What Are Our Plans?

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back!

This morning if you will, turn in your Bibles to James 4.

We are going to pick up where we left off last Sunday night, and move through the rest of Chapter 4 this morning, and then tonight we are going to start with James 5.

And this morning’s topic is related to all the things we have been talking about but at the same time is a bit different.

Up to this point, James has been talking a great deal about the spiritual aspects of our life in Christ and has been challenging us to rise above our natural affections and natural ways and to “put on Christ” as Paul would say.

And while every aspect of our life in Christ does have the spiritual foundation in the Holy Spirit, there is also a very practical way in which we should be applying all of the spiritual principals that we talk about.

And that is really made manifest in how we carry out our everyday lives and how we interact with one another and with society around us as a whole.

And this is what James is going to get to with our passage this morning, our daily interactions, and more specifically, our daily plans that we carry out in our everyday lives.

So, without spending too much more time, let’s get right into it this morning.

Starting in James 4:13, he writes this . . .

Scripture Focus

James 4:13–17 NIV - Anglicised

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.” 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. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Today or Tomorrow (vs 13-17)

So, right off the bat we see here that James is getting into the nitty gritty of our everyday lives.

And to put it into perspective, we we ended last Sunday night with this . . .

James 4:12 NIV - Anglicised

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbour?

And the key point here was the question, who are you to judge your neighbor?

And I am not going to rehash everything we talked about last Sunday night but the main gist was that #1, we have no idea what others are going through and #2, we probably ought to mind our own business sometimes.

And I mean that with all love in sincerity, in that instead of comparing and contrasting our own sin to others and trying to lift ourselves up by pointing out what others are doing (or not doing) we should be more concerned with the health of our own relationship with God.

We should be listening to what the Holy Spirit is putting on our hearts and telling us that we need to be changing.

And then we can serve as an example to others and help them along their path.

And I point that out because that is one thing that Satan uses to routinely drag us away from God.

And another, and even more subtle thing that Satan uses is our unsatisfied need for busyness.

We are a people who have to stay busy and who have to be doing something all the time.

That is our nature.

And I know I have talked and halfway joked about our attitudes in the drive thru or Walmart checkout, but the reality is we adopt those bad attitudes for one reason—we are busy.

We are busy and we want to move on to the next task, to get as much done as we can.

And that person or that slow down that “holds us up” annoys us and we don’t like it.

We want things “our way, right away” and when that doesn’t happen we become annoyed.

And one of the reasons we become annoyed is because we have planned our day and sometimes our week out and things that get in the way of our plans really get on our nerves.

And I will readily admit and confessed, I am probably one of the worlds worst at this.

I am the type of person that I like to make lists and plan things out.

I am not a very spontaneous person.

I want to weigh the pros and cons of everything and find the most efficient path.

Which sometimes is a good thing, but sometimes is not.

And here we find that James has something to say to us about that.

Again, starting in verse 13, he writes this . . .

James 4:13 NIV - Anglicised

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.”

Planning for the future, which there is nothing inherently wrong with, but when that planning rules our lives, it tends to drive our decisions, rather than our decisions being driven by the Holy Spirit.

And this is important, because I have learned that sometimes what the Holy Spirit is saying doesn’t make the most “financial sense” in our minds.

It goes against what the world says we should be doing, and we are confronted with a choice, either listen to God or listen to the world.

But our nature tells us to plan, plan, and plan some more.

Go here and go there.

Enter into this business arrangement or that business arrangement.

Work at this job or that job.

Do this, do that.

And it goes on and on and on.

And sometimes the draw is so great that we ignore what God is actually telling us and advising us that we should be doing.

We make so many plans for next week, next month, next year, 20 years from now that we forget to look at today and what our plans should be for today.

James goes on and tells us . . .

James 4:14 NIV - Anglicised

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.

And James is echoing the words of Jesus Christ here.

Remember Jesus tells us this in Matthew 6 . . .

Matthew 6:25–34 NIV - Anglicised

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Think about that.

How much of our time is wasted worrying about things that we have no control over?

How much time do we spend worrying about this dollar or that dollar?

How much time do we spend thinking about tomorrow when today is laid right in front of us?

