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Does God feature in your future?
James 4 v 13-17
Who will host the 2006 world cup? England or Germany? Doesn’t it seem so far away, but these things need to be planned in advance.
A member of the new Scottish Parliament wants Ireland, Wales and Scotland to apply to host the world cup in 2010!
Day by day we plan for things in the future, people in employment will probably have a pension to contribute to. If you are at school every exam, every test is pointing to the future. We want the best qualifications we can manage, to get the best job or perhaps to fulfil our ambitions.
I wanted to be a politician and save Ulster but thank God Ulster was saved from me.
I can remember some in my class at school wanting to become journalists, teachers and doctors.
Some did achieve what they set out to obtain.
All of us have made plans for the future.
In the word of God in James, we read about a man who had great plans, but he left a very important detail out. It could be that some of you reading this message fall into the same category, perhaps even some Christian.
Sir Walter Scott in his diary penned these words,
tomorrow we shall…. He never finished the entry as he passed into eternity.I wonder have you made the mistake of so many?
Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
God is not even taken into account when you plan for tomorrow.
Remember the rich farmer in Luke’s gospel chapter twelve.
Luke 12:17-19 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? [18] And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. [19] And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
He had many plans.
Luke 12:20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
He left God out of his plans, God was not in all his thoughts.
Does God feature in your future?
Rev. 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
You were on the mind of God.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
You were on his mind.
Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
When he was on the cross you were on his mind.
God has thought about you, in his plans, he made preparation for you to be saved, but be honest, you would have to say that God is not in your thoughts.
God doesn’t feature in your future.
Let us look at this man in the book of James.
1. His proposal.
James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
"Go to now," is James’ way of saying to us,
"sit up and listen, pay attention.""Today or tomorrow," this man is a careful planner. I read a note in someone’s home on one occasion, " I would get organised but I would only confuse my family."
This man was bang up to date, he was living in tomorrow’s world.
He was really with it, filofax, personal organiser, all was carefully laid out, "today or tomorrow."
Have you your future mapped out like this?
You know exactly where you are going.Let me say that there is no sin in careful planning.
b. The destination
James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
He had the very city worked out, maybe you will stay in this city perhaps you intend to go to university in some other city, across the sea, perhaps you would like to work in London, Paris even New York!
Have you got the time and the town all planned out?
This man was a well-organised person, his future was well mapped out for him. I think he would have his desk nice and neat, unlike mine, they used to say at work that I didn’t have a filing system but a piling system.
I would say, if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what is an empty desk a sign of?
c. The duration
James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
He was going to stay a year.
How long have you planned to stay? Maybe some young person and in your mind your counting the days. Soon you will be eighteen. Bye bye mum, freedom at last.
Have you your plans all made? You know where you are going and even how long you will stay.
Does God feature in your future?
d. His desire
James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
He was going to buy and sell and get gain. He wanted to make a profit. It’s good to have enterprise, its good to make a profit.
Dear Christian friend what is uppermost in your mind?
Matthew 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Does God really feature in your future? You have a lot of plans but have you thought about laying them before the Lord, and saying, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" Instead of, "Lord I am doing this."
Dear non- Christian, have you great desires?
Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
There is nothing wrong with what this man has proposed; the problem is that God didn’t feature in his future.
2. His problem.
James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
You have made all these plans but do not consider for one moment that death could rob you of all your ambitions, all your plans and all your prospects.
Life according to James is just like the steam from a kettle, your breath on a cold frosty morning, you see it for a moment then it is gone.
Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Psalm 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Life at best is very very brief.
Men have had their plans destroyed because they have died.
One of the greatest artists in the world, Raphael began to paint the transfiguration; he died aged thirty-seven the painting unfinished.
Franz Shubert left his great-unfinished symphony.
Charles Dickens left a novel unfinished.
Can’t you see the futility of not featuring God in your future?
Ephes. 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
No matter what hopes you have, God says you have
no hope, if you die without Christ.Does God feature in your future?
Young Christian time is short, only one life twill soon be past, only what’s done for Jesus will last.
Are you busy for the Lord?
3.The providence
James 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
James is saying make sure God features in your future.
When we consider the providence of God, consider what he controls.
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
Daniel 5:23 and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
Job 12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
Rev. 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
One day God will turn the key and say, "time is up for you."
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
He is able to save you because of Calvary.
2 Tim. 1:12 For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Wouldn’t it make great sense if God featured in your future?
4. His pride.
James 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
This man boasted that he was in control of his own life, God was not even considered, he was a practical atheist.
Many plans, many prospects but God didn’t feature in his future.
He was proud.
Two ducks and a frog played together in a pond, eventually the pond dried up. The ducks could fly, but what about the frog? One of the ducks let the frog hang on with his mouth to his bill. While they flew away to a new pond. A farmer looked on with amazement and said,
"That was a great idea, whose was it?" The frog filled with pride opened his mouth and said mine--- and he crashed to his death.Pride comes before a fall.
Dear unsaved friend pride will take you to a lost eternity.
Too proud to say,
"I need the Lord." Too proud to say, "I am a sinner."Too proud to let God feature in your future.
It was pride that ruined Satan.
Isaiah 14:13-15 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: [14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. [15] Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
James 4:16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
All such rejoicing is evil, if God doesn’t feature in your future you will be in hell for all eternity, that is no laughing matter.
4.His procrastination.
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Surely by now you know that God should feature in your future?
This man knew to do good, to do the right thing, but he didn’t. What about you?
If I were to ask you, what you have to do to get to hell? Perhaps you would begin with.
These are all sins that we could do, but most people will be in Hell because of something they did not do.
James is speaking hear about sins of omission not commission.
You know to do good, but do not, that is sin.
You know that God should feature in your future but you just do nothing about it.
Let me show you the greatest sin of omission.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
He that believeth not, sin of omission is condemned already.
What must I do to be saved?
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
What must I do to be lost?
NOTHING.
James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good,
and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Isn’t it time that, God featured in your future?
Alexander the great was asked how he conquered the world,
"By not delaying."Hebrews 3:15 while it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Make sure God features in your future, or you will have no future.
In fact it’s more that God featuring in your future, it is making God your future.
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