Recognizing God in Our Affairs
Introduction:
1. God never tells us to stop doing something without giving us something to replace it.
2. We can see this in worship.
a. God says do not worship false gods.
b. God replaces that with the command to worship Him.
3. We have the example of fear.
a. God tells us not to fear what man can do to us.
b. God replaces that fear with reverence for the person that can destroy both the soul and body.
4. Accordingly, God has told us not to have a presumptuous confidence in our own abilities to allow our plans to work.
5. God replaces that presumptuous confidence with faith in Him.
6. James 4:15-16 reveals that faith in God by praying "if the Lord wills" in everything we do.
7. It is necessary for mankind, saved and sinner both, to recognize God in our affairs.
I) The Arrogance At Hand
A) They rejoice in their boastings.
1. Boastings or vaunting describes one that is insolent, arrogant and relies upon empty assurances.
a. Basically, we find these people ignoring God in their affairs.
b. As we revealed last week these individuals assume that man alone is the architect of his fortunes.
2. It also suggests a calculated effort to claim competence without God.
a. This is blatant vainglory
b. 1 John 2:16 - For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
c. It is reliance upon one's own cleverness, strength or skill without assistance from God.
d. These are the individuals who in the face of adversity or their own plans say "I can make it," when they should say "I can't make it."
B) They glory in excluding God
1. To glory in excluding God reveals the heart of the man that feels no obligation to God.
a. Their heart condition is an active engagement in sin.
b. At the core of this heart is a complete disregard for the magnificence and majesty of God.
2. Eventually these men will, by words or actions, insolently express their heart's filth.
a. This is the man when confronted by God's word will give lip service to its power.
b. This is the man who feels compelled to obey but gives excuses why he won't.
c. There are a few specific examples that we can recognize to further explain this heart condition.
(i) Standing for the invitation song a woman recognizes the need for her to come forward but does not because she can do it next week or tonight when not so many are here.
(ii) In planning for his contribution that week a man gives only a meager sum because he needs the money to put into savings or an IRA or on a material item.
(iii) A couple never attends any activity of the church because they are too busy doing something else and don't see the need for Christian encouragement.
C) There is evil when men disregard God.
1. This is the most heinous evil.
a. Because one knows what God requires of them but rejects God's call.
b. How sad it is for someone to see the need for repentance and yet fail to reach out and get it.
2. We can observe that these men decided to use their talents in opposition to God's will.
a. God has given us the ability to make our own choices in life.
b. A man is evil when he decides that his talents are better used to satisfy his own desires and will rather than God's will.
II) The Proper Attitude
A) There is a right way to act.
1. The right way is to have the attitude that "man proposes God disposes."
a. It is clear that man has free will to choose what he wants to do.
b. It is in this essence we find the attitude that man proposes his own actions.
c. Yet the righteous man will submit his plan for God to dispose.
d. God disposes by setting in order means for the plan to be successful or not.
2. We must condition our plans to include "if the Lord wills."
a. Our actions reveal the attitude God's will taking precedence over our own.
b. Paul gives us a great example of being mindful of the Lord's hand in the lives of men.
(i) Acts 18:21 - But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.
(ii) 1 Corinthians 4:19 - But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.
(iii) 1 Corinthians 16:7 - For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit.
c. We may not know for certain whether a given activity is the right thing for us to do, so we pray God's will be done.
B) This is not a magical phrase.
1. The utterance "if the Lord wills," is not a formula or phrase for conjuring God's power.
a. One cannot expect to conjure up God's favor and alter His will for man's plans.
b. Neither is it an equation like 2+2=4 which anticipates the answer to be God approving man's plan simply because he got the right answer or said the right words.
2. It is not God's intent for this phrase to be an expression of glibness.
a. To repeat it overmuch would make it profane from overuse.
b. It becomes like the "Lord's Prayer" where men utter it and expect God to give him what he wants or protect him in difficult situations.
C) Ultimately, it is a sentiment of the heart.
1. We must know and live according to the fact of God's will preceding our own.
a. Our lives must please God by desiring that God's will overrule our own.
b. We know of our love for God by praying that God's will precede our own.
c. Respect for God comes from a life lived in the knowledge of the power of God's will over our own.
2. The heart of the faithful shows a constant need for assistance in this world.
a. Yet this constant need for assistance cannot be founded upon our will.
b. Rather we must be content in God's will for or against our prayers, needs and wants.
(i) God approves or disapproves our requests based upon His will not our own.
(ii) Proverbs 3:6 - In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
(iii) Jeremiah 10:23 - O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
III) The Providence In Your Affairs
A) What is God's will?
1. God's will is the ultimate reality.
a. God governs the world and the actions contained therein.
b. Since God is active in the sustaining and maintenance of the world one must recognize the ability of God to open and close doors of opportunity.
c. Since God continually wills the cosmos to exist and is concerned about it continuation, then God cannot be a big celestial repairman.
d. God is willing to employ indirect means to achieve His end.
e. If your plan or desire is in accordance with that end then God will grant you success in your endeavors.
2. God's will is a permission to follow Him.
a. God permits by means of allow things to happen so that man will succeed or fail.
b. Yet this is always done in a way to rebuke or exhort man in his obedience.
B) Being in accordance with God's will require to live by faith.
1. It is wrong for us divide up our life into the sacred and secular so that our faith in Christ is not a vital factor in our existence and decision making.
2. Everything we do is divided into matters of obligation and matters of option.
a. God expects us to rely upon him in both.
b. This is true faith.
3. Abraham is a great example of God's providence in his affaris.
a.
Genesis 12:1-4 - Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from
thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy
name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the
earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot
went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of
Haran.
b. Abraham recognized that God would open the path for him to follow.
c. His faith was so great that he was willing to allow God's will to direct his steps.
C) We can do all things by God's providence.
1. Additionally, we must recognize that God has given us the ability to do anything.
2. Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
3. How is this possible without God?
a. It is not.
b. It must be concluded that when one places his plans in the will of God then he can accomplish what God wants for him and thus he does all things.
c. One may say then God's will allow me to do all things God desires me to do.
Conclusion:
1. The affairs of your life are under God's control and influence.
2. By his providence are you allowed to continue in your plans or not.
3. We must then have the attitude of the Lord's purposefully setting in motion the events to provide success for our plans.
4. It is God's providence that you are here today.
5. Therefore, I want you to consider your life; is it IAW God's will or your own.
6. God's will is that you come to repentance, 2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
7. Plan of Salvation.
Posted in: Book of James, Sermon Outlines