Plan to follow the plan not to plan the plan

James 4:13–17 (NIV)

Boasting About Tomorrow

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Annie

<<PLAY ANNIE CLIP>>

Recognise the movie? It is about a little red-haired orphan girl who was adopted by the richest man in the nation. The name of that little girl and the name of the play that told her story was “Annie”. A large part of the popularity of that story was that song. “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya’ tomorrow; you’re only a day away.” That little girl had lived a rough life. Both her parents had died in a car crash, she had grown up in an orphanage without love and guidance, and just when things were looking up for her, she was kidnapped. So, for her, all that she had to live for was tomorrow. There was nothing of any beauty in today. The thought of tomorrow was a promise of hope. Maybe tomorrow will be better than today.

But for most of us, the thought of tomorrow is not only a source of hope; it is also an excuse to put off things that we should do today. Why do today what I can put off until tomorrow? For as long as we have been alive, the sun has risen every morning. There is no reason to think that the same will not happen tomorrow.

Last week I was talking about fleeing the unhealthy places, just as Joseph did. As part of it I mentioned that we were always going to find places that are not great, but we are encouraged by James to consider troubles, trials and testing as great Joy as it builds us James 1:2-4) and that….

James 1:12 (NLT)

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

This week I am following the same theme of moving from unhealthy places to the place that God desires us to be. I am drawing from the book of James, from the passage we heard earlier.

The first of these places is the that James challenges is …

The comfortable present

Being too comfortable in our present can be a grave miscalculation.

Like Annie we tend to live in the day and expect the tomorrow to come. We calculate that we will be able to achieve the things that we want to do, or that God has called us to do at some point in the future, be that tomorrow, next year, when I earned enough, when I have retired, when I am not so busy….

We expect the sun will come up tomorrow and then we will….

But that can be a fatal miscalculation both in our lives and in the lives of the people that God is shaping us to impact. You know that biggest life that you will impact on is your own – right? – Lead your self.

A fatal miscalculation

History is filled with miscalculations. Some miscalculations can be costly. Some miscalculations can be costly others deadly.

Example # 1

The Mars Orbiter was the first interplanetary weather satellite, but was lost in 1999 when it came too close to Mars and crashed into the planet’s atmosphere. The problem was a fatal miscalculation by the NASA team when converting Imperial measurements into metric units. The miscalculation came at a cost of £98 million.

Example # 2

Robert Falcon Scott, the polar explorer, made a fatal miscalculation concerning the amount of food his men would need on his 1910 expedition to the South Pole. He allotted too few calories per day when hauling sledges at higher latitudes. All of the men died — not of extreme cold, but of starvation. A fatal miscalculation and a tragic cost. (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27509559).

There are miscalculations that are costly and there are miscalculations that are deadly, but the most fatal miscalculations are spiritual!

James teaches us about the comfortable present. You see when we get too comfortable in the present, we tend to get proud. Now I know a number of your will be thinking I’m not proud, I don’t have enough to be proud. But pride is not just about parading around in the best of cars or clothes or having a big house or a fancy job. James reveals another style of pride…

In his letter James strikes at the heart of pride in chapter 5. He says, “God resists the proud” in verse 6. He urges his readers to submit to God in all things.

You see, the type of pride that James is highlighting is the pride that is self-sufficiency, self-confidence, self-importance (note the common factor – self). A prideful heart lays its own plans and determines its own agenda in life. A pride that fails to recognise that God grants us this life and all that it entails.

In the historical context James is addressing traveling merchants of his day who went from city to city making as much money as they could. They were successful and puffed up as a result. God did not factor into the equation of their lives. They were getting along just fine without God. As a result of pride, some to whom he was writing were making some fatal miscalculations. These miscalculations, if left uncorrected, would lead to a wasted life.

Notice their three miscalculations.

First . . .

They made a Fatal Miscalculation about Tomorrow (v. 13-14a).

“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’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow” (vv. 13-14a).

They determined what they would do.

· When? /“today or tomorrow”/They arrogantly thought they controlled events.

· Who?/“we”

· Where?/“to such and such a city”/They arrogantly thought

· What?/“buy and sell”

· Why?/“make a profit”

They gave no consideration to the will of God or the guidance of God in their lives.

This is the other unhealthy place the…

The presumptive future.

Or put another way the future I would like rather than the plan the God has.

They were guilty of presumption. They were totally dependent upon themselves to achieve their goals in life. They were arrogant, self-confident, and cocky. These were self-sufficient business men who had a laser like focus on their personal success. Seeking God’s help and direction were not a part of their vocabulary.

That was the historical context.

James was addressing a group of people who had one focus — the pursuit of more! Everything else, their treatment of others, their view of God — was secondary to their goal of gaining wealth.

We are not all like that I know, but let me remove the greed element and rather than saying they were all about making more money let me say this…

They were focused entirely about achieving the future that they desired and not the Future that God had planned for them.

Their future plans and ambitions were about wealth. They gave no thought to God or their need for God. They were not asking, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

But . . . they miscalculated. By their measurements they had many years to do as they pleased. They may even have had a desire to do something for God but only when they had made enough.

James rebukes them saying, “you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.” Tomorrow is in God’s hands. – You must have heard the expression why put of ‘till tomorrow what you can do today.

