- 00:00
- We're going to go ahead and get started. Just a word on organization. Since we don't have
- 00:06
- TAG, I've encouraged the students that were in TAG last week and the week before that during the prayer time,
- 00:16
- I've encouraged them to sit with their families, to sit with their parents as much as possible.
- 00:22
- And then we talked about a plan for our prayer time that even though they may not know all the prayer requests, they should at least pick one and pray about that particular need.
- 00:34
- So I'm saying this out loud to remind the children and let the parents know that's kind of our plan for our prayer time this evening.
- 00:42
- As we're transitioning from having TAG to, we're all going to stick together tonight. We're going to be in James, chapter 4.
- 00:53
- We're going to take a look at the fire verse that was in the bulletin on Sunday. It was a couple of verses.
- 01:02
- James, chapter 4, verses 13 and 14. And I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at that passage in its context and do our best to understand it.
- 01:15
- Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much for this day. I pray that you would help us as we hide your word in our hearts, that we may not sin against you.
- 01:24
- That as we treasure your word and meditate on it, that it would be a light unto our lives and a lamp unto our feet.
- 01:33
- That you would bless our meditation upon your word.
- 01:39
- Help us tonight as we have gathered to pray and to intercede for one another and for the needs that you have laid upon our hearts.
- 01:48
- Pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, James, chapter 4.
- 01:55
- We're going to begin in verse 13. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit.
- 02:12
- Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life?
- 02:19
- It is even a vapor that appears for little time and then vanishes away.
- 02:26
- Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.
- 02:34
- But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
- 02:43
- Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.
- 02:55
- Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth -eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
- 03:09
- You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out.
- 03:21
- They've forgotten who's in control on the one hand and they've forgotten something else. Yeah, the brevity of life, the length of life is not that long.
- 03:31
- The fragility of their lives, their plans are not gonna be that solid.
- 03:40
- Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do. James identifies the problem in verse 16.
- 03:47
- You boast in your arrogance. You boast in your arrogance.
- 03:53
- Now, is boasting wrong? Oh wow, oh my goodness.
- 04:02
- That was a social media event right there. Everybody posted at the same time.
- 04:17
- It's okay to boast in the Lord, right? But we're not supposed to, the mighty man is supposed to boast in his might, the rich man not to boast in his riches.
- 04:29
- What are we supposed to boast in? Boast in the Lord, boast in the Lord. So boasting in arrogance, that kind of boasting, all such boasting is evil.
- 04:42
- So when we think about verses 13 and 14, it's good to remember that when we make plans, we don't know if they're gonna work out because we're not in charge.
- 04:59
- In fact, we do not have the ability to alter these things.
- 05:06
- Instead, you ought to say if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.
- 05:15
- If Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of the Father, if the
- 05:21
- King of the universe says so, it'll be so. If he determines it, if he desires it.
- 05:28
- Who is worthy to take the scroll and to break the seven seals? Who is worthy to be
- 05:37
- King of all kings and Lord of all lords and sovereignly guide and govern? The son of man to whom has been given dominion in a kingdom and everlasting dominion, which will never be destroyed.
- 05:49
- He's the one. So if he wills, if he wills, then we shall live and do this or that.
- 05:55
- He's the King, this is his turf. The breath that I breathe is bestowed to me by his good grace.
- 06:02
- So if he wills, boasting in him rather than in the self.
- 06:09
- So on the one hand, we have those who boast and have their confidence in their future plans.
- 06:17
- Ever been around somebody who always has future plans and they talk about future plans all the time, besides politicians, right?
- 06:32
- Oh, I'm gonna go do this and I'm gonna do that and I've got plans for this. And there's like really large, grandiose plans.
- 06:43
- Well, if the Lord wills. Big plans aren't bad, but boasting in those, finding your significance in those, building yourself up according to those, that's a problem, that's boasting in arrogance and all such boasting is evil.
- 07:02
- Now, in comparison also, there is chapter five, verse one, come now you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.
- 07:19
- By the way, James, the brother of Jesus, writing this by the ministry of the
- 07:26
- Holy Spirit. Okay, you've read, you read through the book of Acts. Where's James operating at?
