HOW TO FACE YOUR FUTURE SECTION
HOW TO FACE YOUR FUTURE SECTION 10 - JAMES 4:13-17
The bible doesn't condemn making a legitimate profit. The bible talks a lot about planning too. This man has planned everything. His purpose, the place, the progress. He's got all the bases covered. What's wrong here? James says the first common mistake we make is planning without God. There's not a single mention of God in this entire business plan. He knew what he wanted, he knew how to get there, but he didn't check it out with God first. Make no misunderstand the bible talks about planning. No man goes out and builds a house without first considering how much it's going to cost. And the book of Proverbs says over and over again that if I don't plan I'm a fool. It's wise to plan, he not talking about planning, he's talking about presumption without God. It's great to have dreams, it's great to have goals—as long as you include God, as long as you pray about it. There's nothing wrong with what he did— it's what he forgot to do, he forgot to include God, his attitude was one of selfsufficiency. This is what James is talking about, you can be a believer and forget God in your daily life.A lot of people who love the Lord with all their heart, but when it comes to planning their business or career or their school education they are practical atheists.
It's sad to meet someone who says, "I don't believe in God." It's sadder to find somebody who says, "I believe He exists," but then acts like He doesn't exist. He doesn't make any plans involving the Lord, he just goes off on his own as if all depends on him. We say, "I believe in God." But does He have a say in our business? All business is God's business ifyou're a believer. Don't plan without God. That's presumptuous. Planning with out God is practical atheism.
Include God in your goal setting. What you aught to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." Have you realized that the best plans of mice and man often fall through? There is a thing called Murphy's Law. If things can go wrong they will. Count on it! Life is just one big if. Right in the middle of LIFE is IF. Life is pretty ify. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow , you don't know either. I can make an educated guess. But planning without God is presumptuous. The starting point in facing the future is to say, God, what do You want me to do. What do You want me not to do. Plan-ning without prayer is presumptuous. He says we should preface all our planning with the phrase, if the Lord wills.He saying that the whole attitude of our life should be It's up to God. What ever He wants me to do is what I want.
Christians for hundreds of years used to write the initials D.V. at the end of their letters. They'd sign their name and then write D.V. It stood for the Latin phrase Deo Valente or Lord willing. James says that ought to be our response to life. It's OK to plan but include God in your plans and goal setting.
I admit that God has a Will and I accept it, acknowledge it, make reference to it. We more than anything else, we want God's Will in our lives. What God wants, that's our plan. We deeply desire it.
We make our plans, but God has the last word. Man proposes, God disposes. (Proverbs 16:1) We should make plans - count on God to direct us. (Proverbs 16:9) We should stop praying God bless what I'm doing. Instead pray, God, help me to do what you're blessing. God is doing a lot of fantastic things in the world. We just want to be a part of them. Help me to do what You're blessing. I don't want my plans, I want Your plans in my life because Your plans will provide success in my life. Planning without God is the first mistake. You over come it by including God in your goal setting. The second mistake is Presuming about tomorrow. Taking for granted, assuming I'm going to live forever, I've got the rest of my life.
Why we 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. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. There are a couple of reasons we shouldn't presume about the future and assume that we've got tomorrow. Life is unpredictable you don't even know. None of us know what's going to happen tonight much less next year. All we can do is make guesses. Life is so unpredictable.A war could start, the economy could turn around, your friends could leave you. None of us know what's going to happen in life. Many of you work on commission, or you are selfemployed. You go from feast to famine in your income. One day it's great and the next day it's the pits. You don't have any assurance. There is no guarantee of perpetual success. Realize you cannot presume on tomorrow, life is that uncertain.
Don't worry about it or be afraid, just let it cause you to trust God more, let it cause you to be more dependent on God. You don't know what's going to happen in your life or your business. It just forces you to trust God more. Life is brief. You are a mist "Mist in Greek is atmos, where we get the word atmosphere.
