If the Lord Wills

I'll say this first. I don't take preaching on any pulpit lightly. So I appreciate Pastor Johnny and the Sovereign Gates Baptist Church family for sharing it with me. I just ask you for grace like we just sang because I know a church family can get used to one style of preaching and I think we have a great preacher. And Pastor Johnny, would you agree with.

And I don't sound like pj, obviously, but remember that that is why I'm at seminary, not to sound like pj. I'm at seminary to learn how to handle God's word properly. And it's not to please man, but to please God. So please bear with me.

You'll notice on the PowerPoint, I don't know if it's up there yet. The first one we're going to be talking about. You guys have an outline by the way too. Hopefully you do, but it's going to be in the book of James and in chapter four. And I've titled this sermon if the Lord Wills.

How many times we've heard or read that statement and maybe just ignored it, right? If you've ever been around any Spanish home or circles, many Spanish homes, including mine, growing up, the statement used a lot was primero dios or Si dios permite. What do you think that means? Same thing, if the Lord wills. And by the way, when I was growing up, I heard it a lot.

I did not know what it meant. I know, I know what the words meant, but I didn't really realize that it was scripture based, you know, like many times. I don't know what I told you guys. Years I would read a lot of books and self improvement and thought that those authors made it. And then later on when I studied God's word, I'm like, oh, that's where they got it from.

God's the ultimate author, not somebody in the world, right?

And as we cover James 4:13 through 17, we've all heard the word quartet, right? Meaning four. The next word I'm showing you guys is quintet or you can even say penta, right? If you didn't know that pentagon means five has five sides, in this case, I'm calling it the quinta or the penta. A's don't know if it's up there already.

In this passage, James is teaching us humble ourselves to accept or to admit the sovereignty of God over our lives and to avoid or abandon any arrogancy and planning that does not consult God. Would I hear amen on that? And I would even say, not just consulting God, Might mean the same thing should be synonymous. But even consulting Scripture, arrogant planning makes you believe you're self sufficient. Man.

How many mistakes did I make growing up thinking, you know, learning that I can be self sufficient? That's what the world teaches us out there. So hopefully my intro will show us the sovereignty of God, which is the supreme power of God, which is the supreme authority of God, and which is also the supreme control of God, control of all. But let's talk about some questions first to ask ourselves in three areas. You might have it up there, but you might have some of it in your outline too.

What some of these questions we're going to cover is our language, our leanings and our loyalty. And in our languages we're going to try to answer the question is what should our thoughts in speech be? And in our, in our learnings, we're going to cover the question, do we know what tomorrow brings or holds? And our last one, our loyalty is, is it our will or the Lord's we should depend on? Now in the PowerPoint, you'll see things.

Pastor Johnny doesn't use PowerPoints. The majority people don't. You know, when I start doing things that I get excited and I start putting things together and I thought, you know what, maybe they'll get excited with me, maybe you won't. Maybe you're going to snitch on me and tell Pastor John, he used, he used technology, right? He used technology.

He used a lot of stuff from the world, right in this case. So let's pray. Ruth. Heavenly Father, I ask you to please help me not to have my words here, but to use. Help me use your words properly.

Help me use your Scriptures properly. Father, I want to honor your. And I'm asking to please, you know, teach us what is yous will. And if I'm not sufficient enough to teach it, may the church here continue to study your will even deeper. Father, help us to bring you glory and honor in everything we do.

And just thank you for all that you do. We ask this in Jesus name we pray. Amen. I spoke to Mike Gender, and by the way, he wanted me to tell you guys again that that was probably one of the best conferences he's ever done, believe it or not. And he's done a lot of them.

He's been in 84 countries, right? And he even asked me, can I use some of the stuff that we were talking about? He was going to do a conference this week. And he goes, one thing that makes me feel, really feel good is when you plant a seed. And then 26 years later, you see the flourishing of it.

You can ask the farmers, right? You plant a seed, and then 26 years later, you see the trees still planting fruit. You're like, whoa, Right? So we left a great impression. Sometimes we think we're a small church and that's all we are.

But no, the Lord is having impact in this church. So we should be in slide five. Hosanna. But before I cover the Lord's will or those questions, first, let us cover where people often use their will. They use it for some channel of excitement or enthusiasm.

