James Week 9 • James 4:13-17

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Amen.

If you've got your Bibles, open up to James chapter 4.

James 4 · chapter mention

That's where we're going to be this morning.

As you turn there, I want to remind everybody we are having the Lord's Supper today at the

end of the service.

And so, if you did not grab one of the Lord's Supper element cups on your way in, I want

to encourage you to head right back there right now and grab one of those.

If you are visiting with us today, I just want to share with you, you do not have to be a

member of Willow Ridge Church in order to partake in the Lord's Supper together with us.

The only thing that we ask is that you be a believer in Jesus Christ, that you're a follower

of Him.

And if you are that, whether you go to a Presbyterian church or a Pentecostal church, we don't care,

and we'd love to have you partake in that with us this morning.

Also, I want to ask you guys to be praying this afternoon.

Our Hispanic congregation is going to have their last day of revival this afternoon.

And so, they'll be in here.

A lot of visitors come.

This is usually, they almost double their attendance on this Sunday.

And so, it'll be an exciting time for their neighbors and their friends who haven't heard

or haven't responded to the gospel to be here today, to have an opportunity to hear that.

So, if you think about it this afternoon, please be lifting them up.

It's why I'm kind of dressed up today, all right?

It's not Easter or Christmas Eve, but I'll be around for that.

And Juan rocks a full suit every week.

And so, I felt like I could at least go this over my jeans.

So, we'll be worshiping with them this afternoon as well.

So, we're going to dive right into James chapter 4, starting in verse 13.

James 4 · chapter mention

It says this,

Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend

a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

As it is, you boast in your arrogance.

All such boasting is evil.

So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him, it is sin.

So, I hope as we've gone through this series so far in James, and I've gotten a lot of just

wonderful feedback as God's been taking us through this book of the Bible, that every single week

that we together kind of walk out of here, if you think it's bad on Sunday mornings, like

I get to walk through a week of it, right, of God invading those dark places in our heart

to reveal the sin that's there, right?

And I hope that every single week that that's where we're at.

Now, as I've studied this passage of Scripture this week, what it has been is a little progressive

of an avalanche of rolling down a hill toward me, of the clarity of what God's given to me

about the sinfulness of my heart as I've read this passage of Scripture and studied it this week.

And so, I want to open up by kind of throwing this out there and ask this question.

How many of you, and we're going to do a show of hands, all right, we're going to kind of see

where everyone's at this morning with this.

So, raise your hand if you consider yourself to be a planner.

Raise your hand.

Raise your hand.

Give it to Steve.

Let's look at all of us that need to admit right now that we probably have a problem, all right?

And our problem are those around us who do not plan, right?

That's our problem, right?

They drive us crazy, right?

They don't plan.

They're just living by whatever they want to do.

And we're there like, no, no, no.

Here's what the plan says.

And so, we've got to do it.

I'm a planner.

I'm a planner.

And here's how I know I'm a planner.

I love spreadsheets.

I love them.

I love them.

God gave us spreadsheets, and I love spreadsheets.

Now, let me say this.

I've never done a mathematical formula on a spreadsheet in my life, but I can type up a

grocery list in a heartbeat on it, right?

And so, if you go on my computer, and you pull up Excel, and you look at all of the spreadsheets

that are there, you're not finding math.

You're finding lists of things to be done, lists of things to be accomplished.

I love spreadsheets.

Here's how bad spreadsheets are for me and my family and in our house.

I have a spreadsheet for every vacation we go on.

I know, that's bad, right?

But on Monday, I can tell you where we're going and what we're doing.

I can tell you where we're going out to eat.

I can tell you what we're having for dinner.

I can tell you the activities that we're going on.

And to the best of the knowledge that I can gain through Google searches, I can tell you

how much it's going to cost for us to do that, right?

I love spreadsheets.

It's a sickness.

The moment that I sat down and realized I'm creating spreadsheets for Disney World, right,

is the moment I've got to acknowledge that I've got a problem.

So, I read this passage of Scripture, and it kind of rubs me a little bit.

