Our Lives Are Like a Morning Fog First B Jackson 2022-04-11 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Yeah. So well, yes and no. Lexi, good to have you back too. Lexi's been in Hawaii for, man, how many months now? Yeah. So we've been going through the book of James on Monday nights. And I should we there are also people watching, and so I should talk to this microphone. But we've been in the book of James on Monday night just going through chapter by chapter, verse by verse and then at the end, it's been conversation style and it's not a have to. Nobody has to contribute. If you but if there was a word of encouragement or something that grabbed you from the book of James, we've had some conversations on it but before we get there, I'd like to just let's sing a a couple of songs together and if you'd like to stand, stand. If you're going to eat, that's fine too. Lexi, don't feel like you gotta stand up and let's sing. There's a song in my soul and a feeling I'm here. Never ending. I give my song to you. That there's a joy in my soul and it rises like the boarding. This I know for sure, but that your grace is enough and your promise never breaking. Give my song to you. I'll be goodness. I will love you forever. All my songs I'll sing for you. There's all my songs I'll sing for you. There's a hope. There's a hope in my heart, burning bright in darkness. This I know hope for sure. And I will look upon your face It's like a whale running over. Oh, my soul sings for you. For all of your goodness, I'll love you forever. All my songs I'll sing for you. Yes. All my songs I'll sing for you and let my life and let my life be to you a symphony singing out holy, a holy, all my days every single breath I breathe singing out holy, holy. Again, let my life, I let my life be to a symphony, singing out holy, you forever. Oh, my songs I'll sing for you. Yes. All my songs I'll sing for you. God, thank you for an another night that we get to be here and and worship fully and freely and we just we say, here we are and God just as we're singing this song, I think, there's so, there there's always something to be thankful for. There are hard things in life and there are so many things swirling sometimes. It is hard to keep track of them all. At least it is for me right now But God, when we reflect, truly, you are good. You're gracious. Your steadfast love endures forever and so we're holding on to that with thank you and and and let everything that has breath praise the Lord. That's the that's the this the the verse that I've I've got in my mind and I let the we've got breath in our lungs. Let's give it to you. And thank you, God. Just hearing that that laughter and celebration down the hall to these kids. Just having a blast and the the fruit of Awana. God, I I think of these little ones, these youngsters right now. They're getting your word into their minds, into their hearts, and God, it doesn't return void. They will return to it. Even if some may wander and and and stray as they get a little over older, God, it's there and it produces fruit. And we pray for those little ones down the hall right now, God, that they would hold fast to your word. And for each of those volunteers right now that are are helping and listening. God bless them as well. We're just thankful. Thankful to to have that ministry. Thankful for the people in this room and and for what you'll teach us in in James tonight. In Jesus name, amen. Let's sing one more song before we get in the word too. Build my life. The Jesus the only one you could ever say worthy of every breath we get every breath we live for you those around me holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my love foundation I will not be shaken I will build my life upon you though it is a firm foundation holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes in wonder Lord, we we have sung it but I also pray it. These very words right here, would you show us more of who you are, your character, your nature, who you are in us. Lord, may your spirit truly just grab grab a hold of us this evening and lord, there's always something in your word that can can carry us and help us along with right where we're at in life and I pray that you would reveal that to us in Jesus name. Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment. I, if if the a video comes up, that's great. But it's like a little intro video. Let's see if we can get it going. Proverbs three verses five and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. That verse probably is the one that my mother quoted most often in writing me when I was in college and graduate school. She was just put without even writing out. She put Proverbs three, five, and six and I think it's because the main aim of the verse is to walk in a straight path. That means she didn't want me and I don't want you and God doesn't want us to veer off the path into disobedience or into a wasted life or into anything that would dishonor him. That's the goal. Make your paths straight straight to obedience, straight to everlasting joy, straight to a god honoring life and he says, there are three steps to get there, right? First, trust in the Lord with all your heart. So, bank on the promises of God step by step in your life. Make your life a moment by moment trusting in a good, holy, kind, loving, all providing, all satisfying God and then step two, he says, don't rely on your own understanding which I think means a conscious