SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome friends.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new this morning to the Bible or to Christianity, feel free to use that Pew Bible in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: We will be in James chapter 4, as you can see.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the big numbers of the chapters, the little numbers of the verses, if you would like to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: And as my brother Matt just read, we will be in verses 13 through 17 of James chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Now, many of you, as you walked into this church building this morning, you have all, I would assume, have made plans.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's plans for later this afternoon or plans for next week, or plans for the next five years, or goals you have set for your life, even for years to come.
SPEAKER_01: And that is natural.
SPEAKER_01: That is what we all do as human beings, right?
SPEAKER_01: Planning feels responsible.
SPEAKER_01: I believe it was Albert Einstein who coined the phrase a lot of people quote: if you don't plan, you plan to fail.
SPEAKER_01: Planning is reasonable.
SPEAKER_01: Planning feels responsible.
SPEAKER_01: It feels wise.
SPEAKER_01: There is an entire category throughout the Bible on being a wise steward and planning, excuse me, for the future.
SPEAKER_01: But as you just heard read in James 4, James presses us a little bit on this theme of planning our lives.
SPEAKER_01: He presents his audience with a deeper question, not whether or not they should be planning their lives, but how they're planning.
SPEAKER_01: And as they plan, who are they assuming holds authority over all things?
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're going to see this morning.
SPEAKER_01: There are two ways that all of us who proclaim to be Christ's followers can plan our lives.
SPEAKER_01: One way is with humble dependence on the Father, recognizing that he is the only sovereign, eternal God over all things.
SPEAKER_01: Or we can plan our lives with a kind of confidence that quietly pushes God aside and holds us up as the one who is sovereign over our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what James is addressing in our text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: He is making it clear planning isn't sinful, but planning without God is.
SPEAKER_01: God is the one who is on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at our passage this morning, James again, just in his same James fashion, he's holding no punches.
SPEAKER_01: He's constantly giving these little micro, genuine tests of what true faith, what true authentic faith looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And now he gets to the nitty-gritty of how one leads their life in planning for the future.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you look at verse 13, he says, Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some have misinterpreted this text to say James is in the Bible is against, you know, Christians pursuing any kind of business ventures and financial gain and profit and wealth.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: This passage sometimes is also misinterpreted, interpreted from those in the prosperity gospel camp as well.
SPEAKER_01: But James is not condemning the Christians' desire to be a good steward of their resources and to establish a business and to make a profit.
SPEAKER_01: If you focus on verse 13, he's not condemning those things.
SPEAKER_01: What he's getting at in verse 14 is, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_01: So the issue for James, he's not rebuking irresponsible people.
SPEAKER_01: He's addressing thoughtful, wise, competent, business savvy planners.
SPEAKER_01: These are people who think ahead, they make calculations, they're making wise decisions as best as they could tell to set timelines and start businesses and anticipate a pro a profit.
SPEAKER_01: They use the you know, James rather is now some scholars debate: is James addressing like a figurative group of people just to make a point, or is he addressing actual people in the church who are Christians, who are maybe wealthy business owners who are struggling with this?
SPEAKER_01: I would probably lean towards the latter.
SPEAKER_01: But either way, he's addressing the heart of the issue in this kind of language of saying, today or tomorrow, we will go and we will do this thing and we will spend a year and we will do business and we will make a profit.
SPEAKER_01: James says, Come now, reason with me, because he wants them to listen to themselves.
SPEAKER_01: He's trying to help them see, listen to how you're talking, because words matter.
SPEAKER_01: Words have meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Our words communicate our heart posture.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what James is getting at.
SPEAKER_01: He's getting directly at their heart posture.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying that the problem is their confidence.
SPEAKER_01: God is not denied, but he is absent in this type of verbiage.
SPEAKER_01: Their speech is assuming a few things.
SPEAKER_01: Their speech is assuming that they have an infinite amount of time, that they're going to have all this opportunity, and that success is a given.
SPEAKER_01: James is not condemning planning.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be clear on that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want anyone to walk out of here saying Pastor Cam said, you know, we just sit on our hands and just like live life and don't plan or do anything or exercise wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: James is not condemning planning, but he is confronting a sinful heart posture that speaks about the future as if God's sovereign reign over the universe is irrelevant or just merely assumed.
