Waiting and Working (James 4:13-5:12)

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Hey, good morning. Yeah, I’m Jake. I’m the Director of Student ministries here. Please open your Bibles to James four. I’m starting verse 13. That’s page 979, of you pew Bibles. And because I’m the Director of Student ministries here, I want to make sure the students are paying attention. So if you’re one of the students here, you find me after the service. You tell me something you learned, something you are going to do differently, or something that you have a question still about, that’s great, too. I have some Jolly Ranchers with your name on it, and if you’re hearing your kid at heart, we can figure something out. Come find the service, and we’ll make a deal. But have you ever had just one of those days? You know, I’m talking about, where everything just seems to go wrong, and everything that can go wrong does go wrong. I had one of those when I was a freshman in college. So I was freshman at my Bible college, I was playing basketball, and my front right tooth got dislocated while I was playing basketball, so it’s supposed to look like this. It was like that in my mouth. Not good. And so I had to, as an 18 year old, I had to schedule my own emergency dentist appointment. That did not go well. The next morning, I went to the dentist, and they canceled on me as I’m walking out the door. And so things are not going well, and so I do. I probably should know in the first place. I called my mom and yeah, and she scheduled an appointment for me in Chinatown. Long story. So I left to go to Chinatown. I get fixed up. I’m in Chinatown, but I mess up my prescription for my pain meds. My mouth hurts a lot, and so I’m stuck in Chinatown waiting for my pain meds to get done, because I never got my prescription for so at this point I’m in Chinatown, I’m kind of annoyed. I’m like, God, what are you doing here? Why is nothing going right? Why is this one thing after other? I get my tooth knocked out, my dentist cancels I mess up my prescription. Nothing was going right. It was just one of those days. And maybe you’re here today, and you’ve had one of those days too, you’re coming in. This is just one of those days. Or maybe it’s just one of those weeks or months, or even just one of those years, there’s nothing seems to go right, and everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and that kind of leads the question, like, God, what are you doing here? I’m not getting things that I want. These aren’t wrong things to want. Like, what? What’s happening here? Why is this happening? And it is a good question, why doesn’t God give us everything we want? Well, the book of James we look at today actually helps us understand that what God wants for us is better than what we want for ourselves. That’s actually my big idea today, is God wants better for you than you want for yourself. And the second half of that is wait and work for what God wants. And that does by the question like, well, what does God want for me, and why is it better than what I want for ourself? Great question. Let’s dig in before we get into the book of James. Just want to give a little bit of context where we’re at. So James is writing to first century Christians who were definitely having one of those days, like they were losing friends, jobs, their lives, just for being Christians. So he’s writing over there that are definitely asking this question, like, God, what are you doing here? What is happening? Why am I not getting what I want? I just want to be alive. And so James is writing exactly to that question. So we’re starting verse 413, now listen, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that, as it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. So James starts this passage by telling us what something that we want instead of what God wants for that. And it is we want plans. We want plans. And verse 13 kind of lays it out pretty clearly. Look, it says, Today or tomorrow, we will go out to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. What is that sentence? It’s a plan, right? It’s a plan. It’s what someone wants to do. They’re outlining that. And we all want a plan, don’t we? I think I talked to a lot of high schoolers, and they feel so much pressure to have a plan. They need to know what school they’re gonna go to, what career they’re gonna pursue, who they’re gonna date and marry, they feel like they need to have their entire life figured out, or they’re behind the curve. And yeah, maybe not all of us are making college choices soon, but I think we kind of feel that pressure, right? If we don’t have, like, a 10 year, a five year, a one year plan. We’re behind the curve, and we don’t have that security blanket. And that’s what plans offer us. That’s why I want them. They offer security don’t they, because what’s the point of this plan in verse 13? What’s the end result of it to make money? Right? So a good plan leads to good profits, which. Leads to security, and so that’s why we want plans, because they help us feel secure. But there’s a problem with plans, isn’t there? And James points it out very clearly. 