Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

He says this, go to now, ye that say. Now that is a fancy biblical way of saying listen to what I'm about to say. Now the book of James is phenomenal. The book of James not only deals with church and inter-church things, it deals with personal things and inter-relational things.

The book of James is probably my favorite total book in the Bible from all the instruction that's given from temptation to like brother Frank even pray be doers of the word, not just here. We could go on and on and on and on and on. But what we're dealing with here in a specific way is an individual and there is a problem that many of us have. And it is such a problem that God felt it necessary through the book of James here to deal with this subject. So he demands our attention. So what I want to ask this morning is this go to now ye that say. So that means that we have a tendency to do this and he's getting ready to explain it. So I want to ask this morning that you kind of whatever you've got going on and you're busy and whatever's in the crock pot at home or wherever you think you're going to go eat. I know we all got things we got to but can you just clear your mind of all that. And just for a few minutes this morning as we begin another year can we just kind of go back to the drawing board and let's deal with something that God feels is very very important. The demanding of attention. Notice secondly the danger of assumption.

He says in verse 13 go to now ye that say this. Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get game. Now let me say first there's nothing wrong with having plans. There's nothing wrong with planning on going to a city.

There's nothing wrong with having a job making money all those things. What they were doing isn't the problem. The problem was the fact that they were assuming that they were going to do it. The assumption that nothing could happen. That they know what's going to happen. That they've already made their plans and their plans are exactly what's going to happen.

Notice first we see the assumption of life. It says today or tomorrow we will. Look at me. How do you know? How do you know you're going to have tomorrow?

You don't. You say well I eat healthy. Well so do I. Apparently not but you know how many skinny people die and fat people are still alive. Thank God right there. At least I'm happy while I'm alive right.

OK whatever the case might be. More jokes than I can handle today. How do you know you're going to have the rest of the day.

We don't. Hey listen you might not have a pastor by the end of the day. I can die before I even get done preaching. You don't know you're going to have tomorrow. You don't know you're going to have today. You see the fact that they're making plans means they're already assuming that they're guaranteed that they're going to have the rest of the day or that they're going to have tomorrow or that they're going to have next week or that they're going to have next year. There is here the assumption of life. Notice secondly there's the assumption of health.

You see today or tomorrow we will go into such a city. How do you know you're going to be able to do that. Now you might be alive but how do you know you're not going to be in a hospital bed. How do you know you're not going to be in a deathbed. How do you know you're not going to be in a wheelchair.

How do you know all these things. There is the assumption not just that I'm going to have life and breath but there's the assumption that I'm going to have health. Dear friend you don't have a guarantee of health tomorrow.

I would love to tell you that you do. And if I had all good news I could be you know a big shot on TV preaching. But the whole Bible isn't just full of all good news it's full of truth. There's the assumption of life the assumption of health. Notice thirdly there's the assumption of time.

He says this today or tomorrow we will go into such a city notice this and continue there a year. Oh now not only does this individual assume that he is going to have today and tomorrow this individual assumes hey I'm going to have all year. How do you know a lot can happen in a year. How many of you know right now a lot has happened in your life since last year. Some of you are sitting here without a loved one you had a year ago.

We don't know what's going to happen in a year. But now this attitude here is prevalent that it's assumed that they're going to have life and breath. It's assumed that they're going to have health. It's assumed that not only that I'm going to have it for a long period of time and we don't know all that.

Notice last there's the assumption of wealth. Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city continue there a year notice this and buy and sell and get gain. Not only am I going to have life and breath and not only do I have today and tomorrow.

Not only am I going to have the help to go into the city not only am I going to be there for a year. But I tell you what I'm going to buy and sell and trade I'm going to get wealthy I'm going to have money I'm going to do this I'm going to do that in the Bible knows that calls the rich fool in the New Testament. And he looked at his barns and said hey I'm going to build greater and I'm going to do this and I'm going to have all this and I'm going to take my knees and I'm going to sit drink and be merry and dear friend.

He didn't even have another day. The danger of assumption. The danger of boasting like you know what's going to happen. Because you and I don't want you to know this thirdly the importance of awareness. The demanding of attention the danger of assumption. But notice in verse 14 we see the importance of awareness.

