Untitled Sermon

also i forgot to mention and you can leave the tape running devon and that's okay that's we don't take a formal offering here at calvary so there's not a plate going to run down your aisle here in a minute we have agape boxes around the sanctuary we do believe in worshiping god with our tithes and offerings it's a part of our worship that honors him and so if you want to worship with us in that way you can do that on your own also on your bulletin there's a bulletin flap and we'd like to know that you are here especially the new believers uh the the rededications and all just let us know why wham will be sending us information on that but we'd like to know as

well so just fill out the flap if you would if you have any prayer requests or questions you can fill those out on that bulletin flap and just drop it in the box along with your tithes and offerings and that will take care of that turn with me if you would to james chapter 4 james chapter 4 first service didn't take all the bibles hopefully there's a bible or two left in the in the pews if you don't have a bible i want you to have one so find a bible and uh and get one if you if you would so you can follow along as we read turn to james james is toward the back of your bible toward the book of revelation if you get revelation just come back to the left a little bit and you run into james

chapter 4 and we're going to look at verses 11 through 17 we're going to continue looking at those verses we'll continue looking at them again the next time we get together as well because this is a powerful area dealing with god's will and learning to release our hold on the things of the world and and james has much to say here so we want to we want to digest as much as possible follow along as i begin reading in james chapter 4 at verse 11 james says brothers do not slander one another anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it when you judge the law you're not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it there's only one lawgiver and

judge the one who is able to save and destroy but you who are you to judge your neighbor now listen you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this and we will go to the next and we will go to the or to that city and spend a year there and carry on business and make money well 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 and brag and all such boasting is evil anyone then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it sins we uh this morning as we start this morning we're going to be talking about

this section i want you to think about your view of god how do you perceive god and his sovereign ability in the world what kind of a concept do you have of god's sovereignty in the world in other words how active do you see god in the affairs of life in your life how active do you see him or how distanced how far away does god seem in your life today see if there's one thing that we need to realize as christians is that we need to realize that we need to realize that we need to that god is sovereign that means that he is absolute power he's an absolute total control there's nothing that exists outside of god's control there's nothing that is greater than god in power or authority god is sovereign and he rules everything from creation to the created

that are created in his image we are subject to his sovereignty and as we understand that it helps us in dealing with the rest of life it's as we forget that or neglect that that we run into problems that we run into trouble now almighty sovereign god has been separated from man by man's choice through sin through disobedience in the garden of eden but sovereign god knew that would happen and before he created the world before time was created somehow in a way that's mysterious to us that we don't understand he already provided for that in the sacrifice of his son i don't understand that it's just what the bible says that jesus christ was slain for our sins from before the foundations of the world now we realized it when he stepped

out of eternity into time some two thousand years ago and literally physically in a human body went to the cross and died for our sins and was raised again for our sin but somehow sovereign god not only perceived that and saw it but it actually took place before the world and that's what we're talking about before the world before the world was before he created that that blows my mind but that's what god did because he's sovereign that's how much he loves you and wants to provide for you a way back into fellowship with him now what the enemy seeks to do is lessen that view of god in your eyes he seeks to cheapen god into some judge who is dictatorial who is uncaring who has no consideration for you at all and even is distance

from you and doesn't have time for you really he's got a universe to run that's from the enemy and so i want to start this morning with a quote that i've used before i know i have i couldn't find it in my notes but when i read it this week i thought that is it blessed me so much but i felt i've shared this before and then i you know had to talk about that's okay you can share it again that's all right i'm crying this is from aw tozer and it's from his book the knowledge of the holy and it's from a chapter in that book called why we must think rightly about god it's just a little paragraph and he writes perverted notions about god's soon rot the religion in which they appear the long career of israel demonstrates this clearly

enough and the history of the church confirms it so necessary to the church is a lofty concept of god that when that concept in any measure declines the church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it the first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high of god when god cannot when god doesn't seem to when god isn't really when our opinion and our concept of a lofty opinion of god declines then so does our morality then so does our walk we move into perversion we move into distrust of god we move into bondage again as believers as believers and see that again this is satan's ploy satan's ploy from the beginning of time has to get our

faith off of god and onto the onto the earth it's to diminish our concept of god it's to diminish our trust in god and it happened in the garden of eden when not only did he offer the fruit to eve but when eve said no we can't because in the day that we that we eat of it uh we shall surely die and then she added that and the day that we we're not even to eat it or to touch it now god didn't say don't touch it he said don't eat but satan said yea hath god said did god really mean that that's what satan was saying and from that point on you see satan has sought to diminish our opinion of god to diminish our concept a lofty concept of an exalted sovereign deity and it's been

that way down through history even as christians we can be deceived about who god is and what his will is for our lives satan gets us focused on the things of the world and keeps our eyes focused on the things of the world instead of on the things of god now as we come into james james chapter 4 is writing with the intent that a true believer a true believer several of you made a first-time commitment the other day several of you rededicated your lives this past week and in rededication you were saying i haven't been following you i've been following the things of the world i'm seeking to follow you now that's what you were saying in essence in rededication new believers you're

