SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: May God bless you today through his life-giving word.
SPEAKER_01: The second reading this morning comes from James chapter 4, verses 13 to 17.
SPEAKER_01: Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.
SPEAKER_01: Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_01: What is your life?
SPEAKER_01: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, you want to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_01: As it is, you will boast in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_01: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So, dear news song, what is your life?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that you would meet us exactly where you are at, where we're at right now by your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That we may be where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Caught up and hidden in Christ, Lord, safe and secure.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that it's by grace we would strive to enter the narrow door.
SPEAKER_00: We pray it's by grace that we would submit all we have to you, ready to receive your grace and your goodness, which you are so eager to share with us.
SPEAKER_00: Speak through your word, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: It had power in its day when it was written, it has power in our day as well to transform us, to center us in your truth and in your promises, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do that?
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So have you ever started a project that you figure this is going to be simple enough?
SPEAKER_00: And you already know where that's going.
SPEAKER_00: I had a uh, I mean, I've I've known folks who've started simple, you know, drywall patches and discovered the whole thing's infested with termites, you know?
SPEAKER_00: I had friends who had some dampness in their basement, so they go poking around and discover the entire foundation of the house needs to be redone.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you start something that looks pretty simple and you discover this goes a lot deeper than I thought it would.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if today's passage from the Letter of James that we've been journeying through the last number of weeks together, I wonder if our passage is a little like that.
SPEAKER_00: At first glance, it seems like there's one particular group of people within the church doing a particular occupation with perhaps a particular problem.
SPEAKER_00: And that problem looks like it should be nothing but a patchwork job.
SPEAKER_00: But the more I dig into this verse, the more I realize I think the problem that James is identifying goes a lot, lot deeper than the drywall, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: It goes right down into the foundation, and not just for a particular group of people within the church that he's writing to, it goes right down to the foundation for all Christians in his day, and I think in our day as well.
SPEAKER_00: Truthfully, after last week's sermon, uh it was twelve very jam-packed verses.
SPEAKER_00: I looked at this week's text and I thought, I'm so thankful it's only five verses.
SPEAKER_00: And then I discovered these are five very jam-packed verses.
SPEAKER_00: So I have two pages and not just one page of notes today.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to enjoy our next two hours together.
SPEAKER_00: James is already getting at uh some of the foundation issues for the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh last week's passage we went through, chapter 4, verses 1 to 12, James is looking at those self-centered desires that deteriorate a community of grace, the kind of community of grace that the church is supposed to be to one another and to the world as well.
SPEAKER_00: Self-centered desires like pleasure and prosperity and pride just deteriorate this community that's meant to be completely focused and centered and identified by grace.
SPEAKER_00: And I think James is continuing that same thought in a lot of ways in today's passage, even as he addresses he picks up on a symptom and addresses the disease, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: In our passage today, this is James's main point that I take it.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the main point of our sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: It's this Christian wisdom, because that's what James is all about, putting God's wisdom into action.
SPEAKER_00: Christian wisdom begins by submitting to the Lord's sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: And if the question is, what's James asking us to submit, the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_00: But I think James identifies two very related um two very related things uh in our life that are cause for particular concern or particular focus.
SPEAKER_00: We should submit everything to the Lord's sovereign will, our whole life, our whole will, our whole every decision, because our time in life is finite, number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, our control in life is finite.
SPEAKER_00: Our time in life is finite, and our control in life is finite, and therefore we should submit everything to God's sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: And all of this drives home to a kind of concluding principle in verse 17, which basically amounts to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: So our time in life is finite, our control in life is finite, therefore do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's basically the outline of our passage, that's basically the outline of our sermon today.
SPEAKER_00: And James is offering a lot more than just patchwork.
SPEAKER_00: He is going at our very worldview itself, the frame with which we understand the world we live in, the decisions we make, the priorities we have, the way we live our life.
SPEAKER_00: James is going at our worldview.
