Trusting an Unknown Future to a Known God

Happy Independence Day Summit Church. So good to see so many of you here today.

I hope that you guys had a good time with family and friends. Got a chance to see a little few fireworks go off. My dog, I got a little dog so y'all don't judge me, don't take my man card from me. His name is Squirrel. He's about nine pounds and he hates fireworks. He runs, you know, barks at all the big dogs in the neighborhood but runs for fireworks.

That's how he gets down. I love his time of the year. Squirrel doesn't, but I love it. I love the grill. I love being outside.

But there is one thing that I hate about grilling and being outside and eating in the summertime. Y'all know what that is. It's flies. Flies. I don't know about you, but I think one of the first questions I'm going to ask God when I get to heaven is like, God, seriously, why did you make flies, man? I mean, like, you know, was that like right before you took rest on the Sabbath and you were real tired and you were like flies?

And they just appeared everywhere, you know. I mean, we can deal with flies because they actually only live, the common housefly, it only lives about 30 days maximum. Okay, 30 days. But what's interesting is that the common housefly has a first cousin called the mayfly. Okay. Now the mayfly, he doesn't usually, he barely makes it to the fly family reunion because he only lives, as long as this insect lives is a day.

Okay. And it's been said that some of them actually only can live up to 30 minutes, 30 minutes. Imagine that, a 30 minute lifespan. That means that the mayfly already finished high school, went to college, got a doctorate, married Ms. Mayfly, had some kids.

He was laid to rest on his epitaph and said, what a day. All while you were in line at Walmart. All right. Yeah. Some of y'all caught that.

Some of y'all caught that. But seriously, we often can find ourselves making major plans, making major decisions, which never seem to be void of lots of money. Living day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.

I mean, we're already over halfway through 2015. And we often neglect to hear what God is saying and doing in our lives. Many of us, we're just like the mayfly, clueless of how short our life really is. And it shocks me as humans, how we live our lives every day while simultaneously being clueless about our future. So this actually reveals the truth about us as humans. No, we live our lives based on who or what we currently trust. See, trust plays a major role in how we navigate into this unknown future that we all face. But I want to proclaim to you today that no matter how unknown your future is, that you can boldly face tomorrow if you leave it in the hands of a known God. We're going to reveal what happens when we place our assurance in things that we revere or that we idolize.

See, we're often blinded by these things because they hide out deep down in the dark crevices of our hearts. But Pastor James is going to do a great job of illuminating some of these counterfeit saviors for us. And in the final section, in classic James form, he's going to give us a practical way to trust God. So let's look at the first place that we often place our trust in our plans, in our plans.

We have overconfidence in our plans. Look at James 4 verse 13. It says, 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 did not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?

For it is 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. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.

All such boasting is evil. Now, I'm sure many of you have heard the saying, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And that's one of my favorite sayings.

I definitely think that is true. And I don't think this passage in any way is trying to convince us that we should not plan. Instead, it implies that God's will is often negated when we do make our plans. So James actually gives us two warnings right here in this passage. The first thing he tells us is something that seems like it should make sense, but we don't know what tomorrow will bring. Now, this is not the scripture being mean.

It's just being realistic. The only person that can say with confidence what will happen tomorrow is God. He is the Alpha, the Omega. He is the I Am. Jesus is Emmanuel, which means God with us currently. He's also the Omega. He is the end. He's all of it. He's omnipresent.

He can step outside of time and go into time. He's the only one that knows that. I've heard some of the older saints say, Pastor, I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds my future.

That leads to the second warning that you see right here. Planning without God reveals something about us. It reveals our arrogance.

How is it that we can be so confident in our plans and not consult the one who holds the future in his hands? That's arrogant. That's idol worship.

That's evil. See, if we're not careful, time quickly passes, and in our routine, we're often blinded by our business because this is what we do as Christians. We equate good plans with good Christian living. Listen to this quote from a book called Crazy Busy. Busyness does not mean you're a faithful or fruitful Christian.

It only means you're busy, just like everyone else. And everyone else, and like everyone else, your joy, your heart, and your soul are in danger. We need the word of God to set us free if we only had time to make an appointment. Proverbs 19, 21 says, many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. So to answer this overconfidence and this arrogance in our own plans, look at verse 17. Verse 17 says this, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is a sin. Listen, our problem most of the time is not that we don't know what to do. It's just that we don't do it.

