28 Jun James #10 – Jesus’ Conflicts, Your Conflicts (James 4:1-12)
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– So what are you looking forward to hoping for dreaming about? See, the way life works is we have a vision of a future, a hope, a dream, a longing and then we start to plan so that we can have our life going in that direction. And for some of you that’s, I wanna graduate and finally start to make some money to pay off those school loans for others of you it’s, I’m single I’d like to get married for others of you we’re married and we’d like to start having kids for some of you it’s time to buy a home. It’s time to pay off debt. It’s time to downsize ’cause you’re empty nesters and the kids have already grown. For some of you it’s moving up in your career. For others of you it’s expanding and growing your company. For some of you, your visions, your hopes, your goals your dreams, your longings, they’re more relational. It’s reconnecting with people reconciling with people. I don’t know what your vision is, but here’s what happens. We get a vision, a dream, a longing, a hope and then we start to plan for it. And this is how you can know what’s really important in your life. The things that are most important are the things that get a plan. They get a plan. And if you wanna figure out how to put together a plan you start considering your options for counsel. Where am I gonna figure out how to organize my life and my energy and my time and my resources and my money so that I could lean into that future hope that I have. And if we pursue the options set before us almost all of them are in the realm of business. All the management, budgeting, scheduling, planning coaching is in the realm of business. And what we do then is we tend to go to those areas and then fish out some principles to help us get our life together for the vision that we have for our tomorrow. And as you do that, you’ll find that some of the counsel you’ll get is really ungodly. The principles are actually completely opposed to a lot of the big ideas of scripture. Some of the counsel you’ll get is godless. Meaning it doesn’t say anything negative about God. It just doesn’t say anything about God. It’s your life, your dreams, your hopes, your goals your vision for your destiny. No reference to God at all. Ecclesiastes calls this life under the sun as if there’s no one above the sun that we come from and give an answer to. And some of the counsel you’ll get is God light. It’s sort of best business practices and tips and tricks with vague general spiritual references. Like don’t overlook your soul make sure to include your spiritual life. Maybe a quote from a religious leader or something of that nature. And the result is that we can have a vision for our future. And we can have plans that really don’t include the Lord. And it can happen very, very easily and very, very subtly. And it’s nothing new. It’s nothing new. In fact, pastor James in James 4:13-17 this is exactly what he’s talking about to his people a few thousand years ago. And he’s talking about Jesus’ life and your life. And he’s gonna talk about how to see your life. And here’s the problem. If you don’t know where you come from if you don’t know why you’re here and you don’t know where you’re going you don’t know what to do do. And subsequently you don’t know how to plan. And so he’s gonna address this and he’s gonna talk about life. And the first thing he’s gonna teach us is that life is uncertain. This is gonna be a super practical sermon. Here’s what Jesus little brother James has to say James, 4:13-16. Life is uncertain. Come now you who say today or tomorrow. So let me ask you, what are you planning on doing tomorrow? What do you have planned for the rest of the day? What’s your next week look like? What’s your next month look like? What’s your next year look like? How far out do your plans go? Question. Is it a sin to have plans? Yes or no? No. The Bible talks a lot about planning. Proverbs talks a ton about how wise it is to seek good counsel and make a wise plan. Is it a problem to have a schedule and to have things organized in advance? Yes or no. No. It’s why you’re here. You made it on time. Congratulations. You had a plan and you executed it, welcome. It’s not a sin to have a vision. It’s not a sin to make a plan. It’s not a sin to be organized. So what’s the problem? Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit. These are their business plans. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. There’s the issue. We’ll skip one little verse and come back to it in just a moment. He continues. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills see what they have said is we will do this. And he’s saying, “Well, what about the Lord?” It’d be better to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. The problem is not when we have a vision, a hope, a dream, a plan the vision is when it doesn’t include the Lord. The problem is when it’s out of arrogance and not humility it’s seeking our will not God’s will. That’s the problem. What he’s talking about here is hubris and this can refer to any and every aspect of life. But here he’s speaking specifically in regards to business, because a lot of hubris tends to be connected to business. A lot of boasting and promising and planning tends to be in relation to business. Our company’s gonna do this. And our portfolio is gonna do that. And our stock is gonna perform at this level. And he says, “Nobody knows the future. “That’s sort of a big assumption.” And it lacks humility, which means it lacks integrity. But we can do this in any aspect of our life. Next year, I’m gonna graduate. Next year, I’m gonna get married. Next year, I’m gonna get a job. Next year, we’re gonna start our family. Next year, we’re gonna pay off our debt. Next year, next year, next year, next year. And