WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.459 If someone were to ask you, what does it look like to live out the Christian faith? 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:13.640 ! What does it look like to live out your faith? How would you answer that question for them? 00:00:14.540 --> 00:00:21.260 If someone were to genuinely come up to you and said, I want you to explain to me what it means to live out 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:27.120 the Christian faith. How would you answer that? How would you explain what it looks like to live out 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:33.500 your faith? Maybe say, well, you go to church. Well, read your Bible occasionally. Try to be nice. 00:00:34.120 --> 00:00:40.079 And this topic is something that we could go on and on talking about. And much of what James does 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:47.159 is as he works his way through this letter, is he fleshes this out for us in many different ways. 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:53.000 This is a topic in question that he has been addressing throughout this book up until this 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:59.380 point and continues to. He does so by talking about the testing of our faith, by telling us, 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:05.420 don't just be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. He tells us to live it out by not 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:10.799 showing partiality that faith without works is dead. He tells us that we should be taming the tongue. 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:15.620 And this is something that we all need to work on because if somebody is able to tame the tongue, 00:01:15.620 --> 00:01:22.460 then he's able to control the whole body as well. He tells us this by showing us the difference 00:01:22.460 --> 00:01:30.719 between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom and how those who live out their faith do so by following 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:37.620 godly wisdom, by making sure they focus on the things of God. He tells us this last week as we 00:01:37.620 --> 00:01:44.100 talked about the cause of quarrels and fights among us and how our passions are at war. And I wanted to 00:01:44.099 --> 00:01:48.299 make something clear that I probably should have clarified more last week with this as well is 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:54.119 that when we seek to restore relationships, God has called us to do our part, but that's all that 00:01:54.119 --> 00:02:01.039 we can do. That's all that we can do is our part to live as God wants us to live to for the relationship 00:02:01.039 --> 00:02:07.560 to restore. That's ultimately up to him. In fact, in fact, Paul tells us this in Romans 12 when he says, 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:15.479 if possible, so far as it depends on you to live peaceably with all as far as it depends on you. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:21.620 So he tells us to live out our faith by doing all of these things over and over again. In this book, 00:02:21.740 --> 00:02:27.879 James has reminded us what it looks like to live out our faith. And in our passage today, 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:34.039 one of the things that James does is he kind of begins to bring all of this together for us. 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:40.159 All of these different ways that he's told us to live out our faith, he starts to bring them to a 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:47.139 conclusion and starts to give us a summation of what this looks like to live out our faith in the 00:02:47.139 --> 00:02:52.539 Christian life. And so if you have a copy of God's word today, I want you to, I want to invite you to 00:02:52.539 --> 00:02:59.859 open with me to James chapter four. And we're going to start where we left off last week in verse seven, 00:02:59.860 --> 00:03:05.820 and then read through the remainder of James four. And this is what God's word says. It says, 00:03:05.980 --> 00:03:13.900 submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:19.680 and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:25.660 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:33.759 Humble yourselves therefore before the Lord and he will exalt you. Do not speak evil against one 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:39.479 another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against 00:03:39.479 --> 00:03:46.439 the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. 00:03:46.979 --> 00:03:54.719 There is only one lawgiver and one judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to 00:03:54.719 --> 00:04:01.939 judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town 00:04:01.939 --> 00:04:07.400 and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:16.220 What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then it vanishes. 