But I'm thankful for you to come out. If you have your Bibles, hopefully you do. Turn to James chapter 4. James, now we're going to look at this thing spiritually. I know when somebody says turn over to James, you're like, oh no, here we go. You know, you got an early epistle here in the church time. The book of James, a lot of stuff written in here will fit dead smack right in the tribulation to the Jewish people. And so if you have a reference Bible or some type of study Bible, it generally will tell you that when it was written and to who it was written. But here we're going to apply this. Like the Bible says, all scripture is given to us by the inspiration of God. It's profitable for not only doctrine, but for correction and righteousness. We're going to take some of that in this evening. James 4, I want to read all 17 verses, because we're going to look at all 17 verses. Let's read, we'll pray, and then we'll get into the message. James 4, verse 1, it says, From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not, hence, even of your lusts, that war in your members? Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lust. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain that the spirit dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace, wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Verse 7, Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, Thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another? Go to now, ye that say, today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that. But now ye rejoicing your boastings, all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him It is sin. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you and we're thankful for our time here and the prayer petition that we've brought before you tonight. And Father, we thank you for your word, for the clarity of your word. And Father, not only for the word, but the Holy Spirit that works with your word in our hearts and in our minds. Father, be with our ears, be with our heart's ears tonight. Father, as we feed from your word, Father fill me with your Holy Spirit be with these thoughts just for a few moments as we're here And then as we go on our separate ways later on this evening now be with us be with this church be with The ministries of this church the workers we ask that you would bless it Everything that we do, we ask this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. So here, you say, man, what is he saying here? He's saying a lot. And we want to use just about every one of these verses for what we're gonna look at this evening. Now, last year, I had preached the message on the will of God for your life. And at the time I had preached it, I didn't think much of it, but a lot of times people ask, that's one of the big questions you ask, especially younger people, even older people, well, I just don't know quite the will of God for my life. And I've heard that. A lot, I've heard that a lot. And it's a concern and it's a question that is easily answered just from the word of God. And so in that message, we looked at things that was the will of God. And what I made the statement was that the will of God is the same for everybody. Everybody has the same look or approach to God's will. It's the same for everybody. Now the plan of God, the plan of God is gonna be a little bit different for each one of us. And that's what I want to kind of look at. And I've titled this the missing the plan of God or how to miss the plan of God in your life. You can easily miss the plan of God in your life and you can confuse the will of God in your life very easily. And of course you have your three great adversaries there to help you out. Your flesh, which is the biggest adversary that you'll have. You have the world and you have Satan or his dominion. And he's definitely not for anything that has to do with God or the things of God. He'll twist them and mess them up and confuse you if he can. But we said this when we looked at the will of God. We said the will of God for all men is that all men might be saved. That's what the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2. That's what the scripture says in 2 Peter 3, verse 9. God is not slack concerning His promise, but He's willing that all men come to repentance. So His will, God's will, is that all men be saved. That's God's will. What is the will of God for my life? Number one is that you have accepted Jesus Christ in a free pardon of sin. That means you don't bring anything to God. We don't have anything to give to God other than our heart. A lot of times, religion, they like to push works. Works is a big thing. Humanistically thinking and talking, man likes to think that he can bring something or muster something up, conjure something up, create something, make something that can help or appease God. That's just how it seems to go in our heart or our mind. That's why so many different religions. That's why so many different types of gods. And so when you boil it all down and the scum comes to the top, you either have a done religion or a working religion. You have Cain's way. Cain's way was works. And you have a finished work, which is the blood or sacrifice. And so it's either obedience or keep doing and keep doing. And when you come to that conclusions, that's where you're at. But back on the will of God, we said that it's God's will that all men be saved. We said that it's God's will that every believer be spirit filled. Now that's not not spirit sealed, but filled. Filled with the Spirit. You say, how does that happen? Well, you look at Galatians. Galatians chapter 5, you have the fruit of the Spirit. That's done when you empty yourself of yourself and your flesh, and you allow the Spirit to control your life through the Word of God. And so it is God's will that every believer be spirit-filled. We said that from scripture. You find that actually in Ephesians 5 if you're taking notes. But the third one was God's will every believer be thankful. Thankful. We all should be thankful for what we enjoy and have from God. Everything that you and I have is from God. And so that's found in 1 Thessalonians 5. We went on to say that it's God's will that every believer be sanctified. That simply means set aside for holy use, consecrated to God. That doesn't mean just on Sunday, Sunday morning, Sunday night, or a Wednesday, or a revival. That means every day. That means every minute of your time or your day, you're set aside. It is God's will that every believer be sanctified. 