The Gospel Makes A Difference in My Plans

James Chapter 4, verses 13 and following says come. Now, you who say today, or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Get you who do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life for you? Are a Mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes instead, you ought to say, if the Lord Wills, we will live and do this or that, As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him. It is sin. This is God's word. I invite you to go ahead and take a seat.

Space travels. Kind of fascinating, isn't it? I need Trek. He's in the room or To to love you, okay? Some people are like closet, Ricky's. They don't admit there's like seven or eight of you, we can form a club, it be okay. You know, a little small group was support system because it's been a little bit of time, since you know, the movie was released or something like that, couple of Star Wars fans and then there's those other space. Whatever you call them back home Syfy, but they're like space sagas, right? And it's so fascinating because it allows us to think into things that to the best of our knowledge are real. We can do things like travel through Lightspeed Lightspeed and in all of these things. But really we have a relatively few number of accounts of people who've actually gone to space and told us what it's like the course I said course probably the most famous of them is Apollo 11 Apollo 11, some of you were shaking your head the rest of you go while I read about in the history book me to Apollo 11 was the flight that took the first human beings that we're aware of. To the Moon. And, of course, we're familiar with the people that stepped foot on the moon and it may be a little bit less familiar. With the others that were on that flight such as Command Module pilot.

Michael Collins. Who said that three razor hand. Well done, see something, you know your space travel, Michael Collins. Michael Collins said something that just grabbed me because it kind of encapsulate this text in a few different ways. Michael Collins gets to see what few human eyes have seen in that is the planet Earth. From space. They have seen he saw and experienced. What Elon Musk and what other billionaires want to see with their own eyes and experience and maybe even profit from? And when they saw, when Michael Collins Earth from space, he said this the thing that really surprised me

Something to expected. But the thing that really surprised me was that it talking about Earth that Earth

was projected on an air of fragility.

Kind of paraphrasing. What he said? Next, it's tiny shiny. Beautiful. It's home. But oh, so fragile.

You don't we call that. there's a word that that scientists come up with, it's about perspective, change, but I simply call it perspective,

there's this cognitive shift that has happened to many different cause mouth and astronauts when they have seen the planet Earth from. Can I use the term from God's perspective, a little bit when they see Earth as it is the small little blob on the horizon of the Milky Way? Even from only as far away as near the moon and they can see that it looks so. So fragile, in comparison with The Cosmos that they can see, can you even imagine? I cannot what it would be. Like to see the Milky Way from the greater existence of the universe. And then to see planet Earth, small place in that Universe in that galaxy of the Milky Way. Can we even imagine our own lives and our existence is that we are so consumed by in the perspective of that.

and then to imagine something else that I can't get my brain around, not only the universe and all its existence that we know of But eternity. Forever in the past forever. Infinity into the future.

Any entire created order. I can't fathom those two things and yet this scripture would cause us to try to Fathom Our Lives based on those two things. Because sometimes we break with the Apostle, Paul's commands and advice.

We'll go there in a minute. If you want to find Romans 12 will get over to Romans 12 and a few minutes come now there's 13 of James for. I'm now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year in trade and make a profit. So now we're zooming way in We're reviewing history by a couple of thousand years resuming into planet Earth, the Middle East, specifically the area around Jerusalem, that decopolis the ten great cities that are around Jerusalem in the first century. And there are some Roman. I'm sorry, some Jewish Christians residing in this place and these places and some of these Jews are probably good business people.

You know, some good business people who I think a couple of you in this room are good business. People you know how to invest, you know, how to start up a business or a little bit entrepreneurial in your approach to life. You're willing to take some risk but not too much risk. You just tend to know where the market is going to go and what's going to sell and how you can earn a living and maybe even a really good living. maybe not as good as Elon Musk, but, you know, it is known how so take that.

You ever had a consultant come in?

Consultants are great fear. Consultant, you're great. I never had a consultant come in and tell you what to do, like in your business, or in your ministry. Had this experience couple times. It's super fun, birthday come in and they tell you how bad you're doing. Wow, look at this year. Of course, they first to ask what you're about, right? Like, who are you? What's your mission statement? What's your vision statement? What's your Five-Year Plan?

and then you say, well, here's our mission, isn't that bad? That's pretty good. I'm going to service pretty catchy, you know, I don't remember, Christ Crown Chrysler of Christ, that's bad.

