This morning we are coming back to our study of James’ letter to Jewish Christians spread throughout the Roman Empire.  And, in what James is writing to them - what we have been processing for ourselves about what real faith looks like in the real time drama of our lives.

James has been giving us examples to help us think through how we’re living and what that says about our faith at the heart level - not just what we say we believe but what we actually do believe - actions speaking louder than words.  James helping us to go deeper - to think through - to open ourselves up to - the possibilities of what God desires to do in us and through us.  Huge opportunities for our lives - our relationships.

Looking at the top part of your message notes there’s a brief outline of where we’ve been.  As we’ve been going through James - we’ve seen that real faith in the real time of our lives produces real stability in our lives.  Real faith in real time produces real love.  And in the part of James’ letter that we’ve been looking at - starting mid way through chapter 3 - real faith in real time produces real humility.

This morning we’re coming to James 4 - starting at verse 13 - and Arrogance in Real Life.  Arrogance being very different than humility.  We’d like to read verses 13 to 17 together and then we’ll come back and unpack what James is showing us here.

James 4:13-17:  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, you boast 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.

Let’s unpack James’ teaching.  Verse 13 describes Playing The God Game.

Notice the rules:

First:  Set your own schedule:  “today or tomorrow”

Second:  Select your own path:  “we will go into such and such a town”

Rule Number Three:  Place your own limits:  “and spend a year there” 

Fourth:  Arrange your own activities:  “and trade”

Fifth:  Predict your own outcome:  “and make a profit” (1)

For the Jews James is writing to - spread out all over the Roman Empire -  business travel was common.  Just like today - these businessmen went from city to city - buying and selling stuff.  They had places of business in different cities.  So, its not too hard to imagine a group of Jewish businessmen sitting down together and laying out plans to expand their business into another city.

First, there’s a start time, “Today or tomorrow.”  Second, there’s a place “Such and such a town” - James is generalizing.  The businessmen would have been specific.  “Tomorrow, let’s go to South Dos Palos.”  Third:  There’s a definite time frame - one year.  Fourth:  The plan.  James is generic - “engage in business” - the businessmen would have been specific: “Tomorrow, let’s go to South Dos Palos and open a Starbucks.”  Well, that may be a stretch.  Fifth:  There’s a purpose:  Make Money!!!  Point being that these are well thought out specific detailed plans.     

What’s not included in their plans?  God.  There’s no mention of God anyplace here.

Let’s be clear.  Planning is not the problem.  God is not against planning.  Planning ahead is not some great God is going to condemn us to Hell kind of evil thing.  Leaving God out of our planning is a problem.  We’re together? 

Would you agree with this?  What James is writing about we see happening around us every day.  Thinking about how business is conducted today - less and less - if at all - God is not a part of business today.  The priority is self.  “My life.  My business.  I do what pleases me.  What pleases me is the bottom line.”

Which is also how most people live their lives - doing the day to day stuff of normal life.  How - even we who should know better - the kind of pattern of life that we can fall into - God not being at the center of it all.

The God game gets played when we play God.  We play well when we see ourselves as sovereign over our lives and we live like it.  We’re the masters of our own destiny.  God is the God of religion and morality and international conflicts.  But, we’ve got real wisdom when it comes to handling our finances and relationships and the day to day drama of life.

William Ernest Hensley’s poem “Invictus”:

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishment the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul. (2)

Play well.  Pray for the important things.  Gut out the hard stuff.  Be the master of your own life. 

(S4) Verses 14 and 15 focus on The Perils Of Playing The God Game.

First Peril:  We have no clue what the future will bring.  James writes:  “You don’t know what tomorrow will bring”

In 1926, Lee de Forest - the inventor of the cathode ray tube - said that, “Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility - a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.”

In 1943, Thomas J. Watson - Chairman of the Board of IBM said, “I think there is a world market for about five computers.”

James’ businessmen are totally ignorant about the future.

