WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:00.640 Well, good morning. 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:02.879 We're nearing the end of the book of James. 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:09.599 We have three more weeks this week, and then I think two more, and then we'll be into the season of Advent, moving toward Christmas. 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:14.160 And so this morning, James just fires away at a handful of hot topics. 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.480 Kind of a hot topic Sunday morning. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:19.120 How do we best use our words? 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:22.160 How do we think about our plans, our future? 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.719 And what about our money? 00:00:25.039 --> 00:00:27.039 Our words, our plans, our money. 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:28.879 All right, so let's break down this passage. 00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:30.719 James 4, 11 and 12. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.439 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:39.920 The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:43.840 But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:49.679 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:51.840 But who are you to judge your neighbor? 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:58.000 So point number one is this is we are called to walk humbly with God with kind words. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.200 This is why James is going after this topic. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:05.359 James is speaking about defamation in this passage. 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:12.319 To defame it means to talk down to someone, raising ourselves to a superior position. 00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:16.239 So a famous defamation case was back in 2005. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:20.079 Cameron Diaz ditched her boyfriend Justin Timberlake. 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:20.560 I remember this. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.079 I was born in the 1900s, and as well, this is my celebrity crush. 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:25.519 I can remember this case. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:26.560 I was devastated. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:27.280 I was crushed. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:30.719 She had an affair with a married man, walked away from JT. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:31.840 Well, it wasn't true. 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:33.359 So she sued them. 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:34.640 She won. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:36.400 And defamation's not over. 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:36.959 It's not new. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:37.760 It wasn't new then. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:38.400 It's still not new. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.239 Kanye's being sued right now. 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:45.200 Our public and political discourse is filled with defamation. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:49.040 A lot of it mainly is just defamation the whole time. 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:56.000 Just talking down about other people to become more superior, appear to be more superior. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:00.719 We lower the other person as to appear that way. 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:02.959 We can do it aggressively. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:04.400 He's a moron. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:05.519 She's a brat. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:06.560 He's worthless. 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:07.680 She's worthless. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:09.919 We can do it more passively. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:15.120 Like let's pray for Cindy Joe and all of her horrible parenting decisions. 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:20.800 Well, before we pray, let me tell you all of them because I really want you to be informed of how you can pray for her. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:22.319 Let me just really list these out. 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.800 Horrible, horrible decisions this lady has made. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:27.759 Let me just tell them to you in a spirit of prayer. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:29.759 To defame. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:30.639 Right? 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:35.439 To speak down about somebody else as to appear superior. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.840 And James says, when we do this, we actually are speaking against the law. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.639 When he says that, he's talking about this royal law that he keeps revisiting throughout the book. 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:48.560 And for him, the royal law is to love your neighbor. 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:54.960 Verse 12 says there's only one lawgiver and judge he who is able to save and to destroy. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:57.120 But who are you to judge your neighbor? 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:58.400 I mean, it's just a great reminder. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:00.560 Hey, you're not God. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.199 We just need to be reminded of that, kind of over and over again. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:04.400 You're not God. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:06.800 James remind us, there's only one. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:10.800 Meaning we are relieved of trying to pretend we are God. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:15.199 We're relieved of thinking we should be judging other people. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:19.439 Or need to be in judgment over other people to be somebody. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:24.400 So we're free from judging other people as to be free to love them. 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:26.319 So that's our words. 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:27.439 Now our plans. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:30.639 James 4, 13 through 17. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:40.639 Come now, ye who say, 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. 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.120 Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:44.719 What is your life? 00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:49.599 For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:56.240 Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:59.199 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:01.199 All such boasting is evil. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:05.919 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:11.919 So point number two is this we're called to walk humbly with God with openness to the future. 00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:15.520 Walk humbly with God with openness to the future. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:22.959 Two weeks ago, our family and a few other Redeemer families, we went and served at Blue Skies Camp at Dollywood. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:25.199 Here we are on this weekend of service. 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:33.519 And we hosted 11 families who a child in that family has cancer. 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:42.399 That Friday night we got up there, we had a costume party, it was Halloween weekend, had a costume party and pizza and some more's, and then Saturday morning we had a chapel service. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:47.120 And after chapel service, the volunteers took all the kids to go do crafts and games. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:52.800 And my wife and I, we sat in a circle with these parents. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:59.680 And we asked this question How has cancer impacted your family? 