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Jan 08, 2017

Planned Failure?

Planned Failure?

Passage: James 4:13-17

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: James

Keywords: new year's resolutions, plan, planning, plans, will of god

Summary:

James warns us against planning for the future that doesn't account for either the brevity of human life or the sovereignty of God. This message looks at how to avoid the ditch of not planning as well as the opposite error of purely human planning.

Detail:

Planned Failure?

James 4:13-17

January 8, 2017

Just a week ago today, lots of people in the world were making new plans, “New Year’s resolutions” we call them.  Regardless of what you think of such resolutions or the level of success or failure you’ve had in making and keeping New Year’s resolutions, the fact remains:  making long-range or elaborate plans is one of the things that sets humans off from animals.  Yes, spiders spin webs as part of their “plan” to capture insects.  Orcas may work together to trap a school of fish.  Wolves may hunt in packs and “plan” for a kill.

            But humans are unique about the level and degree of planning we do. 

  • We hire “city planners” to facilitate growth of urban centers.
  • We practice “family planning” to map out when we want to have kids…and then God laughs and brings an “opps” baby… or twins! J
  • We make detailed plans for building homes or skyscrapers.
  • We talk about “career planning” and invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in education to achieve those plans.

And sometimes all that planning actually works! 

The reality is that all of us make plans, some more and some less.  But my guess today is that all of us here have some plans for…

  • the rest of today.
  • for this week.
  • for this year?
  • for the next decade of life.
  • Even for the last days of your life?

And hopefully, we all have plans for eternity.  If not, you’re in the right place this morning. 

So what does God have to say about all our planning?  Is he in favor of it or opposed to it?  And what determines whether or not our plans are good or bad?  Whether they succeed or fail? 

Thankfully, God has a lot to say in His Word about plans.  One of those passages is the text we are in today as we move back into our study of the book of James.  Turn to James 4:13ff.  Let’s read it together.

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.

Find two or three people around you and answer a few questions that naturally flow from this passage today:

  • How many different arenas of planning can you find in the hypothetical statement in 13? What areas of life do they deal with?
  • In what areas of life do we as humans tend to do the most planning?
  • Do you find planning for the future energizing or draining? Why?

Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said, “If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail.” 

But this passage in James seems clearly to teach that it is possible to plan in such a way that God says your plans will fail…or at least not be blessed by God. 

Which leads me to another question:  is it possible to “succeed” in our plans and yet come to the realization that our “success” is really empty, that we put our ladder of “success” against the wrong wall and when we got to the top we realized it wasn’t the kind of success that satisfies our hearts?    

On this road of life there are actually two ditches, two extremes that we should avoid: 

  • the ditch of no planning or under-planning, and
  • the ditch of self-planning or over-planning.

The wise and godly person will seek to avoid both ditches/both extremes. 

Back to verse 4:13--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.” 

So, back to Question #1:  what parts of life does this planning statement hit? 

  • Time/calendar/when?
  • Who?
  • Travel/transportation/location/housing/where?
  • Priorities/investment/resources/what & how long?
  • What/how?, finance/business/employment
  • Results/success/accomplishment/end?

Notice now how many of our primary focuses in planning (Question #2) are touched on in this singular statement. 

  • Food
  • Finances
  • Family
  • Housing
  • Employment/work/career
  • Education
  • Entertainment

Now, looking or listening to vss. 13-14, what is the tone of this paragraph?  Commendatory or rebuking? Patting on the back or kicking in the behind? 

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. 

James (and by nature of inspiration of this passage, the Holy Spirit) is not happy with what God’s people were doing.  They were living just like the world in the way they planned and looked to the future.  But James and the Holy Spirit were reminding them of what most human planning wants to avoid or ignore or minimize.  That is, life is uncertain.  The future is unknown.  Human existence is tenuous and temporary.

ILL:  Just this week, as I was preparing this message on Friday, the news broke that a lone gunman at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport in Florida had killed 5 people and wounded 8 in the baggage claim area of the airport. 

