HANDING OUR PLANS TO OUR LORD – James 4:13-17
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 29, 2020 under 2020 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; March 29, 2020 from James 4:13-17
Theme: As followers of Jesus, we must humbly submit our plans to our sovereign Lord.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Right now; we’re reading The Swiss Family Robinson. And just the other day, we read a portion that made me think of this morning’s passage.
The family had just been shipwrecked; but had all managed safely to get to the shore of an island. After a good night’s sleep, the father took one of his sons with him to go an explore their situation. They got their supplies and weapons and some food items ready; and were just about to go …
`Stop!’ I exclaimed, `we have still left something very important undone.’ `Surely not,’ said Fritz. `Yes,’ said I, `we have not yet joined in morning prayer. We are only too ready, amid the cares and pleasures of this life, to forget the God to whom we owe all things.’
And so; having remembered their neglect, they paused and turned their plans over to God. That sounds very much like the lesson we’re to learn in this morning’s passage in the New Testament book of James. In James 4:13-17, we’re told;
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin (James 4:13-17).
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Now this passage is reminding us of a problem we have in our lives as Christians—and it’s something that we need to change—especially in the remarkable times we’re living in right now.
This passage assumes that, as believers, we readily acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all of life. But when it comes down to the business of daily living, we very often set that fact aside; and function as if Jesus is not really our Lord. We acknowledge Him in the spiritual aspect of our lives; but we don’t acknowledge Him or invite His Lordship into the business aspects of everyday life. We make our daily plans, and set our life-goals, and go about accomplishing our dreams without pausing to acknowledge Him, or asking for His help, or turning to His word for guidance. We behave like believers in our spiritual and devotional life; but we often behave like unbelievers in the ‘daily business’ aspects of life.
And the difficult times we’re living in right now present us with an opportunity—as followers of Jesus—to repent of that mindset; to change our mind and change our practices. It’s an opportunity for us to begin—now—to put into practice a daily, ongoing habit of conscious, dependent trust in our Lord.
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Now; let me tell you a little about this man named James. Did you know that he was the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Jesus, in His humanity, was born of the virgin Mary. He was conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit—without Joseph being His biological father. But after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary had other children together. In Mark 6:3, the people of Jesus’ hometown Nazareth spoke of Him and said,
“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3).
The Lord Jesus had four half-brothers, and at least two half-sisters. And James—the author of this New Testament letter was one of those half-brothers. He originally didn’t believe on Jesus; but after Jesus rose from the dead and met him, he believed and became one of His followers. James shared a lot of ‘growing-up’ memories with the Lord Jesus. And after he believed on Jesus, James was a transformed man, and became the pastor of the first Christian church in all of church history—the church in Jerusalem. And he wrote this letter to give to his fellow Jewish Christians some practical instructions on how to live the Christian life.
Personally, I believe that the Book of James is the greatest Christian counseling manual ever written. James doesn’t get into a lot of detailed theology in it. Instead, he lays down some practical steps of action for us to take in daily life as a follower of Jesus. It’s a ‘get up and do it now’ kind of book. It’s the New Testament version of the Book of Proverbs.
And one of those practical pieces of instruction is the one before us—in James 4:13-17. In it, Pastor James teaches us that we must not fall into the habit of living our daily lives as if God was not there. We must not say that we believe on Jesus as our Lord and Savior; and then deny it by going on to conduct our lives without Him, as if we were our own lords and masters instead of Him. To do so—to refuse in our daily planning to acknowledge God’s sovereign power, or Jesus’ Lordship, or the clear commandments of God’s word; and to just run off without a deep sense of dependency upon Him—is nothing else in the world but sinful arrogance.
And now, in the midst of this crisis—now that we are all having to stay in our homes in ways that we never would have imagined just a few of weeks ago; now that we are facing a lot of uncertainties about the daily patterns we used to call ‘normal life’; now that some of us may even be facing some uncertainties about life itself—now is a time to change our bad habit of sinful independence and of a failure to acknowledge Jesus’ total Lordship over every detail of our lives.
Now is a good time for us to get into the ongoing habit of submitting our daily plans to our sovereign Lord.
