Latest / Reformed Thinking / Planning Under Providence: Living a Vapor-Life for a Sovereign Lord (James 4:14–17)

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Planning Under Providence: Living a Vapor-Life for a Sovereign Lord (James 4:14–17) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. I am genuinely excited you're
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tuning in today. We have a massive topic on the
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table, one that really hits close to home for pretty much
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everyone I know, including myself.
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We are looking at a stack of heavy theological material.
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We've got commentaries, Greek word studies, sermons, and our
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job, as always, is to get to the bottom of it.
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We want to extract the truth of what Scripture is saying so we
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can all understand God's world a little bit better.
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It is good to be here, and you are so right about this topic
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hitting close to home. We are opening up a text today
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that it functions like a mirror. It is arguably one of the most
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countersultural passages in the entire New Testament.
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Why do you say that? Because it directly attacks the
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one thing modern people value more than almost anything else,
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our sense of control. That is the perfect place to
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start. Let's set the scene a little
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bit. We live in an age that is
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absolutely well intoxicated with control.
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Intoxicated is a good word for it.
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I was looking at my phone this morning and it is honestly
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terrifying how much management power I have right here in my
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pocket. I have a calendar that syncs
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with my wife's phone, my work computer, it's all seamless.
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I have apps that track my sleep quality, my heart rate
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variability, my caloric intake. I can see where my kids are via
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GPSI can, you know, adjust the temperature of my living room
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from 1000 miles away. It's it's a lot.
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It is the era of optimization. We have convinced ourselves that
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if we just have enough data and enough apps and enough
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foresight, we can eliminate risk.
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We can somehow engineer the perfect life.
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Right. We have five year plans for our
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businesses. We have retirement projections
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for 30 years out. We have life hacks for
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productivity. And look, don't get me wrong, I
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love a good productivity system. I am a sucker for that stuff.
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Me too. There's nothing inherently wrong
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with a good spreadsheet. But the material we're looking
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at today suggests that these two, while they can be useful,
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can actually do something dangerous to our souls.
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They become sort of secular liturgy.
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That is a strong phrase, but it fits perfectly.
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A liturgy is a habit, a repeated action that shapes what you love
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and what you believe. It forms you.
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And when we obsessively track and plan every second of our
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lives, those habits, they quietly catechize us.
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They teach us a false doctrine without us even realizing it.
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A false doctrine? Like what?
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They teach us that tomorrow is manageable, that the future is
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negotiable, and that my life is essentially mine to steer.
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It creates this deep seated sense of autonomy that is, when
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you really look at it, totally at odds with reality.
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It creates swagger. It creates this feeling of I
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have the data therefore I am safe.
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Precisely. It is confidence without
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creatureliness. It is planning without prayer.
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And into that modern obsession with control, the apostle James
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drops a sledgehammer. We are looking at James chapter
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4 verses 13 through 17. A passage that interrupts our
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swagger. I like that.
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It really does. It just stops you in your
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tracks. So the mission for this deep
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dive is to examine what theologians call planning under
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Providence. We want to get at the tension.
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Here, a central tension, yeah. Because we aren't saying.
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I don't know. James isn't saying that you
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should just sit on the couch, eat chips, and wait for God to
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move your limbs. That's not the goal.
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No, that's passivity, not piety. So we have to plan.
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We have to work. The question is, how do we plan
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responsibly while acknowledging that, as the text says, we are a
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mist before a sovereign Lord? That is the question.
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We are going to walk through this text and we are going to
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look at it through a Reformed lens.
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We want to keep the Westminster Confession of faith in the back
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of our minds because it gives us the the guardrails to understand
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God's absolute sovereignty alongside our human
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responsibility. It helps hold those two things
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together. Yes, we need to figure out how
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to live with a holy if. A holy if.
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OK, let's jump right into the text then.
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Part one of our discussion focuses on what we might call
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the presumptuous manifesto. This is based on James 4 verse
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13. The presumptuous manifesto.