Instead, we should be . . .

Matthew 6:33 NIV - Anglicised

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Seek God’s will and God’s way, and honestly the rest will work itself out.

And as James points out to us we don’t even know what will happen tomorrow.

I will venture a guess and say, we don’t even know what’s going to happen 1 hour from now, much less tomorrow.

And also, the entirety of our life here on earth, compared to eternity is nothing more than a mist, a vapor, a flash in the pan, passing by so quickly that what seems like a lifetime to us is a moment in God’s time.

So, the question begs, why are we spending this short, precious amount of time we have here worried about things that haven’t even happened yet?

Why are we so concerned about tomorrow, that we are completely ignoring the day and the opportunity that God has put right in front of us right now, right here today in this place?

Thing about all the things you have been thinking about since you walked into church this morning:

What do I have to get done after church?

Where are we going to eat?

What are we going to eat?

Or even before you came to church, you were likely debating internally whether or not you had “time” to come this morning.

There is so much to do, so much on your plate, that it was debatable in your mind whether to come or not.

And I don’t say that to condemn you or shame you, I say that because I realize myself how busy life is and I realize that people have a lot going on, but that also serves as an excellent illustration of how Satan uses the busyness of the world to distract us and pull us away from God.

Because when we really break it down, how much time does it take out of our week to come to church?

Let’s say for instance, you decide you are going to come to both services today.

Realistically, it probably took you about an hour to get up, get ready and get here.

Then we are here for an hour and then it takes about 15 minutes for you to probably get home.

That’s 2 1/2 hours out of the day.

Then tonight, you are already dressed, so let’s say 30 minutes more to get here, then an hour here, and then another 15 minutes to get home.

That is another hour and 45 minutes.

So, for the entire Sabbath day, if you came to both church services, all involved, we are talking 4 hours and 15 minutes.

And some will say, “that’s quite a bit of time,” but is it really?

Compared to the time we spend doing other things Monday-Saturday, is it really a lot of time?

But Satan will sure distract us and try to tell us it is.

And even when we are here, we are completely distracted by the other things we think we should be doing.

And when we are so distracted, how much can we really concentrate on what God wants to tell us?

See how it all cascades?

James though, offers us an alternative.

He says this . . .

James 4:15 NIV - Anglicised

Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Notice here James isn’t saying “don’t make any plans” or “don’t plan for the future.”

James is saying, “don’t write you plans in stone, so that they cannot be changed.”

He is saying, go ahead and make you plans, but be open to God changing them.

And when God changes them, listen to what God says and respond to what God says.

That is something I have had to learn in my own prayer life as well.

Instead of saying “Lord, these are my plans, let them happen,” say “Lord, this is what I think, tell me the direction you want me to go.”

And it really boils down to being flexible and open to God.

Being in tune with the Holy Spirit.

Allowing God to be the author and director of our lives.

And lastly with this point, James says this . . .

James 4:16–17 NIV - Anglicised

As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Which is really setting us up for tonight’s message.

But one point that connects it to this morning is we make plans and do things apart from God, many times in attempts to make money so that we can acquire things that we think will make us happy.

But deep down, we do this so that we can brag about what we have.

To make ourselves “feel good” about having stuff that other’s can’t have.

To us it is a jewel in our crown that shows our achievements.

It could be houses, cars, boats, electronics, clothes, you name it.

There are a multitude of things that we will use to strut around like a proud rooster.

But James clearly tells us that this boasting is evil, or “sin.”

And many times it stands in the way of us actually doing to the good we are called to do.

We are supposed to be lifting each other up, and if we refuse to do it, or rather lift ourselves up, we are sinning.

Altar/Challenge

Which brings us to the end this morning.

And the question of the hour is this, what has our attention?

Is it all of the distractions of the world, or are we in tune and focused on God?

Are we worried about our chicken dinner and getting ready for work tomorrow, or are we concerned with what God is speaking to us right now?

And more importantly, are we willing to hear God speak?

Are we willing to respond?

That is where it all comes together—what are we willing to do?

This morning, let’s spend a few minutes praying and pondering on those things.

Let’s pray . . .