choice not to be self reliant, to say to yourself, self, you are inadequate. Brain, you can't come up with enough wisdom on your own. You have to turn away from self reliance. Of course, that doesn't mean that you don't think and you don't plan. It just means you don't bank on it. The horse is made ready for the day of battle but victory belongs to the Lord. So, even in the midst of our planning and thinking and using our minds, we're leaning on something else. We're not leaning on our own resources and then the third one is in all your ways, acknowledge him which I think means the Hebrew says, in all your ways, know him. So, at every turn, every new choice you have to make, every new conversation you're in, you're sending up a message. God, I acknowledge you here. I know you're here. I'm drawing you in here. You are decisive here. I need you here. And if we follow those, trust him, renounce self reliance, bring him into every situation. He's going to make our path straight. He's going to keep us from wasting our lives or destroying ourselves and others in the path of sin and bringing us to everlasting joy. I like that. I think it's just a good word from Proverbs three, five, and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Second, not to rely on our own understanding and then third, in all of our ways, acknowledge him and the result of it is, he'll make our paths straight And it's true. I think there's just sound advice for making the most of our time here. And the reason I share this is because in tonight so we're in book James. We're gonna finish up chapter four and then into chapter five. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. That's what James is saying this evening is we don't know what tomorrow will bring. We don't have that guarantee. And so there's a warning here to his listeners not to boast about tomorrow and also not to trust in in in wealth, but to trust in the Lord, to say, if it's the Lord's will, we'll do this or we'll do that. Because in the grand scheme of things, like, he says our our our lives are like a fog or a mist. It's here today and gone tomorrow. And I I think that's a very, very powerful image that he gives because we've all seen you've seen this, right, in the Tetons when it's on a foggy day and and you go in there, sometimes you you can barely see the grand. I mean, it's just so foggy. And sure enough, though, the sun comes out and it burns away the fog, and it just disappears. Like that fog is just suddenly gone. And, you know, between between Proverbs and James, I believe that they're telling us we can make the most of our our our time here on earth. And that happens by trusting in the Lord and not getting overly confident about our own plans or wealth. This is all coming from James four thirteen through five six. It's a warning about self confidence and then a warning to the rich. So I'm going go ahead and read it, and the words will be on the screen. Thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. It's so good. I'm like, let's bring this party into there. But I want to share just a few thoughts and then open up for conversation. But here's what it says. It's a warning about self confidence. It says, look here, you who say. Today or tomorrow, we're gonna go to a certain town, and we'll stay there for a year. We'll do business there and make a profit. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life's like a morning fog. It's here a little while, and then it's gone. Just like just like when we look at the mountains. Foggy, sun comes out, burns the fog away. It's like suddenly, it's just it disappears. Verse 15, what you ought to say is, if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that. Otherwise, you're boasting about your plans and all such boasting is evil. Remember, verse 17, it's a sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it. Okay? On to chapter five. Look here, you rich people. Weep and groan with anguish because all the terrible trouble is ahead of you. Now I'm gonna keep reading because let's look at how these people have acquired their wealth. Okay? Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth eaten rags. Your gold and silver have become worthless. The very wealth you are counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. Wow. This treasure you've accumulated will stand as evidence against you on the day of judgment. For listen, here's what's happened. Hear the cries of the field workers whom you've cheated of their pay, the wages you held back cry out against you. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of heaven's armies. You've spent your years on earth and luxury satisfying your every desire. You fatten yourselves for the day of slaughter, and you've condemned and killed innocent people who do not resist you. That's that those are the wealthy people that he's talking about here. I wanna stop there for right now and and just pray first and then just kinda work our way through it verse by verse. God, I thank you for this. Look, I truly do. It gives us wisdom. I I pray that it would encourage us. It would challenge us. It would warn us. It would cause us to rely on the wisdom that comes from you ultimately. That we would humble ourselves and in humbling ourselves, you lift us up. That's how it works. In Jesus name, amen. So, I I kind of debated whether or not to break up chapters four and five because chapter four is a warning against self confidence and chapter