Father, it is good to be gathered before you again this morning. We thank you for coming to meet us and to greet us and ushering us into your presence. We thank you for feeding us. We thank you for your word. We pray that it would be effectual in our lives, that it would accomplish everything that you have for it to accomplish through your spirit. Father, I pray that we wouldn't be hearers only, but doers. May we embrace these things by faith. May we embrace your truth and your word by faith and faith and be eager to do that which you have called us to do. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Please be seated. And please turn in your Bibles to James, Chapter four. James, Chapter four. This morning, we'll be looking at verses 13 through 17. titled the sermon, The Problem of Presumptuousness, and then was wisely cautioned that saying the title might be problematic or it might have been presumptuous to put that in there as a title. But nonetheless, hopefully it will be a blessing to us. But let us now hear the word of God. James 4, 13 through 17 says this. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, he boasts in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. So far, the reading of God's word. Well, first, what is presumptuous? What does presumptuous mean? The definition of the word means that one's too confident, especially in a way that is rude. It means to think too highly of themselves and too little of others. It means to make or to do something without permission, without right or without good reason. It's actually overstepping due bounds of propriety or courtesy. It's taking liberty for things. It's assuming too much for ourself, being self-confident, not being confident, but overly confident, you see, being arrogant or proud or boastful or haughty. All these things that James has been talking about, that they're problematic, they're rude, they're out of place for God's people. It reminds me of the situation that sometimes we see in the papers when someone gets pulled over, usually it's a senator or a celebrity. And they get pulled over by a police, or they get caught in something, and someone goes, well, do you know who I am? And if you have to ask the question, it's really too late. They don't know who you are. That's the problem. You even have to ask. But that's presumptuous. Like, if you knew who I was, right, then I wouldn't get treated this way, and the law doesn't apply to me, or this particular situation doesn't apply to me. That's a presumptuous attitude, that do you know who I am kind of attitude. And so this morning, we want to look at three things about that attitude, the presumptuousness of the problem of presumptuousness. First, we want to look at the problem of the arrogant, who will also call the fool. Then we want to look at the perspective of the humble, who will also call the wise and then the profession of the child of the Lord. So the problem of the arrogant, the perspective of the humble and the profession of the child of the Lord. Let's look at these three things. First, the problem of the arrogant or the fool. The text says in verse 13, it says, Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. On its surface, that statement alone doesn't cause too much of a problem, as scripture actually tells us to plan. It tells us in Proverbs, for example, to consider the ant. It tells us about the warnings of the sluggard. It tells us to think about these things, to think about nature and how even these animals prepare for the future in some sense. So planning in and of itself isn't a bad thing. There must be something else that's going on here because we're told, we're even encouraged to plan for the future and to think about things. So what is actually the problem here is the context will help us show what the problem is. It's actually a sin of speech. which reflects the nature of the heart here. And James has been talking about sins of speech throughout. He says, come now, you who say it's going to reflect the heart attitude of the warm up song to opera singers like me, me, me, me, me. What is life all about? Me, me, me, me, me. Right. It's going to reflect that idea that this is really what it's about. So James is going to give a reality check here. He's going to say, you know what? Actually, you're foolish. In verse 14, you don't even know what tomorrow will bring. You have this arrogant, haughty attitude that I'm going to do this not only tomorrow, but a year from now. And you know what? You don't even know about tomorrow. You can't bring it about. You can't be sure it's going to come. You don't know exactly what tomorrow holds. So you're kind of foolish, he's saying. And then he's also saying that you're very frail. You are a myth that appears for a little while and then vanishes. That's what our life is like, it's often described that way in scripture, it's just a breath. To us, it seems like every moment and every year is just packed and there's nothing else outside of our immediate existence. And all of scripture is trying to pull us out of that. Your immediate existence in your now is important. You are important. Your whole life is shot through with meaning. You're an image bearer of God. You have dignity. What you say matters. What you do matters. Everything about you matters. But that's not all there is. And