SPEAKER_00: You may uh have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you would open your Bibles to the book of James, chapter 4, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: James, chapter 4, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: We've been walking through a series as a church together, going verse by verse through the book of James, and now we find ourselves in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of us we hate uh wasting things.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you sat across the table with someone and they were eating maybe a dish or specific food that you really like, and it's only half eaten, and they throw it away, and it just, you know, it hurts you inside.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, you know, for me it's that Chick-fil-A sandwich, that blessed chicken, and you know, they they only took a couple bites and they threw it out, and then you feel like it's a waste.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes a lot of us we don't like traffic or uh a DMV visit or or someone's late to a meeting because we feel like it's wasted time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I remember growing up, maybe a lot of you experienced this with my parents and the tube of toothpaste, where you felt like you know that there was none left but your parents didn't want you to waste it, right?
SPEAKER_00: They would squeeze it and scrunch it and twist it and put it in hot water.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't hear about I've never heard of that one.
SPEAKER_00: Put it in hot water.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes also we we hate to waste or miss an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there was a story of a man named Walter who asked one of his friends to meet him in uh a place to check out some property in Southern California, um, some villages and kind of farmland looked like nothing that valuable.
SPEAKER_00: It was the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: And he was telling his friend, he said, Hey, I have a vision for this area, and I would uh encourage you while this window lasts this time of opportunity to buy some of this property here because I have a dream, I have a vision to build something incredible here.
SPEAKER_00: And this property here may not seem valuable now, but in some time, the the price and the value will skyrocket.
SPEAKER_00: And his friend with the opportunity in front of him said, you know what, I don't know if it's worth it investing in.
SPEAKER_00: That was a decision that this man, Art Link Letter, would regret all his life because the man who was standing before him, his friend giving him an offer, was Walt Disney, and his vision and dream was Disneyland.
SPEAKER_00: And now we know the property in those that area was millions that he lost.
SPEAKER_00: You know, more than wasting food or even an opportunity like that, or money, or time, something far more valuable is wasting our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not careful, that even as followers of Jesus, we can waste our lives and our time here on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question that James will answer today, the Lord in his word will answer is how can we avoid wasting our lives?
SPEAKER_00: As we'll see in our text, life is fleeting, life is uncertain, and we can waste it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how can we make sure that we, me, and you, live a life that matters, a life that counts for eternity?
SPEAKER_00: And so, would you now in this moment, if able, stand in reverence for the reading of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: This is a custom that we do to show the reverence for the word of God, that when this Bible is open, when this book is open, God is speaking, and we're coming with hungry and open hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start there.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 4, starting in verse 13, and we'll go into the beginning of chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, 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_00: Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
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 whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you, and you will eat your flesh like and will eat your flesh like fire.
SPEAKER_00: You have laid up treasure in the last days.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvester have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: You have lived on earth in luxury and in self and in self-indulgence.
SPEAKER_00: You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
SPEAKER_00: You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.
SPEAKER_00: He does not resist you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We ask for your help.
SPEAKER_00: God help us not to waste our lives, to live a life that counts and matters for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: God help us to number our days and to see the value of the life that we have today.
SPEAKER_00: To submit all our plans and submit all of our life surrendered unto you, Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: So help us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start in verse 13 of our text.
SPEAKER_00: It says, 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_00: So here in verse 13 and the following verses that we read together, James describes the plans and patterns of a business-minded person.
SPEAKER_00: And as we move through the verses, James is primarily addressing the wealthy.
SPEAKER_00: While James, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is criticizing the luxurious and self-indulgent lifestyle they were living, the principle in this passage is for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that as we walk through it.
SPEAKER_00: That even maybe if some of us don't consider ourselves wealthy, there is a way to live selfishly.
SPEAKER_00: Or we live for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We live for our own plans.
SPEAKER_00: So here in verse 13, this business-minded person is describing their plans.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty good plan.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good vision board for life.