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It sounds like a political document.
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It almost reads like 1. James starts off by addressing a
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very specific group of people. He says come now, you who say
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now who is he talking to here? Because it feels like he is
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targeting a specific demographic.
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He absolutely is. He is addressing the merchant
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class of the diaspora. And we need to pause and get a
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clear picture of who these guys were in the 1st century.
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These weren't just casual travelers or, you know,
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backpackers seeing the world. These were the business elite.
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The Roman Empire had built these incredible roads via Appia and
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others, and the seas were relatively safe from piracy
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thanks to the Pax Romana. Roman Peace.
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Exactly. And this allowed for a booming
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global trade economy. Think of it as the first real
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wave of globalization. So these are the guys moving
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purple dye from tire or grain from Alexandria, or maybe spices
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from the East. They're the international
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businessmen of their day. Right.
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They are mobile, they are capitalized and they're
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sophisticated. They are the digital nomads or
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the Wall Street traders of the ancient world.
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They are smart, ambitious and they are hustling.
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And James paints this picture of a scene in the marketplace or
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maybe a boardroom. These people have a business
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proposal and they are presenting it with just total.
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Confidence. Honor confidence.
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When you look at the text, it reads almost exactly like a
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modern business plan. It's spooky how accurate it is.
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The text breaks down into five specific elements.
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It does. It hits every bullet point of a
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SMART goal. You know, specific, measurable,
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achievable, relevant, time bound.
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They had it all figured out. So let's look at the list first.
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They have a specific time today or tomorrow.
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Right. They know when they are
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launching. They aren't procrastinating.
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They're decisive. They have a launch date.
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Second, they have a location such and such a city.
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They have done their market research.
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They know where the demand is. Maybe they are going to Ephesus
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because the trade winds are right that time of year, or
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Corinth because the market is hot for luxury goods.
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They aren't wandering aimlessly. They have a target.
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They've identified A strategic opportunity. 100%. 3rd they have
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a duration. We will spend a year there.
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They have a timeline, they've calculated their runway, their
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operational costs. They know how long it will take
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to establish the supply chain, build relationships and
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liquidate the inventory. This is a thought out long term
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project. And 4th is the activity we will
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buy and sell. They have a strategy.
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This is the how They are traders.
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They're going to leverage arbitrage.
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Buy low in one city, sell high in another.
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This isn't a vague dream, it's a specific business model.
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And finally, the fifth point, the result, we will make a
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profit. That is the ROI.
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That is the bottom line. We will gain.
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It's not we hope to gain or we might gain.
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It's a statement of fact about the future.
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Here's the thing, though, If someone brought that plan to me,
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if a young entrepreneur walked into my office and laid that
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out, I would say great job. You know what you're doing.
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You have a plan, a timeline, a strategy and a goal.
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Go get them. Right.
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We would praise them for their diligence.
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It sounds incredibly competent, So what is the problem?
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Why is James picking a fight with these guys?
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It seems like he's attacking good business sense.
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And that's the key. The problem isn't the details.
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The problem isn't that they have a plan.
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The problem is the grammar. The grammar.
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The grammar, yes, if you look at the Greek text, it is heavy on
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future indicative verbs. We will go, we will trade, we
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will profit. OK, explain that distinction for
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us. Most of us aren't Greek
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scholars. What does the indicative mood
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imply compared to other ways of speaking?
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Well, the indicative mood asserts reality.
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It states a fact. I am sitting in a chair.
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That is indicative. It is real.
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They aren't using the subjunctive mood, which would be
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we might go expressing possibility or the optative
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mood. We wish to go expressing a
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desire. They are speaking about the
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future, a future that hasn't happened yet, with the same
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certainty as if they were describing the past.
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So they believe they have the power to actualize their own
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will. That's it exactly.
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They are treating the future as a closed system of cause and
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effect, where they are the primary cause.
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It's like a math problem for them.