00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:23.399 Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. And if you boast in 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:29.659 your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:37.120 for him it is a sin. And so as we look at this passage, there's some clear commands that I want 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:41.919 us to see today. There's some clear commands that we see throughout this that I want to make 00:04:41.919 --> 00:04:47.739 very prevalent for us today as we look at this passage. And what we see as believers, 00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:54.280 we are called to live out this Christian life. And to begin with, we are called to live a life that is 00:04:54.280 --> 00:05:00.980 submitted to God. As believers, we are called to live a life that is submitted to God. It says, 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:06.699 submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:11.600 will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:17.300 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 00:05:17.300 --> 00:05:24.520 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. James has been calling for his readers to 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:29.819 return to God throughout this whole book. To begin with, at the beginning of the message, we said 00:05:29.819 --> 00:05:35.920 this was how to live out the Christian life. But ultimately, it's the same thing that James is 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:41.500 calling us to do here. Living out the Christian life is synonymous with submitting your life to God, 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:47.280 living a life of submission to God. Last week, we mentioned it is God's grace that 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:54.100 saves, but it's also his grace that allows us to grow in our relationship with him. What James is 00:05:54.100 --> 00:06:03.879 reminding us over and over again is the impossibility of claiming a life-changing relationship with Jesus 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:11.600 without actually having a life change. He's reminding us over and over again the impossibility of saying that 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:17.939 you have a life-changing relationship with Jesus, but yet your life has not changed. 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:24.620 James is effectively dismantling the argument of lip service Christianity that wants to jump on board, 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:29.360 receive blessing from God, and then run straight back into the old lifestyle. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:36.319 God's grace prompts repentance in his people. God's grace, when truly understood, 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:43.939 is a heart change that will lead to a transformed behavior. But now we get the chance to see how this 00:06:43.939 --> 00:06:50.199 plays out. The solution to this bitter jealousy that we talked about, the solution to this selfish 00:06:50.199 --> 00:06:57.579 ambition, this pridefulness, this worldliness, the solution to all of this is submission to God. 00:06:58.199 --> 00:07:05.759 It's submission to God. And what we see is that submitting to God is yielding to him, recognizing his 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:12.000 just and his rightful rule of our lives. Douglas Moose says it like this. He says, 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:19.959 to submit to God means to place ourselves under his lordship and therefore to commit ourselves to 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:26.860 obey him in all things. You see, submission for the Christian is not optional. It's not something that 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:32.220 you get to choose whether or not you want this part of Christianity. It's not extra credit for those 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:37.860 who want to be super spiritual. It's not just for those who are going on the mission field or going 00:07:37.860 --> 00:07:44.180 into the ministry or just want to do a little bit extra. No, submission in the life of a believer 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:50.699 is something that God requires. It's something that he's called all of us to do, to submit our lives 00:07:50.699 --> 00:07:57.220 to him. It's not something that we get to pick and choose whether we want to do it or not. James has 00:07:57.220 --> 00:08:02.740 already told us that our conflicts, those conflicts that we talked about in verse one of this chapter, 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:10.639 are the result of godless desires not being met. And so what's the solution to those godless desires 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:16.400 not being met in these quarrels and these fights? It's submission to God. Albury notes, he says, 00:08:16.460 --> 00:08:24.900 so the answer is found in submitting our desires to him, giving them over to him, and even asking him 00:08:24.900 --> 00:08:31.600 not to give us the things that we deeply want when the things we deeply want are selfish. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:38.399 That last part is hard to hear, right? That last part is difficult for us to hear. Even asking him 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:45.659 not to give us the things we deeply want when the things that we deeply want are selfish. So we clearly 00:08:45.659 --> 00:08:52.279 see that we are to submit ourselves to God. And while this is hard to actually do at times, I think it's 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:58.139 something that we can all understand, right? We all understand that we are to submit ourselves to God. 00:08:58.139 --> 00:09:05.319 And this concept, even though it's hard to put into practice at times, it's not really hard for us to 00:09:05.319 --> 00:09:12.039 wrap our minds around. But yet the next command that we see in here is something that a lot of times is 00:09:12.039 --> 00:09:17.199 difficult for us to know what to do with. And so all too often we just ignore it, we just push it out of 00:09:17.199 --> 00:09:21.899 our minds since we don't really know what to do with it. He says right here, he says, submit yourselves 00:09:21.899 --> 00:09:27.959 therefore to God. We're all clear there. And then he says this, resist the devil and he will flee from 00:09:27.959 --> 00:09:34.399 you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Often is the case that we don't really know what to 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:39.799 do with the devil. And so what we'd end up doing is just ignoring the subject altogether. We don't 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:44.919 really have a category to place him in, in our, in our, in our minds. And so what we do is we just, 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:51.979 just ignore him altogether. The problem is that he's real. And the problem is that that is dangerous 00:09:51.979 --> 00:10:00.879 to do. Peter tells us that the devil is like a roaring lion seeking to devour. He then immediately 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:07.000 tells us to do the exact same thing that James does. Right after telling us that the devil is a 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:13.399 roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Peter tells us the exact same thing that James does. He says to 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:21.279 resist him, to resist him, pretending like he doesn't exist, doesn't really seem to be an option 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:26.220 that the Bible gives us. It doesn't really seem to be an option that is healthy for the Christian life. 00:10:26.659 --> 00:10:32.579 Sticking your head in the sand in the presence of a roaring lion may dull the sound of the roaring lion, 00:10:32.579 --> 00:10:37.759 but it does nothing to protect you from being devoured. Just sticking your head in the sand, 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:42.939 pretending like it's not real, doesn't do anything to actually protect you. 00:10:42.940 --> 00:10:50.560 So we must understand that he's real, but we also must understand that we have power over that, 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:59.280 over Satan. The devil is neither to be ignored or trivialized, but nor is he to be unduly feared. 00:11:00.140 --> 00:11:08.060 James tells us very directly, resist the devil and he will what? He will flee from you. Whatever power 00:11:08.059 --> 00:11:15.699 Satan may have, Christians can be absolutely certain that we have been given the ability to overcome that 00:11:15.699 --> 00:11:21.799 power. While we may not know exactly how this plays out, what we can be certain of is whatever power 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:29.759 Satan may have, Christians have been given the ability to overcome that power. Draw near to God, 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:34.860 we are told, and he will draw near to you. And then closing out this section, he says, humble yourselves 00:11:34.860 --> 00:11:40.580 before the Lord and he will exalt you. Whatever you are submitting to in this life, whatever you are 00:11:40.580 --> 00:11:48.659 giving your life to, who has the authority to call the shots in your life? Those are questions that we must 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:55.399 answer today. Is it God? Is it the devil? I don't really think many of us are actively trying to let Satan 00:11:55.399 --> 00:12:02.319 have authority over our life, but he's very happy to just let us be when we give other people the right 00:12:02.319 --> 00:12:08.959 to tell us how we should think or do or feel. Many times we let other people have authority over our 00:12:08.959 --> 00:12:15.639 lives. We value what they think more than we value what God thinks. We value their opinion, what they 00:12:15.639 --> 00:12:22.000 may think of us, more than we value what God thinks of us. In fact, Ed Welch, he wrote a whole book on this, 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:29.480 when people are big and God is small. And in this, he says, to place ourselves, what he says is this, 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:36.759 he says, when we see people as bigger, that is more powerful and more significant than God. And out of 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:42.620 that fear that creates in us, we give other people the power and the right to tell us what to feel, 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:51.759 to think, and to do. You see, James very clearly here tells us to rightfully submit your life to God. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:00.419 Give him the authority that he deserves to direct our path. Don't give others that right. Actively 00:13:00.419 --> 00:13:06.279 resist the devil and he will flee from you. This is what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:15.379 Submission to God. We are to place ourselves under his lordship and therefore to commit ourselves to 00:13:15.379 --> 00:13:23.320 obey him in all things. Again, this is not optional. We can't call ourselves a follower of Jesus if we're 00:13:23.320 --> 00:13:29.539 not actually following Jesus anywhere. We can't claim to be a follower of Jesus if we're not actually 00:13:29.539 --> 00:13:36.519 following him with our lives. We see this play out in many different ways. But the next thing that I want 00:13:36.519 --> 00:13:44.319 us to see that we are called to do as believers is that we are called to live a life that builds one another up. 00:13:44.539 --> 00:13:50.600 We are called to live a life that builds one another up. He says, do not speak evil against one another, 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:57.879 brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. 00:13:57.879 --> 00:14:04.980 But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, 00:14:05.059 --> 00:14:11.860 he who is able to save and to destroy. But you are to judge, but who are you to judge your neighbor? 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:17.559 You see, when you submit your life to God, it will inevitably change the way that you talk 00:14:17.559 --> 00:14:24.159 to people and it will change the way that you talk about people. When you submit your life to God, 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:30.559 as God has called us to do, it will always change the way you talk to other people and it will change 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:36.980 the way that you talk about other people. James has already given a very strong warning about the way 00:14:36.980 --> 00:14:42.120 that we speak to others and the importance of taming our tongue. If you need a refresher on that, 00:14:42.179 --> 00:14:48.500 just go back and read James chapter three and you'll see it very clearly. But here he brings this to a 00:14:48.500 --> 00:14:57.220 final emphasis as he warns us about worldly speech. We are to speak in a way that brings, that embraces, 00:14:57.620 --> 00:15:03.639 we're, when we speak in a way that embraces the things of this world, it has two very negative 00:15:03.639 --> 00:15:09.700 consequences in our life. When we speak in a way that embraces the things of this world, it has two 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:16.419 very negative impacts on our life, negative consequences. The first thing it does is it discourages 00:15:16.419 --> 00:15:24.639 others. The CSB starts off in verse 11 by saying, don't criticize one another. When we criticize 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:30.139 or speak evil against our brothers and sisters, we tear each other down. This not only discourages the 00:15:30.139 --> 00:15:35.819 person that you're talking to, but it also discourages the, the, the people that, uh, that was not only 00:15:35.819 --> 00:15:39.819 discourages the person you're talking about, but it also discourages the people that you're talking to 00:15:39.819 --> 00:15:45.779 because then it discourages them from listening to what you have to say about Jesus. Can you imagine 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:51.639 going to someone and talking and gossiping and talking about others and how discouraging that 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:55.819 is to the person that you're talking about, but also how discouraging it is for the person who's 00:15:55.819 --> 00:16:00.379 listening to you and then try to change that conversation to the things of God and then try 00:16:00.379 --> 00:16:05.779 to change that conversation and turn it around to talk to them about Jesus. It's discouraging all around, 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:10.740 but not only is it discouraging to others, but it dishonors God as well. 00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:17.299 It dishonors God. When you purposefully go against what God has called us to do, 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:23.299 then with or without saying it, you claim to know that you know better for your life than God does. 00:16:24.039 --> 00:16:29.919 When you purposefully go against what God has called us to do, then what you're doing is you are in that 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.680 moment, whether you're saying it or not, but in that moment, what you're doing is saying, 00:16:34.679 --> 00:16:41.299 I know better for my life than God does because I'm choosing to follow what I want to do and not 00:16:41.299 --> 00:16:47.179 follow what God wants me to do. And so we are actively saying that. So whether it's discouraging 00:16:47.179 --> 00:16:53.539 or dishonoring, we must put these things to a stop in our life. If we are speaking in a way 00:16:53.539 --> 00:17:00.519 that puts others down, whether it's to someone's face or behind their back, it's usually for one purpose. 