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Mark Sanderson: Be Prepared (Jas.
4:14)
Length 8:39
Over 100 years ago, on October 31, 1916, Brother Charles Taze
Russell was traveling on a train as part of a lecture tour across
the United States. Quite unexpectedly, and at the young age of
64, Brother Russell died. For years, he had been traveling
continually. You know, it’s been said that Brother Russell
covered more than a million miles. Now, of course, some of you
may have accomplished that feat, but at that time, of course, we
were not talking about air travel. Brother Russell had to
accomplish that by train and ship and goodness knows what other
means —quite an accomplishment! In addition to that, he had
delivered more than 30,000 sermons, lectures, and talks. He had
written books and other material totaling over 50,000 pages. Yet,
despite all of the privileges that he had enjoyed —his tremendous
Bible knowledge and the powerful way that Jehovah had used him—
in just a moment he was gone. It really illustrates the truth of
what James says here at James 4:13, 14. Let’s read this together,
James 4:13. It says: “Come, now, you who say: “‘Today or tomorrow
we will travel “‘to this city and will spend a year there, “and
we will do business and make some profit,’ “whereas you do not
know what your life will be like tomorrow. “For you are a mist
that appears for a little while and then disappears.” Well,
that’s true. You see, really, no matter what privileges we may
enjoy —how skilled a teacher we may be, what knowledge we’ve
accumulated— we are all just like ‘a mist appearing for a while
and then disappearing.’ Well, this is an idea that occurs over
and over again in the Scriptures and, really, with the purpose of
encouraging all of us to take a close and sober and serious look
at the way that we use our lives. And even more importantly, how
we use them to serve Jehovah. In Luke chapter 12, you’ll remember
that Jesus taught an illustration regarding a rich man. Do you
remember this? Let’s open our Bibles and read it together, Luke
12:16. Now, just before we read it, you’ll remember that the
purpose of Jesus giving this illustration was to emphasize the
importance of being rich toward God. Now, let’s read what he says
here in verse 16: “The land of a rich man produced well. “So he
began reasoning within himself, “‘What should I do now that I
have nowhere to gather my crops?’ “Then he said, ‘I will do this:
“‘I will tear down my storehouses and build bigger ones, “‘and
there I will gather all my grain and all my goods, “‘and I will
say to myself: “‘“You have many good things stored up for many
years; take it easy, eat, drink, enjoy yourself.”’ “But God said
to him, ‘Unreasonable one, “‘this night they are demanding your
life from you. “Who, then, is to have the things you stored up?’
“So it goes with the man who stores up treasure for himself but
is not rich toward God.” Well, what was the problem with this
man? In the 2007 Watchtower, August 1st issue, this illustration
was discussed. And The Watchtower said that “the rich man’s plan
“provided [really] only a false sense of security. “Practical as
it might have seemed [to him], “it left out one vital element—
God’s will. “The man was only thinking about himself, “how he
would be able to take his ease “and eat, drink, and enjoy
himself. “He thought that because [he had] ‘many good things,’ he
would also have ‘many years.’” Isn’t that an interesting point?
You see, he thought the abundance of things that he possessed
would somehow equate to the length of his life. But The
Watchtower went on to say: “Too bad for him, things did not work
out that way. “Just as Jesus said earlier, ‘even when a person
has an abundance his life does not result from the things he
possesses.’” Well, that brings us back to James chapter 4. Let’s
go back there again, and look at what verse 15 says. See, after
commenting on how a life is just like a mist appearing, then
verse 15 says: “Instead, you should say: ‘If Jehovah wills, we
will live and do this or that.’” You see, the Bible makes it
clear that we should never ever develop overconfidence —
overconfidence in anything— in our position, our knowledge, our
wisdom, our wealth. But instead, you see, have complete
confidence in Jehovah. Really, our only hope, our only confidence
is with Jehovah. Now, this applies not just to our view of life
itself but, really, also to our view of all of our activities.
You see, in that verse in James chapter 4, it says that it’s not
just about our life but about whether we will do this or do that.
So it really applies to all of the different things that we do
every day. Recently, we’ve been hearing reports of increasing
persecution in various lands, including Russia. Now, when we hear
those reports, perhaps we begin to think right away that this is
something that could only happen in a faraway land. You see, in
countries like the United States and Canada (those who are
listening to this program), perhaps we have the attitude that,
well, this freedom of worship that we enjoy is always going to be
here, and it will never change. But it’s interesting to consider
what happened in one case in 1972 in the country of Singapore. On
January 12, 1972, a missionary who was serving at the branch,
received a letter suddenly —hand delivered to him— saying that he
was banished from the country and must leave within two weeks.
Now, this brother had been serving there peacefully for 23 years;
everything was going along very smoothly. Two days later, the
Kingdom Hall was padlocked, all the literature was banned in the
country, the bank accounts that belonged to the branch and to the
congregation were all seized. Well, suddenly and very
unexpectedly our work and all of our activities had been banned
in that country. Well, now, what do we learn from this? Is it to
teach us that we should live in some kind of morbid fear that our
work is going to be banned at any moment? Well, what’s the real
reality of what happened in Singapore? How did those unexpected
events affect our brothers in that land? Well, they were not
broken. Looking to Jehovah with complete confidence, they
continued to find ways to worship Jehovah. And Jehovah has
blessed their efforts right up until this present day. So,
brothers, it’s true, as James chapter 4 teaches us, life in this
system is really filled with uncertainty. But if we have made
Jehovah our confidence and if we are truly rich toward God, then,
really, whatever may come, whatever situation may befall us —even
our untimely death— we are completely and totally safe with
Jehovah. And he is the One —because we’ve made him our confidence
— who will care for us in every way.
Mark Sanderson: Be Prepared (Jas. 4:14)
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