Sermon Notes

ACCEPTABLE SINS

The Sin of Presumption

James 4:13-16

“Some sources suggest that the average person makes an eye-popping 35,000 choices per day. Assuming most people spend around seven hours per day sleeping and thus blissfully choice-free, that makes roughly 2,00 decisions per hour or one decision every two seconds.”

“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” – John C. Maxwell

“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’— 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. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” – James 4:13-16

The Sin of Presumption – making life choices apart from seeking and submitting to the will of God

“Jesus said to them, ’My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’” – John 4:34

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” – John 5:30

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” – John 6:38

I. WHY IS PRESUMPTION ON GOD SO DANGEROUS

1. Our Perspective is Limited

“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.” (v. 14a)

“For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.” – Job 28:24

2. Our Flesh is Deceitful

“make a profit” (v. 13c)

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9

3. Our Time is Short

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (v.14b)

“Since life is so brief, we cannot afford merely to ‘spend our lives’, and we certainly do not want to ‘waste our lives.’ We must invest our lives in those things that are eternal.” – Warren Wiersbe (James: Be Mature, p. 140)

4. Our Enemy is a Liar

“If the Lord wills…” (v. 15)

“…When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” – John 8:44c

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2

II. WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE TO PRESUMING ON GOD?

The Sin of Presumption – making life choices apart from seeking and submitting to the will of God

The alternative: making life choices through seeking and submitting to the will of God

“Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” – Mark 14:36

“We must realize that when we are truly seeking the will of God, He will not reveal His will as an option. Some would have God lay His will out on the table, along with all the other options. But they reserve the final decision for themselves. Though they definitely want to know God’s will, they will follow it only if they think it is their best option.  Their major concern is their own will, not God’s. Before they can know God’s will, they must be willing to follow it no matter what it might be.” – Clyde Cranford (Because We Love Him, p.249)

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” – Romans 10:17

“If you do not have clear instructions from God in a matter, pray and wait. Learn patience. Depend on God’s timing. His timing is always right and best. Don’t get in a hurry. He may be withholding directions to cause you to seek Him more intently. Don’t try to skip over the relationship to get on with doing. God is more interested in a love relationship with you than He is in what you can do for Him.” – Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God