James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 4:13-17

¹³ 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.”¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

So far as James has been walking us through the 8^th test, the “pride test” we have seen the reality of selfish pride. We saw not only the symptoms and the source of selfish pride but also the solution. Now as James continues to teach us about the dangers of pride he moves from talking about Selfish pride to pointing out our Presumptive pride. Why is Presumptive pride so poisonous, because it causes us to make plans based on our wants instead of God’s Will. It gives us a faulty perspective when it comes to time, causing us to forget that we are finite and have a limited amount of life to live. It causes us to waste our time on earthly treasures instead of investing in eternal truths. It causes us to start trusting in self instead of turning to and trusting the Savior. My prayer is that my plans would not be based on Presumptive pride but on God’s Will. As we find ourselves half way through the year it’s a good time to pause and reflect. Think back with me to the beginning of the year, what were your plans for 2023? What were your hopes, dreams and aspirations? I’m not talking about the resolutions you may have made, they rarely last a month. I’m talking about real plans. Now, I want you to think about the present and your plans for this year. Were or are you planning a career change? Are you planning a major investment? Are you planning to retire? A lot has happened even in the first half of this year, some things that we expected, and some we could never have imagined. Planning for the future can be not just a good thing but a God thing. You see God has given us the ability to think and plan for a reason. He intends for us to prepare for the future. The problem comes when we begin to see our plans as the ones that matter the most, instead of pursuing God’s perfect plan. It’s not just about making plans it’s about seeking His plan. God wants you to place your trust in Him instead of placing it in your plans. God has a plan that is preeminent and perfect, a plan that is guaranteed to be fulfilled. As you look back at the plans you made last year, can you say that your plans are guaranteed to be fulfilled? The most basic definition of pride is putting ourselves in the place where only God should be. When we looked last at selfish pride we saw what happens when we elevate our selfish desires above God’s desire. Today as we look at presumptive pride we’re going to see what happens when we elevate our personal plans above God’s plan. When we stop trusting in His timing and we pridefully presume upon God by placing our worries and problems over His providence. My prayer is that instead of prideful presumptive planning we will submit our plans to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In order to do that, we’re going to look at the three carnal characteristics of presumptive pride. 

1. Self-Sufficient instead of Savior dependent

2. Self-promoting instead of Savior proclaiming

3. Sinful instead of serving

What about you is there any area in your life where you are trusting in self instead of the Savior which leads to worrying instead of worshipping?

James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 4:7-12

⁷ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. ¹¹ Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. ¹² There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

After looking at the first two solutions to selfish pride, resisting the devil and drawing near to God we come to the third:

• humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. 

Does that mean to grovel around in sackcloth and ashes? No James paints a picture of what it looks like in verse 11: it means to treat other people right. The way to humble yourself in the sight of God is to treat people right. Instead of engaging in trash talk start speaking truth and treating people right. Jesus said, they will know we are Christians by our love. It is impossible to treat yourself better than other people and be humble before the Lord. If you elevate yourself above people that God cared enough to send His Son to die for, you are elevating yourself above the sacrifice of Christ. But if you humble yourself in the sight of the Lord by treating other people right, God Himself will elevate you. He will lift you up. Trash talk is not only divisive it is destructive, we actually hurt two people, the person who is the object of our condemnation as well as ourselves. But James makes it clear that there is an even deeper harm that occurs, because it usurps the role that rightly belongs to God. God alone has the authority to judge in this sense. So, when we condemn others in the way these people were doing we actually attempt to take on a role that doesn’t belong to us. Humbling ourselves means letting God be in charge because we trust Him. If we don’t deal with the poison of pride like Satan we will position self as number one. The solution to destroying pride in your life is really very simple; resist the devil, draw near to God, and humble yourself in His sight. Three simple things that will take you the rest of your life to work on. But these three things are not something that you can accomplish on your own. You need God’s grace. He gives the grace for you to overcome the symptoms of selfish pride. He even gives the grace for you to overcome yourself as the source of your selfish pride. And he gives the grace to enable you to accomplish the solutions for your selfish pride. The marvelous thing about our God is that He has extended His grace to whoever will receive it. He desired that you would receive His grace so much that He gave His only begotten Son to suffer and bleed and die on a cruel cross so you wouldn’t have to. Knowing that, why would you allow your pride to get in the way of accepting His grace? Swallow your pride and accept His grace today.