What If Tomorrow Were Cancelled?

TEXT: Luke 12:16-21; James 4:13, 14

TITLE: WHAT IF TOMORROW WERE TO BE CANCELLED?

Imagine this scene (scenario) if you would: It is evening, and you have just finished supper. You decide to sit in your recliner and relax for a few moments. You and your family tune into the Cosby show for some reruns and humor. Suddenly, right in the midst of your laughter, you hear a voice from the news center saying, “we interrupt this program to bring you a very important announcement. TOMORROW HAS BEEN CANCELLED.”

How ridiculous, you may say, but is it? For you see, that announcement comes to millions of people in the course of every day life.

For all you and I know, this announcement could be for you and me today.

In the past year how many do you know who have heard those same words, YOUR TOMORROW HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

For many of you, who are sitting here today and listening as I preach, this announcement has almost become a reality in your life. A near heart attack, a near fatal accident, brushing death with cancer or pneumonia – those things and others have almost brought the announcement – YOUR TOMORROW HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Every one of us is only a breath away from this announcement, that our tomorrow has been cancelled.

James tells us that we should live our lives with the realization that our plans, our very lives, are not certain. What seems to us so stable and sure is what we have “in this present world.” Yet what we have in this “present world” may crumble and fall today.

To many people this is the “real world.” To them there is no other world. To them this is all that life has to offer.

Most people say – “Yes, it’s the real world and you only go around once so you’d better grab all the gusto you can get.”

The tragic thing is, that we Christians often buy into this philosophy. But according to God’s Word, it’s a lie. This is not the real world; there is a world beyond this one, a world where there is no pain, sickness, or tears. A world with gates of pearl and streets of gold. A world where death is not allowed to exist.

Be careful how you get attached to this present world.

If we get too friendly, too attached – possessive of our possessions to the point that they possess us – then we become a friend to this world and an enemy of God.

I ask you, WHAT IF TOMORROW WAS CANCELLED?

Tomorrow was cancelled for this rich man in Luke’s gospel chapter 12. This is a parable that Jesus is sharing but for many this parable has become a reality.

The world’s philosophy is “Take care of number one!” Notice the repeated word “my” which points to this man’s ingrained selfishness.

He was concerned only about himself and nobody else. He didn’t care to help the poor and needy. He wanted to get all he could in this life for himself so he could just sit back and enjoy it.

This man had success, satisfaction and security. What more could he possibly want. You could say that as far as this world was concerned he had it made, he was enjoying life.

We need to be careful about having a false confidence in things or in people.

2 Kings 18:21 – “Now look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.”

Job 15:31 – “Let him not trust in futile things, deceiving himself, for futility will be his reward.”

Psalm 30:6 – “Now in my prosperity I said, ‘I shall never be moved.’”

Psalm 18:11 – “The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own esteem.”

Obadiah 1:3 – “The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, ‘who will bring me down to the ground?’”

Jesus made it clear that life does not come from an abundance of things, nor does true success or security. This man had a false view of both life and death.

There are a lot of people that are like this rich man. In this world they feel secure, invincible, that they will live to be 100 years old. They refuse to think of death; they refuse to think of eternity; they refuse to think of judgment. As far as they are concerned this world is all that there is. But how foolish to think this way, death will come to all. All will face eternity either in the presence of God or expelled from his presence eternally. All will face the judgment one-day.