1 Thessalonians chapter four, if you wanna read about that, verses one through seven. We went on to say that every believer, it's God's will that every believer has a submissive attitude to those they serve. You say, the Bible said, Ephesians chapter six, verses five and six. 1 Peter chapter 2, 13 through 15. Scripture is not silent on this. You say, what is the will of God for my life? It's simple because the Bible lays it out for you and me. And you know that people that know me, if I can get it, that means everybody in here can get it. I know that. So don't walk out of here saying, well, it's just too complicated for me. I use that in school, don't I? If I can get it, I know you can get it. So I consider myself on the low end of the totem pole. No pun intended, but listen, it's very simple. It's what I'm saying, the Bible's clear. Also, we said that it's God's will, we sometimes suffer for well-doing. I remember, I think it was my father who preached along these lines and had some lady get upset with dad saying, God never intended nobody to suffer. And of course they didn't read 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter 4, John 17. And so it's in there, and sometimes you and I might have to suffer for Christ's sake. And so that is God's will, that we take it, it says, patiently. And so it's also God's will that we as believers get along and that we should be one in Christ. A lot of times we'll preach and teach about unity, but it's the unity of the Spirit of God. One spirit, unity, the unity we're speaking of is God's unity, the Holy Spirit. And so that's the singular that we all should have something in common. It is the wayward Christian or the person professing salvation that has not been regenerated is the one that will struggle with this or these areas. And so we laid this out. This is the will of God for your life. And that's what we were working on. So tonight I want to say and look at from James chapter four, how to miss the plan of God for your life. Now, your plan that God has for your life might be different and is probably drastically different from maybe mine. or everyone else in here. God might grant you with a wonderful job, plenty of money, great health, and the next person he might grant with a rough job, maybe poor health, and just a rough time. You say, why would God do that? Well, you look at Job. Job's not in the Bible just to read, to waste paper. He's in there because you have a man here that God knew something about Job, and he knew something that Satan didn't know. And so he told Satan there, he said, hast thou considered my servant Job? And Satan, of course, the classic look, just the shotgun look at Job, he said, well, of course. He's serving you because you've given him everything. He's got a family. He's got sheep. He's got cattle. He's got camels He's got a house. He's got a wife. Everything's going great for him. Why wouldn't he serve you? You take everything he has and he'll curse you to your face. He said go ahead jump on him. Just don't take his life. And so Satan, he didn't waste no time. He went to work. And at the end of that thing, you look at a man who God knew that even Satan, take everything the man has, take him down as low as he can go. And he still wouldn't curse God. He still blessed the name of God. You say, well, why would God do that to somebody? Because God knows what you can take and what you can't take. And so it's wonderful to see the trueness of your heart when it comes to saying, I love God, I'm a Christian, I worship God, but you might go through some hard things. And so you say, why don't they go through some hard things? They might not be right where you're at. So the plan of God is a little bit different than the will of God. Your plan, God's plan for your life, might be drastically different than mine, and that is fine. That's the uniqueness of God and how he works. We still know the principles are laid out, and that's what we wanna look at tonight. So let's get into this. The first verse now in James chapter four, we're gonna look at, we have seven, yes, seven points, and we'll get them all in tonight. How to miss the plan of God. You can miss the plan of God. So it says in James chapter 4 verse 1, it says, Notice that the first verses that we read, the first four or five verses were all questions. And then he unloads on them and answers the rest of the questions by making declarations through that chapter. I'm not wanting to open the chapter up doctrinally, but it's amazing how it's put together. Listen, let's read verse one now. From whence comes wars and findings among you? Come they not hence even of your lust, that war in your members? Man, all this is questions. Listen, let me say this. You can miss God's plan for your life when you follow your own sensual desires. you're going to get sidetracked. You're not going to be on the same track as God and the Word of God if you follow after your sensual desires. That's what he's speaking of here. Whence comes wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? That's where it comes from. It comes from within, your lusts, your desires. And if you follow that, you're going to miss the plan of God for your life. What is the plan of God for my life? Well, we know this. If you're following your own sensual desires, you're going to miss the plan of God for your life. So we look at verse number two. He says, ye lust and have not ye kill in desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight in war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. Here, we're going to put, you are able and can miss the will of God or the plan, let me say the plan of God, when you put