This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our look through James chapter 4 in Daily Drive Time Devotions, day
5, our last day in our look at this chapter. We're going to look at verses 11 to
17 today. Today we're going to look at the end of this chapter at what James has
to say about how to know God's will in your life.

But first, quickly, let's look at verses 11 and 12 and what he has to say about
judgment. It's a reminder of what he had to say back in chapter 2 and 3.
"Brothers," he says, "do not slander one another.

Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and
judges it. " When you judge the law, you're not keeping it, but you're sitting
in judgment on it. There's only one lawgiver and judge.

The one who is able to save and destroy. Now he comes back to what we've looked
at earlier here, these statements about judgment. And they can.

There's no doubt about it. They can be confusing. Here's why when the Bible
talks, especially the New Testament talks about us judging one another, here's
why it can be confusing.

The New Testament uses the word "judge" in two different ways. Sometimes when it
uses the word "judge" it means discernment and other times it means ultimate
judgment. Sometimes when the New Testament talks about judging other believers
it means discernment.

And Christians are allowed and even challenged to have discernment towards
another person. There are many, many verses about encouraging each other or
warning each other that would be impossible to do without some major of
discernment about what the other person was facing in their life. So we're to
have discernment about, "Well, that looks like a sin to me.

That looks like you have some needs in your life to me or that looks like some
good things are happening in your life to me. " We're to judge rightly between
one another. That's discernment.

That is far different from the second way that the word "judge" is used. As it's
being used here, it's used to mean ultimate judgment. And God alone has ultimate
judgment.

We must not act like God in passing judgment. We have to act like creations of
God. You see, I don't even know all the facts.

So how can I judge? And even if I think I knew all the facts, I could never know
all the motivations. These verses say, "When you judge the law but you're not
keeping it, you're trying to sit in judgment of something you can't even keep.

There's only one lawgiver and judge. So I leave ultimate judgment into his
hands. " What does this mean in a practical way?

It means I can go to a fellow believer and say, "Wow, I see some things in your
life and I just want to let you know you're heading down a path that I've seen
some other people go down that path. You don't want to go that way. You do not
want to go that way.

Sin's going to eat you up if you go that direction. I've seen it in my own life.
" You can say that, but you can't go to somebody else and say, "I see that
because you're doing that thing, you're going to spend eternity in hell.

There's no doubt about it. I can see it. I can discern it.

" I don't have the right to say that. Only God is the ultimate judge. So we
don't sit in judgment of each other as ultimate judges, but we can have
discernment between each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

That's the difference. With that in mind, these words about judgment, James
turns to some advice about understanding and living out God's will in our daily
lives. James 5 verses 13 to 17 are some of the most familiar verses in James.

Let me read them for you. "Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow we will go
into this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while and then
vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if it's the Lord's will, then we will live
and do this or that.

As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone then who knows
the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

" Now Warren Wiersby in looking at these verses talks about three types of
people here when it comes to God's will. There are some who resist God's will.
They do what they want to do.

There are others who do God's will, but then there are some who ignore God's
will. And the truth is to ignore God's will is the same as to resist it. To
ignore God's will is to act as if I'm figuring life out on my own.

And these verses say it is foolish to ignore God's will in your life. To act as
if you can figure out life on your own. Why is it foolish?

There are four reasons in these verses. First, the complexity of life. There are
so many things that are happening in life.

So many moving pieces. We love to think we can figure it all out. But none of us
can.

Oh, we get it right every once in a while and then we feel so proud of
ourselves. But life is complex. And without the hand of God moving in our lives,
it would be more complex than it even seems to us.

The complexity of life tells us it's foolish to ignore God's will. God knows the
future. He knows us.

He knows our lives. He knows everything. So why would I ignore his will?

The complexity of life. It's foolish to ignore God's will. Also, the uncertainty
of life.

You do not even know what will happen tomorrow, it says in verse 14. Life is
uncertain. I don't know what's going to happen.

So why would I ignore God's will and think I could figure it out on my own? And
then he says the brevity of life. You're a mist that appears for a little while
and then vanishes.

Because of that, I shouldn't ignore God's will. I don't know how many days I
have on this planet. I might think I know, but I don't know.

And that brings us to the fourth reason, the reality of death. There is going to
come a day when I go to meet my Maker. And because of that, I need to live my
life in light of his will.

Because that's where my life is headed. I need to live my life in the light of
where I'm headed, in the light of my relationship with him. God's will.

What does God's will give us? God's will gives us simple truth to meet the
complexities of life. God's will gives us confidence to meet the uncertainties
of life.

God's will gives us eternal life to meet the brevity of life and the reality of
death. Now what are we talking about here? When we talk about God's will, what
is it?

God's will is not a cheat sheet with the answers for life. In the year
so-and-so, you're going to marry this person. In the year so-and-so, you're
going to move to this place.

In the year so-and-so, you're going to have this job. It's not some kind of a
cheat sheet. God's will is a living relationship with your Creator.

