Welcome to the Food for Your Soul podcast, where we apply the Word of God to the hearts of men and women to stoke the fires of your delight in Christ. Here's your host, Dr. Dean Richard Ferguson. What's the difference between the way an atheist makes plans and the way a Christian makes plans? Think of how you plan, whether it be what you're having for lunch all the way up to planning your career. How is your way of planning different from the way an unbeliever plans? Well, it was an exciting day for Miss Kelly's kindergarten class. It was little Katie's birthday and they were having the celebration right there in class. They're having a party for her. And when it was time to open the presents, all the kids were seated around the table, and each one had their little bag of party favors. Two Tootsie Rolls, a piece of gum, and a little plastic whistle that probably wouldn't make it home. All the kids were having a great time, except for Jeffrey. He was sitting directly across the table from Katie, and he was making it very clear to everyone there that he wasn't one bit happy about this situation. He looked at his little bag of party favors and they looked at her big pile of gifts and then back at his little thing and was just like, you know, and just had this harumph kind of response. And then he did it again, a little louder and was squirming in his chair and he just kept doing that and kept being more demonstrative until finally one of the adults had had enough. And she walked up to him, turned his little chair to face her and said, Jeffrey, look at me. It's not your party. Insightful lady. She knew the problem. She knew exactly what the problem was. Jeffrey's behavior was unacceptable, but she understood that there was an attitude underlying it that was causing that behavior. How was it that all these little kids are having such a great time at this party and Jeffrey has the exact same circumstances He's miserable. How could that be? It's because Parties can be a blast if you understand that it's not your party But as soon as you start thinking it should you should be the birthday boy or the birthday girl You ruin the whole thing for yourself and for everyone else Every one of us was born into this life. Just automatically thinking It's about me. It's all about me. Life is for me. The main objective in life is my comfort, my happiness, my preferences, my plans. All of life revolves around that. That's how we're naturally born. We've been studying verse by verse through the book of James, and we left off last time in chapter four, verse 13, where James turns our little chair toward him and looks us in the face and says, it's not your party. And he does that for the same reason that that woman did it for little Jeffrey. We're gonna be a lot happier in life when we understand it's not our party. So James, this is what we need to know here. James is for us, okay? He wants us to enjoy this life. He wants us to be happy and this is the way he has to give us this rebuke and it is a rebuke He says in verse 13 now listen those first two words or your Bible might say come now. That's a rebuke Typically, he addresses us as brothers or my dear brothers all through the book, but here it's a it's a term that signals a rebuke in the Greek he's gonna rebuke them for a sin and Here it is verse 13 now listen you who say today or tomorrow? We'll go to this city or that city spend a year there carry on business and make money What's so bad about that? That's their big sin. They're making plans. You gotta make plans. You can't do anything in life without planning ahead a little, right? You gotta make some plans. We say stuff like this all the time. Yeah, I'm planning on moving to California for a couple years or whatever. Oh really, when are you leaving? Well, I got the van rented for the 23rd. Is that so evil? It's an alarming passage because if we fall into the wrong mentality, about life. We will commit this sin every single day when we wake up in the morning. We'll wake up and our very first act will be to commit this sin. And it all seems so innocent. Today I'm going to get up and get out of bed and have breakfast and I'm going to be to work by 630 and I'm going to get this done and that done and tonight my wife and I are going to have a date night or next week we're going down to the springs and we've got to do this or that. What's so evil about all that? Well, the answer is in verse 16. Here's where the evil comes. He says, as it is, you boast and brag, says in NIV, literally, as it is, you boast in your arrogance. Actually, the word arrogance is plural. You boast in your arrogances, all these incidents of your arrogance. The sin that James is concerned with here is prideful arrogance. You need to understand that because it's not just that they're saying the wrong words. It's a prideful attitude that's behind those words, that's driving those words. James is always concerned about the heart. He's always concerned about heart issues, but James is intensely practical, right? And so he presents those sins in terms of what sort of speech they cause. He's always doing that in the book. He wants us to easily be able to spot the heart issue, and so to make it practical, he points to the to the words. For example, when he talks about lack of love in chapter 2, he describes it in terms of someone saying, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed. He talks about their words. Or when he describes the heart sin of favoritism, he describes it in terms of saying to the rich man, here's a good seat for you, and the poor man, you sit on the floor, and so on. So sin is always a heart issue, always, always. But James has a tendency to describe it in terms of what comes out of your mouth when you have that sin in your heart, that way it's easy to spot. So you diagnose what's in your heart by your tongue. We learn that from James and that's what he's doing here. He's diagnosing pride, a new kind of pride. See, we've seen so far four different kinds of pride that James has addressed in this book. In chapter one, it was the pride of possessions, being rich, being puffed up because you've got all this earthly stuff. In chapters two and three, it was the pride of piety, Religiousness being puffed up because of all your Bible knowledge of all your or your faith or your religious observance or your ability to teach or your wisdom all that Look what a great Christian. I am that kind of pride Number three was pride of position. That's chapter three. They they wanted to be teachers. They wanted to an office Because of the selfish ambition that was in their hearts and then the fourth kind was the pride of pleasure-seeking