Making Good Resolutions
Providential Planning
James 4:13-17
In James 4, James pictures a typical Jewish Merchant, making resolutions for the next year. James concludes by saying in verse sixteen, that boastful resolutions are “evil.”
Our immediate reaction is, “what is wrong with making plans or resolutions for the New Year.”
Planning is important.
Nelaton a French surgeon said that if he had four minutes to perform life-dependent surgery, he would take one minute to plan.
God plans. Planned His work and worked His plan.
∙ Plan of redemption
∙ Prophecy reveals God’s plan for the ages, 2 advents, the cross, etc..
∙ James 1:4 reveals that God has a plan for each of us.
So why does James find fault with this man’s plans?
Notice that James does not find fault with planning, which is important. The fault that James finds with this mans plans is that his plan left God out. James warning is against arrogant, autonomous attitudes in planning.
Your plans reveal much about you and about your relationship with God. Some people feel like Their relationship with Christ is a one day a week commitment, and that God has little place in their lives the other six days. They reveal such thoughts in their planning.
The merchant in James 4 assumed he could plan unconditionally. In planning the next years itinerary he acted arrogantly as though he himself were in control of the future.
When dealing with the future, which is what planning is all about, God expects us to acknowledge the fact that He alone is in control of the future.
Failure to recognize God’s providence as the all-important factor in planning reveals an arrogant attitude.
While he needed to acknowledge that God alone is in control of the future.
∙ Autonomous planning, foolishly assumes rights and powers that we do not possess.
∙ Puts you in God’s rightful place.
∙ You are then claiming powers that belong to Him alone and thus making yourself sovereign.
Gods’ Providence or Sovereignty
∙ There is no such thing as luck.
∙ There are no accidents.
A cowboy applied for health insurance. The agent that interviewed him asked, “have you had any accidents in the last year?”
The cowboy replied, “No. But I was bit by a rattlesnake, and a horse kicked me in the ribs and I was laid up for awhile.”
AGENT: “Those weren’t accidents?”
COWBOY: “No, they did it on purpose.”
The cowboy knew no “accidents.” A Christian that recognizes Gods sovereignty has the same attitude.
God often uses the Devils schemes to fulfill His own purposes. An obvious example is found in the Biblical story of Joseph. In Joseph’s case, his brothers were intending to bring harm, yet God used their behavior to save the nation of Israel. (Gen 50:20) “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Another prime example is that of the crucifixion. Wicked men sought to destroy Jesus once for all, but their act only caused our redemption.
After a tree fell on his garage, the Rev. Ray Lanham was asked by neighbor Tom Bedell if it isn’t wrong that a man of God should suffer from an act of God.
“I wouldn’t know,” replied Mr. Lanham, “I’m in sales, not management.”
SOVEREIGNTY
A group of men were carrying on a friendly conversation. One of them remarked that he had learned to be especially careful about small things. “Would you believe,” he said, “that a little thing like a pair of socks changed the entire course of my life?” “I can hardly believe that,” replied another man. “Well, it’s true! Once I planned to take a trip with some of my friends on a canal boat, but two days before we intended to leave, I injured my foot while chopping wood. It was only a small cut, but the blue dye in the homemade socks I wore poisoned the wound, and I was compelled to stay at home. While my friends were on their journey, a powerful preacher came to our town to hold revival meetings. Since I didn’t have anything else to do, I decided to attend. The message touched me deeply, and as a result, I surrendered my heart to the Lord. Afterward I saw that I needed to change my life in many ways. New desires and purposes took hold of me. I determined also to seek an education, for I trusted that this would enable me to live more usefully for my Lord.” The man who made these comments was none other than the former President of the United States — James A. Garfield!
PLANNING PROVIDENTIALLY:
In order to Plan Providentially you must have a proper evaluation of life.
James asks, “For what is your life?” vs. 14
In Robert Sumners “Incidents and Illustration” column some years ago they reported a strange scene at the funeral of a young man at the Cypress Lawn burial grounds in San Francisco. He had been killed in a motorcycle accident and his mother insisted that the Harley-Davidson bike he was riding be buried with him. His sobbing mother explained, “It was his whole life!” How tragic to have a whole life wrapped up in a motorcycle! What would you have buried with you?
He lists three considerations about life that ought decide our evaluations and plans.
First, he points out that life is short. 14b
He says life “is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Because life is short, we ought to plan beyond the parameters of this life. We ought to plan for eternity.
Oft repeated Biblical theme:
Job called life a “swift ship” 14:1, 2 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. 2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Psalm 73:20 “dream”
90:9, “a tale that is told”
Ecclesiastes, “shadow”
James, “vapor”
Therefore we should plan beyond the parameters of this life.
