"Tomorrow" 11-21-21

Overview

The Asterisk Next to Tomorrow

The past has no asterisk—we know what happened. The present has no asterisk—it is what it is. But the future always carries an asterisk, that small mark that signals uncertainty, conditions, and qualifications we cannot see or control. Scripture is candid about this reality. Proverbs 27:1 warns, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day will bring." Jesus tells of the rich man with the bumper harvest who planned bigger barns and easy years ahead, only to hear God say, "You fool! This night your soul is required of you" Luke 12:16-21.

James addresses this same self-confidence head-on. In James 4:13-15, he calls out those who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money." Notice how detailed their plans are—the timing, the location, the duration, the activity, even the outcome. James says, "Listen up." You do not know what tomorrow will bring. Your life is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Job and the Psalms echo this with images of weaver's shuttles, fleeting shadows, runners, and grass that flourishes one moment and is gone the next Psalm 103:15-16. Instead, James says, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

What is underneath this rebuke? It is the persistent illusion that we are in control rather than God. The apostle Paul modeled the corrective again and again: "I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills" 1 Corinthians 4:19; "I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits" 1 Corinthians 16:7; "I will return to you if God wills" Acts 18:21. The old saints used to say, "If the Lord wills and the creek doesn't rise"—a simple confession that God holds every blink, every breath, every beat of the heart. God spends a lifetime returning us to the posture of a child who is wholly dependent on the Father.

The asterisk next to tomorrow can breed anxiety, fear, and dread—but only if we forget who holds tomorrow. We do not know what the day will bring, but we know the One who is already there. We know the One who claimed us in the waters of baptism, who sent His Son to the cross to pay our sin debt, who calls us His own children, and who has secured a future that stretches into eternity. So give thanks for the yesterdays, even the hard ones, where God's grace gathered up the broken pieces. Give thanks for today, rooted in the empty tomb of Easter and the victory of Christ the King. And give thanks for every tomorrow—because God has them. Beloved, fear not the asterisk.

Transcript

Would you open your Bibles, please, with me to the fourth chapter of the book of James 2s

for our study today? 7s

If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that page 200 and 9s

4, page 204, James the fourth chapter. 13s

The Asterisk, the Asterisk. 21s

The Asterisk is, is oftentimes not welcome, is it? 26s

The Asterisk communicates that sense of, well, there's more to the story here. 33s

It communicates that sense of a, of a condition or a, or a qualifier or a, or that which limits. 41s

For example, you see advertised something that, why you've never seen the price that 53s

low before on that item. 58s

Can you get rather intrigued? 61s

Can you get rather excited? 63s

But then you notice next to that price is a little asterisk. 66s

And so you go on the hunt and you search down and down and down through and you can't 72s

find the Asterisk. 78s

But finally you find it. 78s

There it is embedded with a whole bunch of verbiage and you realize that there are a whole 81s

bunch of other fees that are attached to that attractive price. 86s

The Asterisk, the Asterisk. 93s

That Asterisk that communicates that past performance is not a predictor of future. 99s

There are results. 108s

The Asterisk can just dampen things, can't it? 112s

Qualify it. 120s

Raised out. 123s

What do you think of the past? 126s

There's no Asterisk associated with the past is there because we know the past. 127s

We can look back and we know exactly what happened. 134s

There's no Asterisk with regard to the past. 137s

There's no Asterisk with regard to the present either. 140s

Because we know what is. 144s

It is what it is. 146s

There's no qualifier with regard to the present. 148s

We simply know that which is but the future. 153s

The future. 159s

The future always has that Asterisk. 162s

Next to it. 167s

Doesn't it? 169s

The uncertainty of it all. 172s

Scripture flesh is out. 180s

The Asterisk with regard to the future. 183s

In fact, it does it in several places. 186s

In Proverbs 27 it says, do not boast about tomorrow. 189s

For you do not know what a day will bring Asterisk. 194s

ecclesiasties. 202s

Who can bring them to see what will be after them? 204s

Asterisk. 210s

Luke 12. 212s

The story about the rich man who had a fantastic harvest. 214s

And all of a sudden he had a problem. 218s

He didn't have a place to store all of his harvest. 219s

And so he said, well, well, I do. 223s

I know what I'll do. 224s

I'll tear down my barns and I'll build bigger barns. 225s

And then I'll say to myself, so relax. 229s

Take it easy. 233s

Eat, drink and be merry. 233s

Because you have ample goods laid up for many a year. 235s

And what was God's response to all that? 241s

God responded by saying, you fool. 245s

This very night your life is being demanded of you. 249s

And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? 255s

There's the future. 263s

And right next to future is the Asterisk. 266s

The Asterisk. 272s

James fleshes it out too. 276s

Look at our text, please. 280s

Chapter 4, verse 13. 281s

James starts out and he says, come now. 285s

The intent of that, the understanding of the words used there, 289s

is James is saying, listen up. 292s

Listen up. 295s

It's a, it's a sterner than our read might be. 297s

Listen up. 303s

And then he addresses a certain group. 305s

He says, you, who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there doing business and making money. 307s