he says, “Be careful, be careful.” You need to remember if the Lord wills and what he’s really attacking here are two awful assumptions and presumptions one is in regards to sovereignty. The other is in regards to separation. Well, the problem here is that it is easy for us to behave or believe as if we were sovereign over our lives and our future. And if you find someone who’s visionary, leader organized, driver, I know a guy like this. They can, we can talk with great certainty. We’re gonna do this and we’re gonna do that. And it’s gonna be like this and it’s gonna go like that. And the impression can be given that you’re sovereign, that you’re in charge that you’re all knowing that you’re in God’s seat, that you see tomorrow. And you know exactly what tomorrow is gonna bring but we’re not sovereign. We don’t know what the future holds. This struck me early in ministry. There was a lovely young godly couple. They fell in love. They love Jesus. They were planning their wedding. He got cancer and died before they ever made it to the alter. See their vision for their future was get married start a family, grow old together but that’s not what happened ’cause life is uncertain. The issue of sovereignty and the issue of separation. And what they’ve done here is they’ve separated their life. They’ve separated their life into that which is secular like work. And that which is spiritual like church. And what’s secular is about facts like business and government and law. Well, what’s secular. That’s about faith, experiences your personal relationship with God that doesn’t affect the rest of your life. That which is secular is a public issue. This is how you behave in business. This is how you behave as a citizen, but the spiritual, the faith it’s private, it’s internal. It’s not external. You don’t share it with anyone. It doesn’t affect the rest of your life. And what they’ve done is they’ve created a firewall in their life between their relationship with God and all of their other relationships. Our culture has not moved from this fatal flaw, today people will say, “Well, that’s religion and it shouldn’t affect business. “And it shouldn’t affect politics “and it shouldn’t affect sexuality “and it shouldn’t affect morality. “And it should not be in the public arena.” And as a Christian, we say, “No, this is an old problem. “Our relationship with Jesus affects everything.” How we do business, how we vote, how we behave how we interact with others, how we see the world how we spend our money, how we organize our days what we consider our priorities because we’re not sovereign. Jesus is. We don’t know tomorrow. Jesus does. And our life is not separated into things that involve Jesus and things that don’t. As sovereign Lord, he rules over all of history, all the nations all the cultures, all the races and all of our life. And so what James is saying is don’t live your life like an atheist while attending church. And that’s what they’re doing their language and their goal setting and their planning is exactly the same as the atheist. God doesn’t factor into it at all. Just predict the future. Best estimation, organizational alignment, goal setting and march forward. James says, “It would be far better. “If you realized these things will only happen “if the Lord wills.” So how many of you are drivers? You’re active, you’re planners, your get stuff done people. How many of you are like that? You’re glad to raise your hand and I gave you something to do. You’re welcome. Is he saying, because you don’t know tomorrow don’t plan anything don’t pursue anything? Is that what he’s saying? No. He’s saying pursue it humbly. Write it in pencil. Put it not in a closed hand but in an open hand, otherwise you’ll do this. You’ll make promises that you can’t deliver on because the Lord will change the future. Now, how many of you are more passive? You’re easygoing. You’re like, “Hey, the Lord is sovereign. “That’s why I don’t make a plan. “I just trust him.” And if you are married, I apologize. And we have redemption groups for you guys anyways. So let’s say you’re the more passive you’re like you know what? Planning, writing things down. I trust the Lord. He’s got a plan. I’m glad one of us does. You’re more that way. How many of you are more that way? I’m gonna make you do something. Raise your hand. Okay. It’s a start. It’s a humble start, but at least we got you doing something. Okay. Good job. For those of you who are like that does it say planning is bad. Some of you be like, yay. An anti planning verse, finally, a life verse for me. I don’t need a schedule. I don’t need a budget. I don’t need a plan. Yay. That’s not what it says. That’s not what it says. What does it mean when he says, “If we consider, if the Lord wills, if the Lord desires if the Lord decrees.” Now, truly this can be a Christian cliche, right? Actually, this can be a Muslim cliche lots of different religions. Oh If Allah wills, if the Lord wills if God wills and it just gets thrown out there. How many of you there’s somebody in your life that’s really religious. And they’ll just throw this out all the time. Oh Lord willing Lord willing. Or if the Lord wills. You’re at dinner, and you’re like, “Hey could you pass the salad?’ “Oh, Lord willing. “I will pass the salad.” Lord willing, I won’t stab you with a salad fork for saying Lord willing. You’re you don’t need to say it all the time for everything. Right? ‘Cause it could become a Christian cliche. We don’t need more Christian cliches. The goal is not to have this, the Lord wills. If the Lord wills Lord willing be a cliche, but a conviction, a conviction. And to say, if the Lord wills, it is saying I have sought the Lord and wise counsel. And I prayed and planned. And I believe to the best of my understanding what I’m planning on doing is right in the sight of the Lord and what the Lord has for me to do, but I could be wrong. Therefore, the Lord is welcome to change my plans because his will overrides my will. And I trust that his will is glorious for him and good for me. What that allows for those of you who are more active is humility. For those of you who are passive it’ll allow you to have more confidence. Some of us get ourselves in trouble saying the Lord said, let’s do it. And then he changes the circumstances. And you’re stuck in a quandary. It’s like, well, do I lose credibility by saying that we’re going to change the plan? Or do I march forward without the Lord? The way out of that is humility. And to say, “I believe this is best “and the Lord can change his plan for us. “But as of now, this is what we’re doing “and where we’re going.” For those of you who are more passive you may lack confidence. You may say, “I don’t wanna say the Lord told me and I need to do this ’cause I could be wrong. And I know that I make mistakes. And sometimes I’m out of the Lord’s will. And you could say the Lord wills me to do this and the Lord wills to change that perhaps. And when he does, I will yield to that. What that allows you to have is more confidence ’cause you don’t need to say, “I know exactly.” You can say, “You know what? “I think this is right. “And if it’s not, “I’m inviting the Lord to redirect my steps.” More humility for the confidence, more confidence for the humble to proceed together into the will of God. If the Lord wills, if the Lord wills. His first principle is that life is uncertain. His second is that life is brief. We’ll come back to this verse James 4:14, the second half. Here’s the question. James is filled with a lot of great questions. Here’s another one. What is your life? I mean, what a question? Where do you come from? Do you know? Where are you going? Do you know? Why are you here on earth? Do you know? What is your life? What are you supposed to do with it? Massive question. This is almost the entirety of philosophy orbits around various answers to this question, sir Arnold Toynbee is the greatest story and it makes this amazing observation that the Western world in which we live is perhaps the first civilization that doesn’t tell its citizens why they exist. We don’t know. We don’t have an answer to this question. How many of you didn’t get this in school? What is your life? 1 0 1. What is your life? 2 0 1. What is your life? 3 0 1. Nobody knows. We get confused. We get disorganized. We get depressed. We get overwhelmed. We get exhausted. We get discouraged. We get suicidal. ‘Cause we don’t know the answer to this question. And once we answer this question that really helps answer all the other questions all the little questions they orbit around the big question, what is your life? What is your life? For you all are, what’s the word? A mist, that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Now let me do a little bit of Bible work for you. That question. What is your life? It really is the entirety of the book of Ecclesiastes. The Bible has a genre of literature called wisdom literature and wisdom literature is really about the very intense, personal practical stuff of life. What do you do with your marriage relationships your dating relationships, your finances, your work your kids, your sexuality, your diet, your enemies. What do you do with the stuff in your life? Really practical. In the old Testament this would be Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon, Job, Proverbs, wisdom literature. There’s far less wisdom literature in the New Testament. James is wisdom literature it reads a lot like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. The question that Ecclesiastes considers is this question. What is your life? And here, James is picking up a theme from Ecclesiastes. A very important theme. And James is here echoing. He’s a Bible teacher. He’s a Bible student. In the book of Ecclesiastes, it starts with this word. Hebel. It’s a Hebrew word. It appears about 38 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is about 12 chapters long. Ecclesiastes is a book written by Solomon who was the wisest man in the world other than Jesus. The richest man who’s ever lived. The most successful man who’s ever lived. And he lived his life filled with political conquest and financial excess, and a thousand wives and girlfriends and harems and literally ships of gold and stables filled with horses. It was unbelief. People would travel from around the world just for a few minutes to ask him a question. And at the end of his life, as an older man he sits down to write Ecclesiastes. And it’s a book of remorse. It’s a book of regret. It’s a book of repentance. And he’s writing to those who are young and he’s trying to discourage them from following the life course that he did. And he starts his book Ecclesiastes with the word Hebel. Hebel Hebel says the teacher everything is Hebel. And as I told you, 38 times it shows up in 12 chapters. Life is Hebel say, well, what is that? He boils life down to one word. Some of your translations will say meaningless. “Meaningless, meaningless.” says the teacher everything’s meaningless. First existentialist, nihilist, I guess. It sounds like he lived in Seattle during the nineties and played in a band. Life doesn’t have to be meaningless, but it can some of your translations will say vanity vanity vanity life is vanity and life doesn’t have to be lived in vain, but it can be. You can have a wasted life instead of an invested life. Others prefer this word. And I believe James gives us a great clue for what life ultimately is that word Hebel it has a lot of meanings because life is complex. But ultimately I believe James here gets the best interpretation of that word Hebel. What is life? Life is a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. How many of you as you get older