JESUS’LIFE,

YOUR LIFE

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today ortomorrow we will go to this or that city,spend a year there, carry on businessand make money.” 14 Why, you do noteven know what will happen tomorrow.What is your life? You are a mist thatappears for a little while and thenvanishes.

JAMES 4:13-17

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is theLord’s will, we will live and do this orthat.” 16 As it is, you boast in yourarrogant schemes. All such boasting isevil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the goodthey ought to do and doesn’t do it, it issin for them.

JAMES 4:13-17

HOPES &

DREAMS

The way life works is we have a vision for a future, a hope, a dream, a

longing, and then we start to plan so that we can have our life going in that

direction.

The things that are most important are the things that get a plan.

If you want to figure out how to put together a plan, you start considering

your options for counsel.

All the management, budgeting, scheduling, planning, coaching is in the

realm of business. As you do that, you’ll find that some of the counsel

you’ll get is really ungodly. The principles are actually completely

opposed to a lot of the big ideas of Scripture.

Some of the counsel you’ll get is “Godless,” meaning it doesn’t say

anything negative about God. It just doesn’t say anything about God;

No reference to God at all.

Some of the counsel you’ll get is “God-light.” It’s sort of best business

practices, tips, and tricks with vague, general, spiritual references like,

“Don’t overlook your soul. Make sure to include your spiritual life.”

TWO TRUTHS

ABOUT LIFE

Here’s the problem: if you don’t know where you come from, if you don’t

know why you’re here and you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t

know what to do.

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today ortomorrow we will go to this or that city,spend a year there, carry on businessand make money.” 14 Why, you do noteven know what will happen tomorrow.What is your life? You are a mist thatappears for a little while and thenvanishes.

JAMES 4:13-16

15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is theLord’s will, we will live and do this orthat.” 16 As it is, you boast in yourarrogant schemes. All such boasting isevil.

JAMES 4:13-16

LIFE IS

UNCERTAIN.

The Bible talks a lot about planning. Proverbs talks a ton about how wise it

is to seek good counsel and make a wise plan. It’s not a sin to have a vision. It’s not a sin to make a plan. It’s not a

sin to be organized.

The problem is not when we have a vision, hope, a dream, a plan; the

problem is when it doesn’t include the Lord. The problem is when it’s out of

arrogance and not humility; it’s seeking our will, not God’s will. That’s the

problem.

SOVEREIGNTY &

SEPARATION

The problem here is that it is easy for us to behave or believe as if we were

sovereign over our lives and our future.

The impression can be given that you’re sovereign, that you’re in charge, that you’re all-knowing, that you’re in

God’s seat, that you see tomorrow and you know exactly what tomorrow’s

gonna bring. But we’re not sovereign. We don’t know what the future holds.

The issue of sovereignty and the issue of separation, and what they’ve done

here is they’ve separated their life.

This is how you behave in business. This is how you behave as a citizen. But the spiritual, the faith—it’s private. It’s

internal; it’s not external. You don’t share it with anyone. It doesn’t affect

the rest of your life.

What they’ve done is they’ve created a firewall in their life between their

relationship with God and all of their other relationships.

Our relationship with Jesus affects everything—how we do business, how

we vote, how we behave, how we interact with others, how we see the

world, how we spend our money, how we organize our days, what we

consider our priorities because we’re not sovereign—Jesus is.

We don’t know tomorrow; Jesus does. And our life is not separated into things

that involve Jesus and things that don’t. As sovereign Lord, he rules over

all of history, all the nations, all the cultures, all the races, and all of our

life.

God doesn’t factor into it at all, just predict the future, best estimation,

organizational alignment, goal setting, and march forward.

“IF THE LORD

WILLS”

The goal is not to have this, “the Lord wills,” “Lord willing” be a cliché but a conviction, OK, a conviction. And to say, “If the Lord wills,” it is saying, “I

have sought the Lord and wise counsel, and I’ve prayed and planned.

What that allows for those of you who are more active is humility. For those of you who are passive, it will allow

you to have more confidence. Some of us get ourselves in trouble saying, “The

Lord said let’s do it,” and then he changes the circumstances.

