1. Two elderly sisters, who bought a house beside a the highway, and desiring people to visit, put up a sign that read "Antiques." People would stop, and the sisters would serve tea and cookies mixed with much enjoyable conversation. Eventually the would be customer would ask to see the antiques, the sisters would say: "You’re looking at them!" They had a plan and for their success in what they wanted.
2. In a speech to the student body in a small South Carolina College, the speaker talked of how she was born to a mother who was deaf and could not speak. She didn’t know who was his dad. The first job I ever had was in a cotton field." The audience was spellbound. "Nothing has to remain the way it is if that’s not the way a person wants it to be," she continued. "It isn’t luck, and it isn’t circumstances, and it isn’t being born a certain way that causes a person’s future to become what it becomes." She repeated, "Nothing has to remain the way it is if that’s not the way a person wants it to be." "All a person has to do," she added, "to change a situation that brings unhappiness or dissatisfaction is answering the question: ‘how do I want this situation to become?’ Then the person must commit totally to personal actions that carry them there. My name is Azie Taylor Morton. I stand before you today as Treasurer of the United States of America." (from Chicken Soup For The Soul at Work).
   1. She encourages us to consider a plan of action for our success in life.
   2. To get where we want to go without deviating, we need a plan.
3. In order to know were we want to go in life we need to make up our minds where it is we want to go and than consider a plan that will get us there.
   1. E. Stanley Jones in The Way to Power and Poise states it graphically, "If you don’t make up your mind, then your unmade mind will unmake you. Here is the place where there must be no dallying. For any dallying will be the Trojan horse that will get on the inside and open the gates to the enemy. God can do anything for the man who has made up his mind; he can do little or nothing for the double-minded."
   2. Many have plans but they are plan they have made up themselves, plans only for this life, that is without consideration of God (Jam 4:13-15).
      1. Jesus made it clear there is much more to life than the time we spend on this earth (Luk 20:27-38).
      2. One day we will all depart from this earth (Heb 9:27).
      3. What will become of all our plans for living on this earth when our live son earth end?
4. God has a plan for the successful outcome of each or our lives.
5. From Joshua’s example (Jos 1:6) we realize considering a plan requires:
   1. strength - be strong (2Sa22:33; Psa 62:7; 73:26; 84:5-7; Isa 40:31; Eph 6:10).
   2. courage - and of a good courage (Psa 31:24; 27:14).
   3. Joshua was told these things that he and Israel might “divide for an inheritance the land ... .”
6. In building our plan for eternal life in heaven we need a corner stone as a guide to keep us going in that direction (Isa 28:16; Zec 10:4).
   1. In life, Christ must be made our corner stone, the foundation of our faith.
      1. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth and the life ...” (Joh 14:6).
      2. We need to take care that the foundation of our lives is build upon Jesus’ word, that he is the cornerstone.
   2. A Canaanite woman made Jesus the corner stone of her plan to help her daughter who was “grievously vexed with a devil” (Mat 15:21-24).
   3. The Canaanite woman didn’t sit around complaining about her ill daughter, but had a plan a went to work putting it into action.

