The Mature Walk Through Life With God — James 4:13-17

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. To learn more about our church, please visit Calvary.com.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: And for additional resources from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge, please visit NateHoldridge.com.

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_01]: We're walking through the book of James. Together as a church is our ninth study in the book of James.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_01]: And today we're going to be in James 4, verse 13 to 17, small little paragraph.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And I would like to jump right into it today so if you guys would follow along in your Bibles or on the screen as I read.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_01]: James says, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there in trade and make a profit.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_01]: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills we will live and do this or that.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for the book that you've left us and including this small little letter that James wrote so many years ago.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for authoring it. Thank you for preserving it.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for infusing it, more than infusing it, inspiring it and awakening it within James so that he might write it down for us as the Word of God.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: We pray, Lord, today that you would teach us from it that you would expose, Lord, the things that need to be exposed and Lord that we would be able to be conformed a little bit more into the image of Jesus

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: as a result of interacting with his book today.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So thank you, Lord. We praise you and ask, Lord, that you speak to us now in Jesus' name.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: We pray together. Amen. Amen.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I just want to start off this teaching by just making a little confession about my attitude towards this passage.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_01]: There are some places in the Bible that are very familiar, well trodden, so to speak.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you grew up in the church or you spent a lot of time under the Word of God hearing the Bible proclaimed, you're bound to hear these passages.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: And perhaps in human interactions with other Christians when you're just talking about your life and your plans and all of that, these types of passages will come up.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And for me, this is one of those passages because as you're navigating life and doing this or that, the famous statement from James.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_01]: We should say if the Lord wills, we will do this or that has colored so much of the counsel that I have given or that I have received over the years.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So much so that admittedly when I first crack open this passage, I'm not ready yet to let it wash over my heart and do the work that I think James intended it to do.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, so I want to slow down today and I want us to think about this passage of Scripture with the question of what does it say to us about walking with God through life?

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's James's concept or idea here this morning, the mature person, a person who loves Jesus and is walking with God.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: They are going to move through life, not independent of God, not void of God and His counsel and will and purpose, but they are going to walk through life with God, hand in hand with the Lord.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_01]: All right, so I think James is going to touch on that in our passage today.

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So I want to ask a few questions of the text and the first question that I want to ask today is real simple.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_01]: What is the problem in this passage?

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_01]: What was it that James saw from his post in Jerusalem as he looked out probably to the east at these brand new churches of believers?

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Remember I shared with you this is more than likely the first New Testament epistle written perhaps even pinned within the first 10 years of the church's existence.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: There's evidence that they hadn't even yet begun to reach into the Gentile world and were predominantly still Jewish at this point.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_01]: And as James looked out at these believers who were probably because of persecution scattered to the east, what was it that he saw that bothered him?

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_01]: That he felt he needed to address or speak out about what was the problem or what was the sin that some of the people in this church were committing?

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, James says it right there in verse 13.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Look at it.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: He says there were some in the church who were saying today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Now if you're sitting there today and you're just like, yep that is a problem.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the reason I want to bring this up because it doesn't sound like a big problem.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_01]: You know maybe if you've grown up in the church and you've heard this over and over again, it's like oh yeah, there's something problematic about making plans.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: But the Bible is a pro-planning book.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: God is a plan maker.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_01]: You open up the book of Genesis and there's this well-ordered sequence of six days of creation.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a very ordered episode.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: You go to the very end of the book and God's plans from the foundation of the world are coming to pass and being brought to full fruition with the new heavens and the new earth.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: And in the middle of the book is the story of God unfolding his long and beautiful plan of bringing forth his son to die for our sin on the cross for the salvation of all who would believe in him.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So God is a planner.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: The very book that we're holding right here this morning is evidence of his plan.

[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Bringing together 40 plus authors over 2,000 years to speak a cohesive message.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_01]: God is a planning God.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: God is the one who says things like the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: You read the book of Proverbs you will come away with the conclusion that God wants you to use your noodle a little bit.