SPEAKER_00: That tomorrow we'll go to this such and such town and such and such place and do these things and make a profit and do these trades.
SPEAKER_00: There's a vision, there's a plan.
SPEAKER_00: What's the problem with the plan?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: It says, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's a big problem with the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Is in that plan is uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: In that plan is leaving God out.
SPEAKER_00: We can plan for all we want for our life, but we have no idea of what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We can plan just like this business person says, tomorrow let's go to such and such town, but what if there was a natural disaster and the town is gone?
SPEAKER_00: What if on the way to the town the camel breaks down?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: But we can plan, but there is uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: We have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 14, there's a question James asks, a significant, huge question that we need to reflect on.
SPEAKER_00: Says, what is your life?
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: And he answers it, for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is a mist.
SPEAKER_00: It's a vapor.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mist there in one moment and in the next it is gone.
SPEAKER_00: We can't plan our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: First, because of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but secondly, because our frailty.
SPEAKER_00: We are frail.
SPEAKER_00: We are temporary and finite.
SPEAKER_00: So how should we speak?
SPEAKER_00: What should we say?
SPEAKER_00: How should we plan?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: James gives us another way.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_00: So how can we avoid wasting our lives?
SPEAKER_00: First point is this submit your plans to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Submit your plans to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the difference between the statements.
SPEAKER_00: Both are saying what they are going to do there in the first verse that we saw.
SPEAKER_00: And all that's included now is the person, this business-minded person, recognizing the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Considering the Lord in their ways, in the plan.
SPEAKER_00: But what's the problem with leaving God out of our plan?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't sound too bad, right?
SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with it?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: It's evil.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it evil to leave God all out of our plans?
SPEAKER_00: Remember the past two sermons as we've been walking through James verse by verse, we can remember we were learning about worldly wisdom.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That this worldly wisdom is a jealous envy, a selfish bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: And last week we talked about the pride of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: James is continuing to talk about this arrogance, this pride that is counter to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we plan and leave the Lord out of our plans, we make ourselves the Lord of our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: That we can say, Jesus, you know, you're my Lord, with our mouths, but our lives are different.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We would never say with our mouth, God, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I've got it.
SPEAKER_00: We would never say it, but we live it out every single day.
SPEAKER_00: We live it out when we don't recognize Him in our day-to-day life, our moment-to-moment life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many plans and decisions do we make without Him?
SPEAKER_00: Where we make decisions for ourselves and for us and about us.
SPEAKER_00: So how can we make plans with God?
SPEAKER_00: See, what James is getting at here is that there are people within the church that they are saying they are Christians, but they are practically living as atheists.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what I'm saying here?
SPEAKER_00: That they are Christians, say they follow Christ, but when you look at how they live their life, there is no difference.
SPEAKER_00: When the atheist, the person who does not believe in God, wakes up in the morning, they have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't invite God into that plan.
SPEAKER_00: And then you have a follower of Jesus who wakes up in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: You can even say they pray.
SPEAKER_00: And say thank you, God, and even say maybe they read their Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But then do nothing to actually open themselves up and say, God, what is your plan for today?
SPEAKER_00: What is your will?
SPEAKER_00: See, this isn't just a statement to say, oh, if the Lord wills it.
SPEAKER_00: This is something to live by.
SPEAKER_00: It's a statement of humility, dependency from the heart.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord wills it, how do we not waste our life?
SPEAKER_00: We submit to the Lord's plan.
SPEAKER_00: We submit to it.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: It says, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills.
SPEAKER_00: And then two things, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_00: First, we will live.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is the decider of our days.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we live or whether we die.
SPEAKER_00: Your days are numbered.
SPEAKER_00: It is God, the eternal God, who holds your life in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: In this very moment, there is not a breath that you breathe.
SPEAKER_00: There is not a beat within your heart that God is not the one sustaining you and keeping you alive.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Lord who is here.
SPEAKER_00: He is sustaining us.