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Let’s look at this passage together. In it, we see that …
1. IT’S ALRIGHT TO MAKE PLANS IN LIFE.
In verse 13, James wrote; “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit …’”
Pastor James didn’t speak against the whole idea of making plans. In fact, in this passage, he sets forth a very good pattern for the making of plans in life. When he wrote this letter, he was writing to Jewish Christians who were scattered from their homeland because of persecution. They were in a time of crisis; and many of them had to completely restructure the ways that they went about business. Their situation was a little like ours in that respect. And here, we read of what many of them probably had to do.
First, they would say something about the date on which a plan for some particular business venture might be started: “Today or tomorrow …” Every plan of any kind—in order to be practical—needs to have a start-up date. And here, someone is presented as drawing a circle on the calendar. “We start today”; or, “We start “tomorrow”. We all count on the idea that a calendar can be trusted; and we assume that once we draw the circle on the day, that day will come around as scheduled and be there for us.
And then secondly, they would say something about where they will go on that date: “we will go to such and such a city …” You not only have to have a start-up date; but you also have to have a start-up location. This is sounding like a conversation between an ancient merchant and his business partner. They will pack-up their wares and travel to a specific city and set-up business. They will go to where the potential buyers are.
And thirdly, they would say something about how long they’ll stay: that they would “spend a year there …” Once they had established a start-up date—so that they can get their wares all ready for sale, and once they had established a location in which those wares could be sold, they establish a duration of time that they’ll be there. They don’t plan to live there, of course. They just plan to do business there—expecting that a certain amount of time will sufficiently bring them a desired amount of profit.
Fourthly, they would say something about what they’ll do when they begin at the set time, move their wares to a certain city, and set up business for a certain duration: they will “buy and sell”. The word that James uses is in the original language is an interesting one. It basically means to ‘travel’ or ‘trade’ or business. The word he used is the one from which we get the word “emporium”. An emporium is a large trading center in which several merchants gather together to do business. And so; that’s what this plan is all about—traveling to a place where business is good, and to carry on the business of buying and selling.
And finally, they would say something about the goal of it all: “… and make a profit”. This was no sight-seeing trip. This wasn’t a vacation. This was business. And the business of business is profit.
Now; when I read all that, I think of what a wise structure this is for making a plan. It’s got the “who”, the “what”, the “when”, the “where”, the “how”, and the “why” all laid out. And I don’t get a sense that James is speaking against the idea of making a plan at all. The problem was not with what was in the plan. Rather, the problem was what was missing from the plan. Nowhere in it is there any acknowledgment of dependency upon God. It’s a plan that, for all intents and purposes, was drawn up as if God didn’t even exist—or if He did exist, as if He wasn’t important or relevant to the task.
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Now; James was writing these words to correct unbelievers. Rather, he is writing these words to warn Christians—people who, in principle at least, believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ over their lives.
Do you notice that he began by saying, “Come now, you who say …” It’s almost as if he was saying, “Now; stop and think of what you’re doing. You lay all your plans out like there is a certainty to them—as if just laying them out carefully will guarantee that they will occur as planned—as if you were sovereign.”
But he went on to show us that …
2. BECAUSE OF THE FRAILTIES OF LIFE, WE CANNOT KNOW WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING.
Just think of our own current situation. Just think of how many very enormous and promising business plans have suddenly had to be scrapped in a matter of days. Just think of how many long-term corporate budget projections have just suddenly become obsolete. Just a few weeks ago, we were living in a booming, come-back economy; but now, we’re all having to tighten our belts in ways we never thought we would. Similarly, James—in verse 15—said that you can presume to make all your plans, “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
As I was thinking about this morning’s passage, I was reminded of a parable that our Lord taught. There was a time when there was a great crowd that had gathered around Jesus; and someone in the crowd shouted out to Jesus, and asked him to tell his brother to divide an inheritance with him. The man was trying to make Jesus his personal family estate lawyer. Jesus refused to do that; and instead warned the man about the dangers of covetousness.
And He then turned and told the crowd this parable;
“The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’” (Luke 12:16-20).
We often call that ‘the parable of the rich fool’. And Jesus let us know why the man in the parable was foolish when He said, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (v. 21). The man-made an excellent plan for himself—except that he forgot one thing. He was not God; and he couldn’t know the future or control circumstances. He presumptuously laid up for Himself everything except a dependency upon the God who is sovereign. And he lost everything in one night—including his own soul.