SPEAKER_01: This is how respectable sin, quote unquote, often sounds.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13 again.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come now, you who say, listen to their verbiage and think about the heart posture that would spark this.
SPEAKER_01: Today or tomorrow, we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.
SPEAKER_01: James wants us to hear ourselves speak because we we talk about the future.
SPEAKER_01: How we talk about the future often reveals what we actually believe about God.
SPEAKER_01: So one challenge we have as Christians is we are very good at studying our Bibles and having correct content in our heads and saying the right things.
SPEAKER_01: But the real test of genuine faith, as we're seeing in James, is how we practically live our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we really learn what we truly believe.
SPEAKER_01: The root problem here is presumption and how it is sinful.
SPEAKER_01: James is pressing in here deeper.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_01: That statement in verse 14 reminds us of something very fundamental about the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: We are all creaturely beings.
SPEAKER_01: Every last one of us has was created at some point in time by God.
SPEAKER_01: We exist to glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: We owe our life and being to God, which means we have no right to authoritatively speak about how tomorrow is going to go.
SPEAKER_01: We are following our Father's lead.
SPEAKER_01: We are creatures, we are creature-lead, which means we are finite and we are dependent.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us wrestle with that in our Western society of, you know, everyone pulled them, put themselves up by their own bootstraps and autonomy and all these things.
SPEAKER_01: And yet the Bible says, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: You are desperately dependent on God for every single thing, including the breath in your lungs this very moment.
SPEAKER_01: But James humbles us and his audience further.
SPEAKER_01: This is how James summarizes their lives, and he's quoting from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that summarize life?
SPEAKER_01: I don't care how old you are.
SPEAKER_01: We all can look back and just can just think about wow, like time has flown by.
SPEAKER_01: I just think about when my wife and I were new parents and all the older families in our church telling us, like, hey, enjoy the younger years because it flies by.
SPEAKER_01: And now at 37, I'm like, oh my goodness, they were right.
SPEAKER_01: Our lives are but a vapor.
SPEAKER_01: And then we go on, and the universe continues to spin without us being here.
SPEAKER_01: Our lives are but a vapor that appears for a little while, then vanish.
SPEAKER_01: Now, our lives are both meaningful and worth, you know, giving to the Lord, but it is our lives are also fragile and brief in the grand scheme of God's eternal plan for the universe.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what James is getting at here.
SPEAKER_01: Sinful presumption forgets that our lives are a vapor and that we are dependent on God for all things.
SPEAKER_01: Sinful presumption forgets that because it treats the future as if it is secure and manageable by us without the Lord's help.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do I mean by sinful presumption?
SPEAKER_01: Let me just define that real quick.
SPEAKER_01: I would say sinful presumption is confidently assuming the future without reference to God's will, his authority, or his sustaining grace.
SPEAKER_01: So whenever we as Christ followers presume on the Lord confidently that this thing is absolutely going to play out how I have planned it, with giving no reference to God and his will and his divine sovereignty, that is sinful presumption.
SPEAKER_01: You are presuming on the Lord's grace that this thing will happen in a year, that that business will develop that prophet as you plan for it to do.
SPEAKER_01: James exposes this.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus speaks similarly.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you are familiar with the parable in Luke chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: You can turn there if you want.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 12, Jesus teaches a parable about the rich man and his posture towards the Lord and his wealth.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 12, beginning in verse 17, Jesus says, A rich man's land was very productive.
SPEAKER_01: So here's a man, he planned, he did the same thing James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: He desired to make a profit and he did, which is not bad.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, he thought to himself, What should I do?
SPEAKER_01: Since I don't have anywhere to store my crops, I will do this, he said.
SPEAKER_01: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and goods there.
SPEAKER_01: Then I'll say to myself, You have many goods stored up for many years.
SPEAKER_01: Take it easy.
SPEAKER_01: Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me just stop there.
SPEAKER_01: He has done nothing wrong so far.
SPEAKER_01: It is wise to be a good steward of the resources God has entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_01: If he has established a business and the Lord has blessed him with profit, it is wise to plan and to do what exactly what he's describing.