SPEAKER_00: Every breath.
SPEAKER_00: I think of the psalmist, there's really no better way to put it of what James is saying here than what the psalmist says in Psalms 39, verses 4 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It says, O Lord, make me know my end.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the measure of my days?
SPEAKER_00: Let me know how fleeting I am.
SPEAKER_00: A vapor, a mist.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you have made my days a few hand breasts, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
SPEAKER_00: Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we can see the arrogance James is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: We're us humans who are temporary, finite, dependent.
SPEAKER_00: And then you have God who is constant, independent, and eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the scale, our life on one side of a scale, and God on the other.
SPEAKER_00: What is my life compared to that?
SPEAKER_00: And what we do is we put our plans over his.
SPEAKER_00: The arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: The pride.
SPEAKER_00: When we see that and we get that, then we understand James' word when it says, as it is, your boast, you boast in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: When we see the beauty and the weight of an eternal God, then we begin to see our arrogance in our day-to-day life.
SPEAKER_00: And we would keep him out of our plans.
SPEAKER_00: But God's sovereignty and his absolute control should not give us fear, but give us peace.
SPEAKER_00: Give us peace.
SPEAKER_00: That he has our life and our plan in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: And this God, who is eternal and righteous, loves you.
SPEAKER_00: We sang this in the first song.
SPEAKER_00: This idea here in Psalms 8 verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: It says, When I look at your at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars with you, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care of him.
SPEAKER_00: That this God cares for us.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, don't miss that.
SPEAKER_00: The eternal God of heaven cares for you and loves you and is for you.
SPEAKER_00: I think of Romans 8.
SPEAKER_00: This great chapter says, What then shall we say about these things?
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: And he who did not even deliver up his own son for us all, but gave him up freely for us all, how will he not give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, if God didn't spare his own son and gave his son for us, what will he not give us?
SPEAKER_00: And so when we understand the weight of God that he is eternal, that he is above all, but that also he is for us, then we're gonna want to submit to his plans.
SPEAKER_00: That he is better.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it mean to submit our plans to God?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it doesn't mean us writing down our plans and going to God and say, here they are.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get the stamp, you know, of approval that no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: It's coming with an empty sheet, uh an empty life.
SPEAKER_00: And saying, God, what is your plan?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I I'm here today.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't hear God when I was younger tell me, hey, one day you're you're gonna be a pastor, this is what you have to pursue.
SPEAKER_00: My plan wasn't to be in South Asia for two years as a missionary.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, so much of my life has been going before the Lord with an empty life, an open Bible, an open heart, and an open mouth, and saying, God, here I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to submit to the Lord, to say, your plans are better, your ways are better.
SPEAKER_00: I will recognize you.
SPEAKER_00: So, real quick, some practical ways we can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Look to his word.
SPEAKER_00: He's already spoken.
SPEAKER_00: His plan is right here.
SPEAKER_00: Look to the Bible, look to the word of God for what his plan is.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, look to his spirit, be in prayer, seek guidance, seek the peace of God, to go before God.
SPEAKER_00: What is your plan?
SPEAKER_00: Direct me, guide me, help me today, show me.
SPEAKER_00: And look to his church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we live in such an individualistic TikTok Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by this?
SPEAKER_00: Where, you know, there was a situation where someone was watching a TikTok video, and it's one of those where they're saying, hey, stop scrolling right now.
SPEAKER_00: I have a word for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God for you.
SPEAKER_00: That some of you are in this season or such and such in life, and God is telling you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And they were taking that in and interpreting it in their circumstance, in where they were at, and saying, Oh, this is a confirmation of what I feel like God was calling me to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to get into too much details of the situation, but the thing that they were considering was completely outside of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what we do, where it's about us and individualistic and what we see online rather than the church.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than going to a pastor, rather than going to a brother and sister and saying, What should I do?
SPEAKER_00: We just think, which is a lot easier.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I think is best.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than going to his word, his spirit, and his church.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it looks like to submit ourselves to God.
