Whose Agenda?
James MacDonald - Senior Pastor - Harvest Bible Chapel
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
—Philippians 1:21-26
We’re thinking a lot this month about God’s agenda. I want to challenge you to plug into God’s plan. Are you listening? I want to urge you to take your life and 100 percent, as best as you know how, connect with the agenda of Almighty God, who made this world.
Notice, I didn’t say I want you to plug God into your agenda. Lots of people have tried to do that. That’s a bad plan. You can’t plug God into your agenda—He doesn’t “add on†very well at all. I’ve tried that. You can’t say, “Hey, God, cool, You love me. You sent Your Son to die for me. Come on, You can be on my team. There’s a lot of stuff I want to make happen in this world, God, and if You’d just like to kind of sign up with me, I bet You’d be a real aid to my agenda.†No, you can’t plug God into your agenda.
Let me say this also. You can’t plug your agenda into God’s. It doesn’t work to say, “OK, well, You’re bigger than me, so, tell You what, I’ll get on Your team, but I want to bring my agenda with me. And then we’ll mainly work on Your stuff, but in our leftover time we’ll make sure that all my stuff happens.†Bad plan. God isn’t interested in multi-tasking. You can’t plug your agenda into His plan.
There’s only one agenda. It’s just God’s. All there is boils down to what God is trying to accomplish in this world in which we live. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-39, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.â€
Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.†At that point he was on God’s agenda. His plans; his life—all in God’s hands. If you want that kind of life, God’s Word tells you exactly how to get it. But I’ve gotta say this first. You can’t know or understand God’s agenda; you can’t plug into or live for it until you realize God’s agenda has to be the whole plan, 24/7 for all of life.