Alexander being impressed with the answers of the philosopher Diogenes, bade him ask what he would, and he should have it. The philosopher demanded the least proportion of immortality. “That is not in my gift,” says Alexander. “No” quoth Diogenes; “then why do Alexander take such pains to conquer the world, when he cannot assure himself of one moment to enjoy it?”
Frank Sandoval, McDonald’s or lemonade stand
Christians ought to make their resolutions with heaven in mind.
Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
An anonymous writer tells about an American tourist’s visit to the nineteenth-century Polish rabbi Hofetz Chaim:
Astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books, and a table and a bench, the tourist asked, “Rabbi, where is your furniture?”
“Where is yours?” replied the rabbi.
“Mine?” Asked the puzzled American, “but I am a visitor here, I am only passing through.”
“So am I,” said Hofetz Chaim.
Life is Short
Secondly James reminds his readers that life is complex and unpredictable.
In verse fourteen, he says, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.” In verse thirteen the bottom line was profit, “. . . buy and sell, and get gain”: James’ answer is that we do not know what will happen tomorrow.
Our plans are always tentative.
Proverbs 27:1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Life is complex. Global Warming, They don’t know why the weather was what it was yesterday or what it will be 5 days from now but Al Gore knows about the next century.
Charles Schultz, in a peanuts comic strip showed a conversation between Lucy and Charlie Brown. Lucy said that life is like a deck chair. Some place it so they can see where they are going; some place it so they can see where they have been; and some place it so they can see where they are at present. Charlie Brown’s reply: “I can’t even get mine unfolded.”
#7368 The Law of Chance
Suppose you take ten pennies and mark them from 1 to 10. Put them in your pocket and give them a good shake. Now try to draw them out in sequence from 1 to 10 putting each coin back in your pocket after each draw.
Your chance of drawing No. 1 is 1 to 10. Your chance of drawing 1 and 2 in succession would be 1 to 100. Your chance of drawing 1, 2, and 3 in succession would be one in a thousand. Your chance of drawing 1, 2, 3, and 4 in succession would be one in 10,000 and so on, until your chance of drawing from No. 1 to No. 10 in succession would reach the unbelievable figure of one chance in 10 billion.
The object in dealing with so simple a problem is to show how enormously figures multiply against chance.
Because life is complex, James stresses conditional, providential planning. It is planning that says, “I will do such and such if God wills.”
James “if” (v.15) is vital; it makes all the difference. It isn’t the “if” of doubt, concern or fear. Rather it is the “if” of confident reliance on benevolent wisdom of a sovereign God who promised to work out everything for your good. This is the “if” that removes all others. It is the one that takes worry away and points to the beneficence of an all-powerful God. The person who plans with God rejoices in the assurance that the expert Planner is at work alongside.
As the songwriter expressed, “I don’t know about tomorrow but I know who holds my hand.”
The final consideration that James mentions is that Life is feeble.
27:1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Verse sixteen says, “. . . Ye rejoice in your boastings: All such rejoicing is evil.”
The key to avoid boasting is to maintain a Godly perspective.
Boasting is making unwarranted assertions that you cannot make good.
We cannot even control the next minute.
Therefore, our life is entirely in Gods hands.
One of the greatest painters of all time was the Italian artist, Raffaelo Santi (1483-1520), known to art lovers today as Raphael. When his short life ended at age 37, his half-finished masterpiece, “The Transfiguration,” was carried in the funeral procession as a symbol of life’s incompleteness and time’s brevity.
James writes, “Ye ought to say, If the Lord will . . .” when making resolutions. The letters, D.V., found sometimes in the writings of Christians, are an abbreviation for the Latin translation of the phrase in James: Deo Volente (“Lord willing”). All planning must be done in the spirit and attitude represented by those two letters.
“Does that mean that I must go around saying ’If the Lord wills’ after every statement I make about the future? Must I write D.V. on my letters?” No, that is not what James is after. While doing it is not wrong. James concern is not about some formula. He is concerned about you—the inner you. He wants you to say D.V. in your heart, to yourself, before or whether you ever say it to another. James wants to replace the merchant’s self-confidence with a confidence in the providence of God.
Saying this to yourself is reminding you that God is running this world, not you, and He has something to say about your plans.
Plan Providentially (Make Godly Resolutions) because:
Life is short
Life is complex and unpredictable
Life is feeble
“I wish I would have started sooner!”
Young people
The Pocket Watch
(Quoting Bill Rice) That night I did something I have never done before and I have never done again. And you couldn’t pay me to do it again, either. I had a little package in the pulpit, a little square box. I said, “I have something I want to give to a boy scout.”