five is a warning against the rich. They're different, but I also see a relationship here in that whether it is trusting in our own self confidence or trusting in wealth, specifically wealth that's gained by exploiting defenseless people, it's a warning of what not to do. So I saw the two together and I thought, there's a connection there. So for example, James talks about those who say they're going to go here, there, make a profit. He's going, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We're not even guaranteed tomorrow. And don't think that James is arguing against making a profit or a plan. That's not at all, I don't believe, he's saying. Those aren't bad things. I think what he's getting at here is whose plans are these? Like whose wisdom is this? Is it just man made plans? Is it just man made wisdom? Have we included God in these plans? I I think that's kind of what he's getting at here. Much of James is about humbling ourselves before God. I think my clicker. Okay, thank you. Much of James is about humbling ourselves before God and to humble ourselves before God means to be fully dependent on him. That's why I wanted to go to Proverbs three, five, and six. Trust the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. It's truly relying on on God. Dismissing reliance upon self. That's that's what humble means here. So, it doesn't mean that we don't think or plan ahead. Not at all. That's not the same But that we're actively seeking God's will. I think that's what he's getting at here. So like in Matthew six, here's the example that he gives. Jesus goes says, seek the kingdom of God above all else. Live righteously. He'll give you everything that you need. Are we get the idea here that it's it's about bringing God into these. It's not just Carl's plan. You know, it's about bringing God and plan going, God, what would you have in this? What would you have me do in this? Rather than me getting on ahead or boasting about my own self count. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that and this. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. Galatians says it beautifully. Paul says, my old self, it's been crucified with Christ. In other words, I'm emptying myself. It's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and so I live in this earthly body by trusting in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's a beautiful way of putting it. John the Baptist, I I think was another great example of this when people are coming to Jesus to be baptized rather than to John's disciples. And John was like, let him. Let him. I'm I'm here to prepare the way for him. I'm filled with joy because of Jesus' success. He must become greater and I must become less and it's when when John emptied himself, he was filled with God's joy. And I just I I really appreciate that. I I like that a lot because it shows us that humility is not a terrible thing where I lose myself or my personality or something like that. I think that we become even more ourselves when we enter empty ourselves and allow God's gift of fullness to fill us up. Do do you know what I'm saying? It doesn't take anything away. It only it it actually only adds to our our our joy. It prompts the gift of God's fullness. It's pretty awesome. Going back to James. He says, our attitude ought to be, if it's the Lord's will, we'll do this or that. Otherwise, we're boasting in our own plans and that's a sin. I I share this this verse a lot. It's it's been kind of our our I think our family's theme verse, honestly. Proverbs sixteen nine says, we can make our plans but the Lord determines our steps and I see that right now. Just a parenting high schoolers who are going off to college and I'm thinking, okay, I think we got a plan and then we go, oh wait, maybe we may this isn't going quite how I we can make our plans but God is determining our steps. He's going to work. He's going to work these things out. Verse 17, he adds another warning. He says, remember, it's a sin to know what you ought to do and not to do it and sometimes we we we hear this referred to as sins of omission, knowing what we ought to do and not doing it but I I think the point that that James is making here is, if God is prompting you to do something, you know is right, you know you ought to do, go ahead and do it. Go ahead and do it. And personally, I can say, when I don't, when I don't, I wish I had. Like, I really do. I it follows me. It pursues me sometimes where I thought, man, I had the time. I had the energy. I had the this or that and and why, you know, why didn't I? I think James is exhorting us here saying, when you know something's right and you can do it, go ahead and do it. Moving on. Chapter five. It's a warning to the rich. We know that money in and of itself is not evil. Sorry, Blake. I'm monkeying around. First timid first Timothy six ten is a verse. It's the love of money that's the root of all kinds of evil. And some people craving money have wandered from from the faith and pierce themselves with many sorrows. And James is writing to the rich here, specifically those who became wealthy and made their profit by oppressing their workers. That's the audience that James is writing to here. They were cheating people of their pay. And he says, all of that wealth that's hoarded unjustly in the wrong way for selfish gain, it will stand as evidence against that person in the day of judgment. Bottom line is just not worth it. It's just not