If It Is The Lord's Will

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Ascension Presbyterian Church - Longwood, Florida Rev. Christopher Brenyo "If It Is The Lord's Will" James 4:13-17 February 4th, 2024

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Please turn in your Bibles to the book of James and chapter 4 the epistle of James in chapter 4
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I'm gonna begin reading today in verse 8
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This is God's holy and infallible word
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James chapter 4 verse 8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you
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Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double -minded
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Lament and mourn and we Let your laughter be torn turned to mourning and your joy to gloom
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Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up Do not speak evil of one another brethren he who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law
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But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge
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There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy Who are you to judge?
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another Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such -and -such a city spend a year there
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Buy and sell and make a profit Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow
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For what is your life it is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away
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Instead you ought to say if the Lord wills we shall live and do this or that But now you boast in your arrogance all such boasting is evil
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Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin
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Let the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most holy word. Please pray with me.
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Oh Lord, we are a people of unclean lips Reflective of unclean hearts but we have
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Christ and he washes us Lord we pray that that fresh water and praises would proceed from our mouth and that we would
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Put away all the sins of the tongue and that we would say With our
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Lord Jesus Christ not my will Oh Lord, but your will be done We ask all this in Jesus name
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Amen, please be seated if you happen to read old
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Christian literature and commentaries There will be a an ending at the end of letters that would say
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DV a D a period and a V and you may wondered what that meant and that is the
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Latin phrase deo volente and That means god -willing the people of God have
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Historically recognized that that their lives are in the hands of God that he is the one who orders their steps
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They make plans but he directs their steps The title of the message today is if it is the
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Lord's will taken from the last part of verse 15 and I have a couple of points for you to consider for your outline if you have need of such a thing first Presuming upon the future number one of this outline would be presuming upon the future second a huge existential question found in verse 14.
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What is your life? We will not get into the hugeness of the existentialism there, but a big question.
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What is your life? third the title of the message deo volente if the
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Lord wills and fourth there is a proper boasting that we should be doing
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There's a boasting we should not do and there's a boasting that we ought to do number one presuming upon the future
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What's what is your life? If the Lord wills and a proper glorying and boasting as Has been repeated now dozens of times
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James desires a genuine faith That is revealed and demonstrated with good works that accompany salvation
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He desires that his hearers and I believe the Holy Spirit Obviously desires it of us as well that we would grow up to full maturity and completion that we'd lack no good thing in Christ and Here James is warning his hearers against particular sins of the tongue
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Remember last week if you look back at verse 11, we learned of the impropriety of speaking evil of one another
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Particularly those who belong to the household of faith Now we didn't reach the conclusion that we could never call out sin and sinners
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We didn't go along with the culture and say we're not going to judge anyone But we are not going to take the place of God and pronounce condemnation upon those for whom
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Christ has died. That's the great sin that James is warning against in that section
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We don't want to be judges of the law And in the arrogance of our folly if we were falling into that sin
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We'd be usurping the very authority at least attempting to the authority of God But today another sin is exposed
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And we are warned against arrogant boasting and presuming upon the future
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We are in danger of glorying in accomplishments that have not already been attained
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And a proper application of James teaching today will give the believer an occasion for boasting and glorying but not in themselves
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But in what the Lord himself has done We pursue vain glory
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We were created and redeemed to pursue God's glory
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Let us boast in his glory alone. Amen Let's consider the first point
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Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city
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Spend a year there buy and sell and make a profit the
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Jews were Scattered all over the Roman world and not only because of persecution in the
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Diaspora But also because they were tradesmen and merchants They would travel with their wares and they would sell their goods and services in cities and they would find along the way
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But it was it was good for business to stay in a place like Tyre or Sidon or some other place outside the realm of Israel and so this would be very common for them to say my plan is this year to Go to such -and -such a place
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If we read the book of Romans, I don't think Paul ever made it to Spain.
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He desired to go He does never get there. I don't believe So you and I make our plans my brother my friend who died recently.