SPEAKER_01: God, Jesus is not condemning him for that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the point of this parable.
SPEAKER_01: But let's look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: So after he says, Okay, I'm gonna store up all this wealth and I'm gonna party and live it up and celebrate my wealth, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life is demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
SPEAKER_01: That's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
SPEAKER_01: That is what Jesus is condemning.
SPEAKER_01: Not the man's planning, not the fact that he had a business that was successful, but that the posture of his heart was finding its treasure in his wise planning and his wealth and not in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That is similar to what James is addressing.
SPEAKER_01: Planning is wise, but if you find you are placing yourself in the seat of God as if you're sovereign and you're governing the universe all for your own selfish ambition, then you're not rich towards God.
SPEAKER_01: You're rich towards your own desires.
SPEAKER_01: This brother sin in Luke 12 is not planning, it was not productivity.
SPEAKER_01: His sin was speaking to his soul as if his future was absolutely secure apart from God's will.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, You fool, your life is required of you today.
SPEAKER_01: He presumed upon God's grace, he presumed upon time and control, and God calls him a fool.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us have had moments in life where I'm sure you've been humbled.
SPEAKER_01: I can recall a situation, uh hanging out with a brother, playing volleyball, and then that very night he lost his life.
SPEAKER_01: And I just remember just being hit with this reality, like I was just talking with that dude, and now he's gone.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what the next hour will bring.
SPEAKER_01: Every breath we take is because God is a gracious God.
SPEAKER_01: And James doesn't just expose what's wrong with presumptuous planning, he also shows us the only heart posture that fits reality.
SPEAKER_01: If we look at verses 14 through 15, James goes on in verse 14, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like a vapor that appears for a little while then vanishes.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, you should say, so now he's given the corrective, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_01: If the Lord wills.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk a little bit about God's providence.
SPEAKER_01: This has been one of my favorite doctrines since planting a church because what's fun of fun and funny about the Christian life is we can make all the plans we want.
SPEAKER_01: And then in hindsight, we look back and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I did not plan any of that to happen, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But hey, I'm just I'm just here for the journey.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: But God's divine providence is a calming bomb for the Christian.
SPEAKER_01: If you truly understand God's providence and what it means and its implications, James redirects us.
SPEAKER_01: He says, instead, we should speak like this.
SPEAKER_01: If the Lord wills, we will do A, B, or C.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you guys are the type or you know a Christian who often talks like that, where they'll say, like, hey, you know, see you next Sunday, Lord willing.
SPEAKER_01: There are early in the Christian church, uh, they would write uh an abbreviation at the end of letters, uh, these initials that was a Latin phrase, I can't pronounce it correctly, but it just stood for Lord willing, if the Lord wills.
SPEAKER_01: It was just a way of training themselves to constantly keep at the forefront of their minds, everything we do first is according to God's sovereign divine plan, not our own agenda for our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about God's providence for a second.
SPEAKER_01: When we say things like if the Lord wills, this is not a religious catchphrase.
SPEAKER_01: There's no, it's not like some kind of Christian magical incantation where, you know, just similar when people pray, like, you know, you can pray and conclude a prayer without saying, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like a magic, right?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people can treat, you know, if the Lord wills, like I have to say that, or else God's not gonna actually answer my prayer.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's more focused on is that your heart posture, where your posture is one that submits to God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we gotta keep in mind as Christians, we are not those who are committed to what some theologians would call deism.
SPEAKER_01: Deism is the teaching that, you know, yes, God exists.
SPEAKER_01: He created the universe, but he's like a watchmaker.
SPEAKER_01: So like he wound up the universe when he created it and just set it into motion, and then he just fell back and he's just watching everything uh take place.
SPEAKER_01: He's not intimately involved, he's not sovereign over everything that's taking place in human history.
SPEAKER_01: He's more of he's the author of everything, but then takes a step back and just let everything happen on its own.
SPEAKER_01: No, the Bible does not teach that everything that happens in the universe is is random, it's just chance and luck.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches that God is sovereign over every particle of dust floating in this very sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: Let me define providence for you like this.
