Don't Count on Tomorrow
(Proverbs 27:1)
“Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
Don’t make assumptions about the future because you have no idea what might happen.
(Job 8:9) “For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow”
(Ecclesiastes 9:12) “For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”
This proverb reminds us of the uncertainty of life. Twenty-four hours can change so much in our world.
I think this proverb is a call to urgency and reality.
1) The UNCERTAINTY of life makes the most important things URGENT
Two most important things in life are having a right relationship with God and having a right relationship with others.
Two things define your relationship with God:
Salvation
(1John 5:11-13) “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
If you die without having received Christ as your Saviour you will go to Hell.
If others around you die without having received Christ as their Saviour they will go to Hell.
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(1Corinthians 15:34) “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”
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The message that we bring to others is a message of joy, honesty, and urgency!
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Would you not warn your child if they were in danger? Would you not rescue your child from a burning building?
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The message of the gospel is urgent because leaving this world without having received its offer of eternal life leads to eternal death in the lake of fire.
Fellowship
(1John 1:5-7) “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
If you die without having lived the majority of your Christian life for the glory of God you will lose rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
How do you measure your relationship with the Lord? Regular confession of sin, Obedience, Hatred of the world system, Love for correct doctrine, Love for other believers, Keeping yourself from idols
Your relationship with others is defined by how you treat them:
(Ephesians 4:31-32) “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
You don’t want something to happen to yourself or someone else close to you having a relationship strained because of unforgiveness or bitterness or words left unsaid.
We should take care of that argument today, we should say I love you today; we should forgive today.
(1John 3:11-18) "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."
Are you living with urgency? Urgency in your relationship with God and others?
2) The UNCERTAINTY of life helps us come to grips with REALITY as defined by God
Reality is that God’s will is being carried out despite the plans I have made.
(James 4:13-17) “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 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. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
The first negative response to God’s will is foolishly ignoring it, living as if God did not exist or was indifferent toward human behavior. (James 4:13)
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Many Jewish people dispersed throughout the ancient world were successful businessmen, itinerant merchants who naturally sought out the flourishing trade centers in which to do business.
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Wise planning and strategizing in business is not, of course, sinful in and of itself but commendable.
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No spiritual principles are violated by anything the businessmen said. The problem lies in what they did not do.
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They did extensive planning, but in the course of their planning, they totally ignored God; God was not part of their agenda
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I am completely out of touch with reality if I live as if God doesn’t exist.
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Making plans without any thought for what God desires is foolish.
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The best-laid plans do not always come to fruition, experience teaches us that.
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Life is but a vapor – the brevity of life
Parable of (Luke 12:16-21) "And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 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. 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. 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? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
(Isaiah 14:12-14) "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 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: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."
The second wrong response to God’s will is to acknowledge that God exists and has a will, but arrogantly rejecting it. (James 4:16)
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Those in the first group are practical atheists—living as if God did not exist.
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Those in this second category are self-theists—refusing to submit the uncertainties of life to God, they set themselves, their own goals, and their own wills above God.
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God’s will, though acknowledged, simply is not as important to them as their plans.
The third wrong response is to know what the right thing to do is but to not do it. (James 4:17)
The correct response is to recognize the Lord’s will and act according to it and follow it. (James 4:15)
Reality is that God is at work in this world and I am either working alongside His will or against His will.
(1John 2:16-17) “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
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