See, verse 17 cuts us right directly into our hearts. See, write this down, write this down. Delayed obedience is not obedience at all. Delayed obedience is not obedience at all. Somehow we've convinced ourselves that we can do right, but we'll do that later, later. See, often in our planning, you actually do hear from God. But see, we sin when we ignore Him and we make plans anyway, saying, I'll do it later.

Oh, I need some time to think about that. Here's the most classic Christian line. Let me pray about that a little bit more.

Right? And we have zero intention of doing the godly thing. As a pastor, let me tell you some of the things I hear people say. They say, we know the Bible says we shouldn't have premarital sex. We know that. But we'll do that later. Besides, we're going to get married.

I know that I should be a cheerful giver. But, you know, it's a sale at TJ Maxx. It's only this week. Plus, it's a big old church. They got plenty of people.

I can give some other time. I know that my neighbor is going through a very rough time right now, but I'm sure, you know, I saw a lot of cars over there. They got a lot of family. You know, God will take care of them.

I know I should be involved in a small group because I hear it all the time. I even read that Jesus was kind of in a smaller group of people. But, you know, when the sport season is over, I'll have time to do that a little bit later. I know I should be sharing my faith with other people right now. But, you know, I mean, Pastor JD needs to preach a little bit more on evangelism, and then I think I'll be good to go. How long are we going to be arrogant and disobey what God has made clear to us today?

That's why I beg you. Listen to God's voice and simply be obedient. Delayed obedience is not obedience at all.

See, verse 17, it actually sets up this next section that we're going to go into. It's about a group of people that live a lifestyle of delayed obedience. It's people that have too much confidence in their material possessions and in their wealth. James 5, 1 through 6.

Now, listen. This particular group in the text, they attend James' search in Jerusalem, and they happen to be very rich. They happen to be very rich.

So, as a point of clarity, let me consider four categories of people just for a moment. You have godly poor people. You have ungodly poor people. You have godly wealthy people. You have ungodly wealthy people. This passage, these six verses right here, are about ungodly wealthy people that attend this church.

So, what does James have to say to them? Listen. Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You've laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who have mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord the host. You have lived on earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You've fatted in your hearts in a day of slaughter. You've condemned and murdered the righteous person.

He does not resist you. See, these ungodly wealthy people that are in this church, they're known to do two things. One, they hoard their possessions. They're so stingy that they will literally let their fortune rot and go to waste before they decide to share it with everyone else. Not only that, they defraud their employees. They mistreat and cheat people because they had the power to do so. They always viewed other people as inferior and themselves as superior, always wanting to be served but never to be a servant.

Y'all know the Capitol, President Snow, Hunger Games, just to make it real, these are the kind of people that are there in this congregation right now. So what can we learn from the ungodly rich people? What can we learn? Well, two things that we learn here. We learn two different, brutally different world views. In these two different world views, it reveals our heart's motivation when it comes to plans and when it comes to possessions.

Here you go. You're either blinded by ownership or humbled by stewardship. You either think you own everything or you understand that you're just a steward of those things.

Let's make it clear. See, ownership. What does ownership say? Ownership says, I don't belong to God. Nothing I have belongs to God.

In fact, I deserve all that I have because I work hard for all of it and I answer only to myself. God, oh, you want my money? I'll throw it up in the air.

Whatever goes up is yours. Whatever lands on the ground is mine. That's ownership.

That's arrogance. See, ownership convinces you that you always have the final say, that you are the voice of reason, that you are self-made, that you made the boots and then you pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps, that you woke yourself up every morning, that you are in control because you believe that ultimately you are God. But humility produces an attitude of stewardship which screams that there's someone else beyond you. See, stewardship says, I belong to God. Everything I have belongs to God. In fact, I don't deserve any of this. It's a gift from God. I am the Lord's steward. I would be a fool to throw the money in the air, the same air that I breathe that you produce the lungs in my body for.

I would be arrogant to pick it up off the ground and act like it's mine when you created the ground that I stand on. See, Jesus sums it up. Matthew 6, 19. He said, Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth where moth and rust destroy it, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys it, where thieves don't break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there is your heart also.

