We're diving back into James, obviously sticking with it. We're gonna be moving through two basically, somewhat two different segments, but they do tie together. And the title I put is presumptuous behavior. And the idea, and we can maybe turn it down if it's too loud. It feels loud to me, but maybe not. Mom's, not mom's plural, I only have one mom. She is a mom, but she has her own five kids to take care of. My mom's still tracking down the eight she had. Unsuccessfully. But either way, we're looking at the presumptuous behavior, and we're in James 4. And it's an interesting term, because if you remember last week, when I said 4 through 10, when we look at that, if you want to take the heart of James, you grab James 4, 4 through 10, and that summarizes. If you're looking for cliff notes on James, that is it. The idea of flirting with the world, the idea that you have two allegiances, That sums it up. So he shifts now in his letter. And remember this was written as a letter. This was given to the church. It's read in the church. Those are all things to keep in the back of your mind. A church that's facing persecution. It is the early church. This is the first New Testament writing going out. First letter hitting the churches. And so he's writing to a church. And so now he shifts after that summary point. And James moves all over. That's a part of James. There's a logical flow, but he repeats himself. So now we're about to get some of the closing arguments, so to speak, coming back in. And so the rest of the book, he's dealing with some of these themes and he's wrapping up some of the things, but it's this idea of presumptuous behavior. And I want that to lock in your head, the idea of being presumptive, because it describes Christianity today to a T. So at the end of chapter four, Everything applies in James, but if you have to pick a spot that says, ooh, that might describe us to a T, that's gonna deal with how oftentimes we plan in life. But before we get to that, he touches on this idea of speech, which we'll talk about, and I call it presumptive speech because we presume upon God, we actually presume upon God's right. So I put as a start, have you ever had a friend who assumed you were closer than you actually were? You ever had one of those? Don't look around. I'd hate for you to highlight who that friend is. See, everyone looks straight ahead. You know, you can't do this. And they take certain liberties. And people that don't know you well, what I find humorous is the friends that I'm closest with, they understand where your real limits are. And the people you're not close with, they're like pushing way in. You're like, I don't think you know who I am. This is not me. This is not what I do. They presume or assume privileges that have not been given, and none of that grows a relationship at all. So, not so I want you to have angst against one person. Don't do that. But think about someone who is presumptive towards you, and then think about if you want to spend more time with them. or you enjoy their company. And I think I can speak for everyone, when you have someone who's presumptive in your life, you're not looking for more time with them. The relationship doesn't grow, it's not healthy at all. For them to become closer, they would have to stop presuming a relationship they don't have and actually grow a natural relationship. And here's the reality, because we think of other people immediately, but as humans, we tend to be presumptuous. We're presumptuous about how people view us. We think we walk out of the house looking a certain way, and you have to see a picture of yourself to realize you really don't look like you think. Or people don't perceive you like you think. Or they don't perceive your jokes like you think. We're very presumptuous. What we think we should have the right to do, we're very presumptuous about that. We're presumptuous about what we have control over, in this life. And that's the closing point that is made here in James chapter 4, is that we think we're in control and we're not. And when we think we're in control, it's not just that we're confused about being in control, but we're actually presuming upon God and who He is. There is only one sovereign, God. And when we presume control, we are stealing from His sovereignty something we don't have, but we presume upon Him. And part of that is built upon blessing. We are, and I know it's hard because we've all walked through hardship in life, or most of us have, and that varies. You can't compare it. You can't walk through it. Some people have walked through things that blow my mind, and I don't know how they're on their feet. There's a pastor's wife in Nicaragua, and her husband was the director of the institute. I worked closely with him. He would be the age, about my dad's age. And then she had a son that was a little younger than I was. And the son died of cancer. And then the father, so the director of the Institute, died of COVID. And she lost her son and her husband in a six month span. And I think to myself, how in the world does she get up in the morning? How does she handle that hardship? I'm sure she doesn't think she's in control. But we've all walked through hardship, but we kind of numb ourselves to it and think that we can isolate it to some extent because we think we're in control. And that's what we're going to be looking at, presumptive behavior. But we're going to see it from two different angles. As I mentioned, the first one is our speech. and the evil or the sin of talking against each other, ultimately casting judgment on each other, which is not our place. And I'm going to use the word casting judgment because we have to be careful and I'll talk about it. When it says don't be judging, it doesn't mean not to be discerning. So we'll