James 4:13-17

Thank you

I’d like to take a quick moment and say thank you to all of our volunteers. It has been an absolute joy to serve alongside each of you as you’ve put in hours of hard work every week with such great faithfulness and positive attitudes. I don’t know if many of you realize this, but I am actually employed by the church so that’s my reason for being here (joking) but our volunteers are here purely because they love God and our church which is such a blessing to all of us.

Introduction

If you’re just now joining us, we have been in a series entitled James: A Faith that Works. Now, last week Rob walked us through James’ Warning Against Wordliness with all of its implications. I think this might be best summarized with two questions that James asked… Don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? and the very pointed question, Who are you to judge your neighbor? Both these questions feel somewhat rhetorical, but important to wrestle with nonetheless.

Because we weren’t here last week, that service went straight to YouTube and if you haven’t had a chance to watch or listen to it, I encourage you to do so.

This week, we’ll be jumping into James 4:13-17, and we’re still sort of in this theme of worldliness versus God. In fact, you could very easily say that this theme runs throughout the entire letter of James. But, before we really dig in I want to share a couple of examples of things not going quite as planned.

Examples of things not going to plan…

Earlier this year, a feud between some Redditers (people who use Reddit which is a sort of social-media platform) and professional hedge-fund managers erupted over Gamestop. Some of you may have seen it in the news. At the time, I didn’t have the first clue what was going on with it, but I finally took the time to sit down and read up on because I thought it was somewhat fitting for our text today.

There’s this term in investing called “shorting”. Basically, its where you borrow a stock at one price, sell it, and buy it back at a lower price. It’d be like if I said, “Hey, can I borrow your iPhone 12 for like 6 months” and then I turned around and sold it for $1000 to someone else. In 6-months, after the iPhone 13 has been released the iPhone 12 I owe you only costs $600 because its old news now. So, I buy it and give it back to you. I sold your old phone for $1000 and I only had to spent $600 to get it back to you 6-months later, so in a roundabout way, I’ve made $400 because you were a good friend and let me borrow your phone for 6-months.

This is a legitimate investing strategy that many investors use to make big money. It’s very high risk (I would not recommend trying it yourself) but also very high reward. So these investors had borrowed millions of dollars worth of Gamestop shares with the plan to buy it back once Gamestop went bankrupt. For them, it seemed like a pretty safe bet. To the investors, it was as sure as cash in the hand. Unfortunately for them, a bunch of bored millennials got together on Reddit and decided that they were going to drive the price of the stock up. So thousands of people all at once decided to buy Gamestop shares, driving the cost from $15 a share to $350. Basically, the investors that were so confident they were going to make millions and millions of dollars actually ended up owing way way more than they bargained for - all because some bored teenagers and twenty-somethings decided to mess with the system.

Another significant blip in financial news this last year was Bitcoin. I won’t go into the details of what Bitcoin is or how it works, mostly because I don’t understand it, but in 2009, Bitcoin hit the market at only 0.08 cents a coin. In other words, with only $1, you could purchase 1,250 Bitcoins. That means, if you had taken $10 and bought Bitcoin, held onto it for only 12 years, and sold it at Bitcoin’s height in April earlier this year, you would have around 800 million dollars.

So earlier this year, the talk of the town was people getting rich from Bitcoin. But now, there’s a different story floating around. You see, there are collectively billions of dollars, that’s billions with a “b” worth of Bitcoin that cannot be used. Some people have millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin that they can’t touch. Do you want to know why?

You see Bitcoin is stored in these super-secure digital wallets - its totally un-hackable and its meant to give you peace of mind so you don’t have to worry about some kid in Russia stealing your fortune. Well, these digital wallets are secured with a password and you have 10 chances to enter otherwise the wallet locks itself down permanently - there’s no getting your money back after that. And do you know why people are losing access to their Bitcoin fortune? Because they can’t remember their password.

This isn’t like forgetting your password to Facebook and just coming up with another one. You forget this password, good-bye millions of dollars. There’s one guy, for example, who has over $200 million dollars worth of Bitcoin in his digital wallet that he can’t access. He has used 8 out of his 10 guesses. When asked about it, he says he wrote the password down on a piece of paper and then lost it. Here’s the thing, 20% of the Bitcoin in the world is locked in these digital wallets because of forgotten passwords and lost keys. There’s many people who are technically rich beyond their wildest dream, but can’t actually get it. They probably had all kinds of plans to spend the money, maybe buy a yacht, get a nice house, all the things you’d typically do with several million dollars, but all those plans were foiled all because of a simple forgotten password.