There's no question that our love of earthly treasure often reveals our heart's motivation. That's why when we look back at verse six here, it says, You've condemned and murdered the righteous person, and he didn't resist you. You know what's scary about just reading this verse is that there were probably some people there that were in that church that had had family members of other people in that church murdered because of this. See, all too common, persecution, death was the fate of many Christians in this time by ungodly people. We see it all in James 2.

You can read through it in there. We saw this happen with most of Christ's disciples, Paul, Stephen, and even Pastor James, who was murdered because he wouldn't stop believing in his big brother, Jesus. When we see these things happen, the first question we ask is, Where did this come from? How could people be that way? I'm reminded that actually, it's in our nature. It's in our nature. Listen, I love my kids. I really do. I got four of them, but I'm kindly reminded that we're all born sinners.

Why? Because every time I see kids, my kids and other people's kids, they do things that nobody ever taught them. I did things that my parents never taught me.

For example, it is an innocent situation. You ever sat beside a kid, might be your own kid. The kid is anxious, so you pull your keys out. You let the kid play with the keys, and they're playing with the keys and putting them in their mouth and doing all kinds of things with it.

They're playing. You're talking to the other parent. They're having a good time with your keys, and then it's time for you to go. Can I get my keys back? When you go to take your keys back, they snatch your keys back from you, and they put together these two words that I know you never taught your kids to put together. No, mine. I'm like, What? This little evil kid? What in the world? Little buddy, I need my keys back. I need to go right there. No, mine. Now listen, listen.

Mine is the gospel. We naturally, we naturally make plans without considering Him. We naturally allow material possessions to corrupt our hearts and treat others as inferior.

And though most of us aren't kids anymore, we still act like kids when it comes to plans and possessions. If God decides in your life to take His keys that you borrowed, and we choose to respond in the same way, no. My plans.

No. My possessions. That's that same sinful nature that murdered Christians in this time.

But let's make it more personal. See, our sins, that's what nailed Jesus to the cross. And even though we mistreated Him, just as it says in this passage, He did not resist us. He willingly became sin so that we could become righteous. He submitted His plans to God. He said, Not my will, Lord, but Your will be done. Jesus had it all in heaven, but He gave it all up.

He emptied Himself. He became poor so that we could become rich. And He didn't delay in His obedience. He was obedient even to death on a cross. It's the story about the hero dying for the villain.

It's the story of the judge that steps off the bench and pleads guilty on behalf of the criminal and says, Punish me instead of punishing him. What kind of love is that? That's the kind of love that Jesus has for us.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So if you hear His voice today, harden not your heart. Don't delay. Be obedient and trust Him today.

Some of you might be here today. You say, Pastor Chris, you know, I made plans. I consider God's will. I'm a good steward.

I don't have a lot, but I try to give as much as my time, my talent, and my treasure to Him. But right now, I just need to be honest with you, Pastor Chris. My life is in a whirlwind right now. I don't know what to do next.

Yes, I know the future is unknown. I'm going through a tough time right now, and I need direction. How can I trust God right now? If that's you, just keep listening to God's voice in this final passage right here. James 5.

What does it mean to put your confidence in a known God? Look at verse 7. Be patient. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing at the door. See, James is teaching this persecuted group, these suffering congregants, how to place their confidence in Jesus, the good judge, by being patient. So how do we trust Jesus? Be patient.

That sounds simple, right? But y'all do know that patience is not natural. Patience is not natural. According to the scripture, patience is something that is supernatural.

Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit, and it says there's love, joy, peace, patience, supernaturally from God. But see, the problem is we often misunderstand the purpose of patience. See, back in James chapter 1, there's a classic verse where he personifies patience. It says, let patience have her perfect work. Patience is trying to perfect something out of us.

What kind of work is that? Well, I think Paul David Tripp says it best right here. He says, patience is not just about what you'll get at the end of the wait.

Hear this truth. Patience is about what you will become as you wait. See, verse 7 gives us the example of farmers. If you guys know anybody that farmed or if you know anything about a farmer, one thing that you know is that while a farmer plants seeds, one of the things that they don't believe is that they do not believe that they're wasting their time.