SPEAKER_00: And as uncomfortable as that might be, and as deep as the surgery gets, I wonder if we're willing to be courageous enough to track with James here and to measure our own life and our own worldview against what he has to say.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if we'll discover something like an answer to worry and anxiety and despair in what James has to offer.
SPEAKER_00: So, if you have your bulletin, if you have your Bible, open it up to James chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin at verse 13 together.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we're going to see.
SPEAKER_00: Christian wisdom begins by submitting our decisions, our life, our will, everything, by submitting to the Lord's sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: Here's reason number one.
SPEAKER_00: Reason number one to do that is our time is finite.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Come now, basically, listen up.
SPEAKER_00: You who say, today or tomorrow, we'll go into such and such a town, and we'll spend a year there, and we'll trade and we'll make a profit.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: You are like a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So who's James talking to here?
SPEAKER_00: Who's the uh you who say that he's addressing here?
SPEAKER_00: The you who say is the merchants within the church, kind of the business class of the church that he's writing to.
SPEAKER_00: And this suggests, I think, a couple of things right off the bat.
SPEAKER_00: One, even the earliest church was made up not just of those who are economically poor, but those who are economically well off.
SPEAKER_00: Church is a representation, meant to be a representation of its whole community, and it calls us to live life together.
SPEAKER_00: And so James is addressing a particular group within the church, folks whose profession it is to do commerce, to do business.
SPEAKER_00: And in James' day, business looked like we gotta be ready to go where the money is, something like that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like that in our day too, right?
SPEAKER_00: But for James' day, it's well, we need to leave this city, Jerusalem, or wherever.
SPEAKER_00: We need to go to do business in Damascus or Ephesus or wherever the money takes us, right?
SPEAKER_00: In our day, it might be less like I need to uproot my life and go somewhere, go down to downtown Toronto or go to Hamilton or wherever.
SPEAKER_00: It's more like maybe I need to think about changing my career track, right?
SPEAKER_00: But either way, we go where the money is.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea here.
SPEAKER_00: And before we say anything else about this passage, I think it's important for us to note that James's point is not that commerce or business or industry is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: The point here is not that going about business is an unchristian or a godless thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the Bible affirms commerce as a vocation that God calls many into.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we went through a series on Proverbs last fall, right?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe we remember Proverbs chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just one of many examples where the proverbial wisdom here is that wealth and success is desirable.
SPEAKER_00: So apply wisdom, and generally you'll find more success than less.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: What's the real problem here?
SPEAKER_00: The real problem is not pursuing a successful career, is not earning enough money to provide for our family or provide for our needs.
SPEAKER_00: The problem, as James would identify, or maybe let's put the problem in the words of our Lord Jesus, Matthew chapter 6, no one can serve two masters.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot serve both God and money.
SPEAKER_00: The real problem here is not commerce, it's not earning, it is idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: It's making money or success or what have you, the purpose for our life.
SPEAKER_00: It's the focus, it's the drive, it's the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's become our God.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we worship, it's what we prioritize above all else.
SPEAKER_00: James is driving at that motivating force, that thing that our whole worldview, our view of the world, focuses on.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's that, James is saying, then you've lost perspective.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that the Bible's against commerce, it's that as you go about your commerce, you have lost perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Here's two ways you've lost perspective, merchants.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, you assume that tomorrow is a sure thing.
SPEAKER_00: You just assume that.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you assume that you have all the time in the world and that it's yours to spend.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is not that they're making plans.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is not saying, you know, never make long-term investments, you know, never schedule your calendar or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that you see yourself at the center of your own calendar.
SPEAKER_00: It's your time and it's your time to spend, and you assume that you have all of it.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is the question.
SPEAKER_00: That's a worldview question.
SPEAKER_00: What's at the center of your life is what James is asking.
SPEAKER_00: Your time is not your own.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, what is your life?
SPEAKER_00: We read about something like this, uh, illustration of this in Luke chapter 12, where Jesus is telling a parable to make this point.