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_01]: That God wants you to get counsel that God wants you to strategize that God wants you to be thinking long term that he wants you to be planning and moving through life with intention.

[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And this statement that James points out, it just sounds to me if I'm being honest like the way we talk come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a place we will buy and sell and we will make a profit.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: What are they doing? They're saying this is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to do when we get there.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Where we're going to go is what we're going to do when we get there and this is our expectation of what will happen.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_01]: This is just the way that we talk. It's like I'm expecting James when he says come now you who say to start calling out some real big gnarly sins.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01]: In the first service I thought I was being funny and I was like come now you who say today or tomorrow I'm going to kill my mom and everybody was super awkward about it.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Like that was not okay. My mom was there, she's fine, it's okay. It was just like a weird moment came out and for whatever reason felt like repeating it to you guys at this service.

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I had every chance in the world not to say that again and I said it again.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's like you're expecting that. Like he's going to rebuke the big stuff. He's going to rebuke something really bad but he says no come now you say and then mention something that we probably say all the time.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_01]: This is my plan, this is what I'm going to do. Why does James by the Spirit of God include such a stern rebuke of something so innocuous at first glance?

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Well notice what he says in verse 16 he says it's boastful arrogance and in verse 14 he says and you should say if the Lord wills we will do this or that.

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Apparently what you had with this group was a independence, an unwillingness to walk with God through life, an unwillingness to acknowledge God as they passed through life.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: They were not asking the question what does God want us to do nor were they asking the question or making the statement God can intervene as we do what we're doing.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_01]: They weren't recognizing either of those things and these were Christians, these were believers and what James I think saw was that the lives that he was witnessing were beginning to look indiscernible

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: from the world in which they lived. He's thinking you are God's people, you have been reunited to the Father in heaven through the precious blood of the Son yet I'm not seeing it in the way that you're living out your practical everyday experience and life.

[00:10:08] [SPEAKER_01]: But even then we might stop and say but really is it that big of a deal? Isn't it a rather harmless thing for this group of people to just go out, they're not doing big evil stuff, they're just conducting their affairs, they're just conducting business.

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_01]: What is the big problem with it even if they aren't acknowledging God? And I'll say it like this, I think that James saw that this was a gateway drug that would lead to a self-sufficiency and independence that would put them off course for years until eventually the churches that were represented by these lives looked nothing like the community that God intended

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and everything like the world in which they lived. It might start with something as innocent as doing career or business or family without considering the Lord and pretty soon we're doing interpersonal relationships just like the world, we're doing worship just like the world all about me, we're doing sex just like the world whatever I desire, we're doing leisure just like the world politics just like the world fashion just like the world attitudes towards other people.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Just like the world and a host of other things just like someone out there in the world system, not informed by God, not led by God. It's a sin I think that puts a person on a wrong trajectory.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01]: You know if a boat is at sea and heading in a certain direction and it's three, four, five degrees off course. After a mile or two it doesn't appear like much but after hundreds and hundreds of miles they're far off their intended destination.

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I think James looked at this group of believers and said this is one of those things that the trajectory of your life it doesn't look that bad now but over time you'll find yourself far from the plan or pattern of God.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_01]: We're pretty soon the entire church was just a self-willed enterprise void of the living God. This is one of the things that's scary to me about being middle aged. I know that's shocking to you, you think that I'm in my 20s still but it's actually just telling me Pastor Manny this morning I was back behind the stage right before the first service just kind of going over my notes one last time and he came in said hello and he's like how's it going?

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know man you ever have one of those days where you just like can't make your face look right it's just all puffy and you're just like I'm like why do I just look so old today? He's like yeah you know that we are you know kind of thing.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And the thing that's scary to me though about middle age is that a lot of the decisions that you made the priorities that you adopted, the fabric that you decided to weave your life with, the foundation that you decided to stand upon as years go by it becomes evident how that's going to work out.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_01]: James here is looking at these brand new baby Christians and he's saying I want you at the very beginning stages to get this right. I want you to include God in your life and I want you to do things according to his desire and will.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Now this is Grace from James he's thrown a little lifeline to these believers. The second question though that I want to ask this morning is not just what's the big problem here but I want to also kind of just step back from this biblical passage and ask the question what is the heart of this passage?

