Introductory Comments
1. It was my first year end as controller. The year had just ended and in two months the auditors would be in to check the books. Accounts had to be reconciled and analyzed. Costs had to be projected on unfinished projects. For two months I worked an average of 16-20 hours a day, seven days a week. After it was all over, I was exhausted. I decided never to go through such an experience again. The next year I knew what was required and so I planned ahead. In November I gave my staff a schedule of what I expected from them on a weekly basis. Pages and pages of details of work that was to be done and reports made and accounts reconciled. The planning took extra work, but it was worth it. What had been a nightmare the year before, became a pleasant experience. The work was done more efficiently and correctly, and I did not even have to work any overtime. We were ready for the auditors two weeks before they were scheduled to arrive.
2. I believe in planning. We need to know where we want to go and we need to plan how we are to get there. This is true for our lives and our church. And yet I often get frustrated with people who wait for the last minute and seem to not think ahead. Who throw surprises upon others by not announcing their ideas ahead of time and allowing them to think things through.
3. Perhaps the passage before us is there especially for me. Perhaps it is not. James seems to be down on planning, but is He really?
4. Tonight we take a look at what James tells us by planning for the future. And it is an important passage for all of us. For we are all facing the need to plan ahead. Whether it be plans for college, job, a wedding , vacation, or retirement. Is it right to plan? If so, how are we to plan?
Teaching
1. James is talking to Christian business men. They are probably not among the wealthy but they are at least middle class. The words he has are particularly addressed to business people, but the principles apply to us all.
2. The business plans they are making do not seem ungodly. They are planning an itinerary for a business trip. They have goods to sell. They had to check shipping schedules and work out a plan as to which cities they would visit and how to get from one city to the next. The entire expedition would take a year before they would return home. When they were there they would carry on business - buy and sell goods. And of course, they would make their money. Everything was planned out. Just like me with my year end.
3. But they are making three mistakes in their planning.
4. The first is that they are planning without God.
a. They know what they want to do. But they show that God is not part of their plans. In verse 15 James says that they should say "If this is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." One of the things I appreciated about many Ontario classis ministers in the earlier years of the classis was that any announcements about upcoming events would include the letters DV, Deo Volente - God willing. In other words, these are our plans, but they will only take place if they are the Lord’s will. See that with yesterday's women's retreat which had to be cancelled - Cpor's funeral..
b. DV it acknowledges that it is alright, and necessary, to make plans, but that these plans are subject to God. T that we are not in control, that we cannot determine the future. That God is sovereign and although we may plan all we want, it is He who will determine what we will even be able to do. We can do nothing unless God enables us .
c. Paul knew that and showed it in his letters. He told the church in Ephesus Acts 18:21 , "I will come back if it is God's will." And the Corinthians in 1 Cor 4:19 But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. Yet not always did he say this, but it was still his attitude (words not always req’d - like a magic formula)
1 Cor 16:5-8 After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you--for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost,
d. And also, our plans have a goal. The goal of the business men was to make money. When we work or plan, we hope to accomplish something, but we will only accomplish or achieve if God wills it. We plant, we may harvest, but it is God who provides the growth. Both what we do and what we achieve is subject to the will of God.
e. And this attitude affects not just the carrying out of our plans, but the plans themselves. This attitude means that, in our planning, we seek the will of God and we plan in accord with His will. It is easy to quickly add DV at the end of each plan. It takes much more to seek to make our plans according to His will. This means that we begin, not by telling God what it is that we wish to do, but by spending time in prayer. By asking God to lead us in the way He would have us go. Not saying: "God open a door to let me in this particular college or to give me a specific job", but rather asking Him to open doors for you and to reveal His will for your life to you.
f. It also means that although we ask for directions on the specifics, we are aware of His word and how it applies to our lives. That we are aware that He wants us to honour, glorify and serve Him in all things. And that we want to fulfill this desire of His. Like a businessman in the time of James asking God to enable him to be used by God to use whatever money he might earn to care for others and to enables God’s kingdom to grow.
g. It means having a life dedicated to God and an awareness that we belong to Him. It means planning with God each step of the way. Our plans are for God and through God. The first mistake the businessmen were making was that they were planning without God.
5. The second mistake was that they were presumptuous about the future.
a. They acted as if they were the ones who determined their future. They believed that their plans would all take place as they pre-determined. But we know that is not the case. We cannot say what will be, we can try to influence it, but God is the one who determines the outcome. We may think we know what may lie ahead but often things do not turn out the way we think they will. Jesus reminds us of this important truth in Luke 12:51-21
Luke 12:15-21 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
b. This parable teaches that often our greed and our presumptuous nature go hand in hand. It also teaches that we cannot presume on the future.
c. Not just because we do not know if our plans will succeed, but we do not even know whether we will be part of the future. This is what James is saying to us in vs. 14. Even our life can disappear like a mist dissipates quickly in the morning sun. We can think of times in our lives when our future was changed in an instant . eg. Henry Dekker's fall.
d. But if we know God is in control, we need not fear the abrupt changes in our plans. Sometimes I find it easy to get frustrated in my plans do not work out, but through this I learn God not me is in control.
6. The first mistake the businessmen were making was that they were planning without God. The second mistake was that they were presumptuous about the future. The third mistake was that they took pride in their plans.
a. So easy to boast about the things we are planning and what the outcome should be. To boast of empty plans of grandeur. "I’m going to work hard and be successful." "I’ll make a million before I am forty." Especially easy to do as younger people. "Wwe are going to conquer the world." (Often the world conquers us.)
b. I remember many of the things I was going to accomplish. Thank God I grew up. I learned soon that these things were not important. As we see that we cannot make things happen, we are humbled.
c. James says that they boast and brag. The word boasting as it is used by James, is used only twice in the New Testament. Also used in:
1 John 2:1617 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Here it means the pride of life. And we know that pride comes before the fall. God warns us about boasting
Prov 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
Don’t boast about your plans but humbly bring them before the Lord.
7. The first mistake the businessmen were making was that they were planning without God. The second mistake was that they were presumptuous about the future. The third mistake was that the took pride in their plans
8. These are not the things we are to do. Instead we are to commit our plans to God, seek His will, recognizing that He is in control, and humbly working on our plans.
9. James teaches us the good we are to do. The businessmen to whom He wrote were planning like the world. Their motives may have been like those of the world, like that of the man building bigger barns. To get more money to hoard.
10. It is a sin to do what is wrong, but also a sin to know the good we ought to do and then not to do it. You have been taught how to commit your future and its plans before God. To rather seek to build up the kingdom of God, as He directs:
Mat 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
11. What are you planning for? What are your goals? Whose glory are you seeking?