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Correct. They think if I have the capital
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and I have the location and I put in the work then the profit
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is guaranteed. It is a mathematical equation to
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them input my strategy and the result the profit will come out
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the other end. No other variables needed.
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That mindset is what our sources call practical atheism.
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That is a stinging term, isn't it?
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Practical atheism. It really is.
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It's a punch in the gut because I think a lot of us, if we're
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honest, fall into this without even realizing it.
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Oh. Absolutely.
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Here's what it means. Theoretically, these merchants
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might be very religious. They are Jews of the Diaspora.
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They probably go to the synagogue on the Sabbath.
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They might recite the Shema. If you ask them, do you believe
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in God? They would say, of course.
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What a ridiculous question. They would be offended.
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Deeply. But on Monday morning, when they
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open their calendars and look at their spreadsheets, they plan
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Etsy Deus nondarator as if God did not exist.
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God is functionally irrelevant to their business.
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He's an absentee landlord who doesn't care about the
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particulars of commerce. That's the split.
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God can have the Sabbath, but the market belongs to me.
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And we see this everywhere today.
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We have these modern idols of pragmatism and materialism.
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We view business growth or even church ministry growth as this
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machine. Yeah, that's a good point.
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It's not just in the business world.
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Not at all. We think if we just have the
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right leadership structure or the right marketing plan or the
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right funnel, as they say, the growth is inevitable.
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It's the hustle culture you see all over LinkedIn.
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Rise and grind, Manifest your destiny.
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It is entirely secular. It ignores the divine decree.
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So to be clear, the sin James is pointing out here isn't that
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they made a plan. The sin is that they planned
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without reference to God. They left the Sovereign Lord out
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of the equation entirely. They assumed that their will was
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the ultimate factor in the universe.
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Yes, they assumed I am the captain of my soul.
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And that tomorrow belongs to me. Which is a usurpation of a
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divine prerogative only God owns tomorrow.
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To claim you know for a fact what you will do in a year is,
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theologically speaking, a heresy.
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You are claiming an attribute that belongs only to God for
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knowledge and omnipotence. Wow, OK, that really escalates
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it. It's not just bad planning, it's
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heresy. It is.
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It's putting yourself in the place of God.
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That brings us to Part 2, the reality check.
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James doesn't just scold them, he hits them with some some
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pretty heavy philosophy. He attacks their knowledge and
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their very existence. This is verse 14.
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Right. James interrupts their confident
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presentation. Imagine them standing there with
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their charts and their graphs saying we will make a profit.
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And James steps in and says, excuse me, you do not even know
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what will happen tomorrow. That is the epistemological blow
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for our listeners. Epistemology is the study of
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knowledge, what we know and how we know it.
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James is saying. You think you know, but you are
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actually ignorant. Completely ignorant.
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We have our metrics, we have projections, we have trend
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analysis, we have AI that can predict market behavior.
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But James reminds us that we are essentially blind regarding the
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actual future. Proverbs 27.1 puts it perfectly.
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It does boasts not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not
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what a day may bring forth. It is so true.
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We have no idea. We act like we do, but we don't
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think about the concept of the Black Swan event, that one
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unexpected thing that changes everything.
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Yes, the thing nobody saw coming.
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One phone call can change the trajectory of your entire life.
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Absolutely. You don't know if the market
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will crash tomorrow. You don't know if a new
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regulation will shut down the industry you're in.
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You don't know if a war will break out and close the trade
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routes you were counting on. Or to bring it down to a really
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personal level, we don't know if our hearts will stop beating
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tonight. That is the thing about the
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future. It is opaque to us.
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We can guess, we can forecast based on probabilities, but we
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cannot know. The merchant speaks like a
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prophet, but he is actually blind.
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He is betting his life on a future he cannot see.
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Then James goes even deeper. He's not done.
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He hits them with an ontological blow.
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And oncology is about being what we actually are.
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He asked this haunting question for what is your life?
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It is the question we try to avoid, isn't it?
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We fill our lives with noise, podcasts, music and work so we
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don't have to sit in silence and answer that question.
