We're going to focus on verses 13 to 17, the last paragraph in the chapter, but we'll begin with verse 1. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that there is no purpose, as the Scripture says, He yearns jealously over the spirit that is made to dwell in us. But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's only one lawgiver and judge who's able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge a neighbor? 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 amidst 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. What do you think about when you hear April 15th? Tax Day. Yeah, for most of us, that's a tax day. What happened April 15th this year? Well, there's something else. There was a volcano with 16 letters, which I won't even try to pronounce, in Iceland that erupted. That was April 15th. And suddenly, the plans of many were shot through. Altogether, more than 100,000 flights were cancelled. Eight million passengers were inconvenienced or more as a result of that volcano that no one had heard of. until it erupted. There are wedding plans that had to be delayed or cancelled. There are honeymoon trips that had to be reverted and go someplace else. There are honeymooners who ended up spending an extended honeymoon maybe in an airport. There are passengers who ran out of money and patience. I read of a Christian speaker who was overseas in Scotland and he had to cancel several weeks of speaking engagements, including sort of the most important one, the one he looks forward to, that he helps host for the highlight of his year. And he's in Scotland. It wasn't too much later, There was a torrential downpour in the state of Tennessee, so the city of Nashville was flooded, causing a number of deaths and much damage. This past week, if you were following the stock market on Thursday, things got a little unsettled. In a very short time, the Dow dropped nearly a thousand points before rallying very late in the day. Which all reminds us of the old adage, man proposes, but God disposes. Men and women confidently make plans about getting married, where they're going to honeymoon, how they're going to invest their money, and can be thrown into turmoil. God can change those plans in an instant. Whether it be through a volcano erupting, the tsunami hitting around the Indian Ocean, storms and flooding, the stock market gyrating up and down. All service reminders. God is in control. We often think that we're in control, that we can plan out, we'll know what the future has, and then God will send some of these things along to remind us that we're not really in control. He's in control. We've made plans for the future, but those plans depend upon God. God's will, and not our own. God can turn our best laid plans upside down. And these verses in James at the end of chapter 4 are really a reminder of that and a warning against leaving God out of our plans. As we look at the future, as we think about the future, it needs to be with God in our thinking. And so the first point, verse 17, is that James here is looking into error. And the error is planning without taking into account God. Without taking into account the fact that God is sovereign, that God's providence is directing what goes on. And so he addresses the businessmen of his day, but it could be the businessmen of our day. Come now you who say today or tomorrow we'll go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Now, as we read that, we're to understand God and the Bible are not against planning. And God's not against making a profit. Pursuing something would earn you a profit. And we could see a number of places where we're told to plan and plan ahead. Proverbs gives us the example of the ant, how he stores up for the winter. We're to be making a provision. Jesus, as he talks about counting the cost, talks about a king and a builder looking at a situation and realizing whether or not you have enough to proceed or not. And so they're to plan well. Rather, what is being pointed out here is what's our attitude as we plan? As we look to the future, what is the attitude that characterizes us? Are we planning and thinking? without any reference to God. And the ones that James addresses here are just deliberately and self-consciously going ahead. Full of conviction that the future is going to be like what I want it to be like. It's going to be well. I can count on it doing and behaving exactly like I think. And planning, when you recognize the sovereignty of God, and there's a submissiveness inside, well, if things work out this way, if it's part of the plan of God, then it's good to plan in that way. But to leave God out is wrong. And in the first century, the way to make money was to go into business. He kept money by buying up land, but if he wanted to make money, he'd go into business and trade and earn. Notice that these ones are saying, well, we're going to pick a city, and we're going to be there for a year, and we're going to make a profit. They're making plans, presuming upon God. Presuming they know that they can have some control over what happens in the future. Think about that. People who confidently go into business expecting to make a profit, but to stick to show that 90% of small businesses fail in their first three years. There are people today who confidently look at their 401Ks or their IRAs and think, hey, at age 55, I'll have enough to retire comfortably. And then the stock market goes a little haywire. And I begin thinking, well, maybe at age 70 I'll have enough to retire. If I get a part-time job. We have around us All sorts of statistics and probabilities and percentages, as if we could look at those and we know for sure what's going to happen. They planned it all out. In an election, the votes start coming in and with 