The most accurate thing that can be said about those who predict the future is that they’re not accurate.  Bottom line, they don’t know.

None of us has a clue about what will happen to us tomorrow, let alone 1 year from today.  One unexpected event happens and life changes.  Everyone one of us is a heart beat away from eternity.  We could live into our hundreds or die tonight.  We don’t know.  God knows. 

Its perilous to live like we know what’s coming.

Peril number two:  We have no control over what comes next.

Maybe you’ve heard this.  Two frogs were talking - one frog was predicting the future of the other frog.  “You’re going to meet a beautiful young woman.  From the moment she sets eyes on you she will have an insatiable desire to know all about you.  She will be compelled to get close to you.  You’ll fascinate her.”  

The other frog got really excited.  He asked, “Where am I?  Where do we meet?”

The first frog said, “Biology class.”

James writes that we’re like a mist - a vapor - literally, we’re like morning dew on the grass.  Think tulle fog.  Warm ground - cold air - and the right dew point.  Moisture drawn from the earth.  When the sun comes up - a force beyond its control - the dew evaporates - vapor - gone without a trace.  And there’s nothing the dew can do about it.

James writes that we appear “for a little time” and then vanish.

The people who keep track of these things estimate that in the average lifetime of an average American - we average:

· 13 years watching television

· we spend $89,000 plus on food

· we make 1,811 trips to McDonalds - probably more for Starbucks

· we spend almost $7,000 in vending machines

· we eat 35,000 plus cookies, and about 1,500 pounds of candy - more if you come to AWANA

· we catch 304 colds

· we’re involved in 6 motor vehicle accidents - which is way cool because I don’t need to worry about getting in any more accidents

· we’re hospitalized 10 times

· we spend 24 years sleeping - not all of it during sermons (3)

God exists outside of time.  He has no beginning or end or succession of events in His own being.  That’s mind blowing.  Isn’t it?  Time is God’s.  He created it.  He uses it according to His purposes.  He’s not surprised by events in time that may surprise us.  

When we look at how the events within the time of our lives - how those events unfold - and they may seem random - senseless - lurching along into an uncertain future - we need to be reminded that time - and the events within time - they progress according to God’s will.  God knew - before we knew - the events around us of this last week.  He knew which of us would be here today - even the message we need hear - to remind us this morning of His sovereignty.

Somehow we have the illusion that we have control over all that.  Control is an illusion.  Its perilous - we’re setting ourselves up for epic failure and major hurt - perilous for us to live thinking we can control our future.

Peril number three:  We ignore God’s will for our lives.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 

“If the Lord wills” - “Lord willing.”  Ever say that?  The phrase is not some kind of cliche like, “Good luck.”  God being sovereign there is no such thing as luck. 

Do you remember the movie “Dead Poets Society” - Robin Williams portraying John Keating?  He quotes the Latin words, “Carpe Diem” - which means what?  “Seize the Day.”  It was a way of energizing his students.  Rise up and grab hold of life.

About 100 years ago Christians signed their letters with the postscript “D.V.”  Wesley - for example - used to sign his name and then put the capital letters D.V. under it.  D.V. stands for the Latin words, “Deo Volente” - which means?  “God willing.”

“Carpe Diem” is arrogant.  “Deo Volente, Carpe Diem.”  “God willing, seize the day!” puts us under God’s sovereignty.

If the Lord wills is an attitude of the heart.  A realization of sovereignty.  If the Lord wills - we live.  Say that with me, “If the Lord wills - we live.”

Any assumption other than that truth is pure arrogance on our part.  Perilous to live by that arrogance.  Placing ourselves in harms way in a temporal and eternal way.

That truth needs to get in to our hearts and rattle around and shape the very core of how we look at our lives - how we view the time of our lives.  It is a wake up call - calling us to humility before God.  We cannot assume anything about the future - even the next moments of our lives - unless we first acknowledge that God is sovereign over the time of our life.  We cannot plan for the future unless our plans follow God’s plan - His will for our lives. 

