Things We Need For The New Year 1 Of 2

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."