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What is your life? And James gives the answer.
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It is humbling. It is even a vapor.
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The Greek word is atmos. Atmos Let's unpack that word.
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It sounds fragile just hearing it.
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It is. Think about the steam coming off
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a cup of hot coffee in a cold room, or the morning fog that
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sits low on the grass before the sun comes up.
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OK, what are the properties of that mist?
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It has no structural integrity. You cannot stand on it.
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You cannot build a foundation on it.
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You cannot even grab it. If you try to catch me in a jar,
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it's gone. It is there for a moment,
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visible, and then it is just vanished.
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That comparison is really striking because we tend to view
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ourselves as statues. Yes, exactly.
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We think we are these solid, enduring figures in history.
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We think we are the main characters, The solid rock.
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And maybe God is this vague atmosphere around us, but James
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completely reverses it. He flips it completely on its
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head. God is the rock.
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God is the solid, unchanging reality.
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We are the atmosphere. We are the mist that obscures
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the view for a split second and then vanishes.
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And the brevity is the point appears for a little time and
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then vanishes. I have to play devil's advocate
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here for a moment. This sounds incredibly
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depressing. It can on the surface.
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Is James trying to teach us nihilism?
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Is he saying life is short and meaningless so why bother
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building a business? Why bother planning for
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retirement if I'm just smoke? No, and that is a crucial
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distinction we have to make. It is not nihilism, it is
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transience. OK, what's the difference?
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Nihilism says life has no meaning.
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James is saying life has no permanence in itself.
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Your life has immense meaning, but it's duration is fleeting.
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It's about contingency. Contingency.
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That is a heavy theological term.
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Break that down for us. It means we do not have a
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sayity. A sayity is a great word.
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I mean self. God is the great I am.
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He exists within himself. He is like the sun.
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He generates his own light in his own life.
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We are like the moon, or better yet, the mist.
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We depend on something else for a very existence.
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So we are contingent beings. Our existence is contingent.
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On God, every moment we are becoming and ceasing.
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We're leasing our breath from God, one heartbeat at a time.
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He holds us in being. So to stand up and say I will
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spend a year in such and such a city is actually irrational.
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It is insanity. It is a denial of our
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creatureliness. If you are a mist, you don't get
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to decide where the wind blows you.
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You don't get to decide when the sun burns you off.
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To speak with absolute certainty about a year from now is to
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claim you. You are the creator, not the
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creature. It is a fundamental error in
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categorization. That sets up the problem
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perfectly. We are arrogant myths thinking
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we are rocks. So what is the solution?
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Where does James take us from here?
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Part 3 is the theological corrective.
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This is verse 15. After breaking them down, he
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builds them back up with the right posture.
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He gives us the script. He says instead you ought to
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say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.
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Historically, this is known as the Condicio Jacobia, the
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condition of James. You see this in old letters
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where people would write DV for Dio Valente, God willing.
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That's right. But I want to be careful here.
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I grew up hearing people say Lord willing all the time.
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I'll see you at lunch, Lord willing, I'll take out the
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trash. Lord willing, it can become just
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a verbal tick, right? Just a superstition.
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Absolutely. It can become a completely
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meaningless phrase. It is not a magical incantation.
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It isn't a lucky charm you sprinkle on your plans to make
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them succeed. You can't just tack it on to the
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end of your arrogant plan and make it holy.
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Exactly. You can't say I'm going to go
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rob a bank, Lord willing, and expect God to bless it.
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That doesn't work. James isn't just correcting
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their vocabulary, he is correcting their theology, their
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entire posture before God. And it's also not fatalism.
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I think that's the other ditch people can fall into.
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Right, it is not saying, well, God does everything, so I'll
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just sit here and do nothing. If God wants me to eat, he'll
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drop a sandwich in my lap. That is laziness masquerading as
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piety. So what is the point?
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What does if the Lord wills actually mean in practice?
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It is about a posture of the heart.
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It is about consciously and consistently anchoring our lives
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in the doctrine of Providence. We need to look at the
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Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 5.