In verse 16 James brings us to The Arrogance Of Playing The God Game. 

Walter Cronkite - remember Walter Cronkite?  That dates a few of us.  Maybe you’ve heard this.  Walter Cronkite used to tell about a time when he and his wife were sailing down the Mystic River in Connecticut.  He describes how they were navigating through the river’s tricky - dangerous - turns through an expanse of shallow water.

There was a boatload of young people that sped past them shouting and waving their arms.  The famous celebrity newscaster Walter Cronkite waved back a cheery greeting.

His wife said, “Do you know what they were shouting?”

He said, “Why, it was ‘Hello, Walter,’”

“No,” she said.  “They were shouting, ‘Low water, Low water.’” (4)  

Arrogance is being caught up in our own self importance - who we think we are.  Arrogance is letting our ego’s run amok.  Years ago I heard Rick Rigsby put it this way:  “Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity.”  Isn’t that great?

Maybe you’re way ahead of me on this.  The reason life seems overwhelming is because it is.  The reason life seems hard is because it is.  Life happens.  There’s no dress rehearsal.  It just happens to us and there’s no time to practice.  Are we together? 

Probably without exception - just thinking about who we are in this room - we’ve all come here with issues.  Some of those issues are really deep and ongoing issues.  Crud we carry with us.  Wounds.  Illnesses.  Family stuff.  Some are living in survival mode - and have been for a while.  All of us are in different places of God working in us with our stuff.  But we’ve all got stuff.  Stuff that we struggle with.  Stuff that hurts.

One of our greatest struggles in life - maybe our greatest struggle - is the vast gulf between what we think our lives should be like and the reality of they way things are.  Trying to somehow resolve the irresolvable distance between the two - the vast gulf between the dream and the drama.

Trying to sort all that out - to bridge that divide - that gulf drives people to suicide.  Addictions are formed trying to cope with the emptiness of all that.  Houses and garages and storage units get filled with toys and trinkets and useless junk of people trying to fill their lives with some kind of meaning.  People trying to stuff things and experiences and treadmills of endless activity into the bottomless pit between dream and drama.

Even religion can be a crutch.  Clinging to platitudes and rules and doctrines - trying to give some purpose to our lives - rather than dealing with our own inadequacy.  

Point being that when we’re going through life our knee jerk reaction is to try to reason our way through all that.  To bridge the gap between dream and drama by trusting our own whit, wisdom, and working.

Been there?  We all have.  How well does that work?

Sobering is the way James describes our plans and efforts and schemes and clevernesses at dealing with life.  If it doesn’t have God at the center of it all - all that planning is perilous arrogance - sin.

John Piper is quoted as saying:  “Boasting is the outward form of the inner condition of pride.” (5) 

If God - who is sovereign - is not at the center of our lives - we’ve let our egos run wild.  We’ve become impressed with our own knowledge and cleverness.

Its hard for us to think of how we’re living as being arrogant - sinful.  But that’s what James writes.   Its wicked.  It shows us that we’ve messed up.  We’ve stumbled in our faith.  Something has gone terribly wrong in our relationship with the sovereign God.

Rather than arrogance - at some point we need to come before God and acknowledge - accept at the heart level - that we come with nothing.  If the Lord wills, I live.  Period.

Verse 17 is The Alternative To Playing The God Game.  So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Two ways to stop playing the God game.  To replace doing the wrong thing with doing the right thing.

First:  We gotta know the right thing to do.  Which is what?  What’s the right thing to do?  Answer:  What God wills.  The answer to our ignorance and inability is the knowledge and wisdom that comes from God our sovereign creator.

James - writing earlier in this section about real faith in real life producing real humility - back in 4:10 - James writes:  “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane - the ultimate example of humbling oneself before God - and God post crucifixion and death - God highly exalting Jesus.  Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prays:  “Not my will but yours.”  (Luke 22:42)  If the Lord wills, I live.