14 says, Why do you not even know what’s going to happen tomorrow? Plans aren’t reliable because they’re subject to change really fast. It’s not something you can’t make a one year plan if you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or even in the next hour. And that’s part of the reason that James calls us a mist in verse 14, that we there’s no security in our plans. They’re subject to change really fast. It kind of reminds me of this video I saw the other day. It’s of this raccoon, and a fun fact about raccoons is that if you give them food, they will wash it in water. It’s really cute. So this guy, he feeds this raccoon, he hands him some cotton candy. You see where it’s going. So the raccoon, he’s all excited. He has cotton candy, and he goes to wash it, and then his shoulders droop as it melts in his hands. He’s like, Where’d it go? It’s kind of it’s kind of sad actually. It’s like, I’ll just give him some cotton candy. You of candy. But like, don’t we kind of resemble like that a lot? If we have our plan, it’s perfect. We polish it like this is gonna happen exactly I wanted to all sudden. It’s just, it’s just gone something changed. We get, like, a phone call that changes everything. Just even someone tells us some bad news or just an accident. And everything that we planned out, our shiny plan is just it melts in our hands because we don’t know what’s tomorrow is going to bring. I think it was spring break, 2020, a lot of high schoolers went to bed just planning on going to the high school next week. The parents did too, and that then tomorrow came. That didn’t happen. We don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. That’s why our plans this melt like cotton candy and water. There’s no security in them. Now is James saying it’s bad to make any plans? No, I don’t believe so. Why? Because he offers a different plan. Look, look at verse 15. It says, instead, you ought to say so he’s saying there. Never say that. He’s offering a different thing to say. So it’s a different plan. And his new plan is, if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. So James isn’t saying that making plans is a problem. It’s making plans that don’t acknowledge God. That’s the problem. James is pointing out, because what’s the difference between the verse in 13 and verse 15? How do they start? 13 starts, we will. 15 starts, if the Lord wills, that’s the difference. We will. Plans are unreliable. If the Lord will, plans are not because the Lord knows what happens tomorrow and we don’t, and we see these we will plans a lot. I mean, it’s January, we made a lot of we will plans recently, right? Like we will lose weight this year. We will be better worth our money. We will spend more time with family. Those aren’t wrong things to plan, but they’re not reliable. They’re not trustworthy. And so one thing we need to do, instead of wanting plans, we need to want if the Lord will plans, not we will plans this year. That does beg the question, like, Okay, how do you do that? How do you make if the Lord will plan? Well, the first kind of, it seems like obvious, but have you asked the Lord what his plan for your life is, or have you like, even consider like, Hey, what are you having for me right now? God, so this year, instead of making we will plans. Ask like, God, what do you want me to do this year, this month today? But also, you can learn just what God’s plan is, generally, for people’s lives. And you can learn that through the word of God. He isn’t really hiding his plan from us. He’s made it very clear in plain what He wants us to do with our lives. And he’s also offered a lot of means to access this and to have this explained to you, like even what we’re doing right now that we’re sitting at church, so going to church, taking advantage of all the things that are offered at church. We have community groups, we talk about sermons. We have explored them out explore our Bible classes, where we explain all different stuff, and we have just Christians that have lived out more of God’s plan for their lives than than I have, for sure. I’m just a young guy, and so God has placed people around us to find out what the Lord’s plan is for life. He’s not hiding it from you, so just ask and take advantage of what he’s placed around you. Give up and chasing. We will plans and Chase, if the Lord will plans this year. But again, why do we make plans? Right? Well, remember we say in verse 13, the end result of the plan was to make money. So we want plans. We want plans that lead to prophets.