The above stories are fun to talk about because they are prime examples of worst-case scenarios. We tend to tell or hear them with a chuckle and a “Thank goodness that isn’t me”. But you see, as far off as those stories feel, the same principles are at play in our lives as well.

How often do we pursue something with a surety and gusto only to find that that thing didn’t work out the way we had hoped? We’re counting on, we’re planning on that thing working out. Sometimes these plans are foiled because of something ruining it, like a forgotten password, or something much deeper like a realization that the thing we were striving for was never really what we wanted in the first place?

I would argue that planning for us goes beyond simply putting things on the calendar. So as we talk about this topic of planning today, I want us to look beyond the action of planning and instead at the attitude of it.

What do I mean? Well, lets look at the people who purchased Bitcoin a little over a decade ago. Some of them I’m sure were planning on making their wealth off of Bitcoin, but if we really peel back what it is they want, is it actually the money? Not necessarily, if I had to guess I’d say its the offer of financial security, comfort, control over ones life that millions of dollars offers.

Likewise, if I make a plan to go to the gym everyday for the next month, am I making that plan simply because I really like going to the gym? Probably not, I want to be fit, feel healthy, and exercise discipline. There’s an ideal that I’m striving for and making a plan to go to the gym is only part of that.

Now, I don’t want us to get lost in the weeds of trying to track down underlying motives and get all philosophical, that’s not the goal for today. I do want us to understand, however, that we do have desires and attitudes that shape us. They motivate us, they tell us what direction to move in, they influence our decisions. So, we must own that if we want to grasp and obey James 4:13-17 well. So let’s dig in.

James 4:13–17 NIV

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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

...

Growing up, my parents told me no fewer than 100,000 times, “Look both ways before you cross the road”. Very simple statement with a very simple application. Hidden in the command, however, is a very important, “Why?” - some important background understanding.

Look both ways before you cross the street, so that you don’t get flattened by a car. The desire of my parents is that I would not get hit by a car - very reasonable, right? But, if I take the command and remove all of the underlying meaning and motive (as any 5 year old would) I’ll get it into my mind that all I have to do to appease my parents is to turn my head to the left *turn to the left* and to the right *turn to the right*.

So, as a kid you would frequently see me come to the edge of a curb, turn my head both ways like this (turn to the left and to the right as fast as possible), and launch into the street. Let me ask you, did I obey my parents? At face value, sure - I looked both ways before I crossed the street, but I didn’t actually do what my parents wanted me to do.

We do the same thing to God’s Word very frequently. We take the command at face value without giving it much thought and we get it partially right but then we feel frustrated because were not seeing the fruit we had hoped and its because we got part of the action correct but totally missed the “Why?” behind it which leads us to deeper obedience.

James 4:13-17 is no exception. We read through it really quickly, we say, “Boom, got it, I just won’t make any plans, easy enough”. Just do you best to live your life with everything up in the air. Sandra can attest that I’m actually quite skilled at doing that. If that’s the command God is obeying then I’m the most righteous person in the room! Fortunately for all of us, that’s not the case.

Some of you might say, “Don’t be silly Preston, we don’t think that.” Fair enough. So we take this passage a step further. We recognize that we have to make plans to exist as a society so we’ll figure that the command is that if you’re going to make plans then at least hold them loosely, right? Make all the plans you want, but hold them open handed because things do change after all.

This line of reasoning is better, but I think it still misses the mark James is getting at. Why? Because we’re doing this (turn your head to the left and to the right) - if I keep doing that too many more times in front of you all, I might give myself whiplash. We’re getting part of the action correct, but not considering God’s desire for us in doing it. This is here in Scripture for a reason. We can be confident that God does not arbitrarily create rules for us. So if its here in James, then we should ask the question - why?

Well, we know this is important to James because he introduces a hypothetical scenario but he does so in a very abrupt way. The NIV says “Now listen”, the ESV says “Come now” - both are essentially James’ way of going *snap fingers* “Pay attention”. This is really great for us because this passage, I think, tends to kind of get overlooked as we’re reading through chapter 4 and into chapter 5. After all, James is using very strong language and then he just sort of mellows out here in verses 13 through 17. So this “Now listen” is an important reminder for us - this passage is equally as important as the one that precedes it and the one that follows it.

Then he moves into the hypothetical scenario. This group of people is making plans. Now, these aren’t your “Let’s meet for coffee” type of plans. These are life-altering decisions. They’re going to move to another city, spend a year there, and make money. They are very confident that their business plan is going to work out. But James intercedes as if to say, “Hold on a second, you don’t even know what will happen tomorrow.” How can you be so confident in your plans if you don’t even know what could happen tomorrow? He goes further to say that life, our human lives, are a mist.

