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.

Not only is presumptive pride arrogantly Self-Sufficient but second it is: 

2. Self-promoting instead of Savior proclaiming – Vs 15-16 

Proverbs 6:16-19, lists seven things the Lord hates: “here are six things the Lord hates—no, seven things he detests: ¹⁷ A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent. ¹⁸ a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.” Notice what the list starts with, a proud look. Sadly, today what God hates the world honors. We have a society that honors arrogance and rejects God, a culture that celebrates sin instead of confessing it. Do you remember Mohammed Ali one of the greatest boxers to have ever enter the ring? To say that he suffered from the arrogance of self-promoting pride would be an understatement. One of his favorite sayings was, “I am the greatest.” There is a story told about a time he boarded a plan to head to his next fight. Shortly before takeoff the stewardess asked him to fasten his seatbelt which he ignored. On her next pass down the aisle, she repeated the command to which he is reported to have said, “I’m Superman and Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” She looked him right in the eye and responded, “Superman don’t need no airplane either, buckle up.” There is no mistaking the fact that Mohammed Ali was unbelievably arrogant. But so are we when we show presumptive pride. Verse 16 reminds us that presumptive pride results in promoting self, its boasting based on self. The King James calls this “rejoicing in your boastings” and the word translated “rejoicing” here simply refers to being loud. It is a neutral word that is shaped by the context of the words around it. In the context of this passage it means being a loud-mouthed, arrogant braggart. Rejoicing in boastings is dangerous and destructive because it’s claiming the words of the old Frank Sinatra song, “I Did It My Way”. How many of us have the same “My way or the Highway” arrogant attitude? But James reminds us that there is another way it’s called God’s will. Do you want to head down the highway of obedience or obliteration? That’s what verse 15 is about, “If the Lord Wills.” These are not just legalistic words we mouth but a lifestyle that we model. When you make your plans for the future, do you seek God’s Will or just do it your way? Is it about you getting your way and being in control? That’s the poison of presumptive pride. It’s not just arrogance, it’s an abomination to God. Because our plans end up being about promoting self instead of proclaiming the Savior. The goal becomes getting the things of this world instead of giving glory to the One who made it. And what a watching world witnesses is our committed to the carnal instead of to Christ.  Our plans become about profiting self and not to proclaim the Savior. Work that is driven by wealth more than witnessing. When it comes to work most of us are one dimensional, we make work more about the money that the Master. So, we see it as a paycheck more than as a platform to proclaim the Savior. When we make it about God’s glory our plans might not get fulfilled the way we wanted them to, but He will be honored and when we stand before Him in glory we will be able to say, “I did it Your way.” What a glorious day that will be when all of His plans are fulfilled and all of ours are just a distant memory. The more you submit your plans to His, the more your plans begin to look like His.