Your life is like a fog; it rolls in, in the morning but it burns off by noon. Who knows how long we're going to live? None of us do. How does the Bible describe your life? It uses phrases like a leaf, grass, shadow, cloud, puff of smoke, vapor. I'm only one heartbeat away from eternity. I don't know how long I'm going to live. Life is short. It goes so fast from hot wheels to wheelchair. Diapers-Dignity-Decay. Life's brief. Watch out and don't presume you have the rest of your life. Don't take tomorrow for granted. (Isaiah 56:12) "Come, " they say. "We will get some wine and have a party. Let's all get drunk. Let this go on and on, and tomorrow will be even better. " Do you know anybody with that kind of attitude? Life is great! Lets party! Lets get drunk! Bring on the wine! Live it up and have fun. We're going to live forever. James says that's a dumb attitude toward life. You can't presume that tomorrow is going to be just the same as today. You can't presume that you’re going to live to be a 100. (Proverbs 27:1) Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring. Announcing a goal can either be a statement of faith or it can be a statement of arrogance. What makes the difference? Your motive! Why are you saying what you’re saying? God says it's great to have goals but check in with Me first. Let me share with you what I think your goals ought to be. Don't worry about tomor-row, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
Don't make the mistake of planning without God and don't make the mistake of presuming about tomorrow. Instead, include God in your planning and make the most of today. Live one day at a time. Remember, it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James is talking about the issue of procrastination. "I'm intending to do it." Ever met somebody who is always "aiming to do it." We love to put off. James says that's a trap. Just because you know the right thing to do doesn't mean you're going to do it.
How do you define sin? We think of evil activities: murder, commit adultery, cheat, lie, steal. Those are sins of commission. But there's another kind of sin - sins of omission. "To him who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it's sin." I can do nothing and still sin, because there are things I ought to be doing. You don't do anything but you still forget God in your life.
Christianity is more than simply avoiding evil.If all that the Christian life was, was a bunch of don'ts-- don't do this, don't do that, then everybody who is dead would qualify as a Christian, because they don't do anything. Pro-crastination is a subtle trap - it's the land of "Someday I'll...." "One of these days...." and you never do because we presume upon tomorrow.
"One of these days I'm going to get serious about God. I'm really going to get committed." God says you don't have any guarantee of tomorrow, none at all. The solution is "Do it now".
If someone comes to you and asks you a favor, don't say "tomorrow". Don't procrastinate. If you can do it now, do it now. There are three things you can do with your life: spend it, waste it, invest it. You can waste your life; there are a lot of ways. TV commercials will show you lots of ways to waste your time, money, life. Or you can spend it. You can spend your life trying to acquire things: fame, pleasure. Or you can invest your life. The best use of life is to invest it on something that is going to outlast it. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose. What's going to last forever? The Word of God and people. People will last one of two places for eternity. Where I spend my time now may determine where I'll spend eternity. Invest your life in things that will last - the Word of God and people. We worry about the duration— how long are we going to live. Am I making my life count or frittering it away on nonessentials, things that aren't going to count. God says, Make your life count — do it now!
This guy has "I" problems, all he can see is himself. Doing my thing for "me". God says, "How dumb!" You don't know how long you're going to live. Don't worry all the time, "Am I going to die tonight?"
Man's boasting only covers up man's weakness. "Man proposes but God disposes," "the lot is cast into the lap: but the whole disposing thereof is of the lord". (Proverbs 16:33) Man cannot control future events. He has neither the wisdom to see the future nor the power to control the future. For him to boast is sin; it is making himself God.
How foolish it is for people to ignore the will of God. It is like going through the dark jungles without a map, or over the stormy seas without a compass. "But as it is" turns the attention to the present corrupt attitude they had. The basic evil displayed is that of presumptuous arrogance. "The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life." Those worldly attitudes are further stated by John as not having their source from the father, but from the world. Such boasting with its accompanying pretentious bragging "is evil." It has satanic characteristics, for Satan is called "the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16; Matthew 6:13) Because "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (John 5:19), it is small wonder that worldliness exhibiting itself in arrogant boastfulness is said to be evil.You're not an accident. It starts when you give your life to Jesus, God's Son, and you commit yourself to Him. He becomes the manager of your life and He will direct you. You weren't made and created just to breathe and take up space, get up in the morning, go to work, come home and watch TV, go to bed, retire and die. The person who acts as if God doesn't exist in his planning is no different than the person who doesn't believe He exists.