distinguish those two, but look at it. And the second portion, we'll look at a presumptuous attitude or outlook on life and how we assume control over it. And so I want to dive into presumptive speech. This is verses 11 and 12 in chapter 4. It says, "...speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law." But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judges another?" And that's an important closing phrase to speech. Because we are in speech, and I'll talk about it, presuming the right of God when we become judges. Because we're not. Now, as we continue the letter, you're going to notice that James is reverted back to calling people brothers or brothers and sisters, as the Greek would read out there. Instead of saying, you adulterers and adulteresses, that was James 4, 4 through 10. That's one of the distinguishing features of that segment. He's back to saying, hey, church, Let's not do this. But his rebuke is no less to the point or confrontational. He doesn't pull back. In his whole letter, he never pulls back. It's in your face. He makes abundantly clear the sin of judgy speech or critical speech. Now, I want to give the word of caution here. The command to not be judging in your speech doesn't contradict the call in God's word to be discerning. always supposed to be discerning, but discernment is not the same as judging or speaking against someone. Speaking against, and that's the way the word is translated in Greek, so speaking evil of. When you see the word speaking evil, it's a word that's translated speaking against somebody. You're saying negative, you're attacking them. And that is used and is often driven by jealousy, selfish ambition, quarrels, and pride. That word translated questions. And in the Old Testament, it was people who questioned legitimate authority. So they would question God's authority. They would speak against God. Same route that goes there. Slandering someone in secret or bringing incorrect accusations. So if you were to come and speak about someone and say, I'm going to bear false witness, you'd be speaking against them. And so you see the context of what he's talking about. Someone who's going to go against legitimate authority. And you'd see that oftentimes as speaking against the Lord. You have people that are driven to talk about someone in secret. They build a negative narrative. They're speaking against this person. And or when you publicly bring in an inaccurate accusation, you come out and say something against them, that's not true. And that kind of speech is condemned. And why is that? Because doing so presumes upon God's law. And I don't want us to miss that. We often throw a neutral gear in, and that's what we'll do in both of these oftentimes. We aren't saying that we're doing the right thing, but we think that we can be a neutral and kind of coast along in some way free if we kind of stay in the bubble of, well, we're sometimes judgy, we're sometimes critical, we're sometimes this. James wants them to understand that you cannot do that because when you speak against, as the word is translated, speak evil, speak against, judge, you're presuming upon God's law. It goes in contrast to God's law to not slander. If you go to Leviticus 19, there's an actual law that says, do not slander. In that same chapter, there's a law that says to love your neighbor. And if you remember when Jesus was asked, what is the greatest commandment? What does he say? Yeah, love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself. In other words, he lists this law. It's been repeated, comes from Leviticus, tied all together. So in essence, what James is saying is when you speak against someone, you're slandering. And when you're speaking against someone, you're also not what? You're not loving your neighbor. You're causing harm to them. It's the opposite of there. And so when we don't keep it, we think we're above it. Right? We think, well, you know, I'm bending the law. I'm pushing the limits. I'm not as nice as I should be. I'm not as Christian as I should be, right? And it becomes this degree of Christianity or this degree of rightness. And James is saying, if you don't keep the law, then you think you're above the law. If I go 80 miles down the road, I'm what? Speeding, which is breaking the law. And I think then I am, Above the law. How many people get pulled over and have an excuse for why they were speeding? Yeah. 100% of people. 99% of people will lie about how fast they were going. I didn't even realize I was going that fast. I mean, the trees are whipping by in a blur, but I just thought my vision was going bad. Right? Because we think, as a general population, we're above the law. And what do you get when a cop pulls you over, typically, for going 80 in a 55? You get the opportunity to witness the people at the courthouse, because you're going to be there paying your ticket, right? And if you speed like I did on Wayland Road, well, it's $176 and some change, and you get to go to the third floor, no elevator, and pay your ticket right there. But they're very nice, and it's really simple, and I've learned my lesson. I go slow on that road, so it's work. But why did I speed on Wayland Road? Because 25's too slow. I'm above the law. That's what the idea was. What happens? We get punished for it. We understand it in this context, but when it comes to God's law and we break his law, it's because we think we're above it. We don't need to do this. It's not our problem. And James is reminding them, you slander someone and the law says not to slander, so you slander in essence by slandering, going speaking against someone, you're also breaking a second commandment, which is loving your neighbor. It's a denial of the law's authority. Because if you don't keep the law, you're saying to God, I don't have