So, it's God saying, Bo, delete all your spreadsheets.

It's God saying, Bo, get rid of this.

And I would say to you that this is not a passage of Scripture as we look into this that is a

call for you and I to stop planning, to stop thinking about our future.

This is not a passage of Scripture to have us to stop setting goals and the things that we want to see

and accomplish in our life.

But it seems like that.

So, what is this Scripture referring us to?

And I would say that in these first several verses, until we get to verse 17,

what we're going to see is that it's not a call to stop planning,

but rather, it's a call to humble submission.

It's a call to humble submission in our life.

Now, let's look back.

Let's read verses 13 through 16 again.

Come now, you who say,

today or tomorrow,

we will go into such and such a town

and spend a year there

and trade and make a profit.

So, this is the scenario.

This is the don't do this.

Verse 14.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.

What is your life?

For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

So, verse 15, what we should have.

Instead, you ought to say,

if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

As it is, you boast, James says, in your arrogance.

So, this passage is calling us,

it's calling you, it's calling I,

to acknowledge who we are

in our limitations,

in our planning,

in our thoughts,

in our goals,

in our hopes,

in our dreams,

to acknowledge who we are in those

in light of who God is.

And when we fail to do that,

it's sin.

I love James' bluntness with this for us this morning.

It's not that it's just not wise

and you shouldn't do that.

It's not that here's a better practice for your life.

It's when you and I cease to acknowledge

who we are in light of who God is

in every aspect of our life,

that's sin.

And James doesn't paint

a horrific picture

of what you and I would commonly associate

with when it comes to a person

who is shaking their fist at God

as they pursue the things of their life

that they want.

Instead, he paints a picture

of what a town would look like

or a businessman would look like.

Traveling from town to town.

This would have been a common illustration.

And James has given a warning

to those who would read this.

James has given a warning for us today

that oftentimes,

instead of viewing ourself,

our plans,

our agendas,

our goals

in light of who God is,

we instead view them

in light of what the world is.

And in doing that,

right?

And in doing that,

what ends up happening

is we focus on the material realm

and not the spiritual realm.

We focus on the things of the world

instead of the things of God.

We keep our eyes locked on us

instead of our eyes locked on Him.

And so James is,

as he works through this,

is talking about your plan

and underline is asking us this,

does God have a place in your plan?

In the plan that you're living out right now,

maybe you're a high schooler in here today

and you've got a plan for after high school.

It's military,

it's career,

it's college.

Is God in the plan?

Maybe you're married with some kids

and you see that debt

that's stacked up on one side

of your spreadsheet, right?

And you've got a plan to attack that debt.

Is God in the plan?

Maybe you're getting closer and closer

to retirement

and you know that day

and you've got it highlighted,

you've got it circled,

you've got exclamation points

written all over it, right?

Is God in that plan?

It's God in that plan.

James is asking us the question,

in your life and in my life,

does God have a place in it, right?

And so when we take our eyes off of him

and we keep our eyes on us

and God is void of that,

James draws out some things

that you and I forget about ourselves.

Sometimes we have to have reminders

of our own limitations, amen?

We are limited.

And things that James points us to in this

is the things that we forget

when we leave God out of our plans.

Number one, we forget our ignorance.

We forget our ignorance.

James says this,

you do not know

what tomorrow will bring, right?

This morning I woke up.

I heard a sound outside.

What's that sound?

It's rain.

I didn't know it was going to rain.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring.

We don't know what the future holds.

Why?

Because you and I are limited

into the moment right now.

As best as we can,

we take educated guesses

about what tomorrow will hold.

We take educated guesses

about what the next hour will hold.

But we're ignorant

because we're not in tomorrow.

And here's,

without looking at your phone

because some of you got cameras

and updates and all those things,

here's my point.

There's no place in your life

that you know better

than your home right now.

But what's happening there?

You don't know.

You don't have a clue.

And this is what James is pointing us to.

How crazy is it

for us to leave God out,

the one who knows what tomorrow will bring,

when we don't know what tomorrow will bring,

but we make plans

of what will happen tomorrow.