1%, they project what's going to happen. As if they know. Or you can get monthly weather forecasts to tell you what the next month of weather is going to be. But they're all done without reference to God. Whether it be a volcano or a drought or war, God is showing us we don't control what goes around us. We can make plans But if we leave God out, God can thwart those plans and send us reeling. Well, how might a Christian fall into this error? Because you and I know that God is sovereign and that His providence is controlling what goes on in human events. Well, I think we face a more subtle danger. taking our desires and beginning to see them as what God's plan is. So we can do that in prayer. Instead of humbly praying to God, direct me, we ask God to bless our plans. To go along with what we've already thought of as the best plan for the future, then God has to say, yes. We're not really submitting our plans, our future to God, we're telling God what we want. I think of a young man who I think did this in a certain way. He began thinking about marriage, who to marry. He was praying and became convinced that God was signing out a certain young lady. And he goes to her and says to her, you know, God has told me that we're to get married. As if he knew the future. Not an attitude of submitting to it. Of seeking what is God's will. Or if he did that, he would say something like, I think God's leading me to be attracted to you. You want to see if it leads somewhere. But what was the young lady's response? Her response was to say, God has not told me where to get married. A very good response. And the young man quickly lost interest. And it was quickly an indication that what he thought was God's leading was his own sinful thinking that he tried to have God baptize. The young man was presumptuous in thinking about the future. He deluded himself as to what he thought God's will was. I think I'm a pastor. He was a pastor at that time in a city of about a half million people. And he announced this to the congregation that one of the goals that they had now as a congregation was to have a member in every city block in the city. And he wanted to impress the people with this. And so he had a giant map of the city. And then he put colored pins where every block where they had somebody. And then he said it took him about six months of standing, just right behind the pulpit, standing up front, to realize how ridiculous it was. You have these couple dozen pins on these hundreds of thousands of blocks. That the congregation would have to expanded at least by a hundred times to have one in each place. He thought the plan was from God. It was just his own thinking. The second point as we look at these verses is found in verse 14. The irrationality of such thinking is highlighted for us. It's irrational, because our lives are uncertain and short. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. We have no clue what's going to be happening tomorrow. We can hope that the stock market goes up. We may predict that it goes down. We don't know whether there's going to be an atomic bomb that destroys all of New York City. We have no clue. For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Emphasizing really the shortness and the unpredictability of our lives. A mist, or it could be translated as a puff of smoke. We're there and gone. There's no real permanence. And so we don't know whether illness or accident, a terrorist attack or the return of Christ will suddenly cut short our lives. In comparison to the mountains and the stars, we're here briefly. And there's a certain frailty that suits each one of us, and we need to realize that. Over the years, I've had several people come and asked me, Bill, will you do my funeral? And I think one particular man who knew that in all likelihood he only had a few months and ministered to him over the years, he really wanted me to do his funeral. I had sort of a standard answer. If I'm able, I'll do it. Then I always say, but you may outlive me. Because I don't know how long I'll live. And you may be attending my funeral, rather than me going to, you know, officiating at your funeral. For all of us, Life is uncertain, and we don't know what it will bring. I'm sure those thousands who died on 9-11 didn't expect it to be their last morning here on earth. Or the teenager that died in a car crash last week, didn't expect that to be the end of her life. And the first century businessmen who moves and selects a certain city and goes there only to find the Gauls or the Huns or somebody invading the city. And their plans for making a profit and for living there go up in smoke. It's presumptuous for us to think that we can see the future with any certainty. There are hundreds of variables that we can't control. But God does. And wisdom is looking to the one who controls those, rather than somehow thinking or assuming we know what's going to happen. For our third point, if you look at verses 15 to 17, it's a contrast. And it's highlighted, really, that first word in verse 15, ESV says, rather. Rather than being presumptuous, rather than assuming you know what the future is going to be, Rather, there's an exhortation to have a practical dependence upon God. As you think about the future, it's depending upon God. And that needs to be the hallmark of how you look. And there's really, we could break the exhortation into three parts, one verse each. First, verse 15, as I would call holy tentativeness. Summarize, if the Lord wills, that we make plans subject to God's intervening and directing differently. Some Christians take being completely assured. Knowing what the future is and going for it is an indication of faith and strong faith. And if you don't have that, you have a weak faith. But it's what we're called