to listen to you. I have an exception to what you said. Now, no one or most people in the Christian world will never bluntly say it that way. Well, I actually think that you, Mr. Malampy, should follow the law. But I don't have to because I'm special and God doesn't get to hold me accountable to that law, only you have to follow. I never will say that. But what James is saying is you say it every time you break the law. Douglas Moo notes this, however high and orthodox our view of God's law might be, a failure actually to do it says to the world that we do not in fact put much store by it. You want to say that you honor God's law, His command is your command? And James is going to make this point, and it underlines the whole book. Then do what he says. Obedience. Obedience must come out. And that's what James emphasizes. Christianity, and his main point to everyone, Christianity is measured in real obedience. And I put the word real there because we have a whole plethora of, I would say, quasi-cults that set a whole bunch of rules that you have to follow. And if you follow their rules, then you're a good Christian. But the problem is they made those rules up themselves. They can't point to it. I've heard people preach who I care about and I appreciate them, but I heard one person preach and they started off with standards and their next phrase was, now these aren't in the Bible, but. I'm like, well, that's a waste of my time. Time to get some coffee. So if all of you leave to get coffee, I will take offense. But people do that. And I would say this person was typically, as a general rule, would be a good preacher, would be a biblical preacher. But when I hear this isn't in the Bible, but, and then a list of rules. Well, that's not real obedience. Following his standards is not what I'm talking about. So when I use the word real obedience, it means that James measures Christianity by real obedience to what God has said, to his word, and how often though we sadly fail to represent correctly our Savior by our blatant disregard for what our Savior commanded. Our testimony as Christians wouldn't be in shambles if we just attempted to follow God's Word. We have a host of people who are either off building their own God's Word, supposedly, and or negating everything God's Word said. And again, James leaves no room for neutrality in anything he ever says because there is no room for neutrality. You cannot be in the middle. you're either not going to speak against or you do. you can't sit floating here in the center. Now, when we speak against someone, so first we've presumed upon the law, we are above the law. The law is not an authority to us. So it's saying to God, well, your word works for some people, but not for me. However you want to word that, to phrase it, and it's how we live that proves that. And then he takes it a step further, because doing so, speaking in a against way, presuming upon God's right as exclusive judge. It is God alone who is able, Matthew 10 28, to destroy both soul and body in hell. When someone says to me, only God can judge me, the statement is accurate. Their interpretation of that statement is off. Because no one flippantly says, only God will judge me. That is supposed to come with massive seriousness and weight, because I would word it this way, yes, God judges you. And that is exponentially beyond any human judge in the world. And so when we speak against someone, right, we cast a judgment, we make a call. And again, I wanna, and I'll highlight this, this is not, discerning, it's not articulating. Oh, you said a negative thing about someone. See, well, if that negative thing is going to help us understand what this person, if we're going to not put someone in leadership because they don't belong in leadership because they're not qualified for it, you're not judging that person by articulating what the truth is so that it doesn't hurt the church or the body of Christ. It is when we make a judgment call, we have, in essence, assumed God's role over others. And that's where we have to, and this is the kind of driving point on speech, is that speaking against one another is not a casual thing. It's not a, well, yeah, bummer, I wish I wouldn't have done that feeling. It involves the primal sin of pride. It's the kind of sin that Satan showed toward God in heaven when he's cast out. What was his sin? Pride. He wanted to be God. He wanted worship like God. He wanted God's role. And what James is telling us is that speech is serious. This error is not slight. This is not, well, I hope I can get this right. This is manifesting the sin of pride, and I would say satanic pride, that presumes to take God's position in the lives of others. And here's the thing I think that we could drive home. We need to get serious about what we say. We need to get serious about the motive behind it. And that's critical as we evaluate this. We're going to end with this idea, are we presumptuous? Because the motive behind what you said is going to tell you whether you're being discerning or judgmental. What drives the reason you're saying this? Discerning speech brings to light the truth for the good of God's people. But here is the call. Let's be analytical about the real heart behind it because God is serious about our speech. It's not neutral, it's not casual to them. Now the letter moves from that and actually from here to the end of chapter four and actually verses chapter five, one through six, it deals with wealth, it deals with the use of wealth, the abuse of wealth, but we have to remember that we're wealthy. How many here have air conditioning? And the kids that didn't raise their hand, their parents did, so I know they have air conditioning, so it's there in their home. How many of you just ate as much as you wanted? Who ate more