And James knows that, which is why he goes on to say, the dangers of wanting prophets. So that’s let’s go in verse chapter five. Excuse me, chapter five. Verse one says, Now listen, you rich people weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes, your. Gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look the wages you failed to pay. The workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of your harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence, you fatten yourselves in the day of slaughter, you have condemned and murdered the innocent one who was not opposing you. So the second thing that James points out that we want, instead of what God wants for us, is prophets. We want prophets. And I really don’t think I have to work too hard to convince anybody of that. I think if I just had a $20 bill and said, Do you want this? Everyone would say, yes. I know I would. But the better question is not why want profit, is why we want profits. Excuse me, I misspoke. Why do we want money? What does money get us? I think James says it, well, well, he points out in verse five, you’ve lived your life in luxury and self indulgence. That’s why we want money to live the luxurious life and to indulge ourselves. That’s what money and profits gets us. So we kind of see the process James is talking us through. So we want plans. We want plans that lead the prophets, because prophets lead the prosperity, but the dangerous thing about prophets is they can corrupt those who chase after them. The desire for prosperity can actually lead to a dangerous mindset of prophets over people. That’s what you see in these verses. Look. Verse four says, The wages you failed to the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. In verse six, you have condemned and murdered the innocent one who is not opposing you. So in both of those cases, the wealthy who James is talking to in his day, they love their money more than love the people around them. And we see that through all human history, don’t we think about all the countless wars that were fought over land, oil, or even just power, and all the people who lost their lives because of those wars that were caught in the crossfire. Think about the pornography industry, one of the most profitable businesses ever, which has put a price tag on people’s behavior and is pressuring those same people into degrading themselves more and more to make a bigger and bigger profit. And probably one of, if not the most egregious examples of this was the slave trade, where, not only we’re making putting profits over people, we’re putting selling people for a profit. We were putting a price tag on a person. And those are extreme examples, but I don’t think that means that prophets don’t have a significant power in our lives, right? Like I would be shocked if someone was selling slaves in here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had a money fight with their spouse. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had, like, their kid broke something, or their roommate broke something and cost them some extra money and like, it kind of made their heart like, a little bit, or maybe your boss doesn’t give me that promotion that you deserve, and it kind of makes your heart a little angry inside. Profits are powerful, and it’s very easy to place profits over people in your life, no matter how much money you’re making. And we need some profits. I’m not denying that we have to pay bills, we have to buy groceries, we have to put food on table, like that. We need some profits, but they are so dangerous and it’s so easy to be corrupted by them. And the nice thing is that God actually built in a way to protect ourselves from the power of Prophets. Now you just to get rid of them, like the Lord advocates for a frugal and generous lifestyle that helps minimize the power profits by getting them as far away from as possible and giving the other people. And so I say like, instead of wanting profits, Live generously bless other people, actually you’ll bless yourself. So be generous. Bosses pay fair wages. Employees work hard. In those conversations about money, try and consider the other person over the money while you’re talking about it, if your kid breaks something, you can chew em out a little bit, but show some grace. And so we want plans, but we want plans that lead the prophets. Because those plans and prophets, they seem to lead the prosperity and security, but they’re not stable. They can change easily, and they are rotting, but also they can make us rotten. So James warns with the dangers of wanting plans and profits, and thankfully, he doesn’t just do that. He also tells us what God wants for us instead and offers a better path forward. It. And so that starts in verse seven. So please read with me. Be patient then brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming, see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door, brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering. Take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Joe’s perseverance and have seen the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy above all my brothers and sisters. Do not swear by not by Heaven or by earth, by anything else. All you need to say is a simple yes or no, otherwise you will be condemned. And at first glance, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? We’re just talking about plans and money. Where does patience come to picture? Why is why is that happening now? But it makes a lot of sense, and we’ll explain that a little bit. But the first question