SPEAKER_01: God's providence means that God continually upholds all things, rules over all things, and works through all things to accomplish his wise and good purposes, which he established in eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read that one more time.
SPEAKER_01: God's providence means that God continually upholds all things, rules over all things, and works through all things to accomplish his wise and good purposes, which he established in eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: Now, under providence, I can get, we're gonna put our theologian hats on this morning, but under uh God's divine providence, I would say there are like three subsets of his providence that we could look at being perseverance, governance, and concurrence, which is a fancy word I'll break down.
SPEAKER_01: But let me let me explain these.
SPEAKER_01: So when we look at God's providence, we understand that he preserves all things, preservation.
SPEAKER_01: That means God keeps you and his world existing.
SPEAKER_01: The reason we don't spin out of orbit into the sun, the reason why we don't fly up into the sky when we walk outside this sanctuary is because God is preserving the entire universe.
SPEAKER_01: Preservation means God keeps all things alive and continuing from moment to moment.
SPEAKER_01: None of us in this room sustains ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: None of you, as you're listening to me, is making your heart beat.
SPEAKER_01: You're not making your lungs work.
SPEAKER_01: God is sustaining you as you live.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1:17, Paul says, He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: Or Psalm 139, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: David describing his own life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Your eyes saw me when I was formless.
SPEAKER_01: All my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.
SPEAKER_01: The reason any of us even exist this morning is not because you took your supplements, it's not because you exercise, it's not because you eat right, it's because God willed for you to breathe.
SPEAKER_01: He preserves all things.
SPEAKER_01: So when James says, if the Lord wills, we will live, he is being literal.
SPEAKER_01: We live, we have our life in our being because God, in his infinite grace, wills it to be so.
SPEAKER_01: That's preservation.
SPEAKER_01: But under God's providence, there's also this category of governance.
SPEAKER_01: Governance, which simply means God rules what he sustains.
SPEAKER_01: He is the sovereign ruler of the entire universe.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what you, if you're scrolling on social media, you're constantly depressed at all the brokenness around the world, or you watch the news and you're constantly seeing all these countries at war, and you're like, is God truly reigning?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: God rules what he sustains.
SPEAKER_01: Governance means God directs all things so they accomplish his purposes, which means human history, as chaotic as it might look from our human perspective, is all playing out exactly according to God's divine plan.
SPEAKER_01: Our God is never reactive, He's not watching human events and saying, oh shoot, I didn't know Iran was going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know America was gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: Now I got to call an audible.
SPEAKER_01: No, he is sovereign, he is reigning, and everyone is doing exactly what he has predetermined before the foundations of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: This is why Proverbs 16, 9 tells us a person's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: As we make our plans, as we should, as we exercise wisdom and try to lead our families, the word of God says a person plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.
SPEAKER_01: That is how sovereign God is.
SPEAKER_01: That's why sometimes as Christians, we should not get all anxious over some of our decision making.
SPEAKER_01: Should I move here?
SPEAKER_01: Should I take that job?
SPEAKER_01: Should I go to that school?
SPEAKER_01: If God doesn't want you to do something, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: That is how sovereign he is.
SPEAKER_01: We are not powerful enough to thwart the plan of God.
SPEAKER_01: I love how God just flexes on us sometimes in the Bible, like in Isaiah 46, 9 through 10.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other.
SPEAKER_01: I am God and no one is like me.
SPEAKER_01: I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago, what is not yet done, saying, My plan will take place, and I will do all my will.
SPEAKER_01: Can't no one else in the galaxy talk like that?
SPEAKER_01: Our God says, I am God, and ain't no one else like me.
SPEAKER_01: I declare the end from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: That is dope.
SPEAKER_01: I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago, what is not yet done, saying, My plan will take place, and I will do all my will.
SPEAKER_01: Verses like this should give us great confidence and comfort in our walk with God.
SPEAKER_01: Especially when like the enemy is like condemning you of reminding you of all your past sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, wait a minute, bro, you going to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can't thwart God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: His plan will take place, and a part of that plan is to judge you for all eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So, how are you gonna shame me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
SPEAKER_01: We should find confidence in knowing that God's providence governs all things.
SPEAKER_01: So, wise planning is real, human responsibility and real, we make real choices.