All right?

He says,

do you not know

what tomorrow will bring?

So we forget our ignorance.

We don't know.

We can't know.

Number two,

we forget our frailty.

I love the bluntness of this, right?

Like,

if you believe the Bible

and believe you're a big deal,

let this verse sink in.

You are a mist

that appears

for a little time

and then vanishes.

That's the description he gives us.

Right?

Not necessarily what would go great

on a Hallmark card.

Right?

Congratulations.

You're a vapor.

You're gone.

Right?

And that's it.

But our frailty.

Not only do we not know

what will happen tomorrow,

but we know

that we're not even promised tomorrow.

We're not even promised

the next minute.

And you know this,

and here's how you know this.

Has death ever surprised you?

Absolutely.

Not everyone lives

to the old age

when the doctor says

this is what's going to happen.

We're filled with the reality

that every day

that those who are close to us,

those who are around us,

those who think

tomorrow will be

a certainty,

next year,

definitely.

And here's what this looks like

when all of a sudden

we get the phone call

and death has surprised us.

And it's gone.

And James says,

why should we be surprised

that you and I

are like a mist

that appears

for a little time

and then vanishes

is what he says.

And then lastly,

for us in this,

when we make plans

and we exclude God

from them,

right,

we forget our dependence

on God.

Like that's it

for our life, folks.

We depend on him.

And some of us

have taken this

this confused

version,

this incorrect version

of Christianity

that says,

I'm going to depend

on God

for my salvation.

It's Jesus

and only Jesus

who can save me.

And that's true.

And here's where

the incorrect comes.

But everything else

is through me.

Everything else

is through my power.

Everything else

is through my ability.

Do you remember

last week

when James is talking,

we were talking about this

and James says,

you adulterous people?

That's part of it.

That's part of spiritual adultery

that we've wandered

into this relationship

with ourselves

where we're dependent

on us.

And James says,

no, no, no,

that's not it.

In fact,

James says,

here's the correct posturing

of your spirit

and dependence on the Lord.

If the Lord will,

we will live

and do this

or do that.

If God wills it,

if it's in his will,

if it's in his plan,

if it's in his purpose

for my life,

then we will do this

or we will do that.

Right?

This is what we begin to see,

the dependence on him.

And so the problem, though,

because James says,

there's a plan.

There's a plan.

And if God wills it,

we will do this

or do that.

But what's implied?

If God doesn't,

if God's not a part of it,

then we won't.

The problem isn't planning.

The problem is planning

where God has no place

in the plan.

And this has caused me

this week

to take a step back

and look at the spreadsheets

of my life,

the decisions

and the plans

and the things

that are there

and asking myself

the question,

the hard question

and so many of these,

but where's God at

that end the plan?

Is he a bullet point?

Or is he saturated

throughout?

And this is not

what James

is just coming up with.

This is what Jesus teaches.

Look at Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6:9

verse 9.

Jesus is teaching on prayer

at the Sermon on the Mount.

And he says

at the very beginning

of that,

as he's going to tell them

and teach them

how to pray,

he says,

don't pray

like the hypocrites,

which means this,

there's a wrong way

to pray.

Hypocrites

pray.

Jesus says,

don't pray like them.

And then Jesus teaches

us how to pray.

And he says,

our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day

our daily bread

and forgive us

our debts

as we also have forgiven

our debtors.

And lead us not

into temptation,

but deliver us

from evil.

There's so much

that can be taught about

and I believe

several years ago

we went through this

and each one

of these verses

became a message

in a series

where we talked

about prayer.

But I want to focus

on verse 10.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done.

What Jesus has

is he places this

in this prayer

as he's teaching those

to not pray

like the hypocrites.

Jesus says,

hey, hey,

as you praise the Lord

and as you plea

for him

to give you

the necessities

of life

and forgiveness,

put this phrase

in there

that says

what you

and I desire

is the will

of God

and the rule

and reign

in our life

and all over

the earth.

that's the desire

of our hearts.