We're seeing it today, right? What's going on right now with the World Cup? You know, it's funny. I've seen some videos or some headlines that says, Europeans did not realize that people in the United States were that nice or that kind. And then they also are saying that they're so used to having everything so small, and you come to the United States and everything's so big, right?

And so. But they're using their excitement for different things, right? I'm going to cover one. That's baseball. You see sports scouts gathering up together with a notepad and radar to see a new pitcher throw 95 miles an hour.

That's how many people are there. That's just a small. There's more pictures, but everybody's with their radar trying to figure out how fast can this person throw the ball, which is 95 miles an hour. Fastball. And what do they do?

They go, whoa. All right. And maybe you would do it, too, right? Like in this case, like, I don't know how to pronounce his name. Shohei, is it Shohei Ohtani.

He plays for the Dodgers. Sorry. If you guys are Giants fans, I'm not promoting Dodgers. Fastest ball he's ever pitched and recorded in the major leagues is 101.7 miles an hour. And the scouts and others will say, wow.

And I would say, that is amazing, isn't it? Because I don't know if you've ever tried throwing a ball that fast. You know, I'm thinking when I first learned 100, that's nothing. And I try to. My whole body going there.

49 miles an hour. What? 49 miles. How's that? How are they throwing a double?

And then I tried hard, almost breaking my shoulder, and it was like maybe 58. So it is amazing. And if you're a fan, that's awesome. But you know what's more amazing? Let's read Genesis 1:1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and The Earth. And the Earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep. The spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, this is the amazing part. Let there be light.

And guess what? There was light. Can you do that?

We get excited because there's a new trash can out there that we say open. And it opens. It says close. Close, right? And we think that we've created something, right?

So what's more amazing and more awesome than a pitcher throwing 100 miles an hour? You know what it is? Go to the next one God throwing. If you didn't know this, when God created the Earth, he threw the Earth into motion at a thousand miles an hour. As we talk right now, the Earth is spinning a thousand miles per hour.

That's better than 100 miles per hour, right? According to NASA, the speed is around more technically, 1,040 miles per hour. Now, that's the fastest ball in the real majors. If you agree, or at least if you ask me, we should all be wearing. I put that in there.

We should all be wearing a sports jersey with the word Yahweh. Not our favorite fan, I mean, player. They do make them, by the way. So if you want to wear a jersey, right, that says Yahweh, and if somebody says, why are you wearing that? Do you know that right now we're spinning at a thousand miles an hour?

And we get excited about a pitcher in the major leagues. And by the way, the Earth rotates, By the way, just just to get an example, to understand how fast 1040 is, imagine spinning a basketball. Who's ever tried to spin a basketball on your finger, right? Maybe years ago. That is spinning at the rate of 7-10 mph.

The Earth rotates on its own axis, and one full spin takes 24 hours, which is where we get a day. And if you are doing the math, every four seconds, the Earth moves 1.1 miles every four seconds, which is 24,901 miles a day. So that is not a random accident. That is an intelligent divine design.

Now, you understand what I say? You want to know what's amazing? Another enthusiastic way people use your will is people will pay thousands of dollars to go see Steph Curry or whoever other player you like, NBA. And they paid thousands of dollars for him to make a round object go into another round metal shape. When he makes it in the.

When he makes it, the crowd goes crazy wild.

I believe if someone who lived in a jungle and never seen a basketball game in their Life. But let's just say, let's just assume that they actually got to be on the sideline and witness a game for, for the first time on the sideline. And they watched the arena go wild. When Curry makes that three pointer, what do you think they'd be thinking? They would probably be staring at the crowd and also that round circle basket, trying to figure out what is up with these people yelling and cheering.

Because a round ball went into a round basket, by the way. Especially when this person probably just killed a huge buffalo a few days ago to survive and feed his family. And if you say, oh, that doesn't happen. I just came from Indonesia, I seen some stuff, I was at the safaris and I got to see all these different things that people are still living today. Like, you know, we're not used to in America and I seen it last time in Kenya.

But I always wonder, people get so excited and they use their will for excitement for that kind of stuff. And I can pick on football too, by the way. You know, you ever notice when somebody on the 11 yard line and they cross the ball and the whole stadium goes wild, that same person would go, stare at the line and go, what does that mean? Right? I'm not sure what that means.

