God's Will For Real!

God’s Will for Real!

James 4:13-17

Have you ever had a decision and didn’t know what to do? Whether to get married, buy that first house, start a family, start a new job, quit an old job, is it time to retire? All of us at different times come to a fork in the road, all of us have decisions we must make every day. Sometimes we know the right answer, other times we don’t. What about the time when both decisions seem to be right? Ever have that situation?

A lot of times, you might hear words like purpose, plan, calling, destination, and God’s will as you talk about this whole idea of decision making.

I want to dive into this topic of God’s will. Is it possible to know God’s will? Does God have a will for us? What about planning? Should we make plans with our life?

Does God want me to marry that guy that girl? Does God want me to go on that missions trip? Does God want me to take that job? Does He want me to go to that school? I wonder, are you supposed to know God’s will? Is it something we should have readily in front of us, like a potion? Shake this up, God’s will comes out. Whole books are written on this topic. Many of them say, if you follow these three steps, you will know God’s will for your life. I must be stupid, but I can never get those 3 steps to work.

James 4:13–16 (ESV)

James 4:13–16 ESV

13 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”— 14 yet you 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. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

13Come 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”—

14yet you 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.

15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

James goes right into people who are planners. He is speaking specifically about merchants and making money. This ties into what we will look at next week. One author (David P. Nystrom) said, “James is not arguing against the making of money, or even against the desire to make money; rather, he is against the attitude of self – contained certainty…Such certainty is revelatory of an attitude that does not take God seriously enough, a mind – set for which the making of money outstrips devotion to God in importance.” Some questions that come to mind, is it wrong to make plans? Is it wrong to have goals? Is it wrong to say, I want to accomplish this or that? Douglas Moo had this to say on this passage, “Here are people, says James, who are deliberate and self-confident planners. They decide where they will go, when they will go, and how long they will stay. Moreover, they are quite sure about the outcome of all these plans.” James is speaking about people who are self-sufficient. When you are in high school, you look forward to getting out the house, being your own boss, being self-sufficient. When you are self-sufficient, you no longer need your parents. In the same way, sometimes, when we plan our lives, we don’t leave room for God. We take him out of the equation. What that does is it makes us the hero instead of God. I hate to burst your bubble, but

You Can’t Be the Hero of Your Story

We make our goals, our dreams, our wants, our desires the king of our lives. It becomes about us and what we want. The idea that James is forbidding Christians from all forms of planning or concern for the future I think is wrong. Taking out life insurance and saving for retirement, for example, are not condemned by James; these are good stewardship of the resources God gives us. James is saying that the problem here is any kind of planning for the future that stems from human arrogance in our ability to determine the course of future events. Look at verse 14:

James 4:14 (ESV)

James 4:14 ESV

14 yet you 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.

14yet you 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. James compares our lives to a mist. Mist shows up in the morning over a lake, but in a few hours, gone. Not even a memory, you can’t even tell it was there if you didn’t see it. In the book of Psalms our lives are compared to a breath. Proverbs 27:1 says:

Proverbs 27:1 (ESV)

Proverbs 27:1 ESV

1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

1Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

When we begin to realize just how short of a run we have in life, it should change our outlook. It should make us want to do something with our one and only life instead of wasting it. One author (Douglas Moo) said, “Human life is insubstantial and transitory, here one minute and gone the next. Illness, accidental death, or the return of Jesus could cut short our lives just as quickly as the morning sun dissipates the mist or as a shift in wind direction blows away smoke.” What James is saying is how can you plan your life out, you have no idea what lays ahead for you? You don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Realizing “the future is uncertain” not only teaches us trust in God, it helps us properly to value the present.

Realizing the Future is Uncertain :

1)Teaches us to Trust God

2) Helps us Properly Value the Present

To be obsessed with future plans may mark our failure to appreciate our present blessings. This is one of the things that I love and sometimes find annoying about little kids. They get so wrapped up in the moment. When William was a kid, I used to love to watch him eat. He doesn’t do this anymore, but when he was little, he would be so focused on that moment. He was zeroed in on that chicken nugget. That was all he was thinking about. He was enjoying every bit and taste of it. When I eat, many times I am on the last bite of the burger before I even think about the fact that I am eating. What am I doing? Thinking about what I am going to do next, who am I going to see, what am I going to study for next. The goal is to be content to be there in that moment.

That is the mindset we need to have when it comes to plans and what God wants for our lives. God is more interested in the journey than in the destination. Which makes you wonder, does God care about the destination? Does God have a specific will for your life that you can know? When we think of God’s will, we think of something that we will learn and immediately it will happen. Most of the people in the Bible, though, that God called to do something, had to wait. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness waiting for God’s will to be fulfilled. Jesus waited 30 years to start His earthly ministry. Noah spent 120 years waiting for it to rain while he built an ark.

James 4:15–16 (ESV)

James 4:15–16 ESV

15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

James then moves to how we need to think about our lives. After condemning those who think they can control their lives without any reference to God, he then says that we should make plans considering what God wants for us.

We Need to See our Lives as Events that God is Leading and Guiding.