Now look at your prayer.

Look at my prayer.

Jesus says,

let your will be done.

That's the standard.

That's what Jesus says

we should desire.

That's what Jesus says

we should long for.

But oftentimes,

your prayers

and mine

as we're called

to submit

to his plans

oftentimes reflect

our prayers

say,

but God,

I just want you

to submit

to my plans

and Lord,

I'm going to ask you

to bless them.

Right?

The positioning

of the heart

and Jesus says,

no,

no,

that's not what

it's supposed to be.

It's not about

bringing what

you've determined,

what you've decided,

what you've sought,

what you want

and say,

God bless it.

It's about saying,

God,

what I desire

is your will

to be done.

And Jesus

doesn't simply say,

don't do this.

Jesus does this

himself.

Let's flip over

to Matthew

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

chapter 26.

Jesus in the garden

of Gethsemane

as he awaits

his betrayal,

as he awaits

his arrest,

as he awaits

his beating,

as he awaits

his trial,

as he awaits

his crucifixion,

could argue

that you and I,

if we're being honest,

don't have

a fraction

of understanding

of what he's

experiencing

in this moment.

He comes to the Lord

in prayer

and says again,

Scripture tells us

verse 42,

again for the second time

he went away

and prayed,

my father,

if this cannot pass

unless I drink it,

your will be done.

Not trying to bend

for what he would prefer,

not trying to input

a different strategy

into place,

but simply says,

your will

be done.

And so James here,

I've heard this

kind of talked about

before loosely

in conversations

and then asked

the question,

is James 4,

13 through 16

just saying like,

well you know what,

God's gonna do

what God's gonna do

and so we're just

gonna sit back in it.

It's not what James

is talking about.

James is talking

about an activity

in those

who are believers

that are humbly

dependent

and humbly

submissive

to the Son of God

and the will of God

and who long

for both of those.

Oh, tell me Lord

what you want for me.

Tell me Lord

what you have for me.

And so I was reading

an author this week

that was talking

about this

and he was talking

about strategies

and long range planning

and thinking through this

and here's what he said,

I'm gonna put these

three points

on the screen

behind me.

He said,

when planning,

dedicate your plans

to God.

When planning,

dedicate your plans

to God.

So you're coming

to the planning process

of what you're thinking

about,

whether it's the planning

process about what

you do after high school

graduation

or the planning

of the process

for retirement

or anywhere in between,

anywhere before,

anywhere after

and you say,

God,

I'm gonna dedicate

these plans to you.

So what does that mean?

What does that mean?

Dedicate your plans.

That you're saying

that the goal

of these plans

is for your name

and your glory.

That's it.

That's it.

It's not for zeros

in a bank account.

It's not for a degree

that we can earn

and achieve.

It's not for anything else

other than God.

These plans

are for you,

your name,

and your glory.

That's it.

And when they cease

to not be that,

or then bring me back

to where they need to be.

Dedicate your plans

to God.

Number two,

confess that you need

God's favor.

Confess that you need

God's favor.

One of the things

that I love to ask

my kids

and people

is a question

that I love

to ask myself

when you have a goal

to ask the question,

well,

what's the plan?

And what I mean by that is,

what are you going to do

to get there?

What are you going to do

to get there?

Help me walk through

and see this step

and this step

and this step

and this step

and make sure

that all of those steps

and that we're not

leaving anything out.

And then at the end of it,

what we see

is that we've arrived to this

and we can do that

and simply embrace that

in our life.

But when we come to,

Lord,

if this is where

you are leading us,

that we know

in our obedience to you,

we cannot do it

in our own power.

And so, Lord,

we're going to confess

that in order

for that to happen,

it's not going to be

through my talent,

it's not going to be

through my ability,

but it's going to be done

solely through the favor

of the holy

and living God.

And that's it.

And I need to confess that

to you.

Right?

So,

James says,

instead you ought to say,

if the Lord wills,

we will live

and do this

and do that.

If it's His favor,

right,

that's what we will do.

