Evaluating Your Life’s Activity

One Memorial Day our family traveled in several cars to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for the day. My wife, Barbara, and I traveled in the glorious role of grandparents with three of our grandchildren strapped into the backseat (Brian, then three and a half, Catherine, two, and Caroline, five months). As we drove along a major highway, a white car coming the opposite direction accelerated as he attempted to pass the car in front of him. There was no room, but instead of braking he accelerated even more—so that he was coming right at us at about 70 mph. We were skidding, and I thought, “This is it!” Then he accelerated even more, whipped onto the shoulder to the right of my car, on our side of the road, missing me and the two cars behind me, and then careened back across the center line to his side of the road—apparently never taking his foot off the accelerator!

I was numb, my wife was in tears, and the children were terrified—but alive. A second more and I think all five of us would have been dead. That could very easily have been the end of our lives! But the truth is, death could come to any of us any day, for we “do not even know what will happen tomorrow” (v. 14).[i]

Cont. Problem: That God would have a plan for each of our lives is an obvious truth. He is a God of wisdomand knows what ought to happen and when it should occur. And, as a God of love, He must desire the very best for His children. Too many Christians look on the will of God as bitter medicine they must take, instead of seeing it as the gracious evidence of the love of God.

“I would give my life to the Lord, but I’m afraid,” a perplexed teenager told me at a church youth conference.

“What are you afraid of?” I asked.

“I’m afraid God will ask me to do something dangerous!”

“The dangerous life is not in the will of God,” I replied, “but out of the will of God. The safest place in the world is right where God wants you.”

I was going through a difficult time in my own ministry some years ago, questioning the will of God. While on vacation, I was reading the Book of Psalms, asking God to give me some assurance and encouragement. Psalm 33:11 was the answer to that prayer: “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever; the thoughts of His heart to all generations.”

“The will of God comes from the heart of God,” I said to myself. “His will is the expression of His love, so I don’t have to be afraid!” It was a turning point in my life to discover the blessing of loving and living the will of God.

Context:

Just review the previous two sermons.

Main Principle: Life is short—stop living self-sufficiently and trust God!

The truth that life is short is something we need to grapple with on a daily basis. God’s providence is real and God desires us to live accordingly. James earlier in this letter has condemned living in friendship with the world and made a plea to live a repentant life of submission and humility.

In our text this afternoon, James adds to this by stating that life is short. Stop living in self-sufficiency and act righteously on what you know is right to do because when you don’t you are sinning against God.

For the Christian, for the church I am afraid to say it seems to often we are all too natural at living self-sufficiently both in our everyday lives and our spiritual lives. We use false humility as an excuse not to ask God or others for help. We use the same to not express the need for prayer in our spiritual struggle with sin. In our self-sufficiency we ignore God’s providence in our life. We ignore what God’s plan for our life and trust in our own logic and understanding. We rely on our own wisdom and not the heavenly wisdom James talks about in James 3:17 “17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”

Living with an attitude of self-reliance and self-sufficiency does not match the attitude and mindset we are to have which Paul emphsizes in Philippians 2:5 “5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,”.

James in our text this afternoon deals directly with these struggles. He deals with combatting our need to be self-sufficient.

I. The picture of our self-sufficient attitude, 13.

James 4:13 (“13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”) gives a scenario of a Christian discussing how they are going to make plans at some point in the near future to go into a city and stay there for a year and seek to earn a profit through successful business. The recipients of this letter would have understood what James was talking about as the commercial and business of the day was growing and highly active. Implied in this verse based on the surrrounding context is a person that does not take the time to got to God in prayer and ask for His counsel. The type of person James is describing is someone who fails to go to God’s word and search the scriptures for biblical truths that can be applied to making wise decisions. The person James describes is concerned with success and wealth and doing whatever makes sense for him to accomplish it.

Our world is not so much different. The mode of transportation makes the getting around and the business side of things a little different in appearance but the heart and motive behind many Christians is the same.

Five Arrogant Assumptions Indicating Ignorance, 13-14

i. Own timetable – we often have our own timing - WHEN

ii. Own location – we often have the where of our activity and work - WHERE

iii. Own extent – we choose the duration of activity and work – HOW LONG

iv. Own profession – we choose what our activity and work is - WHAT

V. Own goal – we choose our own pursuit – WHY

Often times Christians let the job place take priority over the Church and even family. I understand the reality of job places requiring work on Sunday. I also understand the power of God in a person’s life who is submissive and humbly praying to God seeking his wisdom in the situation. I do not believe God would ever choose a job for someone that hinders them from complete and consistent absence from His church. It would go against his character and commands. Our lives are to revolve around the local church and our family. God would not provide a job that hinders you from fulfilling the responsibilities he has given you in both of those areas.