yourself first. This is a big thing in the American culture. You get in other cultures of the world, it's not quite like that. And so you get an American, it's me first. It's all about me first. And I want it now, right now. And so you say, what is that? Well, that's not good because that type of mindset, that attitude in your life, in your heart, you first, you're going to miss the plan of God for your life. Now, when you begin to walk down a road, especially as a Christian, the Christian walk, and you begin to walk your own way, and you have self involved, and he's working, and he hasn't quite advocated his throne in your life, and you have your sensual desires that begin to act themselves out through your members, that's your mind, your heart, your hands, your feet, your mouth, your ears, And so it begins to exercise its rights, your desires from within, kind of like your heart, like the Bible says in Jeremiah that it's desperately wicked. When it begins to go down that path as a Christian, you're going to get messed up real quick. And there's a lot of Christians that do that. They walk down there, but yet their mind doesn't think right. They struggle with emotions. They struggle with knowing what to do to become double-minded. He brings that up here. They struggle with their relationships. There's a lot of stuff that begins to fall apart in your Christian life. And the first person that gets blamed would be probably the pastor or preacher, but the real person that gets blamed would be God. Because he may be, I just can't make sense of this Christian life. It's because It's because you've allowed things in your life that should be dead. You should be dead to. And so the plan of God, what your intended purpose is, what your intended desires that God made you for, you're not doing. You're burning them on yourself. And so there you miss the plan of God for your life. And you will end up 60, 70, 80, 90 years old never knowing the plan of God for your life. Because you chose to feed and to use and to work through your flesh and your lust and your desires. That's just two points there. Let's move to point number three, verse number three. It says here, you ask and receive not because you ask amiss. that ye may consume it upon your lust. Notice how the Bible helps define what he means by amiss. And there, amiss, you say, what does it mean in the Greek? Same thing as the latter part of it there. He says that ye may consume it upon your lust. A prayer that you give forth God that ultimately has a lustful ultimate end to it. It pleases or completes something that you want or have or think you should have. the flesh part of you. And it's not going to work. It's not going to be answered. And so we will say here that you are able to miss the plan of God for your life when you pray with the wrong motives. Listen, if you're honest with yourself, if you've been saved for somewhat time, you can be honest with yourself. I've prayed with the wrong motives. I've prayed sincerely, kind of like Esau did. I prayed with tears. I come to the point of making vows and promises all to get a prayer answered But ultimately at the end of that prayer was something that I desired or wanted to see come to pass You say what's that? That's praying in a minute asking a miss something that God's not not part of he isn't going to pacify the needs of the flesh it didn't go to happen and It isn't going to happen. And so selfishness doesn't get answered. All it gets answered, God answers yes or no or wait. That's how he answers prayer. And so here, thirdly, you're able to miss the plan of God for your life if you have the wrong motives. A lot of Christians have the wrong motives. How do they get there? They get there by allowing the flesh to control their life and not the spirit. And so we see that time and time again. Let's move on. Look at number 8. Let's move to the verse number 8. He says here, James 4 verse 8, he says, Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. So you see here, you're able and willing and you can miss God's plan for your life when you fail to confess your sins. And I don't have a problem with using this as an illustration. Listen, you've got an individual, I'll use myself, I've got about a thousand sins, let's say, and I get before God, I'm trying to be sincere and I confess all 999, one of them that I know. I'm not talking stuff that you don't know now. And you think you've got it all taken care of. God wants all of them. Lay them all out there. So I can't quite touch that one. I'm not done with that one yet. I want to be able to walk up, get up from this confession and take that one back with me. God wants all of them. And so you have an incomplete type of repentance. Listen, the confession is complete. You want to openly confess all your sins. I like that verse in 1 John 1 where he says that he would confess our sins. I'm gonna mess it up. 1 John 1.9, I should have that down, but it's not gonna come to me. 1 John 1, at least we know where it's at. And so I'm gonna run over there and say, 1 John 1, he said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now watch this. And he says, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He said, what if I miss one? What if I forget about one? I've done that before, and the next day he hit me like, ooh, I didn't say anything about that one. Well, I confess it. But there's some that you might not remember. I love that part. In that verse, he says, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's going to take care of all of it for us, for you and I. And so we must be willing to confess all of our sin. If you're harboring sin, if you want to keep one or two back, you're going to miss the plan of God for your life. God, it's just not going to work. You say, well, I should be able to fly halfway right and still get what I need out of God. Well, look at the world. How do you think they're doing? It's not going too well out there. And it's going to get worse. And nothing in the Bible ever even comes close to that type of thinking. And it's messed up. I call it low-resolution