today I want us to look at God's promises about your future now you ought to be interested in this for three reasons first the rest of your life is in your future none of your life is left in the past or even today all your life is in the future and the two things I can say about that are number one you don't know what it's going to be and two you can't control it so I should definitely be interested in what God has to say about my future because I don't know none of us
know what's going to happen tomorrow much less next year uh and we can't certainly can't control it one of the ways we try to control the future is worry but worry is worthless it it doesn't work number one God knows everything that will happen God knows everything that's going to happen in your life already he knows the beginning and the end this is called the omniscience of God it means God knows everything there is nothing that God doesn't know if I were to take you to the Rose Parade up in Pasadena California on New Year's
Day uh and if you were standing there on on the ground watching the prade all you could see is what's right in front of you you can't see the parade that's already passed and you can't see the parade that's coming in the future all you can see is what's in front of you and that's the way we pretty much live our lives on the other hand if I were to take you up in a plane or a helicopter or a blimp and we got up real high with a different perspective you would be able to
see the beginning and the end of the parade all at the same time you wouldn't have a problem you could see the beginning of the parade and the end at the same time it's a matter of perspective God is so high he can see everything in history he can see the beginning and the middle and the end all at the same time it doesn't bother him because he he has a different perspective now because God knows everything will happen uh and not limited by time we know these verses Hebrews 11:13 nothing in all creation is
hidden from God's sight he can see it all everything is uncovered and laid bare before his eyes so there are no secrets with God now here's the second thing that we know second fact about the future God's plan for my future is good God's plan for my future is good it's not a bad plan in fact God has no bad plans for people God is a good god and because God is a good God all of his plans are good he doesn't have any bad plans for you all of his plans for you are good
one of the most famous verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 2911 I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not harm you plans to give you hope and a fure future God has long range plans for your life he has a purpose for your life he has a plan for your life God has thought far more about your life than you ever have he's thought about every detail every thought every part of it and he has a plan for your life and his plan is good for you
now to fulfill my created purpose here's the third thing I must choose to trust and obey God God knows everything that's going to happen in my life and he has a good plan for my life but I have to choose that plan I have to choose to trust God and I have to choose to obey God and every single day of my life God's given me a free choice God says this in Deuteronomy 30: 19 God says today I'm giving you the choice and this is it's your choice he's not going to force you God's
a gentlemen I'm going to give you the choice between life and death you want to you want to really live or you want have a deadend life it it's up to you I'm giving you choice between real living or a a a dying life between blessings or curses you want to bless life well do what I tell you to do but it's up to you I'm not going to force you to do the right thing cuz I want you to love me out of free will now here's the fourth fact and then we can start
looking at the promises God will be with me every step of the way in my future I don't know what it's going to be like and I know I can't control it but I do know this God will be with me every step of the way how do I know that because in the Bible one of the most repeated Promises of God is this you're not going to be alone I will never leave you I will never forsake you I will never abandon you I'm going to be with you my presence will be with you
he says it hundreds of times I'm going to be with you because God made you to be connected to him now you may not always feel God's presence but God is not a feeling so something doesn't have to be felt for it to be real you don't have to feel something for it to be real there are a lot of things that are real that you can't see you can't see protons and electrons you can't see atoms but they're real everything's made up of atoms and so I may not feel God I may not sense
God but he is always with me now that's an encouragement because although don't know what the future holds I do know I'm not going to face it alone so we can say with confidence a lot of people are scared about the future he says you we can say with go Christians can be the most confident people when it comes to future why because the Lord is my helper I will not be afraid because what can people do to me one plus God equals a majority so no matter what happens in your future you're not going
to go through it alone now this comforting truth that I just shared with you is called the faithfulness of God that God is Not only a good God he is a faithful God that means he keeps his word and he always does what's good in your life and it's part of his character he keeps every promise if you're struggling with anxiety or worry in your life every fear is a misunderstanding of who God is and what he's promised every fear is a misunderstanding of who God is and what he's promised if you knew what God
is really like and you knew what he's really promised you wouldn't be afraid you wouldn't be anxious about the future you wouldn't be worried or nervous about what's going to happen tomorrow because if you really knew who God is and what he's promised to do in your life you wouldn't be afraid the weaknesses that you have today you'll probably have to struggle with them the rest of your life as I said you'll get better but if you for instance have a predisposition to be controlling and and you in every situation you intend to try to
control everything the rest of your life you're going to be tempted to try to control things as I said hopefully you'll get better and not be give into it so much but you're going to be tempted to to do that the rest of your life but God promises to help you this is a good thing so let me give you the bad news uh the good news and the great news about Temptation the bad news is you're never going to outgrow Temptation some people think well maybe I'll get to the point in my spiritual life
I'm just not tempted anymore fat chance it's going to happen the rest of your life in fact I know this I've been walking with the Lord I've been a friend of Jesus for over 50 years you know what I've discovered the more mature I get the more Satan tempts me because Satan doesn't bother with you if you're if you're you're not doing anything but if you if if you can make a difference with your life he's going to really go after you and so actually some of the Temptations in your life the more mature you
get the more you'll be tempted you just have better resources you know how to deal with it doesn't mean the Temptations go away it just means you don't give into them anymore and so they will actually increase see some people some of you are carrying false shame because you you think I should be at the stage this doesn't tempt me anymore I shouldn't have this thought I shouldn't have this feel feeling this way well that's just not true because you're not responsible for every thought that comes into your mind you're responsible for what you do
with it when Satan gives you an idea and puts it in your mind we call that Temptation the the bad news is you're going to be tempted the rest of your life the good news is it's not a sin to be tempted it's sin to give into temptation but it's not a sin to be tempted the Bible says Jesus was tempted in every Point as we were but he never sinned temptation is just a choice that's all it is so don't get intimidated about like how am I being tempted by this well cuz you're human
that's why it's just a choice and every time you choose to do the right thing you grow every time you you choose to do the wrong thing you stumble you fail and you go back but but temptation is just an opportunity to grow so don't be intimidated by it and don't be ashamed of it let me let me say it another way you might write this down I can't control what gets my attention I can control what keeps my attention the best news is this God has promised to provide a way out of Temptation the
Bible says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 remember that The Temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience now I know Satan tells you you're you're nobody else feels this like you do nobody's tempted this way and he wants to isolate you the Bible says no we all have the exact same Temptations and now if they're common to humans then there are common solutions to them and here's the thing if we all share the same Temptations then we if we talk about it with each other they lose their
power over us when you have a Temptation and you keep it a secret then it's going to get worse God is faithful and because God is faithful he promises two things first he will keep the Temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it that's his first promise second and when you're tempted he'll show you a way out so that you'll not give into it now it's comforting to know that God understands our struggles and he knows exactly what you're going through when you're going through it he's pulling for you Jesus experienced
the same Temptation he's prepared an Escape Route he says I'll strengthen you and I'll prepare an Escape Route that's the promise of God 2 Thessalonians chapter 3:3 says this the Lord is faithful there's that phrase again he keeps his promises and he will give you strength and will protect you from the evil one God promises to support me in trouble he's going to guide me when I'm confused he's going to help me when I'm tempted and he's going to support me when I'm in trouble now what's the difference between Temptation and trouble trouble oh big
difference temptation is inside me uh trouble is outside me temptation is internal trouble is external Temptation has to do with my character trouble has to do with my circumstances and in life for the rest of your life because we live on a broken Planet you're going to have temptations and trouble internal Temptations external trouble sometimes you hear a big disaster or you hear a big big uh you know like a terrorist attack and people say must have been God's will that wasn't God's will God is not the author of evil if I go out and
I get drunk and I get an accident kill myself that wasn't God's will that was my will be done so don't blame God for evil the Bible says God cannot do evil God's will is not always done on Earth that's why we are to pray thy will be done on Earth one of the greatest promises in the Bible in Isaiah 43 Verse 2 and 3 and here's what God promises about your future when you go through deep Waters notice he doesn't say if it's a matter when okay you're you're going to go through deep Waters
at times in your life when you go through deep Waters and great trouble I will be with you I'm going to support you and when you go through rivers of difficulty you will not drowned and when you walk through fires of Oppression you know when the heat's on you will not be burned up for I am the Lord your God now look at that verse and what it it doesn't say when you go through deep Waters and rivers of difficulty you won't get wet doesn't say that it says you won't drown you're going to go
through some problems that that have pain you're going to get wet you're not going to drown and it says when you go through the fire when the heat's on in your life it doesn't say it won't get hot it doesn't say it won't get uncomfortable it says you're not going to burn up I'm going to make sure you make it through the next verse Philippians 4:13 I have strength for all things the good and the bad everything is going to hit in the future which I don't know about I have strength for all things this
is confidence I have all strength for all things in Christ not in myself who empowers me I am ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength in me that's the confident way to look at the future I can do anything I can handle whatever God allows in my life with the strength of Christ the strength I need will come when I need it God doesn't give me strength today for a problem I'm going to have next week the Bible doesn't say we're to pray give us this day our weekly bread
or our monthly bread it says God give me my daily bread I need just enough strength for today God's not going to give you strength for tomorrow until it's tomorrow and God knows what you can handle and he says I will support you in trouble trouble and the strength I need will come when I need it God promises to repay those who hurt me he doesn't want you seeking retaliation he says let let me handle this have you noticed that the world seems to be getting meaner more hateful more rude more uncivil more unfair God
never said that life is fair in fact it's UNF Fair because of the sin in the world Jesus came to make things right and one day they will be made right but life is not fair right now sometimes bad people win sometimes good people suffer come sometimes the innocent get hurt sometimes well-meaning people get abused and and and are betrayed and are cheated on and say well why didn't he stop it then well God could stop all the evil in the world just like that take away our freedom to do it but if he's going
to be fair he's not only going to have to take away other people's freedom he's going to have to take away yours too if we're going to be just and fair the fact is you've hurt people you haven't always done the right thing to people I've hurt people yes God could get rid of all the evil in the world instantly just take away our freedom to choose to not follow him take away our freedom to say I'm going to do what I think's best that would instantly get rid of all the evil in the world
so we can't blame God for that because he's given us the freedom to make that choice God's never stopped me from hurting people stopped you from hurting people but I do to know this God is keeping a record the Bible says very clearly that God is keeping a record of all the ways you've been heard in life did you know that in Psalms Psalm 56:8 it says God stores up your tears in a bottle you don't even know all the tears you've shared God does says he's kept an accounting of how much how many tears
you've shed in your life that's how much your good good father cares about you and that kind of God says this Romans 1219 here's the next promise never avenge yourselves in other words don't retaliate don't try to get revenge against P person who's hurt virtue never avenge yourselves leave that to God for he is said that he will repay those who deserve it wow now follow me on this God is a god of love and because God is love that's why we all have love in our lives if God if our creator wasn't loving there
would be no love in the universe God is the source of all love because God is loving as a loving God he is also a God of Justice God is a just God God is a fair God he is a righteous God why because to allow evil to hurt his children and not seek Justice would be unloving Justice is sometimes the loving thing to do and protection there you sometimes if somebody tried to hurt my wife or my kids or my grandkids and I did nothing about it and I didn't care about it that's called
being unloving sometimes love fights sometimes love defends sometimes loves fights for the protection of other people the Bible says greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends God says the people who hurt you in your life he says trust me I'll handle this and I've got more weapons than you do and I can administer administer Justice better than you can and God says I don't want you wasting one second of your life on resentment and retaliation and revenge and trying to get even because that's just going
to fill you with the poison of bitterness and I don't want you to waste your precious life being bitter some of you are still allowing people who hurt you 10 years ago to hurt you today because you're holding on to the memory of it that's done um that's just stupid they can't hurt you anymore your past is past they can't hurt you anymore the only way they can hurt you is you're holding on to the hurt you won't let it go God says I want you to Let It Go not cuz they deserve it because
they don't you don't deserve forgiveness either I don't you let it go because you go I want to get on with my life some of you today need to go I'm going to trust this promise that God's going to settle the score I'm going to stop trying to get even and I think I've been been thinking that I was getting even by holding on to the hurt cuz they haven't gotten judged for it and so I I I feel like I got to hold on to it so I can remember that somebody remembers how much
they hurt me that's faulty logic Justice delayed is not Justice denied the Bible says there will be a day of reckoning there will be a day of accounting there will be a day of judgment and God is very aware of what people have done to you and he's going to to settle the score one day do you trust him if you do you'll let it go why because it's hurting you God will settle the score God promises for my future to keep me saved until Heaven he's going to keep me saved until I get to
heaven I don't have to keep myself saved thank God cuz if it were up to me to keep myself saved I'm in deep deep weeds that's like there's no way I can save myself God says it's not up to you once you put your hand in the hand of the man who still the waters you may want to let go but he's not going to let go and once you are saved it is his job to keep you saved no matter what happens in your Future Three verses three promises and we'll close John 10:28 Jesus
said I give them eternal life and they shall never perish it's a gift he doesn't take it back they will never perish and no one can snatch them out of my hand when you put your hand in God's hand there are times you're going to want let go one time I took my kids to the Grand Canyon and my two boys were young and they were squirely and Wiggly and I held on to their hands and we walked up to the edge of the Grand Canyon and they wanted to let go there was no way
I was letting go of their hands not a chance because as their father I love them too much and there have been times in my life when I have put my hand I put my hand in God's hand a long time ago there's been times in my life when I've gone God it's not convenient right now to be a Christian to be a follower of Jesus to be a disciple and God says well you you might want to let go of me but I'm not letting go of you you are in my hand and no
man can can snatch you out I had a person say well to me one time well you can't be snatched out of God's hand but you can jump out and I said how big do you think God's hand is you think it's so small you can get to the edge of it his hands is bigger than the universe you'll never get to the edge of God's love you'll never get to the end of God's love you'll never get to the end of him keeping you safe and saved once you are born again you can't be
unborn once your name is written in the Eternal book of life it's written in indelible ink in the blood of Christ it can't be erased once I am saved I am always saved that's good news I I don't know what my future holds I don't know how many years I've got left and I might lose everything I might lose my health I might lose my wife I might lose my family I might lose my mind but I am never losing my salvation that's a good news and that means I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me and I don't know what's coming and I don't know what how the world's going to turn out but that's not my job and the fact is no matter what happens there's one thing I can count on he'll always be with me he's never going to stop loving me and he's going to keep me saved until I'm safely home in heaven that's good news you said what what what if I what if I mess up and I I I like really sin and and I deny Christ yeah well lots of people have done
that next verse promise 2 Timothy 13 if we are faithless he God will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself thank you God I can be unfaithful but he's never going to be unfaithful to me that's how much he loves me last verse Philippians 1:6 being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus what God started in your life he is going to finish God never leaves anything half finished so you can be confident of this that God who started
something in you is going to finish it in you and you're going to make it to the finish line