But again, you want to know what is more amazing than that awesome, you know, basket going in that our great God creator not only spins the Earth at a thousand miles per hour that I just talked about, but also designed the Earth to orbit around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour. So the ball, the Earth is spinning at a thousand miles and this is the sun, it's spinning a thousand, and then it's going around the sun 67,000 miles per hour. Think about that not spinning a basket.

It takes exactly 365 days of the Earth to orbit around the sun, which is where we get a year, and that year it travels 584 million miles. So we are literally never in the same exact physical place or position in the universe twice. You get excited about the fingerprints, that there's 8 billion people and no one has the same fingerprints. You shouldn't be excited about that. But think about, we're never at the same exact place twice.

Then again, is that a random accident? Again, folks, it's not random. By the way, I read Genesis 1 and also I'm going to read verse 3, a quick side note, if you didn't know this, we read in Genesis 1, verse 3, then God said, let there what be light. And there was light. I don't Know if you realize this, when I was doing my study, I'm like, whoa, that was only the first day of creation.

You're wondering, what do you mean by that? But God didn't make the sun until the fourth day in verse 16.

So in the first verse, three verses, let there be light years ago, I used to think, that's the sun, right? But he didn't create the sun until the fourth day. So what is the light in verse three? And many scholars say it is the glory of God.

Charles Spurgeon said, I think it's up there. If he's not, it's not up there yet. Maybe. Charles Spurgeon said the light in Genesis 1:3, he says was a manifestation of God's own uncreated, uncreated glory and immediate power.

Pastor John MacArthur said the literal self sustaining glory and presence of God himself. Because God is inherently light, he did not need the sun or moon to eliminate the Earth or to establish the evening and morning during the first three days of creation isn't that powerful. That's God's glory.

So what other things do humans use in their emotion of awe? Even better than throwing a pitch of 100 miles per hour or shooting a three pointer basket. Right. Recently in 2024, we got excited that SpaceX, if you don't know who that is, they just went in public, designed a rocket that not only took off, but it came back and landed as the launch tower caught it. And again, I would agree that that's actually quite amazing.

Right? That's actually what it looked like. It left, came back. For those that are older, it used to leave and that was it. If it came back, it was in the ocean and it cost billions.

Elon Musk and his team figured out how to have the rocket leave and bring it back and not only actually come back, but save billions of dollars and save humans. Right. In this case. And by the way, if you go watch the video of Elon Musk, when that happens, he's kind of crying, emotional. And I think he says in there, I didn't know if I was gonna, if it was gonna work.

Do you think that's how God worked? God said, let there be light and there was light. Elon Musk said, I didn't know it was going to work.

So what's more amazing than that? There's another one. Yeah. That our great God creator not only spins the Earth at a thousand miles an hour, not only does he design the Earth to orbit around the sun 67,000 miles an hour, but he put The Earth and the sun into a solar system packaged with other planets that looks like that.

Then that solar system is inside another section of space called. What is it called? The Milky Way. The Milky Way galaxy. And guess what?

That solar system travels at a speed of 515,000 miles an hour inside the galaxy, according to NASA. So,067,000. And then it's moving with planets, 515,000 miles per hour. And then if that wasn't good enough, and according to NASA, this is where the sun and solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy. Right.

Keep going. This is the sun and that little dot that you can't see in our solar system. Right? And that galaxy itself, the whole thing travels at a speed of 1.3 million miles per hour around all space. That's actually a true picture.

So think about that. Hope you're getting what I'm trying to do. If the Lord wills. Now, I'm going to try to make it clear, because you guys are probably wondering, where's he going with this again? If that wasn't enough to knock your socks off.

God created the universe with all these galaxies. According to NASA, we are just one of these galaxies. So all those lights are galaxies. I'm not going to get into it. Is there life out there?

I don't. I don't really care about that. I probably will never live if there is, you know, long enough to find that out. But, you know, we should care about who created this. Amen.

Amen.

See, maybe you're thinking, I didn't know I was coming to church to learn astronomy. But you see, folks, none of this matters if we don't give credit where credit is due.

I can show you pictures, you know, and I get irritated even times when other people do something and they think they created it or they invented it. And you can ask my family. I always say they would only say, the reason why I was able to do this is because God's grace. I was only able to do this because the Lord will. So what does Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 1:16?

It should be up there. For in him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. Yes, we get to enjoy God's creation, but it was made for him if we think it was made for us. Right?