Would be better but you have to make it cuz you know about your business. I don't this with the consult with say and then you of course, asked the consultant will tell us what it should be at least you have to make it. And so then you say, well, how about this isn't that bad too? Well, that's what I thought really hard about and worked really hard on for a number of years, kind of crafting, it was bad. So just like that come up with something and then they tell you what it should be like. It should be like that but this of course cuz I can give you the, you know, the thing. And then you say, won't, let's just use that. Cuz apparently, you like that when you come to The Five-Year Plan, right makes me what your mission is. Going to be driven by your purpose and your purpose. Going to drive your mission. Your mission is going to drive your your strategic priorities. Campos next 5 years.

Okay, what was the vision again? And they tell you? Okay, that's realistic. That's not very, very good. So you tell him two years in five years and before you know it you're growing like 800% and four years and then the consultant gives you an unusually large, Bill and walks away. And you have this worthless. I mean this wonderful document that tells you what you're going to do me like that. Let's go, let's do this. And then five years later, you're like we kind of accomplish what I expected to accomplish five years ago. And that wasn't very much. It wasn't that bad but it wasn't all of this.

Some of us are good planners and you like strategic planning. You like purpose and vision and Mission and strategic priorities. You like to be able to have a check mark and I have met your since they know we're not right where we want to be the reason I don't like consult is because they tell me what I already know. What kind of that bring you that we're eating that some people say all wheel of Consultants they come in and they tell everybody else would I already knew? I go can get on board with that and then it happen a second time to me in What's it happen? A lot like the first time

But the real problem isn't that. The consultant doesn't know what they're talking about. Is the consultant isn't running the company. The Consultants not in control. The person running the company is the person running the company. The people doing the job are the people who are running the company, the people doing the work or the ones that Palpatine to work these obvious statements. And so we come to this wonderful little passage and James is talking to people who like strategic planning. Come. Now you who say, here's our five year plan. We're going to do this, we're going to accomplish this. We're going to have these metrics in. This is how we're going to know whether or not. We are accomplishing what we are seeking to accomplish.

Yet. You aren't the one running the company. The world the entire Cosmos for eternity. You're not as important as you think you are.

Yet, you do not know verse 14. What tomorrow will bring? What is your life? We're going to, we're going to get to this kind of flush that out in a minute. But I wanted alert you to the fact that this is a really difficult verse. Remember, I told you, James has all kinds of textual issues, James 4, verse, 14 is one of those big ones because it comes back to not just original languages. It comes back to actual textual differences. So this text over here, this scrum into a remnant of scroll that we have in the original Greek says it has these words and these other Scrolls over here have likely Different. Word or wording to them until comes down to Greek Scholars, and, and other biblical. Critics and they say well this is probably what's best in. This is probably with Beth and you and I kind of think most of the time to realize, who cares. It doesn't really change the meaning of the text. And for the most part that is true, there are so few and there is such a minor difference between different textual problems in the original languages that we have an extremely reliable copy in our English accent, front of us, I don't want to discourage you from Reading believing and applying the English text of scriptures, and whatever translation you want to read them in. But I do want to alert you and be faithful to say that there are some challenges in this regard and we are we are very thankful for people who are willing to study and spend their lives on a couple of verses in ridiculously old documents that are made out of all kinds of things, mostly letter. I'm going to read to you, James 4:17. This is another really, really good translation. This is the hcsb or just the csb, the Christian Standard Bible.

James 4 verse 14. You don't even know what tomorrow will bring Dash. ! That you're kind of realizing that we're dealing with details. Again, I'm going to read it again. Okay, listen carefully, you don't even know what tomorrow will bring Dash what your life will be. You don't know what your life is going to be like, .

HSBC. Yes. I promise one of these days, I'll probably come and say that yes, because wrong about today.