Farmers don't believe that when they sow seeds that it is useless, that it's meaningless, or that it's a vain pursuit. They actually joyfully and enthusiastically wait for the fruit of the harvest. They count it all joy while they wait. See, patience is a lot like faith, right? It's about believing something that's happening even though you can't see it happening. So what does patience produce?

One of the things that patience does, one of the first things it does is very uncomfortable because it begins to purge. It purges out all those things that we put our trust in, those idols. It calls to the surface all those plans and all those material possessions, all those things that seem to be worthy of our love and our trust. It calls it out.

Now listen, just like when a kid has to take medicine, we don't want to do it. We complain. See, when you want to complain, that's to let you know that God is doing something. Because I know that when I go through stuff, the first thing I ask is, why is this happening to me right now? Because obviously, Lord, I'm not ready for this right now. How long is this thing going to continue to go on and last?

As your pastor, I will tell you that this has not been an easy year at all for me and my family. I mean, can I keep it real for a minute? I long to hear the prophetic words of Sweet Brown. Ain't nobody got time for that, all right? I ain't got time, Lord. But see, God purges some things out of me. Chris, who do you trust? Chris, who have you placed your hope in? Son, do you believe that I'm good? Do you believe that I won't give you more than what you can bear? Do you believe that my yoke is easy and that my burden is light?

Do you believe, have you seen the people that I've placed around you in your life? See, we're tempted to go into isolation. We're tempted to be angry at God and even others.

But see, patience will have its perfecting work, and it'll purge all this out of us. That's why James says right here not to grumble against one another. Grumbling is a reflection of what you believe about God's sovereignty and his character. That's why he reminds these suffering people that Jesus is a judge. Why would he go to that characteristic?

I'm suffering. Why are you telling me Jesus is a judge? Because, listen, a good judge, a just judge, could never be wrong.

So you don't have to worry about your oppression. You don't have to worry about your oppressors because God can't be mocked. He's a judge. He never lets things go unpunished. That's why he punished his son on our behalf.

That's why you should trust him. But in the meantime, is our life a grumble or is it a song of praise? See, patience does something else.

Not only does it purge out these idols, but it gives us character. It gives us hope. In Romans 5, Romans 5, 3 through 5, it says this, Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, which is patience. And endurance, patience produces character, and character produces hope. And hope, his name is Jesus, does not put us to shame. Because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Church, let us not neglect how God can and will make us more like him in the presence of our hardships. And never forget that no matter how grim it may get, you have a hope that is beyond this world and a spirit inside of you to guarantee that. That's why James leaves us. He encourages us with two practical examples of suffering and patience in the midst of an unknown future.

How does he do it? Let's read verse 10. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job and you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

So he gives us two examples. One is of the prophets and one is of Job. Now the prophets, they certainly trusted their unknown future to God. Isn't that a little bit ironic? The dudes that always talk about the future are often unsure about their own future.

Imagine that. Look at the prophet Jonah. Jonah wrestled with delayed obedience.

He knew the right thing to do, but he ran from doing it. So what did God do? God said, Jonah, I know you don't want to go and preach to these people that are pretty much terrorists, these people that want to see you dead and don't want to have anything to do with you.

So he spends some time in the belly of a fish. He thinks he's in hell and through that patient time, God purges out the idols of his heart and he confesses and he repents. Then he goes out and he preaches the word to save the people in Nineveh. What was God trying to do? God was trying to give Jonah his heart. Another example is that of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah the prophet who wanted to be a priest, cared for people, but God called him to be a prophet. He often went through things that were very uncertain. His life was threatened every turn. The people that he was prophesying to were trying to kill him.

This guy spent time, he was thrown out to the animals, he was thrown down into a deep, dark, murky dungeon left to die. How did he continue to speak God's word while he was persecuted? Why did he still proclaim things that his eyes might not ever get a chance to see? Under constant duress.

How did he manage under so much uncertainty? Because he didn't allow his distress to define God. See, some of us, we're BFFs with Jesus.

It's a pain and suffering come. See, it's easy to praise him for his provision, but can we be content with his presence? Don't forget this. Confidence in Jesus is having confidence in his character. Confidence in Jesus is not just having confidence in what he can do, but in who he is, even when you don't see those things being done. It means you have a solid grasp on his character. See, listen, we are naturally heavily concentrated on the outcome of our circumstance, but God is heavily concentrated on the outcome of our faith.

