Future Control

Tonight we are talking about future control

Say Control: Future Control

Control is when we are trying to exert our own will on something to get a desired result

Throughout this week we’ve discussed how seeking to exert your own control over different elements of life can cause damage

You and I are limited and broken people in need of a savior. We are in need of the power and presence of Jesus Christ in our life

How many of you have had to wrestle with something that I’ve said this week?

How many of you do everything perfect?

How many of you weren’t listening?

Hopefully something that has been taught has been benificial and has aided in helping you to show of the Glory of God in some area of your life

IF you’ve heard nothing that resonates… perhaps tonight is the night.

Tonight we are talking about future control

Say Control: Future Control

There was this woman who for years worried about a burglar breaking into their house

For the first 10 years of thier marriage she thought every noise was a burglar

One night there was a noise downstairs and the husband went down to check it out and found there was an actual burglar in the house.

The husband looked at the burglar and said It’s nice to meet you … would you please come up and meet my wife… she’s been waiting 10 years for you

All of us in one way or another are attempting to control our future

Everything that I’ve spoken on up to this point has some bearing on looking ahead and wanting to be able to manipulate the outcome of whatever situation we are currently in

Weather it’s through image control, cruise control, justice control, … any of our control substances that we are investing in… they all are ways for us to attempt manipulating and controlling our future

Why do we do this?

Because generally we want good stuff to happen to us

We want good for us and ours and we want to do everything in our power to ensure good things for us

This is not always a bad thing… but can become an issue in our life

Trying to manage our future’s is a complex thing

If you don’t think at all about the future you are foolish… if you worry and fret and plan too much into the future you miss the gift of today

So how is it that we are to navigate this desire to control our future?

How do we balance that with the need to be responsible for what God has blessed us with… this life… and the need for us to be in control of every detail of our future?

First let’s go to scripture

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This is from the book of wisdom that we are blessed to have in scripture

Proverbs is a book of principles

We see here something about how God is calling us to work as his people

We are supposed to commit our work to the Lord and he is the one who makes our plans succeed

We plan our path but it is the LOrd who secures our steps

This means that we have these glorious ideas about what it is that we want our future to look like. We get this 5 year or 10 year plan in place and we believe that as long as we can control everything… it will work out just as planned

We, wether it’s intentional or unintentional we don’t do this right

Instead of commiting our plans to the Lord we try to apply the Lord to our plans

Like here is the thing that I want to do because I have figured out all the steps and I’ve done all the things… so here GOd aren’t you proud of me. Don’t you like my plans. Go ahead and bless them

We get it backward

James who was Jesus’ little brother

BTW if any of you have ever wondered how much proof there was for Jesus’ divinity… you only have to look to mean how much evidence would there need to be for you to believe you brother or your sister was the son of God?

James is writing a letter to believers who are living spread out throughout the Roman world

His letter is heavily influenced by Jesus’ sermon on the mount

If you read and the book of James side by side… you will see a lot of similarities

James is reinforcing some things to the people of God and encouraging them to continue in faith

He’s telling us… the church… SOmeone say I am the Church

He’s telling us 2 things

When you are focused on your plans and attempting to control your future you are leaving God out of it

We do that a lot. Lord here are my plans… bless them

We keep Christ out of the central part of our dicision making process and we go about presuming on the Grace of God and just putting our desires into action plans

I want this thing… Here’s how I’m going to get it… Lord bless my plans

James is telling us that we have to keep Christ and his will in the center of our lives

That we are not to focus so much on our plans as we are to pay attention to how the Lord is moving in our lives

You are not your own… If you are a believer in Jesus Christ… you belong to the kingdom of God. You have been bought with a price

Your desires to control and to plan are ways for you to focus your energies not on becoming who God is calling you to be but to focus your energy on Going and doing what it is that you want to do

He’s also telling us that we seek to control our future because be have made ourselves the center of our lives

Not only have we left Jesus out all together… but we have replaced his throne in our heart with our own throne

You exalt what it is that makes you happy, you lift up what desires catch your eye, you make primary your personal preferences.

Keeping ourself center is not the life of Christ living in us

Consequently.... keeping ourselves as the main character of our lives has made an idol out of you or some future you that you’re trying to work towards

James is telling us to consider the Lord in all our decisions

say it this way

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and Lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge God and he will make your paths straight

In all your ways keep Jesus in the center of your plans and he will worry about your future

It’s good to have plans and goals… its good to want to have a family or a career or to go to college or to retire or whatever… those plans are good

But what tends to happen is that those plans become God and we fight and scratch for ways that we can control those things to ensure that our plans succeed at all costs… even at the cost of truly listening to Jesus

Jesus reinforces this thought in

Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will have enough worry of its own

He tells us to seek His kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you

Jesus is telling us that we don’t worry about attempting to control our future. Not because he doesn’t care about your future but because the future is His and his alone to control

We allow this future control to infiltrate our lives and we become fixated on fighting for this sense of control and it manifests itself in worry and stress

Worry and stress because there is no real way to affect a future that hasn’t happened yet

We live in a constant state of what ifs

That worry and fear trap us into thinking that if we worry or fret or plan enough we will be able to do something to control our future

All worrying and stressing out about your tommorrow does is rob you of today’s blessing

Worrying is like trying to live tomorrow on todays grace

For the first 10 years of thier marriage she thought every noise was a burglar

You have to come to understand that you are not in control of your future… you can plan and you can pray… but ultimately you have to trust God and respond to his grace at every opportunity that he presents you with

John weSley was said to be walking with this man who was stressing and worrying about his future

He told John that he just couldn’t see the way forward

At that moment Wesley noticed a cow in the pasture with his head over the small pasture wall

Welsey asked the man… Do you know why the cow is looking over the wall? Because he can’t look through it

One night there was a noise downstairs and the husband went down to check it out and found there was an actual burglar in the house.

There is one plan for the future that effects you and will possibly effect eternity. That is your decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and savior

Jesus tells us to seek first his kingdom and his righeousness

The husband looked at the burglar and said It’s nice to meet you … would you please come up and meet my wife… she’s been waiting 10 years for you

That means that you need to seek Christ

This does effect your future… Your eternal future

Christ tells us that by accepting his grace on the cross. by accepting salvation through him and him alone that there is eternal hope that transcends what you cant see

You can’t look through the wall you can’t see what is coming down the pike

but you can look over and above the wall

It doesn’t matter what the future holds if you trust the one who holds your future.

Response

Communion