The 2023 Plan (James 4:13-17)

Introduction

Attention:

It’s the New Year!

And with a New Year comes new resolutions

Raise your hand if you like to make New Years resolutions

It’s a good thing to do.

Making strides towards bettering yourself in someway is a great way to approach a new year

But so often, when it comes to coming up with resolutions for the New Year, we seek to be independent planners.

We want to come up with our own goals; we don’t want to depend on someone else to come up with the goals, and we also don’t want to depend on someone else for the goals to be accomplished

And, if we’re not careful, suddenly, everything becomes about us.

This is the exact type of attitude that James is addressing in the fourth chapter of his letter, which is what we are going to be taking a look at today

So go ahead and open up your Bibles to James 4:13

Need:

And while you are turning there, let me tell you why I think that this is something that is really important for everyone in the room to hear.

You need to hear this because every person is tempted to be an independent planner

This is a natural part of man’s fallen condition.

And if you aren’t intentional in fighting against this, you are going to end up being an independent planner.

It is as simple as that.

Now that it is 2023, we all need to be reminded how important it is to be dependent on God in everything that we do.

We need to know how to plan in a way that embraces humility

So with this in mind, let’s go ahead and dive right in!

Body

The Big Idea: Be a dependent planner.

The Question: Why should you be a dependent planner?

1. The future is uncertain.

James 4:13–14 (ESV)

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”— 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.

Explanation:

The book of James is all about being a consistent Christian as opposed to being double-minded.

Plenty of topics have been covered in the book up until this point, such as faith and works and taming the tongue.

Now, we get to a part that is all about plans

In verse 13, James gives the picture of business people who are making plans to make a profit in the next year.

This is something that his readers would have been well-familiar with, as the first century was a period of much successful commercial activity.

And the problem isn’t the planning in and of itself, right? It is okay to plan for the future

There is nothing wrong with having new year’s resolutions, and about planning for the future

In fact, the Bible calls us to be planners

But the problem with the planning here is that, as David Platt puts it, “God has no place in the plans.”

Even more specifically, one of the main things that they fail to realize is the uncertainty of the future, which is the first of the three reasons that we are going to see the text challenge us to be dependent planners.

What we learn from verse 14 is that life is both uncertain and brief.

This is a fact of life that the businessmen fail to realize as they are planning, and, if we are not careful, as we are planning for 2023, we can fail into the same trap.

We fail to reckon with, as Douglas Moo puts it, “the insubstantial and transitory nature of ‘this world’.”

To describe this state, the Greek word atmis is used, which is what is the ESV translates as “mist.”

The phrase could also be translated as “a puff of smoke,” and shares some correlation with the “vanities of life” in Ecclesiastes.

As much as we might plan, the truth is that we do not control what will happen to us tomorrow.

Our lives are nothing more than a mist that quickly disappears.

What does all of this tell us?

We can’t be independent planners, because when it comes to predicting the future, we are undependable.

There is no way to attain certainty about the future.

This is why all planning should involve a dependence on God, because He actually can see the future

Even more than that, He is sovereign over it!

He is in control of human history, directing it towards His glory

So as you plan for 2023, realize that there will always be an element of mystery to the actual outcomes that only God knows.

Illustration:

There’s no greater proof that you can’t predict the future than Super Bowl 51 in 2017

It was the Patriots versus the Falcons… does anybody remember that game?

Midway through the third quarter, the Falcons had a 28/3 lead

That is an INCREDIBLE lead.

The lead was so great that the game was starting to get boring.

It seemed like they had it in the bag

If you were to ask just about anybody at that point, they’d say “yeah, the Falcons have won”

The future seemed certain at that moment...

… But what happened?

What happened was the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, and the only Super Bowl to go into overtime.

Despite how unlikely it seemed at one point, the Patriots won.

The Falcons were never guaranteed a victory.

And that’s the way all of life is.

None of us are guaranteed another day.

None of us can know the future perfectly.

But you know who is eternal? God.

And you know who does know the future perfectly? God.

As we make plans for the future, we should be dependent upon the God who is sovereign over the future.

Application:

What resolutions do you have for 2023?

What are your goals for the year?

How sure are you that all of those are going to come to pass?

Most likely, the goals that you have are fine and good, but what is it going to look like for you to bring God into the picture?

What is it going to take for you to look at your goals and say “not my will, but yours be done?”

How can you have peace, joy, and contentment if God doesn’t help you accomplish the goals in the way that you want Him to?

As you plan for 2023, spend some serious time in prayer

Ask the Lord to make His will the greatest priority in your life

Look at your list of goals, and tell God that you trust Him to either bring those things to pass through His strength, or that He will make you content without the goals happening.