I unwrapped it and held in my hand a pocket watch—just an inexpensive nickel-plated pocket watch.
I said “How many boy scouts, not have a watch?” And a hole bunch of them raised their ends and “Ole Big Mouth’s” son was one of the boys who raised his hand. I pointed at him and said, “Son, don’t you have a watch?”
He said, “No, Sir.”
“Could you use this in your business?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Okay, I’ll give it to you. Come on down here.”
He was back of me on the regular platform and in order to get to me he had to walk to the end of the platform, down the steps to the floor, then back up is steps to the improvised platform and to the pulpit I stood behind. I had the watch and I wound the thing, set it and listened to it and let him listen to it ticking away. I said, “Well, I want to give it to you.”
He said, “Thanks.”
And I said, “Hold it! I am going to give it to you but let’s not rush it.” I said, “It’s my watch until I give it to you. But, you know, I have always kind of wanted to play with a watch like this. I just want to fool around with it some before I give it to you.” I said, “The crystal on this watch, I wonder if it is Plexiglas like the windshield of my airplane. Let’s see.” And kerwham, I hit the corner of the pulpit with it. It dead sure wasn’t unbreakable—the crystal shattered, the face of the watch was smashed, the hands knocked, off and the case dented! By the way, it cut my hand and I bled all the rest of the service.
I said, “Well, Boy, it wasn’t unbreakable, was it?” And this poor kid—you can imagine how he felt, standing before that large crowd and watching me ruin a watch I had promised to give to him.
I took a little key and pried the back off the watch and bent it. Then I pried tiny cogs and springs out of the watch—I dug out everything I could; Then I held the watch up and dropped it on the tile floor—ping, ping, ping. I then stomped on it. When I picked up the pieces, the watch was demolished—all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t have put it back together again.
I picked up pieces of the watch from the floor and the pulpit. I said, “You know, I have always wanted to play with a watch. It wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.” I dumped the shattered bits and pieces of the watch into his side jacket pocket and said, “Okay, I told you I would give you the watch. I have given you the watch. Thanks, Son, go on back and sit down.”
His Father Came Forward!
Now folks, when I had been thinking about this, it seemed real smart to me. But now I wondered how I could have been so cruel to the boy. It had been both heartless and stupid. And the congregation felt the same way. I doubt that I have been in any congregation in my life where they were so angry with me.
Now I know crowds. Preaching is my life. I know crowds. I don’t know many things but I do know people. And if ever in my life I have seen a tailor-made lynch mob that was it. At first everybody was shocked and quiet. Then there began to be a murmur all over the auditorium. I looked around and everybody was looking up at me in surprise or anger—or both. I looked up in the balcony and saw only angry faces. I looked around at the pastor—he had his elbows on his knees, face in his hands!
I realized I had gone entirely too far, I had embarrassed the kid to death, and I was trying to think how best to get out of it when I heard screaming. Away back yonder in that little alcove thing (there were no aisles back in the lobby of the auditorium—they just had chairs packed everywhere) I heard women screaming and men yelling. “Old Big Mouth,” this kid’s dad, was stepping over people, just walking end lunging over laps and chairs. I had not given the invitation but he was dead sure coming forward!
As he bulldozed his way. forward he was using every four letter word I ever heard in my life. It was awful! Yelling out in that hushed crowd—everybody could hear him and with women screaming and men yelling, the entire congregation was suddenly in an uproar.
The man with the dirty mouth crashed through the lobby, upsetting chairs and people and got to the beginning of the regular aisle. Two ushers got to him and tackled him and they fell on the floor!
Now imagine that man screaming, cussing, using nasty, dirty, obscene, blasphemous talk—with two ushers trying to hold him down!
More ushers came and all of them sat on him and held his flailing arms and legs but they couldn’t shut his mouth. They picked him up to take him outside. He was kicking and screaming and telling what he was going to do to me. What’s worse, everybody in the house would like to have seen him do it! I didn’t have a friend in the place.
The only man who said anything that sounded friendly to me was one usher; he kept yelling, “Wait, git’im after church, git’im after church!” And believe it or not, even that sounded comforting to me!
They picked him up, still fighting and yelling obscenities, People got up and scrambled out of the way. The ushers carried him out the door. They didn’t carry him far enough away; we could still hear him outside screaming, yelling and cussing a blue streak.
Man alive!
I didn’t know what in the world to do. After I got into this silly thing, I knew it was going to be bad, but I never dreamed of anything like this. I began to pound the pulpit and yell, “H-E-Y-Y-Y-Y, EVERYBODY SHUT UP! EVERYBODY, HOLD IT! WAIT A MINUTE!”