saying i've never followed you i want to follow you now james is telling us if that commitment is real if that commitment is true then it results in some changes in our lives that are noticeable that are evident there are certain things that will happen as a result of that commitment to christ as we come to chapter 4 chapter 4 tells us one of those evidences is that we will want to release our hold on the things of the world we want to release our hold on the things of the world when you first come to christ and it's a genuine coming you realize that this doesn't satisfy the world is not where i will find completeness the world is not where i will find purpose the world doesn't satisfy i'm coming to

you lord to find that fulfillment to find forgiveness to find fulfillment to see who you are now when you first come to christ we don't understand all of the stuff all the theology of everything we just know this doesn't work i'm coming to you and james is telling us if that's real then we find out more about him and that's in chapters one through three and the more we seek to know him the more we find out about him the more we let his spirit live in us then things change in my life and one of the things in chapter four is that i want to release my hold on the world we live here we were born here the world had and it's and its ideals and its system has a grip on us it's it's affected our thinking it's affected our ideas and our our concepts of life

our worldview i mean most of us have a worldview based on our ideas and our concepts of life our worldview i mean most of us have a worldview based on on abc nbc cbs microsoft network cnn that's our world concept if the market's going up and people got jobs we feel good if the market's coming down and people are at war we get scared and our entire life is based on a worldview that's worldly but as we come to christ we find a whole different worldview based on who he is and that works out in our lives and it will be evidenced in our lives now we don't go looking for it in other people's lives that's not why we have the word we look for it in our own life and then we look for other people to share with them about this life to

hopefully bring them to that point where they know him too that's that's what james is talking about that's what he's writing about it and in chapter four he's telling us that that one of the ways we we begin to release our hold on the world verses one through ten was by drawing near to god the more you and i draw near to god he draws near to us verses one through eight and the more that happens we are able to resist the devil stand in the array of god pick out you can pick up on the tapes we tape our services here they are free to you you can sign up on a share with us and we'll see you next time in the lobby if you want a copy of the tape if you missed that study you can go back and sign up for

for last week's tape and pick up on verses one through ten but the more we draw near to god we'll begin to release our hold on the world then as we come to verse 11 verses 11 through 17 he tells us another way that we release our hold on the world is by relying on his power by relying on the power of god and we saw last time that that power of god is the same power that raised jesus from the dead it's the same power that raised jesus from the dead it's the power that's available to every believer and it's the same power that raised jesus from the dead as it comes through the person of the holy spirit that every true believer is indwelt by the holy spirit and has that resurrection power available to him and it's not that you uh go like this and

little blue light comes out your fingers because you've got the power of god it's that we've been given the power of god we saw from the word last time to be obedient to his will to be obedient to the will of god just as jesus was obedient to the will of the father and went to the cross that was because of resurrection power the power of god that raised him from the dead yes ultimately raised him from the dead but took him through the cross the same way it took paul from this life to the next able to endure that messenger of satan that was sent to buffet him paul prayed to be removed god said my grace is sufficient paul is able to draw and rely on the power of god to get him through that particular time that's been

given to each one of us for whatever circumstances you're in and as we rely on that power we release our hold on the world we release our hold on the world now as we we do that we'll see um that we have an opportunity when since since the power of god's been given to us to obey his will james is telling us in these verses in verses 11 through 17 that we have one of three options where that's concerned you and i can ignore the will of god we can disobey the will of god which you say well what's the difference between ignoring it and disobeying it ignoring it is we just don't take it into consideration we don't want to take it into consideration before you came to christ you didn't want to take it into consideration you

wanted to blow off god and the things of god god's out there somewhere and he's going to blow off god everywhere and i'm here and if there really is a god then why does he do all these things and let all this stuff happen why doesn't he judge why doesn't he keep some of this stuff from happening so you blow off god and you just ignore what his will must be and you go ahead and try and plow through life on your own that's ignoring god's will disobeying god's will is it takes us into deeper trouble because in that particular circumstance you're probably a christian you've probably been raised in the church and have an idea from being in the word of god what some of his will is at least and you know in a particular circumstance you're in a

relationship with somebody and god's will is that there's no no sexual relationship that happens outside of marriage you know that you know that shouldn't happen but you choose to disobey that and go on anyhow in that particular area that's disobedience to god's will deeper trouble deeper chastening we'll talk about that later but then the third thing james says is we have the choice the opportunity to obey his will and there's blessing that results as a result of that of being obedient to the will of god and we'll talk about that next time not next week because next week will be you know false but the week after that we'll be back back here in james this morning i want us to look at

just the first part of that the first the first phase of dealing here with god's will and that's the idea of ignoring god's will look at verse 11 let's follow down to verse 14 he says brothers do not slander one another anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it when you judge the law you're not keeping it but sitting in judgment on it there's only one lawgiver and judge the one who's able to save and destroy but you who are you to judge your neighbor now if you get to that point in verse 13 and you have a study bible it's separated from verse 12 and you have a new heading right there in that paragraph great to study by lousy

when you're trying to read and think about this still holding in the same thought process is what james this is james is still writing the same thought process that he was in in verse 12 he didn't just stop there and go let's see i've told him about the kids and i've told him about the weather and now i think i can tell him about travel you know if you go somewhere and you're planning to go he's not doing he's not doing it he's not doing it he's not doing it he's not doing it continuing on with the same thought process so he's talking about not judging others speaking slanderously against others then he carries that right on into verse 13 we'll see how it ties

together in a minute 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're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes james is going to give us four reasons here in those verses it is foolish and we'll use modern vernacular stupid to ignore the will of god if you ignore the will of god here's your sign four reasons why we are really stupid to ignore the will of god the first one is in verses 11 through 13 and it's because of the complexity of life you're taking notes and you want to you want a heading for this the first reason it's foolish it's stupid to ignore

the will of god is because of the complexity of life life is complex it's amazing to try to get around in there's so many things that happen i mean my family ann and i moved here when lisa was five months old and one of the reasons we were trying to follow god because we thought he wanted us to go to california to bible school and god didn't he was shutting doors and moving us back here and we thought we'll come back here because it's a slower pace and we can avoid all the junk in the big cities well guess what it's here too and it's complex even in arc city to live to just get around day to day to make decisions about life and to live in a place where

you're not afraid of anything you're not afraid of anything you're not afraid of anything you're not afraid of anything conflicts and troubles and things that can really tear you down it's tough now james tells us in verses 11 through 13 that the main thing that we need to do in this complexity of life is literally to obey the law only he's not talking about specifically a group of laws i mean it's not like he's saying you know you need to write the ten commandments down a hundred times until you know them in order now that i mean i think it's something that as christians we should know most christians don't know the ten commandments if i were to ask you what are the ten commandments

most christians couldn't tell me what they are and yet it's god's law law, and we are to be obedient to his will, to what we know, and that's one of the things we're to obey, and yet most of us don't know it, so give us a sign. But it's not just that specifically, because you see, James has already talked about God's law. Turn back to chapter 2 for just a second. James chapter 2, flip back a page. I know it's been a long time since we've been in chapter

2, and you probably haven't read James for a while, so you've totally forgotten what James is about even, and especially chapter 2, but look down in verse 8. He says, if you really keep the royal law found in scripture, then he tells us what it is, love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing right. See, that's the royal law, James calls it. Jesus said it was the sum of all the law and the prophets. The sum of the law, of the commands of God, and everything that the prophets

had said was found in the royal law, which begins, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. That's, Jesus said, was the greatest of all the commandments, and it's the sum, it holds all the other commandments together. So when James over here in chapter 4 says that we violated the law of God, well, that's what he's talking about, and he's been talking in chapter 4 about relationships, and that we're at war with each other, we're having constant conflicts with each other, we're having war within ourselves, we don't like ourselves, we don't like the way we're doing, we don't like the way we look, we don't like the way we think, we don't like the way we act,

and ultimately he says it's because you're at war with God, verse 10 verses, and so we need to deal with all of those by putting an end to the war with God. Well, we're at war with God because we're friends with the world, which is God's enemy, so we need to release our hold on that world, on the world, by relying on his power. Now, as we rely on his power, he's showing us that there is a complexity to life that comes right back to being obedient to his word, to being obedient to his will, in loving one another, and he says when you slander one another, what's slander mean? Slander means you say things about someone that aren't really true, and we're constantly, constantly, and it happens in the

church, and it's one of the things that the unchurched see very frequently, very regularly, and it keeps the unchurched from wanting to be a part of the church, is the slander, that goes on in the church. We are constantly downing people. We're constantly complaining about so-and-so, constantly telling others about what a creep this person is, what they've done this, and they've done that, and they have no consideration, and they have no compassion, and we're constantly telling bad things about somebody to somebody else, most of which is probably fabrication, most of which we probably just heard from somebody else. We don't really know that to be a fact, but we heard it from somebody that we really like, so we carry that

on with us and tell somebody else. We're constantly telling bad things about somebody to somebody else, and we're spreading slander, and God says if we do that, we are breaking His law. We're sitting in judgment of Him, because you see, if we don't purpose to follow His law in that one area, love one another, then we are in essence lowering our concept of Him. We've taken a step down from that lofty concept of God, and we're saying, you are not strong enough, big enough, powerful enough, loving enough to deal with that person, and so we're sitting in judgment of God. We're judging Him. We're judging His law, and that's not good,

and it only goes downhill from there. Life is complex, and if Satan can do one thing, he's going to get your eyes off of God, onto the world, onto these circumstances, onto those creepy people, so that you can just complain about them, and keep your eyes off of a sovereign God, a sovereign God who is love. And He is judge, and He has the power, it says, to destroy and save. Take heed to both words, save and destroy. He is, He does, He will. Life is complex. Don't be foolish in thinking you can

ignore God in the one basic thing He wants you to do where His will is concerned, and He gives you the power to do that. He wants you to rely on His power to do that, to love one another.