it feels like time is moving faster. It’s true. Right? Remember when you were a little kid you had that crazy aunt she’d come up and say, “Oh, you’re getting so big. “It moves so fast.” And like, “Why does she say that?” And now you go up to little kids. You’re like, “Oh, you’re getting so big and time moves so fast.” You’re like, oh my gosh, I’m the crazy uncle. And I’m echoing my crazy aunt. It does, right? ‘Cause when you’re little you want time to go faster. I wanna be done with this grade. I wanna be graduated. I wanna get my license. I wanna start my career. I wanna get married. I wanna… And then as you get older, you’re looking for the break in life. Slow it down, slow it down. It’s going too fast because life is a mist. I’ll give you an illustration of this. For us it’s the beginning of baseball season. We figured it out. We’ve got about a hundred games for our three sons plus practices and our daughter runs track. So about this time of year grace and I start a side business that consists of air traffic controller and cab company. Just trying to get everyone organized. And so yesterday, two of the boys Calvin who’s 12 and Gideon who’s eight. They had their jam berries. Giddy had two games. Calvin had two games and it was freezing out. I mean, only in Seattle do you have your first games in 36 degree weather. Most people call that spring skiing. We call it baseball season. I’m sitting at Gideon’s game early in the morning and it’s so cold out that I take a deep breath and I breathe out. What do I see? I see the mist of my breath but just for a fleeting instance. And then it’s gone forever. Your life is like that. Later in the day when we finished all of our games and we came home and we were freezing, we started a fire. That’s what Giddy and I like to do. It’s our little routine on a cold day, we chop wood, we stack wood, we put the paper underneath. Giddy loves to start the fire and then he’ll blow on it. What usually emerges is a puff of smoke. And there it is. And then it’s gone forever. Your life is like that. It’s like that. That’s what he’s saying. That’s what Ecclesiastes is declaring. That’s what the holy spirit wants us to be remembering that our life is like that. And when you’re young, you don’t really think about this. I can still remember as a kid I didn’t think about death ever. And then I was 10 years of age and my parents showed up at my boy scout troop. We were at a kid’s house doing our boy scout, whatever stuff. And my mom and dad showed up early, which was very unusual. And as they got out of the car I could see my mom sobbing and weeping and devastated. And my dad comforting her and walking with her toward me. And I could just tell something’s wrong. And my mom said, “Grandpa George just died.” I loved my grandpa with all my heart. I would go to his house. We would eat caramel apples stay up late and watch wrestling. All right. And then we’d work in his garage. He’d teach me how to use a band bandsaw on a router and a table saw. And we’d build stuff. He taught me how to ride a bike. I loved my grandpa, George. I was 10. I adored him and he was gone. He was gone forever. I remember the first time I knew someone who was young that died. A friend of mine, his sister died. She was like eight or 10 or something, little, young, a child. And I remember she died and I went to the funeral and all I remember as a kid sitting in the funeral and I was still in elementary school at the time was just thinking you don’t have to be old to die. Young people can die too, that had never really entered my mind. Recently, Gideon has been asking me questions about heaven. I don’t know what’s going on in his little mind but he’s very intrigued by the kingdom of God and eternal life. We were driving to baseball practice the other day. And he’s in the backseat. “Hey dad.” Yeah, buddy. “How old will we be in heaven?” I don’t know, man. Good question. I said, “I hope we’re young so we can do stuff.” “Me too.” That’s for sure. and he asked me he said, “Do you think your grandpa George “and my grandpa Gib are hanging out right now with Jesus?” I don’t know Giddy. Maybe so. It’s starting to dawn on Gideon even at the age of eight, that life is a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. You can take this one of two ways as a great discouragement or a great encouragement to not waste any time. Everyone’s going to die and most die with a lot of regrets. If you’ve had the honor of being with someone in their dying, life gets very clear. Here’s what people don’t say. Bring me all my trophies, I wanna see them one last time. Bring me my grade point average, bring me my resume. Bring me my performance review. Bring me the org chart. One more time. I just wanna see where I fall in the pecking order. Life gets very clear when time is very short. It’s ultimately people and memories that matter. And we take those with us to the kingdom of God. There’s a story that illustrates this. A friend sent it to me. I found it tremendously clarifying. So I wanna share it with you. I’m gonna introduce you to two people in this story Ed and Florine. If the guys would be so kind we’ll show a photo of Ed and Florine. Here’s their story. If you’re married, this is where you hold hands. If you don’t wanna hold hands with the person you’re married to this is where you really need to hold hands. If you’re here with your child, you can hold their hand too. If you’re engaged to be married you can hold hands. Florine and Ed’s love story began more than 60 years ago. When the two met at a party. When the young engineer went to Florine’s parents to ask for her hand in marriage they refused because the young woman was recovering at that time from a horrific car accident which claimed the life of her first husband whom she had married only three months earlier. Here’s Florine’s story. She’s young. She’s in