Submitting Fully to God (James 4:11-17)
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Today we are in our 9th Sermon in our series in James...
(Our text today is James 4:11-17)
Before I read the passage today, I want to remind you what James has just communicated leading up to this chapter.
Check the desires of your heart...
Check the loyalties of your heart....
Check the Humility of your heart… (Point is submit to God...)
James 4:7a “Submit yourselves therefore to God.”
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
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. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Today I will be unpacking three points from this passage....
1. Submit to God in your speech.
11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
We have to ask ourselves are we submitting our speech to God,
or are we allowing our speech to run wild.
James has woven throughout his letter the importance of our words.
James 1:19 “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;”
James 1:26 “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”
James 2:12 “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.”
James 3:1-12 highlights the power of the tongue.… blessing and cursing… great things both good and evil...
James has laid a foundation on the vital significance of our speech,
and now says....
James 4:11 “Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.
In the last decade or so, I have seen a rise of what is called discernment ministries.....
Acts 20:28 “28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”
NLT & KJV “purchased with his own blood”
(Christ blood bought the church.… We are His bride.… Should we be speaking evil against His bride?...) Amen
James 4:11–12 “11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?”
The point for James is,
that by speaking evil against one another, we are removing God as judge and instituting ourselves as judge....
We are to be doers of the law, not judges of the law.
James has already articulated what it looks like to be a doer of the law.…
James 2:8 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.”
James states in the end of V12b, “who are you to judge your neighbor”? your supposed to be loving your neighbor…
By not submitting to God,
you have tried to rise above God by being judge and jury over brothers and sisters in Christ by speaking evil of them.
When we speak evil against our brothers and sisters in Christ,
we are communicating that the law does not apply to us....
NLT V11b “But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.”
Chronicles of Narnia… The Magician’s Nephew....
Uncle Andrew said to his nephew Digory,
“Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom’,… ‘are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.”(speak evil and judge thinking we are above the law) [We need to submit our speech to God… speak love not evil]
2. Submit to God in your plans.
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.
At age 16 there were 2 things that where pretty set in my mind....
not going to get married young… 2. Not going to college...
Mom would say to me… Many are the plans in a man’s heart… but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.… (Proverbs 19:21)
In our arrogance we can believe that we have the best plans for ourselves...
but the reality we do not know what tomorrow will bring.… But God does.…
Are we willing to submit to His plan?…
Your life is a Mist (Vapor)..… it appears for a little time and then vanishes.
(Are we making our lives count for the kingdom of God or are you doing our own thing...)
Every grave stone… dash… What will be your legacy.… (always was negative about others… or loved the unlovable)
Sobering reality… NO one will remember your career achievements… How much money you make... but they will remember your life outside of work…
Submit your plans before the Lord and know,
the greatest adventure lies ahead of those who pursue Jesus and live for Him.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the plans I want to walk in? Amen!
(Submit your plans before God)
3. Submit to God in your obedience.
15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Submitting to the Lord’s plan is walking in obedience to His will for our lives.
(Especially when each step feels like a step of faith...)
Submitting to God in obedience is daring to trust Him even when He leads us to places and paths that are unknown.
(You know… When the road is uncertain and the destination is unclear, but you still have the courage to walk in submission to his plan for your life)
Walking in obedience is taking the path that no one else would take because of it’s difficulty...
(And as you that difficult path you hear the murmur’s of the world “he will never make it… he will fail… he will be back...”)
[But walking in obedience is when you shut out the voices of the world around you… And you choose listen to THE VOICE who has called you by name]
Walking in obedience to God’s plan is trusting His way’s are higher than our ways,
His plans are greater than our plans,
and He will never fail us.… Even if he leads me to the valley of the shadow of death...
Ultimately, submitting to God in obedience is saying “God, I may not see what’s ahead, but I trust You anyway.” (Amen!)
James 4:17 “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”
Jonah… Nineveh… Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
The right thing is hard.… (submitting in obedience to the path God has for you) [submitting is all about surrender]
Close with this…
There is beauty in the surrender...
The world may tell us that surrender is weakness — that to let go is to give up.
But in the kingdom of God, surrender is where true strength is found.
When we lay down our plans, our pride, and our need for control, we make room for God's perfect will to unfold in our lives.
Surrender is not giving up — it’s giving over.
It’s saying, “God, I trust You more than I trust myself.”
In that moment, peace replaces striving, grace replaces pressure, and freedom takes the place of fear.
The most beautiful lives are not those who had it all figured out, but those who had the courage to let go and let God lead.
1. Submit to God in your speech.
2. Submit to God in your plans.
3. Submit to God in your obedience.
Close with a question… are there area’s of your life that you have not submitted to God in?...