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_01]: What is the heart of this passage? In other words what is the epicenter that reverberates out to where James the apostle would say something like this and here's why I want to ask this question.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I just have heard this passage used in such trite and overly simplistic ways so many times over the years. It's like hey basically all you got to do is like just you know you just don't pray, don't plan with God, don't yield to God but just like do your normal regularly scheduled programming

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_01]: but then as you're doing it just slap a little if the Lord wills sticker on there. That's not what James wants right? James is wanting something more but I think what's behind this passage is God.

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a God who is saying I want to move through your life with you.

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: You know this last week I read a book by a man named Michael Reeves. It's called Delighting in the Trinity, a little short book and it just really blessed me so much but one of the things that he, one of his main points is a point that theologians have been making for hundreds and hundreds of years and it's this, that Christianity, one thing that makes it very unique is that there is no other God that we have to do.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_01]: We have heard preached to humanity who is one yet triune and what he built upon that was so what you have with our God is a God who was not alone so to speak from eternity past unable to love or care or have joy with anyone else.

[00:15:58] [SPEAKER_01]: He was able to have that within himself so when we say things like God is love it's not that God was vacant of love for eternity past and then we came on to the scene and he's like now I have an object of my affections.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_01]: No, the Father has been loving the Son. The Son has been loving the Spirit. The Spirit has been loving the Father and on and on it goes from eternity past.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And the concept is that here's God who is a community saying to us come in to my community. I want to live this life with you. I want to walk through this life with you.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what James is getting at when he says if the Lord wills we will do this and that. It's not just throwing a sticker on our regularly scheduled programming but a way to say I want to do this hand in hand with my God.

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I remember years ago when I was in my angry teenager era so like 15 or 16 years old. I think it was during a basketball season or something like that they were making us run all the time you know and I think I got into it a little bit and I would go out and I was just like doing I was just going on runs and just kind of getting into that for the first time

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and my dad was probably around 40 years old at that point and he was in a season where he was running a lot and I don't know what happened but there was some conversation that we had where in my over sensitive hyper sensitive teenage state.

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I heard it as him making fun of me like you can't really run all that good like like I'm a runner you're not a runner and so I just threw out to him I was like well let's go for a run.

[00:17:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And he was like great you know and I think for him it probably like was not it was just like this is a great father son moment you know I'm going to connect with my boy we're going to go on a jog together you know so like we scheduled a time he got all geared up I got all geared up.

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And we lived at the top of the hill in Pacific Grove and we decided that we would run down to the bottom of Pacific Grove and then we would run back up to our home and I just like we left our front door and I just determined like I'm going to smoke this fool.

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I just took off and you know I'm running I'm bombing this hill I've got my fresh 15 year old like suspension and my dad's 40 and he's just like hobbling down the hill trying to keep up with me and then you know I turned the corner and I start running up the hill.

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean it was amazing because I'm just totally annihilating him you know and and people are driving by you know PG is a small town they're like driving by they're like Nate your dad is like a mile back there should I give him a ride I'm like yes offer him a ride he will love that.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And I got I got home and you know a couple hours later he rolls in the front door.

[00:19:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll never forget like he was so upset he was so upset.

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And the first thing out of his mouth was I thought we were going on a run together.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_01]: He's just so mad about it.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Look I I don't think that God is going to be angry with us at the end of the age for covered in the blood of Jesus but here's what I know I want him to feel and think and experience that I was trying my very best to run through this life or this race that he put before me with him.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Not separate from him not doing my own thing but colluding with him getting his counsel depending upon him and I to me that is what is at the heart of this passage.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But the people that James wrote to they become a dead end they'd cease to walk through life in communal harmony with God.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You know Martin Luther the great reformer he said that what happens to people when they become overcome by rebellion against God or sin.