00:17:00.519 --> 00:17:06.639 It's usually for one purpose when we do that. Well, oftentimes we tear people down in order to 00:17:06.639 --> 00:17:13.639 build ourselves up. We often tear people down to glorify ourselves. This could not be further 00:17:13.639 --> 00:17:20.099 from what God wants us to do. God doesn't want us to tear people down and to glorify ourselves. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:27.019 He wants us to build others up and glorify his name, to point them to him. If you are prone to use your 00:17:27.019 --> 00:17:33.180 mouth, to tear people down, to gossip behind their back, know that this is not only discourages one 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:40.240 another, but it dishonors God in the process. You may think, well, well, I know who I can gossip to 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:45.960 and who I can't. I know those close knit people that I can, that I can really share with and they're 00:17:45.960 --> 00:17:51.339 not going to say anything. So what's the really the big deal about it? It's never going to get back 00:17:51.339 --> 00:17:58.839 to this purpose. People will never know. The problem is that isn't true. Sin, and yes, gossip is a sin, 00:17:59.179 --> 00:18:05.859 always has a way of destroying relationships. It always has either a direct or an indirect way 00:18:05.859 --> 00:18:13.339 of creeping in and causing disunity. As followers of Christ, we are called to live a life that builds 00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:20.839 one another up and does not tear each other down. And one of the beautiful features of the church is 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:28.959 its diversity. The gospel can and should bring people together from all walks of life, from all 00:18:28.959 --> 00:18:34.699 walks of life that may would never associate. And so the church should be a place where people from 00:18:34.699 --> 00:18:39.699 all walks of life, whether they wear the same clothes or not, whether they're in the same economic 00:18:39.700 --> 00:18:43.799 status or not, whether they have the same skin color or not, it should be a place that it brings all 00:18:43.799 --> 00:18:49.080 people together because this is the beauty of the gospel. The gospel tears down barriers and brings 00:18:49.080 --> 00:18:56.120 people together. But this beauty, when our eyes are taken off of Jesus, can become a problem very, 00:18:56.259 --> 00:19:02.440 very quickly. Where there are differences and our eyes are not on Jesus, then all of a sudden 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:09.220 comparisons start creeping in. And where comparisons start creeping in and our eyes are not on Jesus, 00:19:09.220 --> 00:19:16.059 then all of a sudden judgments start creeping in and we start judging one another. And when judgment 00:19:16.059 --> 00:19:22.039 creeps in and our eyes are not fixed on Jesus, all of a sudden you see divisions start happening within 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:30.980 the church. This is where the beauty can become destructive. And may we always keep our eyes on Jesus 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:37.860 and speak to each other in a way that would build one another up and that is life-giving and not 00:19:37.859 --> 00:19:44.500 destroying. The last thing that I want us to draw our attention to this morning is I think one of 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:51.379 the most significant in this passage. And that is this, as believers, we are called to live a life 00:19:51.379 --> 00:19:58.659 that has a sense of urgency. As believers, we are called to live a life that has a sense of urgency. 00:19:58.660 --> 00:20:05.060 It says, come now you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year 00:20:05.060 --> 00:20:12.880 there or a trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is life? For 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:19.080 you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:27.879 if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting 00:20:27.879 --> 00:20:35.559 is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is a sin. Now there's obviously 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:41.199 some things in this passage right here in this section, like the other sections, that we won't get to fully 00:20:41.199 --> 00:20:48.519 flesh out. But I feel this idea that life is short and that we should focus on the things of significance. 