SPEAKER_01: These are real things, but the outcomes always belong to God.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what James is getting at.
SPEAKER_01: We need a heart posture that submits to the authority and the divine providence and sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so that's preservation, governance, and then concurrence.
SPEAKER_01: That's a fancy word.
SPEAKER_01: We don't talk like that.
SPEAKER_01: Concurrence simply means God works through human agency.
SPEAKER_01: God works through the real choices that we make.
SPEAKER_01: He uses them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me be clear.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't mean what I don't mean by that is God is kind of like sitting on his hands and he has to wait for us to make certain decisions before he can accomplish his will.
SPEAKER_01: No, we make real decisions according to God's predetermined plan.
SPEAKER_01: He's the sovereign one.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not going to get into you know God's sovereignty and human responsibility because that's a whole sermon series, but your choices do matter and you are responsible for them.
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, God is at work through those choices to accomplish his divine purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 2, 12 through 13 tells us to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_01: That is something you, Christian, are to do.
SPEAKER_01: You are to exercise your will to pursue holiness.
SPEAKER_01: But it goes on, for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: So if I asked you, how does your sanctification work?
SPEAKER_01: Is it solely based on your effort or on God's?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is yes.
SPEAKER_01: You are to work, to be holy and godly.
SPEAKER_01: And as you work, you are doing exactly what God is calling you to do according to his divine purpose.
SPEAKER_01: He is working in you to will and to work according to his good purpose.
SPEAKER_01: So God wisely orders the span and substance of our lives according to his divine plan.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give some biblical examples here.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna tie this all into what James is highlighting here about our planning and God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start with my man Pharaoh from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh thought he was a bad man, and he was.
SPEAKER_01: In that time in history, he was the most powerful man on the planet, and he abused his authority to oppress an entire ethnic group, enslaving them and mistreating them.
SPEAKER_01: And when Moses came sent by God to demand that Pharaoh let God's people go, Pharaoh and his pride and his sinful pride and arrogance refused on numerous occasions to let God's people go.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh made that decision on his own.
SPEAKER_01: He chose to rebel against God's clear command from God's prophet.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, in Exodus, we learn that before Moses even got to Egypt, God told him, I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus 9, as this is happening, it says, But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and he did not listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh acted freely.
SPEAKER_01: He used his own will to decide, I will reject the God that you say is the one and true God.
SPEAKER_01: I will not let his people go.
SPEAKER_01: I will do what I please.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: If we fast forward to the New Testament and go, you can turn here if you want, but if you go to Romans chapter 9, we get a peek into what was going on with our boy Pharaoh and the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans chapter 9, when Paul is addressing this difficult topic of God's sovereign grace towards undeserving sinners, he brings up Pharaoh as a case study.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans 9, verse 17, he says, For the scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason, so that I may display my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: So then he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
SPEAKER_01: Hmm, what is going on there?
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh is fully responsible before God on judgment day for rebelling against God and disobeying his command to let his people go.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, why on earth would God allow him to oppress his people and do all these wicked things?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we we have it right here.
SPEAKER_01: In God's sovereignty, he used Pharaoh's real decisions and actions so that he may display his power and his name may be proclaimed in the whole earth.
SPEAKER_01: Pharaoh was a vessel of wrath to showcase the power, the transcendence and glory of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And what happened in that story ended up being Israel's greatest, you know, monument of grace in their history, where they celebrated the Passover and how God delivered them by a mighty hand from Pharaoh out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Human responsibility and this and divine sovereignty, guys, is not are not enemies.
SPEAKER_01: God was accomplishing his purposes even through Pharaoh's rebellion.
SPEAKER_01: This is exactly what Proverbs 3 is getting at when it says, Trust in the Lord with all of your hearts, and do not rely on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
SPEAKER_01: That verse is saying, Acknowledge the sovereignty of your God and how you lead your life, and he will direct your steps.
SPEAKER_01: So when we use this phrase, James is giving us here, if the Lord wills, that's that's that's not hesitation, that's not that's not weakness.
SPEAKER_01: It's a confession of who God is and who we are.
SPEAKER_01: We are creaturely, we are finite and dependent.