love. She gets married. Her and her husband have plans and in a car crash, he dies three months later. He breaths his last breath and life is a breath. It’s here today and gone tomorrow. Somehow this shaped Florine, I don’t wanna read too much into the story, but she planned her future to enjoy it. The story continues, but Ed was determined to be with Florine and would not take no for an answer declaring to his future in-laws that he was willing to carry his beloved in his arms every day. The couple said I do May 12th, 1953, and settled in Batavia, New York in a home designed by Mr. Hale. The Hales had two surviving children, Renee and Rickey. A third baby died in infancy. Life is a mist here today, gone tomorrow. Ed’s greatest joy in life was pampering his wife and spoiling her with little tokens of affection at a time when she worked as a telephone operator at a local hospital Ed would bring Florine her dinner and dessert Ed did most of the grocery shopping for the house. And every time he went to the store, he picked up some sweet treat or flowers for Florine. In the winter, Ed would clear his wife’s car of snow and warm it up for her to drive home from work earning him the nickname, Saint Edward from their relatives. When Florine’s family and friends would tease her about her adoring husband, asking her what she would do without him Florine would reply that he was not allowed to go before her. After an active full life. Mr. Hale was diagnosed with kidney disease a little over five years ago, requiring dialysis, regular treatments. He also suffered severe heart attacks and had diabetes but that didn’t stop him from taking his wife out almost every day. Mrs. Hale known for irrepressible sense of humor chattiness and a pension for colorful adornments also had a laundry list of ailments from asthma to heart disease. Still she would dress up to go to the doctor with Ed always by her side Florine’s precarious health took a turn for the worst this month, when her lungs filled with fluid landing or in a hospital in grave condition. At the same time, her husband was in unity hospital in Rochester with kidney failure we were handed two death sentences, Florine’s sister Marlene De Carlo told this blog the 83 year old man Ed was semi-conscious and appeared to be at death’s door. But two days after his wife’s hospitalization Ed woke up and told his daughter, “I need to see Florine.” See Ed had a plan to take care of his wife for the duration of her life. That was his plan. What followed next was this a series of negotiations between the hospitals in Rochester and Batavia helped along by a social worker whose job it was to convince United to admit Mr. Hale. The Batavia hospital agreed to accept the dying patient but only if he was strong enough to make the 35 mile trip. She’s in the hospital dying. He’s in the hospital dying. They’ve been together for 60 years and now they’re separated by 35 miles. Ed wakes up and is determined. His plan is to get to Florine as if by miracle Ed rallied sufficiently for the short ambulance ride arriving at United in the afternoon of February 6th his sole request was to see Florine. The hospital prepared a room for the couple where the two beds were pushed together so that they could lie next to one another and hold hands as Florine faded away. You notice she’s still gotta bow in her hair. She had a plan too. The 82 year old woman was pronounced dead, the morning after Ed’s arrival, Ed made it there in time. He got to walk his wife home. Surrounded by dozens of friends and family, her husband followed her a day later. The most important day of your life is the last day. There are innumerable things that could distract you from living for that last day. Do you know Jesus? Have you confessed your sin to Jesus? Have you received forgiveness and eternal life from Jesus? Are you ready to stand before Jesus? That’s the most important thing you could go at any time and you’ll all go at some time. What about the people and things in your life? Are you allowing other people and things that may not even be bad but are not best to take your time and life energy from the people and things that really are most valuable. That if right now you were told you’re 48 hours to live what would come off of your schedule? What would go out of your life? What would be absolutely erased from your to-do list? If the Lord wills you’ll live until your eighties but you don’t know. Pastor James says “It’s arrogance to have a sense “of entitlement “and presumption.” That the plan that we have is the plan that God has. We don’t know. So we make our plans and we seek to make our plans his plan for our life. Life is uncertain. Life is brief. And as a result, Pastor James tells us in chapter four verse 17 life should be urgent. Life should be urgent, but unimportant things should not crowd out important things. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it. Pastor James says, “For him, it is…” Here’s what he’s saying. You don’t know how much time you have. You can’t control the future. Now you can influence it. If you eat better, maybe you’ll live longer but you can’t control the future. What you can control are the decisions you make starting right now. And what he’s saying is is if you know you’re supposed to be doing something and you’re not doing that, that’s sin. And if you know, you’re not supposed to be doing something and you’re doing that, that’s sin, some sins are clear they’re for everybody, no stealing, no adultery, no murder. Other sins are specific things that God has told you. Not everybody needs to do this, but you do. And if you don’t, then you’re in sin. So there needs to be a sense of urgency since I know what I’m supposed to do. And I don’t know how long I have I should be making that a priority. And that needs to be an urgent activity. Well, then the question becomes how