James chapter 4, verse 14, in the English. Standard Version is translated the same similar way. In the King James, the new King James in the NIV. For those of you for following along and it says this, there's a statement. With there's no, there's no punctuation in Greek, right? So now English translation, there's a statement, something that could have a. And then there's a question, So this is an interpretive issue. We have to figure this out as people trying to read English. Here's what it says yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. End of the thought. You don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. New thought following on the last thought? What? Is your life. Okay, that's enough technical stuff. We could get more technical for longer but gleis our eyes are glazing over. So just just let I'm going to let you know that according some really really smart good biblical Scholars. This is probably the better way to interpret it. Is a statement followed by a question not simply one overarching statement saying what is your life? Cuz it's your life. There are two separate things going on here in this way. I think the first 12 last week, last week there was only one lawgiver and judge. This is James, 4:12 one, lawgiver, judge he who is able to save and to destroy right. A little bit of a statement about God, but don't remember the question. Who are you? Who do you think you are questioning God? And I think there's a little bit of a tie-in here. What is your life? You don't even know what tomorrow is going to bring five-year planning aside from the one, who's in control of the company aka the world. How are you going to plan ahead for something like that with all of the contingencies? When you don't even know that there, coronavirus is going to come? you know, if we were to zoom back two years Most people did not consider the fact that we would have a global pandemic and plan accordingly, how could we were not God? That is the point.

What is your life?

This is an important kind of existential kind of a question. What is your life? Well, you know, my life. No, seriously. Think about this, like, kind of wake up over here. You know, what is your life? It's self.

It's body, it's from flesh. There's some organs in here somewhere, and I'm breathing, and my heart is beating in Yep, still there. Then we add the the spiritual component, the god, breathed spiritual reality of who we are. We have our mind and our brain with all of these chemical and electrical reactions going on up here. And that's my life, right? I've been born, I live I die I poop. It's gone. That's pretty much what the passage says. You are a Mist that we could also be translated Vapor. It could also be translated, smoke, doesn't really matter because they all mean the same thing in the sense that when a little wind comes along,

it's all about perspective.

It's like going to outer space and seeing the Earth and realizing how fragile it looks that when we read this text of scripture, it should cause us in our Mind's Eye to recognize and it's gone. So what are we doing? We're planning ahead were making plans. It isn't even going to matter or even come to fruition if it's not in line with the one who's running the company, What is your life for? You? Are a Mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes, it doesn't even go somewhere like the atmosphere in this. In this example, right by, you know, the little bit of cloud and that's going to happen is going to know it's gone.

It ceases to exist, apart from God. When you think of Eternity and you think of yourself apart, from God and Eternity, you are nothing. I am nothing because We're here for really a few decades for most of us and that's if we survive, you know, today, expected age expectancy.

Tab leak. Kind of sad. but such a good reality to consider because We can be so American can't we I don't think that is a bad thing, you know? I want that a professor who is teaching us that we shouldn't say that color, doesn't matter, right? Be color, blind. So don't will be color-blind to be color-blind is to assume that every people every culture, every ethnicity has contributed nothing or the exact same to the world. That's not true, we eat person. Each culture has its special things that they have brought and I'm just like, say what? And he said just imagine music without the drum as a no, thank you. That you don't get that without Africa.

Now that's a really, really brought example, and it's super stereotypical, so forgive me for that, but it's hopefully help us to see that. Okay, well, I'm kind of feeling a little picked on what about white people like what if we given to the world? Do you know we've done a lot of taking but what if we give in and he said, he's South African white, South African and so he has a lot of great perspective. He says, Complement. That the Western white world has given to the world, the ability to get things done. The Chronicles of grumpy. But that is so cool that that maybe most of us in this room that we have enough to help to contribute to that as as an ethnicity of people who can help me get stuff, done, move the Baton forward so to speak who can come up with a strategic plan. Our problem is is that we think we can come up with a strategic plan and we do it so well and we do it, apart from God. We shouldn't do it apart from God.

We shouldn't do it apart from considering eternity. When you invest your money, James is not saying, don't invest, don't plan to come up with a Five-Year Plan. He's saying when you do, let's see what his solution is verse 15 and Stead. you ought to say, If the Lord Wills.

Weird. Grace are great at that, right. Hey, we're going to have it, we're going to have a small group at 6 in the church Lord willing. Super biblical there cuz I had, the Lord willing super Kristen status achieved. You're welcome. But that's not really the point, the point is a dynamic change. If I could use the term, a cognitive shift just like seeing Earth from outer space to recognize that we apart from God's, our evapor who are going to be on this Earth for far too short to accomplish anything significant. And even the significant thing that we are billionaires are trying to accomplish apart from God equal nothing.

that when we recognize that we get the chance his followers of the almighty that we get to partner with God, to accomplish his eternal will, we can see this all throughout the Apostle, Paul's Journey Xanax and in some of the Epistles, and he would use a language that helped us to see. Okay, you was all about following the Lord's will in his life. I told you, we were going to flip over the Romans 12 and let's, let's flip over there first, and deal with this first issue in order. Romans 12 verse don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. What is your life? The company you don't run anything. Chocolate milk. After a couple of rap songs, you might listen to For you are a Mist that appears for a little time and then vanish if you're gone, instead you ought to say, if the Lord Wills we will live and do this or do that Circle, that word, a live-in, verse 14. After sticking, its the Lord lives Wills, we will live. Sometimes we get lost in the doing and planning and gods, will we don't even have recognized? We don't cognitively Ascent to the reality that we don't even take another breath except by God's will.