The way out of that is humility and to say, “I believe this is best, and the Lord

can change his plan for us. But as of now, this is what we’re doing and

where we’re going.

More humility for the confident, more confidence for the humble to proceed

together into the will of God. If the Lord wills, if the Lord wills. His first

principle is that life is uncertain.

LIFE IS

BRIEF.

14 Why, you do not even know what willhappen tomorrow. What is your life?You are a mist that appears for a littlewhile and then vanishes.

JAMES 4:14

All the little questions orbit around the big question, What is your life?

What is your life? A mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

“HEBEL”

He starts his book, Ecclesiastes, with the word hebel. “Hebel, hebel,” says

the teacher, “everything is hebel.” Life is hebel. You say, “Well, what is that?” He boils life down to one word. Some

of your translations will say “meaningless.”

Life doesn’t have to be lived in vain, but it can be. You can have a wasted life instead of an invested life. That

word hebel—it has a lot of meanings because life is complex.

But ultimately, James here gets the best interpretation of that word

hebel. What is life? Life is a mist that appears for a little time and then

vanishes.

LIFE IS FASTER

WHEN YOU’RE

OLDER.

DEATH

Life gets very clear when time is very short. It’s ultimately people and

memories that matter, and we take those with us to the kingdom of God.

Ed and Floreen Hale

Floreen and Ed’s lovestory began more than60 years ago when thetwo met at a party.When the youngengineer went toFloreen’s parents toask for her hand inmarriage,

they refused becausethe young woman wasrecovering at that timefrom a horrific caraccident whichclaimed the life of herfirst husband whomshe had married onlythree months earlier.

Here’s Floreen’s story:She’s young. She’s in love.She gets married. She andher husband have plans,and in a car crash, he diesthree months later.Breathes his last breath,and life is a breath that’shere today and gonetomorrow. Somehow thisshaped she planned herfuture to enjoy it.

The story continues. ButEd was determined to bewith Floreen and wouldnot take no for an answerdeclaring to his future in-laws that he was willing tocarry his beloved in hisarms every day. Thecouple said, “I do” May12, 1953, and settled inBatavia, New York, in ahome designed by Mr.Hale.

The Hales have twosurviving children, Reneeand Ricky. A third babydied in infancy. Life is amist here today, gonetomorrow.

Ed’s greatest joy in lifewas pampering his wifeand spoiling her with littletokens of affection. At atime when she worked asa telephone operator at alocal hospital, Ed wouldbring Floreen her dinnerand dessert.

Ed did most of the groceryshopping for the house,and every time he went tothe store, he picked upsome sweet treat orflowers for Floreen. In thewinter, Ed would clear hiswife’s car of snow andwarm it up for her to drivehome from work earninghim the nickname SaintEdward from theirrelatives.

When Floreen’s familyand friends would teaseher about her adoringhusband asking her whatshe would do withouthim, Floreen would replythat he was not allowedto go before her.

After an active, full life,Mr. Hale was diagnosedwith kidney disease a littleover five years agorequiring dialysis, regulartreatments. He alsosuffered severe heartattacks and had diabetes,but that didn’t stop himfrom taking his wife outalmost every day.

Mrs. Hale, known for herirrepressible sense ofhumor, chattiness, and apension for colorfuladornments, also had alaundry list of ailments,from asthma to heartdisease. Still she woulddress up to go to thedoctor, with Ed always byher side.

At the same time, herhusband was in UnityHospital in Rochester withkidney failure. We werehanded two deathsentences. Floreen’ssister, Marlene DeCarlotold this blog. The 83-year-old man, Ed, wassemi-conscious andappeared to be at death’sdoor, but two days afterhis wife’s hospitalization,

Ed woke up and told hisdaughter, “I need to seeFloreen.” See, Ed had aplan to take care of hiswife for the duration ofher life. That was his plan.What followed next was aseries of negotiationsbetween the hospitals inRochester and Bataviahelped along by a socialworker whose job it was

to convince United toadmit Mr. Hale. TheBatavia Hospital agreed toaccept the dying patientbut only if he was strongenough to make the 35-mile trip. She’s in thehospital dying. He’s in thehospital dying. They’vebeen together for 60years, and now they’reseparated by thirty-fivemiles.