            How many of those passengers there to claim their luggage after their flight “planned” to die that day?  How many got up that morning and thought, “Everything I’ve planned for my future will come to an end today because my life will end today”?  I’m guessing zero!

ILL:  I doubt that 20-year-old Ryan Harrison Banks of Boise got up on January 6th, this past Friday morning, expecting to be put in a casket at the end of the day by a gunshot from his 30 year old acquaintance Adam Bodenbach…but he was.   

ILL:  On New Years Day morning, when a twenty-something young man went to a clubhouse party with about 100 people at the Trails of Redmond Apartments in Redmond, WA a week ago today, I doubt he thought it would be his last party and that police would carry him away in a body bag from a slug fired by a still-unknown person.

ILL: Yesterday a train in the West Plains area killed a mother and son of a Fairchild airman on Brooks Road, No one in that family had that accident in their plans for yesterday…or ever.   

I’ll bet you that every one of these people had made plans for the next day, the next month and the next year…along with all 72 other people just on New Years Day in this country who died of gunshot wounds…not to mention the thousands more who died in accidents and by natural physical causes.  Yet none of them lived to see those plans fulfilled. 

            I’m not trying to be morbid or morose this morning.  Blame James…and the Holy Spirit.  They brought it up!  God wants us to make plans that embrace reality, not illusions.  And reality is, LIFE IS SHORT, UNCERTAIN & FLEETING, even when you live “a long time” like 79, 80 o 95 years. 

J         You may not love the analogy, but it’s true:  Life is like a roll of toilet paper—the closer you get to the end, the quicker it goes!  Think about that the next time you change out the toilet paper roll.

            The facts are that our lives, in light of our eternal God and the immense universe, are nothing more than “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  That doesn’t make life meaningless; it makes it infinitely more valuable and more full of meaning!

George Bernard Shaw astutely observed, “The statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one people die.”

You would think that…

  • because death is not just probable, but absolutely certain,
  • and that it does happen every minute of the day in thousands of places around the world,
  • and that each person must stand before God for judgment,

that every person would be desperate to know how to get right with God.

But, strangely, people put it out of mind and go on about life as if they will live forever. They can watch the catastrophe of a Hurricane Katrina, shake their heads in disbelief at the bodies floating in the water, and go out the door to their daily routines without ever getting on their faces before God and repenting of their sins! It’s amazing!

Jesus taught us how to think when we hear about such disasters. Some people reported to Him about some Galileans whom Pilate had slaughtered. Jesus responded (Luke 13:1-5),

“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

When we hear about disasters, whether human-caused, such as 9/11, or due to natural causes such as hurricanes, make sure that the news moves you to some self-examination, to repentance from sins. Because if we do not, Scripture says we could die in our sins and perish.

Not to be ready for something that is 100 percent certain is really foolish! So our planning for the future must account for the temporary, fleeting, uncertain nature of life.  That uncertainty shouldn’t paralyze us into inaction.  Nor should it move us to wanton excess and a mentality of, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!” 

Mark this 1st truth about planning: the uncertainty and brevity of life must impact our planning. 

APP:  So, give me an example of HOW it should impact the way we live and plan.

  • Life insurance to help your spouse out with kids that still need to be raised?
  • Keeping short accounts with people?
  • Not taking on risks that unnecessarily or unduly expose you to life-threatening danger?
  • Having your “affairs in order,” i.e. living in such a way that you plan to leave others a blessing, not a mess.
  • Living every day as special, important, perhaps your last. Every day lived like that results in a full life of few regrets.

[Silence—to let God speak to us about how the brevity and uncertainty of life should change the way I’m making plans for the future.]

Not only must the uncertainty and brevity of life impact our planning;

#2.) The SOVEREIGNTY & ETERNALITY of GOD must impact and inform my planning. Look at vs. 15:

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Good and godly planning must account for God.  Failure to consider, involve, include, consult and wait for God in our planning for the future will at best bring hollow, empty “success” and at worst bring human disaster and horrific suffering. 

ILL:  We need look no farther than the history of the last 100 years of world political systems to find a megaphone that blasts this truth at us.

