God's Way For Planning For Tomorrow
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Introduction
Planning and making decisions for the future are important skills you have to learn. Some of you are good at planning, but some of you may not be good at planning.
Next week, Canadians have an important decision to make as to which political party to vote for.
We may have already made plans for the rest of the day, which may include going out for lunch and taking our afternoon naps.
Who knows, some of you may have plans to go home and do homework this afternoon.
But, there are some important planning and decisions to make.
Some of you may have plans to get an honour roll this term.
Some of you may have plans to get healthier.
Some of you may have plans to make new friends at school.
Some of you may have plans to try new things that you have never done before.
For me…I have plans to go on vacation with my family.
I have plans to do further doctrinal studies (e.g. Master of Theology and Ph.D)
Wisdom In Planning
It is almost not possible to have the desire to do something or have something happen without plans.
For instance, going on a youth retreat requires a lot of planning. Let me just give you a snippet of what happens behind the scene:
Talking to Jeremy and planning activities.
Draft up a registration package with the price on it.
Find reasonably priced tickets
Plan a roundtrip for the bus ride.
Make reservations for the ferry.
Recruiting volunteer drivers from our church
Design the booklets. Adding content and print them
Packing list.
Planning games and preparing equipments.
What I just described barely got into the little details of the planning. But, all this to say is that making plans is wise.
All this to say is that making plans is wise.
It is almost not possible to have the desire to do something or have something happen without planning.
As you mature, you will slowly realize that wanting something to happen does not work. For instance,
The Bible tells us that a wise person plans:
All this to say is that making plans is wise.
5 The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.
Jesus tells us to make plans to follow Him because there is a cost:
31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Luke 14:27-
Exposition
However, we must have a bigger perspective when it comes to planning our lives. Before we get into our passage in James, I want to talk about God in relationship with planning.
1. We Acknowledge Who God Is When Planning
a. The Sovereignty of God
The Bible is clear that God is sovereign. What do I mean by the sovereignty of God?
The Bible is clear that God is sovereign.
The Sovereignty of God means that “All things are under God's rule and control, and that nothing happens without His direction or permission.”
God is sovereign in a sense that He is free to do all He wills and is able to whatever He wills. As we are talking about planning for “tomorrow” or the future, we must remember this next point......
b. Human Plans Are Subject To God’s Will
1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. 3 Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Every plan that people make, whether if it’s for good or if it is for evil, is ultimately under the sovereignty of God’s will. If God permits those plans to happen, then He will do so. If God does not permit those plans to happen, then He will stop it.
12 He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.
:
Having those ideas about God in relation with planning at the forefront of your mind, we can proceed to reading . READ.
BIG IDEA: Since God is sovereign, we should have a biblical attitude to planning.
What do I mean by biblical attitude? What I mean is your conduct or your lifestyle or your behaviour towards planning should reflect on what the Bible teaches us. If there are lessons we can learn about planning in the Bible, then we are to learn them and apply them in our lives.
BIG IDEA: Since God is sovereign, we should have a biblical view of planning.
2. Be humble in your planning.
James addresses some of the Christians who were businesspeople. Back in those days, they were called merchants. A merchant is a person who buys and sells merchandise in order to earn a profit and make a living. These people may be in the upper-class; they might be rich. Hence, in the beginning of chapter 5, James gives an indictment against the rich.
In verses 13-14a, James challenges and invites these people by saying “Come now, you who say.” The tone that James is giving to these people, “Look.” “Now Listen To Me.” It’s like parents giving a strict instruction or rebuke towards their children.
James is challenging and rebuking the people 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,” to consider what they’re doing.
Verse 13 is essentially telling us that these people made plans to travel, do business and earn money. But, James rebukes them in verse 14 that these people don’t even have a clue what the next day would look like.
If you only read verses 13-14, then it would make it sound like James is totally against people planning their lives. Also, it seems that James is outraged that these merchants are doing business and earning money. But, we learned that the Bible teaches that planning is very wise according to Proverbs. Making money is actually not bad…because we all need to work and earn our living. So, what seems to be the problem that James is addressing.
Read verse 16. READ.
The attitude was the issue with their planning. James explains that these merchants were prideful and arrogant. The root of the problem is in their arrogance. They were bragging and boasting about their planning.
James explains that these merchants were prideful and arrogant.
What does it mean that these people were boasting in their arrogance?
Arrogance could also be translated as “pretentious pride” meaning that these people are “constantly talking about how great they are.” These merchants were bragging about their future plans, as if they their plans will truly be fulfilled. They probably had so much confidence in becoming filthy rich from this business trip, come home, buy a place and live in luxury.
James says “all such boasting is evil.” He’s not saying, “all boasting is evil,” but he is specifically talking the kind of boasting that directs to their arrogance.
Why do I say that he’s not saying, “all boasting is evil?” In brief, there is a legitimate reasons to boast.
For instance, we can boast in God. We can take pride in God. We can take pride in the fact that we know God and have a relationship with Him.
23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
But, boasting in our arrogance is evil and sinful. You can think of sports game where one team brags about its strength and its high percentage of beating another team, only to know that at the end of the game, they were put to shame by the other team.
What can we learn here?
1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
Instead of bragging and placing our complete confidence in our plans, we need to be humble, which is a virtue that James has been talking about.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
3. Acknowledge God’s will in your planning.
3. Acknowledge God’s will in your planning.
Look at verse 14. READ.
These Christians were boasting in their arrogance because they put so much confidence in their plans that they left God out of the picture.
They think they have foresee what the future would definitely look like. I’m sure all of us have tried to imagine and daydream what our future would be or imagine the event that we planned to attend. But, what James is saying is putting too much confidence in your future planning.
For instance, I remember the day before my wedding, I kept imaging what the wedding day would look like.
People not only leave God out of their planning and for their future, they brag about their plans by saying in effect that they are independent and they are autonomous from God. This is the kind of attitude and lifestyle that does not acknowledge God’s existence.
Boasting is evil because it takes credit from God. God deserves all worship, glory and praise, but we can become glory-thieves by taking credit for ourselves.
And James is challenging the Christians to do is this…instead of bragging and saying what they said in verse 13, they ought to say as stated in verse 15, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
We need to practice this biblical language whenever we talk about planning, “if the Lord wills” or “Lord willing” I will do this or do that.
Lord willing, I will teach Sunday school next week. Lord willing, I will go on vacation next year. Lord willing, I will do well on this exam.
If the Lord wills, may He heal grandpa who is dying in the hospital. If the Lord wills, may God remove this cancer through the chemotherapy. If the Lord wills, may Jesus Christ come back tomorrow.
Paul often had that expression whenever he’s planning to travel:
Paul often had that expression whenever he’s planning to travel:
19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.
10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
This phrase should remind us that we are in submission under the sovereignty of God. God has supreme authority over our lives. It is the Lord who dictates if we will live and accomplish the plans.
4. Be mindful that not everything will happen according to your planning.
What am I trying to get at here with this point?
Look back at the end of verse 14. READ.
This might sound a bit depressing and cycnical, but hopefully this gives you a bigger perspective on life.
You need to know that although you may have made significant plans and decisions in life, you must remember that your life here on earth is temporary and fragile.
James is saying that we are a mist (or a smokey vapor) that only appears for a little time and then vanishes. Have you ever opened a cold can of pop? When you open it, you should be able to see a little bit of a vapor coming out of the opening of the can. You see the vapor for a second, but it disappears very quickly. James’ point is that that is out life. Our life here is like that mist.
Conclusion