James is, listen up. 319s

You that have the future all determined here who understand yourselves is somehow being able to be the master of your country. 321s

And you know, you know, you know, you're going to be the master of your destiny because look, look how detailed their own plans are. 333s

And their own confidence in themselves. 340s

Why they know exactly the time today or tomorrow, they know the location. 342s

They're going to go to such and such a town. 348s

They know the length of their plans here. 351s

They're going to spend a year there. 353s

They know exactly what they're going to do. 356s

They're going to do business. 358s

And they know exactly the result. 359s

They're going to make money. 362s

James says, listen up. 366s

You who have so mastered your future. 370s

Listen up. 376s

Because the asterisk. 380s

Looms. 383s

Large. 386s

Sh. 387s

And James says, verse 14, 390s

Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will break. 395s

And there's no erasing that asterisk. 407s

Next to future. 415s

There's just no erasing the uncertainty of it all. 418s

And then James says, 428s

What is your life for your a missed that appears for a little while and then 431s

then it's just. 442s

I. 447s

Job. 448s

The seventh chapter. 449s

My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle. 452s

Job ate. 458s

For our days on earth are but a shadow. 460s

Job nine. 465s

My days are swifter than a runner. 467s

They, they flee away. 470s

They see no good. 472s

They go by life's skiffs of read like an eagle swooping on the prey. 474s

Some 103. 482s

As for mortals, their days are like grass. 485s

They flourish like a flower of the field. 488s

For the wind passes over it. 492s

And it is gone. 495s

And it's place knows it. 497s

No more. 500s

We can deny it. 504s

We can try and erase it. 506s

But future. 510s

Future's got an asterisk. 514s

Next to it. 519s

So what's underneath this? 524s

What's James getting at here? 528s

In highlighting this, this asterisk. 532s

Next to future. 535s

What's he getting at? 537s

What's what's driving him here? 539s

It's so interesting. 544s

When you look at the life of the apostle Paul, 547s

I think of what he says in 1 Corinthians 4th chapter. 550s

He says, but I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. 554s

1 Corinthians 16. 562s

He says, I do not want to see you now just in passing. 564s

For I hope to spend some time with you. 569s

If the Lord permits. 572s

Acts 18. 577s

But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you. 579s

If God wills. 586s

Then he said, sale from Ephesus. 589s

Notice in our text. 594s

Right after James says, listen up. 597s

Right after he says, I'm going to talk to you now 600s

about the master's of your own destiny here. 604s

And have your future all laid out here with all of your specific plans 608s

and your outcomes. 612s

Right after he says, listen up. 613s

Right after he says, and this is who I'm addressing this to. 615s

Right after he reminds that we don't even know what tomorrow 619s

will bring. 623s

And right after he reminds that we are all but myths, 624s

myths, the shortness of life, this side of heaven. 630s

After all of that he says, instead, you ought to say, 635s

if the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that. 644s

What's the issue? 666s

What's he getting at? 671s

It's the feeling that somehow we're in control. 675s

Instead of God, that's what's underneath it. 686s

At the ear saint, would oftentimes say to me, 700s

what I would say, well, see you next Sunday or I'll see you at the meeting. 705s

Oftentimes the response would be, if the Lord wills and the creek 712s

doesn't rise, and it was your reminder, an appropriate one, 717s

that God holds every blank and God holds every breath and God holds every beat of the heart. 726s

If the Lord wills and the creek doesn't rise. 733s

God spends a lifetime with us getting us back to be the little child who's absolutely dependent upon the parent for everything. 740s

And God works at us, it's a lifetime project to get us back to that dependency. 762s

The asterisk, next to future, which reminds us of all the futures uncertainty. 778s

The asterisk, next to the future, it can breed anxiety, it can breed fear, 789s

it can breed dread. 798s

But who did the tomorrow's belong to? 804s

Who did they belong to? 808s

Who holds them in him? 812s

We rest. 820s

Look at verse 14 again, please. 824s

Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. 828s

We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but we know who holds tomorrow, right? 836s

We don't know what tomorrow will bring, because the asterisk is right next to the future. 843s

We don't know what tomorrow will bring. 851s

But we do know that the one who holds tomorrow is already there. 856s

We don't know what tomorrow will bring. 863s

But we do know of the one who has called us his own and the waters of baptism. 867s

We do know the one who sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the cross, to redeem us, 876s

and to pay our sin debt, to reconcile us unto him. 882s

To bring about a future that extends into all of eternity. 888s

We do know the one who calls us his child. 892s

We do know him and in him is our confidence. 900s

We give thanks for the yesterdays, including 915s

those difficult days, because it's in looking at the difficult days that we see God's grace and action, 923s

and God picks up the pieces of our broken lives off of the floor. 931s

And so we can give thanks for what God has done in the past. 936s

We can give thanks for the today that the Lord has given us, because the today is rooted in the day of Easter. 940s

And the tomb of our Lord is empty and Christ the King is victorious. 949s

And we can give thanks for all of our tomorrow's, because God has the tomorrow's. 956s

He's got it. 972s

Beloved, fear not the estrusc. 976s