The bottom line is that the answer cannot be found within us.  It must come from the sovereign God who created us - who wills for us to live - who gives to us the time of our lives - who just might have an accurate understanding of what’s really going on in our lives - and just might have the way forward we need to follow.

Chuck Swindoll - commenting on verse 17 - Chuck Swindoll writes:  “God has a standard of right living that transcends our own interests and pursuits, and He wants to guide us along a path He’s set for us.  To make that happen requires staying close to His Word and shaping our path according to its wisdom.” (6)

Meaning that whatever the cost - we’ve got to evaluate our lives by God’s word - not our habits - not our hang ups - not our wills and wants - not our comfort zone - not our traditions - not our plans and desires - not our extensive knowledge and wisdom - but to place our lives under the scrutiny of God’s word.

What might that mean for you?

Jesus said that He’s the Good Shepherd of the sheep.  He calls His sheep by name.  They hear His voice.  They recognize it.

Its a picture of a lot of sheep belonging to a lot of different shepherds all thrown together in one sheep pen.  Amid all the shepherds calling to their sheep - Jesus’ sheep recognize His voice.  He calls His sheep by name and He leads them.  They follow Him.  As they follow - regardless of the perils of life - Jesus guides and protects and provides for His sheep. (John 10:1-18)

There’s a crucial importance for us to learn to hear the voice of our Shepherd.

We do that - we learn to hear His voice as we read His word - as we study His word - the Bible.  As we meditate on His word.  As we ponder its meaning for our lives.  As we place ourselves under its authority - allowing our Shepherd to apply His word in the situations of our lives - the working of the Holy Spirit helping us to understand God’s truth.  Learning to listen for Him speaking to us.

Coming before God - in the drama of our lives - laying it all before Him - without all our solutions and plans - acknowledging Him as sovereign - coming regularly to God’s word and asking Him:  “God help me to listen to your voice - to know what it is that you would have me do with this life you’ve given to me.”

James writes - the alternative to arrogance - to playing the God game - first know the right thing to do.  Pursue with all diligent passion the will of God revealed.  If we’re not in His Word we’re not going to know His will.

Second:  Do the right thing.  Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.  Knowing and doing are not the same thing.  

If the Lord wills I live.  How do I live within the will of God?  Tough question.  Isn’t it?

C.S. Lewis - in The Screwtape Letters - Screwtape - a high ranking demon - is giving advice to Wormwood - his novice demon nephew who’s in charge of working for the damnation of a young human man.  Screwtape is giving his nephew Wormwood advice on how he can really mess up the faith of this young man:  “You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own.’  Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours.  Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of his property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties.  But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.”

When we view time as our birthright we begin to think that all those interruptions to our plans - someone showing up unexpectedly - the driver going slow in front of us - the phone call in the middle of the game - the two nicely dressed young men who show up at the door - people who never stop talking when we’ve got places to go - people to see - things to do - we start thinking that all that is an imposition on “our” time.

When we view time as our birthright we start thinking that we have a right to use time as we see fit - we’re accountable to only to ourselves for how we use time.  God gives us the privilege and time to meet with Him here for worship - but we feel we a have a right to be elsewhere.  God gives us the privilege and time to meet together with Him and our siblings in Jesus - for prayer or Bible study - and we have other priorities.

When we view time as our birthright we start thinking that we’ve earned the right to on our own recreation and leisure.  The great American dream.  Retire - buy a Winnebago - drive all over the place - stopping at every Starbucks - playing golf - and spending the kids inheritance.  You can come up with your own retirement plans.  But hear this:  We aren’t retired from using time as God requires us to use time until God says our time is up.  We’re suppose to keep serving God until God says stop.

Kent Hughes - pastor - author - Kent Hughes describes us this way, “So pervasive is our culture's arrogant independence of God that even many (most) Christians attend church, marry, choose their vocations, have children, buy and sell homes, and numbly ride the currents of culture without substantial reference to the will of God.”