SPEAKER_00: His point is this take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Guard against covetousness, that idolatry towards money, because your life isn't valued by the dollar amount, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives, Jesus gives this uh parable, he gives this illustration of someone who's uh he owns a field and he has a very successful harvest, he has an overabundance, and what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, it's time for me to build bigger barns, so I can stuff all my abundance in barns, and that's gonna be my security, right?
SPEAKER_00: If I have a few years of you know uh lean harvest, then I've got all I need to live on.
SPEAKER_00: And that's mine, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I've got that time.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: He says, it's a he imagines God addresses this guy and goes, You fool, your life is demanded of you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: You're planning for a future when your time really isn't your own.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the problem is not that he's planning, the problem is not that we try and be wise with our long-term finances, that we never even factor in the idea that our time really belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore we ought to consider that in our priorities and in our planning.
SPEAKER_00: Your time is not your own, so Jesus says, so is the one, a fool, who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
SPEAKER_00: If we aim at earthly riches, we will lose it all.
SPEAKER_00: If we aim at being rich towards God, we will discover what makes life truly valuable.
SPEAKER_00: So there's any number of variations of this, I wonder.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if one variation of this in our day would be something like, you know, I'll join this Bible study when this busy season gets over.
SPEAKER_00: When I retire.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how many retired folks I talk to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a long way from retirement.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how many retired folks I talk to who are like, I'm more busy in retirement than I have ever been in my working life, or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how consistent that is.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean to pick on folks who are retired, I'm sure I'll experience much the same.
SPEAKER_00: But it's amazing how we have this idea that I'll get to all that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, all the important stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I'll get to that when.
SPEAKER_00: Or I'll perhaps I'll start giving.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start giving when I'm this financially secure, I have this much money in the bank.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how we get there and we discover life still has all these financial burdens I need to meet, right?
SPEAKER_00: We can infinitely put these things off, assuming that we always have the time, and we never think to factor in the idea that our time really doesn't belong to us, it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: So, what are we choosing to do in the present that submits our own sense of time to his will, to his purposes, to his design.
SPEAKER_00: See, James is not saying you should just disregard your calendar.
SPEAKER_00: You should never schedule an event in the future, you should never meet with a financial advisor, you should never make investments.
SPEAKER_00: James is not saying that.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying be wise with money, because wealth is a blessing, and increasing wealth should result in an increase of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: That's a Christian principle.
SPEAKER_00: James is saying pay attention to the focus of your worldview.
SPEAKER_00: What's at the center of how you view the world?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think your time is unlimited?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's yours to spend?
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: I think James has Proverbs 27 in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's James's point?
SPEAKER_00: James's point is that God is infinite.
SPEAKER_00: Our time is finite.
SPEAKER_00: So wisdom, applying ourselves to the good life, begins by submitting how we use our time to the Lord's sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: That's number one.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the second related principle.
SPEAKER_00: James is offering something of a corrective.
SPEAKER_00: If this is what we're not supposed to do, what are we supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_00: As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the instruction that James gives here.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see that in verse 15?
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills.
SPEAKER_00: So there it is, there's the magic formula, right?
SPEAKER_00: We premise, we preface all of our plans with, well, if God wills it, and then it's guaranteed to happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not what James is saying, is it?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, James is trying to guard us against that sort of uh arrogance that masquerades itself as piety, right?
SPEAKER_00: That can happen.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's John Wesley who warns Christians, warns preachers in particular, against loading their sermons with pious jargon.
SPEAKER_00: I love that phrase, pious jargon.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord wills, if we just think all James has asked me to do is preface all of my sentences with that, we're just engaging in pious jargon.
SPEAKER_00: We're not getting at the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: Nor is James suggesting a magic formula, as if God just needs to hear the right words and then it happens for us.
SPEAKER_00: Um I was thinking earlier this week about um one of my favorite examples is kind of magic formula.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking, I'm gonna quote from a good friend of our parish here, Karen Stiller.