God's will is your response to that relationship. What are we talking about? How
does this work?

With the examples here, James talks about going to a city to work for a year to
make some money. What does it mean to resist God's will, to ignore God's will,
or to do God's will? To resist God's will, you'd be resisting God's will if you
knew what God wanted you to do, but instead you ran to some other city to try to
make money.

A lot of people run away from where they are because they're running from God's
will. That's resisting God's will, and you might even be successful in that
other city. You might even make money there.

That's no indication that that was God's will for your life. You knew what God
wanted you to do, and if you're running away from God's will to some other
place, I know a lot of people who hide behind success thinking, "I've had some
success in this. I must be okay with God that I ran here.

" You know in your heart you ran. That's resisting God's will. What does it mean
to ignore God's will?

That would be to make your plans without ever asking God. You just say, "Well,
I'm going to go do this. I'm going to live in this city.

Here's a great plan," and you never pray about it. You never read God's word
about it. You never turn your heart to God, and then when it all goes well, you
boast about your plans as if God wasn't even a part of it.

Look at what I did. That's one of the reasons we're going to get to this in a
minute, that we like to ignore God's will. And what does it mean to do God's
will?

To do God's will means you get this idea, "Maybe I should move to this city,"
and then you ask God. You ask other people. You get in listening mode, maybe for
a day or two, maybe for a month or two, and if it all checks out as you ask God
and others and you seek wisdom from His word, you begin to make plans to go,
realizing that God might change those plans even as you make them, if it's the
Lord's will.

Now, some people say that these verses show we should not plan. We should just
live one day at a time taking whatever God gives. That is not what these verses
say at all.

Notice verse 15. It says, "If it's the Lord's will, we will do this or that. "
It still says, "We will do this or that.

" That's the planning part. And this verse encourages us to go ahead with that
plan, to say, "I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that. " But it also says,
you begin by saying, "If it's the Lord's will.

" You do your planning in light of God's will. Some people plan in spite of
God's will, not in light of God's will, but in spite of God's will. They're
going to do what they plan no matter what gets in their way, even if they have a
sense that it's not what God wants them to do.

Even if God is showing them through multiple ways, it's the wrong way to go.
Now, why do we do that? Why do we live in spite of God's will?

Well, James comes to it at the end of these verses. It's pride. We want to be
able to say we've done it on our own.

We want to be able to say we've figured life out. It's a matter of pride. How do
I do God's will?

Here, a lot of people are asking, "How do I know God's will? " When somebody
keeps asking over and over and over again, "How do I know God's will? How do I
know God's will?

I know one thing. " They've never tried to do God's will, because the knowing
comes in the doing. When you begin to act on whatever little you know of God's
will, begin to do it, then you begin to know more and more of God's will.

The question James is asking in these verses, he's asking me, he's asking you,
is, "Are you ignoring God's will in your life right now? " You know it, but you
refuse to do it, or you're not even asking God about it. You and I, we tend to
count our lives in years, but God tells us to number our days.

We live life one day at a time. And yeah, you can make plans for the future, but
you do it always with this in mind, if it's God's will. Because that, that
ultimately is what I'm going to follow.

And you live one day at a time, seeking to live out His plan for your life. You
don't live out your plan so that in the end you can boast and brag. That's the
opposite of God's will.

That's depending on yourself. That's building yourself up. So verse 17 at the
end of this chapter says, reminds us that sin, when it comes to God's will in
our life, sin is not just doing bad things.

Sin is not doing the good thing that God is directing you to do. In fact,
personally, those are my greatest sins. The things I have not done because I
didn't have faith.

The things I have not done because I followed temptation. The things I have not
done because I've allowed my insecurities. I've listened to Satan's voice about
my insecurities instead of listening to God's voice about His will.

If I had to summarize this chapter, James chapter 4, this chapter tells us that
we live in a world that tries to derive its worth from selfish values. What I
can earn and enjoy and plan and execute on my own, but your worth isn't there.
Your worth is in your relationship with Christ and you find it as you humble
yourself under God's mighty hand and allow Him to lift you up.

I want to encourage you. Would you pray with me this very simple prayer? Just
say, "Jesus Christ, instead of living a boasting life, I want to live a trusting
life.

Instead of living a self-directed, self-empowered, selfish life, I want to live
a Christ-directed, Christ-empowered Christian life. " And I encourage you to
add, even as we pray right now, in your mind, the phrase, "If it's the Lord's
will," to the plans that you have in front of you right now. Whatever those
plans are, big ones, small ones, in your mind right now, just add, "If it's the
Lord's will.

" And then also say, "Lord, if it's not Your will, I trust You. I trust You to
know what's best. " In Jesus' name, amen.

Join us next week. We're going to finish our study of the book of James as we
look at James chapter 5. James chapter 5 talks about the deceptiveness of
material riches, the value of godly patience, and the practice of powerful and
effective prayer.

See you next week for James chapter 5.