2006 Facing the Year with the Mind of a Christian

Driving home: It is an evil, godless, fundamentally atheistic way of thinking and planning and speaking about the future.

Martin uses the examples of a fly getting stuck in one's throat or a piece of gristle causing choking to illustrate the sudden and unexpected ways life can end, challenging the presumption of control over one's day.

New English version says, arrogant boasting. Arrogant boasting, you boast and brag. This language is not an innocent projection of tentative plans and responsible foresight. It is an expression of a disposition of the heart of people who talk as though they were really in control of their lives. Today, before the sun goes down, which assumes the sun will go down and that I will be alive to see it go down. Whereas, God may allow a fly to get stuck in my throat and I'll be dead before three o'clock. Or a piece of gristle from my evening meal steak may get caught in my throat and no one knows the...

10:34 - 11:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Human life is insubstantial and transitory. Here, here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. One minute, gone the next.

He uses the analogy of vapor from a cold car's tailpipe that appears briefly and then vanishes to vividly illustrate the insubstantial and transitory nature of human life.

What is your life? Stop, he says, and think. What is your life? What is it? And then he answers, you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. This word vapor is used only one other time in the New Testament. It can refer to smoke. It rises, absorbed into the atmosphere and is gone. Or it could refer to the kind of thing we see in the wintertime.

16:18 - 16:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Human life is insubstantial and transitory. Here, here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. One minute, gone the next.

Martin likens human days to the swiftness of a weaver's shuttle and lives to grass that grows in the morning and withers in the evening, emphasizing the universal scriptural theme of life's brevity.

It's vapor that appears and is gone. And this is the universal emphasis of Scripture. Our days are likened to the swiftness of a weaver's shuttle. Our lives are likened to grass that in the morning grows up and in the evening is cut down or withers.

17:13 - 17:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Human life is insubstantial and transitory. Here, here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. Here, and here is the point. One minute, gone the next.

He encourages listeners, especially teenagers, to walk through a cemetery and observe the dates on gravestones, noting how many lives are cut short, to underscore the unpredictable nature of death.

That's a fact. When I go to the cemetery, and I walk around the cemetery, and I compare the dates, I say, oh, that boy was cut off in his twelfth year. I wonder why. That little one only lived three years.

18:29 - 18:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquire and live by a Christian mindset regarding the future, so that godly words naturally flow from your heart.

Martin contrasts the Christian mindset with the rote learning of prayers in Islam, arguing that true godly speech comes from the heart, not just repeating formulas.

If that's all he were saying, that'd be an easy job, to learn little formulas and repeat them. That's why Islam is so attractive, among other things. You learn your prayers, how to say them, when to say them, in what place, in what direction. Very easy, because it doesn't do anything to the heart.

21:38 - 21:58 Read in full sermon

The point: As a general rule, consider including 'if the Lord will' in your talk about the future to cultivate godly speech and be a light to others, but not to earn favor with God or impress others.

He uses the phrase 'sicken to a bulldog' to describe how consistently using 'if the Lord will' can eventually provoke questions from unbelievers, opening a door for gospel conversation.

Who knows, with people that we have regular contact, and they say, Well, I'll see you next week for your appointment for this or that. And we say, Yes, if the Lord will. Who knows how after a while it's going to get to them. They're going to say, Well, what do you mean by this if the Lord will business?

44:20 - 44:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Use the perspective and language of 'if the Lord will' as a great check on whether or not you plan sin in your future.

Martin illustrates the check on planning sin by asking if one could say, 'I'm going to CVS to get medicine, if the Lord wills, and pass by the magazine rack,' highlighting how the phrase exposes sinful intentions.

You men, listen to me. You're going to CVS to pick up some medicine because you got a cold or some of the kids got a cold. And you know where the magazine rack is and you've stumbled in front of that magazine rack before. I'm going to CVS to get some medicine if the Lord wills.

45:18 - 45:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Use the perspective and language of 'if the Lord will' as a great check on whether or not you plan sin in your future.

He uses the example of planning to gossip about someone on the phone and trying to preface it with 'if the Lord wills,' demonstrating how the phrase reveals the sinfulness of such an intention.

Well, I'm going to speak to Mary on the phone. And I have ticked off at what Joyce did to me yesterday. And therefore, when I'm on the phone with Mary, I'm going to get if the Lord wills. No, the Lord doesn't will for you to gossip, to speak evil, because he says speak evil of no man.

46:01 - 46:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Use the perspective and language of 'if the Lord will' as a great check on whether or not you plan sin in your future.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about staying alone in a motel and the temptations that can arise, using it to illustrate how the 'if the Lord will' mindset acts as a guard against planning to indulge in sin.

But some come to us in our thinking of the future. And these days, when I've made these long trips out to Michigan, I'm trying to find a way to split up the trip. And I found a good way to do it. I found a nice, cheap, clean motel for 33 bucks a night.

46:52 - 47:10 Read in full sermon