SPEAKER_00: But if we don't do that, we waste our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We'll waste it all.
SPEAKER_00: Submit your plans.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: It says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: This just shows you just the depravity of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We can think of the countless things that we've done wrong.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: There are countless things that have been before us that are right that we have not done.
SPEAKER_00: And it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: We need God.
SPEAKER_00: We need Him.
SPEAKER_00: But I think this so relates to what we're talking about here about not wasting our life and submitting our plans to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you we so overcomplicated of what's the will of God?
SPEAKER_00: What's the God's plan for me?
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you, do the next right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Do the next right thing.
SPEAKER_00: James is saying, you don't know tomorrow what's the next right thing?
SPEAKER_00: To love your wife.
SPEAKER_00: To speak kindly to her today.
SPEAKER_00: To serve those around you.
SPEAKER_00: To pray, to be in your in your word.
SPEAKER_00: What's the next right thing to fight off that sin?
SPEAKER_00: To ask for forgiveness for the person you've offended.
SPEAKER_00: What is the next right thing?
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We pray to God, God, what's your will?
SPEAKER_00: What's your plan?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you want me to go to school?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you want me to marry?
SPEAKER_00: What's the next word path, or where are we going to move, or where are we going to live?
SPEAKER_00: Why is God going to reveal something to you that's new when you have not obeyed what he's already revealed in his word?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Do what he has already shown and revealed to you and be faithful to it.
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, we have too many tomorrow Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Too many next year Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Or tomorrow or next week, that's when I'll overcome it, or that's when I'll stop, or that's when I'll confess it, or that's when I'll take it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And James is saying, tomorrow is not promised.
SPEAKER_00: That before you know it, you've wasted it.
SPEAKER_00: And we need today, Christians.
SPEAKER_00: That all I have is this moment right now, and I'm not promised the next.
SPEAKER_00: How can we avoid wasting our lives?
SPEAKER_00: First, submit your plans to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Second, store up your treasures for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 5, verse 1 and 3.
SPEAKER_00: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth eaten.
SPEAKER_00: Your gold and silver have corroded, and the corrosion will be evidence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire.
SPEAKER_00: You have laid up treasures in the last days.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it is significant to note that the riches is not the problem.
SPEAKER_00: The plane is not the problem.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is caring more about earthly treasure than storing up treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is a heart focused on the temporary earthly things rather than the unfading heavenly things.
SPEAKER_00: What is wrong with investing in earthly things?
SPEAKER_00: The same reasoning James has mentioned before, that just as your life is temporary, so are your things.
SPEAKER_00: But the soul is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And we lived, we live in a world that is obsessed with building our empires, our status, our security, our identity.
SPEAKER_00: But the things we pursue and desire, they're fading.
SPEAKER_00: The designer clothes will fade away.
SPEAKER_00: The Jordan shoes will get creased and scuffed eventually.
SPEAKER_00: The brand new fancy car will eventually break down, dent, and rust out.
SPEAKER_00: The expensive watch or jewelry will one day lose its shine and fade.
SPEAKER_00: We spend so much time, energy, and anxiety on the things of this earth.
SPEAKER_00: And not sometimes even physical things, but the approval of others.
SPEAKER_00: Or our selfish ambition, our pride, the things that we desire.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus echoes, or so James is echoing Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
SPEAKER_00: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_00: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_00: That where your heart is, that's where your treasure is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: And if your treasure and your pursuit and your eye and your focus is on the earthly things, that is where your heart is found.
SPEAKER_00: And if it's on the heavenly thing, that is where your heart is found.
SPEAKER_00: In 1974, farmers in China accidentally discovered one of the most remarkable archaeological finds in history.
SPEAKER_00: It was the Terracotta Army.
SPEAKER_00: There's a photo that will be there on the screens.
