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Making Plans – Trusting God James 4:13-17 What is it that we are here for? Isn't that what we are trying to figure out... what is it that we are to do? What plans should we make... what goals we should shoot for? And it’s hard to figure out what our next move should be. And then when we think we have it all figured out something changes… that proverbial wrench is thrown into the works. Many of you received my email about being “On Hold” and wondering what God is doing. Right now I have no clue where we are going as a church. I see incredible things happening in the lives of people and am amazed… and yet over the next few weeks our church will be confronting uncertainty. We have some difficult choices to make. Right now the church doesn’t have enough money to pay the bills and all our savings are gone… maybe some of you relate to that reality. It is times like these that we can get caught up in the moment, fill our lives with worry, and try to grasp at whatever straws present themselves… and yet God whispers, “Trust Me, I know what I am doing, follow Me.” Those are words we don’t like to hear… it’s hard to listen to words like that at times of uncertainty. And so I today I am turning back to a good friend of mine, James, the brother of Jesus. In his letter he puts life in perspective: The first lesson - Don't be arrogant & don't think you'll last forever! Truth hurts... but it also heals, it puts us in a place where real living happens! That's really what I hope happens today... that we'd get confronted by truth and instead of walking away we would begin a more directed walk toward Jesus! Let's start by thinking in new ways about life... and about our plans for life… and challenge you with the idea that We are entirely too shortsighted! In James 4:13-17 we see another view about how to go about making plans for our lives… And it doesn’t start with… 1) Our Plans! (13-14) (4:13) Now listen, you who say (the sense in this opening in the Greek is very brusque), "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." a) We love to make plans. To figure out our lives. Today I'll do this, I'll go here, get this accomplished, and when I do then I'll have something to feel good about!! Being able to do this makes us feel proud and self-sufficient... Many of you are planning on a Charger win… I hope the Chargers aren’t. I hope they are planning on playing the best game they can and aren’t thinking about the Colts or beyond. i) Way to often our focus is on our plans and us! Our glory or gain. ii) You might think it strange... but the people to whom James was writing were living in a hub of commerce. Business was big... Jerusalem was located on one the main trading routes on the Mediterranean. Big business! The Jerusalem/American Dream was alive and well! b) (14a) And you don't even know what you are doing... what tomorrow will bring i) Isn't this a most unfortunate truth... we don't know! Every time I drive by the 125 I see the sign, "Expect Delays." Not quite sure why that sign is always there, it is obviously obvious. So we need to be prepared with another motto, "Adjust!" (1) Things just don't seem to go the way we plan... (a) People get in our way. And it's no surprise, they're trying to do the same thing, and you know that their plans and yours don't always align perfectly. (b) Situations surprise us! There is so much that is out of our control! And yet we freak out about it… c) We live in a world of transition!! 14 What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.) i) What is your life? Get honest; there often isn't much difference between the plans of mice and men. ii) We are just a mist. We appear. We disappear. What we do matters, but then it's gone. This isn’t exactly the way I want people to look at me… (1) Think of the great societies of the present and the past... (a) The US (b) The British Empire (c) The French - Bonaparte (d) Charlemagne (e) The Islamic Empire (f) The Romans (g) The Greeks (h) The Persians (i) The Babylonians (j) The Assyrians (k) The Egyptians iii) They all come for a while... and then vanish and archeologists sift through garbage dumps and try to figure out who they were. iv) History, long or short, tells us that our plans aren't as big as we think they are… (1) That's a really hard truth... (2) But it is also an amazingly freeing realization! (a) What are truly important about our plans are the eternal implications... (b) We were, after all, made for eternity. (c) We are entirely too shortsighted! We must focus on… 2) God's Plans! (4:15) Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." a) Instead... What God desires for us is totally different! The Lord's will is quite different from ours. i) It isn't driven by pettiness; it's driven by pure love. ii) It isn't driven by best-laid plans; it's driven by perfect wisdom. iii) It isn't driven by what wants and desires; it's driven by the deepest understanding of our real needs! b) This is an idea that is incredibly freeing and allows us to be incredibly brave… After the first battle of Bull Run Stonewall Jackson is asked, "General, how is it you can keep so serene and stay so utterly sensible with a storm of shells and bullets raining about your head?" "Captain Smith, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death; I do not concern myself with that. But to be always ready, whenever it may overtake me; that is how all men should live. Then all men would be equally brave." c) What God wants really does matter! That why developing eternal significance in ourselves and the people around us is so important. Matt 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. i) Where are our treasures? What have we made important to us? (1) God wants to release us from the cages we've made of our lives (2) And set us free to run in the wonder of heaven... even the parts of heaven we find here. To be truly BRAVE! (3) We are entirely too shortsighted! We need to put on the eyeglasses of heaven! 3) Reprise: Our Plans (4:16) As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil a) It's so funny how when confronted with truth we have such well-developed defenses... i) We look at what we've done or have and think it's so impressive ii) We look at our careers and stuff... and seek significance in them... but we know they are a mist! iii) We tell ourselves, "I'm basically a good person." But we know that we aren't... (1) It may be in little ways... petty arguments, hypocrisies, selfishnesses, desires, or our own little dreams that we allow to overwhelm us and keep us from actually doing anything. (2) It may be in big ways, the obvious ones, addictions, adulteries, murders, hatred, the stuff we see in the news and in the gossip around us. b) But James won't let us get away with it, "All such boasting is evil!" i) ALL!!! ii) The real problem with our plans isn’t our plans… it’s US! It’s the incredible black hole of ME. Our plans often are incredibly shortsighted…. They can’t even get past our own faces! iii) I know what it is to be blind… but now I see. (1) I had laser surgery on my eyes a couple of years ago… and now I take it for granted. (a) But I went from eyesight that couldn’t see past my nose (b) To freedom to see…. (2) But I have also had surgery on my heart! The gift that Jesus gave me has cut to the core of my being. Changing everything… nothing really looks or feels the same anymore (a) And sometimes that feels really good… (b) But other times it feels really bad… I have a new heart in an old world… it beats to a different rhythm and (i) It hurts when I’m misunderstood or looked at differently because I haven’t bought in to the dream! (ii) It hurts when I turn from God and buy in to the dream… when once again I find myself caught up in the mist! (3) James won’t let us live in the mist… he refuses to let us live shortsighted lives… 4) Just Doing it! (4:17) Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. a) This isn’t probably original to James… it’s a saying that was going around the church… in fact had probably been around even longer.. Prov. 3 has some of the same ideas… b) But it fits in the context of what James wants us to hear! i) What God wants is important! ii) And we should do it. c) We are entirely too shortsighted! i) We are way to often blind eyed, deaf eared and tight fisted! ii) We need to put on the eyeglasses of heaven! To focus on the eternal significance God offers us… and then just do it. iii) Not doing it is SIN! It’s missing the mark; no matter how good you look doing it!
So often we are overwhelmed by difficulties, but we forget… In Lamentations 3:22,23 we hear the cry of a heart determined to depend upon God no matter the situation: 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Let’s Trust in God… and His faithfulness… and let Him work through us to touch and change the world, no matter the circumstances.
Verse 13
Verse 14
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Verse 16
Verse 17
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