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It says God the Creator upholds, directs, disposes, and governs
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all creatures, actions and things.
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Nothing is outside His control. And James breaks this dependence
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down into two specific areas in verse 15.
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Yes, look closely at the text. It's beautiful.
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First, he says, If the Lord wills, we will live.
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So our very existence. That is the dependence of
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existence. We are admitting that we might
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not be here tomorrow. Our survival, our next breath,
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is an act of God sustaining grace.
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Every breath is a gift, not a right.
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And the second part. 2nd and do this or that.
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That is the dependence of activity.
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Even if we are alive tomorrow, our capacity to execute our
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plans, to buy, to sell, to travel, to record this deep dive
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is subject to his governance. So you might be alive tomorrow,
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but maybe you get sick. Maybe the funding dries up for
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your business. Maybe the Porter's close.
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Any number of things. He governs not just our being,
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but our doing. This creates a really helpful
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image I've heard you use before pencil planning.
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I love that image. It's so practical.
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We must plan. Scripture commends planning.
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Roverbs 21.5 says The plans, the diligent lead to profit.
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So we are called to be diligent, but we write our plans in
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pencil. Why?
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Because the eraser belongs to God.
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That is a great way to put it. The eraser belongs to God.
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We draft the schedule, but he has final editing rights.
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Exactly. We have a schedule to him and
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say Lord, this is what I intend to do based on the wisdom you
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have given me. This is my best effort.
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But you are the sovereign. You have the right to change it.
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You have the right to erase this meeting.
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You have the right to cancel this trip.
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Your will be done. This connects to the theological
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concept of concurrence, which can be a bit tricky.
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It can be Concurrence teaches that human beings act as real
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moral agents. We really do make choices.
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We really do buy tickets and sign contracts.
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Our actions are real, but those actions are simultaneously
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sustained and governed by God. There are no maverick molecules
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in the universe. So God's will and our will are
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working at the same time. In a way, yes.
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He is working through our actions to accomplish his
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purposes, even when we don't see it.
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So this completely refutes something like open theism.
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Completely open theism suggests that the future is unsettled,
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that God is kind of guessing along with us, or that he knows
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all the possibilities but not the actualities.
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James 4.15 says no, the future is mapped by God's will.
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We don't know it, but He does if the Lord wills.
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Implies that the Lord has a will regarding your schedule for next
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Tuesday. So the corrective is to align
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our hearts with that reality, to live with the holy.
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If it changes I will to I submit.
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Yes, it is a fundamental shift from autonomy to submission,
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from being the CEO of your life to being a steward.
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Now, James doesn't stop at just correcting them.
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In part 4 he delivers a verdict and honestly it is harsh.
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Verse 16 says as it is, you boast in your arrogance.
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He names the sin, he puts a label on it, and the Greek word
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for arrogance here is alizonia. It is a fascinating word with a
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rich back story. What does it mean?
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Give us the color on this word. It originally referred to the
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pretension of a wandering quack Dr. You know, type.
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The snake oil salesman who comes into town sets up a stand on a
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wooden crate and promises he has a cure for everything.
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Right. This potion will make you live
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forever. This will cure your baldness.
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This will make you rich. Exactly.
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He promises things he cannot deliver.
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He's a charlatan. So it implies swagger, brash
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self assertion, the guy who talks a big game but has nothing
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to it up. Loud confidence.
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It is the person who claims to have authority they don't
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actually possess. And in this context, the
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merchant claims to have authority over the future.
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He is a quack Dr. selling a certainty he doesn't own.
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And James says this, boasting this alazonia is evil.
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The word is Panera. Which means wicked, malicious.
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It's a strong word. Why is optimism evil?
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I mean, I can hear a listener thinking, come on, James, being
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confident isn't evil, it's just unwise maybe.
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Or a little cocky. Why use the word evil?
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That seems extreme. That is the devil's advocate
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question, and it's the right one to ask.