David was anointed by Samuel as the King of Israel and then does the cat and mouse conflict thing with Saul.  Saul, who at the time is still very much alive and still very much the king.  David fleeing for his life - living in villages - fields - mountains - caves - even the countryside of his enemies, the Philistines.  A fugitive on the run.

David - who probably on more than one occasion wondered where God was in all that.  “Where is God’s will for my life in all this?”  David - who had numerous opportunities to move things forward - seize the day - kill Saul and become king.

Finally - after all this hardship - and bloodshed - and intrigue - pain and suffering - after all these years - finally God fulfills His promise and David becomes the King of Israel.

David writes in Psalm 27:14:  “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.” 

Waiting on God - as Scripture describes waiting on God - waiting on God is not sitting around watching the paint dry.  Waiting is about wisely using the time God gives us.  Waiting is about God.  What God wills for us as we wait for Him.

Wise waiting means taking stock of what God has given us and gathering strength.  Learning to see and surrender our abilities and blessings to God.    Whatever our circumstances God has blessed us.  Why?

Wise waiting means using God given time to understand and go deeper in our relationship with God - learning to listen to Him and obey Him.  By the working of the Holy Spirit to process at the heart level Who God is and how He directs our lives.

Because - waiting on God - bottom line - is about heart level courage - taking courage - having hope - knowing that the sovereign God - in His perfect timing according to His perfect will - He will move us forward and we need to be expectantly ready to follow.  To do what He wills.

God will deal with the issues of our lives.  But we need to wait on Him - listen for His voice to move us forward into His plan for our lives.

That is a daily - minute by minute - if not second by second - process of discovery, submission, and faithful dependence on God.  A life in which everything we do is first taken before God in prayer.  Where all that we do is evaluated by His word.  In which, from the core of our being, our passionate desire is to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness - the accomplishment of His will in us and through us.  For us to lay our lives down before the sovereign God of our time - so that if any vision is given - if any direction is given to our lives - it must be coming from Him.

That’s the life that goes deeper with God - faith that’s learning to follow after Him - to trust Him in all things.  Faith that brings us to humility before God.  Faith opens us up to the knowing and doing of His will.

Let’s be honest.  At one time or another we all fall into the peril of playing the God game.  James is blunt.  Don’t go there.

Suggestion.  This week.  Take some time to ask yourself:  Between the dream and the drama, where am I going it alone?  What decisions have I made recently where I haven’t gone to God first?  What’s coming up in my life that I need to lay out before God and seek His will?

Take all that to God.  In prayer lay it all out before Him.  To admit that you come with nothing.  And ask Him to help you wait for Him.  To help you stop playing the game.

Prayer:

It doesn’t matter so much to God as to how long you live.  What matters more is how you live.  God has purposefully given you your life - even with all the drama.  Are you willing to give Him sovereignty over your life?  If this is coming from your heart - follow me in this prayer of commitment.  “God, I give you control of the circumstances and timing of my life.  Take me into Your future.  Wherever that may be.  Whenever you desire to use me.  In whatever you require of me for Your purposes.”

________________

1. Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on James, 1 and 2 Peter - Zondervan, 2010, chart on page 98

2. William Ernest Henley, “Invictus,” in Modern British Poetry, ed. Louis Untermeyer (New York:  Harcourt, Brace, & Company, 1920) - quoted by Charles Swindoll, ibid, page 97

3. Tom Heymann, In An Average Lifetime

4. Ray Ellis and Walter Cronkite, North by Northeast

5. John Piper - cited in 1001 Unforgettable Quotes about God, Faith, & The Bible - #743, Ron Rhodes,  Harvest House Publishers, 2011

6. Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on James, 1 and 2 Peter - Zondervan, 2010, page 99

General series reference:  Charles R. Swindoll, Insights on James, 1 and 2 Peter - Zondervan, 2010