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.480 And do you see God at all? 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.720 Maybe not, but do you see God at all in your story? 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:12.079 And some of these parents had never told their story out loud. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.879 They had never even told the story. 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:28.879 Maybe they never felt safe enough, right, to tell the devastation, the hurt, the anger, the and for some of them had like some incredible stories, God stories, of what God was doing in the midst of it. 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:33.120 But I know this, and I didn't have to take a poll in the room, I didn't have to send out an email. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:34.079 I know this. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:41.120 Nobody, nobody planned to be in that room. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.439 Now, that's extreme, right? 00:05:46.399 --> 00:05:49.519 It's true, it's real, but it is extreme. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:55.519 But maybe you didn't plan like to live in Mariana. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:00.000 You always thought you would be somewhere else. 00:06:01.519 --> 00:06:05.199 Maybe you thought you were finished having kids, and then you got an extra one. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:10.480 Or you thought you would have kids. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:13.759 And it's just been a battle. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:17.279 You didn't plan on being on your second husband. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:20.000 Or fourth. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.240 You didn't plan on being on a second bout with cancer. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.160 You thought just once would be enough. 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:28.399 And then there's also an upside. 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:32.560 Because you never would have thought you could have had the amazing job that you have. 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:40.079 You never could have thought or planned out the fun, loving family you have. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:47.600 Or how that sweet person, that someone, just came upon you. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:48.959 Right? 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:52.800 We think peace will come by control, so we presume our lives. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:56.319 That's what James is talking about, the sin of presumption. 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:01.199 In verse 13, James says there's one plan giver. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:11.120 So he already talked about there's one lawgiver, and now he's talking about that there's one plan giver, which I don't really like because I love to form a plan. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:12.959 I can, I love it. 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:14.959 I can calendar with any of you. 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:16.399 Like there's no date. 00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:20.560 There is no date in the future I can't talk about and plan it out. 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:23.759 We can sit down, you and I, if you're a calendar planner, you know it. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:28.560 We can circle up with our calendars and just let's just click on dates and plan stuff out. 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:29.199 I love it. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:30.480 I'm getting excited thinking about it. 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:34.720 They just because I just want to control it, right? 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:37.680 Calendar, get it all right, chart it out. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:39.439 God, man, I love that. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:47.279 Because the fear is if I if I don't control it, I'll be left out in the cold. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:50.800 So I want to so I control more. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:54.480 And all of us control freaks, raise your hand. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:55.120 Yep. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:56.160 And what do we all know? 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:00.399 As we control more, our anxiety increases, right? 00:08:01.839 --> 00:08:04.319 We want to control more than reality allows us. 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:06.560 I ran into this cartoon this week. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:10.879 It takes a moment, right? 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.519 Like you're like, okay, this is what the world yells at us. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:16.959 Like, just control more. 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:19.120 Focus on what you control, right? 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:24.000 And this is great advice when everything is going good. 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:26.000 Just focus on what you control. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:36.000 But when you are in need or hurt or something bad happens, when you realize you don't have as much control as you thought you did, all of a sudden control just doesn't mean that much. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:38.000 We need something else. 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:40.080 We need openness. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:42.240 We need help. 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:47.279 See, James connects the idea of presumption to arrogance. 00:08:48.559 --> 00:08:55.120 In verse 16, the word to boast means to exalt, abound with joy in something. 00:08:55.279 --> 00:09:00.240 But it's out of an arrogance that we think we can control everything in our life. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:06.879 So it's a very unreliable sense of joy because it's out of our arrogance. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:12.240 It's insecure because we're actually more limited than we want to admit. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:19.039 That's why James says, hey, you're actually, you're actually just like mist. 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:20.960 That's what we're like. 00:09:22.159 --> 00:09:26.480 There's a great hiking trail in Yosemite National Park called the Mist Trail. 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:29.679 It hikes up along a river up to Vernal Falls. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:31.679 Here's what my family got to do it last summer. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:32.639 Here's a picture of us. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.120 My children are somewhat happy as I woke them up at 5 a.m. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:36.559 to do this trail. 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.200 Um so they're looking pretty, they're hanging in there at that moment. 00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:44.559 And so we hike, you hike up along this river and you work your way up to that waterfall that's in the back. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:52.480 And once you get up there, you hike up this narrow stairwell that's been carved into the cliff besides the fall. 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:58.000 All the water is coming down, and mist is just engulfing this entire area. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:02.000 And you just go up step by step, huge drop-off, trying not to fall and die. 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:06.879 It's a wonderful family activity, just good summer family fun for everybody. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:09.200 And the mist is just everywhere. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:14.080 And while you're in it, you can't really imagine uh the mist disappearing. 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:16.320 You're just in it, it's everywhere. 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:20.320 But an hour later, you're on top of the falls, and here's a picture from the top of the falls. 