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Why is it evil? Because it is a theological
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rebellion. It is a competition with God's
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glory. How so?
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When you boast about the future you control, you are telling a
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lie about God and you are telling a lie about yourself.
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OK, break that down. You are lying about God by
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treating him as irrelevant, as unnecessary for your success.
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You are functionally dethroning Him in your own life and you are
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lying about yourself. Be treating yourself as
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self-sufficient, as the master of your faith.
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You're stealing glory that belongs only to the sovereign
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Creator. Exactly.
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The sources point us to Jeremiah 9.2324 here.
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It's a foundational text. Let not the wise man boast in
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his wisdom, Let not the mighty man boast in his might.
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Let not the rich man boast in his riches.
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But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and
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knows me, that I am the Lord. That is the only valid boast.
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Knowing the Lord, any other ghost is idolatry.
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And this really hits home with modern culture.
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We see this manifest your future stuff everywhere.
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Oh, it is rampant. It's all over social media.
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I am going to manifest this promotion.
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I am going to speak this into existence.
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James would look at that and say that is evil.
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It is the old sin of pride from the Garden of Eden, just dressed
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up in modern professional clothes.
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It is the creature trying to sit on the Creator's throne.
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It's assuming that our words have creative power.
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Which they don't. Only God's words have creative
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power. He speaks and it is when God
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says let there be light. There is light.
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When I say let there be a prophet.
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Well, maybe, maybe not. To confuse the two is to confuse
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yourself with God. So we have the manifesto, the
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reality check, the corrective and the verdict.
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Now comes The Sting. Part 5.
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James 4.17. This is the verse that it haunts
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you once you understand it. So whoever knows the right thing
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to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.
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This feels like a sudden shift in topic.
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We were talking about arrogance, which is a sin of Commission.
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Doing something bad. Now we were talking about
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omission, not doing something good.
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How do these connect? It is a shift, but it is deeply
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connected to the concept of time that he just introduced.
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Jesus is expanding the definition of sin for his
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readers. We often think, well, I didn't
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rob a bank today. I didn't kill anyone.
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I didn't cheat on my taxes, so I'm good.
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I kept my nose clean. Right.
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And James says no, that's not the whole story.
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If you knew the good you should have done and you didn't do it,
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you are guilty. The sources call this the
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morality of time. Yes, time is a stewardship.
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If life is a vapor, if we only have a little time, then wasting
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that time or procrastinating with that time is a deep moral
23:30
issue. So the connection is that if you
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assume you have a guaranteed year, you might think, I can do
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that good deed later. I can forgive that person next
23:38
month. I can serve God when I retire.
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Exactly. You presume upon the future, but
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if you realize you were a missed and you might not be here
23:46
tomorrow, then later becomes a very dangerous word.
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There's a phrase I wrote down from one of the commentaries
23:51
later is the Devil sacrament? Wow, that is a powerful line.
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It is later. It sounds so harmless.
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I'll start praying more later. I'll obey God on this issue
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later. I'll get serious about my faith
24:04
later, but James is teaching that delayed obedience is
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disobedience. Can we give some concrete
24:10
examples? What does this sin of omission
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look like in the real world for people listening?
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Sure, it is the prayer you feel prompted by the Spirit to pray
24:19
for someone, but you push it aside because you're busy with
24:22
an e-mail. It is the apology you know you
24:24
owe your spouse, but you want to Stew in your anger for another
24:27
night because your pride is in the way.
24:29
It's the generosity you could show to a neighbor who is
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struggling, but you decide to keep the money for a rainy day
24:35
because you are trusting your savings account more than God's
24:38
provision. That's a perfect, perfect
24:39
example. It all comes back to trust and
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presumption. It connects to the Westminster
24:44
Larger Catechism question 99, where a duty is commanded, the
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contrary sin is forbidden. Exactly.
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And the reverse is true. Where a sin is forbidden, the
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duty is commanded. It is not enough to just not be
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arrogant. You must actively be humble.
