But God had a purpose in us not knowing everything.
Illus: A man was wandering around a fairground and he happened to see a fortuneteller's tent.
Thinking it would be good for a laugh, he went inside and sat down. "Ahh....." said the woman, as she gazed into her crystal ball. "I see you are the father of two children." "That's what you think," said the man scornfully. "I'm the father of THREE children."
The woman grinned and said, "That's what YOU think!"
We do not know what the future holds.
Illus: During the Monica Lewinski saga at the White House, it is said that Hillary Clinton sneaked off to visit a fortuneteller.
In a dark and hazy room, peering into a crystal ball, the mystic delivered shocking news.
"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be blunt: Prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year."
Visibly shaken, Hillary stared at the woman's face, and said, “I know what you say is true, but I need to know one thing ---Will I be acquitted?"
This time of the year is suppose to be the busiest time of the year for fortunetellers, because people want to know what the future holds for them this coming year.
But the Bible makes it clear; NO MAN KNOWS THE FUTURE. NO MAN!
If I can’t tell you what will take place in the next minute, how can I tell you what is going to take place over the next 365 days? We just have to live each day trusting the Lord to take care of us.
In James 4:13-15, we read, “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: 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.”
Look at these words in verse 14, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.” If we knew what tomorrow holds it would affect our lives greatly!
If anyone knew what the future held, they could become rich overnight by investing in the stock market.
If you ask these spiritual hucksters about why aren’t they rich, they will tell you this gift does not work for their own needs. THIS IS A COP OUT!
Illus: Suppose a man comes to them wanting to know what the stock market is going to do tomorrow, so he will know how to invest his money. And suppose this fortuneteller looks into this crystal ball and tells him that the WALMART STOCK is going to double tomorrow. If this information was true, don’t you think they would invest everything they have in the Walmart Stock?
Fortunetellers prey on the ignorance of man. Only God knows what this coming year will hold for us.
(1) OUR CAR MAY BREAK DOWN. WE MAY BE FORCED TO BUY ANOTHER CAR
We do not know what the future holds.
(2) OUR KITCHEN APPLIANCES MAY GO BAD AND WE MAY HAVE TO REPLACE THEM
(3) OUR TELEVISION SET, COMPUTER OR TELEPHONE MAY GO BAD AND WE WILL HAVE TO REPLACE THEM
We never know what things will be like in the coming days. As Christians, we do not know WHAT TOMORROW HOLDS, but thank God, we know WHO HOLDS TOMORROW!
This coming year there are THREE things we all will need. I will only have time to deal with one of these things this sermon and I will deal with the other two in the evening service.
First, we see that -
I. WE ARE GOING TO NEED CONTENTMENT
While we do not know what the future holds, we know that there will be things in this New Year that will bring misery and discontentment to our life IF WE ALLOW IT.
Notice, I said, “If we allow it!” We do not HAVE to allow DISCONTENTMENT to rule our life this year.
We do not have the control over events in our life that confront us. A chain of events controls so much of our life.
Illus: For example -
• In the heat of summer, a fly is resting on a leaf beside a lake. A hot, dry fly, who says to no one in particular, "If I move down three inches, I will feel the mist from the water and I will be refreshed."
• There is a fish in the water thinking, "If that fly comes down three inches I can jump up out of the water and eat him."
• There is a bear on the shore thinking, "If that fly goes down three inches, the fish will jump for the fly and I will eat him."
• It also happens that there is a hunter further up the bank of the lake preparing to eat a cheese sandwich, and he thinks, "If that fly moves down three inches and the fish leaps for it, that bear will expose himself and grab for the fish. I'll shoot him then sit down and enjoy my lunch."
• You probably think this is end of the story, but there is also a tiny mouse hiding by the hunter's foot. The mouse is thinking, "If that fly goes down three inches, and that fish jumps for that fly and the bear grabs the fish, this dumb hunter will shoot the bear and drop his cheese sandwich."
• A cat lurking in the bushes takes in this entire scene and thinks, "If that fly moves down three inches, and the fish jumps for that fly, and the bear grabs the fish, and the hunter shoots that bear, and the mouse bites into that cheese sandwich, then I'll have a nice fat mouse for my lunch."
The poor fly is finally so hot and dry that he heads down into the cooling mist of the water. The fish swallows the fly.... the bear grabs the fish... the hunter shoots the bear.... the mouse grabs the cheese sandwich... the cat jumps for the mouse.... the mouse ducks.... and the cat falls into the water and drowns.
There are all kinds of events in our life that are brought on by someone else and we have no CONTROL OF WHAT COMES OUR WAY. We have no control of these events in our life whatsoever!
BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS! We can CONTROL OUR REACTIONS TO THESE EVENTS that come our way! Let’s look at two ways we have control of our REACTIONS:
(1) WE CAN CONTROL OUR REACTIONS TO OTHERS IN OUR LIFE
There are people out there that delight in making others miserable. Most of the time they are motivated by jealousy. They see people who have what they do not have and they do everything they can to make their life miserable.
We all have people like that in our life. And when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He had multitudes of people who followed Him around for no other purpose than to make His life miserable. If the Lord reacted negatively to all the things that happened to Him, He would have had a miserable life!
There are people who are living a miserable life because they ALLOW OTHERS to determine their happiness!
Illus: Dr. Odell Belger, tells how he used to be caught up in Collegiate Football. He had a favorite team, and if they won he had a wonderful weekend. But if his favorite team lost, he was depressed for several days.
On one occasion, God spoke to his heart about allowing this football team to decide if he was going to be JOYFUL or SAD!