do you know what is priority and what should have a sense of urgency? They make this really practical because there’s nothing worse than a theoretical life lesson. Number one, we start with scripture. The Bible is very clear. Don’t do these things and here’s some other things you need to do. It’s really clear. So we start with the clarity of God’s word. And if God’s word says to do something and you’re not doing it, it says to not do something else. And you’re doing that then for you it’s sin. And you’ve gotta make some serious life changes. And this happens so easy friends people’s pressure, expectation demands our disorganization or lack of prioritization. It leads to all of a sudden God’s voice is distant and quiet and the voice of everyone and everything else is near and loud. We open the scripture and say, “God talk to me “help me know what you want me to do and not do.” And for me, this sets my priorities. My first priority is a Christian walking with Jesus by his grace becoming more like him. My second priority is to love my wife. I’ve asked the Lord, let me be like, Ed let me walk her home. Let me preach her funeral. Let me tend to and care for Grace all the days of her life. And I pray that God gives us many. My third priority is our children. There is no backup plan. If I’m not a good father, if I’m not present they don’t have another dad. They’ve got one and he needs to do his job by God’s grace. My fourth priority is to be your pastor and to teach the Bible and what I’ve found over the years. And perhaps you’ve found this as well is a lot of the things that get in the way are not bad things. They’re good things, but they’re not the best things. Oftentimes the choice is not between good and evil, but good and best. And you’ve only got so much time. You’ve only got so much life energy and we don’t know how much time we will have or how much energy we will have. And we can’t be arrogant and presumptuous and say, “As soon as I take care of all of these things, “then I’ll get to the things that the Lord for me.” Because he says, “If the Lord wills, you might wake up tomorrow.” You might if you do wake up tomorrow, you might be healthy tomorrow. You might be, and you might not. We go to scripture, we go to godly counsel Proverbs talks a lot about seeking godly counsel. Don’t just make a plan for your life and then find people who agree with you and declare them to be wise counsel, lots of people do that. They agree with me. Start with wise counsel, godly people that you will invite into your life and entrust to your decision-making. This could be godly parents, pastoral ministry leadership people in your community group people that you know, that love the Lord. And they’ve got expertise in areas of life that you need to grow in. And so you pursue them and ask questions and take notes and seek counsel. And the Bible’s very clear that the fool is the one who is always right in their own eyes. And the one who is wise is the one who doesn’t trust themselves entirely because sin causes blindness, the Bible says. And we all have some sin which means in certain areas we’re all blind. And what looks clear to us looks clearly wrong to another. And we invite them to help us to see what we don’t see. It comes from scripture, godly counsel. It comes from the conscience that God has given us. God has placed within us as his image, bearers a conscience. We just, that doesn’t feel right to me. I’m not saying it’s a sin for everybody but it’s not something I’m okay with. Need to abide by your conscience and fourthly the holy spirit, the holy spirit is God come to take up residence in you to inform and empower your life as he did Jesus and Paul declares that the holy spirit is the spirit of wisdom. What we’re talking about here is wisdom and folly. We’re talking about a life that is to God’s glory versus the life that is to your misery. And the holy spirit will lead you and guide you into truth and wisdom. So we avail ourselves to these and other resources that God gives so that we can have some sense of clarity. God, what am I here to do, to answer that question that pastor James asks. What is my life? What am I to do with my breath and my days and my dollars? What am I to do Lord? And then plan accordingly open-handed if the Lord wills. And I’d like to close with Jesus, James saw all of this played out in the life of Jesus. So here’s Jesus, God becomes a man lives his life. Here’s James front row seat. As the little brother of Jesus he gets to see what no one else gets to see. There are years of Jesus’ life that are not written down or recorded. No one knows what happened but James does because he was there. He saw Jesus make decisions. And here’s, what’s amazing. You’ll read in the Bible. Jesus healed people, but here hear me in this. He didn’t heal everybody. He healed these people, but not these people. Why, why did he pick them and not them? He saw Jesus up until he was about 30 worked a job with their dad as a carpenter, swinging a hammer. Well, why 30 years? Why not 35? Why carpentry? Why not something else? What, what why? He was there to see Jesus was friends with these people. And he wasn’t friends with these people. Jesus invited these people into his life and he didn’t invite these people into his life. He opened his ear to counsel from these people but he closed his ear to counsel from these people. James saw all of this. He cast demons out of these people. Not those people. He healed these people, not those people. He fed these people, not those people. Why, why, why, how does this work? How did Jesus make his decisions? How did he know I’m supposed to do this? I’m not supposed to do that. And James was there front row seat to the life of his big brother/creator. And he watched it all. And here’s what Jesus has to say about his life. John 5:36, Jesus says this, “The works that the