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I listened to his last sermon He had many plans for the upcoming weeks in life of his church
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And he didn't get to fulfill those We must recognize and this is a big problem for us
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That God is in control of our very lives The breath that we take the heartbeats that we get the the brain
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Activity the electrical charges all of that are in the hand of God You and I are by nature
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Control freaks and we want to have everything go a certain way and we are not in control praise be to God, but our
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Lord is I'm gonna ask you to take up your hymnals now And I didn't write the page number so I have to find it really quickly forgive me
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Go to the back of the Trinity hymnal and turn to page 851 to presume upon the future is to forget that God Governs his creatures and their actions by his decrees and Providence I'm gonna read sections here from chapter 5 and this shows you maybe affirm somewhat of what
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Mark was talking about the value of Scriptural teaching coupled with the confession in the interplay that would go between them.
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This is on page 851 Chapter 5 would you listen carefully?
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God the great creator of all things doth uphold Direct dispose and govern all creatures actions and things
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From the greatest even to the least now, I think we believe this propositionally
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But what we need to believe it practically We know this is true
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But we have to live and act upon the fact in the reality That God governs all of his creatures and all of their actions
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You and I are completely responsible for our behavior, but we have to understand
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God superintends all that comes to pass section 1 again
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He does this by his most wise and holy Providence According to his infallible foreknowledge and the free immutable counsel of his own will to the praise of the glory of his wisdom power justice goodness and mercy
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If I say I'm going to tire inside in that I'm going to go to Asia Minor and I'm going to sell my goods and services without a humble
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Acknowledgement of God and his Providence I'm sinning We boast about tomorrow and tomorrow is not promised to us
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How many times have you been on the highway and avoided an accident?
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Trees fall on houses when people sleep They've done nothing over on the west coast a couple was in their home and a plane crashed on them and they died
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They didn't do anything wrong. They weren't inviting the plane to land on their street.
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The plane lost power and it crashed The reality is
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God Governs all of his creatures and all their
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Actions look down at verse section 3. It says God in his ordinary
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Providence maketh use of means God uses hospitals and doctors to heal people
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He has a nurse running behind you in a marathon Sometimes you have a heart attack and she revives you
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God uses means Yet he is free to work without above against them at his pleasure
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There is a way that things go in the world. God has put things in place He uses means the ordinary way that men women and children grow up in the faith is the
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Word Sacrament and prayer and life of the church the ordinary means of grace.
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That's how people grow up in the faith But sometimes God in the power of his Holy Spirit enables someone to mature rapidly for some purpose section 4 the
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Almighty Power unsearchable wisdom An infinite goodness of God I should pause here these superlatives and about God's character and Attributes when we think about him
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We should live a life of trust. His knowledge is perfect His will is perfect.
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We put a lot of stock in our plans Your plans can be wrong.
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God's are never wrong It's arrogant, isn't it? We think this is how it should be
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Lord Well, things would be good if things went this way and when they don't go that way We're gravely disappointed because our will was not the
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Lord didn't listen to us and do it our way But his ways better than ours.
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So it should be a life of trust implicitly God and his prominence
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Look down at section 5 This helps us when we think about our sin and our struggle against it
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The most wise righteous and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations
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In the corruption of their own hearts To chastise them for former sins or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts that they may be humbled and To raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon himself
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And to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin and for sundry other just and Holy ends what a great
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Answer to the question about what about my continuing sin as a believer? The Lord would allow us to fall into temptation that we would ultimately be humbled and Have a greater and more constant close constant dependence
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Upon him one other thing really quickly But turn over to the shorter catechism just a few pages to the right
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I want you to find question 11 What are
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God's works of providence? And children you should know and parents you should know
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These shorter catechism questions God's works of providence are his most holy wise and powerful preserving and governing all of his creatures and all of their actions
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James is warning against an idolatrous neglect Of God's providence, so I pose the question to you
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Have you failed to appreciate and accept the providence of God?
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Moses is the meekest man because he saw the world and he understood these things
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Happen because of the providence of God and he was comfortable with that. He was not bucking against it
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He welcomed the twists and turns of life knowing that it was
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God who directed all of these things You and I should not superstitiously but add to our plans
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Today or tomorrow we're going to do this or that if the Lord is willing
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I Believe this is the plan that God has given me
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This passage of Scripture does not say to stop making plans
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You would be unwise not to make plans in your life But it is saying do it in humble reliance upon and faith in our
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God Knowing that he has a perfect plan that's being executed
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All of the things that go wrong in our lives I think we respond improperly to them in many respects because they're contrary to our own control and plans
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We think we know best for ourselves our family the church the world but but we don't
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But according to his holy and wise counsel Our God does that's the first thing to consider today verse 14 says
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Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow Oh Sufficient is the trouble of this day.