Thank you, Lord, for that breath. Thank you, Lord.

We become so unselfish, we're of even our own place in the room much less in society much less in the universe much less and Eternity because we don't recognize that it is all a gift from God.

A gift that is to be used, not abused.

So is the Lord lives. We will if the Lord Wills we will live Praise the Lord. Go back to that thinking of yourself too lowly. He's the one that gets to decide whether not you live, not you. Sometimes we don't talk enough about that, it's not your place or my place to decide how long we live. That's God's job. Now there's a lot more that can be said about it. As we talked about end-of-life scenarios aging, things of that sort. We don't have time to get into that now. But let me specially say if you're contemplating suicide or you ever have the supplies there. You are younger people in the room. This is a deep subject, some people think about not continuing and if you ever feel that way and some of you probably will talk to your parents, talk to your youth. Pastor talk to me, talk to anybody. And if they tell you, you're right, it's not worth it. Somebody else. Seriously. God decides it is the Lord's will if we live. And if he decides what we live, shouldn't he also be the one that decides if we do this first 15 or that

some people say that the original sin, Arrogance.

Picture of really say back in Genesis 3 did God really say that he knew better than you? Adam. Let me look at, you know, I got a prime example of God's creation. You were literally the Pinnacle of all of creation and what does the snake? The serpent? What does Satan God's enemy? The devil, tell him, you know, better than God.

And God hiding stuff from you. And by eating that Apple, you will understand what God understands you will know about good and about evil. And what do we say to ourselves? Man, that's Adam, he should have known better than to trust a snake. You 6 or 4? 604 shooting.

Star Trek Genesis too much. He should have known better than to do that.

And yet we do the same thing, we think of ourselves. So arrogantly that we don't simply take one bite of one fruit. We plan out and live our entire lives, without even being considered you wake up in the morning. You brush your teeth. When you wake up in the morning, you drink your coffee, then you brush your teeth. And then you say, alright, world. What you got for me today?

As opposed to waking up in the morning and recognizing God Almighty has given me another day to live. Lord, I'm here, I'm Yours. What do you want me to do in for the one second that you Retreat from that fought is the second you start living in your own power and this isn't like the sermon to judge you or make you feel bad but you should feel bad. Because you and I I'm in the boat with you. We are sinful wee-wee every moment that we try to live our life apart from God, we are sending because we think that Declaration of Independence. I don't need you. No, thank you. I got it. I'll come to you when it gets hard.

Got another example, he ever take out an insurance policy. Paul's on the room so I can talk about this today. I'm just getting an insurance policy. You don't have to think about insurance policies.

You don't want to drive down the road being afraid. That's a nice, but don't get that Beamer. Is way more expensive in my car. When I pay for that, there's a pole. I hope I don't hit that pole. I can't afford a new engine. Oh man, I got was over.

You don't have to think about it, you just drive me, try to be safe and then knowing is something happen. You're good. God is not an insurance policy, you don't get God, live your life and in case you need him as though, like we won't all face the end of her life cuz we all will We either face the end of our life because we die or face the end of our life on this Earth because Christ returns triumphantly. And either way, our life on Earth is over as we know it and then we just like, hey it's okay I've got my insurance policy Jesus. Daddy's Bible. I can't believe all the fine print notes and believe in the Lord, Jesus knew because I did that, I'm good. I'm covered. That is not Christianity. Christianity is where you live realizing that you are united to the god of the universe through the person of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity and then you seek to live out that reality moment-by-moment day-by-day. And you say, Lord, here we go, it's not a me, it's a Wii. you're not driving down the road thinking, I don't have to think about, The other car I've got insurance. No, we are in the car with Jesus and he's driving along with us. Hopefully he's driving.

Cuz he's got, he's running things. In so much of the time we step back from our awareness of God's existence. His omnipotence has power over all and is omnipresent. His present, literally everywhere and we just live our life.

