Sermon Tone Analysis

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…