Dr. David Jeremiah: Planning without God
I guess he’s been preaching through the Song of Solomon and trying to maintain his dignity. 🙂 I can’t wait to hear that series.
Message: Planning Without God
James 4;13-7
Augustine: God was wise to disguise the future (failing the future from our eyes)
God hides the future from our eyes that we might live in confidence of hope.
Though we cannot know the future we cannot plan for it without God.
James warns us of three mistakes. This instruction is desperately needed by us today.
1. Experiencing Life without God. James 4:13, 15
I. James’ readers have planned out their lives but have failed to consult the maker of it.
The passage isn’t a diatribe against planning. The problem is leaving God out of the equation.
A. We can create plans without God “today and tomorrow we will…”
B. We can choose places without God,”we will go to such and such a city.”
C. We can calculate periods without God. “We’ll spend a year there…”
D. Consider purposes without God, “We will buy and sell” Set up a little emporium and do business.
E. We can compute profit without God. “and make a profit”.
Their aspirations were high but not high enough. We’re told that without Christ we can do nothing but here James is saying these things are possible as far as planning goes. The fact isn’t that it’s not possible but that it’s not of God.
II. Examining life without GOD James 4:14,16
James’ readers make three mistakes which people make who do life without God also make.
A. They fail to comprehend the complexity of life. How can anyone dream of knowing the complexities of such an enterprise? How foolish of us to make plans for the future but not have God in the planning process.!