Several years ago, I went on a short little fishing trip up on Mount Lemmon with some friends. Now, we thought it would be fun to wake up at 4am to fish for little itty bitty trout out of the very small lake that is Rose Canyon Lake. Some of you probably laugh that I would even refer to it as a fishing trip. Regardless, we were up well before the crack of dawn. And at about 5:30ish, the sky lit up just enough to see the lake and there was this rolling mist. It was beautiful. But… as soon as the sun rose just a little bit more, the air heated up and the mist vanished. Mist is fragile and temporary and disappears just as fast as it came. This is the illusion that James is drawing on. Our entire lives, a few decades, is a mist that lasts just a brief moment in God’s eyes.

Now, these people were just talking about plans for the next year - and James come in with this really dense existential response. It’d be like if I said, “Yeah, I’m going to move to Phoenix and stay there for about a year, work some jobs, make some money” and then James goes, “Why? We’re all a mist anyways.” Like, that seems really disproportionate. It’d be easy to say, “James, you’re being extreme again” but I was us to stop and ask - what is James actually getting at?

When we do that, we see that James is pivoting. He is not digging his heels in to say that it is wrong for this hypothetical person, or group, to plan on spending a year in a new city and making money. If that were the case, there’d be a list of reasons why it was a bad idea. Don’t go to Phoenix because its a terrible city, its hot and crowded, you’ll never make it - sorry for anyone that actually likes Phoenix. There’s no engagement with that side of the argument. Instead, James is gearing for a bigger point to be made. This isn’t about their plans, this is about their attitude.

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning, there’s more to making plans than making plans. There’s nothing wrong with making millions of dollars off of Bitcoin - in fact, if you can do it, I encourage you to do so, and also maybe a give a little to me! This isn’t an attack on wealth, or good financial planning, or working hard to provide for your family. The greater problem at hand here comes from our heart, our attitude.

Let’s look again at verses 15 and 16 again,

James 4:15–16 NIV

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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

Here’s the thing, I read this passage no fewer than maybe 50 or so times in preparation for today and each time the words “arrogant schemes” felt a bit harsh. Maybe some of you feel the same way. Like, what’s the harm with being confident and a go-getter and a self-made individual? Here’s the thing… We overestimate how much we actually do on our own.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4:7 says, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”. Friends, we struggle, I struggle with this concept of receiving things. Like, I didn’t receive this, I earned it, I worked hard for it, I deserved it because of x-y-z. And sometimes, that’s true - you work 40 hours a week for a paycheck, you did earn that. You work hard in school to earn a diploma; or, maybe you work hard to pay your children to get their diploma. There are things in life we work for, yes, but James wants us to take a step back and evaluate - are we always putting our confidence in the right thing? Are we being presumptuous? Do we understand where our confidence should be? And while planning in and of itself is not bad, it is a fantastic indicator of where our hearts are at. Clint, I love Clint, frequently shares a quote that goes like this… [insert quote]. In the same vein, look at your plans and you’ll see 1) what your heart desires AND 2) what you presume to be true about yourself. The problem here is that we very frequently presume on our strength, our own wisdom, our own internal compass to direct us.

And, if we really think about it, what are we able to do that God has not given us the ability to do? Did you create your hands so you can work with them? Did you teach yourself how to breathe? Did you train your diaphragm to contract and release so that you can actually take a breathe? Did you create human language so that we can communicate with each other? How do you keep yourself alive while you sleep? I could go on and on.

I remember listening to a Tim Keller sermon where he speaks about many of the same things - I can’t remember the exact quote so I’ll just give you all a summary. I love the question he asks, “Did you choose when and where to be born?” Like, sure I have a job now and I work and I earn my paycheck, but why wasn’t I born during the Great Depression? Why was I born in America and not in some hut in a third-world country? Why am I privileged to enjoy the socio-economic status that I have as opposed to someone else? When we really start to create this list, we begin to see that there is actually very little that we can control and our plans very frequently assume we have control when, in fact, we don’t. And yet, we are so confident in ourselves that the thought of this confidence being labeled as arrogant feels harsh. I’m right there with you. It is harsh, James doesn’t mince his words here, “All such boasting is evil”. It’s evil - its not something that we should casually avoid, its evil!

It sometimes feels like an attack on us. If James was sitting across from us and he said, “You’re boasting in your arrogant schemes - that’s evil” after we shared our 5-year plan with him, some of us would probably haul off and slap him. Like, who do you think you are - calling me arrogant - I’ll show you arrogant *ka-pow*. But.... this is not an attack on us. This is an invitation to step into a right, life-giving relationship with God.

