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! If the Lord Wills Education for Exultation: Humbly Under God James 4:13-16
!!!! Education for Exultation - Beginning and Ending with God
This is the final message in the series on Education for Exultation.
We *began* with God: "I Am the LORD, and Besides Me There Is No Savior" Education for Exultation - in God."
And today we *end *with God, as we focus on James 4:13-16.
The aim today on what I have labeled as Pledge Sunday is to put all our planning in a humble place under the sovereignty of God over all things.
Let's walk through this text together, see the picture of God that is here, and how James says it should affect us.
Then let's apply it to the planning and pledging IM going to ask you to do.
!!!! Who Is James Addressing?
James 4:13, /"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'"/
James is reprimanding some folks here - perhaps businessmen or merchants - but it is stated very broadly so as to include virtually anyone.
Anyone who does what?
*Five things*:
*First,* they plan to set out on a trip today or tomorrow: "Today or tomorrow we will go.
."
*Second*, they plan to arrive at a destination: "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city."
*Third*, they plan to spend a certain amount of time there/: "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there."/
*Fourth*, they plan to engage in business and carry through a plan of action while they are in that city: /"Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there, and engage in business."/
*Fifth*, they plan for the business to have certain results/: "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there, and engage in business, and make a profit."/
What's the problem here?
Is this wrong?
To plan and intend to go places and do things?
No, not per se.
In verse 15 he is going to say it is legitimate to plan to do this or that.
What's wrong then, if it's not planning?
What's wrong is that the plan that is made in verse 13 is *made in the mind and spoken with the mouth* ("Come now you who say . .
.") *without taking a true view of life and God into account.*
Verse 14 talks about the true view of life that is not being taken into account, and verse 15 talks about the true view of God that is not being taken into account when they plan their business venture.
In verse 14, James says to those who are planning this business venture: /"Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."/
In other words, in all your planning and in all your talk about your planning ("Come now you who say . .
." verse 13) you are not taking *this* view of life into account.
!!!!
!!!!
!!!!
!!!!
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!!!! My Life Is a Vapor.
So What?
I can imagine some American pragmatist saying, "What practical difference would it make in my business planning whether I believe my life is a vapor?
Do I stop planning, because my life may be short or uncertain?"
I think James would say, "No, you don't stop planning.
You don't drop out of society.
You don't become a hermit, waiting for your little vapor of life to disappear."
So what is the point?
The point is that for James, and for God, it matters whether a true view of life informs and shapes the way you think and how you speak about your plans.
Your mindset matters.
How you talk about your plans matters.
Ponder this…… Believing that your life is a vapor may make no practical, bottom-line difference in whether you plan to do business in a place for one month or one year or ten years.
But, in James' mind - and he speaks for God - it makes a difference how you *think* about it and *talk *about it.
"Come now you who say . .
."
Why?
Why does that matter?
Because God created us not just to do things and go places with our bodies, but to have certain attitudes and convictions and verbal descriptions that reflect the truth - a true view of life and God.
God means for the truth about himself and about life to be known and felt and spoken as part of our reason for being.
You were not just created to go do business; you were made to go with thoughts and attitudes and words that reflect a right view of life and God.
So he says in verse 14, /in all your planning, keep in your mind and give expression with your lips to this truth: "You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."/
That is, keep in mind that you have no firm substance on this earth.
You are as fragile as mist and vapor.
Keep in mind that you have no durability on this earth, for you appear "for a little while" - just a little while.
Your time is short.
And keep in mind that you will disappear.
You will be gone, and life will go on without you.
It matters, he says, that you keep this view of life in mind.
Then verse 15 tells us the true view of God that we should have in our minds and in our mouths as we plot our future - as we in a few moments will think about our pledges and our plans.
Verse 13 began, /"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'"/
Now he tells us what's wrong with that way of talking.
He says in verse 15, "Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
In other words, it not only matters that you have a right view of life when you make your plans - you are like a vapor - but it also matters that you have a right view of God as you make your plans.
And that you give expression of this true view of God: "You ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'"
So what is the right view of God that he teaches us to have in verse 15?
He tells us two very important things about God.
One is contained in the words: "If the Lord wills, we will live."
And the other is contained in the words, "If the Lord wills, we will . . .
do this or that."
How would you state the truth about God contained in each of those two sentences?
!!!!
!!!! * If the Lord Wills, We Will Live*, First, when he says, "If the Lord wills, we will live," he teaches us that the duration of our lives is in the hands of God.
Or: God governs how long we will live.
Or: God is ultimately in control of life and death.
We may not know how long our vapor-like life will linger in the air, but God knows, because God decides how long we will live: "If the Lord wills we will live."
And James is saying: If this is a true view of life and God, then it should shape our mindset and shape our way of talking.
In Acts 18:21, Paul left Ephesus and said, "I will return to you again if God wills."
In 1 Corinthians 4:19 he writes, "I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills."
For most of his life he did not know if the next town might be his burial place.
That was in the hands of God.
And so are our lives.
God will decide how long we live and when we die.
And James' point is: God means for that truth - that reality - to shape our mindset and our attitude and our words.
He means for that truth to be known and spoken about.
He means for it to be a part of the substance of our conversation.
God means for a true view of himself to be known and believed and embraced and cherished and kept in mind and spoken of.
"Instead you ought to say . .
."
Pause
!!!! *If the Lord Wills, We Will Do This or That *Now, there is another truth about God in verse 15: When he says, "If God wills we will . . .
do this or that," he teaches us that the activities and accomplishments of our lives are in God's hands.
God governs what we accomplish.
Not only are our lives in his hands, our success is in his hands.
"Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
"If the Lord wills . . .
we will do this or that."
And if the Lord does not will, we will not do this or that.
Whether we do this or that on our business trip is in the hands of God.
So what was wrong with what these people said in verse 13: "Come now, you who say, /'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit'"?/
What's wrong with that?
What's wrong is that it does not give expression to a true view of life or God.
Specifically, it does not give expression to the truth that life is a vapor, and it does not give expression to the truth that God governs the length of our lives and the *achievements of our lives*.
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