SPEAKER_01: He is sovereign and eternal and governing all things.
SPEAKER_01: So it only makes sense as I lead my life to make sure I give a nod to the big man that he's the one who blesses all that I do and not myself.
SPEAKER_01: And if we truly understand God's providence, let me now connect this to James 4.
SPEAKER_01: If we truly understand God's divine providence, shouldn't that cultivate in us like some God-honoring contentment as well?
SPEAKER_01: I often think of contentment not with like, oh, I just have a peace about whatever I'm going through.
SPEAKER_01: I think that is certainly an aspect of it.
SPEAKER_01: But I see contentment as like confidence in God's divine providence.
SPEAKER_01: When you recognize no matter what enters into my life, it first had to travel through my father's hands.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it's a part of his will.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I'm content with whatever he has for me.
SPEAKER_01: Confidence in God's providential governance produces contentment because it frees us from trying to force results in our own lives.
SPEAKER_01: And instead, it trains us to just rest in the fact that our Father cares for us, he is good, and he has promised to govern all things in our lives according to his divine will.
SPEAKER_01: So we can rest knowing that what God withholds from us sometimes is just as deliberate as what he provides.
SPEAKER_01: Contentment grows when you believe God orders your steps better than you ever could.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have been in situations where you pleaded, you fasted, you asked other brothers and sisters, please pray with me for this one thing?
SPEAKER_01: And God graciously said no, or not yet, and then maybe fast forward to the other side, and you're like, praise be to God.
SPEAKER_01: He did not say yes to that.
SPEAKER_01: Because now that I got the bigger picture, I realized that what I thought would have been best for me actually would have been harmful.
SPEAKER_01: That's divine providence.
SPEAKER_01: God is all knowing, we are not.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: That's why we need to acknowledge God is the sovereign governor of all things, not ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: We are often convinced we are much wiser than we really are.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's none of you, but I know I struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: We tend to think we are wiser than we really are.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes our prayers are more like, God, here's my plan for my life.
SPEAKER_01: But because you're God, I just need you to co-sign this.
SPEAKER_01: Because you just sprinkle some blessing on it and some favor so it goes exactly how I mapped it out.
SPEAKER_01: Don't change nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Like I worked hard on this guy.
SPEAKER_01: Just do it just like this.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how on earth can we approach the guy who created the entire universe and set the limits of the oceans and the stars and tell him how to govern our lives?
SPEAKER_01: When we only exist because he willed it.
SPEAKER_01: We're only here because God sovereignly brought us into being, and yet we're gonna tell him how to plan our lives?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: So Christian contentment, friends, is peace that comes from trusting God's providence more than your preferred outcome for your own plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you plan as though God is optional, James tells us that that's not confidence, that is sinful arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: And God calls it what it is in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: It is sinful boasting.
SPEAKER_01: Look down in your Bibles at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, you should say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
SPEAKER_01: But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_01: James just be throwing darts at him over and over each chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I first started studying this, I did think it was a little odd.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, like, man, that sounds a little out of place.
SPEAKER_01: Like, dang, James, how did you just go straight into this indictment of just bringing up arrogance and boasting?
SPEAKER_01: But then the more you study it, you realize, oh, he's what he's saying is if you live your Christian life with this posture of, yeah, I'm gonna do this thing and I'm gonna do that, and next year I'm gonna do that, as if you know for certain those things are gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: That is a form of sinful boasting and arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: You are acting like you are God and you know exactly how your life is going to turn out.
SPEAKER_01: And James is warning against that.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, no, that is sinful boasting.
SPEAKER_01: That is arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is pride spoken out loud.
SPEAKER_01: It is a quiet, settled self-reliance that is not acknowledging God and his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: It is a planning that no, that no longer is dependent on God, but dependent on one's self.
SPEAKER_01: And James holds no punches and calls it evil because it dethrones God as the one who sits on the throne of your life.
SPEAKER_01: But I think that one's the most obvious.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you proclaim to be a Christian, and here's the real test, guys.
SPEAKER_01: We we can say from our mouths, I believe that God is sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God governs and controls all things.