00:20:48.519 --> 00:20:54.940 significance is always present in our minds. I feel like it's something that we can all wrap our minds 00:20:54.940 --> 00:21:02.019 around. Sometimes it's in the back of our minds, especially when life is busy or when you are 00:21:02.019 --> 00:21:09.059 younger. And sometimes it's front and center, like when tragedy strikes. And or we just take a moment to 00:21:09.059 --> 00:21:15.339 think about on the last however many years you've been alive. For me, it's 40. Clay, obviously today is 33. 00:21:15.339 --> 00:21:22.939 But for all of us, when we think back on our lives and we think about where we are now and how fast 00:21:22.939 --> 00:21:30.819 that time went, I think it reminds us that life is short. And so we should be giving our thing, 00:21:31.019 --> 00:21:37.720 our life to things that matter. I feel like the older you get, the more you begin to realize it. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:42.419 The problem is by the time you realize it, you don't have as much time to do something about it. 00:21:42.420 --> 00:21:49.279 So it's important for us, whether you're nine or 99 today, that I want to make sure that we understand 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:56.380 something very clearly in this passage. God has called us to live lives that have eternal significance 00:21:56.380 --> 00:22:03.519 in the short amount of time that we are able to live on this earth. God has called us to live lives 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:09.220 that have eternal significance in the short amount of time we have in this life. 00:22:09.220 --> 00:22:13.740 I think Spurgeon put it beautifully when he said it this way. He says, 00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:21.319 it is a great folly to build hopes on what may never come. It is a great folly to build hopes on 00:22:21.319 --> 00:22:29.059 what may never come. It is madness to risk everything on the unsubstantial future. Life is like a vapor. 00:22:29.720 --> 00:22:34.940 Sometimes these vapors, especially at the time of sunset, are exceedingly brilliant. 00:22:34.940 --> 00:22:42.380 They seem to be magnificent itself when the sun paints them with heavenly colors. But in a little 00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:50.519 while, they are gone. And the whole panorama of the sunset has disappeared. Such is life. It may 00:22:50.519 --> 00:22:58.559 sometimes be bright and glorious, but it's still only like a painted cloud. And soon the cloud and the 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:07.720 color in it are both gone. Therefore, if this life is as unsubstantial as a vapor, and nobody can deny 00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:17.559 that fact, let us regard it as such. And let us seek for something substantial elsewhere. Unless we 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:25.960 purposefully live a life with a view of the next world, we cannot make much out of our present existence. 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:42.299 You see, this is where perspective needs to take place in our life. We need to see our lives as something 00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:49.059 far greater than just this short amount of time that we have on this earth. James says it's a vapor, it's a mist, 00:23:49.120 --> 00:23:55.799 it's here today and gone tomorrow. It's just a mist. Have you ever sprayed a spray bottle, and all of a sudden you 00:23:55.799 --> 00:24:01.319 see the mist goes out, and then all of a sudden it's gone. You spray it, it goes out, and it's gone. 00:24:01.940 --> 00:24:08.299 He says this is like our lives, and yet we focus all of our attention on this short little time that 00:24:08.299 --> 00:24:15.819 we have on this earth. Francis Chan gives an incredible illustration, and if I thought about it, I may have 00:24:15.819 --> 00:24:19.759 brought a rope on the stage with me, but one of the things that he does is he goes off to the side of the 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:24.220 stage in the sermon one time, and he brings this rope out, and he brings it to the center of the stage. 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:29.700 You get to see the beginning of the rope, but you don't see where the rope ends, and he says, I want you 00:24:29.700 --> 00:24:37.759 to imagine that this rope is a timeline of your existence. Imagine that this rope is a timeline of 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:43.539 your existence. Your life starts when you were born, and then goes on for all of eternity, and then he 00:24:43.539 --> 00:24:49.059 shows the beginning of the timeline, and in this beginning of the rope, he has this little tiny section 00:24:49.059 --> 00:24:54.819 on there with like a piece of red tape wrapped around it, and he says this red tape represents 00:24:54.819 --> 00:25:01.559 your life on this earth. This little section, this little red section represents your life on this earth, 00:25:01.659 --> 00:25:08.779 and then the rest of it is all eternity, and so you have, you represent this little red part, and then it's 00:25:08.779 --> 00:25:16.500 tiny in comparison to the rest of eternity. In this small little section, he says, imagine this little 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:22.660 