worth it. I mean, you can have absolutely everything here and still forfeit your soul. I believe this is why why Jesus tells us in in Matthew, he says, store your treasure in heaven. Moth and rust, they can destroy that. And thieves, they don't break in and steal. So rather than accumulating wealth for selfish gain and and exploiting defenseless people, it's the idea of using our time or talents or treasure to seek things that have eternal value and build toward God's kingdom rather than just this little kingdom down here. And Jesus gives a very very compelling reason why in this verse. He says, wealth breaks down. Wears out. It can be stolen. It could be taken away. But an application point here for us this evening is, how am I using? How am I using what God's given me? My time, my talents, my treasure, the things that he gives, and how am I doing specifically to to to build toward his kingdom? Where I'm not just thinking about what's happening just right here, but I'm thinking, God, how do I build? How do I, how can I point people toward you? And what I love is there's there's so many creative ways to do that. I don't know if anybody in this room has ever really met Christie. She was here probably, wow, three, two, three years ago now and she's one of our our missionaries in New Zealand. She just wrote a letter and she's she's going to stay there for a while and continue to do what she do but years ago, she was in this horrific bike accident. And, like, she literally tomahawked down a mountainside. It was an absolute miracle that she survived and even recovered from this from this bike accident. And now she uses her passion of of mountain biking to share test testimony and introduce people to Jesus. I I just think it's a cool story and and she was on my mind this week because she just wrote a letter and and she said, hey, I'm I'm staying in New Zealand. I feel like God's called me to stay here. I'm going to do this but there are countless stories like that and right here in this room too. Just using what you got to build up God's kingdom and it looks different for different people and it should. He's wired us to be different. Going back, Proverbs three, five, and six. First, trust in the Lord with with all of your heart. Second, don't rely on your own understanding. Third, in all your ways, acknowledge him and the result, what will he do? He'll make your path straight. That's good wisdom right there. Again, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. We don't. We don't have that guarantee. But we are guaranteed that when we trust him, he will make our path straight. And my my encouragement to to all of us, including myself tonight because I need this, is not to boast about tomorrow. Not to boast about tomorrow. We don't know what it'll bring. Or not to get too confident in what we accumulate. But to carry that attitude of, if it's the Lord's will. Lord willing. I'll do this or that. Trust him. Just moment by moment, day by day, using what he's given us, building towards king, not just thinking about what's happening down here, but building toward a kingdom that doesn't perish or spoil or fade. One more verse, and I'll open up the the conversation here. This is from Colossians. This one kinda hit me square this week. It says, think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life. Your real life is hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ who is your life is revealed to the whole world, you'll share in his glory. Another great promise right here. But I think I'm going to stop right there for tonight and and open it up. And if there's just any any comments from from Proverbs three, five, and six, from James, little one minute testimony, word of encouragement, something that grabbed a hold of you. And you'd like to to share it, great. And if not, that's okay too. We've got another song to sing. Thank goodness for another song to sing. Proverbs three, five, and six is what stood out to me a lot. From the video in the beginning and then also just circling back and touching on it, trust in the Lord in all of your ways. And I think about what does that mean to trust in the Lord? And I've thought about that over the years and times you've asked me to speak up on Monday nights, and it's like, I've touched on Proverbs three, five, and six too, and I think about trust in the Lord. And what does that mean? And I would think that it means to do what the Lord says. Do what he says. And if you wanna look at what he says, you can read read throughout any of the gospels, but also Matthew chapter six. Sermon on the mountain is five, six, and seven, but specifically six. You can find out a lot about what the Lord said for you to do. So, trust in the Lord, listen to him. If anybody else wants something, I'll grab the microphone. I'm walking right towards this guy. For right. He usually starts and I usually end. Ken, would you like to say something? Saw that hand go up. Yes, I see that hand. Yeah. We're doing that. I see that thing. I see. Oh, for the people and the thing. When I'm, my name is Kim and I think, you know, I had grandparents that were phenomenal followers of Christ but when I was growing up, my my dad was an atheist and my mama was a women's liver and neither of em ascribed to Christ. They both are Christians now. My whole family is now But I came to Christ at a very young age and my grandmother was always feeding me verses and that was one of them that she gave me. But I