Now, the complexity of life also affects our schedules, and this is where we're tying verses 11 and 12 into verse 13. This is where the study Bible, breaks those verses, but I want you to tie those together. Love of God, law of God, love one another. It's complex. It's tough. It's hard to love one another. I mean, I'm saying that, and immediately you're all thinking of somebody that you don't know. You just don't understand, pastor. If you

knew this person, nobody could love that person. Nobody could put up with that person. They just, and yet, see, God's concept of love, 1 Corinthians 13, is not tra-la-la. Read 1 Corinthians 13 again in the Living Bible, or in the Amplified Bible. Love bears all things. Doesn't sound like fun to me. I want freedom from all these things that I have to bear. No, love bears all things. Love

hopes all things. In the midst of what seems like impossible circumstances, love hopes all things. Well, they're just lost. They just never will be. That's not love. Love hopes all things. Love endures all things. Well, there's endures and bears. Can I just bear? Do I have to endure? No, you have to bear and endure. And then love believes all things, and not only hopes that things are

going to change, and has hope in God that God will change, it believes that God will, and lives, loving, whether he does or not. That's love, and it's tough. And it takes us right into verse 13, which talks about scheduling now. Let me show you how they relate. I don't know how many of you run your lives according to a schedule. I don't know how many of you have little stupid books, or

whatever, day timers, or day runners, or day calendars on your desk, or calendar at home on your refrigerator, or on your wall, and everything's planned, though still have purposes. Maybe you don't have a day timer, per se, but maybe you purpose to do certain things. Hopefully, everybody here, hopefully, this year, will get to maybe take a day timer. I don't know how many of you vacation. And so, you're planning, even if it's a week, or a few days, and you're planning for time

away, and you're setting money back, and you're making reservations, probably. So, you're planning. Maybe you have to go to the doctor, and you need to make a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment. Unless you're dying, it's going to be next year before you can get in to see some of these doctors. And so, you have to plan. Now, I don't know, when you do that, when you sit down,

and you look at your calendar, you look at your plans, do you ever go, Lord, I give this to you? You know, you ever do that? Or are you just in the habit of, now I got to do the task of, I mean, we sit, you know, a month at a time. We have a four-month planner in the office, I have a year planner in my book, that I, if I'm without my book, I'm dead. I don't know who I am,

or where I'm supposed to be. I have days planned out in advance, through October, I'm booked already. I've got it in a week. If I don't lay these things before the Lord, if I don't say in my schedule, every day, and then every week at a time, and then every month at a time, and lay it before the Lord, and say, God, this is yours, you change it, you alter it, I'm open to you.

See, that's what he says here, in verse 13, now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow, we will go to this or that city, we will spend a year there, we will, all that's implied, we will continue to live there, we will continue to live there, we will continue to live there, we will carry on business, and we will make money. This is my life, this is where I'm going, and that's that. If you don't lay that before the Lord, if you've not learned 11 and 12, then when God goes, and bends your schedule, interruptions are a pain. See, we, back in Philippians, those that have been with us, when we're in Philippians, we're in Philippians chapter 1, opportunities to serve

Christ, chapter 1, those are divine opportunities to serve Christ. They are not interruptions, unless you haven't surrendered your schedule to the Lord. If you've surrendered your schedule to the Lord, and you have to do that on a daily basis, then, as he has done, you're going to interrupt it. You're flexible, you're flexible to change. You're flex, when people don't show up

like you thought they would, you're flexible to change. When people are late, when something didn't come in, when you're, you know God's sovereign, God moves this, he stops that, he could bring it in, or he can keep it out. He can make them come, he can make them stay away. If he's in control, you flow, you flex, because he's guiding your schedule. If not, you become a pain in the

rear to the person closest to you, and usually it's man, or usually it's a co-worker, and you can rip verses 11 and 12 right out of here, because you complain about the person that didn't show up, the person that was late, the person that didn't get the thing there on time, or got it there too early, or paid too much, or paid too little, and you're a basket case, because you've lost your lofty concept of God, and we learn to release our hold on the world by relying on his power, and not ignoring his will, because life is too complex for that. The second reason it's stupid to ignore the will of God is because of the uncertainty of life. The uncertainty of life. Not only is it complex, it is uncertain. Look at the first part of verse

14. James says, why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. You're planning on going and doing this, and being this kind of a success, and making this kind of money. Those of you that are younger than me, you have that in mind. I know where my folks failed, and I'm going on, boy, I'm going to the top. I'm gonna be a star. You've got that planned. Ain't nothing gonna stop

me, boy. You need to get to know God. You need to get to know the will of God. Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. But I'll tell you, apart from God, people sure want to find out. I was flipping through the channels the other day, and lo and behold, flashed on the screen was Dionne Warwick and her Psychic Hotline Network. And she shared that last year, 1996 alone, over 40 million people called the hotline. 40 million. $9.95 for your

entry fee, $1.95 or $2.95 a minute, whatever it is after that time. 40 million. It's a lucrative business. And I bet you that there's a lot of people out there that are going to be like, there's a goodly percentage of those callers who consider themselves Christians. Why did they do that? Why did they call? Well, they wanted to get some insight, you see. By doing that, you have

just lowered your lofty concept of God, your lofty standard of God. You've dabbled in the world, you've befriended the world, and you've instantly made yourself at war with God. We want to know what tomorrow brings. God knows, and he wants you to trust him with tomorrow. Jesus talked in Luke chapter 12, verses 16 through 21, about the profitable farmer, the farmer who had a greater increase in his crops than he even

anticipated. And he thought, man, I can retire at 55. I'll build a bigger barn, and I'll stock that puppy up, and I can retire 10 years earlier than I thought I could retire. And he was ready to do that. He didn't even get it started. It says, that very night, it says in the text. What very night? The very night he said in his mind, I'm going to do that. I'm going to build a bigger barn. He

didn't even stop to say, God, what's your plan with this? You've increased it for some reason, what's your purpose? What do you want me to do? He just decided for himself, I'm going to expend it on myself. I'm going to build myself up. I get to take care of myself later. My security is going to be in what substance I have. And God said, you fool. You didn't even know that tonight your very

soul would be required of you. You see, his date had come up. Too often we forget that we're dying. You are dying. You and I are dying at the present time. We are dying. We're not getting older. We're dying. So don't look at it as I'm getting older and more mature. I'm getting older and more mature. You are dying and rotting. You are in the process of decay and decrepidation. Now, some of us have

something that happens within our system that all of a sudden it comes out and the doctors tell us, oh, well, you have X amount of time to live. Listen, every one of you sitting here has X amount of time to live. If you ever go to a hard rock cafe anywhere, I've been to them now. We're in several places over the world and they're all the same. They have a little thing over the

counter and it's, it's, these things came out back in the sixties. And, you know, the hippies and all that stuff. And they've got a little thing and it's all on the ecology of the world and how much the rainforest we are depleting every second with our acid rain and with all of our, all of our industrial smog and all of that stuff. And the little, the little ticker is just flashing away. Like, like the amount of debt that we're

in in New York city that they have posted or Washington DC. Oh, things just flashing away. It's just ticking off, ticking off how much, how many acres of rainforest we're destroying every, every day. See yourself as having a little sign on you and every day you're ticking off time until you're appointed time with death because you are going to die. And are you ready for that? Have

you made preparation for that? Do you understand that concept? Life is uncertain. You are not guaranteed tomorrow. It is stupid to ignore the will of God. If you trust him, if you're obedient to his will, you like Paul, the apostle can say, whether I live or die, don't make any difference for me to die. Really is gain. I get to go be with the Lord, but if he chooses for me to live,

it's for your benefit. I can help minister to you to strengthen you until you go or I go life or death. That didn't mean anything to Paul because he knew the Lord. He was secure in who God was and who he was in the Lord. And if you're not that way, you need to get that way. God has given you his word. He's given you his spirit to help you understand his word. He's given you the power of

the resurrection through the Holy spirit to help you to live it. And that's what James is talking about. That's what James is getting to and how foolish we are to ignore God's will because our lives are uncertain. Not only are they uncertain, not only are they, complex and uncertain, but thirdly, it's foolish to ignore God's will because our lives are short, short. Well, can't you just lump that all in? Well, James didn't. Well, you do not even know

what will happen tomorrow. He says in the first part of verse 14, then in the second part of verse 14, he says something that makes it even more apparent. You are a mist that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Not only is life uncertain, it's short. James borrows this from Job. I believe James was very familiar with Job. I don't think James had boils, although we're not

told, but I think he had a lot of conflict, a lot of things that happened in his life, being the half brother of Jesus, the son of God, ignoring that for most of his life until after the resurrection. And then the persecution that came as a result of taking a stand for that. I think James understood some of the sufferings of Job and, and he pulls from Job here in this statement. See, if you, as you take time to read, and we'll talk about this in two weeks too, about there's some new statistics out that just blow my mind as far as how many people read the Bible every day.

I'll get, I'd have them in my notes to share next time, but, it's like the figure is only 17% of the people in the United States. Now that's the church and everybody else reads the Bible every day. 17%. They were saying at the, at the crusade the other night that the statistics indicate that 80% of our country says they're born again. No, they're not. If I am truly born again, I have a hunger for his word because his word reveals his

will and who he is. And I want to know him. My soul follows hard after thee, the psalmist said in Psalm 63 that we sang this morning. Early in the morning, while I read the Bible, I read the psalmist said, rise up to seek thee as the deer pants for the water brook. So my soul longs for thee, O Lord. If it doesn't, it's probably not there. And it probably, we need to ask him to

come in. It's foolish to ignore God's will because of the shortness of life. Job says, let me just give you four things in Job from chapter seven to chapter nine. Job, from whom James borrows this text in chapter seven, verse six of Job. Job says of himself in the midst of his trial, my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Now Job's saying this, I believe, because he's in this

torment and pain. He's lost his family. He's lost his possessions. He's lost everything he has. He's been a righteous man before the Lord. He's prayed and God has chosen to take all of this stuff. And Job says, hey, you know, it's short. I mean, was he disgusted? Yeah. With himself, with his circumstances? Yeah. He wasn't mad at God, but he realized that his life was short,

that even this was going to pass. If he had to endure this until he died, this was going to pass. He says his life is like a weaver's shuttle. Now we don't have the privilege, most of us today, especially those of you younger than me, of ever having seen a weaver. Unless you go to Silver Dollar City or some places where they have them set up. A weaver's loom is a very interesting piece of equipment, usually made out of wood. They run their yarn

in one direction, certain colors, and then they weave other colors through the other way into different patterns. And they have a shuttle to which the yarn is attached, the threads are attached, and they weave it in and out of the threads going horizontally or vertically. And they go horizontally. And then they get to the other end and they shoot that puppy back through behind the strand. And it just sails. It's usually made out of wood. It usually comes to a point on

one end. It's usually worn down from the use by the weaver. And as he shoves it back behind that thing, it just shoots to the other side of the loom. And he grabs it and he comes back through again. And he shoots it back to the other side of the loom. And he's saying his life is as short as a weaver's shuttle. See, we have the idea that we're going to live here like this forever. And

we're not. You are going to live forever somewhere. Not here, like this, in this kind of an atmosphere, in this kind of an attitude. God's going to come and restore the earth. And we'll have the kingdom age for a thousand years here on the earth, not like anything you and I know. And then forever eternity with him wherever he's going to be, whatever he's going to be doing. And that's

exciting. Or if you ignore him, if you reject him, then you'll spend an eternity separated from him. And separated from God's presence is hell in itself. But there's going to be a burning there. God calls it Gehenna. And we could go into a whole study on that, but we won't right now. You will live forever. But Satan wants you to ignore the fact that you are dying. He wants

you to just think like you're planning on, like you're going to live forever here. And you're actually stacking up treasures here where moth and rust will corrode and thieves will destroy and steal. And Satan wants to sidetrack us from that. Life is too short. Job says again in chapter 7 verse 9, the cloud is consumed and vanishes away. You ever watch the little white wispy clouds,

not the thunderheads, but the little white ones that are just this real loose and they kind of float around. And the ones that make the little neat shapes, if you haven't watched clouds for a while, take some time and watch clouds. And you just sit and watch them. And all of a sudden, they just kind of disappear. They kind of turn around and this part of it's gone. All of a sudden,

that's what Job said his life was like. Chapter 8 verse 9, Job says, our days upon the earth are a shadow, are a shadow. What's a shadow? It's not even a reflection. A shadow is simply the result of light hitting another object. And for a brief span of time, reflecting an image or producing an image, not a reflection, just outlining an image. You can't tell skin color, hair color, eye color, even sex most of

the time from the shadow. It's faint. And then it's gone as the sun changes or as you move in a different direction. That's what Job says our lives are like upon the earth. I don't know if you think, think about that. Your life is short. None of us are guaranteed the rest of the afternoon, let alone tomorrow. I don't know what kind of plans you have for the rest of the day. I don't know what kind of plans we have.

We're planning to go build a bliss house. Maybe the Lord's going to come back. Maybe some of us are going to get hit by a car. Maybe some of us are going to die of a heart attack this week. We're not guaranteed. We plan, but we lift it up to the Lord and say, God, you direct, you're sovereign. You interrupt. You rain if you want to rain and shut us out for this weekend.