section is the time that we have here on earth, and then the rest of the rope is our time in heaven, and he 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:30.240 says how foolish it is to spend all of our time living for this red section. How foolish is it to spend all of 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:37.000 our time, all of our energy, all of our resources on this small little section. We save all of our life for a 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:44.119 little section at the end to spend our lives in comfort. All of our major decisions focus on this small little 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:51.339 red area that represents this life. We focus and build our lives around what we can accomplish in 00:25:51.339 --> 00:25:58.739 this life with no regard to the internal impact that our decisions will make. He says how foolish it is 00:25:58.739 --> 00:26:06.259 to spend all of our energy, all of our resources, all of our thoughts on how we can make the most of this 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:13.939 tiny little section in light of eternity. And if I could plead with you as we look at the bookends of 00:26:13.940 --> 00:26:20.279 our message today, as we attempt to not only sum up this message, but ultimately sum up the Christian 00:26:20.279 --> 00:26:29.620 life, this is my plea to you to submit yourself to God with a sense of urgency. Submit yourself to God 00:26:29.620 --> 00:26:37.920 with a sense of urgency. Don't put it off. None of us are promised tomorrow. Jesus could come back at any 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:44.900 time and at any moment we may leave this world. The statistics have not changed. The mortality rate 00:26:44.900 --> 00:26:49.900 is still holding strong. It's a hundred percent. Unless Jesus comes back, each and every person is 00:26:49.900 --> 00:26:56.680 going to die one day. And so we must think about how we're going to spend our lives. Our time on earth 00:26:56.680 --> 00:27:05.300 is a mist. Here for a moment in light of eternity. So we must ask ourselves, what are we giving our lives to? 00:27:05.299 --> 00:27:11.299 What are we giving our lives to? What are we going all in on? So the first question that I want to ask 00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:18.980 you with this is, are you ready for this reality? Have you given your life to Jesus? Part of submitting 00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:24.919 to God with a sense of urgency is giving our lives to him. Because here's the bad news. The bad news is 00:27:24.919 --> 00:27:30.779 that each and every person is a sinner. Each and every one of us is a sinner. Whether that sin is lying, 00:27:30.779 --> 00:27:36.079 cheating, cheating, stealing, murder, whatever the case may be, I think all of us could look at our 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:40.579 lives and identify that we are sinners. If you can't, then ask the person next to you. They'll be 00:27:40.579 --> 00:27:47.799 happy to identify some areas of sin in your life. Each and every one of us is a sinner. And what the 00:27:47.799 --> 00:27:55.599 Bible tells us is that sin separates us from God. What the Bible tells us is that sin has put us on a 00:27:55.599 --> 00:28:04.299 pathway that leads straight to hell and eternity separated from God. That's bad news. And the worst 00:28:04.299 --> 00:28:11.839 news is there's nothing we can do about that. The worst news is you can't save yourself. You can't all 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:16.219 of a sudden decide, you know what? I'm on this path. I'm going to just on my own accord. I'm going to 00:28:16.219 --> 00:28:22.679 change paths and I want to go on a different path, God. You can't do that. There's nothing you can do to 00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:29.360 save yourself. That's the worst news. But the Bible also tells us of some good news. And the good news 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:34.980 is that Jesus saw us in our helpless state, in our hopeless state where we couldn't do anything about 00:28:34.980 --> 00:28:40.720 it. And he left the glory of heaven and he lived the life that we couldn't live, that perfect life 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:47.220 that we're called to live, that we can't do because of sin. He lived that life for us. And then he went to 00:28:47.220 --> 00:28:53.100 the cross and died the death that we deserve. And so that so that those who place their faith and 00:28:53.100 --> 00:28:58.440 their trust in him can get on a different path. They can now all of a sudden go from death to life. 00:28:58.500 --> 00:29:04.559 They can enter into a relationship with God because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. That's the 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:10.279 good news. And the best news is, is if you want to place your faith and trust in Jesus, that's something 00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:17.139 you can do right now. You can go from death to life. And so for you submitting to God with a sense 00:29:17.139 --> 00:29:22.539 of urgency, maybe giving your life to him for the first time, it may be saying, God, I can't do this 00:29:22.539 --> 00:29:30.259 on my own. I need you right now. But for many others in here today, you've already made this decision to 00:29:30.259 --> 00:29:38.000 follow Jesus. And I encourage you to continue to submit to God with a sense of urgency. For some that 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:44.700 may be joining this body of believers. For others, it may be baptism. You've accepted Jesus a long time 00:29:44.700 --> 00:29:52.619 back, but you've never been baptized. For others, it may be restructuring your life to value the things 00:29:52.619 --> 00:30:00.140 of God and showing your children what is most important in life. That may be submitting to God with 00:30:00.140 --> 00:30:07.660 a sense of urgency. For some, I hope and pray it means that we clearly see the life that God has called us 00:30:07.660 --> 00:30:13.960 to live. And it's a life on mission for him. All of us have this call. Many of us will live this call 00:30:13.960 --> 00:30:20.360 out in this community for the rest of our lives. Many of us will do that. But I hope and I pray that 00:30:20.360 --> 00:30:27.240 God will raise up some from this church who will go to the nations. I hope and pray that God will raise 00:30:27.240 --> 00:30:32.519 up from this church people who will see around the world that there are people who are lost and dying 00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:37.639 and going to hell apart from a relationship with Jesus and realize that there is no gospel presence 00:30:37.639 --> 00:30:43.819 in these communities and say that I can do something about that. That says I can go to the nations and 00:30:43.819 --> 00:30:49.259 maybe living with a sense of urgency, maybe submitting to God with a sense of urgency means that you're 00:30:49.259 --> 00:30:54.839 saying I'm ready to go wherever you call me to go, God. And that should be our prayer for each and every 00:30:54.839 --> 00:31:01.920 person here. Whether that's going across the street or across the world. May we submit our lives to God 00:31:02.519 --> 00:31:07.700 sense of urgency. May we all continue to submit our lives to God with this sense of urgency. 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:14.059 Investing in and giving our lives to things that have eternal significance. Where we're not just 00:31:14.059 --> 00:31:18.420 thinking about this little section that we're here on earth, but we're thinking about our lives 00:31:18.420 --> 00:31:26.799 in light of eternity. And so my plea for you today is this. To submit your life to God. My plea for myself 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:34.440 to daily do this is to submit my life to God with a sense of urgency because none of us are promised 00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:42.059 tomorrow. And so we want to give our lives to him to do what he's called us to do. That's what it means 00:31:42.059 --> 00:31:48.599 to live out the Christian life. To submit your life to him. To understand that he is the rightful one. 00:31:48.599 --> 00:31:55.019 He's the just one that has authority over our lives. And so however this may look out in your life, 00:31:55.219 --> 00:32:01.859 what this may look like in your life today, I encourage you to submit your life to God. Father, thank you 00:32:01.859 --> 00:32:09.659 so very much for all that you do for us each and every day. God, I thank you that you have made a way 00:32:09.659 --> 00:32:16.439 for our relationship with you to be restored. That we can give our lives to you. That we can do what we 00:32:16.440 --> 00:32:21.880 were called to do, what we were created to do, and that is to worship you with our lives. And so Lord, 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:27.100 thank you for making a way for us to be able to do what we were created to do. Because we understand 00:32:27.100 --> 00:32:32.220 that's where we find the most purpose and the most significance in our life is doing what it is that 00:32:32.220 --> 00:32:40.960 you've called us to do. And so Lord, I pray that you would burden our hearts this morning. Reveal those 00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:46.720 areas in our life where we're not submitting our lives to you. Where we're not saying, God, 00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:52.799 here's my life, take it and use it. And God, I pray that you give us the boldness and the courage 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:59.819 to begin to submit our lives to you. And Lord, I pray that we do it with a sense of urgency. 00:32:59.819 --> 00:33:07.579 Knowing that there's much work to be done on this earth. Much work that has eternal significance. 00:33:08.139 --> 00:33:14.700 Much work that makes a difference, not only in this life, but the life to come. And so God, 00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:21.500 give us the strength. Give us the boldness. Give us the courage to live for you, to submit our lives to 00:33:21.500 --> 00:33:26.639 you with a sense of urgency. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.