father has given me to accomplish. “The very works that I’m doing.” This is a mind blowing statement. If you were to walk up to Jesus when he was on the earth 2000 years ago, roughly. Why do you do this and not that? ‘Cause can we all agree? Jesus had a lot of options could go into business could go into politics, could go into ministry could get married, could be single, could go live in this town, could go live in this country. A lot of options. And he didn’t pursue them all. He prayerfully carefully selected a few things and that’s all he did. If you’re to walk up to Jesus, and if you were to ask him, “How do you know what to do?” He would say, “God, the father “told me to do some things. “And that’s all I’m doing. “I’m not doing any less and I’m not doing anymore. “Since I hear his voice, I’m not controlled “and dominated by the other voices telling me what to do.” Now hear me in this. You and I need to be very careful. I’ll let you in on a little secret. You’re not Jesus. A little secret. He was perfect. You are not perfect. So we need to be very careful to say the Lord told me we need to be humble and say, “If the Lord wills.” but Jesus had a clear sense of exactly what he was to be doing. And that’s what he devoted his time and energy to. Now God became a man. His name is Jesus Christ, but he welcomed upon himself certain limitations for a season to identify with us. So Jesus couldn’t be everywhere. You can only be in one place at one time. Jesus though, he wasn’t as eternal. He had 24 hours a day, seven days a week just like you and me. Though God is all powerful. During his life on the earth, Jesus had limited life energy. That’s why the Bible says, “He often would choose a lonely place “to be alone with the father.” He took a day off. He took silence and solitude. The Bible even says that Jesus took a nap and that nap was as worshipful as casting out a demon or feeding a child because those were the works that the father had given him to do. And some of the works was not working. It’s not like Jesus was glorifying the father while he was preaching and teaching and healing and feeding and not glorifying the father while he’s doing carpentry taking a day off and napping. All of those things were the things that the father had given him to do, and he did them perfectly. He did them submissively. He did them joyfully. See, the reason that you and I we get burned out overextended and exhausted as we’re doing things that the father didn’t tell us to do. And we’re not doing some things that the father told us to do. Like take a nap, take a day off. We can give the impression that we’re busier than Jesus. That we’re more essential than Jesus. He knew exactly what he was to be doing and that’s all that he was doing. And he didn’t do anything else and he didn’t do anything less. And so he lives without any sin. And then he goes to the cross and he substitutes himself and he dies in our place for our sins. See that day he could have been traveling. He wasn’t supposed to be traveling. He could have been arguing, He wasn’t supposed to be arguing. He could have been teaching a class. He wasn’t supposed to be teaching a class. He was supposed to be a toning for the sin of the world. That’s what he was supposed to do that day. And then he’s on the cross. Do you remember? Jesus’ final words. It is finished. He did everything that he was supposed to do. And he did it in about 33 years. And he’s the most important influential impactful person in the history of the world because he knew what he was supposed to be doing. And that’s all that he did. And most of his life 90% of it was spent not in ministry. Growing up as a kid, obeying his parents, swinging a hammer working with his dad don’t think that he was more glorifying to the father doing ministry than he was doing carpentry. Both were glorifying to the father and both were the things that he was commissioned to do. When you get up tomorrow and you go to work and you’re sitting in your cubicle don’t think someday I will serve the Lord. Say no, starting today, I will serve the Lord in the cubicle. Jesus didn’t start worshiping when he stopped hammering, he was worshiping through hammering and then he was worshiping through preaching and it was always worshiping and it was taking what the father had given him to do. And just doing that well by the grace that God gives same is true for you and me. I wanna make this really practical there’s Jesus’ life. Let me extract a few principles from Jesus’ life for your life. I want you to think about these. I want you to consider these. If you’re married, I want you to discuss these. If you’re in a community group, I want you to share these. If you’re not in a community group this is where we do life together. This is where we seek wise counsel. Number one, what is the size of your plate? I told you, Jesus only had so much time, so much energy, could handle so many relationships, so much stress, be in so many places, there’s limitations. And you and I have greater limitations than he. When I’m talking about your plate size I’m talking about your life capacity. Some of you your plate is a salad plate. It’s not that big. You can’t handle a lot. Some of you it’s a dinner plate and they can handle quite a bit. Some of you, it’s a platter. You can handle a lot, no matter what, we’re all finite. We all have limitations. There’s only so much that you can do. You need to know the size of your plate. You need to accept the size of your plate. If you’re a dinner plate and you’re married to a platter you need to give grace to one another. Why can’t you do more? Why do you have to do so much? You need to give a little grace to one another. Amen. How many of you notice you’ve married the opposite? Two platters burnout, if they don’t give grace to one another. Many of you are going to be married to someone who is very