(James 4:17) Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.We tend to think that doing wrong is sin. But James tells us that sin is also not doing right. (These two kinds of sin are sometimes called sins of commission and sins of omission.) It is a sin to lie; it can be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid him when you know he needs your friendship. We should be willing to help as the Holy Spirit guides us If God has directed you to some kind act to do, some service to render, or some relationship to restore, do it and you will experience a renewed and refreshed vitality to your Christian faith.
James is saying that none of us have any right to just plan our lives as if God doesn't even care. Check in with Him first. Do you have a tendency to take tomorrow for granted? There will always be time to spend with my kids. Right now we're just trying to make ends meet. Once we reach a certain economic level, then I'm going to spend more time with my husband/wife. Right! What starts out as a temporary condition ends up as a permanent lifestyle. People are going a 100 miles an hour, bringing in the bucks. And then once they have them, there are no relationship left. If you had a week left how would you spend it? What would you do with your husband, wife, children?
God says, live each day and week as if it were last. You can only live right now.
The number one way we presume on tomorrow is credit buying. An undue amount of credit buying is presumption on the future. "We can afford it. Things are only going to get better!" That's presuming on tomorrow. Live each day as if it were your last. James says you don't know what is going to happen. Is God a partner in your business? How? Prove it. How do you know if God's a partner in your business? Simple. Does He get part of the profits? Whoever heard of a business partnership where one partner took all the profits?
What have you been knowing that you ought to do and you know is the right thing to do but you're just been putting it off? Someday I'll get around to it. James says, "Do it now." Right now! Don't wait. Someday I'm going to give my life totally to God. Why not today? There's not a better time. Give your life to Christ. He's the bridge to God. Pray, "God, I want You in my life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel McGee: Teaches Adult Sunday school at South River Baptist Church, Statesville NC. He may be reached at: 172 Seven Springs Loop, Statesville, NC 28625
(James 4:13) Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and
such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit";
The bible doesn't condemn making a legitimate profit. The bible talks a lot about planning too. This man has planned everything. His purpose, the place, the progress. He's got all the bases covered. What's wrong here? James says the first common mistake we make is planning without God. There's not a single mention of God in this entire business plan. He knew what he wanted, he knew how to get there, but he didn't check it out with God first. Make no misunderstand the bible talks about planning. No man goes out and builds a house without first considering how much it's going to cost. And the book of Proverbs says over and over again that if I don't plan I'm a fool. It's wise to plan, he not talking about planning, he's talking about presumption without God. It's great to have dreams, it's great to have goals—as long as you include God, as long as you pray about it. There's nothing wrong with what he did— it's what he forgot to do, he forgot to include God, his attitude was one of selfsufficiency. This is what James is talking about, you can be a believer and forget God in your daily life.A lot of people who love the Lord with all their heart, but when it comes to planning their business or career or their school education they are practical atheists.
It's sad to meet someone who says, "I don't believe in God." It's sadder to find somebody who says, "I believe He exists," but then acts like He doesn't exist. He doesn't make any plans involving the Lord, he just goes off on his own as if all depends on him. We say, "I believe in God." But does He have a say in our business? All business is God's business ifyou're a believer. Don't plan without God. That's presumptuous. Planning with out God is practical atheism.
Include God in your goal setting. What you aught to say is, "If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that." Have you realized that the best plans of mice and man often fall through? There is a thing called Murphy's Law. If things can go wrong they will. Count on it! Life is just one big if. Right in the middle of LIFE is IF. Life is pretty ify. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow , you don't know either. I can make an educated guess. But planning without God is presumptuous. The starting point in facing the future is to say, God, what do You want me to do. What do You want me not to do. Plan-ning without prayer is presumptuous. He says we should preface all our planning with the phrase, if the Lord wills.He saying that the whole attitude of our life should be It's up to God. What ever He wants me to do is what I want.
Christians for hundreds of years used to write the initials D.V. at the end of their letters. They'd sign their name and then write D.V. It stood for the Latin phrase Deo Valente or Lord willing. James says that ought to be our response to life. It's OK to plan but include God in your plans and goal setting.
I admit that God has a Will and I accept it, acknowledge it, make reference to it. We more than anything else, we want God's Will in our lives. What God wants, that's our plan. We deeply desire it.
