's currently happening. What we've experienced this very day. Man, I love, Caleb has already said this, but man, I love our students. I love the way God's working in our young people. I feel so blessed that the Dakota is on our staff and that he, that he leads the student aspect of the worship. [00:00:59] There's [00:01:00] so many good things, and I'm so, so I just am so grateful to God. And also I got to let you know something. I just want to point this out. A couple of weeks ago, I told you that, you know it's hard because you see me, I don't see you. And some people brought kind of a montage of pictures and right now you can't see this, but I'm staring at a bunch of Fatheads in the front rows here of different staff people. [00:01:23] And I just want to say this, when you see these guys to this close, it's scary. It's scary. I'm really scared right now, but anyway, it's good to have. You also want to bring you up to speed next week, so there's two things I want to talk about before I get to the message. Next week. I'm so excited about next week. [00:01:40] Next week is mother's day, and it's going to be a very, very special weekend. Don't you miss it. One of my all time favorite speakers is going to be our guests. I'm not going to tell you who it is. You'll, you'll, you'll discover next week. Just be sure to be here. Okay? And then there's a second thing I want to tell you about that. [00:01:56] In fact, let me spend a moment on this. I want to introduce you to a thing called [00:02:00] Unite 714. Unite 714. And you're going to hear more and more about this, but you go Unite 714, what's seven one four, seven one four is taken from second Chronicles chapter seven verse 14 and I want to read this passage. [00:02:16] I'll get out of the way so we can read it together, but I want to read this passage and then I want to explain something about what, why this passage is a part of this thing we're calling United 714 let me read the passage and let me break it down. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. [00:02:41] This is a promise in the old covenant to a very specific people. The Israelites. At a very specific place, at a very specific time addressing a very specific problem, and in that context, God is saying to those people, if you will pray, I will heal your land. Now, the [00:03:00] context that's about them. That concept of this passage though, is for all believers for all time. In the concept [00:03:09] it's very simple. God listens when we pray. God is moved when we pray. God cares when we take time to pray. And so the whole idea of United 714. Bring that back up, if you can? Unite 714. No the actual logo. There we go. Unite 714 is a global movement that we have jumped on board with that we're a part of. [00:03:33] Unite 714 is going to take churches from all around the world and bring them together and say, we're going to plead with God. Because we understand the concept that if we pray he will, he will move and and all across the world we're praying now listen, listen. Never in our lifetimes have we felt so powerless against such a strong enemy as we are sensing right now against this virus that we're dealing with. [00:04:00] [00:03:59] It's killing people left and right. Never in our lifetimes have more people been driven to their knees asking and pleading with God. I think this might prove to be a time like none other in our lifetimes, when people are going to come to faith in Jesus Christ, more people are doing that right now. [00:04:17] God is moving. Incredible things are happening, but it's not coincidental. It's because we're praying and so to be a part of this Unite 714 there's a couple of things that I, as pastor of the church I've said, I'm in, I'll bring, we're in, bring us in. Two things that are being asked of us. Twice a day at 7:14 in the morning and it's 7:14 in the evening that you literally would set up your phone or your watch to be reminded to stop what you're doing and pray to God. [00:04:47] Now that prayers on your own that you would just pray whatever you believe God's leading you to pray twice a day. Together though with all the other churches on the planet. Every weekend we're going to read and [00:05:00] we're going to pray together a prayer. That all of us in Unite 714 are going to be praying the same prayer. [00:05:08] So I'll read the prayer and lead us in this prayer this week. I'll do this sometimes in the message. Sometimes the presider will do it, but every week until this thing passes, we're going to pray. So if you would right now, just bow your head, listen to the words. I'll pray this prayer and then we'll get to the message. [00:05:28] Heavenly Father. For many weeks, we've been living under the constant threat of Covid-19. Bombarded by bad news and sequestered in our homes. We have faced deep concerns and even the eminent possibility of sickness and financial hardship. There have been days we have struggled to stand in faith. Still by Your power and grace [00:05:48] we rise up. We put our spiritual armor today. We put on our spiritual armor today through faith in Jesus Christ. We pray against Covid-19 by the word of God [00:06:00] and through the strength of the Holy Spirit, we