Your Days Are Numbered James 4:13-17
The Book of James • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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In 1800, Dr Dionysis Larder, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy at University College in London, commented on predictions of high speed rail travel in the near future: “Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.”
In 1859, associates of Edwin L. Drake responded to his suggestion to attempt drilling for oil: “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy!”
An 1876 Western Union internal memo mused, “This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.”
Four years later, Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, commented about Edison’s lightbulb: “Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognise it as a conspicuous failure.”
Eighteen months prior to the Wright brothers’ flight at Kittyhawk, Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician, Simon Newcomb, predicted that “flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.”
The president of the Michigan Savings Bank in 1903 advised Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Company: “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.”
Charlie Chaplin played down the thought of cinema when he described it as “little more than a fad. It’s canned drama. What audiences really want is to see flesh and blood on stage.”
Thirty years later, movie producer Darryl Zanuck dismissed television by saying, “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
More recently, Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corporation, suggested that “there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home,” while Clifford Stoll mused in a Newsweek article, “The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper.”
We do not have a good track record of predicting the future
The Assumption of Another Day
The Assumption of Another Day
Parable of the Rich Fool
And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. “And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The Brevity of Life
“Lord, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
“For we are only of yesterday and know nothing, Because our days on earth are as a shadow.
“Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The time is short. THIS INSPIRES us. It ought to fire us with zeal for immediate action. The sun hastens on, the sands run down. “How is the accepted time.” Let those who love the Lord be prompt. The time to do the deeds that thou must do, or leave them undone, flies swiftly past. Say not, “I will do this by-and-by.” Do it at once! Spurgeon
Redeeming the Time
Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
This means time that is lost can be redeemed! If you are willing to do whatever is needed to make it happen, God will enable you to regain and recoup time that was previously squandered. - Rick Renner https://renner.org/article/redeeming-the-time/
The Assurance of God’s Sovereignty
The Assurance of God’s Sovereignty
So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
Sovereignty must not obliterate free will, and free will must never dilute sovereignty.
Charles Caldwell Ryrie
Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne.
Divine Sovereignty, Volume 2, Sermon #77 - Matthew 20:15
Charles Spurgeon
He is the one we can trust
“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.
The Arrogance of Your Sovereignty
The Arrogance of Your Sovereignty
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.
The evil desires of men’s hearts cannot thwart God’s sovereignty. Indeed they are subject to it.
R. C. Sproul
Where the sovereignty of God is denied there will be no holy awe of him.
Arthur Walkington Pink
The Activity of Righteousness
The Activity of Righteousness
For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
It is not only that sin consists in doing evil, but in not doing the good that we know.
Harry A. Ironside