thinking. For a Christian, it's not very smart. And so we get back to this. We're looking at verse 8 and we say, listen, the plan of God for our life can be easily missed if we don't confess our sin. And that's a daily thing. That's a daily habit. It's like brushing your teeth. Well, see, that's like eating. That's a little closer. Some of us don't brush our teeth every day, but you probably eat something every day. All right, hopefully you do. All right, so let's get into number five. Look with me back to number four. Notice what he says here. He says, ye adulterers, that's the man, and ye adulteresses, that's the woman, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? He's a question. He says, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's me, that's you, that's everybody. It doesn't matter who you are. He's talking to brethren here. Early church, I understand it, but it's still good, still holds. And so if you're wrapped up in the world, if the world's at the top of your priority list, that generally means that that's who you're loving, that he gets the most time, he gets most your money. And if you really wanna get down, get your checkbook out, get your credit card statement. Where do you spend most your money at? Where do you spend most of your time at? Who do you spend most of your time with? So that's my job, bingo. All right, so it can be a number of things, but here's what we're gonna say with this verse. He's talking about here our friends. Notice that he said the friendship of the world is enmity with God. So the friendship, listen, you can miss the plan of God for your life when you choose wrong friends in your life. So I don't think my friends have anything to do with it. I say this to the young people. I don't need to know anything about you, just show me your friends, and I know exactly what kind of person you are, who you hang around. And so you'll miss the plan of God for your life very easily by being around the wrong people. And he's simply saying here, listen, your friendship, if it's with the world, if it's with the world's type, you're at enmity with God. God is not going to reveal or lay out his plan for your Christian life if you're wrapped up with the wrong friends. You see how it always comes back to the will. Well, I don't know what the will of God is for my... We just read that. The will of God is that you're right, that you're filled with the Spirit, that you're walking right with God. Then His plan begins to unfold in your life. Most Christians never get... 90% of Christians never get here. Oh my goodness, I wouldn't say that. The pastor probably wouldn't say that. Jeremiah is saying it though. Because of the mess and the problems we deal with with Christians. It's because we're not engaging. And when you don't engage, you get chaos, you get grayness, you get confusion, and everything begins to just melt apart in a Christian life. And then you get a mockery. I like what the Bible says when he told David, because of your stupidity, because of your sin, you've caused the enemies of God to blaspheme the name of God. That's what we're doing. Why do you think the world doesn't have anything good to say about a Christian? They'll eat you and me up and spit us out and go to lunch and not thinking nothing else about it. Years ago though, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, it was a little bit different. Oh, you're a Christian. Oh, okay. They had a little more respect. But today, a Christian don't have respect. It's because we've let it go. We've let these simple things go in our lives. It's no longer real. TV is more real, our life, self, desires, it all gets real, more real than serving God. What's the plan of God for my life? Well, we can easily miss it. Look at number 10 with me, verse number 10, not to get too hard there, but here's where it goes. He says here in verse 10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. and He shall lift you up." Man, so we're looking here at verse number 10. You're able to miss the plan of God when you refuse to humble yourself. God says He wants you to humble yourself. Tonight would be a good idea to humble yourself, to listen to what the Word of God is simply saying about the plan of God for you. I don't want the plan of God for my life. Well, you might not. You might be one of those type of Christians you know, pulling from that end. So here, the Bible and God is saying, I like humble, I like humbleness. And he says, we need to humble ourself. And he said, when you humble yourself, I'll lift you up. He said, well, I wanna lift it from this storm and this trouble and this mess that I'm in, but I don't wanna go God's way. I want his grace, but I want his help, but I still wanna continue the way I'm going. It doesn't work that way. It simply doesn't work that way. It's hard to say that, but it doesn't. So let's move on. So we're saying, Sixley, you're able to miss the plan of God for your life when you refuse to humble yourself. When you and I refuse to humble ourselves, we begin to slide and slip out of the plan of God for our life. You can be in the plan of God, by the way. We're looking at it at the beginning, but you can be in the plan of God for your life and mess it up. by allowing flesh to interrupt it, desires, not humbling yourself. You say, am I walking in the plan of God? No, you're filling and sowing to the flesh and it ultimately will reap that. It ultimately reads that. And then lastly, look at that. We got five more minutes. I've got one more here. Look with me in verses 13 and 17. Let me read those. Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow. He's saying here you plan for tomorrow, you plan for the best for yourself, but be careful of that. He uses parables through the New Testament also of this kind of thing, this type of thinking. It's the mindset or the thinking. It's not godly. You say, well, you mean I shouldn't put money aside? I shouldn't plan for you? No. He's thinking when you put it above God, when you put it above the plan of God and the will of God, you're going to get messed up. Watch this. He says, he's teaching him here, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a, he answers it, it is even but a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. Everybody's here has a past. You can remember your childhood. Those that have a childhood, some are still are in their childhood, living, I mean, the younger people, but they still have a memory of when they were even younger yet. But when I think back to my childhood, I can go quickly from five to 16 real quick in my mind. I thought, where did it go? I remember being 14 and wanted to have my driver's license. Then I was 20 looking back, said, wow, I've had my driver's license four years. Now I'm 42 this year. I'm going to be 42. I'm like, guys, what is going on? What's this gray hair? Oh, you know, there's a lot of stuff. And it happens quickly. So when he uses the word, but a vapor, that's true. Look back in your, think back in your mind. How long does it take you to slide through your past or your history? That's right. It goes by real quickly. Now here's what we want to make of this. And so he's saying here, let me read on. He said, it vanishes away. The latter part of verse 14. Watch 15. For that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. Now that's the right context. You say, what does that mean? It doesn't mean that you shouldn't plan. That's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But if the Lord will. if the Lord will. Okay, so it's in the will of God. This is another verse can be used for the what is the will of God for my life. Right here, right here. We shall live and do this or that, but verse 16, but now ye rejoice in your boastings. This is not good. All such rejoicing is evil. And so when you begin to boast, here's what we're going to say. You can miss God's plan for your life when you reject God's grace for your life. And man, that's easier said than seen or seen coming or being able to be in the midst of a situation and say, hey, this is what's going on. God's grace is gonna be demonstrated through this atrocity. This guy's getting ready to take off my head with a sword and, you know, one of those things. And you never think about God's grace when you're in the moment is what I'm saying. And so here he's saying, look, you can miss the plan of God for your life when you reject God's grace. I don't want to go through that storm. I don't want to go through that. I wish this stuff would just stop. Well, the plan of God might hinge on it for your life. He wants to know if you're real or you're not real. It's kind of like somebody asked, well, why would God create somebody if he knew they were going to sin? What a dumb question, but we'll answer it. Listen, he gave you a free will. So why would a God make a free will person and then try to assert over your will? Why make a free will? It doesn't make sense. We have free will. You're able to make your choice. There is consequences for that because you have a free will. He's not going to take the consequences for you unless you go his way, which is the cross, by the way. It's the cross. And so you can change eternity by making the decision in time tonight. But you have to be smart enough to see it and realize it. And by the way, like I said, if I can get it and God saved me, you can get it. Trust me, you can get it. So here lastly, we're looking at James chapter 4, all of this. And we're saying that you're able and easily will miss God's plan when you reject God's grace for your life. Remember Paul? Listen, I understand the positive thinking. I like it, I like quotes, they're cute, they're neat, but a lot of them go anti-against what the Bible says. For instance, remember Paul, he had a thorn in his flesh. I say his wife, but that's how I proved that he was married. That's a joke, I'm joking. And so he had a thorn in his flesh and he went to God and he wanted to get it taken care of. He said, God, I want you to take this away. He said he went to him thrice, three times. And so God says, no, my grace is sufficient for you. And he allowed to work through Paul's life through that pain and suffering. So God don't work through your strengths. God works through your weaknesses. And so if you're in a weak moment, God's gonna get some glory and you reject it because you don't want God's grace to go through that time. Well, you're gonna have a hard time seeing the plan of God and you will be able, a high chance of missing God's plan for your life. I reject God's grace in my life. It's there and God's grace works. when you're weak, not when you're strong. And so remember that. Hopefully that's challenging. So how to miss the plan of God for your life. All right there, James chapter 4. And he said, what is the plan of God for my life? Well, I know what it isn't. That's what we kind of looked at. He said, what is the will of God for my life? It's very simple. The Bible lays it out very plainly. And all of us have the same responsibility to follow the will of God. So the plan of God can be revealed in its due time. Let's all stand Maybe you have a burden on your heart tonight. Maybe a simple changing of priorities in your Christian life. You say, no, not me. I've got this thing figured out. I've got a grip on it. Well, it looks like it has a grip on you. None of us are getting any younger. And life is passing us by quickly. We're living in the moment. You say, well, I want to make a difference in my life. Well, if you do, God has it laid out in scripture. It's not hard. He knows what you're able to bear. He knows what you're able to put up with. But if you go your own way, if we have a tendency and a proponent to go our own way, if we choose to go that way, we have a great opportunity of missing the plan of God in our lives. And it'll be a life without the grace of God. It'll be a life without the peace of God. And it'll be a life without knowing whether am I on God's side or not. You'll struggle with that. You say, what's going on? It's because you haven't yielded to the Spirit and you've missed the plan of God for your life. So hopefully that's not the case. What are we gonna say? 308. 308.