Instead of saying, “I will do this” having the attitude that it is up to God and having the attitude of wanting to follow what God wants for our lives. A lot of times we say this, but James is saying, it needs to be more than words. What about this part on boasting in verse 16? It is boasting when we presume that we are in complete control of our own lives and do not need God. So how should you live your life? Do you make plans? How do you discover God’s will? Garry Friesen in his book Decision making and the will of God said, “If Christians spent as much time praying for God’s will as they did frantically looking for it, most of our problems would be eliminated.” For James, the real question is

How should You Approach Life when the Outcome is Uncertain?

Trust in God’s Graciousness, not in Human Plans.

James 4:17 (ESV)

James 4:17 ESV

17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

17So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James is saying, even though life is unpredictable and short, if you know what God wants you to do, if you don’t do it, you are sinning. Tom Patterson said, “I believe the bigger problem is this: we can understand enough of the Bible to cause us to change our lives radically. However, I suspect that most of us want to do what the Bible says to do, but later, not now. We know the Bible is right, but we procrastinate. We blame our failure of behavior on a failure of understanding when our failure of behavior is a rebellion against our understanding.” So the questions remain: is it possible to know God’s will, and what God wants you to do, and what plans he is calling to you.

Know that God has a Plan.

First is to know that God has a plan. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says:

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. The first step is knowing that God has a plan, and it is good, they are plans for wholeness to give us hope and a future. At the end of Forrest Gump, Forrest is standing at the grave of his wife Jenny with his son, and he says, “I don’t know if Mama or Lt. Dan was right, do we float around like a feather on a breeze, or do we have a destiny.”

Jeremiah is saying, you have a destiny. You have a plan, a hope, a future, you have a purpose. Often though, we go looking for the destiny we want, not the destiny God wants for us. We look for our plan, trying to get the things we want, instead of looking for God’s plan. You can float around like a feather on a breeze through life, or you can give up on your plan and follow God’s. You can decide to stop being the hero of the story and let God be the hero.

Ingredients to Find God’s Will:

1) Time To find that plan will take time. It will take time reading the Bible, talking with God, listening to God, talking with trusted friends and mentors. This is where we get off track a lot of times. I think we can handle that God has a plan for us, but we want the easy plan. We want the 3 easy installments of $19.95 with free shipping and boom, there is the plan. Unwrap the box, put a few pieces together and you have a plan. The IKEA Plan. Wouldn’t that be great? A lot of you right now are thinking, yes, give me that plan. Sorry. It doesn’t work that way. Think about any good relationship, any good vacation, any good event you have been a part, any great team you have been on at work or in a church. What did they all take? Time. The best things do. Patience, it always comes back to the one thing we want to skip.

Ingredients to Find God’s Will:

1) Time

2) Obedience

The next step is to make sure you are obeying God’s commandments. Love God will all that you are and Love your neighbor as yourself. If you are not doing those things, there is no way that you will be able to discern what God wants you to do. Your love of God and your willingness to show that love to those around you is what allows God to work through us. His will can only be done if we are moldable in His hands. He will not reveal to us what he would have us to do if we are not moldable.

Ingredients to Find God’s Will:

1) Time

2) Obedience

3) Perspective

Ingredients to Find God’s Will:

1) Time

2) Obedience

3) Perspective

The other thing we do is we start at the beginning, which seems logical. But when it comes to God’s will, we need to start with the end in mind. Here is what I mean, when we think about making plans, we don’t think about the end in mind. We usually make lists, pros and cons of a decision. In his book Spiritual leadership Henry Blackaby says a Christian should not make decisions that way. Instead, start with the end in mind. Ask the question, will this opportunity get me to where I believe God wants me? This one sentence has guided me and Joy in our personal decisions and how I lead this church. Start with the end in mind. There are so many great opportunities in front of us, but if it won’t get us to where God wants us, what will it do? Take us away from what God wants.

But to know where God wants us to be will take time praying with him, reading the Bible, talking with friends and trusted mentors about what they are sensing. The important thing to remember is that this is not cut and dry. This is not an easy process that always produces an answer right away. Remember, countless people in the Bible had to wait decades for God to reveal his plans. While this is frustrating, this is part of following God. God waits for us to be ready for him to reveal his plans, as well as making sure we are ready to fulfill them. In fact, I would bet that the reason we are often waiting on God to reveal his plan, is because it has more to do with us and where we are than God. Often, we are not ready for God’s plan, if he revealed it and allowed us to walk in it, we would mess it up.

Throughout my life, there has been one line that has helped me in discovering God’s will in situations and his plan for my life. It is to pray, “Wherever and whenever.” It gives God complete control. It is totally up to him. When we can honestly come to God and say that, he is free to guide and lead our lives. To take us to where he wants us to be, to do what he wants to do in us and what he wants us to do. That is the challenge today. To honestly pray today, God, wherever and whenever. I don’t want to float around like a feather on a breeze through life, I want to put my life in your hands. To stop making our plans, to give up on our plans and our stories, and our dreams; and to embrace God’s story, God’s plans, and God’s dreams.