so sometimes we think that our life is all there is or this life is all there is. And so we get really anxious and stressed and scriptures trying to say, you know what, that's just kind of frail and fragile as well. There's much more to it. There's a whole the whole existence of God outside of us and others and generations that came before us with the Lord Terry's generations that come after us and that, you know, your life is just a little while. Be cautious about how you understand it. So not only is it foolish, foolish in the fact that you can't bring about your tomorrow, it's frail in the sense of your life is very fragile. But it's also arrogant. And this comes out really clearly again, this is revealed to us just by the statement that we're going to go and plan and do this. We don't know it's arrogant. What James is saying is that these people are arrogant, these particular people in verse 16. He says, as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil. So it's not that their planning was problematic, it's that the heart attitude of these people, that they were boasting in their arrogance. Notice that that, too, is a sin of speech. They're boasting about something, they're revealing their heart, they're boasting actually in their arrogance. What are they boasting about is their arrogance. As I'm saying that this is the problem of the arrogant, this is the problem of the fool, this is the problem of the presumptuous, is that they think they're in control of it all. In essence, they're living life as if God doesn't exist and that the only thing exists is me. Right. First, John talks about this, he says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. So he's saying that these people are foolish, they're frail, they're arrogant, and they think that this world is all that there is. And they're basing their life on their own accomplishments. This person assumes or presumes that our life, our choices and our ability are all 100 percent at our disposal. We alone are the captains of our fate. They're not saying, let us go, but we will go. We will go. Again, the making of plans isn't the problem, but their attitude towards it is what James is trying to call out here. And we've talked before that good goods can become bad gods. Many of us who went through the peacemakers, they stress that throughout, that good goods can become bad gods. So life itself is a good good. Profit is a good, good productivity is a good, good planning is a good, good. But if we make them gods, that's problematic. They're good goods. They're good servants, but they're terrible masters. They're good tools for us to use. But if our banking is in our ability to earn a profit or our productivity or our planning, then we have the wrong perspective. The problem is living as if God was not involved. As if God didn't matter. This is the wisdom from below that James had been talking about already, it's earthly, it's unspiritual and it's demonic. They're looking at themselves as very self-sufficient and self-important. They're basically functioning like a deist. A deist is someone who believes that God exists, but that he's not involved in the world today, that he just kind of wound it up and let the earth go, but he's not involved in any way. So they're functioning like a functional deist or they're functioning like a practical atheist. They may not deny the existence of God. An atheist says there is no God, but they're living like there is no God. They're acting like there's no God. There's no judgment. There's no glory. There's no heaven and hell. I'm not responsible for anyone or anything. And they're living their life like that. Or we could also say that they're a professor and not a possessor of faith. They're the self-righteous, they're the Pharisee, they're the hypocrite. One who presumes on God's goodness and grace. Well, God's just going to forgive, so I'm just going to do whatever I want. That's presumptive. God does give more grace, but it doesn't reflect the attitude of a child of God to say, well, I'm just going to do whatever and just presume upon God's grace. It fails to recognize that you are saved by grace alone and what you are saved from and what you are saved for. You are saved from the curse of the law, you are saved from the wrath of God and you are saved for good works. You're saved for the glory of God and for the good of your neighbor and for your own salvation. And so this kind of person also thinks that one of the ways this can manifest itself is no church, no problem. I don't need God, I don't need his means of grace, I don't need his sacraments, I've got me and my Bible and that's fine. On the other extreme are those who think, well, just church. As long as I go and I check off the boxes, I went to church, I went to Catholicism class, I did this, then everything's fine. But they don't have faith. Either extreme is wrong. God uses the church. It's his means of giving grace to his people. It's his embassy of peace in a lost and dying world. So the church isn't absolutely necessary and essential. So the idea of no church, no problem. I love Jesus. I have my Bible is contrary to the word of God. At the same time, to just come to church and think, well, I've done my duty and you don't embrace those things by faith is really problematic. It doesn't just happen by coming. The