Certain Truths for Uncertain Times

What this episode covers

Outline with blanks Completed Outline James 4 13-17 Scroll to 38:30 for the beginning of the sermon. James 4:13-17 We’re going to read some Scripture. This is James chapter 4. This is what James writes. Now, listen, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You appear as a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes, all such boasting is evil. If anyone then knows the good, they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. We made it through another year. Well, almost, not quite gone yet. But it’s amazing how quickly time seems to fly by. And so here we are in the precipice of another year. And as we stand on the new year, it brings questions to our hearts, doesn’t it? Minds like, what does the new year hold for our nation, our country, the United States of America? We’re going to celebrate birthday number 250 on July 4th of 2026. We ask the question, well, what does 2026 hold for our church? And what does 2026 hold for our family, our immediate family, or our extended family? What does 2026 hold for us individually? The fact of the matter is we don’t know. We think some things might happen, and we can plan. That section read in James, it does not forbid planning. The message of James there in James 4 is like, hold your plans loosely because only God knows what tomorrow will bring. And so, as we go into 2026, I want to share some certain truths for uncertain times because we really don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Here’s our main statement that we want to focus on, and this is from Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom. She said, never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. And so, we’re going to think about two anchor truths this morning. This is Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19, and let me just read those verses. Hebrews 6:19 says, we have this hope, it’s talking about God and His Word and His promises. 2 anchor truths We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. So, what’s going to give us confidence to choose faith over fear with the unknown of 2026? And it’s going to be the truth that we’re going to think about this morning. So, here’s the two anchor truths. i. The person of God The first one is the person of God, the person of God, who God is. And then we’re going to look at four promises, and there’s many more than this, but four promises that God gives you and me as we think about the unknown and a new year. And so first of all, the person of God. Who is this God, Emmanuel God with us? Titus 1:2 says, He is a God who cannot lie. So, He is a God whose words are true. He is a God who is faithful and true. And in 2nd Timothy 2, verse 13, we read, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. So even when we’re not faithful, God is faithful. And we sing that song, don’t we? We’re going to sing it as we close the service this morning. Great is your faithfulness, O God my Father. There’s no shadow of turning with Thee. You change not, your compassions they fail not. As you have been, thou forever will be. And so, the first anchor truth that can help give us confidence as we go into the unknown of a new year is that we can entrust our lives to the person of God who is faithful in our lives even when we’re not. Malachi 3:6, for I the Lord do not change. Hebrews 13, verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so, God’s faithfulness extends not only to our lives, but to our kids’ lives and our grandkids’ lives and all the generations behind us. So, we can enter into 2026 with confidence because God is faithful. Jeremiah writes those familiar verses in Lamentations chapter

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