What did God say when he finished in creation?

He says in Genesis 1:31, and God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very Good. He didn't need our approval. He did it without us.

Psalm 104:31 says, Let the glory of Yahweh endure forever. Let Yahweh be glad in his works. Glad in his works.

And then the believer, if you're a believer, should remember what King David wrote in Psalms 8, 3, 4. When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what is the man that you remember him, and the son of man that you care for him. Who are we? How small or big do we think we are now that now that a picture was painted of how small we are in the grand scheme of things, or more importantly, in the well designed and well ordered cosmos? Let's start our lesson right.

I want to, just as I start. Years ago, I was teaching a class to the youth and we have this big board whiteboard. And I said, hey, you know how much you should be focusing on eternity versus where you lived your life today? They said, how long? And there used to be a lady here and her name was Grace.

What? Olds. No pun intended, right? Olds. She lived to be.

I don't remember. It was 101. Yeah, she lived, I think, 101 years old and she was still living at the time. And I said, you guys remember Grace? Old?

They go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I said, how old is your grandparents? And then most of them said, 65, 75. I go, is that young or old? And most of them said, that's old, right?

That's old. I said, well, Grace is up there because we were down. She's 100 something years old. And then I got a dot and I barely hit it on the thing. I put a line, you know, I put a line and then I put a small little dot.

And then I said that dot. Grace owes life 101 years and the line represents eternity. So when you're focused on I gotta have it all, I gotta conquer the world, that's the little dot that you're trying to conquer compared to the whole line of eternity. Most kids are like, whoa, you know? So I tell you that because it's very easy to get focused on what's happening today.

Whether it's politics, whether it's business, whether it's sports. Our focus should be on the Lord.

This passage of James should help us to understand if we are trying to live the Lord's will or if we're trying to live ours. Let's cover in the book of James the previous passages already established were chapter one, going through trials and through them becoming doers. Chapter two was not showing favoritism and being fruitful. I'm sorry, faithful. Chapter three Controlling the tongue and using Heavenly Wisdom.

Chapter four was about motives that are self centered and absolute submission to God and avoiding the dangers of worldliness, including judging and slandering other believers. So James made it clear in verse 4:12 it says there is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor? With that question he is telling his audience to stop having pride because there's only one that is able to save, is able to destroy, and that is able to judge as the perfect lawgiver. And I cover that because that's kind of where it starts coming into where I'm going to teach, which is in James.

Right after he says that, he jumps into 13 and it's up there. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and such boasting is evil.

Therefore, to one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it, to him, it is sin. So let's cover that. So how do we love to plan? Maybe some of you guys are not planners, you know, but I had a career in financial services and one of the things we always did was putting retirement and financial plans in place for people. And we would constantly always say people don't plan to fail, but they fail to plan.

Right? We would even say you'll spend more time planning a two week vacation than you actually plan your future for retirement. But although there is truth to that, is that really all the truth to just plan? Right? Just keep going.

It's not the truth, right? What can we learn from the Bible when it says making plans? But here's an important question to ponder. What gives people the audacity to say it is my life or these are my plans or I'm very independent and I'm very self sufficient? What gives that you didn't learn that from the Bible?

What do we learn that from? The world, Right? It's funny, there's shirts out there that says live life. You only die once. And I usually say live life because you know you might only die once, but where are you going?

Because you might die once, but hopefully it's not in hell. We learned a lot of that last weekend.

So James went from quit having pride in judging others. That was the end of verse 12. And he says, because there is only one Lawgiver. And then he jumps right away to do you think you are really in control, trusting in yourself? Verse 13.

If we do believe that that's the case, that we're in charge of ourselves, that we're self sufficient. He says in there we are what? Arrogant, Arrogant, arrogant.

And then I'll just cover really quickly some people, some, some ways people may work on planning again. I used to, I used to teach this kind of stuff. So I'm not necessarily, you know, putting that all the way down, but I'm going to try to cover that. So you'll see some will plan short term, midterm, long term, which is days, weeks, months to years, years to decades. And then some actually do the short term daily to do list.

Budgeting, healthy fitness, eating, weekly activities. We had a person that used to come to this church here and I'm not kidding, I'm not going to say the name because you don't know who it is. He would count the pies of the toilet paper and very proud about it. And I'm like, I don't have enough time to do that kind of stuff. Right?