resist all the effects of Covid-19 on us, our families, our churches, cities and nations. This virus has loomed over the nations of the world and has reached every aspect of society. [00:06:13] Despite these challenges, we stand before Covid-19 and declare our God is able to deliver us. We ask, oh God, that by Your great mercy Covid-19 will be eradicated. That we will soon see it gone and reduced to nothing. Heavenly Father, increase our faith, work in our hearts, produce in us, oh God, our character. [00:06:32] You have Your character. You have shown us Your mercy and grace countless times. We are thankful and humbly ask for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the peoples of the world. May countless millions be saved and discipled as Your Church boldly proclaims the gospel in this critical hour. This is our prayer and confidence through the mighty power of Jesus Christ, our Lord. [00:06:56] Amen. All right, so every [00:07:00] week I'm going to bring, we're going to bring a fresh prayer that we'll read on the weekend together as a body. Twice a day, your, your clock goes off, your watch goes off, your phone goes off. Whatever you sense God's leading you to pray. On your own, you just take time to pray and we're going to see what God's going to do and it's gonna be exciting. [00:07:19] Okay? So I want to start the message by just telling you an old story. You might've heard this story. It involves a battleship that had been out to sea. Fighting, inclement weather, heavy, heavy weather, and they'd been dealing with it. The captain was kind of anxious to get back the port because they had been facing the threat of even more eminent, bad weather. [00:07:40] And so. On this particular night he was actually out on the bridge and as he was out there, what happened is that the lookout on the bridge suddenly shouted captain, a light bearing on the starboard bow. And so he looked over the starboard bow and he asks the question, is it moving or is it a stern? [00:08:00] Is it stationary or is it moving a certain? [00:08:04] He said, sir, sir it looks to be stationary. This meant that another ship was approaching coming right at them and the collision was imminent. So he said to his flagmen, he said, Hey, send a signal to that ship. We are on a collision course. I advise you, change course 20 degrees. East. Back came the response from the other ship. [00:08:27] No sir. You change course 20 degrees. West. The agitated by the arrogance of this other person. The captain asked a signalmen to shoot out another message. I am a captain. You change your direction 20 degrees. East. Back came the second response. I am a seaman second class. You change your course 20 degrees. West. [00:08:52] The captain now was furious and so he, he shouts through the signalman, you send back this message, I am a battleship. [00:09:00] Change your degree. Change your direction. 20 degrees East right now. And that came the flasher response. I am a lighthouse, you're call captain, and so he changed his direction. Okay, well listen, I want to say this. [00:09:18] We're going to talk today about changing direction. We're going to talk about changing course. We're going to talk about making some adjustments. We have been in this series and it's been fun. We've been in the series, it's called Sail On. We're talking about traversing waters who've never been in without maps, without charts. [00:09:32] Just letting you know, kind of God lead us and using our wisdom to figure out what to do. It started two weeks ago, and the message two weeks ago, you might remember, was called Batten Down the Hatches. Batten down the hatches. Because you batten down the hatches as a storm is approaching, as you're coming into a storm, this is what you do before the storm hits. You batten down the hatches, you get ready. [00:09:55] So we talked about how do you get ready for a storm. And then last week [00:10:00] the message was called Stem the Tide, and Caleb did a fantastic job bringing this message. Stem the tide. Stem the tide is what you do during the storm and today's message is titled Trim the Sails! And I want to explain trim the sails is what you do after the storm, before the storm, batten down. During the storm, stem the tid. After the storm, [00:10:24] trim the sails. Now. It would be awesome if we never got blown off course in our life that everything was just smooth sailing and exactly a straight line, we're here, we want to go there, no issue, and we just proceed right towards that line. But trimming the sails is the idea of having to make adjustments. [00:10:47] Once you realize that we're off course, we're just not exactly where we want to be. So let's just say this, that our original plan. Our original course, we're going to call that Plan [00:11:00] A. Plan A was how we expected this to happen. Plan A. And folks, we all have a Plan A. Trimming the sales is all about Plan B. [00:11:12] Plan B is what you do after your Plan A collapses. Plan B is never your first choice. Plan A is always your first choice. Plan B, you often get pushed into because Plan A didn't go as you had planned. It's not like you have a lot of choice in your plan. It's not like if you work in