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You must actively do the good you know you should do.
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This really targets the weary Saints, doesn't it?
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The people sitting in the pews who aren't committing scandalous
25:07
sins. The good people.
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The respectable sinners, the Pew sitter who thinks I'm a good
25:12
person, James says. Are you doing the good you know
25:15
you should do, or are you lethargic?
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Because if you are just sitting on your hands, relying on a
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presumption of more time, you are in rebellion.
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And we have to be so careful not to treat conviction as progress.
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Oh, that is a dangerous trap. We hear a sermon or podcasts
25:32
like this and we feel a little twinge of guilt and we think to
25:34
ourselves, I feel bad about that, so I'm growing.
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No, feeling bad isn't change. Conviction is meant to lead to
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action, to repentance. Knowledge is not a cushion to
25:44
rest on. It is a weight of responsibility
25:46
to Him who knows it is sin. The more you know, the more you
25:50
are responsible for. This is heavy stuff.
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I mean, we have analyzed the arrogance, the vapor, the sin of
25:55
omission. If we stop here, we are just
25:58
crushed by the law. We are left with the realization
26:00
that we are arrogant little myths who failed to do good.
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We need a solution. We do.
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Part 6 is the Christ centered resolution.
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We have to go here because if the take away is just try harder
26:10
to say, Lord willing, we have missed the gospel completely.
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We become moralists. We just become people checking a
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box and our hearts are unchanged.
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Right, we can't just change your vocabulary, we need a heart
26:20
change. James isn't asking for better
26:22
etiquette. He wants a new heart.
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And that brings us, as it always must, to Jesus.
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You mentioned earlier that Jesus is the ultimate keeper of James
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Four. Walk us through that.
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Think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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This is the ultimate moment of planning.
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Under pressure. He is facing the most terrifying
26:40
future imaginable, the wrath of God, the betrayal, the torture,
26:43
the cross. He knows exactly what is coming.
26:46
And what does he pray? What is his plan?
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He prays. Father, if you are willing,
26:50
remove this cup from me. Nevertheless not my will, but
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yours be done. Luke 22.42.
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He models perfect submission. Contrast that with the Merchant
27:00
and James 4. It's a perfect contrast.
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The merchant says my will be done for.
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My prophet. Jesus says your will be done at
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the cost of my life. The merchant asserts his will
27:10
against reality. Jesus submits his will to the
27:13
Father's reality. Jesus is the only man whoever
27:16
planned without arrogant boasting.
27:18
He is the only one who lived perfectly under the Condicio
27:22
Jacobea. His whole life was 1.
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Great, if the Father wills. And the theological point here
27:28
is crucial. It is about imputation.
27:31
Yes, this is the good news for the listener who feels crushed
27:35
right now. We have failed to submit.
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We have been arrogant. We've been practical atheists.
27:40
But Christ's active obedience, his perfect submission to the
27:44
Father's will in Gethsemane and on the cross, is imputed to us.
27:48
It is credited to our account. So when God looks at us, he
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doesn't see our arrogant, self-sufficient plans.
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He sees the perfect submission of Christ.
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Exactly. We are closed in the
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righteousness of the one who submitted perfectly and that
28:01
takes the weight off. I don't have to be perfect to be
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accepted. I am accepted in Christ, so now
28:05
I can learn to submit, empowered by His Spirit.
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And the cross kills bosing that is the other side of.
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It it has to If we could secure our future, if we could manage
28:13
our lives perfectly, if our five year plans could save us, the
28:16
cross would be entirely unnecessary.
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If I can manifest my destiny, I don't need a savior.
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Right. But the fact that Christ had to
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die proves that we are helpless. It proves we are sinners who
28:27
cannot control our own fate. So the gospel leaves us with
28:30
only one boast. First Corinthians 1.31 Let the
28:33
one who boasts boast in the Lord.
28:35
We don't obey to earn salvation. We obey because we are united to
28:39
the risen Lord who obeyed for. Us that is union with Christ, we
28:43
are part of him so his Spirit is in US empowering us to say thy
28:48
will be done. It is His life flowing through
28:50
us that allows us to let go of the pencil.