Fine. We can plan another one. Whatever you have to do, Lord, we are yielded to you because life is too short. Chapter 9 verse 25 of Job, he says, my days are swifter than a runner. Not our, our years at our birthday. If I ask you how old you are, you won't tell me, well, I'm 14,385 days old. You'll say I'm 38 years or however many years you are. And yet God tells us

to number our days, number your days because he has them numbered and they're clicking off just like the little counter at hard rock cafe every day. They're clicking off and you're getting one day closer to your appointment with him. Number our days. Uh, Warren Wiersbe says, since life is so brief, we cannot afford merely to spend our lives. And we certainly do not want to waste our

lives. We must invest our lives in those things that are eternal. Are you doing that? Are you investing your life in things that are eternal or just pursuing the things that are temporal that are going to die? Paul tells us in Ephesians five to redeem the time for the days are evil. Now that doesn't mean when you have it in light of what we're talking about in James, it makes it a whole

lot easier to understand. He's not saying redeem the time because it's a bad day out there. Bad day. He's talking about the days are evil. What's he implying? That God is wanting, us to have our focus on him, to have that lofty concept of him. Redeem that time that you have to spend with him because the days are evil. And Satan is seeking to pull your focus off of the

Lord onto the world. He's seeking to reduce your lofty concept of God, to bring it down to a point that's evil days. That's what happens in the days of the world in each of the days. So redeem that time. Seek the Lord early. Your soul follows hard after him. Fourth. And finally, we're ignoring God's will is concerned. It's really foolish to ignore God's will because of the framework

of man. Not only is life complex, not only is life uncertain, not only is it short, but we are frail. Look at verse 16. We'll come back and pick up 15 and 17 next time. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Very simple verse. As it is, you boast and brag. Now think about why we boast and brag. Why do we boast? Why do we puff ourselves up? Why do we brag about ourselves? Why

do we want to make ourselves known? It's not just so we get noticed. Follow me with this one. If you really think about it, it's because we don't want people to see our weaknesses. I want you to see this. I'm great at this. Because I don't want you to see that I'm not too hot at this. I don't want you to see how weak I am here. And so I want to present myself to you in a way that you

see what I want you to see, not what I really am. And see, when we come to the Lord, when you come to understand what a relationship with Jesus Christ is, it breaks that bondage. It says, this is me. Not take it or leave it. I mean, that's another concept altogether. This is me sticking your ear if you don't like it. No, that's not what God's saying. It's this is me, and I'm going to love you whether you love me or not. This is me. This

is how I am. I don't have anything to hide. These are my weaknesses. And you can see them. I don't like them, but I've given them to the Lord, and He's working on me. But in spite of that, He's called me to love you, and I'm going to love you whether you love me or not. Whether you return that love or not. Whether you dislike me or not, I'm going to love you. Because that's what He's

called me to do. When we seek to promote ourselves, when we seek to boast about ourselves, we're only declaring that we have once again lowered our lofty concept of God. If I have to promote myself, it's because I am literally saying, God's not able to take care of me, so I've got to get out there and let you know how great I am. Rather than just serving you, rather than just serving whether you know my name or not, whether you have any idea as to who I am or what I'm doing, I'm just serving. I want to promote so that you know we're saying, in essence,

God's not able to take care of me adequately. God doesn't understand. He doesn't, get involved in all the little intricate things of life. God's not concerned about the intricate things of life. Proverbs 16.33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but its very decision is from God. He's talking about dice. The dice are cast. What's the numbers that are going to come up? The

Bible says God's already determined it before they stop rolling. God's concerned about the little things, about the intricate things, about the nanoseconds of your life. God is concerned with that, and He understands our frailty. We don't need to lift ourselves up. Go back up to verse 10. He says, And He'll lift you. Humble yourselves before Him. You are sovereign. You're in control. My schedule

is yours. Interrupt it any way you want to. I'll just follow you, Lord. My life is frail. And God will lift you up where you need to be, when you need to be there. He'll keep you removed when you don't need to be there. And let me tell you, you don't want to try and be where He doesn't want you to be. You run into all kinds of problems. When God says no, say, thank you, Lord. Not this time.

That's great. You know and trust Him. He wants us to trust Him. Thomas Akempis, an earlier church father, says, Man proposes, but God disposes. Man proposes. He wants to do this, but it's God who actually does whatever happens. Real quickly, we only have a minute. Turn back with me to Psalm 75. We'll close. Psalm 75, back to the middle of your Bible. Psalm 75. It's a

real short psalm. It's only 10 verses long. It was written by Asaph. Asaph was David's worship leader. Asaph, back in Psalm 73, got kind of disgusted himself with the way life was going. He was looking at all the things in life. And here he is, the worship leader of the king. And he's serving at the temple. And yet he sees the wickedness of man. And the wicked seem to be

prospering. There's a lot of wickedness going on in the priesthood. And they seem to be prospering. And Asaph's going, I'm ready to join in. I mean, I'm serving the Lord. And what? The wicked are prospering. And he was ready to give up, it says in Psalm 73, until he went into the house of the Lord. And he saw from listening to the Word of God and bringing himself before the Lord, God spoke to

the wicked, that the wicked were on banana peels. Man, they were ready to slide off into destruction. And Asaph was built up. And so then he writes this song that we have as our Psalm 75. And he says, we give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks for your name is near. Interesting concept. Meditate on that this week. Men tell of your wonderful deeds. You say, God, I choose the appointed time.