One of the best questions

that I love to ask myself

all the time

is,

as we're working through

whatever it is

that we're doing,

is God in it?

Is God in it?

Let's don't get

ourselves confused

the difference

between earthly success

and heavenly success.

Earthly success

can bring a lot of money,

a lot of fame,

a lot of power,

a lot of control.

Right?

But it's earthly success

void of God.

And so as we go through these,

we ask ourselves,

is God in it?

Which may mean

at certain points in time

we have to re-evaluate

our scorecard.

Because it might not end up

with the money

in the bank account

with the early retirement

that we hoped for

with the plans

that were there,

but those were our scorecards,

our determination

of what success is.

Right?

Instead,

asking God,

are you in it

and where do we see you

moving?

And then lastly,

when planning,

we need to give God praise.

Give God praise.

All right.

I stand right about over here

for worship.

And if you sit behind me,

what you see sometimes

is like this really controlled,

awkward,

I think I want to start dancing

kind of thing.

Right?

Like y'all know.

Like Brian Couch,

like you've seen that before,

right?

There we go.

All right.

And so that song,

Honey in the Rock,

I'm just going to tell you,

like there's the part of me

that's like,

I'm afraid I may make a noise

really loud

and it would get uncomfortable

in here, right?

When that's going on,

like a woo could happen here

at any point in time.

So next time we play that song,

if you hear that,

just like that's Bo over there,

right?

Woo!

Like just doing that,

okay?

All right?

Because the picture

of what it paints

is so wonderful

and so beautiful.

Then in the moment

of all this,

there's honey in the rock

that God is working,

that God is moving,

that God is blessing,

that God is providing,

and in that we praise Him.

And there's not a moment

in your life

as a follower of Jesus

that that song

isn't speaking true

in what you're going through

regardless of how dry

that rock seems.

And so as we go through

the plan,

as we go through,

as we work to achieve

the goals,

there's the tendency

and there's the bent in us

to at the end of it

celebrate the Lord.

But the picture of this

is all the way through.

All the way through.

That every lesson

is God working.

Every moment

is God showing.

Every moment

is God revealing

to us who He is.

So not only at the end

do we praise Him for it,

but as we're going through it,

we're praising Him

for the process

and the good

and in the bad.

And here,

here is why

I say this is about

humble submission.

That we're saying

at the heart

of this

that James gives us

is an individual

who just says,

God,

I want to know

what you have for me.

And I will do

what you say do.

I will go

where you say go.

I will give you

all the credit,

all the praise,

all the honor,

all the glory.

So Lord,

you say go to

this town

and Lord,

I'm going to go.

And I'm not going to

stay there

as long as I want

to stay there,

Lord.

I'm going to stay there

as long as you want me

to be there

living for your name,

for your glory,

for your honor.

Lord,

and giving you praise

all the way through

the stumbles

on the road

and all the way

on the successes

that we experience.

And that's what

humble submission

looks like.

But James is going

to wrap up

this section for us

this morning

with verse 17.

And what we see

from this

is from humble submission

comes godly obedience.

Look back at verse 17,

chapter 4.

So whoever knows

the right thing to do

and fails to do it

for him

it is sin.

It is sin.

So whoever knows

the right thing to do

and fails to do it

for him

it is sin.

So there are

two types of sins.

There's sins of commission

and sins of omission.

These are the sins

that we see

in the Bible,

the sins that we experience

in our life.

Now,

sins of commission,

you and I

are really good

at identifying.

Maybe not always

being obedient

obedient about

the sins of commission

but we're really good

at identifying them

and knowing them.

God says,

don't do this.

Right?

Now,

sometimes we don't do that.

Other times we do that.

But those are what

sins of commission are.

So God says,

don't steal

but we steal anyways.

Right?

Do not do this

but you and I

we choose

to do this.

But then there's also,

and this is what James

is giving us here.

There's also the sins

of omission

where God tells us,

do this.

And instead of doing it,

whether intentionally,

maybe even sometimes

ignorantly,

unintentionally,

we don't do it.

And this is what James

is pointing out.

