Latest / The Daily Word / July 20 – Surrendering Your Plans
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: It's July twentieth and you are following along in another Daily Word podcast. It is Pastor Jenny here and today we are in James chapter four. And I want to share with you verses thirteen through seventeen, which say this. It says, Look here, you who say today or tomorrow, we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog. It's here a little while, then it's gone. What you ought to say is if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that. Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil. And Paul concludes with this thought on verse seventeen. He says remember. It is sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it. Alright, so some of you may be familiar with this passage, remembering that we're not to boast in tomorrow. does this passage mean that we simply should not make plans for tomorrow and only live for today? No, that's not what this means. But as I read this, I'm certainly reminded that we are to remember that. Our life is in God's hands. And it's not for us to plan our own lives, that in all we do from the day to day to the long term, we are to submit our lives to the Lord. In fact, all of chapter four, when you go to the first, so I read verses 13 through 17, but if you look at the first 12 verses, it talks about drawing close to God, and what is drawing close to God require, it requires humbling yourself, laying your life down essentially. you know, it kind of opens the the whole chapter opens up with what's causing quarrels and fights among you. Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you? and so he talks about how you in order to resist and and to to let the devil flee you, you don't flee the devil. The devil will actually flee you. You s you have to resist the enemy. And so when we learn to humble ourselves, God gives grace to us. When we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And so in that process, when we walk humbly before God and we say, Lord, we recognize our life is not our own, that you are the one leading us, that we're not gonna get out in front of you, but we're gonna allow you to lead us in all that we do. From you know, the plans today and what I'm doing today, all the way through every bit of my tomorrow, there's grace in that, you know. So I put this question before you today. When was the last time you really asked God what you were doing with your life? Not, you know, like, you know, sometimes we can go, what am I doing with my life? But you know. God, am I am I where I'm supposed to be? Am I on the path that you have for me? And you know, I'm not suggesting you make some big sweeping ch life changes, but maybe it starts with the daily change. Are you loving your neighbor the way God's asked you to? Are you reaching out to your coworkers the way God's asked you? Maybe you need to pull even closer. Are you loving your family the way God's invited you to? This verse 17. Remember it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it. I think it's easy to disconnect that verse from what we just read and just think in j in general, like, okay, yeah, yeah. You know, sometimes we can think of sin as just like, hey, I know I'm not supposed to do this thing, but I'm gonna do it anyway. And like obviously, I'm just being reminded in this moment that okay, if yeah, if I know I'm supposed to do something and I don't do that, that's also sin. But there's a reason he put that verse there in the context of planning our lives. And he's saying that what we should know, what we ought to know, is that we're to to give our lives to God and lay our lives down and let and remember that. God's in charge. If we can remember God is in charge. And when we know that, now that you know this, so maybe you're you've been living your life and you just knowing everything you've known about God, you just had not connected that dot. Because by the way, we're learning and understanding this whole following Jesus thing and growing in it every day. If we didn't have to do that and and even at moment by moment, if we didn't have to do that. Then why would we why would we need to read our Bibles every day? Why would we need to go to church? Why would we need to be in community with one another? Like by the way, we're gonna still be learning and understanding and growing even in heaven. Like we're never gonna reach like all knowledge, because if we did we'd be God. That's not happening. So we're we're gonna continually be growing. So don't be discouraged if this isn't something you knew. But be encouraged that now you know that your life you may have realized, well my life's not my own, but my plans are also not my own. And so to lay down all your planning and give and submit that those plans to the Lord. Don't make a plan and then ask God to bless it. Say, Lord, what is your plan? Help ask him to give you eyes to see. His plan for your life. And then as you walk in those decisions. And do we make it? Do we make do we see it clearly every time? No. But I believe God is faithful to show us when we think we've seen the way and if we go a different way, he'll say, Hey, let me get you back on track. Because every parent is faithful when a child is about to go a wrong direction and say, don't don't step off the path onto the road. Let me let me get you back over here. Because I don't want harm to come to you. So Verse 17, when it says, Remember it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it. It is sin to live life the way we want to live it. It is sin to make our own plans and then say, Well, God, this is my plan. I want you to bless it. That's sin. And so we have to recognize that. So don't be discouraged if that's how you've been living and you go, my gosh. But At the same time, you can repent of that now. And now that you do know, you have a responsibility to move forward, to humble yourself and say, Lord, I repent, meaning you change your way of thinking. We're going to change our way of thinking and say, God, help us to see, help us to know what are your plans and help us to walk in that. So with that in mind, let's pray and ask the Lord to help us do that today. Well, Lord, we come before you and we thank you that you are. revealing yourself more and more to us every day that you are walking in communion with us. We're so grateful for the finished work of the cross, for the finished work of Jesus, that Jesus himself came, laid down his life for us, and that because of his sacrifice and because he lives and is seated at the at your right hand, we can walk in fellowship and communion with you. thank you, Jesus, that you set the example to walk in humility that you humbled yourself coming here. So, Lord, you've set the ultimate example for us. And Lord, just as you exampled humility for us, Lord, would we lay down our lives? Would we humble ourselves and submit our lives under the Lordship, your lordship, laying down any plans, any desires that are at war within us, as you as was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. And we just lay that all down at your feet and we say, Lord, have your way. Would you show us what are your plans for our lives? Because we know that you have good plans and good purposes for us, as Jeremiah 2911 says. You have a hope and a future for us. you have better days ahead for us. And so all that you have in store is so much better and greater than we could ever hope, dream, think, or imagine. But Lord, it requires of us to humble ourselves and to walk in your ways. We thank you that as we humble ourselves, Lord, that your grace comes to us. That just as you said here in verse six, that while you oppose the proud, you give grace to the humble. So I thank you that you will give us grace to walk in the plans and purposes that you have for us. And Lord, thank you for Revealing your word for us, and that as we know that and we walk in what you've called us to, your word and your gospel will go out so that others can walk in this grace and this truth and communion with you in Jesus' name. Amen.