different than you. Some of you are married to someone who’s just like you. It’s knowing who God made you to be who God made them to be. In addition to your kids and the capacity that God has entrusted to them and giving grace to one another. Do you know the size of your plate? Even in your friendships, do you know the size of their plate? Do you realize that some people can’t get as much done as other people? And that doesn’t mean that they’re ungodly or less spiritual or less valuable. Number two, what should be taken off your plate? Or what should you take off your plate? What we tend to do, many of us we tend to just keep putting stuff on our plate. Yes, I’ll do this. And yes, I’ll do that. And then somebody comes along and they’re like I don’t wanna deal with this. You deal with it. And then they start throwing everything on your plate. And if you’re the responsible one or your fear manages you or you’re worried about if other people will like you or respect you or reject you, or maybe hurt you then all of a sudden you’re okay, throw it on my plate. Then your plate’s stacked up and you’re burdened under it. And things start falling off your plate. And then you’re frantic and you’re depressed. And you’re anxious ’cause you can’t keep up with your life. So you’ve got to take some stuff off your plate. Jesus did carpentry for about 30 years. And then he stopped doing carpentry. Say, well was that wrong long for him to do carpentry? No, he was supposed to do carpentry for a while. And then not anymore. Sometimes your kids are little. It’s a season of life. You’re gonna work this job for a while and then work that job for a while. Whatever the case may be. Maybe there were things that you had time and energy for and now you don’t and they have to come off your plate. I’m jealous for your life. I’m your pastor. I love you. I wanna give you permission to take some stuff off your plate. Wisely, carefully, prudely. Don’t just go home and CC everybody. I’m buying a hammock and good luck with everything, all right? There’s wisdom in even how to get out of some obligations and responsibilities. But you have a right to take some things off your plate. And then thirdly, what should you put on your plate? I’ve been neglecting that for a long time. That relationship I’ve not invested in, I’ve not had time for church or Bible reading or prayer or community serving. I’ve not opened my, I keep telling myself, man as soon as I get through this, then I’ll have time for that. But it never comes. So I need to start with my priorities and God’s priorities for me. And I need to put the most important things in my life, in my energy, in my budget, in my schedule first. The people and things that matter the most. And then entrust God to help me discern what else I can handle and what I can’t. What is your life? What is your life? Friends it’s a mist. It’s here today and it’s gone tomorrow and here’s the good news. We’re alive. We have an opportunity to examine the life that God has entrusted to us to make some course corrections and changes so that we don’t live in such a way that the last day is a regrettable remorseful day but it’s a rejoicing day. That’s what I want for you. So I don’t want you to be discouraged, but encouraged. I don’t want you to just regret the things you haven’t done but I want you to celebrate the things that are yet to be done. And to prepare for that we’re gonna respond. So don’t, and I know some of you be like, “Can I check my phone? “Can I leave now?” No, take some time. As we collect our tithes and offerings to let the holy spirit bring into your understanding the specific things that you need to be perfectly carefully considering the changes you need to be making the wisdom you need to be seeking. We’re then gonna partake of communion, which is remembering that Jesus did it all, that he lived without sin, the life we’ve not lived. That he died for our sin, the death we should have died. That he rose to give the gift that we cannot earn. That ultimately the Lord Jesus knew exactly what he was to do. And he absolutely did exactly what he was sent to do. And in communion we remember that he did that for us and he helps us and he loves us and he sends the spirit to enable us to follow in his example. And then we’re gonna sing and celebrate. We’re gonna take some time to remember Jesus to reflect on Jesus, to rejoice in Jesus. To consider that there is life above the sun, that there is life after the grave and that the Lord Jesus, right now, he’s still doing exactly what the father has asked him to do. He’s hearing our prayers. He’s forgiving our sin. He’s helping, he’s seeking. He’s serving, he’s saving. It’s not that Jesus work came to an end with his ascension back into heaven that he’s still working and part of his work right now, is he wants to love you. He wants to forgive you. He wants to speak to you. He wants to encourage you. He wants to help you. And so we meet with him in song. Lord Jesus, my life is filled with a lot of wonderful things but I thank you that the teaching the Bible is something that I enjoy every week. And I thank you, Lord, that the scriptures particularly this week, it’s not just for the people. It’s also for the pastor. It’s really helpful and clarifying and hope giving and future igniting Lord God. There are people that are going to hear this. I pray that very quickly you would turn their regrets to rejoicing that perhaps what was sad but it doesn’t have to be what is. And Lord, I thank you so much that because of the scriptures we know where we come from, we come from God we know where we’re going. We’re going to stand face-to-face with God and we know why we’re here. We’re here to learn about God. We’re here to become more like God, we’re here to be saved by God. We’re here to point others to God and Lord Jesus, thank you for being our God. Amen.