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I would also argue Sufficient is the glory and the rest and the the joy and Thanksgiving of fellowship of God and his people
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There is trouble tomorrow on Monday morning But not today The people of God are resting in Christ The people of God today are taking a respite from all their ordinary business.
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The people of God today are Trusting God in their faithfulness to work out tomorrow's problems
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We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow point to the question for what is your life if I Opened it up to the room and we weren't thinking so intently about the
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Bible. I'd say Ryan tell me about your life and then he would begin to rattle off the things
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About his life. He's a husband. He's a father. He cares about these things. He's studying this
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And I asked Jacob and his life now is he's got a baby a new baby in his house and that's gonna be dominant in his mind and David and Sada are going to have we're married now.
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We're pregnant. There's a future. There's our mind. This is who we are Brethren, I'm here today again to tell you that your life consists of many
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Subordinate things But Christ is your life
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Colossians 3 We have no life Outside of Christ.
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There is no salvation. There is no hope for the future. There's no being a good husband
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There's no being a good wife. There's nothing apart from us being alive in Christ Think about all the things that describe us what is our life and for men it's their vocation
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For women it's often their family connections to their children their husband the answer to the question and James is
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Halting and makes us to pause If I live to be an old man, my life is essentially two -thirds over Feel like I'm a young guy.
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I'm not I'm to my life is two -thirds, but I could die tomorrow What is?
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your life My friend and his two sons went to bed and a 10 year old boy and a 17 year old boy
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They had plans for their life and they didn't wake up. They died Maybe they woke up and found out and learned they were dying.
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It's it's all terrible to think of What is your life?
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It is even a vapor that appears for a little time And then vanishes away children.
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I Want you to do something the next time maybe tonight or tomorrow night if your mom's making dinner for you
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And she has occasion to boil water in a pot Maybe for a bowl big thing of pasta or something and there's a she fills up the water into the pot
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She puts it onto the stovetop She turns up the heat to high and begins to boil.
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I want you to do not too closely I want you to get a chair if you're not tall enough with the approval of your mom and dad nearby and I want you to trace the rolling
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Ball of water inside of the pot that's boiling and I want you to pick out one little spot of it
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I want you to see what happens when the water molecules heated to that 212 plus degree temperature begin to rise out of the pot and the coolness of the air causes a
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Condensation it causes that the molecules to form a solid very briefly a wispy vapor of air and I want you to watch it go from the center of the pot until it disappears
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That process and that timeline is picturesque of the language here our life is the extent and eternity of the water molecule going from the water pot to vanishing into thin air as a vapor
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In the antediluvian world people live to be 900 years old
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But Methuselah living to be 969 years has been dead for thousands of years 900 years is a very long time.
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We don't live that long today But now it's been thousands of years since the death of Methuselah it's all very sobering
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Isn't it? Mark and Sheila how fast is it gone since you had little children in your house?
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And now you have a lot of grandchildren a blink of an eye Every year goes a little bit faster
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Get to the end of the toilet paper roll. It's going quicker. That's what life is like High school elementary school summer it took forever to come and to get here and now the years tick off and they're gone
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You and I need to be circumspect in the way we live and we actually need to be living in such a way where we have
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The kingdom of God and eternity in view. What are you doing today for eternity?
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Caring for your children make sure that that is Entirely sanctified to the
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Lord and you're thinking about Christ in his kingdom in the future when you talk with them There is a practical nature to the work
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We do around our house and we can miss the the fleeting nature of our lives.
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We have a limited window Moses says in Psalm 90 that it's appointed for men to live 70 years and if by reason of strength 80
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It's just really not a very long time What are you doing with your life?
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Is Christ preeminent in your life? What is your life? What a question for a young man or woman child or even the aged among us for us to ask
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What is your life? It's but a vapor Appears for a little time
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That it vanishes away Ephesians chapter 5 verses 15 and following don't need to turn there says this
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See then you walk circumspectly Not as fools
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But as wise Redeeming the time
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Because the days are evil Wherefore be not unwise but understand what the will of the
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Lord is Seems to follow on nicely with what we're learning about today
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Job chapter 8 verse 9 for we are but of yesterday and Know nothing because our days on earth are shadow,
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I remember The summer when school was out. I remember being a young boy and Back, then we ran the streets.