Yet so many times we choose work situations that take us away from God’s church, service, and worship of him when the option truly does exist. God will provide for your needs. We do not need to try and go outside of God and look to ourselves to accomplish our goals. If our workplace and earning of money is getting in the way of obeying the commands to gather together with the Church and serve God with total commitment, I ask you, I ask myself, what has led me to having misplaced priorities? Why have I become so self-reliant? James is condemning the worldly and sinful self-reliance and confidence by which they live their life. They think they know better than God! You and I must not live this way!

When I was a youth pastor in Washington State I had a teen girl who had it all figured out. She knew by her senior year of high school where she was going to go to college, what she was going to major in, what her advanced degree was going to be in, how many years after graduating she was going to get married, and the general area she would be working at within 10 years of graduating. As she graduated her plans within two years of college went array. She did go to the college she said; however, she changed her major, and the rest of the timeline went down the drain as well. She is still not married however by God grace she is living for the Lord and serving him through the local church she attends.

Our plans are not God’s plans. We need to humble ourselves before God and let him direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

James does not let up. He not only uses a scenario but denounces the arrogance by which we live and the foolishness for living in our own self-sufficiency.

James 1. The Delineation of the Attitude (v. 13)

For James, the fatal defect in their planning is their presumptuous self-centeredness, resulting in the effective exclusion of God from the practical affairs of their daily lives. p 252 They were guilty of living a life of practical atheism.

II. The arrogance of our self-sufficient attitude, 14.

It is complete and utter arrogance to plan without God. You and I do not know what tomorrow holds. Paul tells us a wonderful thing to do rather than self-confidently doing what we think is necessary and good. Paul in Ephesians 5:16–17 (“16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”) tells us to redeem the time and days by seeking the will of God not one’s own will and desire.

Life is short and is like a vapor. John Piper has written a book called Don’t Waste Your Life. The book uses this verse as it’s lynch pin by which he spends the book hitting home the point that because of who God is we cannot waste our lives living selfishly but rather live serving and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ making disciples as God chooses to work through us.

Who do we think we are to be able to know what our life is going to be like? Or, even be able to accurately plan it out to perfection? Life is messy and fragile. Life is full of uncertainty and it is foolish to think we can know. If God has chosen not to let us know the most important future event—His coming back, why would it make sense that we would be able to predict or dictate the moments in-between?

James is emphatically stating that you and I do not know what tomorrow will bring. Jesus himself references how we are to approach tomorrow. We are not to worry about tomorrow, what we will eat or drink or clothe ourselves with. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the aspects of daily life will be taken care of by God. He will aid in providing what you and I need for each day.

Wow! What a blessing to know that instead of figuring out my future I can rest in the everlasting arms of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!

Our life is fleeting and temporary. It is gone before we know it. None of us are promised tomorrow. James uses the imagery of vapor to illustrate his point about the transitory aspect of life.

Give Illustration of Mr. Pegram and Michael’s dad from Summer of ‘05.

We could go to be with Lord today on the way home, an illness, or the Lord’s return. James rings attention to this because it truly is wasting our lives when we seek to figure life out in our own wisdom and logic. We only have one life. The truth of life’s brevity should hold great gravity on your heart. Why waste another day seeking self-contentment and self-sufficiency? Proverbs 27:1 (“1 Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.”) reinforces what James is saying here to the Christian.

James (2. The Presumption in the Attitude (v. 14))

Their planning in bland disregard of God is the very essence of worldliness. But a living faith faces the unknown future with calm dependence on God as the true source of security concerning “tomorrow” (tēs aurion).

Jesus himself explains that our lives do not consist of the abundance of what one possesses Luke 12:15 “15 Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” We have no need to live with greed!

III. The acknowledgment of a God-sufficient attitude, 15.

James in verse 15 acknowledges how we are to respond to life. He states an important factor by which the Christian can proceed with plans in their life. “if the Lord wills” expresses the deep dependence on God we are to have in every area and instance of life!

How many decisions do you make each day without consulting God first? How front and center is God in your decision-making? James is telling is that God must be the sole source for our life’s plans! It is dangerous to go without God’s plans!

The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

This world is not a closed system; what appears to our senses to be the totality of existence is in fact only part of the whole. This life cannot properly be understood without considering the spiritual realm, a realm that impinges on and ultimately determines the material realm in which we live day to day. Of course, such a worldview is not specifically Christian. Few of the people who lived in James’s day would have been agnostic or atheistic; most recognized the existence of some form of divine being. And so it is not surprising that phrases such as “if God wills” (Latin Deo volente) or “if the gods will” are found in many kinds of ancient literature.44

The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

James thus makes the continuance of life itself contingent on the will of the Lord.