than they wanted? It's all of us there, right? But we're wealthy people. Now, I know there's levels of wealth amongst us, and I know there's people that don't have a home, and there's people that struggle finding food, but as an overall picture, we're wealthy, and so this, Next segment is going to focus, is going to be a focused look at our arrogance, our misuse and wrong attitude regarding the abundance God has given us and how we should change. It tells us what we're supposed to do. And what we're going to encounter, as one writer notes, is a clash of worldviews. Because this is the two things that come out. One, One view of the world, basically, and I want you to think, he's talking to the church, and we'll dialogue briefly about it. Some people think, well, it has to be unbelieving. These are unbelieving merchants. They're not. The unbelieving merchants are tucked in it. He's talking to Christian merchants. which if you wanna lump us in as a society, we are these merchants, the ability to move and make decisions and career choices and things that we have, we have this. There's other people that might represent the merchant a little better in our own mind, but we would all be the merchants. And so it's a battle of views, of worldviews. Basically one is this, it leaves God out of account by boastful self-reliance and selfish indulgence. And another recognizes God's constant providential ordering of everything and the reality that there is coming a day of reckoning, an eternal reckoning. And so when we look at this next segment, and I call it presumptive attitude, we're looking at Two types of people, and remember, James draws a line. He's not giving you option C. This is not multiple choice A, B, C, D. It's not pick who you are, and maybe I'm A and B. Is the answer D is A and B, A and C? No. You're either someone who leaves God out because you've replaced God with yourself, or you recognize reality that God is the only sovereign one. I'm partially sovereign, God is only sovereign. And you can't stand here between two places and be in the same place at the same time. You're either this or you're over here. And I want to say that because James is doing the same thing to the church then, because he's grabbing him and he's shaking him a bit and saying, stop playing this game, because we play this game. all the time. So we'll look at the presumptive attitude. This has some verses that a lot of us know about being a mist, a vapor that disappears. How short is life? The brevity of life. That's what we think it's talking about. It's not talking about the brevity of life. It's talking about the unstable nature of life, that you're not in control of it. Throw a mist in the air. What moves a mist? Anything. I can blow on it and it moves. You could wipe it away. Anything. And the idea is not brevity of life, actually. It's the fact that you don't control it. That's what he's trying to communicate. But let's go through it. It says, go to now you that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. And I want to note this and I'll say it again. Making plans is not wrong. Being successful and planning to go to X city and buy and make gains is not wrong. James is not condemning. Capitalism, people have used it for that. You're not condemning being good at your job, doing business smart, being successful. None of that is part of this. It's your attitude. It's your perspective about yourself. And then he goes on, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeared for a little while and then vanisheth away. You're not in control. of it. For that you ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now you rejoice and you're boasting what you're doing, he says, and all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And again, he's drawing a line. He's telling everyone no middle ground. You're either sinning in this or you're not. No wavering between two positions. Now, a lot of discussion has gone into this. Are these recipients saved or not? Are they believers or not? And as I mentioned last week, and actually it applies to every letter you're reading in the Bible, it was written to churches. Now there's portions that address unbelievers for sure in those letters, but they're read to the church. Are there unbelievers in church? Yes. Are the majority of people in the church likely saved? I would think so. And so when we're reading this, one of the excuses we give ourselves as believers is to think, well, those unbelievers better get in line because I definitely say, if the Lord wills, and then I go on with my plans, like a magic phrase or password, which is what he's not saying that. And so first and foremost, let's get in our mind that he's actually talking to merchants from the church. And I would say that the focus is on believing business people, engineers, electricians, teachers, Because we all have in our hands some of this ability that he's mentioning for these merchants. Now there was a merchant class in that time. A lot of people were poor and struggling in the church. There was a merchant class. It was a middle, upper middle class, basically what most of the United States is, what most of us are. And you're functioning at this level and able to move and maneuver a little bit. But with that success, some of our reliance or perspective gets altered because we start thinking of ourselves as in control. Now, these are successful people making a living and making a good one at that, but here's their issue. They've gotten overconfident. They've lost sight of reality in a sense They have forgotten that they don't hold tomorrow in their hands. They're planning and conversing in a way that does not line up with the values of God's family. You're a child of God and you say out loud, I'm going to do this and that and acting like you are