See, some of us will never realize how fallen this world really is until this world comes falling down literally all around us. That's why I plead with you, to trust him. But you can't trust him if you don't know him.

It's very difficult to trust somebody that you don't know. So how do you trust Jesus? Well, two ways that you trust him is you trust him through the scripture. One of the ways that you trust him is through the scripture.

The other way is through the body of believers. When you're going through, when times are hard, the greatest thing that you can have is to hear from God. I don't know about you, but when I'm going through, God, I need you to speak to me. I don't need another person saying, I want to hear audibly from you, God. I want to feel you right now, God.

Well, guess what? You can. How can you hear from God? You have to study his word.

That's his voice. Listen, God can speak in many different ways, but he speaks most clearly, most clearly in his word. Now, I was talking to a brother the other day, and going through the pain he went through, he was like, man, I just want to feel God right now. I just want to, I need him to embrace me right now.

I understand. I feel the same way. But how do you feel, God? You have to be around his people, the community of God. Why do you all think we're called the body of Christ? Because we're the hands.

We're the feet. God can feel his presence through you. The way that you love one another lets people know that he's there.

See, we have to trust the living Savior. The last example that James gives us is one of our brother named Joe. His church was very familiar with this story, so he just spoke of Joe's name. But let me just tell you about Joe. Joe was a godly, wealthy man, just like many of us. Joe's plans, while they were good, they were abruptly interrupted with several unplanned events.

What happened to Joe, I don't wish on anyone ever. One catastrophe after another. He lost all of his business, all of his material possessions. He lost something even more precious. He lost the lives of all of his children. He lost the trust of his wife. Then he lost his health. And to take it a step further, his friends tried to convince him that all this had happened because of the sin in his life. He had no idea what the future would hold.

Things were not going according to plan. But Joe did something that I pray to God that I'll be able to do in the same moment. He worshiped God. He worshiped God in the middle of his tragedy. See, Joe, yes, Joe had praised God when he was doing well, when he was doing good, when he was provided for. But he still worshiped God because he knew that God was a good father. He knew his God's character. I think it's very interesting because during this entire period, we saw what patience did for Joe.

Now, I like Joe because Joe kept it real. He wanted an answer. Why, God? Why is there so much calamity?

Why is there so much heartache? And God spoke to him. But guess what he didn't do? He did not give Joe an answer to why he was going through so much. But guess what he did give him?

He gave him something greater, a more intimate relationship with him. Listen to Joe's response after God spoke to him, even though he didn't give him the answer to why he went through what he went through. Job 42, verse one, it says this, then Job answered the Lord and said, I know you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. God had said, who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? So Job says, therefore, I have uttered what I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I do not know. God had said, here and I will speak. I will question you and you make it known to me.

This is Job says, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in the dust and ashes. I'm convinced, church, that the closer we get to God, we're compelled to repent. Repentance is not a one time event at the beginning of salvation. It's our posture as Christians.

A lot of times we want revelation. Instead, God gives us relationship with Him and that happens through repentance. God gives us that grace. See, when you respond to this grace, you realize that it's something that you can't purchase, something that you don't deserve, it's something that you can't earn, but it produces a heart change. That's what Jesus is after. He's making us more like Him. And yes, Job, through all the heartache and pain, a lot of the things he had before was returned to him, but that's foreshadowing of what God would do for us in eternity with Jesus.

What's amazing is that God took a righteous man that was already righteous and reformed him through the trial that he was going through. If you're in the middle of a trial today, we want to stand with you as the body of Christ. It's not a bad thing for you to desperately want this thing to pass because it reminds you that you don't belong here. You don't belong in this fallen world. You belong in a better world, a better kingdom with a better king, King Jesus, and He's coming back for us. Submit to Him, church. Trust Him, church. You can't predict what tomorrow will bring, but you can place your confidence and trust in a God who holds the future in His hand.

Bow your heads with me. I want you to take the next few moments, and as we prayed at the beginning of service, I want you to hear from God. What areas in your life have you delayed being obedient in? What is patience trying to do in your life? How is it perfecting you right now? Spend a moment there, and our teams will be coming to close out services with us.