SPEAKER_00: In her book, uh The Minister's Wife, she talks about um, well, she talks about one evening at Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: We've also had those evenings of Bible study, maybe.
SPEAKER_00: She says, that night at Bible study, one of the men cleared his throat and started talking about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: When we pray, he said, we should just thank God ahead of time for answering our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: This shows that we believe him.
SPEAKER_00: So the idea was that God likes it when we demonstrate such confidence.
SPEAKER_00: It shows we trust him.
SPEAKER_00: We might say, Thank you, God, for how you heal Betty, or thank you, God, for how you're going to provide me with work, or thank you, God, for the financial blessings that are yet to come, but are so close that I can almost smell the money.
SPEAKER_00: I love that phrase.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about a magic formula, a magic formula like thank God ahead of time and then he'll surely bless you with it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just say if the Lord wills and it'll surely happen for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about a magic formula when we deal with God Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we're trying to get to the very heart of the matter, which is what is our worldview focused on?
SPEAKER_00: The whole Christian life, including our prayer life, is premised on this fact.
SPEAKER_00: God is in control.
SPEAKER_00: God is large and in charge, is the way my friend puts it.
SPEAKER_00: God is in control, and that's the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: If our prayer life, if our Christian life doesn't reflect the fact that God is in control and I am not God, then we're missing the plot.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how church reformer John Calvin puts it.
SPEAKER_00: He cautions us against just loading our language of pious jargon, and instead he says it is right and indeed and pro it is indeed right and proper when we promise anything as to future time to accustom ourselves to such words as these, if it shall please the Lord or if the Lord will permit.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, no scruple ought to be entertained as though it were a sin to omit them.
SPEAKER_00: For we read everywhere in Scripture that the holy servants of God spoke unconditionally of future things, when as yet they had, as a principle fixed in their minds, that they could do nothing without the permission of God.
SPEAKER_00: So what's Calvin saying there?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Don't worry about loading your speech with pious jargon.
SPEAKER_00: If your heart reflects the fact that God is in control of everything and that includes my life, then you will act as though there is nothing outside of God's will, right?
SPEAKER_00: That God has a will for your life and you can trust him to accomplish it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the heart of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: If we live with that at our center, then our speech, our actions, everything will follow after that.
SPEAKER_00: But James says, as it is, you boast, you rejoice, you glory in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: The arrogant idea that James is getting at here is that our control, our sensed, our felt control, is greater than God's own will for us.
SPEAKER_00: That we can somehow displace God's will by asserting our own, and that is creaturely arrogance, is what James is saying.
SPEAKER_00: And all such boasting, all such rejoicing, all such glorying, all such self-centeredness is evil, James says.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else kind of go, whoa, evil?
SPEAKER_00: James identifies one other thing in his letter as evil, and that's partiality.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that in chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: What does James have in mind when he describes it as evil?
SPEAKER_00: Is that overstating his case?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think James is willing to be a little bit more honest than perhaps I am.
SPEAKER_00: James understands something is evil when it is godless, when it's displaced God from the center, from the focused of everything, from his will and his purposes from the center, and instead displaces God and substitutes our own self-will.
SPEAKER_00: That's a godless life.
SPEAKER_00: That's evil, is what James is saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's evil arrogance to think we can displace God and become the God of our own life.
SPEAKER_00: And let's be clear, when we think we're in control, we are displacing God.
SPEAKER_00: We're forgetting him.
SPEAKER_00: And we're occupying his throne, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: Because someone's got to occupy the throne, and we figure that we can do a better job than him, so we might as well forget him.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I've forgotten in life was on my wedding day.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot the boutine ears.
SPEAKER_00: I had to look up how boutineers were spelled for my sermon notes here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's how unfamiliar I am with boutine ears.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the little they're the little flowers for the lapel, right?
SPEAKER_00: That was what they were?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I just remember that I forgot them.