an industry or a company or whatever the provides health insurance. [00:11:38] They once a year might say, okay, now you're going to have to make a choice. Is it going to be a PPO, is going to be an HSA? What do you want to do that you don't get a choice here we, uh, we end up in Plan B because Plan A just absolutely didn't work. Now Plan B is where we find ourselves today. We would not choose the reality that we're living. [00:11:58] We would not [00:12:00] choose to be fighting this virus and we would not choose to be threatened. We would not choose the economic fiasco that we're living through. Nobody would choose any of this, but we're here. How did we get here? We got blown off course. Our Plan A didn't materialize so we find ourselves now in Plan B. Now let me just say this, and there's so much I could say. [00:12:27] We would never choose to have our freedoms taken away that we've had taken away. We'd never choose to have to stay at home for 45 days on end. We would not choose to have to wear a face mask anytime and every time we'd ever go out in public, who would choose that? We wouldn't choose to stay six feet apart, not touch

each other in any, you know, like not shake hands or you know, high five or anything, we would not choose that. [00:12:52] We not choose to stand outside stores. And wait until we get a turn to go in. We would not choose to pick up food at a [00:13:00] restaurant instead of dining in. We wouldn't choose any of these things. We wouldn't choose to have our spouse cut our hair. Well, maybe. We wouldn't choose to stress out over getting our hands on toilet paper. [00:13:11] We wouldn't choose to not be able to visit our loved ones in the hospital. And while we love our kids, many would go. I wouldn't choose to spend my days being their teacher. That doesn't make you bad. It's just we didn't choose this and folks, we didn't choose to not be able to meet in our on our campuses. But this Plan B [00:13:32] right now. This is where we find ourselves not the first choice, but where we are. So welcome to Plan B. Now, what I want to do today is I want to encourage you in your Plan B. I want to try to explain to you that Plan B is not a bad plan. It's not the plan you chose, but I want to talk about what God can do in Plan B [00:13:50] that will never happen in Plan A. And I hope that that happens here. Now Plan B is very common in scripture. Plan B is all over scripture. In fact, Caleb talked [00:14:00] last week about the poster child of Plan B living, and that of course is Joseph. Joseph would never choose to be sold by his brothers into slavery. [00:14:10] He would never choose to be falsely accused and thrown into prison. He would never choose to have friends like a cup bearer betray him, and he would just wouldn't choose any of that. But guess what? That's what happened. And that's the story. Time and time again, it just seems like the story of Joseph goes south, it just goes south. [00:14:30] It just goes bad. But every downturn in his life became the setup for what God was ultimately going to do. That's a story of Plan B, and it's not exclusive to Joseph. You can go through scripture. You can find so many people. Joseph's dad was a guy named Jacob. His plan was to marry a different woman. You can read about it his, he got tricked into marrying the wrong woman. [00:14:58] I'm just telling you, read it. It [00:15:00] wasn't his plan to marry that woman. Plan B began for Abraham when he was a young man and he and his wife Sarah, were trying to conceive and they couldn't have kids. That was Plan A. Plan B was was not going to happen that way. Plan B was when Noah was asked by God to build a boat because the storm going to come. [00:15:22] Plan B was when Moses actually stood up for his country men and ended up killing a guy and then. Everything went dark and he ended up fleeing and got out of Egypt. That was Plan B. Plan B for David, uh, was one day he got up and he had no intention, but Plan B was someone has got to fight that big giant guy named Goliath. [00:15:45] Plan B is, it's you, David. Plan A would be the armies of Israel. No, No. The Plan B is, David, why don't you go fight that guy? Plan B for Job involved. Gosh, losing his [00:16:00] kids, losing his health, losing his wealth. That's all Plan B. Plan B began for the apostle Paul when he wanted so badly to go to Rome, the center of the universe. The empire at the time. [00:16:15] So he could tell everyone about Jesus. He had no intention of going in chains, and he had no intention on being ship wrecked on the Island of Malta, all Plan B stuff. And so I just want you to understand that, um, Plan B, uh, happens now, but before we can really understand Plan B, let's go back to Plan A. And let's just think for a little bit about Plan A. [00:16:38] I want to just encourage you to go back to being a kid, how ever old you are, go back. And just reminisce for a little bit in your own mind. Do you remember your Plan A, you know, the plan, the plan of your life, what you were going to do, how it was going to go. What were going to, what were you going to be when you grew up? [00:17:00] [00:17:00] Were you going to be the president? Were are you going to be a CEO?