Also, spend daily time in His word, seeking guidance on your future path.

Make God a part of your planning process in 2023!

The Big Idea: Be a dependent planner.

The Question: Why should you be a dependent planner?

1. The future is uncertain.

2. God’s will is most important

James 4:15 ESV

Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Explanation:

The fact that James needs to tell them to seek God’s will shows us that they weren’t seeking His will

As stated in the HNTC, “They did not consider His will for their daily lives.”

They were planning without any reference to the will of God

Again, the planning is fine

In fact, we must plan

But we must do it by deliberately seeking the will of God.

All of our plans should be qualified by the will of God.

And this all comes from being able to recognize who we are before God.

We are dependent sinners, in need of God’s grace.

We need God. Period.

And the more that we realize this, the easier that it becomes to consider God’s will in all of our activity,

Now, here’s a question:

Does this verse suggest that everything that we ever say should be concluded by the phrase “if the Lord wills?”

That would be kind of legalistic and silly; it’d just be about giving “lip service” to God.

What it does mean is that we need to have a mindset that is dependent on God’s grace and on His will in every area of life.

God calls us to have a “sincere appreciation” for God’s sovereign will; that’s ultimately what matters.

You see, a lot of us have visions and goals for our business, job, church, and family.

God wants us to be diligent about these things.

But we always must consider His will first as we come up with our plans and goals.

Illustration:

...

...

...

Application:

What do you think God’s will for you in 2023 is?

What is it going to take for you to become aware of His will?

How can you plan but do so in a way that keeps the Lord’s will in mind?

For each goal that you have for 2023, seek to find the gaps between your will and God’s

Ask through fervent prayer for the Lord to change your desires, so that what you want and what He wants become the same.

List your goals, and then try to get to a place where you can say “God’s will is more important to me than any of these things.”

Seek His will in all that you do in the New Year.

The Big Idea: Be a dependent planner.

The Question: Why should you be a dependent planner?

1. The future is uncertain.

2. God’s will is most important.

3. Passive arrogance is sinful.

James 4:16–17 ESV

As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Explanation:

Here, James answers an important question: what is the root of the businessmen’s problem?

Why don’t they consider God in their plans?

Well… why don’t we consider God in our plans?

I think the answer is clear; arrogant pride, and James brings that out very clearly here.

Here’s what Doulgas Moo has to say about this:

“At heart, the sin these businesspeople are committing is the sin of arrogance; of thinking that they, rather than God, are in the driver’s seat.”

So, to put it in North Cackalacky certified terms, “Jesus ain’t takin’ the wheel,” right?

They aren’t relying on God for their plans; they are depending on themselves and no one else to make it happen.

They are being their own lord.

And this is not good.

Verse 17 is interesting, because it shows us an important principle when it comes to arrogance.

Arrogance is just as much about the stuff you don’t do as it is about the stuff you do.

Arrogance is just as much about failing to do what you should do as it is about doing what you shouldn’t do.

Arrogance is both active and passive.

Leaving God out of your planning is what we call a “sin of omission” as opposed to a “sin of commission.”

Sins of commission are the ones that we tend to most often think about, like saying something hurtful to somebody and being mean

It is actively DOING something that is wrong

But the truth is that, its just as bad to fail to be kind than it is to succeed in being mean.

That’s what a sin of omission is: passively failing to do what God has clearly laid out for us

And that’s exactly what the businesspeople were doing

Did they kill anybody? Nope.

Did they blatantly lie in order to make a profit? Not that we know of.

Were they planning on stealing? No.

What they did is that they failed to include God in their plans

They “omitted” him from their resolutions.

Passive arrogance is sin, and this is something that we can avoid by being dependent on God in our planning process.

Illustration:

...

Application:

In what ways are you keeping God out of your plans for 2023?

Do your goals reflect a dependence on God? Or do they reveal an arrogant attitude?

How have you failed to do what God has called you to do?

How is it that you can transition from passive disobedience to active obedience?

Always know the reason for the goals that you have

For each goal that you have, ask “is this rooted in arrogance? Or is it rooted in a dependence on God?”

Seek to make sure that God is a part of every goal that you have.

Conclusion

Visualization

You can’t plan for 2023 on your own.

And that is okay.

Final Application

You all are going to be given a chance this morning to lean into what God has for you in 2023

Go ahead and look at the back of your handout

We are going to spend some prayerful time with the Lord in silence, and as we do that, you have some stuff to work through.

Write down the top three goals that you have for yourself in 2023, and after that, write how you can specifically keep God’s will in mind as you seek that goal

Being able to answer these might take some time in prayer, so please do that as you work with this

Take about 5 mins to do this, and then I will close us in prayer.

PRAY