“Look,” I said, “you are angry with me. I have embarrassed the boy. I promised him something and I double-crossed him. You are angry. You would like to see that man, as vulgar obscene, filthy as he is, drag me off this platform. You would have liked to see him come forward to beat me up. But. . . WAIT A MINUTE.
“How many of you have been telling God,’Lord, someday I’ll give You my heart, I’ll give you my life; I am going to be saved; I will give myself to You. But I am not ready yet’?
“How many of you have said, ‘I’m going to play first. As soon as I am satiated with booze, as soon as I am tired of adultery, as soon as I am finished with sin, as soon as I have had enough. . . .
“After you have played the fool with your life and it is no good to you, no good to God, no good to your family, no good to anybody. then you expect to turn and say, ‘Now, God, I’ll give myself to You.’
“You sorry hypocrite! Do you believe you will fool God? Don’t you think God knows what is in your heart? Before you get too angry with me because I double crossed a boy scout, look at yourself. You Christians who are going to tithe, you who are going to pray, you who are going to study the Bible. . . when you get around to it! In the meantime, you waste and ruin your years in idleness and uselessness.”
The Golden Wrist Watch
I turned to the boy and said, “Come on back around here. I am sorry. I wan to make it up to you.” He wouldn’t come. “Come on, Son.” But the boy was hurt and angry and just sat there.
The head scoutmaster turned to the boy and said, “I really think you ought to come and give Brother Rice a chance to make things right with you,” and he talked the boy into it. The boy was still sullen and angry and he had a right to be. He came on back around to the pulpit and about that time some ushers came in holding the father who had promised to behave until after church.
The boy came back and I said, “Son, you are angry with me, and I don’t blame you. I mistreated you. I really didn’t know it would be this bad. I hope you will believe me when I say I am sincerely sorry. I apologize. I am so sorry I have embarrassed you before a great crowd of people and your friends. I am going to try to make it up to you.”
I put my hand in his pocket, turned it wrong side out and spilled Pieces of watch all over the platform. I reached back in the pulpit and took out another package about two inches wide and about eight inches long. I unwrapped it and there was a beautiful golden wrist watch. It was prettier than mine—a beautiful watch and a fairly expensive one. I said, “Scout, this is no joke and this is no trick. This is a watch I am going to give you, a nice Bulova.” Boy, he brightened up and said, “Do you mean it?” And I said, “I’m not kidding you this time.” I wound it and set it and snapped it over his wrist—a beautiful
watch.
I said, “Son, forgive me, will you?” And he said, “Yes, Sir! Boy! Thanks!”
And I said, “Wait a minute.” I said, “Now a moment ago I wrecked and ruined a watch but there was no fun to it.” (My hand was still bleeding.) “I didn’t get any kick out of it. I ruined the watch. Nobody can use it now. But,” I said, ”Son, many a man’s life is just like that. He says, ‘I’m going to play with my life and after I get through playing with it then I will give it to God.’ But that’s a foolish and wicked thing to do with a life. It will be wrecked and ruined and destroyed. Nobody can use it!
“Now, I have given you a good wrist watch. It is a golden watch. Now look, Scout, every time you look at that watch on your wrist I want you to remember that broken watch and I want you to remember that if tonight you will give your heart and life to Jesus Christ your life will be a gold one. Your life in Christ will be good for you, it will be good for God, it will be good for your family, it will be good for everybody who knows you. Your life will be golden, Son, if you will give it to Jesus Christ!’‘
He said, “Yes, Sir.”
I said, “Well, right now, while you stand here, the best you know in your heart will you turn to Christ and trust Him to save you and forgive you?”
And looking up in my face he said, “Yes. Dr. Bill, I will.”
We shook hands. I told him, “God bless You.” and slapped him on the back and said, “Okay, thank you, Scout. When I give an invitation, you come forward—okay?”
“Yes, Sir,” he said.
And he did. He came at once. Other boy scouts came. People began coming out of the balconies and from the auditorium. And I heard a big racket back in the back. It was ole Loudmouth again! Everything this fellow did he did it loud and that old boy came down the aisle just bawling and talking to himself. At least he wasn’t cussing! He came down the aisle, to where his son was kneeling with a personal worker, grabbed his boy, yanked him up, hugged him and said, “Are you going to get religion?” And the boy said, “Yes, Sir.” He was crying and the dad was crying and the father said, “Me, too!”
—Dr. Bill Rice, Felix Waited, Sword of the Lord, 6/6/75