Communism has been practicing “central planning” for decades… and it has failed miserably.  Marxism that undergirds communism and communism itself is openly anti-God and atheistic.  How has that worked out in virtually every Marxist-Communist nation of the world?

  • Cuba: contrary to what the Kardashian sisters think, a whole country still caught in the 1950s when it comes simply to transportation and technology like phones is not “a really cool vibe”.  It’s a disaster that has brought much suffering to some 12-15 million people and death to thousands.
  • The Soviet Union: Thank Stalin alone for killing 50-60 million of his fellow Soviet citizens in the name of godless communism…and another 20 million in WWII
  • China: According to the authoritative “Black Book of Communism,” an estimated 65 million Chinese died as a result of Mao’s repeated, merciless attempts to create a new “socialist” China. During just 3 years (1959-1961) alone, between 30 and 40 million people were starved into oblivion by Mao’s “Great Leap Forward.”  (Don’t you love the way godless politicians misuse language?)  That is the size of the entire state of California.
  • We could go on and talk about Cambodia’s 2 million dead (21% of the country) under the Kamer Rouge, or Korea’s 1-3.5 million killed mostly by starvation (out of 21 million people)

Every one of those nation states has something in common:  a system of governing and planning that excludes God and even denies His existence. 

            But that seems a long ways away for most of us.  How many Christians today live more like practical atheists than God-loving Christ-followers?  When our planning doesn’t acknowledge and lean on the nature of God, we are not very different from our neighbors when it comes to making plans. 

What exactly will acknowledging who God is do to our planning?

  • It will cause us to hold our plans tentatively, with an open hand before God, accepting of any changes He may choose to bring to those plans. This is what it means to trust God’s sovereignty.
  • It will cause us to make plans that keep eternity in primary view and the immediate world and finite life in secondary
  • It will lead us to be people of prayer—always acknowledging the presence and work of God in our daily lives and plans, always appealing to God for His will do be done, not ours or our plans.

James tells us HOW to include prayer and God-consciousness in our plans:

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Notice the 1st phrase:  “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live….”  Imagine beginning each day with that prayer:  “Lord, if you will, I will live today.  If not, I will die and meet you today.” I’ll bet that would inform the rest of the way we pray!  I’ll be that would change what we pray about…and how we think about life and people around us every day!  “Lord, if it’s your will, I’ll finish today alive.” 

Now the 2nd phrase:  “If it is the Lord’s will…we will do this or that.”  Those are the specific plans we have for the day.  Those are the tasks God has put before us.  We should be praying through our schedules, our Day-timers, our calendar of events.  “God, is this how you want me to spend my day?” 

            That little phrase, “If it is the Lord’s will,” has often shaped history and the lives of God’s people.  It is a phrase that only appears in the N.T.  And it occurs quite frequently there as something Paul said of his plans to visit churches (Ac. 18:21; I Cor. 4:19; Rm. 1:10; I Cor. 16:7; Phil. 2:19, 24; Heb. 6:3).

            It is also a phrase that has been immensely popular at different times in church history.  The Puritans loved it and filled their speech and correspondence with the Latin equivalent Deo Volente, or “God willing.”  The Methodists followed the same practice.  Godly Methodists regularly signed their letters with the initials D.V.  (Try that with your next text or email…and be ready to explain it to your secular friends!)  Even placards and circulars about coming events had “D.V.” inscribed somewhere. 

APP:  In a world that is trying to erase the now 12-centuries use of A.D. (Anno Domini) with C.E. (Common Era) so as not to have to admit to the massive influence Christ has had in Western and even world culture, putting D.V. in our correspondence might really lead to some wonderful conversations and questions about the role of Jesus Christ in our everyday and life-long plans.  (That’s a personal challenge, in case you are wondering!) 

Imagine writing and speaking “D.V.” over…

  • Our daily schedule.
  • Our academic plan.
  • A dating relationship.
  • The choice of a spouse.
  • Our financial decisions, purchases and commitments
  • Our housing
  • Our entertainment decisions and plans
  • Our reading
  • Our web searches and surfing

APP:  Take a moment to think about this…and then turn to the person next to you (or to God in prayer) and tell them your God-surrendered plan:  God willing, I will be….

How about we try to include this little phrase in our daily conversations about plans and the future?  It could radically change the way we respond to unexpected life changes as well as the way we make plans and do business, school, family, friendships and ministry. 

So, #1) the uncertainty and brevity of life must impact our planning.

#2) the sovereignty of God must impact our planning.

#3) Humility, not arrogance, should infuse our plans.  Vs. 16—“As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.”

It’s very easy to develop a life that, while not crowing publically about our plans, adopts an attitude of self-confidence and godless certainty.  I’m not sure what it might look like in your profession or life.  But I know what it looks like in the pastoral community in which I move.

ILL:  So often what pastors talk about when they get together at a luncheon or conference are things like buildings, budgets and bodies.  How big is the church, i.e how many bodies do we have sitting in seats on Sunday morning?  That’s a lot easier to measure than spiritual growth of the same people.  We’ll talk about how much money is going to, say, missions or local ministries or the poor?  Then we talk about the books and articles we’re writing (or thinking of writing), the classes we’re teaching, the baptisms we’ve had or the buildings we’ve got on the drawing boards. 

            WHY do we do this?  Because we tend to get our sense of accomplishment and self-worth from the things we see and are doing.  It’s really not enough for us to hear God whisper, “Well done, son/daughter!  Your faithfulness is all I asked of you.” Our plans quickly become our projects.  And projects so easily morph into pride over our accomplishments.  But a view of plans and dreams that humbly surrenders them daily to God and sees any accomplishments as divine gifts of grace is one which will not be guilty of boasting in personal plans. 

There is a short verse in Isaiah 26:12 that goes like this: 

Lord, you establish peace for us;
    all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

The first phrase is a prayer, a plea.  Praying, crying out to God, has a way of humbling us and helping us get in touch with the reality that nothing we do endures unless God is in it.  “All that we have accomplished you have done for us.”  Plans and product is a joint effort between us and God. It does take work on our part.  But the wise and humble person will know that there is nothing in their life of eternal value that has not been done without God’s involvement. 

APP:  So how does “boasting” in your plans or accomplishments look in your arena of life? Your profession?  Your position?  Have you talked with God about why you need that kind of affirmation or boasting?  Have you let Him and His hand on you be more satisfying to you than all the great plans and “successes” of your effort?  And how might God want to change you so that humility dominates instead of human plans?

James ends this paragraph with these words in vs. 17: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

While preparing for this message, I ran across the following statement by one author.  He says,

“I believe there is a very close connection between verses 13-16 and verse 17. If I am arrogant enough to believe that I will be very successful in a short period of time, then this may become my excuse for not doing now what I know I should do.

I see that a poor family in the church needs help, and I have the money to meet their need. But I convince myself that if I invest this money in my “certain” business venture, then I will have much more money to give, next year.

There are ministries that need my help, but I salve my conscience by thinking that if I invest my time in my new business, then I will have much more time and money in the future. It is a pious excuse for my disobedience, something at which the Jews in James’ day (and we today) are highly skilled (see Mark 7:1-13).” 

How often to our plans for our lives and our futures keep us from doing “the good we ought to do”? 

How often do we run right past an opportunity to minister to someone in the name of Jesus because our plans, our planned schedule, our ideas about how our day or life should be unfolding, doesn’t fit what is unfolding in the moment? 

ILL:  It happened to me on Friday morning this week.  I was in the basement of Mosaic Center trying to get some things done so I could head home and start work on this message.  There had been a string of unplanned “interruptions” already, and it was only 10:00 a.m. 

            That’s when one of the workmen came downstairs asking where we wanted the last light bar placed on the ceiling.  I was in the middle of talking with someone on the phone about Jeremy’s memorial service that was coming up on Saturday.  This workman heard that as I walked up the stairs with him, phone to my ear, wrapping up the conversation. 

When I finished the call about 5 seconds later, he had the compassion of heart and charity of mind to comment how sorry he was that someone had died.  It was really a very kind comment that could have led me into talking about Jeremy’s life and what an amazing servant of God he was/is.  But my “plans” were being frustrated…and I wanted to get back to what I thought was important.  So I thanked him for his comment but promptly charged into the instructions he needed to get his question answered.  And then I went back downstairs to work.

How might that little open door of a comment developed into a big door for talking about the greatness of Jesus in Jeremy’s life…IF my plans had not been foremost in my mind at the moment?  Sadly, I’ll never know.  But I hope that the next time someone “interrupts” my plans, I have the presence of mind to pause, ask God what HIS will is, and humbly embrace what God has dropped into my lap rather than willfully press forward with what I have planned in my day. 

That may or may not be an issue with you.  Regardless, I hope that God's plans consume more of my plans for everyone around me.  Because this is what the Bible says about the things God plans:

  • Jeremiah 29:11—

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

  • Ephesians 1:11—

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will….

  • Psalm 33:10, 11—

The Lord foils the plans of the nations;
    he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
    the purposes of his heart through all generations.

  • Isaiah 28:19—

All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,
    whose plan is wonderful,
    whose wisdom is magnificent.

  • Isaiah 14:24—

The Lord Almighty has sworn,

“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
    and as I have purposed, so it will happen.

  • Amos 3:7—

Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
    without revealing his plan
    to his servants the prophets.

God isn’t opposed to us making plans, just plans that depend on us more than Him and look to ourselves rather than His sovereignty.  But plans that are made seeking God’s heart and listening to God’s voice are the very things God delights to establish and bring to fruition.

  • Proverbs 16:3

Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
    and he will establish your plans.

  • Proverbs 16:9

In their hearts humans plan their course,
    but the Lord establishes their steps.

 

Benediction:  Psalm 20:4, 5

May he give you the desire of your heart
    and make all your plans succeed.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory
    and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the Lord grant all your requests. 

FOR FURTHER STUDY

  1. Do a word study on the English words “plan” and “plans” in the Old and New Testaments by going to biblegateway.com. Go to the menu pull-down table “Bible” and click on “Key Word Search”.  Under “Enter Words or Phrases” type the word “plan”.  Under that, choose “match exact phrase” on the pull down options.  Next, choose the English Bible version you want to use under the “Select Version” heading.  Then hit the “search for key word or phrase” button and…presto, you should have all the times the word “plan” or “plans” (depending on which word you put in) occurs in the English version of your Bible. 

If you chose the NIV, you should have 28 references in the Old Testament and 8 in the New.

Now read every verse that is shown and, if necessary, look up the larger passage in your Bible if you can’t figure out what kind of “plan” the word is talking about.  For instance, in 1st Chronicles 28:19, you have the word “plan” used of the literal sketches, drawings or plans David had for the Temple.  That is a very different use of “plan” from what is talked about in Esther 8:3 where Esther is pleading with the king to void the “evil plan” of Haman to kill the Jews. 

Try to group various uses of the words “plan” or “plans” based on the following things:

  • God’s plans for people
  • Statements about human’s plans
  • Human plans God blesses
  • People’s plans God frustrates or curses
  • General observations about plans
  1. Do you think planning is really a God-like quality? Why or why not? 
  2. What in life do you think God wants us to plan for? What does he want us to plan for in life regarding eternity? How?
  3. What direction does God give about HOW we are to make plans? How would you counsel a new believer about making plans?
  4. How could you incorporate James’ challenge to have the attitude of “God willing” over all you plan? How might this impact your daily life?
  5. “Lord willing…God permitting” (Deo Volente)…what planning might I do that would reflect what I think God would want to happen in the following areas of my life over these next few months or years?
    1. Physical health?
    2. Intellectual development? (reading, writing, study, learning, memory, etc.)
    3. Spiritual growth?
    4. Family?
    5. Friendships?
    6. Ministry? (service, outreach,
    7. Work?
    8. Mosaic?
    9. Finances?
    10. Other