SPEAKER_01: But if we find ourselves just constantly anxious about life or just constantly in spiritual depression because we think God is not really governing things the way he says he does, well, then we're functioning almost like practical atheists, where we're saying one thing, but how we live is portraying what we are saying, what we're professing.
SPEAKER_01: But I feel like that's the most obvious one.
SPEAKER_01: When we find ourselves living a life where we're not acknowledging God's sovereignty and we're like tempted to lead our own lives and have confidence that things are going to go exactly how we planned them, I think that's the most obvious.
SPEAKER_01: But I think the less obvious is when we are pessimistic as Christians.
SPEAKER_01: When we're sinfully pessimistic.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: I would say sinful pessimism is a fearful, fatalistic posture toward God that assumes he will not act, he will not provide, and he will not do his children good.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the more subtle one that our flesh tempts us with and leads us astray.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give some examples.
SPEAKER_01: This is when, as Christians who believe in God's sovereignty, who believe in his providence and his goodness, talk like this.
SPEAKER_01: I'll plan, I mean, I'm gonna pray for this thing, but I'm just gonna plan for disappointment so that I'm not let down.
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, uh, yeah, I mean, I trust God, but I mean, nothing's really gonna change anyways.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is just gonna be what it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, yeah, no, I'm not doubting God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just being realistic about what God's probably going to do or not going to do.
SPEAKER_01: Or here's one we tend to say to sound real spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm just I'm just trying to guard my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just guarding my heart.
SPEAKER_01: These sound humble, but at their root, it's just unbelief in disguise.
SPEAKER_01: It's just questioning God's goodness and faithfulness and his love.
SPEAKER_01: Biblical humility rejects both arrogance and despair and leans into hopeful dependence.
SPEAKER_01: All Christians, if you believe in God's sovereignty, should have contingency contingency plans or plan B, meaning, ah, God, I submit this to you.
SPEAKER_01: It is my desire to do A, B, and C, to start this business, to do this thing, as as they're saying in James 4, to in a year go do this and in this location.
SPEAKER_01: However, if that not be your will, I have a contingency plan, which is still a plan to follow you.
SPEAKER_01: But if we don't have a contingency plan, if it's always the plan and God doesn't say yes to that plan, we get discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, God doesn't love me.
SPEAKER_01: God, it's like, no, how about maybe you're just selfish?
SPEAKER_01: You're just focused on God needs to just give you everything you want and how you think it should be done instead of acknowledging God, what would bring you the most glory?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing in my heart?
SPEAKER_01: How are you wanting me to handle this situation, make this decision, or steward this resource?
SPEAKER_01: We all should have contingency plans if we truly believe in God's sovereignty, because God is the one orchestrating our lives, not ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting God truly means holding our plans loosely, ready to obey Him when He redirects.
SPEAKER_01: So a good test of do I truly submit to God's divine providence is just ask yourself, when God takes my plans and redirects them, how do I most often respond?
SPEAKER_01: Do I get angry with God?
SPEAKER_01: Do I get sad and discouraged and question God's motives?
SPEAKER_01: Or do I say, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're redirecting, that means you have something better planned than my stupid plan.
SPEAKER_01: And you just revealed to me it was a stupid plan.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God, for not giving in to my stupid plan.
SPEAKER_01: What's your plan?
SPEAKER_01: That's how we should seek God's help to respond when he redirects our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So we all should have a posture of, with everything I submit to the Lord, there's always a contingency plan attached because I'm always prioritizing, glorifying God, and doing his will, not my own.
SPEAKER_01: And now James brings this out of the realm of theory and presses it straight into the conscience in verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: He now brings in conviction when he says, Well, let me go back to verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_01: So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is similar to what he has said previously in James, right?
SPEAKER_01: Don't just be hearers of the word, be doers as well.
SPEAKER_01: He is saying it is sinful for you now to know the truth of God's word of how you should lead and plan your life and not do it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this isn't just directed at planning, this is just a general principle for the Christian life as a whole, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Sin isn't just doing what God forbids, it's failing to also do what God requires.
SPEAKER_01: When you know the good and refuse it, James says that is sin.
SPEAKER_01: There's no excuses, there's no neutrality in that.