Our lives are just as much on the line as that man’s was. Every one of us is nothing more than a frail jar of clay that can easily be broken. Isaiah 2:22 doesn’t pay us much of a compliment when it says that our ‘breath is in our nostrils’. Pinch our nose long enough and we cease to live. Our lives truly are like a vapor—little more, as one preacher put it than the steam that rises up from your morning coffee. Visible one second; gone the next.
And so, we should never boast in our plans as if we could establish them as something permanent and certain. King Solomon put it this way in Proverbs 27:1,
Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth (Proverbs 27:1).* * * * * * * * * *
So; in the light of all the uncertainties of life, what should we do instead? Should we simply cease to make plans altogether? Should we just become passive and indifferent to the circumstances?—just go with the flow? No. We should still make plans. But as Pastor James goes on to show us …
3. AS BELIEVERS WE SHOULD ALWAYS SUBMIT OUR PLANS TO OUR SOVEREIGN LORD.
In verse 15 he wrote, “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” I like how Pastor James puts this. It’s not just that we should say, “If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.” We should take it further than that. We should say, “I have my plans; but if the Lord wills, I will even be allowed to live at all and take a breath for another day—and then perhaps also, if He wills, I will do this or that.”
That’s how utterly dependent we are upon Him. And that’s how we should plan and pray.
If you have ever read the letters of Paul in the New Testament, and read from the book of Acts about his journeys, perhaps you would have noticed how he himself does this. He was constantly on the go. He was constantly announcing his plans to his fellow Christians. But he was very careful to submit it all to God’s will. Just consider these examples:
– In Acts 18:21, we’re told that he came to visit the Christians in Ephesus; but didn’t stay, saying,“I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.”
– In 1 Corinthians 4:18-19, he wrote and told some in the Corinthian church, “Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills …”
– In 1 Corinthians 16:5-7, he told the believers there about all his plans and said, “Now I will come to you when I pass through Macedonia (for I am passing through Macedonia). And it may be that I will remain, or even spend the winter with you, that you may send me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not wish to see you now on the way; but I hope to stay a while with you, if the Lord permits.”
– In Philippians 2:19, he wrote and told the Philippian Christians, “But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state.” And in verse 24, he added, “But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.” He trusted the Lord in the matter because it was all up to him.
– Maybe Paul wrote the Book of Hebrews. But whoever it was, in Hebrews 6:3, the writer said that he wanted to move on in his teaching to the next subject; writing, “And this we will do if God permits.”
And dear brothers and sisters; that should be our attitude too. We shouldn’t just slap a Deo valente on the end of everything out of some unthinking habit. Instead, we should consciously and deliberately submit our plans to the only One who has complete control of everything; and for whom everything is ordered according to His good will.
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And look at what James says at the end of this passage. We must make our plans with a complete surrender to the sovereignty of God—we must hand our plans to Him for His complete revision and supervision—because …
4. TO REFUSE TO DO THIS IS SINFUL ARROGANCE.
James went on to speak of the Christian who makes his or her plans without acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty; and says in verse 16, “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” That’s quite a statement; isn’t it? James doesn’t simply say that making our plans without submission to God is just a bad case of negligence or forgetfulness. It’s a matter of arrogance. Who do we think we are?
The times we’re living in should serve as a great lesson for us. Nothing of what we plan for ourselves is certain. It’s all subject to things outside of our control. Even a tiny, invisible virus can change everything dramatically. For us to plan, and act, and work as if this wasn’t true is nothing short of arrogance.
And this means that we need to make it our habit of life to submit our plans to the Lord, entrust them to Him in prayer, and depend upon His sovereignty in all things. I believe that’s why James says at the end—in verse 17—“Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
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So; these are times of great readjustment, and re-prioritizing, and reordering of the details of everyday life. It really is an opportunity to make great changes.
Let’s make sure that the greatest change we make—the one that will end up bringing God’s blessing upon all of the other areas of our life—is that we cultivate the regular habit of humbly submitting all of our plans to our sovereign Lord. Let’s, of course, make our plans; but let’s hand those plans over to Him whenever we do so.
Let’s do as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6—and remember the promise that is made to us in it:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
EA