To make sure he did that to save money.

Then you have midterm travels, vacations, birthday, holidays, taxes or career advancements. Then you have a long term which is buying a home, having a family, retirement accounts.

But again, is planning, is God saying planning is bad? It's not what he's saying. Let's talk about our language, right? It should be in our language there are those ways of planning bad? No, it's already up there answering.

But what is bad is making plans all by yourself and not seeking God or telling others what you are going to do by the way. Not just telling them, but even boasting about it. Like if you can do anything all by yourself without God. And that's what James calls arrogance. In verse 13, James is confronting his readers by telling them, those who say.

And then he essentially is stopping him right there on the tracks and saying right there, who are you even just to say, not to plan, but even just to say.

And he's being direct, reminding them to stop playing God with your will. Think about what he's asking them. Who are you trying to play God? Because by the way, when you say I'M going to go do this, I'm going to go do that. No matter what, I'm going to do it.

What are you saying? That you're in charge of your own destiny? You're in charge of your own way of doing things? Right. You're essentially playing God.

I want to remind you also that he's confronting arrogant self sufficient believers, not non believers. Think about that. He talks to believers. And you might be asking, he talks to believers that way. Yeah.

By the way, if you're not a believer, he doesn't even talk to you.

I would rather be a believer and be spoken to in that manner to at least have a chance to change my ways than to not be spoken at all.

So don't think, oh, that's why I'm not a Christian, because I don't want to be spoken that way, you know, I want to be able to control my own destiny. The psalmist says in Psalm 105, verses 3, look what it says. Boast in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh be glad. Inquire of Yahweh and his strength.

Seek his face continually.

Seek his face continually. What are most people doing today?

Taking what they have a phone. Taking what? Selfies? Whose face are they seeking? We've joked around.

Pastor John has done it too. We've joked around where they never do their whole face. They always do like half of it or something, you know.

So we are to boast in his holiness, not in our willingness. And we are. We are to seek him in everything. Matthew 6, verse 31 says, do not worry. Then saying, what will we eat?

Or what will we drink? Or what will we wear for clothing? For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. I can't tell you how many times someone asks me and my wife, how are you able to have 12 kids? How are you able to support them? How are you able to raise them?

And you can ask my family. They know that I always constantly say, the Lord provides. That's it. There's times where sometimes even bills, I don't know how it's going to get paid. And the Lord provides.

And it's one of the. Even in Socal, especially in Socal, people have asked me that so many times. I don't understand that concept, I'm like, you don't understand the concept the Lord provides. That doesn't mean I just stay home and do nothing. Right.

What I'm trying to say is, years ago we made a decision, and it was hard for me because I went from a business type of person that I had to say, okay, I gotta leave it to the Lord. And if the Lord provides, we'll see. And I. And I kid you not, I'm not trying to turn this into a Pentecostal, you know, prosperity thing, right? But literally, when I made that decision with my wife, there's times we don't know how we might pay a bill.

And then the Lord provides, either through a way of making an income and sometimes even to the penny. And I can't tell you right now, but Pete Balon was. If you ever listened to Pete Balon, he would. I remember he would tell me that years ago, and I didn't understand that. I was like, what are you talking about?

He would always tell me, man was struggling and the Lord gave me the money to the penny. And I'm like, okay, just make that up. And it's happened. But it doesn't really happen when you're saying, no, I provide. Okay, So who controls if you make a profit or not?

Only God. Again, I asked earlier, and I say it again, ask a farmer. You can plant, plant, plant, but who does the increase? And instead of talking of prophets, we should be talking about God's providence, not his profit, not the profit that we're going to make. It's very easy to change.

How much money you going to make this year in your business? Oh, I'm going to make thousands, millions. How much are you going to make? Honestly, I don't know. I'll depend on God's sovereignty, and I'll depend on the Lord's providence and see what happens.

Is that much of a difference to say that? They might even ask, what does that mean? Perfect door opener. Right? Because who talks that way?

We should all talk that way, right?

It says in Proverbs 69, the heart of man plans his way, but Yahweh directs his steps. So we don't have to make it up. It's there. Now back to the second question. Do we know what tomorrow brings?