I answer is, what are we waiting for? What are we being patient for? Verse seven answers that question right away. Be patient then until the Lord’s coming. That’s what James is telling us, that God wants His people to wait for, is for the Lord’s coming, for Jesus to come back, and so he actually gives us a few like things to remember as we’re waiting. So not only does God give us a command here, he actually tells us how he wants it to look like. And so one of the first things to note, one of the first details to note about this is be patient together. The Christian life is not done alone. And look, look who James is talking to. Look at verse seven and nine and 10 and 11 and 12. What phrase keeps popping up, brothers and sisters. James is speaking to the family of God. He’s speaking to those who are waiting as a family of God for him to return. So that’s the first thing to note, is that the Christian life, you don’t wait for Jesus alone. So don’t do it alone. Wait together. And a really easy way to do that, come back next week. Seriously, like Pastor Brandon, we’re starting a new series with Revelation. Next week, we’re gonna be learning about the return of Jesus and what it’s going to look like, and so a really easy way to do what James is telling us to do right now, just come back next week and listen to what we’re going to say to what the Word of God says about the Lord’s return. So don’t wait alone, because you’re not waiting alone. But the fact that we don’t wait alone may actually be a problem for some of us. I know I had a much higher tolerance on road trips when it was just me in the back seat. Verse When I was crammed to my little brother and my little sister, a lot more fights happen the second one and so people test our patience, right? People can hurt and offend us and even just annoy us. But verse nine offers a different encouragement and challenge. Look at verse nine. It says, don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you’ll be judged. So God is asking his family to treat their family in a different way that comes naturally, to not complain and be patient for each other, because we’re all waiting for the same thing. We’re all waiting for the Lord to come back. So we had to show the same grace to each other that we were shown. So be patient with your brothers and sisters, because we don’t know how long the trip is going to be, but we know who we’re traveling with. So be patient with each other as well. But the kind of last detail that James points out is to be patient through pain. And that’s hard to say because I know in a room this size, there’s definitely some pain sitting here. At first I’ll say, I’m sorry. That’s hard. And the thing that pain makes us think about immediately the first question is, how long is it gonna last? How long is gonna keep hurting? When is it gonna be over?
And so James actually points to probably one of the most famous examples of wading through pain ever, or at least in the Bible. He points to the example of job. And if you don’t know, Job was a man in the Bible, and he lost everything he had one of those days, for sure. He lost his kids. They all died. He lost his his prophets, his his fields and his flocks. They all were carried away by enemy nations. All that he was left with was boils and sickness all over his body, and it led him to ask God, what is going. John, why are you? Why is this happening? How long is this going to keep hurting? And the craziest part of that story is that God answered him, but he answered a different question. Job asked, why, and God told him who? God did not tell job, why? But he said, I am good, and that was enough for job. Because look at we Caitlin read Job’s response, but verse three is so important. Job said, Surely I spoke of things that did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. We do that a lot, don’t we? I mean, we understand plans and profits that makes sense to us. That’s why we want them. We don’t want pain and being patient through pain, we don’t want that doesn’t make sense to us, but painful patience on God is better than wanting plans and prophets, and maybe you’re something like Jake that could just not possibly be true. How is that even remotely true? Well, what do plans and prophets rely on? Performance? Right? We only those things are only valuable if they go perfectly, and if everything runs well, if you perform your plan well, then you will get successful profits. But the problem with that is, as we’ve already talked about, no plan is going to go perfect, and profits, they’re going to fade, and not even that, they’re going to corrupt you as well. That’s part of the reason that Muhammad Ali said, everyone has a plan that they get punched in the mouth every plan is going to get punched at some point. It’s just a fact about life. But that’s where waiting patiently on God is is different. They don’t depend upon us on how well we do. Them depends on God and the promise maker, he’s said that Jesus coming back. And shouldn’t that be easier for us to trust after Jesus came the first time? Because there was a point in the history for the Family God where people weren’t sure that first time was going to happen. So shouldn’t it be like easier to wait for Jesus to come back on the other side of Christmas, and that’s where the image of the farmer is so important. Look at verse seven, the farmer. What is he waiting for? The rains and the harvest? Right? You see it. Does he control either of those things? No. The farmer is waiting for things that he can’t control, and so too is the Christian. The Christian is waiting