And that is the heart of this message, give thanks to God for today’s plans and do them because tomorrow is in God’ Hands.

What is wrong with this attitude?

It is certainly not wrong to work and seek a living. Honest work is commended in the Bible.

It is certainly not wrong to be engaged in commerce, to buy and sell.

It is certainly not wrong to plan for the future (we are called to exercise good stewardship). MENTION CAP>

How do we apply this?

The traders had the wrong focus. Their focus was the love of money. They lived for making money, not for serving the Lord.

Second, they had the wrong decision making process. They made decisions without seeking the Lord’s direction for their lives.

Third, they wrongly assumed they would have a tomorrow. They never stopped to think that tomorrow would one day not come.

Fourth, they were guilty of pride and presumption. They thought their life was in their hands.

They were making a fatal miscalculation!

Perhaps some of ux have miscalculated about tomorrow. You’ve got a plan for your life. You are anticipating retirement or career plan or marriage and you have everything arranged in your mind the way you want it. But is that Gods plan.

Who’s plan is it anyway?

Since we don’t know what will happen tomorrow, we must seek God’s direction for our life and our future.

Proverbs 16:9, “A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.”

Proverbs 19:21, “Many plans are in a man's heart, but the LORD's decree will prevail.”

How to avoid a miscalculation about tomorrows plans?

Well unlike trying to get Mars explorer into orbit, this is not rocket science.

1) pray;

2) saturate ourselves in God’s Word;

3) live for God’s glory.

Do it in time.

We were in York on Friday, we had parked at the Park and Ride. On the way back, we missed the bus. I was miserable, I was cold and missing the bus meant that we would not have time to do something else we had planned to do. There was only one comfort. There would be another bus along eventually.

Having another bus come along is not always an option. This is what proverbs 27 and the passage in James is driving at.

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. - Proverbs 27:1

We have a strange view on time. All of us will know that although time always moves forward. It doesn’t always seem to move at the same pace. It drags when we are waiting for something to happen, it passes rapidly when we wish we could pause longer.

In terms of eternity there is a different perspective on our lives.

One of the most piercing is this questions you can ask someone is, “What is your life?”, What does your life equal?

Some would answer that question by saying “my life is power”; “my life is pleasure”; “my life is money”; or even “my life is my family.”

James answers that question with one word: vapor (or it might be translated mist).

The answer is chilling: “a vapor that appears for a short while and vanishes away.” Life is short. It will be gone before you know it.

These traveling merchants to whom James was speaking had made a fatal miscalculation about Time. They thought they had their whole life ahead of them. They figured they had plenty of time to make money and retire in comfort.

Some of you here may have calculated things that way. – note difference between young and old.

You have calculated how much you’ll need before you can stop and serve God.

However, you may have miscalculated!

I did, I had no intention of reducing my work hours and salary until the mortgage was paid off, the kids were through university, a nice healthy pension pot and back balance was in place. But that was my plan, and my timing and not Gods.

But James reminds us our lives are like a vapour.

Consider a vapor for a moment:

First, from the moment a vapor appears it is in the process of evaporation. From the moment we are born we are old enough to die. A vapor is always in the process of leaving.

Second, a vapor is short lived. The imagery James uses is meant to communicate the brevity of life. Life is short. Death is near. Consider that with God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. If we live to the average age of 70, our life has been but a speck in time.

Since life is so short why waste it on the pursuit of those things that will not last.

Do it in the right time.

James is teaching us that we need to work to Gods plans and to Gods timing. This is partly about doing things in time but also doing things at the right time.

Did you know the one of the crucial parts of any plan is timing?

We need to work in Gods timing

James says in verse 15, “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’”

The implication of that statement is that The Lord is in control.

It shows trust and dependence on the Lord. Not trust in ourselves. A person who trusts in themselves has seriously miscalculated. A person who trusts in others has miscalculated. Our trust must be in the Lord of all creation.

If we trust in the Lord then we trust in his timing.

The message is clear: Whatever plans you have, if it is the Lord’s will it will happen. If it is not the Lord’s will it will not happen. Our life is in the Lord’s hands and our trust should be in Him.

When we scheme and manoeuvre and plan without God, it shows we do not trust Him to direct our lives. However, when we trust the Lord, we will call on Him for help and direction rather than act as if He did not exist.

Proverbs 16:9, “A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.”

Proverbs 19:21, “Many plans are in a man's heart, but the LORD's decree will prevail.”

Proverbs 20:24, “A man's steps are determined by the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?”

Humility is key

James is calling us to recognise that God’s plan is always the better of the options. Yet we are all to quick to ignore it or argue against it.

Illustration: C. S. Lewis said, “To argue with God is to argue with the very power that makes it possible to argue at all” (Lewis, The Problem of Pain).

We need humility to will keep us from making plans as if we control our destiny. (vs. 13-17) – when we try to control our destiny rather than God our destiny is pretty sure and it is not as good as it could be.

Conclusion

Jesus told us to plan for the future. He told us to lay up treasures in heaven so that when we leave this world behind, we’ll have a great retirement package waiting for us. How do we do this – simple we live out God’s plan for us, in Gods timing and we Give God the glory for it.

If we don’t know the what the where and the when –

Ask – pray

Look – word, talents, desires -God gave them us don’t you think he will use them.

Act – Called to go to all the world with this good news.