Lord works through the means that he gives, but you, Christian, are called to faith. You're to embrace these things, believe these things, and walk in these things that God has called us to. So really, the question that we could ask of this person is, or ourselves, is are you living as if God is not in the picture? That's the problem of presumption. That's the problem of the arrogant. They're living like either God exists, but he's not involved, or there is no God, basically. One theologian coined the phrase affluenza. For affluence, it's a disease of our culture. That we have a triumph of consumerism. Our culture is just steeped in consumerism, and you'd think that we were created to be consumers. And we're not. We were created to be producers. We were created to be creative. We were created to be lovers and thoughtful and engaging and all these other things. Yes, consuming was part of that. But in our culture, it's the highest good almost. And I can assure you, as someone who worked in marketing at Audi, we're trying to build in you as marketers discontent. Scripture is trying to tell you to be content, but marketers are trying to tell you, well, be discontent. Your teeth aren't white enough. You're too fat. You don't have the right car. You don't have the right clothes. You don't have the right friends. You don't have the doctor. You're a doctor. You're not at the right school. You're not at whatever. It's inculcating discontentment. That's what your culture is doing, and Scripture is saying, no, be content. So affluenza, this theologian said, is triumphant consumerism. An affluent culture turns our hearts towards fleeting satisfaction and away from God. While unprecedented prosperity has left our lives full, but not necessarily fulfilled. The problem is not that we have tried faith and found it wanting, but that we have tried materialism and consumerism and found it addictive. And as a result, we find following Christ inconvenient. We say that again, the problem is not that we have found faith and we found it wanting. But there were actually addicted to consumerism, and we found it addictive and that that culture is speaking to us a different culture than the culture of the church and the culture of Christ. And you know what? So then we find following Christ inconvenient. That's presumptuous. That's the problem of the arrogant. That's the problem of the fool. And so then at the very end of our text, he says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. Note that he's just not saying that if you fail to do something that you know that you're supposed to do, it's not just evil, it's sin. It's not an oopsie, you know, I forgot or I was busy or a shrug of, you know, bother. Oh, well, it's a sin. It's an offense against the holy God and it's offense against whoever needed that, that you were going to do that good. A fellow image bearer of God. And James is saying here that we don't have the excuse of ignorance. We have the problem of arrogance. We have the problem of presumption. It's actually a sin against knowledge. You know that you should do this and you don't do it. That's a sin. It's a sin of omission. And it's just as real as our sins of commission, those things that we actually do. So that's the problem of the arrogant or the fool. They live as if there is no God. Next, we want to look at the second point, the perspective of the humble or the wise. To have a reality check, first and foremost, remember that God is the creator and that we're creatures. That distinction is so helpful and so important for all of theology. We are fearfully and wonderfully made of all the creation. God said that we are very good. He said that of nothing else that he created. But we're still creatures and we will always be creatures. We will never be God. Never get to a point where we are God. We're in fellowship with God because of Jesus Christ. We're in union with God because of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven in Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and we have peace with God because of Jesus Christ. But we're not God. Again, we can't even control our tomorrow. We can't control our life. He just cautioned about these things, the presumptuous of it. And God uses means. We are image bearers on our lives, as I said before, are shot through with meaning, with purpose and dignity. Turn, if you will, in the back of your blue Psalter hymnal to page 16. I just want to remind us of to help us get perspective on how we live our life. Coram Dale before the face of God in this world and before others. Summaries in our confession of the word of God, their faithful summaries of the word of God, and let's hear together Heidelberg question twenty six, twenty seven and twenty eight. Just follow along, if you will. I'll read them. Says, what do you believe when you say? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. That the eternal father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and father because of Christ, his son. I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul. And he will turn to my good, whatever adversity he sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because he is almighty God. He desires to do this because he is a faithful father. That's a different perspective than the arrogant fool, isn't it? And this is what we confess and believe about God. This is what we confess when we say when we say the Apostles Creed, I believe in God, the father, almighty maker of heaven and earth. Let's move on. Christian, what do you understand by the providence of God? Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God, by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rule them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty. All things, in fact, come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. And Christian, how does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us? We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, And for the future, we can have good confidence in our faithful God and father that nothing will separate us from his love. All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will, they can neither move nor be moved. Christian, those are hopefully comforting to us. We're not living as if God isn't involved in our lives or he's some removed despot or ruler or some blind force or chance or whatever. But he's our father. He's a personal God. He's a creator of heaven and earth that he's revealed himself to us through creation. And he's revealed himself most fully to us through the person and work of Jesus Christ. God not only knows the future, but controls the future. That's why he can promise you a future. If he did it, how could he promise you glory? How could he promise you the return of the king? How could he promise you anything if he didn't have any control over it? He would be like the arrogant, presumptuous fool. Right. But that's not the case with God. God isn't arrogant and presumptuous and foolish. God can deliver. God can deliver on everything he said. He's not an abstract power, but he's our father who loves us. You see, in scripture, life follows a line from past to present, to future, to eternity, not a circle like many other religions teach. We receive another day. We receive another opportunity. We receive another gift. We receive even our next breath, not by necessity, not by some mechanical law, not by right, not by Mother Nature, but by God's goodness. by God's providence, by his grace and by his mercy. And that ought to alter our perspective on how we go about doing things, you see. And note that God uses ordinary means, right? So the next breath that you draw or the blood pumping through your vein, God is involved in it, but not directly. He's indirectly involved because he's created our bodies such. And he's maintaining the universe and maintaining the world so that as he's created us to be, so we are. So sometimes people want to get confused when we talk about Providence, because they think that Providence and miracle are the same thing or they want to divorce them from each other. And what I mean by that is that God doesn't work. God is working in all things, but not in all things in the same way. So, for instance, childbirth is not a miracle. It's a wonderful gift of God. Because God decided mommies and daddies to come together. And then nine months later, little babies born. God is involved in that in his providence. God is involved in that in terms of how he's designed us. But the baby is not a miracle. But when we hear that, sometimes we think, well, then God's not involved. No, God is involved. He's involved through his providence. He's hiding behind layers and layers and layers and layers of masks. So also, when we pray for our daily bread every week and you go to your bread box to get it out, God's involved in that, but not directly. He didn't just put it in there, right? He maintained the earth. There was farmers who farmed their land. The truckers brought the bread to the grocery store. You went to the grocery store to pick it up. God gave you a job so that you could have money so that you could go to the grocery store so that you could pick it up. God was involved in all of that. Not directly, but indirectly overseeing it for your good. So that you can just as surely thank the dairyman, you can thank the farmer, you can thank the truck driver, you can thank the doctor. You just want to also remember, well, thank God. Because God was behind all of those things, and so the danger is to pretend like the farmer, the dairyman, the scientists don't matter or to think they're all that matter. Both matter. That's the proper perspective. God uses means he delights in it, you see. So that perspective helps us. And the last thing we want to look at. is the profession of the child of the Lord. So rather than saying, come tomorrow, we will do thus and so, verse 15 says, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. You see, if the Lord wills is also not a magic formula, we don't just tack it on to whatever we want and then say if the Lord wills and then God is somehow bound to give us that thing. Or hopefully we don't just say it is lip service. I know I'm supposed to pray if the Lord wills, but I'll just tack it on at the end. It's not also a quiet resignation to blind force, if the Lord wills, he'll give me this. He's a good and gracious father. You can pray confidently if the Lord wills. He's got my best interest at heart. He knows what's best for me. It's very different to say if the Lord wills, this will be true for me, then the Lord wills. Do you believe that that Lord cares about you, that that Lord loves you, that