God’s Will for Your Life
James 4:13-17
What do you think of when you hear the words “God’s will” or “the will of God.” And please don’t say that song by Martina Mcbride. When I think of God’s will I think of basically two different visual images. One is an image of a target—like a dart board. The other is simply a circle. I have a saying I use quite a bit when I talk about my walk with God. I say, “I want to be in the center of God’s will.” This leads me to the visual images. If you picture the circle—which represents God’s will, is just being inside of that circle enough? “I’m inside the circle. I’m right on the edge and leaning out but technically I’m still in it.” Whether or not that is good enough is between you and God, but for me I want to be in the exact center of His will. That’s where the dart board comes in, because it has a bull’s eye. I’d rather be as close to the center as I can be, rather than on the border. I’d rather be fully obedient, than barely obedient. When you guys have boyfriends or girlfriends, or when you get married, would you rather have your significant other be fully committed or barely committed? Fully faithful, or barely faithful?
Let’s look at an example—pre-marital sex. Outside of the circle is having pre-marital sex. Inside the circle is not having sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Riding the line is doing everything short of having sex. Is this God honoring? Is this following the letter of the law or the intent of the law? By the way, I think doing everything short of having sex is still outside of God’s will and is a sin.
Today we’re going to look at God’s will through the book of James in 4:13-17. We’ll look at how we respond to God’s will in three different ways: Ignorance; arrogance; and obedience.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will[a] go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Perhaps the first way we respond to God’s will is through “Ignorance.” Some people don’t realize that there is a God. Perhaps they were never told about God. And if they don’t believe in God then they certainly can’t believe in, or follow God’s will. Someone who doesn’t know that God has a will for their lives can almost be excused for saying things like “Today or tomorrow we will[a] go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit” because that is something businessmen and women do. If they didn’t plan their businesses they would fail. But God has a plan for each one of us, and to make plans without acknowledging that God might have something in store for us is wrong and is a sin.
I said that someone who doesn’t know that God existed can almost be excused for saying things like, “Today or tomorrow we will[a] go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit,” but they still aren’t excused. How many of you know John 3:16? But what does John 3:18 say? “He who believes in Him is not condemned, but He who does not believe in Him is condemned already.” People think that if you choose Jesus you get to go to heaven. If you don’t choose Him nothing happens. They think it’s like dessert, you can get some if you want but it’s no big deal if you don’t, you still got to eat. John 3:18 says we are already on the path to go to hell, and we have to choose Jesus to get off of that path.
James 4:15 says, “Instead we should say, ‘If the Lord wills we shall live and do this or that.’” That is a proper response to planning our lives while acknowledging that God has a plan for us that just might override ours.
James says in verse 14 that we don’t have a clue as to what will happen tomorrow, so how can we possibly plan anything anyways? Only God knows what tomorrow will bring. To illustrate how futile it is to try and plan our lives imagine you have ten pennies. You label each of them 1 through 10 in succession, each getting one number. Now put them in your pocket and try to draw them out one at a time in numerical succession. (Pull out number one first, put it back in. Pull out number two second, put it back in. Pull out number three third, put it back in, etc.) The chances of pulling number one out first is 1 in 10. After putting number one back in, the chances of pulling out number two second is 1 in a 100. After putting number two in, pulling out number three next would be 1 in a 1,000. After putting number three in, pulling out number four next would be 1 in 10,000. Pulling the numbers 1 through 10 in perfect order would have the odds of 1 in 10,000,000,000. (One in ten billion). If we can’t manage pennies in our pockets, how could we possibly manage everything else that happens in our lives?
The first response could be ignorance. The second response could be “Arrogance.” Ignorance is not knowing. Arrogance is knowing and choosing to do the opposite, as if you knew better than God. Let’s go back to the original example James gives, “Today or tomorrow we will[a] go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit.” In this response, we have to assume the person knows God, knows God has a will for their life, and still made plans dismissing the fact that God had a plan for them. James calls this “boasting in [our] arrogance, and all such arrogance is evil.” When I think of knowing God’s plan and choosing to do something else, I think of Jonah. Remember God told him to go to Nineveh. Jonah got in a boat and went as far away in a different direction as possible. Why? Because he didn’t want Nineveh to repent and get saved.
Jesus tells a parable of another man who may not have been as arrogant as Jonah, but still didn’t factor in what God wanted him to do with his life when he planned his future. This story is told in Luke 12:16-21, “Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
He didn’t pray, “God, how shall I spend this blessing you’ve given me?” He didn’t think about how he could bless others with it. All he could think about was building bigger barns so he could keep it for himself, not knowing that he was going to die that night.
The first way we might respond to God’s will is through ignorance, the second arrogance, but the third way would be the best way and that is through “Obedience.” It has been said that our answer should be “Yes, Lord” before we even know what the request is. God says, “Hey, Adam. I have something I want you to do…” “I’ll do it.”
Let’s look at verse 17. This is not a verse just tagged on at the end that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else. “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” This makes people think of sins of omission versus sins of commission. Sins of omission are sins because you have not done something. Sins of commission are sins because you did do something. Unfortunately, sins of omission always leads to sins of commission because we do not exist in a vacuum. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say God tells you to buy a homeless man a cheeseburger. Anything you do in the process of you not buying that homeless man a cheeseburger is a sin. God tells you to buy a cheeseburger, you read your Bible instead—it’s a sin. God tells you to go to Paraguay as a missionary for a year, you go to seminary—it’s a sin. If God tells you to do something, and you don’t do it, whatever it is that you do instead is a sin.
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