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_01]: What happens the way he described it is they turn inward upon themselves they curve in upon themselves there's no this it's not shared it's me it's my experience in every relationship in their lives of the great reformer.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually turns into that how are you making me feel how are you making my kids feel how are you affecting me everything becomes self oriented rather than the person who's walking with the father saying man I got gas in the tank to give to other people.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_01]: To lay out for other people because I'm drinking in the love of the father and I want to extend it to people around me.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's God God wants to be at the center of our lives and I to me I think that is at the heart of this passage so we thought about that what's the big problem that James saw.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_01]: What's the heart behind this passage.

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's God.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And so let's just conclude our time together by asking the question how can I walk through life with God.

[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_01]: How can I walk with walk through life with God and of course according to what James has to say in this text and I want to show you a couple of things that James points out first of all.

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I think if you want to walk through life with God you have to remember life's uncertainty you have to remember life's uncertainty look at what he says in verse 14.

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_01]: He says we should recognize that we do not know what tomorrow will bring.

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_01]: We do not know what tomorrow will bring now we all understand that right instinctively we get that we understand that some of the some of the most monumental things that have happened in our lives.

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_01]: For good or bad are often those things that we least expected right that we just we didn't see coming.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01]: We're just moving through life and the diagnosis comes we're moving through life and the betrayal comes.

[00:22:40] [SPEAKER_01]: You know what we're just moving through life and something and I'm pointing out negative things but even good things.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_01]: And this last week I was with our staff and we were talking about a passage in the Book of Acts where Paul's whole life was steered by a coincidence so to speak of his nephew hearing of an assassination plot against him.

[00:23:03] [SPEAKER_01]: This is in the Book of Acts.

[00:23:04] [SPEAKER_01]: His whole life was pivoted for good by this moment where someone he loved heard about something that was being conspired against him.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So we understand that we don't know the events of our lives.

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know what tomorrow will bring.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And what I want to say here is first of all because I can see it on your faces right now you're like man I'm really stressed out by this you know Nate you're I came here to be encouraged and helped and pointed in the right direction.

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_01]: And you're just like making me terrified about what might happen tomorrow.

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You know like I could see it on your face right now you know like and but that is the reality of life.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I remember in 2008 they I was brought up here and installed as the lead pastor of this church.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER_01]: It was March of 2008 and in the fall of 2008 that's when we had a major economic crisis.

[00:24:07] [SPEAKER_01]: The housing market burst and a lot of people in our church they lost their homes and were foreclosed upon it of course affected the church and the ministry we're doing but more importantly it affected people's everyday real lives.

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_01]: It was just like didn't know what's going to happen didn't see it coming or at least you know lots of people said later we saw it coming but you know that but just this is how life is.

[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_01]: We can't see to tomorrow but what I want to say is I think that's actually good.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's good.

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine showing up to kindergarten class when you're five or six years old and your teacher in her little opening like introduction says to you this is what we're going to be covering from now until you graduate from college in 17 years.

[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Like your little five or six year old brain can't even come you don't even know what a year is.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_01]: You can't even think about some of the subjects that are coming later on in life.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_01]: You just need to be focused on right now today.

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: James is sounding so much like Jesus who said sufficient for the days its own trouble tomorrow will take care of itself.

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't be anxious for anything but trust your father in heaven to provide for you and to care for you.

[00:25:28] [SPEAKER_01]: We just don't know what tomorrow will bring.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's good because we have a father in heaven who does know what's coming tomorrow.

[00:25:39] [SPEAKER_01]: You know some people think that he knows what's coming tomorrow because he meticulously plans every single event that will come tomorrow.

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Other people think that he knows what's coming tomorrow because of his position outside of time and space and he sees the end from the beginning.

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone though agrees that God is moving and using all things together to accomplish his historical purposes here on earth.

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_01]: And that one day his ultimate will will come to pass at our prayer that we pray your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven will be announced and realized and lived in full blast one day.

[00:26:19] [SPEAKER_01]: But God is the one who knows what's happening tomorrow.

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And that with that cause us to want to walk with him though through today.