1. Jaime Escalante immigrated to the USA from Bolivia in 1969, where he taught mathematics and physics. He spoke no English, but was determined to succeed regardless of the odds against it. At age 30, he re-entered school to work toward his teaching credentials. Escalante’s life became the subject of the film, Stand And Deliver. He became one of the leading authorities on math teaching in the United States. He succeeded by choosing to keep to the plan he made.
2. You and I may face many difficulties in our family life, with our health, on the job, making faithful friends, even finding a spouse. The worst thing we can do is to give up.
   1. The Canaanite woman had the right person. Her story is more than determination alone, it was a story of faith. She knew that Jesus could help her and that, ultimately, he would help her. He will also help us too, if we will lean our lives upon him (Mat 11:28-30).
   2. A man told a story about his three-year-old son wanting a drink after having been put to bed. One night, he put the boy to bed with the usual hugs, story and prayers. Then the little boy said he wanted a drink. His dad refused, telling his son he had just had a drink when he brushed his teeth. He told his son it was than time to go to sleep. The dad had just slumped down in his favorite chair from his son’s bedroom came again the request for a drink water. The dad again told the son no that it was time to go to sleep. A short time later came the same request for a drink. The dad yelled down the hallway that if the son asked one more time, he was going to get a spanking. After a while the son said, "Daddy, when you come in here to spank me, could you bring me a drink of water?" [adapted John Maxwell ]
      1. The boy had an obstacle in the way of what he desired, but knew with his plan that he was on safe ground dealing with his loving father.
      2. You and I may face obstacles in life if we will follow God’s plan for our success, he is eager as a loving father, to heed anyone who comes to him in faith.
   3. Paul wrote that to avoid things from spoiling our plans we must determine to follow with our plans regardless of the situations in which we might find ourselves (Rom 12:1-2).
   4. From Joshua’s example (Jos 1:7) we realize choosing to follow our plan requires:
      1. obedience to our plan - “observe to do according to all the law” (Deu 11:26-28; Joh 14:15).
      2. consistency - “turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper”
      3. Joshua was told this that he might “prosper.”
   5. The Canaanite woman that went to Jesus with her demon possessed daughter had a great obstacle to overcome, being a Canaanite, but knowing exactly what she needed to do, with greater determination she remained tenaciously with her plan to overcome obstacle to her success (Mat 15:25-27).

1. Book publisher Bennett Cerf once told about a book called The Ten Commandments, which was to be published for the armed services during WW2. Unfortunately the book was too long. "How about using only five of them," quipped one of his editors, "and calling it A Treasury of the World’s Best Commandments?" Many people may have a plan but rather than whole hearted following God’s word, want to create their own treasury of our favorite commandments? It’s like a fellow who walked out of church one Sunday and told the preacher, You really encouraged me. Starting today, I’m going to keep one commandment a week until I get through all ten".
2. A man wrote of two women on the same plane trip and their experience with settling their children down for the flight.. One mother explained to her 2 ½ year old daughter that the planes engines were noisy when the plane took off, and how the force of the take off would push them back in their seats. The mother told her daughter they would hold hands for comfort. On that same flight was three year old with his mother. She put her son in the seat next to hers, fastened his seatbelt, and said, "Now, just sit there and be quiet. Mummy is going to sleep." The boy looked frightened and his hands trembled. In essence he was go to fly alone. One mother had a plan to help her child through the experience and was commitment to her plan. The other mother had no plan and no commitment. It would hardly be a surprise which mother would have a successful flight with her child. [adapted C. R. Snyder, The Psychology of Hope]
3. A woman wrote about her father. "When I was growing up, my dad worked long hours and missed most of my school activities. But when I joined the high school band, he said he’d be there for every game. He was true to his word until one Friday night during my senior year. His flight home from a business trip was landing 50 miles away at game time. I knew my mom would be alone in the stands. Yet, as the band marched onto the muddy field in the pouring rain, I happened to look outside the fence and noticed a figure in a wet trench coat holding a dripping umbrella over his head. I knew it was my dad. He’d arrived at the stadium just before half time. It was too late to buy a ticket, but that didn’t prevent him from keeping his promise. He was there, just like he said he’d be." [Today’s Christian Woman, Elaine Milsark ]
4. The only way to gain success from the plan, is to keep to the plan. It helps us to avoid taking the wrong directions from where we want to go.
   1. The Canaanite woman committed herself to the plan and received her reward (Mat 15:28).
   2. From Joshua’s example (Jos 1:8) we realize committing ourselves to our plan requires:
      1. dedication - “his book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth” (cp. Gal 6:9).
      2. devotion - “but thou shalt meditate therein day and night” (Psa 1:1-2)
      3. Joshua was told to do this “for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Psa 19:7-8; Mat 7:21-27).

More on: plan and success
Fastest FTPS and FTPS on the planet Go FTP FREE Client