got real tied up when I was younger in what my vocation should be. And and it took me probably twenty five years, the first twenty five years of my life to finally figure out that it because I was married to a pastor who was ended up being very abusive and God led me out of that and I was a teacher in public schools and I thought, well, have I missed God's calling if I'm not doing his work? And then it occurred to me that I was really doing his work in a public school in a way that, you know, I lost a child when I was married and I'd always wanted children and it occurred to me that there were thousands of children that I was able to influence for Christ that had I stayed married to the abusive pastor husband, I wouldn't have been able to do that. Had I not had I not lost my child, I wouldn't have been able to do that. My child's in heaven has had the perfect father and there have been thousands of kids that that I've been able to speak Christ into and I think I didn't really realize that until the other end of it or the backside of it. I got so mixed up in trying to make sure that I was doing it the way I thought God wanted me to do it that I kind of missed the whole point for a while and then I realized, wait a minute, you know, I've had thousands of kids in my life. They just weren't born of me. They were born of spirit, not necessarily of of my flesh. So, I think for me now, we we don't know. If you had told me that I would end up in Jackson, Wyoming, 20 Or 30 Years ago, I never would have believed that. Wouldn't have minded it but I would I would never have believed it and so, we really don't know where God will lead us next. But we do know that if we put our faith and trust in him that wherever we are is exactly where he wants us to be that moment and you know, I'm humbled that in some difficult circumstances I've been in that God placed me in the place to be needed Christ and I didn't engineer that God did. You know, so wherever we are, wherever we find ourselves, whether we find ourselves like Paul in prison or something else, You know, we're supposed to proclaim his truth wherever we are. And as long as we do that with a humble heart for his glory and love him, then we're right in the center where his will is. Our circumstances, we don't always get to choose but we always get to choose our faith in him. That is such a good word. Thank you, Kim for sharing that too. Appreciate that so much. My name is Bethany and I thought it was important when you mentioned to not be of the Lord because that would take his power away from him. That just means that don't try to pretend to be he himself because that's not our position here to overcome who he is or to overtake who he he is. What to continue at our own right of power within our mind and our brain. And when he says that he felt, his mind was inaccurate or not inaccurate but inadequate just to know that we don't have to be all of everything that he is and to not do that play pretend over what our following and and teachings are and just to go about ourselves as not actors and actresses in our our daily lives and contempt. So I thought that was important for the reminder and also chapter or the verse that says remember how the people had cried. You know, we're not trying to partake and continue that that poor or bad behavior as that is our our goodness. We're trying to look at that as the story of tragedy of what had happened to them and be on on the the level path of nonviolent behavior to where we treat our ourselves as love as well. So that was important to me. Thank you. Thanks for sharing Anybody? Anybody? Alright. So everybody who knows me knows that I never planned to be married ever again. And so, you know, surprise. Yeah. A good surprise. A good surprise. But it just this this really just spoke to me that our plans, I I was very content just being a mom. I was very content having been through affordable divorce just living my life. Being a teacher must be the theme for the night. Yep. Yep. My wife's a teacher too by the way. And I so amen to what you said of just about how effective you can be in the school. Just be in light. Be in love. That's right. That's right. I'm so sorry to interrupt. No. Please keep going. It's great. So, I just think that how powerful that is that God's plans are so much bigger than ours. Yeah. Yep. And unexpected too at times too. Like, oh, I didn't know you were going with this one, God but okay. The one that I that it's very simple but my mom used to always say that if you want to hear God laugh, just tell him your praise. Yeah, sure. After I was a school teacher for about twenty years, I became a school counselor which I said I would never do that. So, be really careful what you say you will never do. Right. And I became a school counselor and then worked with abused kids a lot and then I was sitting in a stoplight and a car plowed into me and I got a brain injury. I couldn't read. I couldn't write. I couldn't speak. I couldn't pray. I was trapped inside my head and that I understood what was being said around me and people were saying things like, well, she's single. What's gonna happen to her now? You know, like my life was over. I was still in there and it took a good three years to recover from it but I had a had a dream one night that because I wondered myself what was my parents were not followers of Christ at the time and they weren't too interested in helping at the time and I didn't know what I was