The point of this is that we as Christians should not and cannot operate in life without God’s permission! When we live outside/without God life becomes a struggle. None of us like struggle. This with the uncertainty of life should make us DO THE WORD as James puts it in James 1:22 “22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”

God’s will is expressed in all of his commands and principles given to us in God’s Word. Here are a few:

i. Saved – 1 Timothy 2:4

ii. Spirit-filled – Ephesians 5:17-18

iii. Sanctified – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

iv. Submissive – 1 Peter 2:13-15

v. Suffering – 1 Peter 3:17

IV. The wickedness of our self-sufficient attitude, 16-17.

James now moves from the admonition and positive to once again calling out about the wickedness of self-sufficiency. He now comes back and condemns the reality of the root problem in a person’s self-sufficency—pride and arrogance. It is again pride and arrogance or selfish ambition that we find James combatting agianst. The root problem of bragging emphasizes where these type of people get pride in planning your future with confidence.

It is evil James says to boast and brag. More so, it is evil and sinful to boast in your arrogance. There are some who are arrogant and like to flaunt their accomplishments and plans to accomplish goals that they have laid out.

James finishes this chapter with a resounding verse of accusation! If you know that you are not doing what is right and do it anyway, the Bible says here—it is SIN!

To whom much is given much is required! We need to take stock in the brevity of our life. We need to not boast and brag about what we have done. We are to live humbly before God and it is in this humility that God shows his grace to us!

God’s grace sustains and enables! Life is so short!

People not only leave God out of account in planning their lives; they brag about it as well, proclaiming in effect their autonomy and independence from the Lord. (Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000), 207.)

The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

James is rebuking not people of the world but Christians. He warns, therefore, of the tendency of the world to “press us into its mold” by leading us, perhaps very subtly, to begin assuming that we control the duration and direction of our lives. Such an attitude is simply inconsistent with a Christian worldview in which there is a God who sovereignly directs the course of human affairs.

The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

He has urged us to take the Lord into consideration in all our planning. We therefore have no excuse in this matter: we know what we are to do. To fail now to do it, James wants to make clear, is sin. We cannot take refuge in the plea that we have done nothing positively wrong. As Scripture makes abundantly clear, sins of omission are as real and serious as sins of commission. The servant in Jesus’ parable who fails to use the money he was entrusted with (Luke 19:11–27); the people who fail to care for the outcasts of society (Matt. 25:31–46)—they are condemned for what they failed to do.

The Letter of James A. Arrogant Planning Ignores God’s Providence (4:13–17)

For we have a tendency, when we think of sin, to think only of those things we have done that we should not have done. I know my own confessions before the Lord tend to focus on these kinds of sins. But I should also consider those ways in which I have failed to do what the Lord has commanded me to do. Perhaps I did not reach out to help a “neighbor” in need; or perhaps I failed to bear witness to a co-worker when I had the opportunity. These also are sins for which I must seek God’s forgiveness.47

Since life is so brief, we cannot afford merely to “spend our lives”; and we certainly do not want to “waste our lives.” We must invest our lives in those things that are eternal. - Weirsbe

“Look what I have done on my own. Sure, God gave me life, but it is my brains, my plans, my energy.” This was amazing arrogance. James says, “All such boasting is evil”

Conclusion

Repeat main points and big idea.

We cannot waste our lives living in arrogant denial of Christ and the church. WE need to stop planning life with out God.

Is God calling you or me to do his specific will? Perhaps to give up something? If so, may we say, “Lord, I am willing.”

Is God calling us to go somewhere and we are resisting? If so, may we say, “Lord, I am willing.”

Perhaps he is calling us to accept a difficult responsibility. If so, may we say, “Lord, I am willing.”

The spiritual logic here is inescapable. “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (v. 14), but our destiny is eternity with God.

May our heart-cry in all of life be, Deo Volente.[i]

When we love God, then His statutes become songs, and we enjoy serving Him. When we serve God grudgingly, or because we have to, we may accomplish His work but we ourselves will miss the blessing. It will be toil, not ministry. But when we do God’s will from the heart, we are enriched, no matter how difficult the task might have been.[ii]

Which of these three attitudes do you have toward the will of God? Do you totally ignore God’s will as you make your daily plans and decisions? Or, do you know God’s will and yet refuse to obey it? Each attitude is wrong and can only bring sorrow and ruin to the life of the person who holds it.

But the Christian who knows, loves, and obeys the will of God will enjoy God’s blessing. His life may not be easier, but it will be holier and happier. His very food will be the will of God (John 4:34); it will be the joy and delight of his heart (Ps. 40:8).[iii]

[i]R. Kent Hughes, James: Faith That Works, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), 208–210. [ii]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 373–374. [iii]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 374.

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