James 4:13-17 - Pen or Pencil?
James: Put on Kindness • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 28:49
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· 18 viewsWe sin if we OVER or UNDER esteem our contribution to our future.
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A few weeks back I had a phone conversation with an old college buddy. At the end of our call we each prayed for the other. One thing sticks in my mind, My buddy Brian prayed that my preaching would be filled with unction.
What is unction? Some of you are already singing in your heads, conjunction junction, what’s your function? Unction is not part of a sentence. Unction is an old word going back to the NT in the laying on of hands and the OT in the act of anointing. There is nothing magical about the oil or the touch, but through this act the power of God becomes active.
In the Greek Orthodox church holy unction is their name for anointing the sick. The Puritans sought unction in their prayers to make them more than just words.
One author writes in his book Power in Preaching, “Without unction ultimately it does not matter how polished our sermons may be, or how persuasive are our oratorical abilities. Without divine unction we merely transmit information rather than transform lives.”[i]
Sadly both you and I have both sat through sermons that had no unction!
Unction is kind of a fun word to say and [I know I’m a word nerd, but] it got me to thinking of rhymes: consumption, assumption, and presumption.
Consumption is some disease in old western movies, but I have no idea what the symptoms are, just that it’s dangerous.
You and I are familiar with assumption and we know what happens when we assume: …we jump to wrong conclusions.
But this morning I want us to think primarily about presumption. The danger of presuming an outcome.
There is a major difference between hope and presumption. Every fisherman or hunter hopes that his time and skill will yield a harvest. Every farmer who puts seed in the ground or every rancher to breeds/buys cattle hopes that grazing will produce gain in weight and value. Every one of us who slips her feet under the covers at night hopes that she will be refreshed by morning.
We hope, trust and anticipate a future reality, but the warning of presumption is when we count on a future reality that is not dependent upon us.
Transition: God’s Spirit is warning us today to not think too highly of ourselves and realize each of us is only one player God’s bigger plan.
Life Absent of God (James 4:13-14)
Life Absent of God (James 4:13-14)
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”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Chuck Swindoll has identified 5 rules to follow if you want to occupy God’s throne.
Insights on James, 1 & 2 Peter —4:13–16—
RULES FOR PLAYING GOD (ACCORDING TO James 4:13)
1. Set your own schedule.
Today or tomorrow …
2. Select your own path.
we will go to such and such a city …
3. Place your own limits.
and spend a year there …
4. Arrange your own activities.
and engage in business …
5. Predict your own outcome.
and make a profit.
The problem with life according to these rules is that He is God and we are not! There is only room for one on the throne of your life.
Inflated confidence (tomorrow we will)
Inflated confidence (tomorrow we will)
Have you ever awakened to a to do list, stayed furiously busy all day and as you retired at the end of the day, not a single item on the list was checked of?
Anyone who has ever done construction or remodeling for yourself has experience the frustration of 25% more time and 50% more expense.
2. Experienced project managers learn to plan for the best and prepare for the worst.
future insecurity (you do not know)
future insecurity (you do not know)
Thursday night I set a rack of ribs out from the freezer because the weather promised to be pleasant on my day off on Friday.
I thawed the meat, dry brined with one of my favorite rubs, poured cherry pellets into the smoker and started the 3-2-1 process.
3 hours in they looked beautiful and the meat was starting to pull back from the ends of the bones so I wrapped in butcher paper for the next 2 hours.
As the internal temperature stalled out I unwrapped and covered with sauce. Ann started getting ready to dine as soon as the sauce got tacky.
V.14a came true. I did not know what would happen. The internal temp of the ribs never came back up and the smoker never heated back up. The controller told me Er2
Before you become too heartbroken for me, fortunately the ribs had absorbed all the smoke they would so I was able to finish to desired tenderness in the oven.
I’ve had that smoker for 4 years and NEVER had an error code before Friday. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get the pellets to burn. A google search and call to the manufacturer and a replacement part is on the way, but the truth remained I did not know what would happen, and had to drop back and punt because I was not in control.
lifelong Insignificance (mist/vapor)
lifelong Insignificance (mist/vapor)
In the scheme of things that final hour of the cook was a really small thing.
James reminds ANYONE who presumes to control his own destiny that at the very best your whole life is but a mist in the scheme of God’s created order.