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:23.279 An hour later, you're on top of the falls in the upper valley. 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:24.559 No mist. 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:26.480 Not a droplet. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:27.759 Right? 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:30.480 Not a single droplet of mist. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:32.720 The mist is limited. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:40.159 The droplet's there, it's real, it rises, it lands somewhere, but it's just incredibly limited, and then it's gone. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.960 And James says, that's it. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:45.120 We're more like mist. 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:52.000 Like we need to come into some awareness that we're temporary, we're fragile, we're frail, we're more limited than we want to admit. 00:10:52.159 --> 00:10:54.320 And yet there's a freedom in that. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:59.840 Because the freedom is that everything is not up to you. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:07.919 We can be brilliant planners, and yet we need to have an openness with our plans. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:11.200 Verse 15 says, okay, what do we do? 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:12.480 What should what should we be like? 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:13.279 Verse 15. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:20.480 Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:22.480 If the Lord wills. 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:24.879 I can remember being in college and a Sunday school teacher. 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:26.399 I've always said that. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:27.279 Lord willing. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:27.919 Lord willing. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:29.360 Yeah, I had somebody, Lord willing. 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:30.480 I thought it was so religious. 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:32.000 I couldn't stand it. 00:11:32.159 --> 00:11:33.600 I was like, this is so religious. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:35.440 I was like, you're so fake. 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:36.559 I don't think he was fake. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:38.000 But I thought it was then. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:39.759 I just thought it was so religious. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:41.519 Oh, Lord willing, Lord willing. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:45.919 The thing is, now I'm older. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:47.039 I'm getting older. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:48.399 And I'm tired. 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:54.240 And so now this just feels like an incredible resting place. 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:59.519 Like to be able to say that, to be able to rest in something like that, if the Lord wills. 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:06.399 That just sounds like an incredible rest for my weary heart that wants to plan and chart and have everything figured out. 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:12.879 That we can have our brilliant plans and yet we can be open-handed with them. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:24.320 And what I have found is when I'm in that space of being more open, my prayers for myself and my family and my children and my future and our church. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:33.279 They're tending to shift away from like, hey, God, here's the list, which is just my control, like put into my religious prayer, right? 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:38.799 And it's tend to be a little bit more like, Lord, help me to be open to what you have. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.240 Lord, help me to be open. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:49.360 The Heidelberg Catechism, which is a theological document from the 1500s, it makes this clear from the very beginning. 00:12:49.519 --> 00:12:51.600 The first question, what should be the first question? 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:55.600 You see a bunch of theologians sitting around trying to figure out what should be the first question. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:01.919 What is your only comfort in life and death? 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:12.320 That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:13.840 I am not my own. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:19.679 So our words, our plans, another hot topic, James lays in to us about our money. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:21.519 James 5, 1 through 6. 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:26.159 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:35.759 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 will eat your flesh like fire. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:38.159 You have laid up treasure in the last days. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:45.360 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:48.879 And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:52.559 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:55.600 You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 00:13:55.759 --> 00:13:58.240 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:00.159 He does not resist you. 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:05.600 So point number three is a calling that we walk humbly with God with generous hearts. 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:08.720 You remember how money idolatry works? 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:09.679 It works like this. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:20.240 If I don't have, fill in the blank, if I don't have that amount, then I will not be whole, safe, joyful, respectable enough. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:24.960 And in this way, money becomes our functional savior. 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:27.360 We think we need it. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:36.559 And James says we can sinfully end up in behaviors like this list of what was going on here at the time: fraud, self-indulgence, greed. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:43.039 Because the heart's crying out, I have to have more money in order to be enough. 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.279 I won't be happy without it. 00:14:45.679 --> 00:14:48.720 This week I read an article, Does Money Buy Happiness? 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:52.320 It's from the Wharton School at Penn, a 2021 article. 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:57.039 And it was citing back some research in 2010, came out of Princeton. 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:07.039 And this research said that in our culture that there was no increasing happiness once a household income hit$75,000 a year. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.440 So back in 2010,$75,000 a year. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:17.759 And the research basically said once your core needs, once your core needs are covered, as money increases, happiness really doesn't increase. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:25.279 But then this new research came out in 2021, and another researcher found like, no, actually, happiness does increase as money increases. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:31.039 And so these two researchers, they get together, they nerded out of their data to figure out like what is going on here. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:38.720 What they found out is that in every income bracket, they kept finding subgroups of unhappy people. 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:43.200 And here's the conclusions they came to looking at their data. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:52.000 For the least happy people amongst us, least happy people, happiness rises with income until$100,000 a year and then it stops. 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:59.120 Core needs and a little bit of comfort is paid for, and then happiness doesn't increase for the least happy people. 