Opening Illustration: The Mayfly.  I read about an insect this week that just fascinated me. Whenever I get fascinated by something new I learn, I love to tell Rachel. But when I started telling Rachel about an insect, it didn’t quite hit as hard with her as it did me. So, I need you all to act fascinated when I tell you about the Mayfly. The Mayfly looks like the first cousin of the dragonfly. What’s fascinating about the Mayfly is that its adult lifespan is anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. It’s whole life is lived in the time you sit down to watch a movie or tv show. By the time you’ve turned the tv on and off, this insect has learned to fly, went to insect school, got a job, found a spouse, had kids, and wrote a book called “A day in the life of the Mayfly”. As an adult, the Mayfly has two jobs: 1) Reproduce; 2) Get eaten by a fish. The Mayfly’s purpose is so concrete, that it doesn’t even eat. It can’t eat because it doesn’t even have a mouth! The Mayfly knows what it is, what it’s supposed to do, and does it. It was created for a specific purpose and it lives its life for that purpose. We share that similarity with the Mayfly (yes, I’m about to compare you to an insect). We’ve been given our purpose as Christ-followers: to glorify God. I’m just thankful God gave us mouths because food tastes so good! We also share that our lives are so very brief.

Where we differ from the Mayfly (besides we are human and it’s a bug) is that we don’t often live out our purpose with urgency. We often go about plan out our days without God in mind. We have an existence that sometimes doesn’t point the existence of God. Today, we reach a part of James’ letter where he challenges us to look at our lives and see if we are living our lives like God exists. What we see today is really a simple reminder: Live your life like God exists (because God does exist). What’s not so simple is doing it. Let’s all enter into our passage today with openness on what God might want to mold in our hearts. As you turn to James 4, let me remind of where we’ve come so far in the book of James. We are in our current Sermon Series: The Book of James: Faith and Works. We’ve seen that our faith will be tested so that we can put our faith on display. We’ve seen that our religion matter. James reminded us our speech matters. We also saw there is a godly wisdom available to us to help us, if we accept it. And then last week, we read about how God wants us to be close to Him. Read James 4:11–5:6. Pray. 

The big question we are seeking to answer today is “How do we live our lives like God exists?” If you look closely at these verses, you’ll see James give a lot of rebukes and a lot of “don’t be like this…” But in the middle of the verses, we see one verse where James goes, “But this is what you should do!” We are going to knock out two ways that we can waste our time. And then we’ll follow up with the way that we can redeem our time. Let’s start in verses 11 and 12 with this: Don’t waste your time with condemning words.

1) Your wholesome words bring life. (vs. 4:11-12) If you haven’t picked up on this yet, James cares a lot about our words. James addresses what we say in every single chapter. Why is that? Do you remember what our words reveal? The condition of our heart. We saw something similar last week when our external conflicts reveal our internal conflicts. James continually gives us tests to see what’s going on in our hearts – to see if we are winning the war that wages inside of us. Now, in verses 11 and 12, James comes back to what comes out of our mouths. But this time, he adds another layer. Look at verses 11 and 12: ¹¹ Don’t speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God’s law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you. ¹² God alone, who gave the law, is the Judge. He alone has the power to save or to destroy. So what right do you have to judge your neighbor? What James is addressing in these two verses is slander. Slander is a close relative of gossip. Gossip is passing along confidential information about a person who is not present. Slander is speaking harshly of someone or making damaging statements about someone. The Bible is pretty clear about just how wrong it is to speak in a way that stirs up conflict. “There are six things the Lord hates— no, seven things he detests: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that kill the innocent, a heart that plots evil, feet that race to do wrong, a false witness who pours out lies, a person who sows discord in a family.” – Proverbs 6:16-19. Lying and stirring up conflict are on the same level as murder.

Why does James speak so boldly against slandering? Two reasons:

1. It breaks God’s law that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. 
   • When you slander, you are putting yourself above God’s law and offending the Lawgiver, God. 
2. You are stepping into the role that only belongs to God
   • God is the judge.
   • He is the only One allowed to pass judgment – judgment meaning condemning someone.
   • When you slander, you are taking God’s role.
     • When you slander, you are living like God doesn’t exist. But when you speak good things, you are living like God exists.

Those should be reasons enough not to talk behind someone’s back or to talk badly about someone. But on just a surface level, it’s a complete waste of time. It does nothing! But the opposite is true – if you speak wholesome, uplifting, kind words, you have the ability to bring life to someone. Words from other people that were paradigm shifts for me (and they don’t remember it).  Nate – Thank you for showing up today to preach God’s Word. Josh – Take your wife on the adventure. James – Stop running from peace. Do you want to know how to speak wholesome words to each other? What is the antidote for slandering and gossip?

1. Develop self-awareness. 
   • This comes from Matthew 7
     • Matthew 7:1 is the go-to verse for people who want to live however they want to live
     • “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.” – Matthew 7:1
     • Do you all know what Jesus said just a few verses later?
       • “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 
       • What Jesus was saying is that you have to some self-awareness before you judge someone else.
   • If you spent half the amount of time agonizing over someone’s else sin and instead agonized over your own sin, then you wouldn’t waste the precious minutes of your life condemning others.
2. Pray for the other person.
   • Don’t even think about commenting about another person until you’ve prayed for that person.

We can waste our time with our words. We can also waste our time with our behavior. Don’t waste your time with selfish behavior.