How so? Let me read you some Scripture...

Isaiah 66:2 NIV

Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the Lord. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.

Jeremiah 9:24 NIV

but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.

James 4:6 NIV

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

James 4:10 NIV

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

What are we boasting in when we plan? Do we boast in God - that He is our provision. Or, do we boast in ourselves - that we have the answers and can do whatever we set out to do? James is not simply picking a fight against our calendars - he’s pushing us to look at our hearts. What do we hope in? What do we presume on? That is, what do we assume about ourselves and our situation? Where do we get our confidence? Again, do we look to God as the giver of life, in control over all things, gracious and loving to include us in His plan. Or, do we look at ourselves and think, “I’m in control of my destiny.” One is rooted in humility, which God has said time and time again that He favors, He loves and delights in humility, the other is nothing more than pride.

At this point, as I wrap up, I’d like to move us into the more practical side of this. My hope for all of us, myself included, is that we would first desire to boast in the Lord. If we only want to do what’s right on paper then we’re just doing this (rapidly turn head left and right) and it’s not doing us any good. If we follow all of the rules and workout all of the commands, but don’t love God and boast in Him, then its frivolous. So, before anything else can happen, we first have to ask, “Do I want to boast in the Lord?”. Do I want to love Him more than anything else? Do I want to be confident in Him? Do I want to plan my life around His will?

And then the next question we must wrestle with is, “Am I willing to do what it takes to get there?” Personally, I would whole-heartedly say yes yes and yes to wanting to boast in the Lord - absolutely, I want all of my confidence and love in Him. But, I frequently, very frequently, fall short and so I must ask myself, am I willing to make sacrifices and alter my life so that I may boast in the Lord more deeply? Am I willing to cut down on my Netflix or Facebook time to read my Bible and pray? Am I willing to be vulnerable with others so that they may speak truth in my life? Am I willing to step out of my comfort zone for God?

Wrestle with those questions. Write them down and stick them in a place where you will frequently see them. Talk to someone about it - I personally would love to talk about it with you and I know there are many of us in this room who would also love to just sit and have this conversation. We’re all in this together, right? Life’s Better Connected. If you’re like yes and yes to those two questions - great, don’t stop, don’t settle, dig deeper. If you’re like I have no idea about those two questions - also great, don’t stop, ask questions, dig deeper. We’re all starting at different spots, so let’s not waste time dogging on ourselves or hiding - where are you at today with those two questions and what can you practically do about it? I’ve got one small baby step for you if you don’t have one, pull someone aside after service and say “Hey, I want to know more about this.... I want this to be true for me”.

Once those two questions are answered, evaluate your life. What plans do you have? What are you hoping to accomplish? Once you identify those, ask again, What am I boasting in here? Where is my heart at in this? Is it to know the Lord more deeply and submit to Him… or is to satisfy myself and rely on my own strength?

Finally, take action. If there’s a plan in your life, or a hope, or even a dream that just isn’t in line with this and you’ve identified that then do something about it. If you see the ice berg in the distance, don’t keep steering the Titanic towards it! Take a breath, ask God for help, talk to the others - baby steps.

I’d like to close with James’ final verse here in this passage…

James 4:17 NIV

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Now, we could spend a whole sermon series talking about the sins of omission, but I’m not going to do that. I believe James very deliberately tagged this verse onto this passage. We’re so tempted to not mix things up, to stay the course. Don’t rock the boat, right? We want to convince ourselves that everything is fine all the time. James adds this little caveat though… If you know what you’re supposed to do and don’t do it, then it’s sin. If you know that you’re boasting in the wrong thing and choose not to do anything about it, that’s sin. It’s a hard thing to think about, BUT think of it this way… God loves us so much to command what is best for us and He will not budge on those rules as a result. Like, if God said, “You should really boast in me because its right, but if not, that’s cool too” then that love would be so so shallow. It’d be like if my parents said, “You should really look both ways before you cross the street, but if you want to just jump out in front a car, that’s cool too” I’d be like, “Gee, thanks mom and dad… really appreciate it”. That’s a shallow love. But delighting in God, boasting in Him, is the best thing we can do for our lives and God holds us to it and won’t budge on it because He loves us desperately. It is times difficult, tough to wrestle with, sometimes harsh, can’t always explain easily, but totally worth it in the end.

What are we boasting in? What do our plans say about ourselves? Are we willing to do what it takes to boast in the Lord? Wrestle with those things. Let’s pray as the worship team comes up to lead us in one final song.