A frog went to see a fortune-teller. Gazing into her crystal ball, she said to frog, “You are going to meet a beautiful young woman. From the moment she sets eyes on you she will have an insatiable desire to know all about you. She will be compelled to get close to you—you’ll fascinate her.” The frog replied: “Where am I? At a singles club?” “No!” replied the fortune-teller: “In a biology class.” I’ve always loved that story, and I hope you enjoyed it. We need a little laughter in our lives in 2020.

As you are aware, we are living in times where people are very concerned about the future. I think many of us are wondering “what will things look like” not just years from now but months from now. As humans, we tend to think about the future often. We are concerned from early childhood with what we are going to be in the future. As parents, we pray and hope that our children will have a great future. Many people even go to psychics to see if they can somehow find out about their future! We live in a culture that is consumed with the future! However, what if I told you that you could pretty much predict your future? What if the vast majority of your future tomorrow has everything to do with the choices you make today?

I truly believe that we make our choices, and our choices make us. The best indicator of our future is to take inventory at the thoughts, choices, and actions we are experiencing in the present. For example, if you would like to lose weight in the future you need to put down that cupcake, and begin to exercise now. You will also need to replace that cupcake with healthy food so that you develop healthy eating habits to replace bad eating habits. What you and I do today determines so much of our reality tomorrow. Now understand that this is not an easy task. The greatest battle we will ever face when it comes to making changes is the internal battle. Also, I do understand that there are external conditions that impact our lives, but at the end of the day we choose to rise above them or use them to be a victim. The Apostle Paul wanted to be a better version of himself in the future, and yet he experienced this same battle. In Romans 7:15 he wrote “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

Paul battled with himself internally as he dealt with wanting to make better godly choices that would lead to a better future spiritually. We have all been there when it comes to changes that inevitably predict our future. For example, in 2019 Forbes magazine stated, “The statistics on how many people actually follow through and accomplish their New Year’s resolutions are rather grim. Studies have shown that less than 25% of people actually stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days, and only 8% accomplish them.” I would say that we’ve all set goals but didn’t follow through, and as a result we didn’t experience the rewards in the future. I believe that most of us would like a better future. No logical person would say “I hope I have a horrible future and the rest of my life is awful.” The truth is, most of us have multiple areas we would like to seriously change throughout our lives. The reason we want to make those changes is so we can experience the results in the future. Today I want you to know that predicting the future begins with our thoughts. Everything begins with our thoughts. Origen determines destination! There are actually four specific things that we have control over which predicts the future that we will experience. Throughout the month of August at South Side we will unpack and discover each one of them together.

This Sunday at South Side we will begin to unpack through the word of God how we can predict the future. Worship begins at 10:15, and our Children’s Ministry offers children’s classes for all ages. We are continuing to practice social distancing at our services. If you are unable to attend our online services will be available at 3:00 on Facebook and our website. If you would like to give generously text: 84321 and follow the simple instructions. We would love to have your family worship with us! For more information visit us on our website at: www.southsidewch.com or on Facebook.

In Christ,

Barry Pettit

Lead Pastor

South Side Church of Christ

www.southsidewch.com