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Nobody knew where we were. There was no cell phones. We're riding bikes building forts. I remember standing and watching my shadow and Watching it change
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I'll be standing there is a long shadow and they would start to move and it would be altered. I'm standing in the same place
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Job says it says in Job that our life is but a shadow. It's there
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It's a mist. It's a vapor and then it's gone
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The psalmist says in Psalm 102 my days are like a shadow that Declineth and I am withered like grass but thou
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O Lord shalt endure forever and Your thy remembrance unto all generations
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The Christian Recognizes with great sobriety that his plans may not align with God's and he's eager for his plans to align with God's he
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Recognizes that his life is short. He has a limited opportunity for faithfulness and he diligently acts upon it
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There are no second chances He's got one life. He needs to be a good steward of it
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But there's another part of this that's very encouraging You and I can live our lives
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According to the Lord's will Also turn to Romans chapter 3 we have a little bit of time now turn to Romans chapter 3
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We boast improperly and yet we don't boast enough
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It's quite a little Irony, isn't it?
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I'll begin reading in Romans chapter 3 verse 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets
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Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ To all and on all who believe
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For there is no difference. I should pause here children in Your desire to be a good witness for Christ.
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I would encourage you to know this little section of Romans chapter 3 Be very helpful for you when you try to tell people about Jesus Paul is confiding all under sin verse 23.
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This is referring to Jews and Gentiles For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God And Here's why we have no cause for boasting when it comes to our salvation
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Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness
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God's providential care of his creatures Includes the salvation of sinners like you and me
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It's a good plan a Covenant keeping God keeping his promises
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In his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith
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In Jesus Where where is boasting then?
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It is excluded. How is your perfect law -keeping?
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You haven't The good works that that James implores us as a response to salvation
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Could we pile up your good works and can we say to God you must accept me because of these righteous deeds
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I have done No cause for boasting Only by the grace of the
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Lord Jesus Christ are we saved I can't boast in anything
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We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law
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There's another element. Our Lord has given I believe two extraordinary examples of Deo volente
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According to the will of God at first like us to turn because I believe it does have profound influence on James's epistle to Matthew chapter 6.
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Please turn there quickly with me to Matthew 6 this is
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The Lord's prayer Look at how central this idea of the
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Lord's will is to the Lord's prayer Verse 9 of chapter 6 says this in this manner therefore pray
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Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name a recognition of the
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Father a recognition of his authority a bursting forth in worship worshiping howling valuing the name of God your kingdom come
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This father has a kingdom and a kingdom that comes to the earth and We cry out to you
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Oh God that your will be done your perfect will the works of creation and providence that your will be done on earth as It is in heaven
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How many of you? middle and upper middle class Reasonably successful people have prayed
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Thanksgiving Give us this day our daily bread. You say well, I've got it in the bank.
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I don't have to worry about daily bread The rich man needs to pray Understanding the providence of God in that in order for him to be fed tomorrow it's not because he has money in the bank is because God is merciful and Generous to his people a very different way of living calls us to forgive those who have sinned against us and All of this you can see an answerable
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In the will of God prayer does he want us to ask for his forgiveness for our debts?
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Yes, does he want us to forgive our debtors? Yes Does he want us to be protected from temptation?
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Yes Does he want to deliver us from the evil one? Yes That's how you pray in the will of God If you say
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God I want to be a righteous upright man, I want to lead my family. Well, I want to walk in your ways
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That's in the will of God The wife says
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I want to be a godly wife and mother and I but but even more importantly I want to I want to be a lover of Christ and I want to be a righteous woman and I want to Worship at his footstool and I want to give him my life and glorify him in all ways
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That's that's how you should pray that's That's the Lord's will skip over to verse 25
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He goes through of course that Fasting as hypocrites do laying up treasures on earth verse 25
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Just before that serving God and money verse 25 says therefore
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I say to you do not worry about your life Or what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on It's not life more than food in the body more than clothing
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Look at the birds of the air for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet Your Heavenly Father feeds them
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Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature
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Why do you worry about clothing consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin
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Yet I say to you that even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these now if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and Tomorrow is thrown into the oven.