Were going to be an astronaut? Were you going to be an invento? Were you going to be a race car driver? What were you going to be when you grew up? Did you have plans to be rich? Did you have plans to be famous? To be hugely successful? [00:17:21] Most likely you're in your Plan A, you imagined kind of a perfect life. You found the perfect spouse, you have perfect kids, you have the perfect career. Everything was exactly as you'd want it. All of this is Plan A. Ideal as it could be. Perfect and utterly unrealistic. Because, you were young and you were naive as were all of us. [00:17:46] We didn't understand how life really works. Nowhere in Plan A did you imagine the real problems you've experienced, the setbacks you've had to face, the disappointments you've had to endure? If you'd understood that was all [00:18:00] coming, you might have never gotten off the couch and actually started living your life. [00:18:04] You'd be locked down in fear. Who, whoever imagined that the one we set our vows to would break theirs. Whoever imagined that our kids would make the choices that they've made. Or that the doctor would say those words, not those words, the or that we would become addicted to alcohol or some drug or sex, pornography or whatever. [00:18:33] Whoever imagined that we'd be working at a dead end job. That was never a part of Plan A. Let me just explain something though about Plan A, because you can't appreciate Plan B until you fully got your brain around Plan A. So let's go back. Let me show you two things wrong with Plan A. Plan A, the first thing wrong with Plan A is this, in Plan A, you are fully in control. [00:18:56] Plan A is exactly the way you wanted [00:19:00] it to go. In Plan A, you are the master of your own destiny. Plan A is, this is my will carried out my way and my timing. That's the first wrong. The second thing wrong with Plan A, is in Plant A, you have no need for God. In Plan A, there's no need to trust God. [00:19:23] There's no need to depend on God. There's no need for faith in God. There's no need to pray to God. Plan A, everything's the way you want it. In Plan A, you are a God of your own universe. Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but God is not really interested in that setup. So what God has to do is He has to show us what's wrong with our plans. [00:19:45] So let me show you a couple of scriptures that I think highlight this. The first comes from the book of Proverbs. Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Oh God, you got to understand. No, no, I'm good. I got it all figured out. I have it all mapped out. I know exactly [00:20:00] what I'm going to, exactly how it's going to play out. [00:20:02] These are our plans in James chapter four I think it says it so well. Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow we'll go to this or that city. Spend a year there and carry on business and make money. Why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow, what is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. [00:20:24] Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance schemes. All such boasting is evil. You see, Plan A is all about my being in charge. I'm in control. I don't need anybody's help. It's all going to go the way I want. It is my plan and God get out of my way. [00:20:47] Well, I don't know if you've ever heard this saying, but if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans, tell him your plans because he's gonna move you out of Plan A and into plan B. [00:21:00] See, Plan B is not a bad place to be. Now, again, I hope you're connecting what I'm saying. We're in Plan B right now, but incredibly good things are happening in Plan B. [00:21:11] We didn't plan it, we didn't want it. Plan A was just keep it going the way it was. But along comes Plan B and we find ourselves blown off course and now we're dealing with stuff we weren't planning to deal with. So I only have a few minutes left in this message, but let me share with you, I think four things, powerful things. [00:21:29] That you can benefit from Plan B that you like. You can make the most of Plan B if you have these certain kind of ways of thinking. Let me, let me share what I'm talking about. Making the most of Plan B. Number one, except that it is inevitable, good and necessary. What? Yeah, this is inevitably, this is inevitable. [00:21:50] It's good and it's necessary. Well, you might be disappointed. That you're in your Plan B. God, God is not [00:22:00] overwhelmed. God has you. While you might feel like the winds, the gale force winds coming against me are so strong. I feel like I'm going to collapse. Well, I would point out that it's the gale force winds [00:22:12] that will provide the energy to put in your cells to get you where you need to go. If you can picture a, wind, beaten, you know, tree on the side of a cliff. It might be bent over, but, my goodness, it's roots are deep. It had to develop deep roots to bear up against such a wind. Erwin McManus says it this way. [00:22:34] The process of becoming the person God wants us to become usually doesn't come from success, success, success. We wanted that, this is Plan A. Success, success, sucess. That's Plan A. No it's loss, success, failure, success, heartbreak, success, disappointment, success. That's Plan B. Plan A success, success, success. Plan. [00:22:59] B [00:23:00] blown off here. Get back on course. Blown over here. Get back on course. I mentioned earlier the apostle Paul in his desire to go to Rome to declare the gospel. He has a section that he talks about in first Corinthians that is so powerful. He talks about the fact that he talks about the frustration of it not working out exactly like you wanted to work out here. [00:23:27] He talked about having an issue. We don't really know what his issue was, but something was causing him to struggle and he prayed to God.