SPEAKER_01: Some use the phrase there are sins of commission and sins of omission.
SPEAKER_01: Have you thought about that?
SPEAKER_01: As Christians, there are sins you can commit when you directly disobey God's revealed will and his word, things that you know are sinful when God's word says, don't do that, don't say that, don't do this.
SPEAKER_01: But then there's sins of omission when we are guilty of not doing what we know we ought to do.
SPEAKER_01: That is also sinful.
SPEAKER_01: That just shows you how depraved our hearts are, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We get in trouble on both sides.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, man, Lord, I do the things your word says I shouldn't be doing, and then I'm also not doing the things I know I should be doing.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just throw one more in there.
SPEAKER_01: Delayed obedience is disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: If you know the right thing to do, but you slowly inch towards obedience, that's disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: How many times does the Lord have to tell us something in the Bible before we obey?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, Jesus only said it once.
SPEAKER_01: If there were two more verses where he said that, then I would, then I would obey.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, what?
SPEAKER_01: Delayed obedience is disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: But he is warning them, friends, if you now have this truth, if you now have this knowledge of how you should acknowledge God's divine providence and his authority in your life, then to not redirect your lives according to his sovereignty is to be sinned.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me end with some some hope in this concluding section.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest example is Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus stepped down from heaven voluntarily, put on flesh, lived a life where he was mocked, beaten, and killed.
SPEAKER_01: And when he sat in that garden bleeding drops of blood, and when he prayed to the Father, when he brought to the Father his plan, Father, if there be any other way.
SPEAKER_00: And he had a contingency plan, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: But not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: That is our example.
SPEAKER_01: And he did this for arrogant planners, he did it for those who are the fearful pessimists.
SPEAKER_01: Because of Christ, the future no longer rests on our shoulders, but in your heavenly father's hands.
SPEAKER_01: And praise be to God.
SPEAKER_01: Like, think about that, please.
SPEAKER_01: If you leave with anything this morning, consider this.
SPEAKER_01: If you are in Christ, the God who created the entire universe out of absolutely nothing holds your entire life in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Whose hands are better fit to direct your life?
SPEAKER_01: Don't compete with him.
SPEAKER_01: Don't constantly like a toller, battle with God and say, no, no, no, mine.
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me try it, God.
SPEAKER_01: Give me a go.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: The God who sustains and governs the entire universe is directing every step of your life.
SPEAKER_01: You are working, you're you're we're all as Christians, we're all doing a group project.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some of y'all remember that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, I was a kid, I barely participated, but I still got the A.
SPEAKER_01: That was me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I was that guy.
SPEAKER_01: But we work in cooperation with our Heavenly Father to accomplish his divine purposes in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Like, that is a privilege.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like he needs us to do that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like he's like, hey, I'm gonna do 50%, but you gotta bring the other 50%.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's doing all of it.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, hey, it's almost like, you know, if a dad is working on a project and he wants to invite his kids to be there, like, hey, hold the hammer or hand me this.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need their help, but he wants to be with them.
SPEAKER_01: He wants them to be a part of the process.
SPEAKER_01: That's how our father is.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came and left us an example to follow.
SPEAKER_01: So you and I are called not to manage the future of our lives in our own strength, but to entrust ourselves to a faithful creator who loves us and governs the entire universe according to his divine nature.
SPEAKER_01: God is good, he is holy, and all that he does in governing the universe in our lives is always going to showcase his attributes.
SPEAKER_01: So even if we don't know what God's up to, even if we don't know, God, what on earth are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: What we always know is that God is good and faithful and holy, and he forces all of his divine attributes and power for our divine good.
SPEAKER_01: And we can trust in that.
SPEAKER_01: So again, the Bible, James, does not does not condemn planning.
SPEAKER_01: Make plans, look in investing for retirement, uh, support things, make start businesses, do whatever it is, plan.
SPEAKER_01: But make sure you do so, as Jesus said, as someone who's striving to be rich towards God.
SPEAKER_01: And as you do that, you will talk the way James is saying to talk, if the Lord wills.
SPEAKER_01: So plan wisely, work faithfully, hope confidently, but live as sons and daughters who trust their father for tomorrow and not yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.