on Jesus to come back, and he can’t control that. We can’t control what we’re waiting for. We can control who we’re waiting on, but God’s plan is just different in ours, because we want to avoid getting punched in the mouth, but God’s plan actually accounts for that. God’s plan expects to get punished in the mouth. It’s something to not be avoided, but redeemed in God’s plan. Look at verse 11. You know, we count those as blessed who persevere, getting punched in the mouth and not given up waiting patiently is actually mark. She was blessed in the family of God. So wanting patience, even painful patience, is better than wanting prophets and plans, because plans and prophets, they depend on our performance and crumble in the face of problems, but patience, even painful patience, depends on the promises of God and accounts for the punches life throws at it. And so maybe you’re sitting there and wondering, okay, like, you’ve said a lot of great things, but like, what do I do now? I don’t understand what you’re asking to do. Jake, what does it look like to live patiently? And James actually lays it out very clearly for us. Look at verse 12. All you need to say is a simple yes or no. Patience on God. Patience waiting on God is simply saying yes or no daily to the choices that he puts before you. You’re saying yes to God’s plan and no to your plan. I want plans and prophets, but I want to want you more today, God, I’m going to say yes to you and no to myself today. And the more you do that, the easier you it gets. Isn’t that what sanctification is? It’s just saying yes and yes to God’s plan more and more often, and know to know your plan more and more often. That’s what it means to die to your selfish desires. So what God wants is better than what we want. God wants for you better for you than you want for yourself. And maybe you’re here and you’re hearing God’s. Man, for the first time we’ve heard of a few times you’re still hesitant. You’re like, I don’t know my plan seems to make more sense to me. I’m just going to tell you I truly believe in God’s Word says that God’s plan for you and wants for you are better than anything you could come up with, because our plans and our prophets, they sometime lead to prosperity, but always they lead to sin and to death. But God’s plan led to death. That led to life. God’s plan was to send his son, who was perfect, to die for us to be resurrected, so that we could have promised life our land, our plans lead the painful death. God’s plan leads the promised life. So choose the better plan, please. So back to my story. So when you’re having just one of those days, nothing’s going right, and you’re just kind of grumpy. What do you do? You get food. So, so I’m in Chinatown, I’m a tourist. I’m walking around, and I go get sushi, and I’m grumpy. I’m waiting for sushi. And this guy starts talking to me. I’m grumpy. He’s asking me questions. He finds I’m a Christian. I go to Bible school. I’m grumpy. And then he asked me a question, like, Hey, you’re a Christian there, right? And so then that moment, God was presenting a yes or no opportunity for me. He was saying, Are you gonna say yes to where I put you here today, Jake, are you gonna say no and wait for your sushi? Be grumpy. And so me and this guy were talking, and he asked, like, I just don’t understand the Trinity at all. Can you explain it to me? And in my mind was shattered, because when I got called out to go take an Uber to Chinatown. I left a class early, and the class that I left was a class talking about the Trinity. And so I had notes in my backpack, and so I asked, Can I share my notes with you? And so we talked for like 15 minutes, and I went over my notes with him, and I prayed with him, I got his phone number, and at that moment, I was like, Man, I just wanted to play basketball yesterday, but what God wanted for me was just so much better. And I told that guy’s like, dude, so many things had to go wrong for me to get right here in this sushi shop. But I think God wanted me to be here to talk to you, and so that’s all it is to wait on the Lord. It’s saying yes or no whenever he placed stuff before you. So keep up chasing your plans. God wants better for you than you want for yourself, waiting work for what he wants. Say no to your plans and yes to his, because it’s just infinitely better than anything we could possibly come up with. Let’s pray Jesus, thank You that You came down and offered us a way to have life with you. I’m sorry that sometimes we want things that are not as good for us, that we want plans that don’t involve you. We want prophets that corrupt our hearts. Sometimes, I pray that You would help us grow in a desire and a wanting for patience on you, because we know we’re waiting on the only thing that could ever mean anything. And I pray that we, as we go from here, we would be come more and more like you, and we become more likely to say yes to your plan and no to our own. And is it just a simple yes or no, even in the face of pain, no matter what punches life throws us that we would keep on saying yes, because we know in the end, we don’t understand what’s happening all the time, there are things too wonderful for us to understand coming around the corner. And I pray that you would just really speak to us this moment and move our hearts and minds and hands to act. And I just pray that we would follow you Lord, and that we would wait for what else is coming down the road, because we know that what you want for us is just so much better than what we want for ourselves. I pray this in Your perfect name, Jesus, Amen.