- 07:34
- Where's James at? Jerusalem, he doesn't leave.
- 07:39
- This is a guy, he's stubborn. Read the stories about him in church history. This guy is stubborn, a little bit weird, if the stories are true, but he is very stubborn.
- 07:51
- He does not leave Jerusalem, even though many Christians are killed there.
- 07:57
- He does not leave Jerusalem, even though the apostles scatter from there after a time and go to various places in the
- 08:05
- Roman empire. He sticks it out and he preaches loud and long.
- 08:12
- And near the end of his time in Jerusalem, he spends his time declaring that the son of man is coming.
- 08:22
- The son of man is coming. And the Pharisees, they end up with a new high priest,
- 08:29
- Sadducees end up with a new high priest and the Sadducees and the Pharisees get tired of him and they throw him off the pinnacle of the temple.
- 08:38
- Enough of that. And they kill James, who was a pastor there in Jerusalem.
- 08:47
- Not so long after that, the Romans showed up to bring about the promised judgment from the son of man.
- 08:56
- He said, not one stone will be left upon another. All these things are going to take place in this generation.
- 09:02
- And the Romans showed up and they had these catapults and trebuchets. And they started throwing big white stones, big white stones, weighing your flesh like fire.
- 09:18
- It will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Now, James wasn't a liar.
- 09:24
- He wasn't a false prophet. He was telling his audience that he was preaching to, there in Jerusalem, you have heaped up treasures in the last days.
- 09:33
- Did he mean the last days of planet earth? Did he mean the last days before the resurrection of the dead? No, the last days of the old covenant, the last days before the judgment fell, just like Jesus said it would.
- 09:45
- Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the
- 09:52
- Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. He's pointing out particularly how the people, his hearers, who trust in wealth, are breaking the laws of the old covenant and not paying their laborers when they should.
- 10:09
- And so they're under the curse, right? And so being covenant breakers, they're about to get judged.
- 10:16
- He says, you have lived on this earth in pleasure and luxury. Now here it is, just like the other you who, who boast about the next day, boast about what's to come, says you are boasting in your arrogance, you're trusting in your arrogance.
- 10:28
- Here he says, you have fattened your hearts. You have fattened your hearts. What is that?
- 10:35
- Okay, so there are those who say, I'm gonna get rich. I'm gonna do all these big, important things.
- 10:40
- And then there are those who are rich and they're saying, ah, I, this is, this is, you know, my identity, this is who
- 10:47
- I am. But he says, you have fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just.
- 10:54
- He does not resist you. So James is preaching about judgment.
- 11:06
- And he is saying that the judgment is coming upon them very soon. And all that they have trusted in is the wrong thing.
- 11:13
- Rather than boasting in the Lord and saying that the Lord wills, rather than submitting themselves to the Lord of hosts, they are boasting in their plans and boasting in their profits.
- 11:23
- So on either side of those, those two woes to those who trust in the wrong thing, what's in the middle?
- 11:31
- Verse 17, see what's in the middle? Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
- 11:41
- Here's something real simple. Rather than talking about all the stuff that I'm gonna do, rather than looking at all the stuff
- 11:57
- I'm gonna do, I've stored up because of all that I've done. Why don't you pay attention to what's right in front of you and do the good that God has for you right here, right now, right in front of you.
- 12:13
- Isn't that interesting? What is our temptation? Our temptation is to think about all the good stuff
- 12:19
- I'm gonna go do, plans and plans and plans and talk about it. Makes me feel better that I've made all my plans.
- 12:27
- Or to sit back on my laurels and say, look at all that I've stored up. But don't we have good right in front of us?
- 12:38
- We've got some kind of good right in front of us that we would perhaps tend to despise because it's not big and grandiose.
- 12:48
- But if we know to do good and we do not do it, to us it is sin.
- 12:58
- So I think that's a good reminder. It's not bad to make plans and it's not bad to be prepared.
- 13:06
- It's not bad to think ahead. It's not bad to be a wise steward and to think generationally in building up.
- 13:17
- However, what about what's right in front of us? So I thought that would be a good encouragement for us to think about tonight.
- 13:27
- All right, let's turn our attention to prayer requests.