a sovereign. And what, in essence, James is saying is that doesn't line up with the family values. This is the dad and the family or the mom grabbing the kids. And you've had this discussion. If you've been a parent, you've talked about this. And you'll say, hey, don't do that. That's not what we do. That's not what we say. And we use the word we, right? We use that idea of a group. We're a unit. And the child will respond, but such and such does and says that. then the parent says, but we don't. In other words, you identify in this group here and we don't do that. I don't care if they, not, not care, but they may. We don't. And when James is calling out to the merchants is, they may. But we don't. He's calling them to tasks like a father would be to a son, mom to a daughter, mom to son, whatever it may be, it's bringing them back to the core values that are there. Yet as Mu notes this, James is not rebuking these merchants for their plans. He's not saying planning is bad, that's the wrong takeaway, nor is he rebuking them for the desire to make a profit. Unprofitable business people are, and shouldn't be, business people. They're missing their calling. Business is supposed to be for profit. Just like you work for a salary, you don't work for a negative. And so, he's not knocking a profit and he's not knocking the desire for a profit. This should be helpful You see in politics, and I don't get overly political. I think you know that after 10 years, I may touch on it and joke about it a little bit, but I actually try not to weave it into the fabric of everything we do. You hear someone talking about the evils of desiring a profit. If you're in business and you don't desire to be profitable, don't be in business. because that's not what you're called to do. And God never condemned desiring the profit. Don't get the admonition here wrong because you miss what he's trying to say. And it's a presumptive attitude that he's against. He's rebuking them rather for the this world self-confidence that they exhibit in pursuing those goals. So they have set aside God and His kingdom in pursuit of a very temporal goal and in essence they begin borrowing from God in the pursuit of that. So not only have they lost sight of what's important, they have now stolen from God His sovereignty and pretending like they are now partially sovereign. Now, that is not how they'll articulate it. But what James is saying is when you just say you're gonna do whatever you want and you're gonna plan your whole life out and it's all gonna function like you think, well, that's what this is. And if you think about that for a second, that is the United States in a nutshell. We're particularly susceptible to this. And part of that is, is God has been gracious to us. He's blessed us. I am not of the disposition Traveled around the world, I've seen a lot of different people and some people go and they see poor people and they think they're more spiritual. I can guarantee you they will steal from you just like the next person. I've had people steal from me, try to. I was on a mission trip one time and the guy tried to rip us off on pizza and it was all $10. I called the pizza place on him in the middle of a nowhere town and someone says, why'd you do that? I said, letting him get away with stealing isn't helping him at all and come to find out he's been doing it all over town. They'll steal from you, what I'm saying, no matter where they're at. They're not more spiritual because they have less. The danger of having more, being in abundance, and we live in a nation of abundance. And I'm not saying, look, there's times when we're in financial hardship and it doesn't feel abundant here, right? But as a general principle, we have a lot of things that other people don't have. And in that, we become susceptible to an arrogance that says, I control my destiny, or I can control it. And we mix up what is good planning with what is off. So keeping that in mind, he's not reprimanding them for planning nor for their occupation. We don't want to slight that at all. That would be unbiblical. He is trying to communicate to them that they are very temporal in their planning and very arrogant as they borrow from God. What good could come from a merchant who does business in another city? Well, the spread of the gospel could happen. in ways that someone else could never do it. So much good could come within these plans, except for these plans don't include God. And so as we're looking into this, their attitude has become, it's not what they're planning. What they're planning could be used for God's kingdom, but their attitude has become secular. Their mindset is worldly and it's self-confident. You don't know what tomorrow holds. even when you think you do. You don't know how long your life is. And I know that verse is, we say, oh, it's the brevity of life. But you don't know, you have no idea. And I want you to process that thought for a moment. Every age bracket process it, right? If you're older, you think, well, I understand how short life is. And the young think, oh, what is it like to be that old? I never can imagine going from 18 to 45. That seems like a million years. But then when you're at 45, which is my age, well, I'm considered what? Middle-aged, well, that's pretty presumptive, right? I could die tomorrow. I could be at the end of my age. But so could you at 15 or 18 or 81. We don't own it. And so even in the way we think about our age, well, my life is half over. Well, or maybe it's three-fourths over. Maybe I've only lived a quarter of my life, right? I don't know. Maybe I'm gonna be one of the lucky ones or very unlucky ones that live to 120. you want to look at it, you know. But think about it. How we think about it. We're very presumptive about it even as we, we word that. So