SPEAKER_00: It was buried beneath the tomb of an emperor, the first emperor of China.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you maybe you've seen this before, but inside the burial complex were over 8,000 life-sized clay soldiers, all of them made to have different faces, along with horses, chariots, officials, carefully crafted and arranged there to serve the emperor in the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: Wealth was there.
SPEAKER_00: We see the same culture and idea in the Egyptian, in Egypt and the history of the pharaohs, buried with all their things in hopes that it will go with them into the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: And what James is saying, as we can see today, that those statues are still there.
SPEAKER_00: And they are getting old and rusted and decaying, just like all of our things when we leave this world.
SPEAKER_00: See that emperor, he can't take his wealth and he can't take his army.
SPEAKER_00: And when he stands before God on judgment day, he stands there alone with no army, facing the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, and we'll have to give account for his life, like all of us.
SPEAKER_00: And we can look at this and we can think, how ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: But then when you look at our life, our focus, our attention, our hearts are filled with things just as ridiculous that have no eternal weight or value.
SPEAKER_00: So what's an example of investing in the heavenly and the eternal things?
SPEAKER_00: What's an example of that?
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you one.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't tell my brother Joel I was gonna do this, but you know, one example is a couple weeks ago, if you remember, when we prayed uh for Chip to continue to pray for him as he's serving uh for the next uh month and a half or so overseas, and we got Joel up here and we prayed for them as Joel's getting ready tomorrow to leave to Haiti for his trip, that we needed to support him.
SPEAKER_00: And me and Joel honestly were amazed by even after that Sunday, how many of you came to Joel to support?
SPEAKER_00: That you would come, you see, and and give some temporary thing, bills that will one day rest, no longer be here, these temporary things and putting it toward something that has eternal value.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, what Joel's gonna do there, the the love and the care that they will show to the people in need, the children in need, the relationships built, the desire to strengthen the church there, souls of those who are lost, and giving them the gospel, the money you give them fulfilled, but the work because of it is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And there is little thief that can take a soul that belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: There is little moss of rust that can destroy the robes of life of those who belong to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What are you investing in?
SPEAKER_00: Are you wasting your life?
SPEAKER_00: And can I tell you that sometimes it's far easier to give money?
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not minimizing it.
SPEAKER_00: We need to give, we need to give to the church, give to those to go.
SPEAKER_00: But more than that, God wants your heart, He wants your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's easier to give money, but you know what's harder?
SPEAKER_00: Waking up on a Saturday and going to death block.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's time, that's commitment.
SPEAKER_00: It's harder to go across the street and go to your neighbor who moved in to care for them and hear their story and share your story and give them the hope of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What are you investing in?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we want to do as a church.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we believe.
SPEAKER_00: We are a disciple-making church, a missional church, that every single one of you has a role, that you're not just here to come and sit and sing a song, but to live for the King.
SPEAKER_00: To share the good news of Jesus Christ, to be a light within this community.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're all called to do, to invest in the eternal things.
SPEAKER_00: How can we avoid wasting our lives?
SPEAKER_00: First, submit your plans to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, store up treasures for eternity, and third, steward your life for others.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you.
SPEAKER_00: And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.
SPEAKER_00: You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
SPEAKER_00: You have condemned and murdered the righteous person.
SPEAKER_00: He does not resist you.
SPEAKER_00: James talks about the rich who are taking advantage of the poor and the laborers who work for them, that they deserve wages for their work, and their people here, James is writing to that are not giving the wages that they deserve.
SPEAKER_00: That ultimately, as we see in verse 6, are leading to their death.
SPEAKER_00: Says, you have murdered these righteous people, and they do not resist you, meaning they can't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 5, it says, You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the issue is not riches, the issue is self-indulgence.
SPEAKER_00: You can have little and be still selfish and self-indulgent and think about you.
SPEAKER_00: And can tell can I tell you this?
SPEAKER_00: If you are not faithful to serve with your time or to give what you have now, you will not do that when you have more.
SPEAKER_00: You won't.