So whoever knows

the right thing

to do

and fails

to do it,

for him

it is

sin.

So as you go

about your day

and as you're

going through

the plan

and as you're

going through

the opportunities

of what God

has for you,

God says,

do this.

Do the right thing.

Very simple,

simply in the words

of James.

And then James

says,

the solution

is,

pray about it.

James says,

the solution

is think about it.

James says,

the solution

is gather

a group of people

whom you trust

and ask them

the question,

should I do

this thing

that God

told me to do?

No,

that's not at all

what James says.

James says,

when God says

do the right thing,

he says then

do it.

You don't have

to think about it.

You don't have

to pray about it.

You don't have

to seek counsel

about it.

You just do it.

Do the right

thing.

But sometimes

that can be hard.

We know the biggies,

right?

We know the things

we're not supposed

to do.

But what about

as we're just

meandering through

and going through life

in the day in,

day out decisions

that we make

to leave this job,

to take this job,

to date this person,

to not date this person,

to put this much

in retirement,

to put this much

toward debt.

What do we do?

But James has

already said,

this is in the

mindset of the

person who's

walking through

everything and

dedicated it to

the Lord,

who's committed

the Lord to be

in and of

and through

the process.

And James says,

then in that,

you do it.

I want to close

with a story

from my life.

As I went

through this

this week,

it was a very

evident picture

of times

when I seen

that I needed

to repent,

right?

And times

that I've seen

where God's

given an opportunity

for obedience

in my life.

Years ago,

years ago,

we bought a house.

We bought a house.

You bought houses.

We bought a house.

And we,

before we went

and looked at houses,

we went and we wrote

down,

we had discussions

with our kids,

we talked about

our hopes

and our dreams

and we wrote

down a list

of things

that we wanted

for this house

as we made

this move.

And so we made

the move.

And we went

and we looked

at houses

all over the place

and this house

didn't meet

these check boxes

and this house

didn't meet

these check boxes

and this house

didn't meet

these checked boxes.

But then we came

to this house

and it met

every box

that we had.

Everything

that we ever

wanted

that we had

thought of

that we had

dreamed about

that we had

seen in the house

every box

was checked.

So we bought

the house.

I don't want to

speak for me

if I'm being

honest

and transparent

with you

as I've walked

through this

this week

what I did

was I left

God out

of the process.