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OK, let's land the plane with part 7 application.
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We have talked a lot of theology, now let's talk
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practice. The outline gives us 3 words
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Repent, reorder, act. First, repent, and we need to be
29:04
specific. Repent of the respectable idols.
29:06
Repent of the thought. I've got this.
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I think for many of us, we need to repent of prayerlessness.
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That is the big one for me when I read this passage.
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Yes, prayerlessness is a Declaration of Independence.
29:16
It is saying I can handle today without God.
29:19
It is practical atheism in action.
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So repent of that. Acknowledge it as sin.
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Call it what it is. OK, second reorder.
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Reorder the planning process. Put God at the center, not as an
29:30
afterthought. Make prayer a planning
29:32
discipline. Don't just pray at the beginning
29:34
of the meeting as a ritual to get it out of the way.
29:36
What? Does that look like?
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It looks like praying through the planning.
29:40
Lord, is this your will? We think this is a good idea,
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but are we blind to something? Block this.
29:45
If it's not right, guide us. It's an ongoing conversation.
29:48
What is the advice for the ambitious person listening, the
29:52
entrepreneur who's trying to build something great for God's
29:55
glory? Work hard.
29:56
The Reformed tradition loves hard work.
29:58
We believe in vocation, but don't worship your work.
30:01
Use your work to serve God, but realize the outcome is in His
30:05
hands. Work like it depends on you,
30:07
trust like it depends on Him, and hold your plans loosely.
30:11
And for the anxious person, the one who is terrified of the
30:14
future precisely because they realize they aren't in control.
30:18
For them, the doctrine of Providence is a cradle, not a
30:21
cage. You don't have to control
30:23
tomorrow. You can't anyway, and that's
30:25
good news. Your father does.
30:26
You can sleep at night because he is awake.
30:29
He is the rock, even if you are the mist.
30:31
And finally, act. This goes back to verse 17 and
30:35
the urgency of today. This is the urgency.
30:38
Life is a mist. We don't have forever.
30:41
We might not have tomorrow. If there is something you know
30:43
you need to do, forgive someone, Confess a sin, Give generously.
30:48
Serve your church. Do it today.
30:50
Don't wait for the perfect feeling to motivate you.
30:52
No obedience often precedes the feeling.
30:55
Just do the right thing because today is the only time we
30:59
actually have. Yesterday is gone, Tomorrow's a
31:02
maybe. Today is the arena of obedience.
31:05
We have covered a lot of ground, from the arrogance of the
31:07
merchant to the humility of the vapor, to the rest we find in
31:11
the Sovereign Lord. It is a process of moving from
31:13
illusion to reality. The illusion is that we are
31:16
gods. The reality is that we are
31:18
mists, held securely by a good God, and that reality is
31:21
actually much safer and more peaceful.
31:23
If the Lord wills is really the heartbeat of the Christian
31:26
existence, isn't it it? Is it is the breathing rhythm of
31:29
a believer? Inhale grace.
31:31
Exhale submission, over and over again.
31:33
Before we go, I want to leave the listener with one final
31:35
thought to chew on something provocative to take with them.
31:38
Think about this. We often think freedom is having
31:41
total control over our schedule. We think if I could just control
31:45
everything, then I'd be free. But true freedom is realizing
31:49
you don't own tomorrow, because if you don't own it, you don't
31:53
have to carry the weight of it. You are free to serve God fully
31:56
today without the crushing burden of having to be the God
31:59
of your own life. You are free to be a creature,
32:02
and being a creature in the care of a good creator is the safest,
32:05
most liberating place to be. That is a beautiful thought.
32:09
Freedom and being a creature. Thank you so much for joining us
32:12
on Reformed Thinking. I encourage you to open up James
32:14
4 this week. Read it with fresh eyes, see the
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mist, see the sovereign, and we will catch you next time.