SPEAKER_00: James here, he gives this vivid picture of a man who stores his wealth is like a cow eating and eating, becoming fatter and fatter and bigger, only to make themselves ready for the day of slaughter.
SPEAKER_00: That it says, as their gold, as what they have burns, almost like their wealth as it burns, it will burn them alive.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, we will give an account of our life.
SPEAKER_00: How can we avoid wasting our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Steward your life for others rather than doing what these people were doing in James, of taking advantage of others, that we would steward our lives for others, that we would serve others with our lives, that we would care for the vulnerable, that we would care for the needy and those around us.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to waste your life, live for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You want to waste it, live for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what no one said ever on their deathbed?
SPEAKER_00: I wish I can scroll on my phone for a couple more hours.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I can watch one more series on Netflix.
SPEAKER_00: I wish that I could have one more meeting for business.
SPEAKER_00: No, they they wish I would have spent more time with my family.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I would have served people and loved people and cared for them and built relationships that mattered.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what we will all think when we stand before Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We will be stunned and in awe of this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Jesus I kept to myself.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Jesus I wasn't willing to share.
SPEAKER_00: You see, all of us are going to be shocked and surprised, and my goal is to just be a little less, to just believe it deeply more and more every day.
SPEAKER_00: To say, yes, this is the Jesus that I lived for, that I shared the gospel with others.
SPEAKER_00: Don't waste your life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to share his sobering truth for us.
SPEAKER_00: I just pray God will use this for us to be intentional with our days.
SPEAKER_00: If you were to take the current U.S.
SPEAKER_00: life expectancy of about 79 years and compress it into a 24-hour day, it becomes a striking picture.
SPEAKER_00: And in this measure, midnight is the day of birth, and then midnight that comes is death.
SPEAKER_00: And so every hour represents about 3.3 years of life.
SPEAKER_00: So the little ones who may be in here are with the children at the age of 10, if we're looking at the 24 hours of a day compared to a life, it's 3 o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: For those in the age of 20 here, maybe just graduated high school or in college, it's about six in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are in their 30s, it's about nine o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: 40, it's lunchtime.
SPEAKER_00: The morning is past.
SPEAKER_00: Those in your fifties, it's about three o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: 60, 6.14.
SPEAKER_00: The sun is down, almost down.
SPEAKER_00: Day almost over.
SPEAKER_00: 70, it's 9.16 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: 75, it's 10.47 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: And we know the truth is that there are people that we know and love who did not make it to 79.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us don't even make it there.
SPEAKER_00: But when we when we see life at this, we begin to understand how fleeting it is.
SPEAKER_00: How little time we have.
SPEAKER_00: Don't waste your life.
SPEAKER_00: James says, our life is a myth.
SPEAKER_00: A vapor.
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: Mean you are not guaranteed tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: But we are responsible for today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to share a poem I've shared a little bit of before, but I I want to read all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you to listen to it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a poem by C.T.
SPEAKER_00: Studd.
SPEAKER_00: And it so summarizes this message in James' words here.
SPEAKER_00: It says this.
SPEAKER_00: Two little lines I heard one day traveling along life's busy way, bringing conviction to my heart, and from my mind would not depart.
SPEAKER_00: Only one life 'twill soon be passed.
SPEAKER_00: Only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: Only one life, yes, only one, soon will its fleeting hours be done.
SPEAKER_00: Then in that day, my Lord to meet and stand before his judgment seat.
SPEAKER_00: Only one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: Only one life the still small voice gently pleads for a better choice, bidding me selfish aims to leave, and to God's holy will to cleave.
SPEAKER_00: Only when life 'twill soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: Only one life a few brief years, each with its burdens, hopes, and fears, each with its days I must fulfill, living for self or in his will.
SPEAKER_00: Only when life 'twill soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: When this bright world would tempt.