Because remember, that's. That wasn't the first question. That was the Second question. Verse 14 In James, it tells us, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

What's a Vapor, right? Who's ever. Have you've ever gotten your glasses and you've, you know, breathed on it or got in the mirror and breathed on it, how long does that vapor last? That's what, that's what James is saying, that we are nothing but a vapor. And by the way, you're going to vanish away and we're going to try to tell the Lord what to.

What to do or what to say with our lives.

You know those people that. And I'm not. If you're one of them, it's fine. But you have people that go climb and spend a hundred thousand. Now it's probably more $100,000 to go and climb Mount Everest.

And I just showed you the cosmos. And if that person makes it to heaven, I think God's going to go. And the reason why you climbed that little hill was what, that little thing? What was that purpose for? And I say that because a lot of them come back like disabled, half of their legs are frozen, and just to be able to say, I spent $150,000 to climb it.

I'm out for adventure, but not doing things that the Lord's going to go. And did that bring me any glory?

The important thing here in this verse is that James is addressing three other questions he's asking. One, who are you to know tomorrow? Two, are they trying to predict the future? By the way, only God is all knowing. And three, are they trying to make themselves all certain or all lasting?

James directly says, you are nothing but a vapor that will vanish another right away.

So again, I asked, what is a vapor? And I'm going to challenge you guys. When you get home, go to the mirror, breathe on it and see how long it lasts. And I would challenge you, in fact, that every single time you are throwing a tantrum, or maybe you have arrogant pride like I, like I do. Go to the mirror and do that and you'll see when the vapors you go, okay, God, you told me already, you know, I'm nothing but a vapor.

Why am I throwing a fit, right? Or why am I saying we're gonna go do this and that? Now the third question is our loyalty. Is it our will or the Lord's we should depend on? I know it sounds like very common sense questions, but bear with me.

In verse 15, James tells his readers, again, those who are being arrogant. He says, instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.

Folks, if our Lord and Savior said this in Matthew 26:39, right, it should be up there. And he went a little beyond them and fell on his face. And this is Jesus and prayed, saying, my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not I sorry, yet not as I will, but as you will. This is Jesus our Lord talking.

If someone doesn't have to say that, what I would say he does, because he's honoring the Father. But if there was somebody that might not have to say that, it would be Jesus, not us. And if he's saying it, what should we be doing? Should we be telling everybody this is what we're going to do, or should we be asking the Lord? He also says in Luke 22:42, it says, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.

Yet not my will, but yours be done. And you also heard him talk about when the devil was giving him, you know, tempting him.

So what excuse do we have to not approach life that way?

James knew that human life is fragile, so he admonished him to say, you ought to say.

It's an admonition. By the way, he says, you ought to say, if the Lord wills. I don't know. I won't tell anybody to raise your hand, but do you struggle by doing that or. And I even.

I've heard people say, even some pastors, you don't have to say it all the time. You ask my kids, I always tell them, say it all the time because, oh, you're going too far. No, I'd rather them say that more often. And they. Then they know what.

They understand what it means than to. Whenever I feel like depending on the Lord, I'll do it. No, no, no. Because James is telling us, again, you ought to say, if the Lord wills in Ephesians 5, chapter 5, verses 15, says, Therefore, look carefully how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise.

Redeeming the time because the days are evil on an account of this. Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

I was with a. I was in LA this weekend, and they brought 100 missionaries around the world. They do it every year to come this way and take like a week or two weeks off. And we heard a few of them from Africa, and one of them said, the world is getting darker and darker. Are you the light of the world, or are you also helping with the darkness? And it left an impact with me.

Years ago, we did a mission trip. I don't know if you guys remember, we had a light bulb and we were saying, we're the light of the world, right? Which I still. We should still believe that. But yes, the world is getting darker, even though we're celebrating 250 years.

So again, on account of this, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Psalms143.10 says, Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground. See level ground. You want to have a strong foundation, do the Lord's will.

You want to have a foundation that's breaking, do your will. Even when Apostle Paul is outlining his travel plan to the church of Corinth, he says in First Corinthians 16, For I do not wish to see you now just in passing, for I hope to remain with you for some time. And then what does it say? If the Lord permits, if the Lord wills. And then he starts closing in with the warning.

There is a warning. Then James finishes with the last two verses that if they are not going to be humble, they're not going to be humble themselves. Then they will be arrogant. We already covered that. But you're not going to just be arrogant.