He just kind of cuts right to where the rubber meets the road. Notice what he says whereas ye know not what shall be on the moral. May I say something we live in a culture where we are absorbing knowledge. There's not much wisdom but we have a whole bunch of knowledge. We want to know and we feel we have the right to know. We can Google it. We can search it. We can YouTube it. We can look it up.

We can find a blog about it. We can research it. We know what everyone is doing. We know where everyone is going through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. We want to know. We think we have the right to know. But we don't know what will happen tomorrow.

You can't Google that. We are not promised. We are not guaranteed and we are not in control like we think we are. We need to be aware that we are not aware.

We need to acknowledge that we don't have that knowledge. While you're busy making your plans assuming that you're going to have today, assuming that you're going to have tomorrow, assuming that you're going to have a year, assuming that you're going to be able to have the help to go into that city, assuming that you're going to have the mind and the ability to get and gain and get wealth and all that, let me tell you what the truth is. You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. You don't know what's gonna happen a year from now. You don't know what you're gonna go through. You don't know what you're gonna be like.

You don't know what circumstances are gonna be. And in fact, you know absolutely nothing. The importance of awareness. Coram Baptist Church, please don't think, man, you just, you know, preaching hard this morning. But listen, this is the truth.

If God feels it's important enough for us to read, it's important for us to preach. You and I need to be reminded today that we're not guaranteed tomorrow. I want you to notice something here. I want you to see number four, the insight of asking. Not just the importance of awareness, but the insight of asking.

Here's what he says. For what is your life? That's a good question. It's a question that we should all be asking ourselves in light of the fact that you are not guaranteed tomorrow. In light of the fact that you're not guaranteed tonight. In light of the fact that you're not guaranteed your health.

Not only tomorrow or the next day, you're not even guaranteed health for the next year. In light of all that, despite the fact that you've made your plans and you have your assumptions, we're wrong, we don't know. And in light of the fact that we don't know, here's a good question to ask. What is your life? What is it for? Who is it for?

What is important? What have I done? Who have I done it for? What do I still need to do? What should I change? Where have I failed?

Where have my priorities gotten bent out of shape? Why do I do what I do? Why am I here? What is the purpose of, what is your life? I want you to notice he doesn't leave us hanging, number five, the giving of analysis. We're asked the question then we're given the answer.

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Now I'm 51, good number of you in this auditorium are older than me, large number of you in this auditorium are younger than me. We're blessed as a church to have a great diversity of age. We're blessed to have children running around here.

We're blessed to have some saints of God that are still here and are full of wisdom and are faithful to this church. But I will tell you this, the older I get, the shorter I see that this vapor is. My son Hudson turned 16 in a couple weeks. I just thought, I can't fathom that. Some of you that have raised your children have grandchildren, you're like, because you know, it is life is so short. It is so brief. And then when you think of it in terms of eternity, how long eternity is and how short our life is. It is so short that God says, what is a vapor? A vapor is something that almost is, it's just there's nothing really substantial there.

It's for a brief time and then it's just absorbed away. This is what God says it is. I know some of you may be on the 20 to 30 side of things.

I remember that vaguely. Feel like you got all the time in the world. There's some teenagers sitting here today that got nothing but what's ahead. And I'm excited for them. By the way, we have really good kids here at this church. We're blessed.

We have a good youth group, good leadership, but really good teenagers. They got their whole life ahead. But it was like yesterday I was sitting in youth group wondering who I was going to marry. Wondering if I was going to marry. I remember thinking I never was going to get to marry.

I want you to notice number six, in light of our awareness, in light of what he has said, in light of his analysis that life is so short. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. You're not guaranteed next year. You're not guaranteed 20 years. You're not guaranteed 30 years.

You have no guarantee. You and I are not God. In light of that, he gives us number six, some personal admonition. So he's got some advice. He's got some correction that we need.

Listen to it real quick. Verse 15. For that ye ought to say, remember how it started, ye that say, go to now, ye that say, now we are admonished. What you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings and all such rejoicing is evil.

Now I've got to be honest with you. I know this passage, I've read it for years, but I came up with a question here this week when I was reading this and as God began to lead, really wasn't until yesterday that God began to lead. Hey, this is what I want you to preach this week. But I had a question that I've never had before. Why is this just planning ahead? And sometimes we can plan ahead and just not even remember. We kind of lose track of the fact that listen, I don't know this for sure.