SPEAKER_00: They were sitting in the fridge.
SPEAKER_00: I showed up at the wedding and I got asked where's the boutaneers, and I had a blank stare on my face.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that wasn't forgotten at the wedding, here's the thing that didn't happen at our wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I forgot the boutine ears, we made our way down, all the groomsmen, we didn't have our boutane ears.
SPEAKER_00: Rachel did not show up in roots.
SPEAKER_00: Sweatpants and a hoodie, and think, oh shoot, I forgot my dress.
SPEAKER_00: That has never happened at any wedding ever.
SPEAKER_00: Although probably I'd like to say at least half the men have forgotten their bouton ears, I'd like to think.
SPEAKER_00: That has never happened as a wedding, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's absurd.
SPEAKER_00: You don't forget something as important as your white dress on your wedding day.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea here.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that informs a biblical metaphor for God's call to remembrance.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah chapter 2, God says through the prophet Jeremiah, does a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride, her wedding ornaments?
SPEAKER_00: Yet, God says, My people have forgotten me, days without number.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
SPEAKER_00: What's God saying there?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, My people forget the most important thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like a bride would forget her wedding dress on her wedding day.
SPEAKER_00: But God remembers.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Isaiah 49, can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she is born?
SPEAKER_00: Though she forgets, I will not forget you.
SPEAKER_00: We his people forget him like a wedding dress all the time.
SPEAKER_00: But he's saying it's it is as likely for a mother to forget her nursing child as it is for me, your God, to forget you.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, ain't gonna happen, is what God's saying.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't forget us.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling us to remember him.
SPEAKER_00: When we forget God, we displace God and we presume to do his job for him.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this results in one of two things, at least.
SPEAKER_00: It results in anxiety or despair or worry.
SPEAKER_00: And it takes one of two forms, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Form number one, we think we're in control, and so we worry about losing it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the workaholic, right?
SPEAKER_00: Who is putting in endless hours to always stay ahead of the game, always staying on top of it, always checking the stock market, always checking the news.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to stay ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Because if I don't, if I lose the plot, it's over.
SPEAKER_00: I think I have control, I worry I'll lose it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's an endless treadmill.
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's another variation of this.
SPEAKER_00: It's like an inversion of that same problem that James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: We think we're not in control, and we worry that we'll never gain it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're after.
SPEAKER_00: We're after gaining control, because once we feel like we have control, everything's gonna be safe and secure and nice and orderly, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't need to mean to step on a nerve here or something like that, but I have heard more Canadians use words like economy and tariffs than I've ever heard my entire life.
SPEAKER_00: And I am not advocating, and James is not advocating, that we should just be ignorant of what's going on in the world.
SPEAKER_00: We should never check the news, we should never know what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I wonder about all this conversation we're having, and I'm having it with strangers at coffee shops, of all things.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if behind all of that endless going back and forth, back and forth, is really this.
SPEAKER_00: It's a desire for control.
SPEAKER_00: We feel like things are out of control, and I want to figure this out so that I can feel like I'm in control and I have what I need to be safe and secure.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what's behind it.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if that's also what you know spins into so many popular kind of conspiratorial TikTok or YouTube videos.
SPEAKER_00: It's this idea that I just need to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: Once I figure it out, then I've got control over my life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: I think James would look both of that, you know, I have control, I'm worried I'll lose it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have control, I'll worry I'll never have it.
SPEAKER_00: And he would say, both are evil.
SPEAKER_00: Both are arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: Because at the heart of both is this idea that we should have control of our life.
SPEAKER_00: That we ought to have control of our life, but we can't.
SPEAKER_00: Or that our control over life is preferable to having God in control of it.
SPEAKER_00: So here, I wonder is an antidote for worry.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard, but I think it's liberating.
SPEAKER_00: The antidote I think James is trying to drill at here is a worldview not focused on our own self-centeredness, not focused on our own desire for control, not focused on our own infinite time, however we think about that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a worldview focused on God's sovereign control.