You're going to be arrogant in the eyes of the Lord. That's where it's crucial, right? He finishes with a warning. Again, it says in verse 16 and 17, but as it is, you boast in your arrogance, and such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it, to him, it is sin.

So it's not just an encouragement, it's not just an admonishment. It's telling you. He's warning you. He's. It's an imperative to tell you that if you're, if we're.

That's. That's how we're doing it, then we're actually sinning when we're not doing the Lord's will or we're not even saying it.

So I don't think I need to say much there, but I will put in the Put up there the warning label if this was a drink or if this was something that you had to eat, or whatever. The warning label here, if you're planning without God, should be arrogance plus boasting equals evil, right? It's up there equals evilness or evil, right.

In Proverbs 16, 5, it says, Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh. Assuredly he would not be unpunished. James 4, 6 says, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

And I Would ask, do we know how to do? We know what to do now, right? Hopefully. Because all that we covered so far finishes verse 17 with therefore. And it says in 17, it is obviously therefore for a reason.

That's why it says therefore.

And it's there so we can be warned not to do those things, right? So if we can do the right thing, James already told us what was the right thing. And we have no excuses. But you might still ask, I still don't understand what is the right thing? Well, I'll just keep it simple.

I started in the. I started in the beginning. You know, they called it in seminary a proposition statement, right? Humble ourselves to accept, admit the sovereignty of God over our lives and to avoid or abandon any arrogancy and planning that does not consult God and also that does not consult Scripture. Years ago, I would ask Pastor Heinrich, you know, let's meet for breakfast or lunch or so you can help me with my thoughts and how to raise my kids.

And I can't tell you how many times we would meet. And there was times that he would say, hey, just go to the website and get the article of this. By the way, if you didn't know, our website has great articles written by Pastor Johnny, Pastor Heinrich and others. And I can't even tell you how many times he would tell me, look at this. Before we meet again, get this article.

I would read the article and the most of the articles was what scripture? And they would tell us how to live. And then I would go get that and apply it in my family's life. And I go, this thing works, right? And then sometimes we didn't have to meet, sometimes we did.

It's out there. It's in our website, right? I say that because again, scripture, but to keep it simple, or short and simple, he is saying, the right thing is to humble ourselves and only boast in God and to see God in everything. Keep it simple.

Jeremiah, we're closing here in Jeremiah 9, chapter 9 says, Thus says Yahweh, let not a wise man boast in his wisdom. Yes. And let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not a rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me, capital me, that I am Yahweh, who shows loving kindness, justice and righteousness on earth.

For I delight in these things, declares Yahweh. Think about that. What kind of delight do you want to bring to God? You're boasting.

We're celebrating. 250 years. It was pretty awesome, right? I don't know if you guys seen all the fireworks. I was passing on the freeway, man, so many fireworks going on.

But are we celebrating?

I made up my word. Greedom or freedom? Do we just want to talk about how much America we can, you know, build riches? What are we using our freedom for? Are we using our freedom to share the gospel or are we using our freedom to share the gossip?

Are we using our freedom to make disciples? Right? Or are we using our freedom to go out there and just, you know, see what you know? You say disciple, we could be pretty good in discipline. Being on the Internet, I don't know.

I was challenged by Pastor Mike Gindrum last week that we're not doing enough. And another missionary said a few days ago, and this is him now serving really well in another country, and he says, my challenge to all you guys, he says, is that I wasted a lot of time. He goes, I remember even playing video games and watching TV and being on the Internet. He goes, and my challenge to you is use that to spread the gospel. My challenge to you is to pray.

If you don't want to go spread the gospel, hopefully you do at least use it to pray. And again, I get challenged by these speakers. You know, Charles Spurgeon says, God can make light without a sun. He can spread the gospel without the aid of ministers. He can convert souls without any human or angelic agency.

For he does as he wills in the heavens above and on earth beneath. He don't need us, but he wants to share it with us.

And the last one, in Second Corinthians 12, 9, 10 it says, Jesus. And Paul says, and this is where you should be boasting. And he has said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness most gladly. Therefore, I would rather boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Verse 10.

Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions and hardships for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. That's what we should be boasting on, our weaknesses so that the Lord can get all the glory. And the last one I'll say sentence is, true submission requires deep repentance. So if you have been boasting about yourself, repent.

I know I have.