It is I who judge uprightly. When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars upright. And then pause and think about that one. To the arrogant, God says, boast no more. And to the wicked, do not lift up your horns or your power, what you think is powerful. Do not lift your power against heaven. Do not speak without stretched neck. No one from the east or the west or from

the desert can exalt a man, but it is God who judges. He brings one down, he exalts another. In the hand of the Lord is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs. Relates to coming judgments in the book of Revelation. As for me, verse 9, I will declare this forever. I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. I will cut off the horns or the power of

the wicked, but the power of the righteous will be lifted up. Asaph realizes his frailty and God's power. God sets the standards. God raises up. God puts down. God sets the limits. And he's just going to praise the Lord. He's not going to be ignorant of his will. He's not going to ignore his will. He's just going to simply follow him and seek to lift up the name of God. That's what

he calls us to do this morning. Now, we're ready to come to the Lord's table, and there are tables around the sanctuary this morning. We're going to be bringing the kids in in just a second to join the parents. Let me say that this is part of God's will, coming to his table. This is something he called us to be obedient to, to be obedient in. Now, in the early church, they would get together

regularly from house to house. They had different house ministries. They didn't have buildings they met in until the fourth century, until the 300s. And so they'd get together, and to show their oneness as they would finish a meal together, they would celebrate the Lord's supper. They would remember the Lord's table. And that's why God gave us this opportunity, this time to celebrate

communion together, is to use it as a mental hook, a symbolic hook, to remember what he's done for us, to remember that life is complex, to remember that life's uncertain, that life is short, and we are frail, and to remember that he knew that these things were going to be that way in our lives, that we were going to be in bondage to sin. But he provided a way for release from that sin, that he hung his son on a tree, on a cross. And as you and I partake of the elements, see, we have something physical that we see, that we touch, that we drink. And as we drink that, we remember his blood. We remember the blood that was shed, and that that's the only way that our

sin is atoned for. It's the only way that our sins are dealt with. As we eat the bread, we remember that his body was brutalized for us, beaten beyond recognition before they ever hung him on the cross. And as we eat the bread, we remember that his body was brutalized for us, beaten beyond the tree. Crown of thorns mashed down on his head, arms and feet nailed to this cross. He literally

died of suffocation because he couldn't, he could no longer breathe for us. And as we partake of that little bitty bit of unleavened bread, it's to remind us that, that this is as a part of his body. And, and he told us he wanted us to consume that, to participate with him. And so we have a physical reminder of what has saved us in Christ. You see, it's easy to forget, unless we take time

to remember. What's the square root of 169? Gee, I learned to do square roots back in high school, junior high maybe, but I haven't done square root of 169 since Friday. So, you know, I've kind of forgotten. If we don't remember it, if we don't use it, we'll forget it. And so this is something that the Lord asked us to do as a part of his will for us to continually remember, to continually

keep before us that we've been bought with a price, that we've been empowered by his spirit as a result of the cross and the resurrection. We remember those things every time we partake. There's no right way to do it. There's no every day or every Sunday or once a month. There's no absolute right way. It's, it's hopefully that it doesn't become ritualistic to the point that you just kind of do

it and don't think about it. Think about it. Every time you take it, think about it. Whether you're here, whether you're at home, whether you're at another church, think about it and remember that it's his will. Now this morning, maybe you don't know him, then just ask him to come in right now to your heart, to forgive you of your sin and to make your heart his residence. Maybe you don't

trust him this morning. Maybe there's an area of your life. You want to be a good Christian, but there's just this one area where I don't think God can work. He wants you to trust him. Maybe you haven't been obeying him. Maybe, maybe you're in direct disobedience. He's calling you back, lovingly calling you back. And this is a, this is a point where once a month I see it for myself. It's just an opportunity to recommit me to him again,

fresh and new. I come to the table. I remember what he's done and I'm, you know, my life is committed, is immersed in doing this stuff that a pastor does. It's easy to get to the point where you do the stuff just as a ritual, just to do it. And it's a point for me to remember and recommit my own life. Make it that for you. Set your heart on being obedient to him.

Fathers, husbands, you're the priests of your family. I don't care if you're a day old in the Lord, hours old in the Lord, or years old in the Lord. You're the priest of your family. Take your family. You can get the cups and the bread and you can come back and sit in a pew and you pray with your family. I don't care what it sounds like. It doesn't have to be eloquent. It doesn't

have to be King James. It's just God. I give you me. I give you my family. Help us remember. Help us to live it. Whatever. Just talk to him. You can take it as a single. You can take it as a couple. You can take it with your kids. If your kids aren't old enough to understand, I encourage you either wait to take it with them or explain it to them. Otherwise,

they're going to think it's cookies and juice, you know, and it's not. It needs to be solemnly done. There needs to be a humbleness and an awe in doing it. And if you'll communicate that to your