SPEAKER_00: It's premised on the fact that not only is God sovereign, I can trust him.
SPEAKER_00: He has my best in mind.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he might have better in mind for me than I have for myself.
SPEAKER_00: So if I'm willing to hand over to him this desire for control, maybe I can experience some of that freedom from anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I can experience a release from despair.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is what Jesus is trying to get at when he says in Matthew chapter 7, look at birds and look at lilies and conclude this.
SPEAKER_00: Your Heavenly Father knows exactly what you need, what you need before you even ask him.
SPEAKER_00: God is infinite.
SPEAKER_00: Our time is finite, our control is finite.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom begins by submitting our time and our felt need for control entirely to God's sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is driving to this one conclusion for James.
SPEAKER_00: It's a principle.
SPEAKER_00: Do the right thing, not the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's intuitive, right?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is a sin.
SPEAKER_00: What's the right thing in James's mind?
SPEAKER_00: The right thing is to submit your whole life to God's sovereign will, to his purposes, to his design.
SPEAKER_00: Failing to do that is a sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's godless arrogance, it's self-centered presumption, it's putting me on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a transgression against God's law that leaves us guilty before him.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does all that mean?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us, new song, as we go out from here?
SPEAKER_00: Does it mean get busy doing the right thing every time?
SPEAKER_00: Always?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be very busy indeed.
SPEAKER_00: James, we need to bear in mind, is calling us to put God's wisdom into action, but God's wisdom is always premised on the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel is this God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's accomplished in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about Gethsemane for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Here's Jesus on his way to the cross, calling out to his father in anguish, asking his father to remove this cup, remove this judgment from him if he can, but nevertheless, not my will, he says, but yours be done.
SPEAKER_00: What's Jesus doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, our mediator, Jesus who takes our place, one, refuses to do the evil that we so often do, which is assert our arrogant self-will and put ourselves in the middle of everything.
SPEAKER_00: But he also chooses to do the good that we fail to do, which is this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus submits entirely to God's sovereign, saving will.
SPEAKER_00: Theologians call that Jesus' passive and active obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And because Jesus is our substitute, he accomplishes those two things that we so frequently fail to do.
SPEAKER_00: So what is your life is James' question.
SPEAKER_00: What's at the center of your worldview?
SPEAKER_00: I think James would recognize the Apostle Paul's answer.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is hidden with Christ in God.
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: Your life is hidden with Christ in God.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is tucked away with the one who has done for you what you cannot do for yourself, the one who has perfectly submitted himself to his Father's will, the one who has accomplished the good that we failed to do, the one who has refused the evil that we so often do.
SPEAKER_00: Our salvation is not accomplishing this perfect submission to God's will for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's trusting in the one who has perfectly submitted himself on our behalf and now reigns over all time and everything.
SPEAKER_00: Not submitting so that our life, pardon me, it's not submitting, so that our life is hidden with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's our life is hidden with Christ, therefore the wisest thing we can do is submit.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the difference?
SPEAKER_00: So James is going a lot further than patchwork, isn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He's challenging us.
SPEAKER_00: What's at the center of your worldview?
SPEAKER_00: What's the priority?
SPEAKER_00: What's the most important thing for how you use your time or how you endeavor to live your life?
SPEAKER_00: James would give us this caution.
SPEAKER_00: Christian wisdom begins by submitting to the Lord's sovereign will.
SPEAKER_00: Our time in life is finite.
SPEAKER_00: Our control in life, if we have any, is finite.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is the wisest thing we can do to submit that to God, we have a God who has gone to the cross for us.
SPEAKER_00: We know he loves us, and we know he will accomplish what we cannot accomplish for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Who better to submit ourselves to?
SPEAKER_00: What greater hope could there be than to be hidden with Christ in God?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We hope that you've been blessed by God's Word today.
SPEAKER_00: If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.
SPEAKER_00: Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.
SPEAKER_00: Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.