I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.  I will ponder the way that is blameless.  Oh when will you come to me?  I will walk with integrity of heart within my house;  I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.  I hate the work of those who fall away;  it shall not cling to me.  A perverse heart shall be far from me;  I will know nothing of evil.  Psalm 101:1-4  ESV

During my state employment, I worked for more years with one supervisor than any other.  He is a wise man and had some very wise sayings framed up on his office wall.  One of those sayings was that proper planning prevents poor performance.  Another was that failure to plan on our part did not constitute an emergency on his part.

I have also heard that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  We plan for all sorts of things.  We plan for parties and special events.  We plan for retirement and other financial goals.  We plan for our future.  So my question today is what type of plans are you making for eternity?  Are you planning to spend eternity in Heaven with God the Father?  Because if you’re not, you are planning on spending eternity in hell with the devil.  There is no in-between here.  Hmm, let’s see do I want pearly gates, with streets lined with gold where there is no more sorrow or pain?  Or do I want to be thrown into the lake of fire where there will be moaning and gnashing of teeth?  Oh and it will be hot, it will be extremely hot, it will be miserable and it will be  forever.  Tough decision?  I hope not.

Now when I put it that way I know you are reading this and saying, “oh yeah, I’ll take everlasting joy and peace and beautiful, serene surroundings”.  But my question today is, are you preparing for that?

Whenever we want something good, we have to prepare for it.  In this Psalm, David is making a statement to God.  He is setting the ethical standards by which he intends to live.  He is a king, remember, so he is also setting the ethical standards for his administration.  Now we just came through an election.  Wouldn’t it be great if our politicians used this Psalm as their guideline?  What a wonderful world this would be!

But as individuals, this should be our guideline.  This should be our plan for eternal salvation.  Now, ironically, we know that David messed up big time with Bathsheba.  But we also know that David repented and was forgiven.  He had to pay the price the rest of his days here on earth.  God took the son away that was born to him and Bathsheba and his household was in turmoil for the rest of his days.  His children were against each other and one son was even determined to kill him to seize his throne.  He definitely had to pay for his sin.  But he loved the Lord and remained committed to God.

David planned on a lifelong commitment to God.  Are you planning on a lifelong commitment to Christ?  Have you dedicated your entire life to Christ?  Are or you too busy planning holiday parties, hunting, or watching ball games?  Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with these fun activities,  but if that gets in the way of what God wants you to do, then you have a problem.  If you are so busy with worldly activities that you can’t get to church or you can’t do what God is calling you to do, then you might want to rethink things.

In this scripture passage, David is clearly planning to follow God and walk in God’s ways.  He is planning on doing what is right in God’s sight.  We have to plan these things, they don’t just happen.  We talked yesterday about how our human nature totally contradicts what God wants us to do.  We have to plan to stay close to God.  We need to be in a good Bible teaching church and surrounded by a good, strong church family that holds us accountable.  A good church family will also support you in hard times and I thank God for my church and my church family.  God has truly blessed us with a  wonderful pastor and his wife which make a great team.  We have wonderful fellowship there and I feel blessed to be a part of my church.

So today I leave you with this one question.  What kind of plans are you making for your future?  Oh, it is very important that we plan for our future.  We need to plan for kid’s college tuition, retirement, emergencies, all of that is important.  But can anything possibly be more important that forever?  Is anything more critical than where you plan on spending eternity?  I strongly encourage you to think about that today, before it’s too late.  Because the bottom line is, none of us know when our forever will start.  We know that this life is like a wisp of smoke.   We are here one minute and gone the next.  Just a little something to think about.

Have a great day!