SPEAKER_00: Tempest, tempt me soar when Satan would a victory score, when self would seek to have its way, then help me, Lord, with joy to say, Only when light will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: Give me, Father, a purpose deep, and joy or sorrow, thy word to keep, faithful and true.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the strife, pleasing thee in my daily life, only when light will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let my love with fervor burn, and from the world now let me turn, living for thee and thee alone, bringing thee pleasure on thy throne.
SPEAKER_00: Only when life 'twill soon be past.
SPEAKER_00: Only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: And the last stanza.
SPEAKER_00: Only when life, yes, only one.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me say, Thy will be done.
SPEAKER_00: And when at last I'll hear the call, I know I'll say, 'Twas worth it all.
SPEAKER_00: Only when life 'twill soon be passed.
SPEAKER_00: Only what's done for Christ will last.
SPEAKER_00: This life is temporary.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing, brothers and sisters, we will fail.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow, we're gonna fail.
SPEAKER_00: It's just the reality.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be moments where we'll have wasted time.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the beauty of the gospel there is one who did not fail.
SPEAKER_00: That one who did not waste his life or a single moment, but who submitted to the Father's plan perfectly and said, Not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: One who didn't have his eyes on the temporary things, even as Satan stood there and said, This all can be yours.
SPEAKER_00: But his eyes were to heaven and the treasure there.
SPEAKER_00: And it was Jesus, also who didn't put himself first, but steward his life for the sake of others.
SPEAKER_00: When he says the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve others and become a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: And it was because of that ransom, because of that payment on the cross, that we can be saved and not just be saved, but live a life of purpose every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the band to come up as we close here in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: So we have a choice.
SPEAKER_00: The first choice, listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: The first choice you need to make to make sure you don't waste your life is to surrender to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been saved?
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand the gospel that Christ was a ransom, meaning we have sinned and separated us from this holy, eternal God?
SPEAKER_00: We deserve his punishment, and that punishment was put on his son Jesus Christ on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And he died the death that we deserve, but three days later rose again.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have you surrendered to Christ and believed that gospel message?
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't, you can come down.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing a worship in a little bit, and you could just come right down and walk right down here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, people will be waiting to explain that to you.
SPEAKER_00: Or after service to come to me, to come to Pastor Jeff and say, I want to do that today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters to the believer in this room, don't waste your life.
SPEAKER_00: And the goal of this message is not to leave discouraged of the shame and guilt of the past.
SPEAKER_00: That's gone.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord finds ways even to use those things.
SPEAKER_00: But it's about today.
SPEAKER_00: It's about saying, Today I want to trust you more.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to submit my plans to you.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to do that as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray, Lord Jesus, have your way.
SPEAKER_00: Here we are.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the arrogance, God, to say tomorrow looks like this.
SPEAKER_00: And here's my five-year plan.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the arrogance, God, to not include you and not come with open hands and an open heart.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, God, to show how much we need you.
SPEAKER_00: God, would we not be tomorrow Christians?
SPEAKER_00: But today.
SPEAKER_00: Today is a day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Today is a day of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Today is a day of consecration.
SPEAKER_00: Today is a day of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Because today is all we have.
SPEAKER_00: And we need you.
SPEAKER_00: So we submit our plans, God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to do the things that matter for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: God help us to deny ourselves and to look at the hurting world around us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can stand in this moment and we're going to sing a song of worship and praise.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a moment to come and to reflect.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this moment when we have the altar here and pastors and people down here to come and pray.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing that we do, and I appreciate it, I get the attention of it.
SPEAKER_00: When someone comes down and we clap, we do that because we're thinking, okay, someone's coming down to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's what we think.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we're just doing it because someone is coming down to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: This is time not just for people to be saved, but for us to repent.
SPEAKER_00: To take it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And so there where you are, or there down here, to say, God, during this time, week to week in this service services, God work on me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't just want to hear the word, I want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And we need prayer, we need one another.
SPEAKER_00: So would we sing praise and worship to God?
SPEAKER_00: So you come, you respond to the Lord.