Verse 16 as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil. When we live our life, apart from God, and apart from the recognition and there's the key word submission to the presence of God, then we are living in. Let me read it evil. All such boasting is evil.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him. It is sin. What is the right thing to do? The right thing to do. Is live. Every second of every day in a recognition of the presents and sovereignty of God and submission to him.

I don't know. You got them compete up right now. Because I can't do that.

I don't even want to do it half the time. I want to live my way. Are you kidding me? I want to drink my coffee and peace. God, I don't want to drink my coffee with Jesus. We sometimes.

I want to watch some television and not think about Jesus.

Soda. The chastisement is recognized and submit to the presence of God. The powerful presence of God in your life and then the other encouragement is that's why we need Jesus because he extends to us Grace Not simply judgement but righteousness and when God looks at us and he says, look there's my child that poor Ben. He thinks he's he thinks he's got it all together and he just doesn't he's even trying to preach bless his heart.

He needs more grace. Yes, I do got, I need grace and mercy not not just when I screw up.

Because just when I screw up when I follow, don't follow my list of do's and don'ts my list of do's and don'ts is a continual complete recognition and submission to the powerful presence of God in my life and I don't do that regularly. Daily. Hourly most minutes. I'm outside of the will of God in my life because of my lack of recognition is admission to the powerful presence of God in my life. And so I say, I need Jesus every hour. I need thee, not because I like done it again. Hoops tree.

No Loops didn't recognize and submit to the powerful presence of God in my life. Boom, same judgment. I need Jesus, I need him to tell God the Father, the judge, he's not guilty. I paid his price. I sacrificed myself so that he can live and whenever he considers and recognizes and submits to the powerful presence of God in his life. Whenever he does that instead of saying about time, instead of saying about time Jesus says add a boy, that's the way to do it. Then keep going, keep going. You can do this. The Holy Spirit who resides inside of all believers who is United to and unites us to Christ. He gives us the power to submit. He gives us the power to live in Victory in to say yes. I see you there. I can submit to you today. This moment. And the next moment I can see it and submit you. And the next moment is the next day. And when we fail to do that, it's not a How dare you? It's a come back then I know you strayed. And some of us aren't there. Some of us are still. Wait a minute. God ain't no God there's me. God would let that happen. A guy. That's right. About talk about spoken about fought about in the Bible. He would not have allowed that to happen. Not to me. Not my unborn child. Not to my wife, not to my husband, not to my friend, not to that school. There's no way that that God would allow that to happen in my short answer for you is there's a longer answer. My short answer to you is, he did he cares anyway and specifically because of and he wants to extend his grace to you every hour of every day.

and our response is simply submit now Cape Cod, you know, best and we can see to understand there's some deep thinking and understanding we can try to get to but the reality is we just need to submit to him.

Gospel makes a difference in my life. Greek me Bible Church is a church where the gospel actually makes a difference. That's who we can be. That's who we are. The gospel makes a difference in good times and in bad considered All Joy. My brothers, when you encounter various trials in the bad time, every blessing is from above during the good times during the mundane times, but gospel makes a difference in each of the things we talked about week-by-week. Today, the gospel makes a difference in how I plan in my planning is all about the wisdom from above or From Below. Will you accept the wisdom from below that says, I don't need God to plan every minute of every day? No, thank you. But that's the wisdom from below we eat. Consume and live out that reality too much. The wisdom from above says, I need you every hour. Every hour I need thee, It's a continual submission. Where is your wisdom coming from? Because if it's all about your Five-Year Plan, apart from God, it isn't from above If it's a continual willingness to submit and hold out her hands in our plans to God and say, God, here's what I think you're leading me to do, but not my will be done but yours on Earth as it is in heaven. That's the goal.

Most of you in this room will say I trust God with my eternity.

When I die. I'm okay.

My challenge to you to myself, is you trust God with your eternity. That is where you will spend forever and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever and ever after you die.

In your life. Is like less than a blade of grass in a field of. Hey, it's, it's At the length of your life, compared to Eternity is nothing.

We trust God with eternity, right forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

Why don't you trust him with your next small decision? Heavenly Father. We want to come to you with our decisions. You want to come with you to you and the good times and the bad that we want to come with you recognize and submit to you every single moment. Every single decision, every single breath, and every single day. and when we fall short of that, we just hold out our arms. Begging for. Yet confidently that we will receive your grace. and that we can live in Victory, knowing that