We saw that in chapter four They weren't getting their prayers answered because they just wanted to spend what they got on their desires and their pleasures, which is a symptom of their love affair with the world. And James in verse six calls that pride. So those are four different species of pride that James has already condemned in this book so far. Pride of possessions and piety and position and pleasure seeking. Now we get a fifth one, pride of presumption. Verse 13, today or tomorrow we'll go to this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. That's pride of presumption. Why? Because in that whole plan, I mean it's a great plan, but where is God? Where's God in there? Nowhere. He's not a factor. He doesn't factor in. What God wants, what God desires, what God has planned, none of that factors in. This guy's got it all figured out. It's going to be on his own time. He's got the time, the place, the duration, the activity, and the outcome all planned out, right? His time, today or tomorrow, place, this city or that city, duration, a year, activity, due business, and outcome, make money. And if you ask him, where does God fit in all that? Probably he'll say, oh, he fits in. I mean, trust me, I've been praying like crazy about this plant. And he has. He's been praying. He thinks God fits in because he's been praying, but we saw what his prayers are like back in verse three, remember? When you ask, you don't receive, because you ask the wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. That's the kind of praying he's been doing. He thinks he's seeking God's will, but in reality, all he's doing is making his own plans, seeking his own will, and then asking God to bless them. Here's what I'm about to do, God. Make it work out. Make it go smooth. It's my party. God, please let the cake taste good, and let the gifts be good ones, and let the games be fun. and he's oblivious to the fact it's not his party. Your life is not your party. It's not for you. It's not for you. It's for God. That's why we exist. You exist for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the pleasure of God the Father and for the use of God the Spirit. You exist for the benefit of His kingdom. That's why you exist. So when we pray about our plans, The goal isn't to just get God to put his stamp of approval on our agenda. The goal is to discover his agenda so that we can fit into that. What would happen if you showed up to work one day and you told your boss, I'm going to take the company van today and just head up I-70, do some sightseeing. I'll be back around nine tonight. Your boss like, well, Is there some company business you're going to be doing up there? No, no, no. It's just my plan. You know how it is. A good employee has to make plans. So, you know, I'm making plans." The boss is going to say, well, yeah, it's great for you to make plans, but if you're on the clock and you're driving the company van, they need to be plans that have to do with this company. I'm the one that gives your assignments, not you. If you're a Christian, you're on the clock. With God, you're serving in God's kingdom, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you're on His clock. You belong to Him. Remember, we're still under the umbrella of that command back in verse seven, where he says, submit yourselves to the Lord. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. He's still talking about that. See, for the Christian, all of life is an effort to submit ourselves to the desires and the plans of God, His will. It's not, God, please bless my agenda, but God, where do I fit in your agenda today? What's my assignment? That's when you're gonna be happy. But when I walk through life with the attitude that my life is my party, and I make my plans accordingly, that is prideful arrogance. That's what James calls it, prideful arrogance. I was shocked when I was studying for the sermon last week to find out You know what the number one song, the number one requested song at funerals is? What would you guess? The number one requested song at funerals in our culture, I did it my way. Can you imagine at a funeral? That's the number one. I've lived a life that's full, I've traveled each and every highway, but more, much more than this, I did it my way. More important than everything I accomplished, the fact that I did it my own way. I live for my own will. I live for myself and there's not room in my entire song for even one word about God's will. That's the arrogance of our culture. That's the way they live. They don't care about God's will. Alistair Begg told a story about how he was in a grocery store. He's standing in a grocery store. The woman in front of him is just done, just finishing up and she's walking away and she's friends with the checker and she tells the checker, see you next year. And the checker says, see you next year. And Alistair Begg says, Lord willing. The woman stopped and turned and looked at him and said, no, I will see her next year. And then she said it again, I will see her next year. And she turns to the woman and says, that's the power of positive thinking. You know, the pride of the unregenerate heart hates the idea that I'm not the one ultimately in charge of my own destiny. And they will imagine that they are in charge. An unbeliever can make 10 million mistakes and foolish decisions in his life and still go to the grave reveling in the fact, well, I did it my way. And so the question is, how do I get rid of that arrogance? And that's what James is gonna teach us today. He's gonna help us with that in verse 14. So let's take a look. First step to get rid of this is to admit your ignorance about the future. That's verse 14. He says, why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. I mean, what are you making plans like that for? You don't even know the future. Now, we need to be careful on a verse like this because it's very easy to miss the point when we read this. Usually people read this verse and they take it to mean, look, when you make your plans, this is how most people interpret this portion of James. When you make your plans, you need to realize that they might not work out due to unforeseen circumstances. So just keep that in mind. If that's all James is saying here, he's not saying much, right? Because everybody knows that, right? Atheists know that. Even atheists understand, if I plan the picnic for Saturday, it might rain on Saturday, and so I better have a plan B. I mean, everyone understands that much. That's just obvious. And we know that's not the point that James is making here because of the solution that he ends up giving in the next verse. When he gets to the solution in verse 15, he doesn't say, instead, here's what you ought to say. And he doesn't say you ought to say if circumstances allow then we will do live or do this or that No, that's not the solution. He gives us he says instead you ought to say What? God-willing he doesn't say instead you ought to say whether permitting will do this or that no God-willing will do this or that It's not be careful about your plans because they might not work out it's be careful about your plans because Your ignorance about the future proves this isn't even your party. You're not the ones that are supposed to be making up agendas. You're not in control. You don't even know what tomorrow is going to be like. Ecclesiastes 9.1, no man knows whether love or hate awaits him. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. People might hate you, they might love you. We think we know. We always figure out it's got to be like today, you know. Isaiah 56, 12, come, each one cries, let me get wine and let us drink our fill of beer, and tomorrow will be like today, or even better. We think we got a pretty good idea of what tomorrow's like. We're not thinking any disaster's gonna befall us tomorrow. We think we know. We're kidding ourselves. We don't know. Jeremiah 10, 23, a man's life is not his own. It is not for man to direct his steps. That's not our job. Proverbs 16, 9, In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Haven't you seen that in your own life? I mean, look at all the twists and turns your life has taken over the last 10 years. Did you plan all that? You would have never planned it that way. You can't see tomorrow or next week or next year. And so if you can't see tomorrow or next week or next year, why would you assume that your agenda is going to be worthwhile? you got a great idea for a career, oh, I'm gonna do this. How do you know for sure that if you got that career, it would really work out the way you think? How do you know these plans for marriage and kids and all that are gonna end up being what's best ultimately for you in your case? All these plans we make, they sound really good to us because we imagine them to be one thing, but what if reality ends up being something very different? We don't know, which makes us unfit for being the one to set the agenda. And even if things turn out exactly as we expect, even that, we don't know for sure it's the best thing. The word here for know, when he says you don't know, emphasizes understanding. Not only knowing what will happen tomorrow, but understanding what are the implications of that. Maybe things will turn out exactly as we planned, but it means something different than what we thought it meant. And so James says, Why don't you step down from your position of captain of your own ship? Why? Because you're blind. And you can't see even one moment of the future. And blind, ignorant people just don't make good captains of ships. So we attach a big if to every plan we ever make in life. If it's the Lord's will. If it's the Lord's will. And when we do that, We're doing more than just acknowledging, well, things might not work out. It might rain. It's not just that. We do that to acknowledge the possibility this might not even be what God wants. And as Christians, we don't want anything other than what God wants. Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who's in heaven. Living for the will of God is a mark of a true believer. That's what that's what a believer is somebody who lives for God's will Matthew 50 or 1250 whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother Jesus said Doing God's will is what gives meaning to your life. It's what gives you strength. It's what gives you sustenance It's just Jesus even said that John 434 my food said Jesus is to do the will of the one who sent me That's what gives me vitality And so all of our planning needs to be just like our praying. It needs to end with, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. We need to write that at the bottom of every plan we make. And you can tell how much you really mean that, nevertheless, your will be done phrase by how you react when your plans don't work out. When God says no to them. How do you react when your plans don't work out? Can you think of a time recently when you had planned something, you're excited about it, you thought it was a good plan, but then it fell to pieces? Things didn't go the way you thought they would? How did you respond? There are a lot of possible responses. Anger, irritation, discouragement, fear. or perhaps acceptance, trust in what God is doing, eagerness to cooperate with his plan. Lots of possible responses. How did you respond? And how do you usually respond? And what do those responses tell you about your own heart? Father, I confess many times I plan like an atheist without taking you into consideration. And many times I respond to disappointments like an atheist, especially small ones. I plan something, it doesn't work out like I wanted, and I just get irritated instead of embracing it as your sovereign plan. Forgive me, Father, for how often I forget about you and the beautiful work you're doing through providence every moment of every day, when things turn out the way I want and when plans fall apart. I thank you for how often you give me the desires of my heart and make my plans succeed. Just in the last 24 hours, there are so many examples of that. Plans I made, efforts I undertook, things I tried to do that succeeded. Thank you, Father. But when my plans are shattered and you carry out your decrees for my life, I trust in your perfect wisdom and unfailing love. You have given me a mind and placed me in this world with responsibilities that require planning. So I make those plans best I can. But no matter how many plans I make, my steps are always directed by you. And I thank you for thwarting the plans I make that wouldn't ultimately be best. Please bring all this to my mind today, Lord, when things don't work out the way I had hoped. Teach me to have responses that are pleasing to you. Thank you for listening! If you found today's episode edifying, why not share it with a friend? This season of the Food for Your Soul podcast features excerpts from our sermon series on the book of James. 50 expository sermons covering every verse. You can find those and hundreds of other sermons for free download on drichardferguson.com And if you like listening on your phone, get our free mobile app. Install the Church One app from the Play Store and select food for your soul. Until next time, rejoice in the Lord always and set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.