[00:26:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I think in part it creates a humility.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01]: You know God I'm not going to take anything for granted just because I'm healthy today just because I'm provided for today just because the church is going good today just because my family's going good today.

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I refuse to coast.

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to press into you not out of paranoia like oh God please don't change anything but out of desperation and dependence upon you.

[00:27:02] [SPEAKER_01]: That's where I'm going to be.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_01]: But it also I think creates a spirit within us that says God when I'm looking down the road of my life I can't see around the corner.

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_01]: But you can.

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So whatever I need you to do in my life today to prepare me for that I want you to do it in my life.

[00:27:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you've ever had a moment in your life where you're going through something that you would not have chosen to go through.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_01]: But as you're going through it a sense overcomes you that oh I'm being prepared right now.

[00:27:41] [SPEAKER_01]: There is something that God is strengthening me for.

[00:27:44] [SPEAKER_01]: It's coming.

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It's down the road.

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is but apparently I need to be built up and stronger for it.

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And so he's letting me move through it today.

[00:27:57] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think that it creates that uncertainty creates a desperation and a dependence upon him.

[00:28:03] [SPEAKER_01]: But not only do we need to remember life's uncertainty we need to according to James remember life's brevity.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Look at what he says in verse 14 he says what is your life?

[00:28:14] [SPEAKER_01]: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_01]: You know what he's pointing out here is not that tomorrow is uncertain but that life is really really short.

[00:28:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Now everybody realizes this at some point right.

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_01]: The trick is to recognize it earlier rather than later.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay everybody realizes this though.

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: You know I mean anybody who's had little kids in their life and watch them grow up you realize the vapor ish mist like nature of human life.

[00:28:53] [SPEAKER_01]: You know you young parents you know what it's like when you're up in the grocery store you know you're at Costco you're like rolling around and you got your family with you got these little kids.

[00:29:02] [SPEAKER_01]: You know what's going to happen right. You know you're going to be in Costco and some older couple who's there getting the free samples.

[00:29:11] [SPEAKER_01]: You know they're going to see you from afar they're going to think you guys are super cute and they're going to start making their way over to you.

[00:29:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And you already know what they're going to say before they say it they're going to say they grow up so fast.

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_01]: They grow up it's like you want to say it before they say it you want to run away you're like I know.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just in Costco trying to survive right now so leave me alone.

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_01]: No I love it when people interrupt me in Costco so don't do that.

[00:29:44] [SPEAKER_01]: We know that life is brief but James wants us to learn it right now but why would the brevity of life nudge us to walk with life through God.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a lot of reasons but the one I want to highlight today is just simply this.

[00:30:01] [SPEAKER_01]: If we understand that life is very momentary very short especially in light of eternity then what we would want to do with that realization is to say I got to spend this life well.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Who can I go to that will inform me on how to spend this life well.

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Who will speak the truth to me.

[00:30:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Who who doesn't have skin in the game.

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Who will be honest enough with me to tell me what a valuable purposeful life looks like if you come to the conclusion that life is too short to be lived accidentally.

[00:30:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Then who do you go to to tell you how to live it.

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And James is trying to say your father in heaven.

[00:30:57] [SPEAKER_01]: He's the one with the perspective and the priorities and the focus there's plenty of people out there willing to inform you and tell you how to spend your life.

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But your father in heaven give him that opportunity.

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_01]: James is saying life is short and finally I want to say this how do we how do we walk through life with God.

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I might not like that I'm going to say or make this last point because you might think I've just undone a lot of stuff that I've said today.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think that James also wants us to acknowledge the Lord as we plan.

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Acknowledge the Lord as we plan.

[00:31:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Look at what he says in verse 15 he says we should say if the Lord wills that side A we will do this or that.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_01]: That side B.

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of Christians who live in the if the Lord wills realm.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_01]: You know it's just everything is overly spiritualized you know and they're like you know I feel like it's time for me to get a new toothbrush.

[00:32:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm at the grocery store right now I've heard there's toothbrushes here and I but I don't know God what firmness of bristles should I get.

