Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

1) “Thinking we can go it alone.”

Analogy

A young couple purchased an old, run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving organic enterprise.

The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse was falling apart, and the fences were broken down.

The village vicar stopped by to bless the family’s work, saying, “May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams!”

A few months later, the preacher stops by again to call on the young farmers.

He couldn’t believe his eyes.

The farm house was completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there were plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields were filled with crops planted in neat rows.

“Amazing!” the preacher says.

“Look what God and you have accomplished together!”

“Yes, Vicar,” said the farmer’s wife, “but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone!”

2) Telephone Analogy

Difference between my sister and me and my friend in high school

3) Ministering to others through prayer and God’s leading

Henry & Nicky Wang- neighbors who were Buddist but now reads the Bible

Moses Chatla- Read newsletter portion

4) I love reading stories of how God leads and works things out.

My story of becoming pastor- crazy to me!

5) Correlation between James 4:11-12 and 13-16

James 4:11-12 addresses the issue of playing God in other’s lives.

Great points that Steve made last week.

Satan started to wage war on our hearts from the first time we came to Christ.

We must realize what our bitter selfish hearts do to others.

We sometimes enter spiritual famines in order to see how content we are in Christ.

The goal of prayer is to align our will, with God’s will.

(Matthew 6:10)

James 4:13-16 addresses the issue of playing God in our own lives.

And really the question could be summed up for today as “Who makes the plans?”

Think about this in your life as we go through this passage today

(SLIDE) Read James 4:13-17

Chuck Swindoll says we often box God in our lives, without thinking, like this:

We allow Him into our religious issues, the moral matters of our life, international conflicts that seem so great and even questions of faith.

BUT we stop there and neglect Him from our personal finances, relationships, we keep Him away from our business decisions and even our marriages or parenting, we definitely don’t give Him the small day to day decisions because we don’t want to burden Him.

By doing this, we become “Masters of our own destiny”.

(*Chuck Swindoll)

We can get a glimpse of what it is to play God in our lives by reading James 4:13:

Set your own schedule “Today or tomorrow...”

Select your own path “…we will go to such and such a city...”

Place your own limits “…and spend a year there...”

Arrange your own activities “…and engage in business…”

Predict your own outcome “…and make a profit...”

Now there is nothing wrong with planning ahead or organization.

The issue is that we (like James’ audience) neglect to include or consult the Lord first with our plans.

We don’t take the time to listen to Him before we listen to ourselves.

James is addressing an audience that is well familiar with a culture that is out to make a quick buck.

-Traders and merchants

-New cities being discovered in Europe and North Africa.

-Founders of cities wanted jews to be citizens because prosperity naturally followed the Jewish people.

James 4:13-14 reminds me of...

He may have very well been thinking about Jesus’ words in the back of his mind.

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.

Comes into us at midnight very clean.

It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.

It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”

-John Wayne

Matthew 6:33 reminds us that we should not worry so much about tomorrow because we’ve got enough worries but the most important thing to do is “Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness.”

I love this thought, do you know why?

Because when we’re seeking His righteousness, we don’t seek the world’s view of corrupt righteousness, or even our own.

When we’re not seeking God’s kingdom first it looks like this:

A church board or leadership meets and debates for 2-3 hours and never opened in prayer.

At the conclusion there is a quick, short often shallow prayer and the meeting is adjourned.

This is sadly very common in many churches today!

I am so beyond blessed to serve along a church board where they realize that they can’t get any business done period without first consulting God for His agenda and will.

I want to reassure you that this church board prays and we also pray for all of you.

But like that church board who doesn’t consult God first, we can often go day to day without even asking for God to lead us in our lives.

When we do this, we are not seeking God’s kingdom or righteousness- we are seeking our own.

James is saying we shouldn’t only consult God for His foreknowledge in our lives but most importantly, life is uncertain itself!

We command nothing into existence, only God does.

Life is brief, but God is eternal.

Henry Jacobsen an author who I’ve enjoyed reading through this study on James says it this way:

“Oftentimes we pray first, God will confirm our plans with a quiet conviction about the course of action that you should follow, and additionally He would confirm, it through circumstances that develop.”

Jacobsen goes on to say that “we are responsible to the convictions God puts in our hearts, they will align with Scripture.

Tell the story of how I got into ministry and where I’m at today.

What I’ve discovered and what James is reiterating: life is short and it’s better to do what God is calling you to do than to go life living out your own plans.

Life may go okay, but living out God’s plans are so much more fruitful and filled with blessing.

When we live for material things, we need to realize they either don’t last or they outlast us and we can’t take them with us.

“Who makes the plans in your life right now?”

James follows verse 14 with this:

This is the complete opposite of what the culture is doing, during James and His audience’s time.

With new cities being discovered daily, most people are out trying to make a quick buck, not giving the Lord a thought.

Many Christians, some I have known over the years, are terrified about the future or the end times.

They live in fear and often make life decisions based on that fear, not on the Lord’s will.

We must commit all our our current and future plans before the Lord and submit our will to His.

When we don’t do this we live our lives for ourselves and James says this is arrogant and boasting.

In fact he goes on to say more vividly:

So basically, as believers, if we are not submitting our plans to the Lord first, we are sinning.

Period.

To go further... it’s a sin when we do what we shouldn’t and it’s a sin when we don’t do what we should.

I love the advice that Swindoll gives us on how to stop playing God:

Know the right thing to do.

Start doing the right thing.

It’s not a hidden code, it’s cut and dry and simple for us to understand.

Know the right thing to do and do it!

The first right thing to do is what we talked about at family camp this year.

We must stay connected to the vine.

If we are distant from Jesus and not spending time with Him than you can bet that we will be keeping our plans from the Lord.

Or maybe worse, not even acknowledging He’s there.

If we are NOT submitting to God’s will, as Steve taught last week, we can be confident that we WILL go down a path that leads to destruction and chaos.

Here are a few questions that we can look at to evaluate our current situation: