How to Approach the Future

Feed my starving children is coming up March 18, 19, 2022.

SHV & FTH District Leadership Development Day When Location Date: Saturday, February 26, 2022

Location: online only - a link will be sent to registrants at a later date

9:30 a.m. – WELCOME, INTRODUCTION, OPENING PRAYER AND KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Keynote: “Disciple-Making Reset: Offering HOPE in a Complex World”

Rev. Dr. Tim Bias, District Superintendent of Capitol Area North and South 10:45 a.m.

- NEXT STEPS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 11:00 a.m.

- Q & A 11:20 a.m. -

REMINDERS AND SEND OUT

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ORIGINALLY SCHEDULED BREAK OUT SESSIONS WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE IN MARCH

Two weeks ago

How to be wise

If I am wise I will not Be Harsh

If I am wise I will not Be Selfish

If I am wise I will be Transparent

If I am wise I will Be Considerate of Your Feelings

Last week:

How to be an overcomer.

The cause of conflict

The cause of war

The cause of quarrels

The cure for conflict

Check your motives

Check your relationships

Check your walk with God

Clean up your act.

Take your Bibles. Lift them high and repeat after me.

This is my Bible. It is word of God. I will hind its words in my heart, that I might not sin against God.

Make Plans for the Future

James 4:13 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.”

Was James telling us that there is something wrong with planning?

A friend of mine who I went to seminary with she became a pastor of a church. She believed on Sunday morning that she would go in open her Bible and whatever passage she came to that morning. That’s what God wanted her to speak on. First, I thought that was probably a lazy way to do it. But, I also know that she was a teacher for many years and that she often had to plan all of her lessons. She understood that planing was important. If you are a teacher, but when it came to God, he did not want us to plan. He wanted us to trust entirely on him and just step into the pulpit, open our Bibles, open our mouths, and he would fill it.

She based her view on.

Matthew 10:19 NIV

But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,

I am not suggesting that God could not do that if he chose to. But, I do not believe that’s what the Bible teaches. I really don’t think so. I don’t think he’s talking about planning as an evil activity.

God is a planner.

Creation was planned.

Ephesians 1:4 NIV

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

God chose us. When, before the creation of the world.

Matthew 25:34 NIV

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

Proverbs 16:3 NIV

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

Proverbs 16:9 NIV

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

Jesus was a planner.

John 4:4–5 NIV

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Matthew 20:18 NIV

“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death

Paul was a planner

Romans 1:13 NIV

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

Romans 15:24 NIV

I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

People may often need help in learning to plan. They may get themselves into trouble because they do not plan ahead or plan well, or they never follow through on their plans; their planning is all paper work.

Don’t Trust Only in Your Plans

James 4:14 NIV

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.

Plan with flexibility.

Romans 1:13 NIV

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

Proverbs 19:21 NIV

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

After interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph gave the king a survival plan for the next fourteen years. The only way to prevent starvation was through careful planning; without a plan, Egypt would have turned from prosperity to ruin. Many find detailed planning boring and unnecessary. But planning is a responsibility, not an option. Joseph was able to save a nation by translating God’s plan for Egypt into practical actions (implementation). We must take time to translate God’s plan for us into practical actions too.

Life is Short

James 4:14 NIV

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.

Job 14:1 NIV

“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.

Psalm 89:47 NIV

Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all humanity!

Matthew 6:27 NIV

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Trust Jesus with Your Plans

James 4:15 NIV

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

James Trust God in Making Plans / 4:13–17

Business travel for selling and trading was common in the first century, especially among Jews—for example, Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:2, 18; Romans 16:3) and Lydia (Acts 16:14). Planning is not evil—in fact, businesspeople are wise to plan ahead. Traveling merchants make travel plans—to leave when a ship or caravan is ready, to buy and sell their goods, to probably stay a year, and to return with a profit. They plan in specific detail. The problem that James addresses, however, is that God is not included in those plans. The merchants plan with arrogance, thinking they can go wherever they like and stay for as long as they like. Their way of planning, doing business, and using money may be honest, but it is really no different than the planning of any pagan businessperson. These Christian business-people ought to know better.

James is not even questioning the profit motive in the plans of these brothers and sisters. He is simply confronting that easy progression of living without consideration for God. Terms like self-assertiveness, self-confidence, and self-centeredness may have some limited usefulness, but they also describe attitudes that can ignore God. Yet God owns us and all our business.

Here is something I read five years ago, but I was reminded of it this week.

Bruce Bardon wrote: Many people say they believe in God, but, in reality, they are practical atheists. That is, in the way they make decisions and plan for the future, they live as if God didn’t exist. They take no account of God’s sustaining care or common grace; they act as if they are self-sufficient and in control; and they take credit for all the good they experience. Listening to these people speak, we would have no idea that God is a factor in their lives. How much better it is to actively recognize God’s right to order and direct our lives as he pleases. Self-reliance and independence rightfully belong to God alone. Why do believers and even churches so often want to take matters into their own hands? When do you tend to leave God out of the picture?

James Trust God in Making Plans / 4:13–17

The fact is that God has a prior claim on our lives. First, because he is our Creator, his purposes can demand precedence over our priorities. Second, for believers, this claim is reenforced by the knowledge that we no longer belong to ourselves: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NIV). God’s claim on us is both as Creator and Savior. Our submission to God must be expressed in every area of our lives.

Look for the Good

James 4:17 NIV

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

James (Trust God in Making Plans / 4:13–17)

Verse 17 sums up all of chapters 1–4. It sums up the entire ethical problem in the whole Epistle of James. He may be telling these merchants that they know what they should do—that is, honor God in their business practices. If they ignore that, they sin. In a broader sense, James adds these words as an admonition for all his readers to do what he has written. They have been told, so they have no excuse.We tend to limit sins to specific acts—doing wrong. But James tells us that sin is also not doing what is right. (These two kinds of sin are sometimes called sins of commission and sins of omission.) It is a sin to lie; it can also be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid that person when you know he needs your friendship. We should be willing to help others as the Holy Spirit guides us. If God has directed you to do a kind act, to render a service to others, or to restore a relationship—do it. You will experience a renewed and refreshed vitality to your Christian faith.

James Trust God in Making Plans / 4:13–17

Here are specific areas where a business can practice good toward its employees and those it serves:

• Provide a peaceful place to work

• Give fair wages for the work

• Confront, defuse, and settle disputes and quarrels

• Exemplify humility in leadership

• Practice Christian values of honesty, integrity, and faithfulness

• Compete in the marketplace without falsehood or deception

Psalm 20:4 NIV

May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

What are your take aways?