he has your best interest at heart, that he's orchestrating the things in your life for your good and the good of your salvation? It's radically personal, the Lord. It's not the same as if in the Greco-Roman worlds, they would say, if the gods will, plural. Or even the same as if we say, if God wills. It's the Lord here, Yahweh, his covenant name, the personal God, the creator and sustainer of the universe, the Redeemer, who's revealed himself to us so that we can know what kind of God he is, so that all the drama of Scripture unfolds for us into understanding our doctrine of who he is, his creator and Redeemer. So that we know the Lord of Abraham, the Lord of Isaac, the Lord of Jacob, the Lord of Job, the Lord of Ruth, the Lord of David, the Lord of Samuel, that God is my God. He's already demonstrated himself and revealed to me what he's like. I can put my confidence in him, I can put my trust in him. And then most fully, that Lord is in the second person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal son of God, the incarnate son of God. who came born in a woman, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us on a tree. He suffered, he died, he rose again and ascended to glory. It's that Lord. If that Lord wills, so be it. You think he's going to will something for you? That's not in your best interest after he went to the cross for you? After he died for you? After he suffered the shame? On the cross for you, James has already unpacked for us a little bit about who this Lord is. At the very beginning, the opening verse of James, it says, James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. James, to one, my brother, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. The Lord of Glory, the glorious one who from all eternity had everything that he needed. But because he wasn't presumptuous, because he wasn't arrogant, rude, proud or haughty, he came as a as a servant to serve us, to take on human flesh, to die in our stead, to die that we could have life and have it abundantly, to suffer the wrath of God that we wouldn't, that we would be freed. So there's no condemnation for us who are in Jesus Christ and that we he was raised again in glory. And that is our hope. The hope of glory that we have so that we're dependent upon God. As creatures and we're dependent upon God as sinners, we never get away from that. So the attitude that James was talking about, that first attitude wanted to live like God didn't exist. God doesn't exist in terms of creation. It's me, me, me, me, me. And God doesn't exist in terms of redemption. It's just me, me, me, me, me or nothing. But the very beginning of our confession. I encourage you to to memorize Heidelberg one if you haven't done so. It's fundamental to who we are, fundamental to understanding who God is. It says, I, with body and soul in life and in death, am not my own. But I belong to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ, who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins and redeem me from all the power of the devil, and he so preserves me That without the will of my father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Does it say all things that happen are good? No. Because many evil things happen to you and you do many evil things. It's saying that God will even work those things out for your salvation. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he assures me of eternal life and he makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto him." That's our comfort in life and in death. That's the profession of faith of a child of the Lord, if the Lord wills. If the Lord wills. It's a confidence in this God. It's a comfort in this God. It's a confidence and a comfort in this Savior, Jesus Christ. So, in summary, first we recognize that we are not our own. We didn't create ourselves. We didn't save ourselves. We are creatures. We're dependent upon God. We're dependent upon him for our next breath, and we're dependent upon him utterly for salvation. And we're also accountable and responsible for what we do. Which is why James was hitting so hard on sin, right? If you know what to do and don't do it, it's sin. You're accountable and you're responsible. Your life is shot through and charged with meaning how you respond to God and how you respond to one another. So first, we want to recognize that we're not our own. We're belong to the Lord. He created us and then Jesus Christ redeemed us. He saved us from sin, from Satan, from death. And second, we want to recognize that we are not alone. Not only are we not our own, but we're not alone. You weren't created just for me, me, me, me, me. That's part of it. But you were created to glorify God and enjoy him forever and to love and serve your neighbor. They need your good works. How is God going to sometimes serve your neighbor or give them good is through you. Remember, I told you he could do things directly and immediately and miraculously, but rarely does he do that. Most often, it's through ordinary means, through you loving and serving your neighbor. God is serving them. He's using you. He's using you and other people are serving you. And that's a God ministering to you through his servants. So first, we recognize that we are not our own. Secondly, recognize that we are not alone. And third, we recognize that we are God's own. We're his children. You are an adopted son and daughter of the almighty. The maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, his son and the Holy Spirit, you are adopted. You're a joint heir of the new heavens and the new earth. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And that carries with it a dignity, that carries with it a responsibility, that carries with it accountability. But it's a gift given to us. So when we say, if the Lord wills, we're talking about God. We're specifically talking about Jesus Christ. If the Lord wills, that's A profession of speech, isn't it? As opposed to the sins of speech that James had been talking about. Now, here's a profession of faith. If the Lord wills. The Lord's prayer, right, our father, how do we start our father who aren't in heaven, hell would be thy name. And how do we end it? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And note that it's our father, because it's not just me, me, me, it's our he died for his church. He died for his people. You are part of that. You are brought into this family, to this local manifestation of the kingdom of God. So we say our father who art in heaven and we say thy will be done. This points us ultimately to Jesus in some sense, doesn't it? We can think of Jesus as prayer in the garden. Because this is not an easy thing, is that we sometimes wrestle with the will of God or sometimes we do know what we ought to do, but we don't do it. That's sin of omission. But Jesus never did that, did he? Jesus even had some of the same desires that we have in his humanity, so that in the Garden of Gethsemane and one of the darkest nights of his life, Jesus was praying and he said, Father, not as I will, but as you will let it be done. He didn't have a sin of omission. He went through with it, he obeyed the will of the father in all things. And Jesus Christ's consideration of the father's will. And Jesus Christ's obedience to him is not just an example for us, but is the very foundation of our loving, of our willing, of our desiring and of our obeying the Lord in all things. We're a new creation and a new spirit is put in us. In other words, we don't just look to Jesus as an example. We look to him as a savior. It's not just that he did these things and so do we because we couldn't do them apart from his work in us. It's far more than Jesus is an example. Jesus is a savior because he perfectly obeyed the father. Because he perfectly obeyed in all of those things, his righteousness is credited to us as a gift, as if we had perfectly obeyed ourselves. How do we receive that by faith alone? By grace, the good news is told to you. Your sin went on Jesus and Jesus's righteousness came on you. Do you believe? Well, if you do, your sins are forgiven. You are declared righteous. There is no more condemnation for you. You are glory bound. You're going to wrestle with sin the rest of the life that you carry here, but it's but a vapor. Don't trade eternity for a few conveniences now. Don't trade eternity for a few consumer goods or a few consumer products or a little less mockery. Glory, eternity, life is at stake. Notice that it's not necessary to verbalize if the Lord wills after everything. Actually, it would get quite obnoxious if we did. The point is whether or not we have true faith, whether or not we recognize our place in God's world, in Christ's Church and in the lives of loving other people. So the text isn't saying, we have to say, if the Lord wills, if the Lord wills, it'll drive other people nuts, right? But do you have that attitude? Do you have that heart? Do you have that confidence and that dependency, that hearty trust in the Lord, you see? Because the other person didn't. They were presumptuous. They lived as if God didn't exist. And so what was in their heart was reflected in their speech. And what's in our heart is reflected in our speech as well. So it's not saying you need to use these words all the time. But let me ask you this. Do you believe the truth behind these words? So that whether you verbalize them all the time or not, that you know them, that you have a hearty faith and trust in Jesus Christ. So at the very beginning, you know, when I started off and I said, you know, someone's asking, do you know who I am? Do you know who Jesus is? Let me ask you that. Do you know who Jesus is? And do you trust him and do you love him? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for. The announcement of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we thank you that you didn't leave us alone in this sin, cursed world and in our own sin, but you entered into it, father, that you had your son come, that he took on flesh, that he perfectly obeyed in all things where we had failed. We thank you that he endured the wrath and condemnation that should have been poured on us and that instead we have received mercy and grace upon grace, never ending grace. Father, would you please help us to live in light of the grace that has been poured into our hearts? Would you please help us to recognize our place in the world, our dependency on you? And also the dignity that you've given us as human beings to create and to flourish and to thrive and to be involved in how you use us to serve other people. Father, could we be busy about your work, be busy about your kingdom?