00:00Hello everyone, my name is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you all.
00:04It is good to be able to look into the Word of God and see what it says unto us.
00:09And today, if I had a title for today's message, I would call it
00:13The Dangerous Lie We Tell Ourselves About Tomorrow.
00:20We assume that we have a tomorrow.
00:27A dangerous lie.
00:28What if you were to describe your life?
00:32Some people, if they describe their life, they would call their lives boring.
00:36They would call their lives stressful.
00:38They'll call their lives difficult.
00:40They'll call their lives meaningful.
00:41But when God describes human life in the passage we're going to read today,
00:47He uses one word, vapor.
00:51Go to now.
00:52Ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city,
00:57And continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain.
01:01Whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow.
01:05For what is your life?
01:06It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanish away.
01:12For that ye ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.
01:19Okay, so as we look into this text, we're seeing the confidence of man's plans.
01:26When we make plans, we typically are so confident.
01:29In this text it says, today or tomorrow we will go.
01:34And we will continue.
01:36And we will buy.
01:38And we will sell.
01:40And we will get gain.
01:43If you look at this language, this language is control language.
01:48There is no prayer.
01:49There is no God.
01:51There is no hesitation or no pause to acknowledge God in this thing.
01:57They're just saying, we will.
01:59And speaking as if tomorrow is guaranteed.
02:03And this is the pride of men.
02:06Oh, the confidence.
02:08Look at the confidence in man's plans.
02:10Man believes he's independent of God.
02:12No mention of God.
02:14This is not a loud rebellion.
02:16This is silent independence.
02:20I'll be here.
02:21I will remain.
02:23And nothing will interrupt that.
02:25But we know that life does not operate on our schedules.
02:30We know this instinctively.
02:32Health can change anything.
02:34Circumstances can change anything.
02:36Death can interrupt.
02:38There can be all kinds of interruptions into our plans.
02:41We have a calendar.
02:42Full of plans.
02:44But no guarantee that we will even be here to accomplish those plans.
02:50Look at the pride of men.
02:53Man speaks as if he knows exactly where he's going.
02:56He lives like he knows exactly where he's going.
02:59But God responds in this text.
03:02You don't know.
03:04You have no idea where you're going.
03:06You ought to humble yourself.
03:08Because our outcomes are actually in God's hands.
03:12We just believe that we have a control.
03:15And it's an illusion, really.
03:17It's an illusion of control.
03:18Our outcomes, our very lives are in the hands of God.
03:21So, as we look at this text, it's giving us a humble reality.
03:27That if we don't accept this, that our outcomes are in God's hands, we will keep on saying, I'm going
03:32to do this or that tomorrow.
03:34We'll keep on saying it.
03:35And within the danger of saying that is, we'll delay being obedient to God.
03:41We will postpone repentance.
03:44Oh, I put that off because I got tomorrow.
03:46We will assume that we have more time than what we actually do.
03:52And we can end up in hell.
03:54That's the sad reality.
03:55It breaks my heart.
03:56But we can end up in hell because we don't know if a later exists.
04:00All we're sure of is we have right now.
04:04My question is, what are you doing with your now?
04:11Then God makes a comparison of our life.
04:13And he compares it to a vapor.
04:17For what is your life?
04:19It is even a vapor.
04:22A vapor means it's fragile.
04:25The fragility of your life.
04:28A vapor is very thin.
04:30You can barely see it.
04:32A vapor is very temporary.
04:34You can't even control a vapor.
04:37Help us.
04:38A vapor is briefly visible.
04:41You can barely see it.
04:42It's here for a little while.
04:44But it moves on.
04:45You cannot hold it.
04:47You can notice it, but you cannot keep it.
04:50Oh, help us to recognize and sober us up.
04:53That's what this text is doing.
04:54It's doing.
04:54Sober us up.
04:55My life is a vapor.
04:56What am I talking about?
04:58Every day we live.
