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Nov 04, 2018

Loving Today

Passage: James 4:13-17

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: James

Category: Grace Brevard

We all deeply struggle with making life all about ourselves, forgetting that we have a powerful, wise and loving Father that has already planned our path and is currently carrying us along it. This truth enables and propels us to deeply live in the “now” while we prayerfully and confidently plan for tomorrow, trusting that the God who has perfectly secured our eternity through Jesus has just as surely planned our every step.

Order of Worship

Call To Worship: Ephesians 1:3-6,13-14 ESV

LEADER: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

ALL: In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

LEADER: 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

ALL: 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Music:

  • How Great Thou Art
  • Reckless Love
  • Jesus I Come
  • Lead On O King Eternal
  • Band: Lead Guitar & Vocals - Stu Nelsen, Vocals - Lucy Chapman, Guitar & Vocals - Randy Johnson, Cajon - Dakota Chapman

Reading: Romans 8:28-30 & Hebrews 12:1-2a ESV

LEADER: 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

ALL: 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,  

Gratitude: Kept By God & Matthew 6:25-27,34 ESV

ALL:   Jehovah God. Creator, Sustainer of all things. It is our privilege is to be under the direction of Your omnipotence, righteousness, wisdom, and grace.

LEADER: It is the discovery of Your goodness alone that can banish our fears, allure us into Your presence, and help us to confess sins.

ALL: For there is mercy and exceeding riches in Your kindness through Jesus. May we always feel our need of Him.

LEADER: Bear up heart and mind. Enliven our daily walk. Work in us the image of the heavenly; the first fruits of spirituality found in Christ.

ALL: Thy kingdom come.   

LEADER: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

ALL: Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

LEADER: 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

ALL: Are you not of more value than they?

LEADER: 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

ALL: 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Message: Loving Today

Central Text: James 4:13-17

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Illustration: Seize the Day

Response: The Lord’s Prayer

ALL: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

For Thine is the Kingdom

and the power and the glory

forever and ever Amen.

Benediction: Proverbs 27:1 & 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 ESV

LEADER: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

ALL: 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Additional Scriptures:

  • Psalm 1:1-3
  • Ecclesiastes 1:2-3
  • Romans 8:29-30 ESV
  • Romans 14:12

Media:

11.04.18 Album

Discussion Questions:

  1. Are you more likely to plan or to live spontaneously?
    1. What are the pros and cons of each?
  2. This passage talks about the “cons of planning”.
    1. Is planning for the future necessarily wrong (sinful)?
    2. What kind of planning was James critiquing (look at what they were planning and what it says about their hearts)?
    3. How is this “arrogant”? (what are we saying about our power and control?)
  3. What is the current message from media and culture on this subject?
    1. List some helpful / destructive examples in current movies, tv, music, etc.
  4. How can “living for the now” be just as sinful/arrogant?
  5. The heart of the issue is living for ourselves rather than...what?
    1. What does it look like in real life to be consumed with self?
    2. Why “shouldn’t” we simply live for our own happiness?
  6. James isn’t giving us an incantation (“If the Lord wills”) that you simply tag to the end of your plans. He is inviting us into a belief...belief in what?
  7. What do you think about God’s Providence?
    1. Why/When is it hard to trust God’s plan and power?
  8. How might a gospel perspective on this topic influence:
    1. Never present v.s. Never planning.
    1. Pressure (to save or change others) v.s. Never saying or doing anything
    1. Community and Relationships
    2. Reaching and Equipping others
  9. This is all summarized in Jesus, when, in the garden before his crucifixion, he prayed ““My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matt 26:39). What does this tell us about God’s Goodness and Power?
    1. How does this empower us to trust God’s path (Rom 8:32)?

Quotes:

  • “Providence, not the newspaper, accounts for the times in which we live.” - Eugene Peterson
  • “We cannot stay where we are. We must journey forth. We must find that which is greater than fortune or fate. Nothing can bring us peace but that.” - The Tree of Life
  • “It matters not how strait the gate,  How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” - William Ernest Henley (Invictus)
  • “Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before death is what counts.” - Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes)
  • “God will put you in the right place, even if you don’t know it at the time” - Broadchurch Series

Sermons / Talks:

Living Eternally by Francis Chan

Philippians 3 & Luke 9

Does God Control Everything? by Timothy J. Keller

Romans 8

If the Lord Wills by John Piper

James 4:13-16

Your Plans: God’s Plans by Timothy J. Keller

Proverbs 11:3 & 12:5