Can I be led?
Leading & You - Following God’s Plan For Your Life • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Most times in our lives we are faced with decisions, options of what to do, when to do it and much more;
We tend to have our own born desires, that is, that which we would like to achieve, we would like to accomplish etc. Sometimes even, they become what we are passionate about.
It is what we labour for over and over again, and the reality is, many of them are legitimate, i.e. they are to be prioritized, and we can’t do without them.
James
James
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
We saw that there is a way to read this text and what we are trying to say is; “This is my plan, and if the Lord wills, I will carry out my very plan”. That is, Lord, I need your permission to do this i.e. May we do this thing?
That means, we already have our plans, we already know what we want to do, then we tag it along with “If you will, then this plan goes forward”. But, all through the book of James, he didn’t present our passion and desires in the most positive light.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
He let us see that desires do draw us away, and entice us.
Desire — ἐπιθυμία (epithymia): It is a word that can have both positive and negative meaning all through the scriptures, and here, James presents it as a deep desire, in the negative sense, and he said, this is the origin of sin, which gives birth to death.
Same as James 3;
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
Self-seeking — ἐριθεία -ας, ἡ; (eritheia), N. selfish ambition; a strong drive for personal success without moral inhibitions (restraints or restrictions on behavior, thoughts, or actions)
Meaning, this type of ambition, is in this my strong drive for personal success without any form of restraints, or restrictions on behaviour. We see it in a “must” to things.
I have to become this, I have to do that. For example, a strong ambition for success in life (as we call it), often, leads to every form of evil things.
Paul warned about that in Galatians 6;
So, James here again is presenting my selfish, uncontrolled desires as evil.
When we get to James 4; he started with exactly thesame;
He presented our strong deep desires not in the best of light.
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
Notice verse 1 again — He let’s us see that wars and fights come from our desires for pleasure that war in our members.
Always around this desires, and they can be strong enough that they lure us into sin, making us enemies of God.
In light of this;
James 4:13-17; exist within a context of not a positive light to my own passion and desires; we saw the context regarding man and desires, and said, what James was saying here, wasn’t to tag along God on my own plans, but rather, to take a step back from my plan and consider, if this is what God would have me do at all.
James presented to us choices.
In other words, we ought to ask is; “IS THIS WHAT GOD WOULD HAVE ME DO, OR SOMETHING ELSE?”
Rather than boast in my own plans, and pursuit, I ought to seek to find out, “is this God’s plan?”
Brother Hagin will say often;
“Don’t make your plans and ask God to bless them. Discover God’s plan, for it is already blessed.”
The emphasis isn’t on getting God to endorse our plans — it’s about submitting our plans to His direction.
It is that, I do not live my life, based on my own terms and then ask God to tag along, rather, I have to see life as participation in God’s unfolding plan, not the management of our own agenda with divine approval.
Practically, we could be helping people miss God, by this very simple statement, “Follow your passion, that is how God wants you to live” — Hence, we have believers who have learned to mask uncontrolled desire as God’s plan for their lives, and indirectly, making them enemies of God.
I have seen this too many times; The pursuit of wealth for example, masked as kingdom financial, has thrown many into the rat race of endless pursuit, and they claim, well, it is to advance God’s cause, and we never pause to ask, “WHAT IS GOD’S PLAN FOR OUR LIVES?”
Uncontrolled desire masked as piety will be, me making my own plans, my own decisions and trying to seek an approval from the Lord, I already have my mind set on the very thing I want, what we ought to do, is lay our very lives before him, not seeking permission, but direction.
Can I know God’s plan?
Can I know God’s plan?
The scriptures often display that God’s direction and plan is not strange to any one of us, his children.
Consider Psalm 23
A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.
There is this phrase used often when referring to God, it is that he is a shepherd.
Notice, in verse 3; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Lead — נָחָה nâḥâl; to guide; by implication — bestow, bring, govern, guide, lead (forth), put, straiten.
The word has to do with God guiding, God governing.
Notice, in Psalm 23, David was certain that God leads him, such that he said it twice; verse 2 & verse 3.
Notice again;
27 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”
if you also look at verse 48;
48 And I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.
Who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.
Look at the description of Israel also;
17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”
God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines. Meaning their journey was supernatual. God lead them.
21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.
A pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.
Hence, their journey was seen as one, where they weren’t void of direction.
13 You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation.
Notice, in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed.
Hence, time and time again, leading wasn’t a strange thing to God’s people, and we have to begin with that in mind, that God leads us.
The voice of the good shepard we hear and we follow.
Leading is not strange, and if you look into what they said over and over again, they didn’t deem it strange or something that happens once in a while. They could clearly see that leading wasn’t strange to them.
So, if it wasn’t so strange, why does it seem that to us, often, we get ourselves in a box, we are in our own plans and how we want it to go.
Let’s look at it even further;
A clear example is Numbers 14;
In Numbers 14, the conversation started in Numbers 13, where, we are told of a spying out.
26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 Then they told him, and said: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan.” 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
Now, what was interesting here, was the men who went with Caleb said; “we are not able to go up against the people”.
We just read that leading wasn’t strange to them, God has been directing their path over and over again, he has led them up to that point, so leading wasn’t strange to them.
Now, in chapter 14, there is something that came up, which shows how we often misread that which is a clear leading of God.
1 So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
Notice something that happened here; and soon we will go into the words of Jesus, to study it even further.
But, what we have here, are legitimate concerns.
We have giants, we could very well go in there and PERISH! This is not a joke, indeed, for the concern for the children, wives and the strength of these people, it made perfect sense to have fear!
Hence, often, than not, the leading is not what is lacking, it is not what is not there, the challenge often, are that legitimate concerns often blurs leading.
I just finished school, what then should I do? Legitimate, but it is possible that my daily concerns are bluring God’s direction and plan for our lives.
Jesus
Let us hear the words of Jesus on it;
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Cultural context consideration
Consider the cultural context which we have studied regarding those who were Jesus’ audience, they were the marginalized, the hungry, the sick, the low of their society if we are to say that.
Yet, Jesus words here are regarding things they would naturally worry about DAILY. What they will eat, what they will drink and what they will put on, and those are very legitimate concerns.
Now, it is clear that this text whilst it might not apply to many of us directly, since we might not have to worry about “what we will eat”, “what we will wear”, or “What we will drink”, we readily have options available to us, and he isn’t talking about our own options that leave us confuse cos we have too many, he is talking about those who couldn’t afford nor do they have these things readily available.
Word Study
worry — μέριμνα, ης, ἡ merimna worry, care (noun). Now, the root word or the verb of this, makes it even more interesting;
The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament μέριμνα, ης, ἡ
The widely attested root μεριμνα- refers to that which is existentially important, that which monopolizes the heart’s concerns
That is, this monopolizes the heart’s concerns. This is what Jesus was talking about, that don’t let the neccessity of life, monopolize your heart concerns.
Meaning, also, we are here with choices, concerning the necessities of life, and that means with choices comes direction to take.
Hence, whilst leading is not strange, we often than not, already have how we want to be led, we would say something like,
Let my legitimate concerns be addressed first, then I will worry about other things; Let my own plan and choices be the ultimate first, then I will care about other things.
But, in the words of Jesus we hold two tensions;
My legitimate concerns and following that which is God’s plan for our lives.
Look at how Jesus concluded.
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
It is the other way around.
There is that which is first, there is that which is chief, there is that which I should put my focus on. I should prioritize God’s plan for our lives above all else, and Jesus summarized it here as the seeking of the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
David will say, “He leads me, for his name’s sake”.
What do they mean? and what does the contrary experience cause? we will go into this from next week.