I can't just assume, I'm not guaranteed. I need to remember that if God wants this, if the Lord allows this, if this is his plan, then I'll get to do this. Why is it evil?

It's one thing for something to be unwise, but why is it evil? It's a good question. I want you to notice in this verse first, there's the admitting. The admitting is what?

For that ye ought to say. First thing is to admit, hey, we got a wrong philosophy here. First thing is to admit that, you know what?

I'm not, I don't have the perspective of life that I should. The admitting that, you know what? Maybe I take some things for granted. The admitting of, you know what?

Maybe sometimes I get so frustrated with life and I'm mad about this and I'm mad about that and I forget to be grateful for every hour. There's the admitting, what you ought to say. This is how you ought to think. This is the words that should come out of your mouth. This is how you should look at it.

The admitting, notice second we see the submitting. What you ought to say is this, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. You see, you and I need to understand there is this submission in our lives to God. He's in control. He's the one on the throne. Our God reigns. He's the boss. He's the master. We're the servant. He's the owner.

We're the steward. There should be in our life a submitting to His authority, a submitting to His ruling that you know what? I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow, but God does. So God, I need your help. I need your wisdom. I need your grace. God, you're gonna have to help me.

I can't do this without you. I don't know what's coming. I can't see the future.

I don't even know how long I have. So God, I need you to direct me. But third, I want you to see the boasting. Verse 16, he says, but now you rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Why?

Why is it evil? Well, notice he says, but now. You see, what's going on, the people we're discussing here are really kind of out of fellowship with God. And from the first of this chapter, we find that the people were out of fellowship with each other. There was problems going on between them and they weren't getting things right. And you know why they weren't getting things right?

They all thought, well, you know what? I can deal with it later. I'll get with it down the road. Hey, I'll make things right down the road.

And you know what happens? It leads to procrastination in life. He says, but now the ideal is that these individuals were bragging that they had time, bragging that their plans would come to fruition. Literally, their assumption had turned to boasting.

Why is it evil? He says, but now ye rejoice in your boastings. This word rejoice comes from the ideal of voicing it out loud, crying it out, proud of it. He says, you're just telling everybody as if God is not even in the picture, that you're in control, that you know what's going to happen.

He says, your rejoicing has turned to boasting. Why then is it evil? Real simple. This reasoning is evil because it usurps the place of God. It leaves God out. It removes God and God's will from the equation.

What relevance does God have in my life? I can get along without Him. I can make plans without Him. I can make plans without even asking Him. I can make my own plans.

I'll have time to get around to it. This boasting is presumptuous. And because it's presumptuous, it's evil. Our times and our breath is in God's hands. It leads to arrogance, leads to pride.

And that's what makes it evil. You say, well, okay preacher, but what's the big deal? Why are we harping on this?

Look at me. Because if you think that you have all the time in the world and you think you know how things are gonna turn out and you think that you know what's going to happen, you're gonna live in a different way. But if you and I live every day knowing I'm not guaranteed of tomorrow, I'm not guaranteed of tonight, I don't know if I'm gonna have health, I don't know if I'm gonna have wealth, that will lead to an entirely different way of living for God. But our perception has produced sin in our lives. You say, well, preacher, what are you trying to say today?

Well, notice number seven, the need for application. He demands our attention. He tells us the danger of our assumptions. He gives us his analysis, gives us his admonition, all these things. So this is how we're supposed to apply it to our lives.

This is what needs to change. Look at verse 17. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Now already we have a scenario that there's something that's good for me to do and I know it's good for me to do, but I'm not doing it. Look at me, why am I not doing it? Real simple question is, because I don't want to.

Look at me, we human beings, we do what we wanna do. Bless God, it smells like snow. Hey, I can't go to church. But you turn on a football game and the field is iced over and it's snowing down and them idiots don't even have shirts on, faces drawn on their big bellies. Picture me with a Carolina Panther logo right here with no shirt on jumping around.

That's what's going on. Let me tell you something, don't picture that, don't picture that by the way, don't. Not a good way to start off the year, don't.

My wife's like, yeah, don't picture that, don't picture that. Look at me, you do what you wanna do. We do what we wanna do.

But let me tell you why most of the time you and I are not doing something good, we know it's good to do but we're not doing it, I'll tell you why. We think we'll have time to do it. We think that I'll get around to it.