05:00Every moment we live.
05:02We are one day.
05:04One moment.
05:05Closer to vanishing off this earth as we know it.
05:09We have a short window of time.
05:13So this text calls us a vapor.
05:15What are you doing with your vapor?
05:17You can't keep it.
05:18It's passing away.
05:20While I'm speaking, my vapor, I'm in the process of evaporating right now.
05:26I'm in the process of passing away right now.
05:31What are you doing with your vapor?
05:35The best thing that we can do is give our vapor unto God.
05:39Give our vapor unto God because we can't hold it.
05:42Oh, time is moving so fast.
05:43The week done went by so quickly.
05:46I'm like, whoa.
05:47The bad thing is we feel like we're stable.
05:50We feel like we're present.
05:52We feel like we are established here because we build routines.
05:58We build families.
05:59We build relationships.
06:00We build plans, which creates an illusion of permanence.
06:05Oh, it's an illusion.
06:07But this text is cutting through all of our illusions.
06:11Cutting through all of our false beliefs and saying you are not as solid as you think.
06:17You do not have as much time as you think.
06:20Tomorrow is an illusion.
06:22You don't know if you have it.
06:25Uh, reality check.
06:28God reduced our reality down to a vapor.
06:35I want to pause there.
06:38That's a sober reminder.
06:41While we're building, while we're planning, while we're living, while we're hanging out with family,
06:47we are already in the process.
06:50A vanishing.
06:52What are you doing with your vapor?
06:54Give your vapor unto God.
06:56So this text goes on and it corrects our posture.
07:01Our heart posture.
07:02Because we ain't thinking right.
07:03You're arrogant.
07:04Thinking that you're going to do whatever you want to do.
07:06This text says, for that you ought to say, if the Lord will.
07:11This text is giving us the right mindset.
07:13You ought to say, if the Lord wills me to do this, I'll do it.
07:16Uh, if the Lord wills me to do this, I'll do that.
07:19God said, there's nothing wrong with building.
07:21There's nothing wrong with planning.
07:22There's nothing wrong with strategizing.
07:24But what's wrong with it is the way you're thinking while you're building, planning, and strategizing.
07:29You're thinking without me in mind.
07:32You should have me in mind.
07:34That you will meet me soon in mind.
07:37That you have to give an account to me.
07:39Don't build your plans without requiring God in them.
07:43Mmm, help us.
07:44He's saying, you ought to say, if the Lord wills.
07:46I control everything.
07:48Meaning your plans, while you're planning, there should be some humility in it.
07:52You should face the reality of your dependency on God.
07:56And there should be some surrender unto God.
07:59Ah, because living requires God.
08:04God, for you to breathe and wake up, it requires God's permission.
08:11God gave me permission this morning to wake up.
08:14Ha ha.
08:14I didn't just wake up.
08:16So this text is recalibrating us and realigning us to the proper heart posture.
08:21To the proper mindset.
08:23This is the way we should think.
08:25This is the way we should speak.
08:26That's the sober truth.
08:28We don't need just better plans.
08:30Don't just think about better plans for your life.
08:33Think about better plans and surrendered plans.
08:37That are surrendered unto God.
08:42God wants us to live in a way that faces reality.
08:47Live in a way that matches reality.
08:49The reality that everything that you are depends on me.
08:53I want you to live in that way.
08:54Acknowledge reality while you're making plans.
08:57Life is short.
08:58Your life is fragile.
09:00Your life is uncertain like a vapor.
09:03Therefore, the right response is submission unto God.
09:07Your speech, your very speech while you're making plans.
09:10Just submit and say, if the Lord will.
09:14Ha ha ha.
09:15Acknowledge that he's in control.
09:16There is a dangerous lie we tell ourselves about tomorrow.
09:22For we are none of us are sure we'll ever have tomorrow.
09:27Lord, help us to use the vapor that we have for you.
09:52Acknowledge that we may have for you.
09:55You
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