In fact let me just read the passage. This is going to be, excuse me. I said, first Corinthians, it's second Corinthians 12. It says, therefore. Paul said, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me who wants that. [00:23:52] The three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away. When I, I think when he says three times, he's talking about three major seasons of his [00:24:00] life where he just pleaded with God, take this away now. But he said to me, no, no, we're good. My grace is sufficient for you. You didn't need to understand that my power is made perfect in weakness. [00:24:14] Then he said, well, once I didn't figure that out, I will. I will boast all the more gladly than about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sakes, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties for when I am weak. Then I am strong. Can I just point out nobody chooses these things, weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties. [00:24:37] I don't choose those. I get blown into those or they get blown into my plan. However you want to word it for when I am weak, then I am strong. You see, Plan B is about grasping the weakness that you really have in life and literally dropping to your knees and going God I don't know where to turn. [00:25:00] I, I feel overwhelmed. When God goes [00:25:03] yeah, that's really, really good. The second thing I would point out about, uh, making the most, except that it's inevitably good and it's necessary, but realize that God does his best work in Plan B and this, you've got to get your brain around cause you want to understand why God lets you get blown off course. [00:25:21] Why God allows things to happen in your life. It's in Plan B, where you have to learn how to trust God, not in Plan A. Plan B is the one where you're feeling insecure and uncertain and needy and dependent. It's only, get this. It's only in plan B. That miracles ever occur in your life. [00:25:43] Miracles never occur in Plan A why not? Because for Plan A to be Plan A, I don't need, I don't have a problem that needs a miracle. I don't need a miracle. I'm good. Plan B is when it goes bad and you start to [00:26:00] realize how deeply you need God, and you begin to plead with God for God. Uh, every miracle happens in a Plan B context. [00:26:09] You can't get a healing if you don't have a sickness. You can't get the miracle of the healing. If you don't have a sickness, you can't get the miracle of a resurrection if you don't have a death. And while you maybe have never thought about this, you would never have the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel, the good news of what God's done for us by dying for us on a cross if there weren't the need, because we strayed the garden in the garden all the way back in Genesis one and two, when we sinned. Plan A no sin Plan B, uh, what's God going to do. [00:26:51] Incredible story we live in with the grace of God is all part of Plan B, now here's the third one I would point out. [00:27:00] How to make the most, keep your eye and your mind on your intended destination. When it's all said and done, where, where's this, where are you going? Where are you going to end up, when it's all said and done? You see, you don't want to change the destination. [00:27:14] You want to change the direction. You got blown over here. That means you have to adjust. Trim the sails to go that way now. Don't change the destination. Storms serve as tremendous wake up calls. It says, if God shakes us to get us to understand, to see something. Storms caused us to reevaluate our direction, our values, our priorities. [00:27:41] Hmm. Fourth and last. Making the most of Plan B. Make the necessary adjustments to get there to your destination, that you have a vision where you want it to go to trim the sails, adjust this sails, tack the wind differently. [00:28:00] Uh, you know, it's interesting in this moment, right now, you, you are, you have never yet been better prepared to readjust your priorities. [00:28:13] To think about what's really important. What do you wish you would have done, I don't know, five years ago that would have helped you right now? It would have helped you to be better prepared for what you're going through spiritually and emotionally and financially. [00:28:30] Well, what would you, if I could go back, you see, this is, this is the incredible, incredible moment we're in. There's also the idea right now, you know what? When we say? Trim the sails. There's also a time to lighten the load. What should you be thrown overboard in your life? What should you be getting rid of right now so you could ride higher in the water and get to that destination more easily and quicker? [00:28:55] What should you do today? I want to close this message. I'm going to read something that [00:29:00] Andy Stanley wrote and then I'm going to pray. And Andy Stanley, if you don't know who he is, he's a pastor in Georgia and pastors, a church called North point, and. He just kind of says something from the heart of a pastor. [00:29:14] I want to close right now and read his words. He said this. As a preacher, I live in a world of nodding heads and note takers who walk right out the door every Sunday and do very little with what they've heard, and I don't take it personally. We've all done that. We listen agree, feel convicted, buy the CD, subscribe to the podcast. [00:29:36] And then take no action. We see trouble coming, but we just keep right on going. If there's going to be a change, you must take refuge. You've got to do something. Seeing it, feeling it, agreeing with it is not enough. You're going to need to make a phone call. Have an awkward but honest conversation with a friend. [00:29:58] Cut up some credit cards. Change your phone [00:30:00] number, break up, move out. Find a new circle of friends. Cut back on your traveling. Set the alarm clock on Sunday morning. Empty the liquor cabinet. Join a 12 step group. Take your family on vacation. Make an appointment with a counselor. Sell the house. Cancel your internet service. [00:30:14] Change jobs. Sell the TV, maybe do all of the above. Folks you don't need to change the destination. You just need to change the direction. Trim the sails so that you get on course to go where you intended to go. I know it's Plan B and God goes, I'm with you. Let's do this journey together. Let's pray. So God, for each and every person who's hearing this, wherever they are in the world right now, God, I pray that they are assured that You are with them and that You care and love them. [00:30:47] God, give them the wisdom to do what they need to do, to understand the adjustments that needed to be made to help them to arrive at the destination. That you have for them. God. The truth is nothing [00:31:00] changes when nothing changes, and yet we want change, but we don't want to change anything and you go, no, [00:31:04] make the adjustment. Trim the sails. Help us Father, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:31:14]