"When Your Goals Are Not God's!"
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Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”
Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.
How people wish they could know what the future holds!
According to a story with the BBC, one in seven Americans have seen a psychic or fortune teller.
In the US alone, $2 Billion a year is spent on “…palmistry, cartomancy, mediumship, aura readings, and astrology,” employing roughly 85,000 people!
AND we’re not the worst country! According to a story in the UK Telegraph, “Italy's worst recession since the Second World War has prompted Italians to spend a staggering £5 billion [$6.5 Billion] a year seeking financial advice not from banks and brokers but fortune tellers and astrologers.”
But God has NOT allowed us a clear view! He has given us the ability to recall the past, but NOT to know the future!
W. A. Criswell observed:
There must have been a kindness and goodness of God in thus veiling the future from our eyes; for if a man knew what the morrow would bring, he would live in constant fear and foreboding. Dying, he would die a thousand deaths before dying just once. Fainting, he would faint a thousand times under a stroke that was yet to be delivered. God hides the future from our eyes that we might live in confidence and in hope!
IN this concluding section of James 4, the author is reminding he readers that while they cannot predict the future, they must learn how to face it honestly!
James is telling them that they should not plan the future without taking God into consideration or presume upon a future they cannot control. Further, they must not postpone until the future what God has instructed them to do today!
The THREE mistakes these early Christians were making are often repeated by Christians today. The WARNING to that generation will certainly be helpful to this one!
MISTAKE #1 – PLANNING the FUTURE WITHOUT GOD! – (4:13)
MISTAKE #1 – PLANNING the FUTURE WITHOUT GOD! – (4:13)
James’ readers have already been rebuked for demonstrating a spirit of independence from God!
(vv.1-10) – They sought the world’s pleasures instead of loving God!
(vv.11-12) – By judging one another, they attempted to evade the ultimate judgment of God!
NOW the final indifference is uncovered:
(v.13) – They planned their business future and have omitted God from the process!
James uses an expression that is only found in one other place in the NT – (5:1)!
“Come now…” – We might say, “Now see here…” It usually implies disapproval and conveys a sense of urgency!
NOTE: While these merchants are to be blamed for leaving God OUT of their plans, they are NOT faulted for planning!
In many ways, this is a model business plan!
1. The PLAN is CONSTRUCTED – “Today or tomorrow we will travel…”
1. The PLAN is CONSTRUCTED – “Today or tomorrow we will travel…”
2. The PLACE is CHOSEN – “…to such and such a city”
2. The PLACE is CHOSEN – “…to such and such a city”
3. The PERIOD is CALCULATED – “…and spend a year there”
3. The PERIOD is CALCULATED – “…and spend a year there”
4. The PURPOSE is CONSIDERED – “…and do business” (NIV – “…carry on business”)
4. The PURPOSE is CONSIDERED – “…and do business” (NIV – “…carry on business”)
5. The PROFIT is CALCULATED – “…and make a profit”
5. The PROFIT is CALCULATED – “…and make a profit”
NOT BAD, right? No one plans to fail, they just fail to plan!
Didn’t JESUS teach the folly of failing to count the cost BEFORE beginning an enterprise (Luke 14)?
What is denounced by Jacob is planning that leaves God out!
MISTAKE #2 – PRESUMING TO KNOW THE FUTURE! – (4:14)
MISTAKE #2 – PRESUMING TO KNOW THE FUTURE! – (4:14)
In planning their future business growth, these men made the following errors:
1. They FAILED to COMPREHEND the COMPLEXITY of Life! – (v.14a)
1. They FAILED to COMPREHEND the COMPLEXITY of Life! – (v.14a)
We simply do not know the future!
In “Margin” (1995), Richard Swenson, M.D. writes:
Thirty years ago, futurists peering into their crystal balls predicted that one of the biggest problems for coming generations would be what to do with their abundant spare time. I remember hearing this prediction often. In 1967, testimony before a Senate sub-committee claimed that be 1985 people could be working just 22 hours a week or 27 weeks a year or could retire at age 38…
According to a Harris survey, the amount of leisure time enjoyed by the average American had decreased 37% since 1973. Over the same period, the average workweek, including commuting has jumped from under 41 hours to nearly 47 hours[Today, the average work week for adults employed full time is 47 hours and the average commute is 4.35 hours per week]!
The POINT: No matter how hard one tries, we cannot even comprehend the complexities of life, let alone accurately predict what will happen in the future!
2. They FAILED to COMPREHEND the UNCERTAINTY of Life – (v.14b) – “…What is your life?”
2. They FAILED to COMPREHEND the UNCERTAINTY of Life – (v.14b) – “…What is your life?”
They could not possibly have known what they needed to know to make such a bold prediction! Their statement was raw arrogance (cf. v.16)!
Their ASSUMPTION: They could go where they wanted, do what they wanted, for as long as they wanted!
3. They FAILED to COMPREHEND the BREVITY of Life – (v.14c)
3. They FAILED to COMPREHEND the BREVITY of Life – (v.14c)
Anyone born of woman is short of days and full of trouble.
He blossoms like a flower, then withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last.
“Lord, make me aware of my end and the number of my days so that I will know how short-lived I am.
In fact, you have made my days just inches long, and my life span is as nothing to you. Yes, every human being stands as only a vapor. Selah
As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field;
when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known.
An unknown writer has captured the way life slips through our fingers with these words:
When as a child, I laughed and wept—time crept.
When as a youth, I dreamed and talked—time walked.
When I became a full grown man—time ran.
When older still I grew—time flew.
Soon I shall find in passing on—time gone!
Then he told them a parable: “A rich man’s land was very productive.
He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops?
I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there.
Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’
“That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
The man is called a “fool,” not because he was planning for the future, but because he thought he was in total control of it!
MISTAKE #3 – postponing what should be done today! – (4:15-17)
MISTAKE #3 – postponing what should be done today! – (4:15-17)
It seems that the Bible has written the word, “NOW” in large letters in the Gospel message!
For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!
The time for obedience is NOW!
In BUSINESS terms, yesterday is a canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is the only cash we have!
In the time left in this message, let’s consider the lessons from these two verses:
1. “Deo Volente” – (v.15)
1. “Deo Volente” – (v.15)
If you have read letters between Christians 100 years ago, you would have noticed the postscript, D.V. – abbreviations for the Latin, “Deo Volente” [dāō vəˈlentē], which means, “God willing!”
(v.15) – “Instead…” James is offering the alternative to falsely believing we are in control…
“…If the Lord wills…” is an acknowledgement that you want NOTHING without God’s direction and God’s approval!
NOTE that he is not asking us to forego planning, “…we will live and do this or that.”
James is asking us to live in RECOGNITION that GOD, not man, is in control!
2. Facing Up to PRIDE – (v.16)
2. Facing Up to PRIDE – (v.16)
They planned without God because they thought THEY were in control—they were the masters of their fate!
They PRESUMED about tomorrow because they thought nothing could happen outside their control.
They PROCRASTINATED because they assumed that they would be able to do tomorrow what they chose NOT to do today!
“ ‘This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.
But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me— that I am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration.
CONCLUSION – (4:17)
CONCLUSION – (4:17)
If we isolate this last verse from the context, the idea of the sin of omission has never been given a more pointed expression!
Knowledge and responsibility go hand in hand! To sin ignorantly is one thing. To sin in the face of known truth is something altogether different!
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.
And that servant who knew his master’s will and didn’t prepare himself or do it will be severely beaten.
But the one who did not know and did what deserved punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected.
The APPLICATION of today’s message could not be clearer: “If the Lord wills…”