We make our plans, but God has the last word. Man proposes, God disposes. (Proverbs 16:1) We should make plans - count on God to direct us. (Proverbs 16:9) We should stop praying God bless what I'm doing. Instead pray, God, help me to do what you're blessing. God is doing a lot of fantastic things in the world. We just want to be a part of them. Help me to do what You're blessing. I don't want my plans, I want Your plans in my life because Your plans will provide success in my life. Planning without God is the first mistake. You over come it by including God in your goal setting. The second mistake is Presuming about tomorrow. Taking for granted, assuming I'm going to live forever, I've got the rest of my life.
(James 4:14) Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Why we 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. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. There are a couple of reasons we shouldn't presume about the future and assume that we've got tomorrow. Life is unpredictable you don't even know. None of us know what's going to happen tonight much less next year. All we can do is make guesses. Life is so unpredictable.A war could start, the economy could turn around, your friends could leave you. None of us know what's going to happen in life. Many of you work on commission, or you are selfemployed. You go from feast to famine in your income. One day it's great and the next day it's the pits. You don't have any assurance. There is no guarantee of perpetual success. Realize you cannot presume on tomorrow, life is that uncertain.
Don't worry about it or be afraid, just let it cause you to trust God more, let it cause you to be more dependent on God. You don't know what's going to happen in your life or your business. It just forces you to trust God more. Life is brief. You are a mist "Mist in Greek is atmos, where we get the word atmosphere.
Your life is like a fog; it rolls in, in the morning but it burns off by noon. Who knows how long we're going to live? None of us do. How does the Bible describe your life? It uses phrases like a leaf, grass, shadow, cloud, puff of smoke, vapor. I'm only one heartbeat away from eternity. I don't know how long I'm going to live. Life is short. It goes so fast from hot wheels to wheelchair. Diapers-Dignity-Decay. Life's brief. Watch out and don't presume you have the rest of your life. Don't take tomorrow for granted. (Isaiah 56:12) "Come, " they say. "We will get some wine and have a party. Let's all get drunk. Let this go on and on, and tomorrow will be even better. " Do you know anybody with that kind of attitude? Life is great! Lets party! Lets get drunk! Bring on the wine! Live it up and have fun. We're going to live forever. James says that's a dumb attitude toward life. You can't presume that tomorrow is going to be just the same as today. You can't presume that you’re going to live to be a 100. (Proverbs 27:1) Don't brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring. Announcing a goal can either be a statement of faith or it can be a statement of arrogance. What makes the difference? Your motive! Why are you saying what you’re saying? God says it's great to have goals but check in with Me first. Let me share with you what I think your goals ought to be. Don't worry about tomor-row, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.
(James 4:15) Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do
this or that "
Don't make the mistake of planning without God and don't make the mistake of presuming about tomorrow. Instead, include God in your planning and make the most of today. Live one day at a time. Remember, it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James is talking about the issue of procrastination. "I'm intending to do it." Ever met somebody who is always "aiming to do it." We love to put off. James says that's a trap. Just because you know the right thing to do doesn't mean you're going to do it.
How do you define sin? We think of evil activities: murder, commit adultery, cheat, lie, steal. Those are sins of commission. But there's another kind of sin - sins of omission. "To him who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it's sin." I can do nothing and still sin, because there are things I ought to be doing. You don't do anything but you still forget God in your life.
Christianity is more than simply avoiding evil.If all that the Christian life was, was a bunch of don'ts-- don't do this, don't do that, then everybody who is dead would qualify as a Christian, because they don't do anything. Pro-crastination is a subtle trap - it's the land of "Someday I'll...." "One of these days...." and you never do because we presume upon tomorrow.
"One of these days I'm going to get serious about God. I'm really going to get committed." God says you don't have any guarantee of tomorrow, none at all. The solution is "Do it now".
(Proverbs 3:27-28) (27) do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it's
in your power to help them. (28) If you can help your neighbor now, don't say,
"Come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you. "
If someone comes to you and asks you a favor, don't say "tomorrow". Don't procrastinate. If you can do it now, do it now. There are three things you can do with your life: spend it, waste it, invest it. You can waste your life; there are a lot of ways. TV commercials will show you lots of ways to waste your time, money, life. Or you can spend it. You can spend your life trying to acquire things: fame, pleasure. Or you can invest your life. The best use of life is to invest it on something that is going to outlast it. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose. What's going to last forever? The Word of God and people. People will last one of two places for eternity. Where I spend my time now may determine where I'll spend eternity. Invest your life in things that will last - the Word of God and people. We worry about the duration— how long are we going to live. Am I making my life count or frittering it away on nonessentials, things that aren't going to count. God says, Make your life count — do it now!