Ed wakes up and isdetermined. His plan is toget to Floreen. As if bymiracle, Ed ralliedsufficiently for the shortambulance ride arriving atUnited in the afternoon ofFebruary 6. His solerequest was to seeFloreen. The hospitalprepared a room for thecouple where the twobeds were pushed

The 82-year-old womanwas pronounced dead themorning after Ed’s arrival.Ed made it there in time.He got to walk his wifehome. Surrounded bydozens of friends andfamily, her husbandfollowed her a day later.

The most important day of your life is the last day. There are enumerable things that could distract you from

living for that last day.

That’s the most important thing. You could go at any time, and you’ll all go at some time. What about the people

and things in your life?

LIFE SHOULD BE

URGENT

We make our plans and we seek to make our plans his plans for our life.

Life is uncertain. Life is brief.

If you know you’re supposed to be doing something and you’re not

doing that, that’s sin. And if you know you’re not supposed to be doing something and you’re doing that,

that’s sin. Some sins are clear. They’re for everybody.

LIFE’S

PRIORITIES

WHAT TO DO

WITH YOUR

LIFE

DON’T BE

ARROGANT.

GO TO

SCRIPTURE.

Don’t just make a plan for your life and then find people who agree with

you and declare them to be wise counsel.

SEEK WISE

COUNSEL.

Seek wise counsel, godly people whom you will invite into your life

and entrust to your decision-making.

ASK THE

HOLY SPIRIT

TO EMPOWER

YOU.

The Holy Spirit is God come to take up residence in you to inform and empower your life as he did Jesus.

And Paul declares that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom. What we’re talking about here is wisdom and

folly.

PLAN

ACCORDINGLY.

Plan accordingly, openhanded, if the Lord wills.

WHAT JESUS

DID WITH HIS

TIME

Now, God became a man, his name is Jesus Christ, but he welcomed upon

himself certain limitations for a season to identify with us.

The reason that we get burned out, every extended and exhausted is

we’re doing things that the Father didn’t tell us to do, and we’re not doing some things that the Father told us to do like take a nap, take a

day off.

We can give the impression that we’re busier than Jesus, that we’re

more essential than Jesus.

Jesus didn’t start worshiping when he stopped hammering. He was worshiping

through hammering, and then he was worshiping through preaching, and it was always worshiping, and it was taking what

the Father had given him to do and just doing that well by the grace that God

gives.

THREE THINGS

TO KNOW ABOUT

YOUR PLATE

KNOW HE SIZE

OF YOUR PLATE.

There are limitations, and we have greater limitations than he. When we’re talking about your plate size,

we’re talking about your life capacity.

Do you realize that some people can’t get as much done as other people, and that doesn’t mean that they’re

ungodly or less spiritual or less valuable.

KNOW WHAT

TO TAKE OFF

YOUR PLATE.

So you have got to take some stuff off your plate. Whatever the case may

be. Maybe there were things that you had time and energy for, and now you don’t and they have to come off your

plate.

KNOW WHAT

TO PUT

ONYOUR

PLATE.

But it never comes, so we need to start with our priorities and God’s priorities for

me. And we need to put the most important things in our life, in our energy,

in our budget, in our schedule first, the people and things that matter the most. And then entrust God to help us discern what else we can handle and what we

can’t.

Life is a mist. It’s here today and it’s gone tomorrow. And here’s the good news:

we’re alive. We have an opportunity to examine the life that God has entrusted to us, to make some course corrections

and changes so that we don’t live in such a way that the last day is a regrettable, remorseful day, but it’s a rejoicing day.

We don’t want you to be discouraged but encouraged. We don’t want you to just regret the things you haven’t done, but

we want you to celebrate the things that are yet to be done.

Life is short

but god is

good.

FAITHWORKS CHRISTIAN CHURCH GLOBAL

Presented By:

Ptr. Alvin GutierrezFCC Main

10AM Morning Worship Service May 29, 2016

Website: http://faithworkschristianchurch.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Faithworks-Christian-Church-Global-292363410916567/