Future (no, not the rapper)

What are your plans for the future?

give them an opportunity to answer this, working farther out

Our passage tonight has us thinking about how to consider our future and again telling us to think about the future with true wisdom and biblical values rather than the false wisdom of the world.

You may think that you’re not old enough yet to start thinking about your future, but this is the time in your life when you’re beginning to learn how to think not just about your future, but everything! You’ve got to learn now how to think and do and live life in a way that honors God. You learn now so you’re prepared to do it as an adult! So we’ll talk a little about that tonight!

pray and read

Christians must have a godly perspective on the future of our lives and beyond.

Acknowledge God in your planning.

4:13-17

When you think and plan for your future, whether it’s four weeks, four months, for years, or four decades, make sure God is involved in the considerations.

FOR HS: Man me figuring out where I was going to college was a total mess. I wanted to go to a Christian school. Then I thought God wanted me to go to a secular school. Then I was back to going to a Christian school. After being at a Christian school for a semester I hated the town and went to Alabama. I was back and forth between my own stuff and asking God to lead me in it.

FOR MS: I thought I had it figured out in Middle School. My girl friend in 7th grade, legit thought we were getting married. We talked about it regularly. I also had plans to play professional baseball, catch for the Yankees to be specific. That plan was based on my love for baseball, not any actual skill possessed. And none of it was based on thinking about what God wanted for me.

We have to start by seeking God in our planning.

Check the Inductive for notes

vs 17

Hebrews & James E. Self-Centered Living Produces People Who Ignore God’s Will (vv. 13–17)

As Christians we must plan our lives in full commitment to the will and plans of God. We must also avoid omitting from our lives such important practices as prayer, Bible reading, helping the needy, and sharing our faith. To omit the latter is to commit a sin of omission. God wants our full and constant obedience.

Whatever plans you are making, whatever thing you are considering, pray about it. Ask God for direction.

Ask him if that person should be your boyfriend or girlfriend, or if you should even have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Ask Him if you should join that club. If you should play on that team. Where you should go to college. If you should go to college! Seek Him and his direction when you think about the future. Proverbs has so much to say about this.

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 16:3 ESV

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

Proverbs 16:9 ESV

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Do not ignore the Lord as you thinking about your future. This is a warning that James gives to his readers about there business. And he follows that up with another warning. Why do we have jobs? To get money! James has a warning about money.

Don’t put too much value in money.

5:1-7

Do not cheat others. The things you gain won’t even last! What you gain won’t be worth it.

I know none of you would ever rob a bank! But for a second lets pretend that you would. And you’ve got a crew together to rob a bank and get away with millions of dollars. But! You knew that a month later, before you could spend your… those other people’s money or even enjoy all the things you bought with it, you knew that you would be caught and go to jail. Would you do it? I hope not! That makes no sense! That’s what the people James is addressing have been doing essentially.

The treasures of this world are not more valuable than people made in God’s image.

Inductive SB notes

Have you ever heard the phrase “I’ve never seen a hearse with a U Haul behind it”? The treasures of this world will fade away, but people made in God’s image won’t.

First, don’t let getting stuff in this life be your ultimate goal. Don’t value money and the things it can buy when it will fade away one day. If that is what drives you, you will always find disappointment.

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Real treasure is not gained in what you have, but what you do.

Second, do good to others. Don’t take advantage of others for personal gain. Scripture is full of warnings against doing this! Be fair, honest, and generous with others.

So far James is continuing his assault on the values of this world, telling us not to put our faith in what the world is telling us, but in what He is telling us. And we must put that faith into action. Living as those who know that there is something more than this world and better than this world, not passing away like this world!

But we must be patient for it.

Be Patient

5:7-12

Have faith that Jesus’ Kingdom is one day coming

Use the illustrations in the text.

James calls us to holy patience.

vs 9; You get impatient and irritable when you wait, right? I get testy and start griping about people…

vs 10; Even in suffering, when people are doing to us what he talked about in verses 1-7, we must be patient like the prophets were...

vs 12; This seems random. Honestly I’m not totally certain exactly what James was getting at, but he’s definitely telling us that we should be people of our word.

Maybe he’s thinking back to the end of ch 4 and telling people not to make a promise that they may be prevented from keeping.

He’s talked a lot in this letter about how we are supposed to treat other people, including at the beginning of ch 5. I think this is probably one more thought on how we should interact with others. Do what you say you’ll do. Don’t do what you say won’t do. Don’t give yourself an out by making up some condition.

Matthew 5:37 ESV

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Whatever made James put this in here, it at least means that Christians are called to be people of our word.

Living in this world with your faith in God instead of the world can be difficult. We must be patient and trust that our Lord is coming and He is bringing justice.

David Platt looks at the example of the farmer in verse 7 and says that as we live in this world we must trust God with what we cannot control and honor God with what we can control.

I don’t know what situation you are dealing with tonight, but trust God. Patiently wait for his coming when all that is wrong will be made right. Pray and ask him for patience. Ask Him to help you remember these things. To increase your faith so you may live faithfully for Him.

Real treasure, treasure that lasts forever, is only found through Jesus. We can’t hold it in this world fully, only in his Kingdom. So we must be patient for his coming. But you can’t be patient for it unless you are ready for it.

If you are not a Christ follower then you’ve been putting hope and value that should be in Him into the things of this world. And you have probably been disappointed by the results. That hope is meant to be placed in Jesus. That fulfillment only comes from Him, but because of sin we try to find it in other places…