True submission requires not just deep repentance, but also self abasement, which is mean you're willing to humiliate yourself for the glory of God, for the gospel, and true submission requires a complete surrender to God's will. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord God, thank youk for these words that yout put in my heart for the be able to preach and teach. Father, Hopefully I did justice. And please help us, Father, to always know that we should be doing youg will and not ours. That when we get close to think that it's us, that we should look in the mirror, we should breathe in it and know they were nothing but a vapor and that it vanishes away. Father, I pray, Lord God, that you are able to honor these words.

And then now, Father, I pray for the communion. And please help me to do the right thing there too. Father, we ask this. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

We're going to start communion and again, bear with me because I don't do this very often, so I had to take some notes.

I'm going to go down there, but let me read this real quick. Any of you who have been Christians for any period of time or who have been around the church for any period of time, we're obviously aware the significance that the Lord left two ordinances, some people say rights. Two ordinances, right? And those ordinances were one is baptism and the other one is the Lord's table, as we call communion. I want to start here reminding, because I almost didn't write this earlier.

The first reminder is if you're not a believer, you should not partake in the communion. And two, if you have any sin against a brother or sister and you have not repented and you have not asked for forgiveness, I ask, do you not partake? I know this is the time where Pastor Johnny says that and I don't know all the details about the open communion, right? But I do know that he says if you're a believer and you're not from this church, you can still take those things that I just said has happened, right? Or hasn't happened.

And some churches actually do not allow you to take if you're not from here. That's not our church. Our church, we allow people to take heart Communion again as long as you did what I just mentioned. But in my research, because I don't do this often, I research on communion and I thought it was interesting because some churches do it every Sunday and some churches says that they do it. They do a 10 minute tack at the end of a church service and again, hope that's not our heart.

And then some do it frequently.

I wonder how Jesus our Lord would want it done. So some asked, what if you did a Whole service that was dedicated to the Lord's table. I remember years ago, Pastor Heinrich did a. He did the whole bread and all that stuff. Right.

I don't remember who he copied or how we did that. You remember that? That was interesting. It was almost like a whole service. I believe the Lord said, after introducing the memorial feast, as it were, he said, do this in remembrance of me.

He also said, do this till I come. He also said, take this bread and take the cup. And he said, show forth my death until I come. Do this. And the early church did was very important for them and it should be very important to us.

And we should always ask what is the importance of this and what is the intention for us to actually do this? What happens at the Lord's table? And we're going to do something different because you'll notice if you guys. Is it up there the. Did you end up putting those words of the Jesus paid it all.

Yeah, so because I don't talk as much as Pastor Johnny started to say that because I don't always have that. All that works. We're going to do what we do the communion and then in between, when they're passing, I'm going to have everybody sing a song which is Jesus paid it All. We're not going to sing it all. We can sing.

We're going to. One stance is just like we do in the baptism. Okay.

But I want to make sure you understand the significance and the importance of it. Right. There has to be a focus on the Lord's table and that is focusing on reverent remembrance, that is focusing on spiritual fellowship, and that is focused on deep self examination. Yes, it is bread. Not like what we already covered last week at the conference.

That is not the true. The bread you have. It's a way for it's a bread. It's not the true body or it's not the true blood of Christ. But we still have to have reverence and we still have to have deep self examination.

It says in 1st Corinthians 11:27 32 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must test himself, and in doing so he is to eat of the bread and. And drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep.

But if we judge ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. You see why it's important that if you're not a believer or if you have sin, please do not partake. I don't want to bring judgment to you guys.

So what really takes place on the Lord's table? What should we do when we come to the Lord's table? One is remembering Christ's saving work on the cross because in his death he provided for us forgiveness. He provided for us deliverance from sin, he rescued us from Satan, he had power over death, gave us eternal life. And Paul says we actually died in him so we can be raised with Him.

So when we do the first element, remember that. I don't want you just to go, it's just another bread. I just gave you four or five reasons to be self examining, to be reverent. This is probably again, we always remember that Christ died on the cross. That's probably the most common understanding and it's the foundational understanding of the Lord's table.

But our response and attitude should be obviously, thanks humility as we realize that we had nothing to offer to God any merit. Christ died on the on our place was all Him. So if we can have the first.

Actually go ahead, pray. John. Sorry, I forgot to say bread or drink the bread.