here to have an attitude of submission that says, if the Lord wills. It's an indication that we make our plans subject to God's overruling. That He may take our plans and turn them inside out. We may go over for a week honeymoon in Europe to find out it becomes four weeks. And that's okay. Because if we're a child of God, He knows what is for our good. And we may not envision a romantic honeymoon sleeping at the London airport. But God knows our situation. or to submit all our plans, and have that attitude of being submissive. Now, tentative doesn't mean half-hearted. To be sort of wishy-washy, holding back, being indecisive, well, I really don't know what to do, and so I don't do anything. No, it has a sense that as we move forward, it's with a willingness to be directed by God. If he stops one path, not to be angry, not to bold-headedly say, well, I'm going to move forward anyway, but to say, what is God teaching me? How is God directing me? Where is He moving me in the future? It's as we submit our plans and decisions to God with a certain looseness in our hold that we're willing to change. Because we see what God's will is. Because He might overrule us. Well, second, in verse 16, it points to a genuine humility. It really does so by pointing to the opposite attitude. If you look there, it talks about boast and boasting and arrogance and evil. Then when we leave God out of our plans, this is what we're doing. We're being arrogant. We're not being humble. If we don't have a humble attitude, then we're really saying, I'm in charge, I'm going to do my will, and you're taking the place of God. As if you're in sovereign control of all things when it's God. I mean, you're really robbing God of His sovereignty. And notice, when we do this, it's called evil. It's not a slight judgment and error when you leave God out of your calculations. It's evil. You're taking the rule of God. You're taking the sovereignty that belongs to Him. And thus, the implication is for it to have a genuine humility. A humility that replaces a self-confidence. and self-righteous assurance. It says, I desire God's will. Lead me in that. As I look to the future, direct my paths that ye know better. And then thirdly, in verse 17, there's an act of obedience. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, For him it is sin. And again, it's sort of on the negative. When we're failing to be active, doing what God wants us to do, then we're falling into sin as well. And sometimes a person, as they don't know what the will of God is, and it's not real clear, and they don't walk outside and see it written in the sky, will be paralyzed with uncertainty, and don't want to move forward. This verse is really encouraging us to move forward. To do what we know to do. And there's a saying that you can't steer a stopped ship. It says we move forward, that God can direct our lives. So we may not know exactly all that God has for us, But as we know what He has for us today, and as we follow that and as we do that, God can direct us in the long picture. For example, I think a lot of you are wondering about some issue. Maybe it's your career path. Should I become an engineer? Or maybe it's some habit. Does God really want me to tie to the church? Well, you can wait until there's some sort of massive revelation, something written in the sky or whatever, but you move forward. You apply to engineering schools. You start giving your time. And you trust that if you're doing wrong, that God will direct you. That if you're not to be an engineer, you won't get in. Or when you get in engineering school, you'll say, I really don't want to do this for the rest of my life. Because if you sit back and not act, God can't direct you. And so, when we understand what the will is, we could be doing it. And we may not see the next five or ten years, but the next day, the next week, and to be following that. Well, as I think of the application this morning, first is in terms of just a reminder that these words, as they are throughout all of James, are for Christians. And that it helps us to become mature in Christ. To have a faith that's mature. And so it begins, as all the rest, We need to understand that we need to trust in Jesus Christ. We're to believe in Him. And as we know who He is, then we can trust Him for the future. As we trust Him for our eternal destiny, then we can trust Him for the simple things in life. Like what I'm going to do the next week. Or the next year. Or the next five years. And so we're to be men and women of faith, looking to Jesus Christ. And then, secondly, as we make our plans, it's always with God in our thinking, to have an attitude, a submission, an attitude that says, if God wills, I make my plans. I make choices. But it's with an attitude that if God corrects, if God changes, if God directs in a different way, then I'm fine with that. Because I want God's will to be done. And so I'm not so hard and sad that in my ways, my choices, what I believe is God's path to the future, that I won't change. And it implies a tentativeness, As we make plans, it's not written in stone. Only God's will is written in stone. There's a humility, and there's an active doing of what we see the will of God is, right now. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give thanks for this portion of Your Word. It teaches us about how to plan, how to think of the future. Because it is very easy to leave you out, to plan and to think as if somehow we can control what will happen where we don't even know what tomorrow will bring. Help us to have that holy submission that looks to you, that is willing to submit our plans to your plan, to your will, and to adjust to what we see your will is as we live from day to day. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.