We think that eventually I will, because we think that today and tomorrow we're gonna go into a city and we're gonna continue there for a year and we're gonna buy and we're gonna sell and we're gonna get gain and the simple truth is absolutely none of it might happen. So what does he say? First there's the knowing. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, knowing is not the problem.

What did I say? We live in a culture that is full of knowledge. And think of the context of what he said, to him that knoweth to do good. The him here already knows what's good. He already knows what would be good to do, to him that knoweth, which means to the person that already knows what's good to do. There's the knowing and most of the time you and I, we have the knowing, we know what we should be doing, we know what should change in our life, we know what should be most important, we know how our time schedule should change, we know how our perception should change, we know how our passion should change, we know how our philosophy and our schedule and our priorities should change. It's not the knowing.

It's number two, it's the doing. He says to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not. What does he know? He knows to do good. There's the knowing, then there's the doing, but the problem here last is the procrastinating. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. You know, sin is not just about doing what you're not supposed to do, it's about not doing what you're supposed to do. Kerwin Baptist Church, you say, why are we dealing with all this? As you know, I've gotten pretty much in depth with this passage, which I always try to do. Why is this important to us today?

Because whatever you need to do for God, you need to do it now. Whatever you need to change in your marriage, you need to change it now. Whenever you need to alter in your family, you need to alter it now. If you have grudges or if you have unresolved issues, deal with them now.

Forgive individuals now. Value the important people in your life now. Give people flowers while they're still alive now. Share the gospel with people now.

Serve God now. Don't take life for granted. Don't take tomorrow for granted. Don't take next year for granted. It's not bad to plan, but it is bad to be presumptuous.

What's wrong about being presumptuous is we leave God out and we assume control. Live by planning your life based on what the Lord wills. Your life belongs to him. Every second of every day is a gift from God to you. He doesn't owe you anything. Cherish every moment.

Do it now. As I close, I shared this some years back, a lot of new people, but it had a great impact on my life and we'll close, we're done. But my dad who's in heaven now, my dad's youngest sister, Annabelle, she had three children. I'm about the same age of her three kids. She had an older daughter than two sons.

When their third was just an infant and her middle one was a toddler and her oldest was about five or six. Y'all, some of you know the story one day, my uncle Donald was working in the back of the yard on a car, headed up on blocks and somehow that car fell off the blocks, crushed my uncle to death. My aunt had taken the kids to a grocery store.

She came back, she fixed him lunch, hollered out for him to come on in and eat, never came in and she went out and found him. So now she's got these small children to raise and my uncle Donald was a business partner with my dad before my dad really got saved. So my aunt decided to fly out to the state of Washington to spend a couple of weeks with my mom and dad and I was just a young child at that point, and stayed in our Airstream travel trailer with us for a couple of weeks just to get away, go to church every night, try to heal a little bit.

My grandma and grandpa took the kids. So one day my mom was in the trailer with my aunt. My dad had me out doing something and my mom was cleaning up for the morning and some of you remember, some of you don't know this though, but my mom was in the bathroom cleaning on the counter and my dad had left his electric razor out and my mom started complaining. She goes, goodness gracious, here's his razor, lay it out and these little whiskers get all over the counter. She said, you think a grown man could remember in the morning, just put the razor in the counter, just put it in the cabinet, don't leave it out here on the counter, but every morning I come in here and I gotta clean this razor up and she's just talking kind of a thing and she made her way back to the front of the travel trailer.

One thing about the Airstream, you're always with the person in the trailer. I mean, I grew up with my mom and dad. If you wanna know about that, ask me later, okay? My mom came back in the front, my aunt was crying and my mom said, oh, Annabelle, are you okay? And is everything okay? And my aunt Annabelle looked at my mom and she said, no, everything's fine. She said, but Pat, you don't know how much I wish I had a razor to put away.

My mom said it changed her life. She said, when I would leave toys out at night, she'd get all mad at first and then she'd realize, God, thank you that I have toys to put away. To him that knoweth to do good and procrastinates, doeth it not. I got time, I got tomorrow, I got next year, I got all this I can do. To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. What is it that you know to do that you haven't done? My recommendation is now you know.

To him that knoweth, it is sin. Let's bow our heads, let's pray. Thank you for listening this morning. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you next time.