Since our earthly life is but a vapor, we’d better make preparation for the eternal part of life by repentance of our since and faith in Christ for eternal life in Heaven rather than eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire.
Transition: In light of a vanishing mist, James encourages another pathway.
Life that Acknowledges God (James 4:15)
Life that Acknowledges God (James 4:15)
Timeless wisdom (Proverbs 19:21 & 3:6)
Timeless wisdom (Proverbs 19:21 & 3:6)
Some have described the book of James as the NT version of the poetic book of Proverbs, due to the extreme practicality of the verses. Let’s remind ourselves of some of the original Proverbs that likely inspired James’ advice.
21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
2. This second verse was written in the card accompanying the Bible that my parents gave me when I graduated from High School and prepared to go off to college.
The Gospel resolves man’s 2 basic emotional needs
The Gospel resolves man’s 2 basic emotional needs
As I studied pastoral counseling I was introduced to the methodology of Dr. Larry Crabb.
He writes, “when man breaks the spirit of another, the results are disastrous. When God breaks me, He has all the resources necessary to me back together as a new creature in Him. When I am broken by another or when I fail to turn to God for rebuilding, I remain a shattered, fragmented, fatally wounded personality. The basic personal need of each personal being is to regard himself as a worthwhile human being.”[i]
2. Man is worthwhile, not because he controls the 5 rules in the life apart from God, but because God loved you enough to send His only Son to redeem and adopt you! Amen?
3. The 2nd basic emotional need of every human being is described in Crabb’s next chapter
“In order to regard themselves as worthwhile, people need not only significance but also the security of being loved.”[ii]
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Transition: Our view of the future is a winding path bordered by two dangerous ditches.
Life Aligned with God (James 4:16-17)
Life Aligned with God (James 4:16-17)
The evil ditch of arrogance (James 4:16)
The evil ditch of arrogance (James 4:16)
Bigger Barns – Luke 12:18
Warning of thieves and rust – Matt 6:19
Economic crashes, wars and pandemics are just 3 opponents that the arrogant have no control over.
The sinful ditch of apathy (James 4:17)
The sinful ditch of apathy (James 4:17)
I can’t guarantee a harvest, but I CAN promise that, apart from God’s intervention, if you don’t sow, you won’t reap! It is a RARE time when we drink from cisterns we did not build or glean in fields we did not plant. There are occasions when God blesses in this way, but they are never promised.
The norm is pictured in God’s provision of manna. Each day that you want to eat, you need to start by working. There is a commanded time of rest and He provides in response to our obedience.
Most commentators point out the wording of v.17 was a general axiom of the day, but James introduces the statement with a logical conjunction (So), introducing some form of parallelism. The word James uses is translated evenly between so, then and therefore. Most of you know what to ask yourself when you read a therefore in the Bible.
If the remedy for atheism or agnosticism is found in Proverbs 3:6, the remedy for apathy is found in vv. 27-28 of the same chapter.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.
28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Today’s verses are a huge contributor to why I chose the book of James to preach in 2024.
Each week you see our theme verse (Col 3:12) before the welcome and announcements. Drawn from that verse are the words put on kindness as my challenge to all of us to care for our neighbors.
The challenge to care for our neighbors is not just a suggestion for nice neighborhoods, it is a command that avoids the sin of James 4:17
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
In 1978 a movie was released that featured 2 teenagers in the inner city. Crime, poverty and drugs offered a lifestyle that was contrary to a life of service to God.
Our rural county is very different from the urban setting of that movie. BUT, we still face the same dilemma faced by these 2 boys; will we live for ourselves and the world? Or will will live for God and His purpose.
The opening scene of the movie starts with a soundtrack, and the song is revisited several times throughout the movie.
That song is #446 in our Hymnals.
Song of Response #446... “I will Serve Thee”
Benediction Ephesians 3:21 (ESV) — to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
[i] Standring, Rupert. 2003. “Review of Power in Preaching by Johnson T.K. Lim.” Themelios 28, no. 3: 117.
[ii] Swindoll, Charles R. 2014. Insights on James, 1 & 2 Peter. Vol. 13. Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[iii] Crabb, Lawrence. 1975. Basic Principles of Biblical Counseling, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 53.
[iv] Ibid. 62