I asked Erin

what she wanted

I asked Emma

what she wanted

I asked Grayson

what he wanted

I wrote down

what I wanted

and in that

process

left God

out of the plan

and we stayed

there for some

time and just

being honest

it's like every

season of life

we had our ups

and we had our

downs

but if I were

to look back

and assess

the time

that we were

there

well I'm

grateful through

what God

brought us

through there

there was a

struggle about

living there

there was an

uneasiness about

why are we

here

and I forget

one day

Erin and I

we were getting

ready for bed

we were in

our room

and we were

talking about

moving

and she said

this

she said

we just need

to pray

about moving

and as a

pastor

you would

think

that that

would have

been something

that I

would have

said

oh yeah

absolutely

but it just

kind of

resonated with

me

but there's

all of these

things that we

don't like

here

so is this

something we

even need to

pray about

and she said

yeah we need

to pray

and so we

came up with

how we were

going to pray

prayer number

God if you

want us to

move

then move

us

God if you

want us

out of here

then God

get us

out of here

prayer number

two that we

prayed

Lord take us

to the house

and to the

neighborhood

that you

have for

us

and make

it clear

that this

is where

you want

us to be

and then

number three

and God

we're going

to praise

you through

it

now I'd

like to

tell you

that the

next morning

we put

that house

on the

market

and made

a fortune

off of

it

right

but we

didn't

for about

two years

we prayed

that prayer

and every

time it

wasn't right

it wasn't

right

it wasn't

right

and then

God we

began to

see

not where

he was

working

because he

had been

working

but we

began to

see

what was

God was

doing

over

and over

and over

again

and we

said yeah

now it's

time

and we

went and

looked at

houses

all over

Lexington

you all know

Lexington

can I tell you

what Lexington

has a lot of

Lexington has a lot

of houses

right

and this was

before it was

crazy to get a

house

like right now

I think you've

got to have

like 150%

down like

to get a

home

and you know

like you're

going to pay

three times

the value

of the house

like that's

not where

we were

then

or anything

like that

and we

went to

houses

and we

went and

saw some

wonderful

houses

and in

wonderful

neighborhoods

and we

were those

clients

right

nah

not it

what's wrong

with it

I don't know

but that ain't

it right

next house

that ain't

it

next house

that ain't

it

next house

that ain't

it

and then

in the

desperation

of our

realtor's

voice

one

Saturday

I heard

him say

I've got

one

last

house

for you

like alright

we'll go

look at it

but honestly

at this

point I'm

thinking

it ain't

gonna be

it

you know

and so

we went

to the

house

and it

was a new

construction

and we

were walking

through it

and we

liked it

and our

realtor

got excited

but then

we saw

another

house

and we

said what

about that

house

down the

bottom of

the hill

that's just

framed

he's like

well that's

not sold

let's

walk down

and look

at it

and so

we walked

through

a house

of

two by

four

studs

and

plywood

lines

marked

where

electrical

and plumbing

are gonna

go

and in

that

moment

there

was

a

holy

confidence

that

that

was

it

we

didn't

need

to

think

about

it

we

didn't

need

to

pray

about

it

we

didn't

even

talk

about

it

this

was

it

now

does

our

house

and it's

the house

we live

in now

does

our

house

check

all

of

our

boxes

is

it

our

dream

home

it's

not

it's

a

wonderful

wonderful

house

does it

check

all the

boxes

that we

had

does it

check

all the

boxes

that we

have

no

are

there

things

about

our

house

that

drive

us

crazy

yeah

absolutely

things

that we

wish

were

different

that we

can't

change

that we

wish

we

could

change

we've

had

the

conversation

Aaron

and I

will

this

be

the

house

that

we

grow

old

together

in

no

it's

on

the

our

bedrooms

on the

second

floor

right

I don't

want

that

I don't

want

that at

43

you know

it's like

I gotta

go to

bed

I'm

on the

couch

I don't

want to

walk

all the

way

up

there

it's

12

steps

all

right

I don't

want

it

but

but

but

are we

in

the

house

that

God

called

us

to

yes

yes

and

here's

how I

know

that

of

two

years

of

praying

God

we

just

want

to

be

where

you

want

us

to

be

and

so

God

put

us

there

and

it's

a

wonderful

home

not

because

it's

the

best

home

but

it's

because

it's

where

God

has

put

us

and

placed

us

and

called

us

to

be

and

my

family

knows

what

I'm

talking

about

I

don't

think

there's

been

a

moment

that

a

week

has

gone

by

where

we

haven't

seen

and

experienced

the

ministry

that

God

has

called

us

to

in

that

home

right

so

you

want

God

to

bless

your

plans

don't

do

what

I

did

don't

create

your

own

checkboxes

instead

do

what

God

taught

us

pray

that

God

will

bless

your

plans

dedicate

your

plans

to

the

Lord

confess

that

you

and

I

we

are

limited

that

we

need

his

favor

and

praise

him

praise

him

the

house

that

we

were

in

some

of

the

hardest

years

of

our

ministry

some

of

the

hardest

times

in

our

marriage

some

of

the

hardest

times

as

a

family

but

you

know

what

God

taught

us

and

God

brought

us

through

so

much

and

we

are

where

we

are

today

because

of

him

so

we

can

praise

him

for

it

let's

pray

Lord

we

come

to

you

this

morning

we're

just

seeing

so

many

different

times

where

we

set

in

our

mind

that

this

is

what

we're

going

to

do

we're

the

king

making

the

plans

we're

the

master

determining

what's

right

we've

got it

figured

out

Lord

but

instead

Lord

we need

to

humbly

come

humbly

submit

Lord

ourselves

to

you

Lord

this

can

be

one

of

those

things

where