He didn’t know one of the players on this team, but they were determining his happiness.
God spoke to his heart about having control over his life, and now he does not care if they win every game or lose every game. In other words, this football team no longer determines his happiness.
We can’t allow OTHERS or THINGS to determine our happiness! Listen, for some people:
• ONE FLAT tire can destroy their happiness for days
• One word spoken against them will keep them sleepless for nights
Listen, people choose to REACT in different ways to different things. But if you choose to lose the JOY OF GOD in your life, do not blame anyone but yourself, because you are the one who decided to allow someone to rob you of your joy.
• Some people look for the BAD, and they find it
• Some people look for the GOOD and they find it
Illus: One fellow always could find the best in everything. He placed a bet on a horse race and his horse came in last. But I like the way he REACTED to the loss. He said, “I bet on a great horse yesterday! It took seven horses to beat him.”
Illus: A large two-engine train was crossing America. After they had gone some distance, one of the engines broke down. "No problem," the driver thought, and carried on at half power. Further on down the line the other engine broke down, and the train came to a standstill.
The driver decided he should inform the passengers about why the train had stopped, and made the following announcement:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is be thankful that you are riding a train and not an airplane!”
While we do not have any control of the events we face in life, we do have complete control of how we are to react to them.
(2) WE CAN CONTROL OUR REACTION TO THINGS IN OUR LIFE
There are a lot of discontented people on this earth. They are never satisfied!!!
Illus: A man became envious of his friend that had a larger and more luxurious home than his. He decided to do something about it and listed his house with a real estate firm, planning to sell it and to purchase a more impressive home. Shortly afterward, as he was reading the classified section of the newspaper, he saw an ad for a house that seemed just right. He promptly called the realtor and said, "A house described in today’s paper is exactly what I’m looking for. I would like to go look at it as soon as possible!"
The agent asked him which house was he referring to. He asked him to describe it so he could locate it among the many houses listed in the newspaper. He finally located it and said, "But sir, that’s your house we have listed."
We live in a world that is filled with DISCONTENTED PEOPLE! This explains why so many today are:
• Getting a divorce
• Moving from house to house
• Moving from job to job
• Moving from church to church
Illus: This is a cute poem reflecting discontentment-
As a rule, man’s a fool
When it’s hot, He wants it cool.
And when it’s cool, He wants it hot,
Always wanting What is not.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? The Christians then had become very discontented because things were not going as well for them as for others. Listen, if that is all it takes to make you miserable, YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ANY CONTENTMENT!
Many see money as the SOLUTION to life’s problems, but money has ruined more lives than anything on this earth.
Illus: An investigation was done on people who had won the lottery. After announcing they had won the lottery, they were all smiling from ear to ear because now all their problems were solved. But what they discovered is that it led to a life of frustration and disappointment.
• It led to many divorces
• It led to serious family problems
• It led to a lot of DISCONTENTMENT
Illus: Money is like a man on the sea drinking salty water. The more he drinks the more he craves to quench his thirst.
There are folks who have enough money to do them the rest of their life. BUT ARE THEY SATISFIED? No!
Illus: Bill O’Reilly, on his television program called “The Factor,” was discussing the wealthy movie stars who make 10 to 20 million a year, yet some of them charge as much as two hundred thousand dollars to appear at a charity fund raising.
Bill asked the man on his program if he knew why these people, with all this money, would charge two hundred thousand dollars to appear at a charity fundraiser to help the unfortunate. The man said, “When it comes to money you never have enough!”
As the writer addresses these Christians, many of the believers had been forced out of their jobs and homes because they were believers. They were not content…
• They didn’t have the food they wanted
• They didn’t have the money they wanted
And they thought that if they just had more money, all their problems would vanish!
If you listen to conversations today, most of them are about:
• I am going to buy this…
• I want this….
• I have to have this….
• I saw something the other day they were advertising that I want….
• So and so has this and I want one…
Hebrews 13:5 says, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have.”
The reason the devil wants us to spend this coming year seeking after things is because:
(1) THINGS DO NOT SATISFY
Illus: Listen, it is a proven fact; those who have the most are the most miserable people on this earth. They have the nicest cars, homes, and clothes, but they are the most miserable people around.
Things do not satisfy. Things are only like drinking salty water; one drink makes you want to take another drink.
(2) THINGS CAN CONSUME OUR LIFE
Illus: There are people today who will tell you that they do not have time to go to church or read their Bible because they work all the time trying to pay for the things they bought in an attempt to find SATISFACTION!
In the past, the devil has tricked many folks into trying to find SATISFACTION in THINGS. I can guarantee you that in the coming year he will still be doing the same thing.
HOW CAN WE AVOID THIS TRAP? Be content with what you have by learning that REAL SATISFACTION in life does not come from WITHOUT, but WITHIN.
We can only have PEACE when we find the PRINCE OF PEACE!
• Look at Philip. 4:11-13, we read, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
• Look at Matthew 6:33, we read, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
• Look at Matthew 5:6, we read, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
We do not know what this coming year holds for us, but we know this; Satan will be putting everything he can put before us to bring as much DISCONTENTMENT as he can bring into our lives.
We all are going to need A LIFE OF CONTENTMENT that only comes from the Lord Jesus Christ! Some have gone year after year trying to find CONTENTMENT in other places, but they have never found it because they are looking in the wrong places.
Conclusion:
As we look ahead to this New Year, we see that-
Part 1
I. WE ARE GOING TO NEED CONTENTMENT
Part 2
II. WE ARE GOING TO NEED COMPANIONSHIP
III. WE ARE GOING TO NEED COURAGE