2) Your generosity brings life. (vs. 5:1-6) I want us to skip down to the first six verses in chapter 5. At first glance, these verses seem to be quite the indictment on the rich. Being rich wasn’t the problem. The Bible does not condemn for having wealth. In fact, there are places where we see those who are steward their wealth will actually obtain more. There are few problems with these people James is addressing. Most likely James takes a quick side road to address the ungodly wealthy people within the church. The first problem shows up in verse 3: ¹ Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of all the terrible troubles ahead of you. ² Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten rags. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you on the day of judgment. The ungodly rich people were hoarding their wealth as a means of security and control. 

Skip down to verses 5 and 6 and see another problem.  ⁵ You have spent your years on earth in luxury, satisfying your every desire. You have fattened yourselves for the day of slaughter. ⁶ You have condemned and killed innocent people, who do not resist you. They lived their lives for themselves. Their wealth was used for self-indulgence.

The last problem is the really biggest problem. ⁴ For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. These ungodly wealthy used the poor to build more wealth. In biblical times, the day laborer would go out and see if anyone would hire him. If someone needed work, they would agree on a payment amount. The worker would labor all day and then go receive his pay. These workers depended on this pay. After they would receive the pay, they would go buy food to feed their families. Without the pay, they wouldn’t eat. The ungodly rich would hire these day laborers, but then wouldn’t pay them. They would use people for their personal gain. Illustration: The phone game where people stack on each other. "You’re just using those other people to get to the top!”. “What are these games teaching our kids?!”

If rebuking of the self-behavior wasn’t enough, the second part of verse 4 should send chills down your spine. ⁴ For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Do you remember those moments as a kid when you knew that your parents knew you did something wrong, but they hadn’t talked to you yet. I hated the anticipation. James is telling the ungodly that God knows what you have done, but your judgment is still to come. But these people keep living and keep doing what they want for their personal gain. When you use people, you are living like God doesn’t exist. But when you are generous to people, you are living like God exists. 

How do we use people for our personal gain? I think when we read these verses, we can all go, “well, I think I’m okay with this one. I mean, if someone works for me, I make sure they get paid.” But we aren’t let off the hook too quickly on this one because they are ways we use people for our own gain:

1. Using people’s time for personal gain.
   • If we regularly find people helping us, but we never help others, there’s a good chance you are using people’s time. 
2. Using the people’s generosity for personal gain
   • Much like using time, we can do the same thing with people’s financial generosity
   • And then here is where God shook my heart this week. 
3. Mentally putting ourselves above other people
   • We may not use something tangible, but we will use people mentally
   • We love to compare ourselves and go, “I’m better than him.”
     • Or “At least I don’t act like her.”
     • And we mentally use people to elevate ourselves

All of it is a waste of time!  

James is making it clear: our time is limited. I guarantee the Mayfly isn’t sitting there and judging his neighbor’s lawn and going, “At least my lawn is better than his. Just look at it.” Don’t waste your time with your negative words and selfish behavior. Now, let’s get to the verse where James says, “But here what you can do!” Here’s what we see last: Your time is redeemed when you do what the Lord wants.

3) Doing what God wants brings life. (vs. 4:13-17)  Let’s go back to the last section of verses in chapter 4. James addresses a group of people – business people – who are making business plans in verse 13. ¹³ Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”  This group of people would pick out a new city, plan to stay there for a year, make a fortune and come back. Making plans is not a bad thing, in fact Scripture tells us time and time again to make plans.

What is the problem then? James starts unraveling their hearts. Look at verse 14: ¹⁴ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. This verse takes my heart in so many directions. We are reminded about the brevity of life. Life is short. It’s like a mist. Illustration: Mist from a bottle: Yes, I do always keep a spray bottle in my back pocket in case I am preaching James 4. It’s cliché, but let’s do it…This reality hits me hard. I don’t like this reality. While I long for heaven, I also long for the days ahead on this earth. I don’t want it to go by fast. The brevity of life can breed three reactions:

1. Fear (leads to inaction)
   • You do everything you can to make your days longer.
   • And I’ve learned there is very little I can do to control my future.
2. Apathy (leads to inaction)
   • You can throw your hands up and say “What’s the point of it all?!”
3. Self-confidence (leads to self-action and self-indulgence)
   • And self-confidence is exactly what James is saying is the problem with these business men
   • They believed in themselves so much that they zero regard to what God wanted
     • That’s what verse 16 is about
       • ¹⁶ Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.

So what do we do? : Look at verse 15: ¹⁵ What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”  “What you ought to say” I think you could put it this way: “What you ought to believe” “If the Lords want us to” What does that look like? The brevity of life should cause you to live your life like God exists! Live your life as it God is control of it all because He is! Don’t wait for the blood test. Don’t wait for the near mid-air plane collision that I read on the news about this week. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but God does. Our culture has no answer for death, but the Bible does. Quote: “God preserves all his creatures. What does that mean? It means that according to the Bible, nothing in the whole universe would continue to exist for one slightest fraction of a second without God. The universe has real existence; its continuity is not a mere semblance. But it does not exist independently of the continuous activity of its creator.” – Alistair Begg. Every fraction of a second of your life is because of God.

If God cares about the few hours that the Mayfly lives, how much more does God care about the hours and minutes of your life? That should ignite us. That should ignite us to live every day with the desire to do what God wants. The greatest satisfaction in life comes from knowing you have done, are doing, and will do what God wants you to do. The only thing that lasts in your life are things done for God. James takes that thought one step further and writes verse 17: ¹⁷ Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. Not only do we get the greatest satisfaction out of doing what God wants, but we also see that it’s what we are supposed to do.

What is life? It’s passing. It's short. We are called to not waste it with condemning words and selfish behavior. We are called to redeem the time by doing what God wants. 

Previous Page