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:05.840 For middle range of happy people, happiness tends to increase linearly with income as income increases. 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:14.320 And then for the happiest group of people, money accelerates their happiness even above$100,000 a year. 00:16:14.559 --> 00:16:16.960 Now, isn't that fascinating? 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:25.200 What this means is, it just confirms what we already know, money can't create happiness that is not already there. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:31.360 Money only serves what's already inside of you outside of the money. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:34.240 This is why Jesus says, hey, it's not a treasure. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:35.759 It's a resource. 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:36.960 It's not a treasure. 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:38.399 It can't create it. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:41.200 It can only serve what's already there. 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:50.720 So if you're selfish and unhappy and greedy, if you get a whole bunch of more money, you will still be selfish and unhappy and greedy. 00:16:51.200 --> 00:17:04.960 But if you're at peace and content and happy and generous, and then you get more income for whatever reason, your happiness will actually increase because you're already those very things. 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:09.759 And this is where the Christian has an edge on the entire world because we actually already know this. 00:17:09.839 --> 00:17:13.680 And we know how to be at peace before money. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.000 Jesus says, don't treasure money. 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:17.200 It's a resource. 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:23.759 Find your refuge, find your joy, find your treasure, your identity, your wholeness apart from money. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:25.920 Find it in your identity in Christ. 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:29.759 Theologian Albert Barnes writes this about this passage. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:33.200 There is no sin in merely being rich. 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:46.960 Where sin exists among the rich, it arises from the manner in which wealth is acquired, the spirit which it tends to engender in the heart and the way in which it is used. 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:58.480 See, seeking poverty or seeking prosperity are both mistakes if you're seeking them to be whole or forgiven or righteous. 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:03.279 Both are attempts to control outside of Jesus. 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:10.000 Where our real freedom and generosity comes as we grow more secure in Jesus. 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:11.920 Now here's what we learned today. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.160 Point number four, kind of summing up these three different points. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:24.079 We walk humbly with God as we are astonished by God's validation, his providence, and his provision for our lives. 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:30.319 Our words, God's validation, our plans, his providence, our money, his provision. 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:34.000 James sets up a contrast for us in these verses. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:40.319 Life by the flesh and the world, or life by the spirit and the gospel. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:46.640 And here's what James lays out for us what life by the flesh and the world looks like. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:50.400 Increase your status by belittling others. 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:52.640 That's James 4, 11 and 12. 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:58.720 Increase your peace by maintaining control, James 4, 13 through 17. 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:03.440 Increase your happiness by greed, James 5, 1 through 6. 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:07.839 Now remember, James always assumes the gospel and he's writing of the effects. 00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:14.640 And so what we know, the gospel contrast is this life by the Spirit and the gospel. 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:23.200 To do with our words, rest in secure status, our secure status as the beloved through God's lavish love in Christ. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.200 That's the grace of imputation. 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:31.519 For our plans, live in abounding peace by trusting your life is God's. 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:33.920 That's the grace of providence. 00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:41.039 And for our money, grow in contentment and generosity by knowing a deeper currency for happiness. 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:45.599 And that's the grace of a citizenship that we have in God's kingdom. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:50.160 See, as we grow in the lavish love of God for us, we grow more secure. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:52.799 As we grow more secure, we're not as needy. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:54.079 We're okay. 00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:56.079 We're loved, we're enough. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:06.799 And so we can use our words and our plans and our money not to be somebody else, but we can speak kind words. 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:11.440 We can be open with our future, and we can be generous with the provision we have. 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:13.759 I ran into this quote this week, and I close with it. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:19.680 Michael Spencer, who is a great spiritual writer and teacher, he wrote this 10 months before he died. 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:20.640 So 10 months. 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:22.079 He knows he's dying. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:33.440 And here's what he writes The big issues that face me as a dying teacher, writer, husband, father, and employee all, all about grace. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:37.599 Grace in everyday life, grace to people who don't deserve it. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:44.640 Grace as a way to live in the power of the gospel when I'd rather be controlling things and determining outcomes. 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:55.279 All day, every day, I have to live in an atmosphere where the use of law, guilt, manipulation, and punishment are the standard ways of doing business. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:00.319 But I want my life to be more and more and more about grace. 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:07.759 So the question for me today and from now on is has grace made me gracious? 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:09.680 Let's pray together. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:16.000 God forgive us for the ways that we have spoken ill of people and withheld kind words. 00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:24.319 Forgive us for the ways that we have increased our control with tight gripping hearts, without an openness to your providence. 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:28.799 And forgive us for the ways that we think money will make us joyful or whole. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:36.000 Would we live by your spirit and the gospel, growing more secure in our belovedness? 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:40.640 That we are already validated and whole, fully forgiven and fully righteous. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:42.400 May our words bless people. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:46.720 May we grow with an openness of heart, with open hands for the future. 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:51.279 And may we grow generous with the provision you give to us. 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:53.200 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:54.000 Amen.