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How much? more Will he clothe you? Oh you of little faith?
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Therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for?
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After all these things the Gentiles seek for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things
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But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things
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Shall be added to you. Therefore. Do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its own things
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Sufficient for the day Is its own trouble You and I need to live very much in the present make future plans according to his will seeking his guidance a
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Daily intake of prayer in the word counsel We are we're trying to order our steps in the way that the
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Lord would have us to go But we come open -handed we don't know what tomorrow brings and the
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Insecurity of an unknown tomorrow is overshadowed by the providence of a good
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God who loves you I'll try to fix all the pieces and control all the levers
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It's not possible it's arrogant to do so and finally
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Lucky to turn to Luke chapter 22 When I was a new
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Christian this verse Was a struggle for me and now it is one of the greatest comforts to me begin reading in Luke chapter 2 verse 39
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Jesus coming out went to the Mount of Olives as he was accustomed and His disciples also followed him
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When he came to the place, he said to them pray that you may not enter into temptation
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And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw and he knelt down and prayed saying
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Now I should point out to you that We have to have a proper understanding of the hypostatic union here in the humanity of Christ and the divinity of Christ this prayer of Jesus is a comfort of my soul because He saw the cup of God's wrath that he had to drink
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No, righteous man would want that. This is perfect Sinless humanity of Jesus Christ here.
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He doesn't want in his flesh his humanity to be put together with sin for sin to be heaped upon him and he says
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Father and this is how we should pray This is the opposite of the error in James Father if it is your will take this cup away from me
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This is going to be the most horrific unpleasant unsavory of things
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It's okay for you to pray that the Lord would take that hard thing from you, but the
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Lord our Lord Jesus Christ says fulfilling all righteousness
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Nevertheless Not my will but yours be done
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Mark alluded to this I think a couple weeks ago in our Sunday school
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Verse 44 it says in being in agony He prayed more earnestly than his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground
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Our Lord Experienced hematidrosis, which is the explosion of his capillaries some of his veins
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Under the duress of our sin and the just wrath of God He's experiencing that and in his
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Righteousness he says not my will be done but yours be done and Because Christ goes through with the
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Father's will We have salvation and he has joy set before him as the people of God are reconciled to him
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His plan is better his will his way
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Is better Let's turn back to James really quickly Again, we believe it propositionally, but do we believe it?
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Practically I'm going to say verse 17 for next time.
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I'm going to finish this little section here really quick This is how you ought to pray. It says in verse 15 instead
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You ought to say If the Lord wills
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We shall live And do this or that But now you boast in your arrogance
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All such boasting is evil brethren, we've
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We've boasted in our arrogance This language is very interesting in the original this boasting would be
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What a quack would do when he is selling snake oil promising to heal all of your diseases
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You can see right through it you and I need to boast more in The work that Christ has done
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And if I pray if it be the Lord's will I'm going to do that Then at the end of it when
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God accomplishes it I can boast and say look what God has done
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That circumvents this problem and sin of us Seeking accolades for deeds not yet accomplished
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Deo volente, if it be the Lord's will I'm going to do this What a great way to order your life and it also requires for application that you're praying more about decisions in your life on the front side
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You're not just going by your gut. You're praying Lord direct my steps
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If this be your will well It's the
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Lord's will I praise God that we have gathered today and We're going to in just a moment feast at his table.
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Let's pray together now Lord we we confess that we are
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We're arrogant I pray that you would
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Grant us as a gift greater humility and faith about the future. Oh Lord do not allow us to presume upon tomorrow but help us to make righteous plans and to fulfill your will that It would be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven.
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Oh Lord, I pray that you would grant us holy ambitions to do great and marvelous things, but not for our own vainglory, but for your glory
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We were created to bask in Your glory and not to produce secondary glories for ourself.
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Oh Lord help us to Live a transformed life in this new way where we seek your glory and your righteousness and your kingdom above our own interest
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Your will and your perfection is so superior to our self -will Oh Lord, wake us up from our folly that we might see that you are trustworthy we praise you
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O Lord because You worketh good after the counsel of your own will you decree it all and it comes to pass and we submit and give thanks in Jesus name