gonna do but I had a dream that I was swimming in the ocean and there were sharks in the ocean and all these kids that I had taught or counseled, I was between them and the sharks and when all the kids were out of the water, all these people were on the beach. A lot of them I knew and some of them I didn't know but some of the particular kids that I especially remembered working with came running towards me and they had always called me the mother of their heart. You know, because some of those kids didn't have moms that really cared for them much and when that was happening in my dream, one of the girls in it said, do you know who all these people are? And I said, I have no idea and she said, well, these are our children and our children's children and our children's children and all the next generation where because you were here and you did what God told you, not just my life was impacted but their life. So, even if you are handicapped and disabled and can't think or read or write or speak for the rest of your life, that doesn't change the effect that Christ keeps making. As your testimony goes on to the next person and next person and the influence that you had. So, you know, when you invest your life in someone else's life for Christ, that's an eternal. That is the eternal significance. You know, he tells us to love the Lord first and foremost and then lovers others as ourselves. And you you can't love others till you love yourself in a healthy way but you know, the eternal significance comes when we die to self and are alive to Christ, whatever that means. Yeah. And so, you know, God, I'm so grateful that he brought me back from that but even if he hadn't, it wouldn't, he would have had a purpose in that. And I think so, for me, in particular, when the tragic things of life happen, we don't understand, and we don't get our whys that it happened. We have to hold fast to our faith in Christ that he has a higher purpose that far far exceeds these troubles and trials that we go through. His glory far exceeds that. It does indeed. My grandmother took the you you know, I mean, you met her before but she took this verse very very literally if we were saying, we're going to head to Panama City day after tomorrow. You want to go with us? She would say, I don't know. So, you want us to ride by here day after tomorrow? She said, yeah, try that and we'd come by and say, you want to go? She'd jump in with us because she was not going to boast about what she was going to do tomorrow but she was she had a pretty steady pattern to her life every day and she loved to go places but she she she very much took this one very literally very literally. Yeah. Lord willing. Yeah. And I was going to say that's the other thing is Lord willing or inshallah in Arabic or CDOs in Spanish. All of those things are if God wills. You know. It's kind of a nice thing to to kind of keep that in mind. It keeps us humble too to say, that does sound sound like something appealing to me but as God wills, he'll let me know. Yep. I yeah, I figured it all out. Have a plan. Find yourself. There's one more one more thing that you said because we we kind of glanced over the rich guy there. Specifically in the parable of the soils that we've hit the past couple weeks on Sundays. Yeah. It specifically says that that the thorns of this life are riches and possessions and and really they have a tendency to choke out because either you're going to rely on the things in your earthly security, your your your smarts, your brilliance, whatever or you're going to trust in the Lord with all your heart. So, anyway, that's it. Okay. I'm going put this right. How about we stand? We'll sing and where you stand? I I also want to pray. God, I I I just thank you for this humbling reminder that that our lives are like a a fog, a mist that here today and gone tomorrow, and I don't think that should scare us. I think it it really just ought to it just ought to be on our minds that we we don't know what tomorrow will bring and and just as as Kim said, to be walking by faith and and and James language to to be to humble ourselves before you, to to yield our will to your will, and expect you to move God in unexpected ways. God, that we would be available to be used by you in ways that we just didn't imagine. In Jesus name, amen. As I rise, strength of God, I go before and lift beyond. As I wait, eyes of God, I look upon in my side. Heart of God satisfied and sustained as I hear voice of God lead me on be my guide be my guide above and below me behind me in every eye that sees me, Christ be all around me. And as I go hand of God my defense by my side as I rest breath of God fall upon bring me bring me above and below me before and behind me. Every eye that sees me, there to be all around me above and below me before and behind me. In every eye that sees me, there has to be all around me. And your life and your death, no nothing every moment every moment above and below me before and behind me in every eye that sees me, rise beyond me above and below me before and behind me, and every eye that sees me, rest be all around me. I think I got a little, yeah, how about it again? Proverbs three, five, and six. God, would you help us to trust in you with our whole heart and not to depend on our own understanding that we would seek your will in all that we do. And, God, we trust that you will show us which path to take, that you would make it straight in Jesus' name. Amen.