(James 4:16) But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil
Man cannot boast; if he does, it is sin.
(Luke 12:16-21)(16) And he gave an illustration: "A rich man had fertile farm
that produced fine crops.(17) In fact, his barns were full to overflowing.(18)
So he said, 7 know! I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I'll
have room enough to store everything.(19) And I'll sit back and say to myself my
friend, you have enough stored away for years to come, Now take it easy! Eat
drink, be merry!'(20) "But God said to him, "You fool! You will die this very
night. Then who will get it all.(21) "Yes, a person is a fool to store up
earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God. "
This guy has "I" problems, all he can see is himself. Doing my thing for "me". God says, "How dumb!" You don't know how long you're going to live. Don't worry all the time, "Am I going to die tonight?"
Man's boasting only covers up man's weakness. "Man proposes but God disposes," "the lot is cast into the lap: but the whole disposing thereof is of the lord". (Proverbs 16:33) Man cannot control future events. He has neither the wisdom to see the future nor the power to control the future. For him to boast is sin; it is making himself God.
How foolish it is for people to ignore the will of God. It is like going through the dark jungles without a map, or over the stormy seas without a compass. "But as it is" turns the attention to the present corrupt attitude they had. The basic evil displayed is that of presumptuous arrogance. "The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life." Those worldly attitudes are further stated by John as not having their source from the father, but from the world. Such boasting with its accompanying pretentious bragging "is evil." It has satanic characteristics, for Satan is called "the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16; Matthew 6:13) Because "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (John 5:19), it is small wonder that worldliness exhibiting itself in arrogant boastfulness is said to be evil.You're not an accident. It starts when you give your life to Jesus, God's Son, and you commit yourself to Him. He becomes the manager of your life and He will direct you. You weren't made and created just to breathe and take up space, get up in the morning, go to work, come home and watch TV, go to bed, retire and die. The person who acts as if God doesn't exist in his planning is no different than the person who doesn't believe He exists.
(James 4:17) Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.We tend to think that doing wrong is sin. But James tells us that sin is also not doing right. (These two kinds of sin are sometimes called sins of commission and sins of omission.) It is a sin to lie; it can be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid him when you know he needs your friendship. We should be willing to help as the Holy Spirit guides us If God has directed you to some kind act to do, some service to render, or some relationship to restore, do it and you will experience a renewed and refreshed vitality to your Christian faith.
James is saying that none of us have any right to just plan our lives as if God doesn't even care. Check in with Him first. Do you have a tendency to take tomorrow for granted? There will always be time to spend with my kids. Right now we're just trying to make ends meet. Once we reach a certain economic level, then I'm going to spend more time with my husband/wife. Right! What starts out as a temporary condition ends up as a permanent lifestyle. People are going a 100 miles an hour, bringing in the bucks. And then once they have them, there are no relationship left. If you had a week left how would you spend it? What would you do with your husband, wife, children?
God says, live each day and week as if it were last. You can only live right now.
The number one way we presume on tomorrow is credit buying. An undue amount of credit buying is presumption on the future. "We can afford it. Things are only going to get better!" That's presuming on tomorrow. Live each day as if it were your last. James says you don't know what is going to happen. Is God a partner in your business? How? Prove it. How do you know if God's a partner in your business? Simple. Does He get part of the profits? Whoever heard of a business partnership where one partner took all the profits?
What have you been knowing that you ought to do and you know is the right thing to do but you're just been putting it off? Someday I'll get around to it. James says, "Do it now." Right now! Don't wait. Someday I'm going to give my life totally to God. Why not today? There's not a better time. Give your life to Christ. He's the bridge to God. Pray, "God, I want You in my life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel McGee: Teaches Adult Sunday school at South River Baptist Church, Statesville NC. He may be reached at: 172 Seven Springs Loop, Statesville, NC 28625
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