what's the answer? Well the solution is realignment. He makes a phrase, if the Lord wills. Now that has been misused hasn't it? Well if the Lord wills is not a magic password to whatever you want. Well, you know what? I really want this. And so I'm gonna say to God, God, I really want this, if you want me to, God, I really want this. And I'm gonna make all the plans I want, but I'm gonna tell God, don't worry, I put if the Lord wills at the beginning, and so everything should be just fine, because I plugged the numbers in, and so I got into the room of now I can plan however I want. And I want us to understand something, because this is where this phrase has been completely misused, and it ties into this idea of feeling like you're sovereign because, well, as long as I do the magic phrase, I'm good to go. I've covered all my Christian bases and I'll do whatever I want. The saying was meant to signify that you've aligned yourself to God's will and perspective and that you're seriously seeing your plans through God's lens, evaluating it all in keeping with his kingdom purpose. So let me walk you through the merchants. They are gonna go to such and such city and buy and sell for a year and get gain, none of which is bad. It's the presumptive attitude that they control that, but also notice what they've not talked about at all, what's not entered their mind. Anything about God in there? Anything about eternity in there? Any purpose outside of their own purpose? So it's not that what they're doing is wrong, it's that there was no tie-in, and I've hinted at it. What if I'm going to go to such and such city and make gain and be involved in the local churches that are there and help edify the saints while I'm there doing this? Is that a different perspective? Are you still going to make money? You are. What is woven in and should be a core fiber to what's there? Eternity. what's taking place. And so, it's a difference of perspective, it's a difference of goal. Because the advance of God's kingdom sits on their mind above their own goals. Now this is most likely something that steps on our toes and it should. I think that if we're honest with ourselves, we have not made his purpose above the temporal purpose. And he's not made evil the temporal purpose. When does the temporal purpose become evil? When there is no eternal purpose. when it's me presuming upon God and upon my life and what I'm gonna accomplish with absolutely no regard for the kingdom of God at all. And it's not that we tack it on. Again, it's not tacked on. That's what if the Lord wills signifies someone who has changed their perspective. If the Lord wills, but do you notice what James is saying? That you can still do the same thing, but you would have thought eternity first. It is the primary purpose of life. And so as we walk through that and think about it, we have to understand that it is about priority. that it's not a tack on, that if we're really being honest about our plans and goals, you're gonna find a very unbiblical tie into it. Because he's not a tack on, he's supposed to be the priority. You can actually have a fulfilled life and some of the same plans unfold, but it must be in the context of an eternal plan that comes first. But James doesn't leave it there because he emphasizes something at the end of it. He says something about the sin and not doing what you know is right. And there's different types of sin. The sin of commission, right? That is me going and punching someone in the face, right? I commit the foul. A sin of omission is knowing what is right and biblical and not doing it. Equally sinful. And so James now highlights something. After giving them the idea of where they're secular, gives them the solution, then he gives them the real situation. The idea now you rejoice are as it is. What is reality though? You should make God the eternal purpose, the primary. This is the fabric of life. And then you may accomplish your business underneath of it. It might be woven in with God's plan, not reverse. But he says, that's not what you're doing. That's not what we're doing. This is not why he wrote it to the church. This is not what you're doing, he says. And he signifies something. He says they're currently bragging about their pride. And if you want to put that in context, it's bragging about bragging and acting like that is a virtue. When you talk about your plans and your successes in the fabric of what it is, if you haven't, if it wasn't woven into God's plan, but you have just doing what you want and you've Christianized it. I know we can play that game. We sprinkle some water on it. We make the Lord wills. We do whatever we want to try to twist and turn it to make it feel like it's God's plan. You and God can know without a doubt whether your plans are actually that. I can't read your heart, but, but God can. And he does. But these people, he says, you've not only not done it, you brag about not doing it, and you make it basically a virtue. Look at this. This is who we are. This is good. This is a good thing. So now we not only don't do what God wants us to do, we brag about not doing what God wants us to do, and then make it what we want to tell other people we should do because it's a virtue to not do what God wants you to do. See how spirally that gets? That's the situation, he says. And what do I come to there, and I put, James cuts the legs out from anyone thinking or speaking this way. When you neglect to do what you know you should, you are in active and habitual sin. Not accidental. It is in action as you live out that plan, and it is becoming the habit of your life. You wanna notice this? You wanna see this growing in yourself? See how well you justify what you do. See how quickly you make what you do a virtue. Oh, that goes quick. You know what's