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And what color should my toothbrush be and I kind of just want to tell you today like God doesn't care.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay what what what God cares about is that you dive into his word you begin to have your understanding and grid shaped and developed by his heart his values.

[00:32:37] [SPEAKER_01]: What he thinks is important.

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_01]: He wants you to discover oh one of the things that God has done is make us co heirs with Christ and he's formed us in the image of God to bear his image here on earth to subdue and subject.

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_01]: We're called to be good stewards of everything that he's entrusted into our care including the teeth that he's given to us so I don't know what color my toothbrush is going to be but the will of God is I will brush my teeth

[00:33:09] [SPEAKER_01]: for somebody this morning I know that is for somebody.

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_01]: We're to acknowledge the Lord as we plan.

[00:33:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We're to celebrate God's sovereignty if the Lord wills but we're also making a statement of submission I want to do what the Lord wills.

[00:33:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay but here's the question how do we do that.

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_01]: How do we acknowledge the Lord as we make our plans in life.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_01]: This I think is the hard part and I do get bothered when I hear whether it's pastors or believers who just talk with this like rock solid certainty when it comes to God said this to me.

[00:34:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Because the reality is we've got this beautiful book that's what can be rock solid for us but when it comes to navigating life it is absolutely a walk of faith.

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_01]: There are times that we see very dimly and so what we need to do in those moments is acknowledge the Lord by saying God I kind of don't know what I'm doing here.

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I need your help and I'm going to receive your help in that I'm going to be crying out to you.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to receive your help in that I'm going to be trying to get my heart as tuned to your perspectives by looking into your word as I possibly can.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_01]: In the short little time that I've got here on earth I'm also going to avail myself of Godly people.

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to put myself in the room with others and like throw stuff out there and invite their wisdom, their perspective, their counsel, their guidance trusting that sometimes it'll just be like a mirror that shows me what I need to receive in my life.

[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_01]: But God I'm trying here to sense your desires, your longing, your leadings for my life.

[00:35:23] [SPEAKER_01]: But what I'm trying to acknowledge is this can be challenging at times.

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to read you though something that Dallas Willard once wrote about acknowledging the will of the Lord.

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_01]: He said, don't be misled into thinking that there is some surefire technique for squeezing what we want to know from God out of God.

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_01]: A life surrendered to God, a humble openness to his direction even when it is contrary to our wants and assumptions is what is most important.

[00:35:58] [SPEAKER_01]: God will not play little games of hide and seek with us.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_01]: In our relationship with him there is no mysterious catch to receiving his word for us.

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_01]: No riddle to solve, no incantation to get just right.

[00:36:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I think instead what we would say is God wants us to look at the book.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to trust that he loves us.

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to acknowledge him in prayerful dependence and then he wants us to move forward, to make plans acknowledging him but to make plans moving forward as best as we can in obedience to him.

[00:36:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I think a couple of Proverbs would do well to close us out today as we consider this concept.

[00:36:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Proverbs 16 verse 9 says, we can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps.

[00:36:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that exactly just what James said? Like here I am.

[00:36:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm making my plans.

[00:37:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to humble myself before God as I make these plans.

[00:37:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to invite other people.

[00:37:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to do it God's way but he can direct me as he pleases.

[00:37:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Or Proverbs 3 verse 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Do not depend on your own understanding.

[00:37:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take.

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_01]: What I want to say to some of you as I wrap this up today is that I believe that there are a couple of you here today that what you need to hear is that if you don't know and you have time then just wait.

[00:37:51] [SPEAKER_01]: God will come through.

[00:37:54] [SPEAKER_01]: God will open up the door.

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_01]: God will show you in his time.

[00:37:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And I say this as someone who I am classic for overthinking.

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like trademark Nate overthink and then I get to a point where I'm like Lord, I've waited long enough and I'm going to push this door down.

[00:38:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And at times I've brought hurt into my life and world and the lives of others because of that.

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And so when you don't know and you have time just wait because God will come through and show you his desires at his proper time.

[00:38:35] [SPEAKER_01]: So I pray that this helps you a little bit today.

[00:38:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you next week.