really hard about that? You can't see it anymore. Satan's got you tangled up. And what James is trying to do is crack the fabric there and say, wait a second. You're out of bounds here. And he's saying this, there's no neutrality. You're either in line or out of line. But what's the heart of the matter? We think and even flaunt the idea that we are in control of our lives and ignore the fact that the Lord is in control and the only one in control. That can jump up. I like to travel, traveled a lot through my career. I never liked being away from my family. And I remember getting on a plane, this took me a long time to come to this realization. And so you get on a plane and I'm praying, well, God, while I'm gone, please protect my family. And I caught myself finally after years. Like if I'm home, God, I don't need you to be there. I'm good, I got it, but I'm not there. So can you step in for me and fill the role? And it dawned on me how arrogant I was. Oh, you've missed the point for years every time you prayed on a plane. Because he's in control and you're not, even when you're there, you're not in control. See, our success feeds our arrogance because sadly the blessing of success can insulate us from the reality of him being in control and distance us from processing eternity. What is good can be turned to bad. What do you do with that? You can blow this off as Kenny talking about James and forget about it, I don't care. You can demean the messenger to try to ignore the message. you can insulate yourself with even more success. So bubble wrap yourself, be even more successful, wrap around, build a puffy, puffy, unpenetrable fortress against that. But you don't get the last word. You don't get the last laugh and nor do I. Regardless of how insulated we feel, regardless how insulated we live and die here on earth, there is only one sovereign and he alone controls your life and your eternity. We either align with that or persist in sinning outside of it and be judged accordingly. As one writer remarks, it should force us to evaluate our planning from a biblical ethical perspective. Is this the type of plan that's in accordance with the Lord's will expressed in scripture for his people? As we engage with our life, everything we engage in is supposed to have primary what is God's purpose. and does what I'm planning to do, not get a kosher rubber stamp if the Lord wills, but does it align scripturally with what His will and purpose is? And by the way, it's pretty clear. If you need help just dilling it down, it's straightforward. And if we don't have that mindset, I would say pause the planning and get that mindset correct so that everything else filters through what he desires and his purpose. So if we all stop looking around for a moment to see if the person we thought I was talking to is listening, right? Because that's the tendency. When I read this, I'm thinking, well, what about that person? What about that person? And what James is saying is, what about you? Where are you here? And ask yourself a very serious question, because I started this with presumptive behavior, and I wanna link back to it. We become very presumptive in our speech, because as we judge others, we take God's right as the only lawgiver. And when we engage, and it's the broader spectrum, and seems to be more applicable in the moment, in the sense of it easier to grab hold of, as we march out, we presume upon God's sovereignty. We steal his right, his exclusive right of judgment, and then we steal from his sovereignty and pretend that we are quasi-sovereign ourselves. And so the question I'm gonna close with tonight is how presumptive am I? And I hope you'll ask yourself the same question. How presumptive are we? Is our speech aligning with what a Christian should say and do in real obedience? And even broader, is our planning, our life, our career, our everything, is it aligning with His will? And is it always in mind that I'm not in control, but He is? Not because we're letting go, let God, which is not a biblical principle. It's a grip on who God is. He is sovereign, and I am not. How presumptive are we? Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for this time we have to get together to walk through a portion of James, a very serious one that I think hits home to all of us. But as we look at this, as we make our plans and our thoughts and our dreams even, the biggest question that comes out is what is at the core of them? And I'm afraid that if we strip away all the fluff that we add to it, that at the core of it is ourself and not you. And what James is calling for is at the core of all plans and all thoughts and all focus for the believer is your will and purpose. that you will grant us the desires of our heart, that there are paths that will put us, oftentimes giving us what we're dreaming about, desiring, giving us the gain, quote unquote, that we're looking for, the success. But if it's not woven into the fabric, into the center of what you want, then those are presumptive plans. They are plans that are outside of your will. They are plans that borrow from your sovereignty and display yet again the arrogance that Satan displayed in wanting to be you. And as we're speaking towards one another, help us to not be casual about our judgmental speech. but to instead be serious about it, to evaluate it, to correct it, recognizing that it is serious to you as well because you are the lawgiver and you are the judge and we are not. And help us to realize that we're stealing from your rights and in the other context, we're stealing from your character. and help us to recognize what we're doing. Recognize the root of arrogance that is cropping up that will bear horrific fruit in many different areas if we don't weed it out now. In your precious and holy name, amen.