If you have your Bibles, you can turn
to James chapter 4.
James chapter 4, we've been going through the
book of James, and I believe this is
part 8, if I have it right here
on my notes, I forgot to go back
and check.
But we've talked through, we've been going through
the book of James, this is part 8,
so if you haven't been here, make sure
to go on our website and we can
get you the last 7 messages.
And the topic tonight is do not judge
a brother.
Do not judge a brother.
And this is a very interesting topic because
you're going to see this actually more and
more throughout the probably at least through the
next 4 years of Trump's presidency, whoever is
elected after him, it just seems to be
a bigger, bigger issue on judging.
Because when you talk about gay marriage, they
say, oh don't judge, don't judge, be quiet.
When you talk about abortion, who are you
to judge?
And that's how they silence Christians.
You can't judge me, the Bible says judge
not, and as we know, context is king.
When you look at a scripture in the
Bible, the context is the king.
The context, what I mean by that is,
you can make the Bible say anything you
want, if you just take out little pieces
here and there, so you look at the
entire context of that famous scripture, judge not.
Jesus says judge not lest you be judged,
it's in Matthew.
And we'll get to that in a minute,
but that's what James is actually going to
be touching base with as well to his
readers back then, it was his listeners reading
through, they would have letters passed out, James
would write to the church and they would
read these letters in their church services.
So verse 11 in chapter 4, James says,
do not speak evil of one another, do
not speak evil of one another.
Brethren, he who speaks evil of a brother
and judges his brother, speaks evil of the
law and judges the law.
But if you judge the law, you are
not a doer of the law, but a
judge.
There is one lawgiver who is able to
save and to destroy, who are you to
judge another?
Paul actually says in Romans, that who are
you to judge another servant to his own
master, he stands or falls.
So there's this theme of judgment and judging
others and it's an interesting topic and here's
why.
On this side, the carnal side, I want
to judge everybody.
You know, I just want to put them
down, judge, judge, judge, judge, judge.
But on this side, the Holy Spirit says
no, don't judge, as a matter of fact,
err on the side of grace.
And you'll see that throughout the New Testament,
if we're going to err, we want to
err on the side of grace.
However, this is a different type of judgment.
This is the type of judgment that a
judge would render in a court of law
guilty, making a judgment.
And we're not in a position to do
that.
But Jesus would say when he says, do
not judge, in Matthew, as he's going through
and putting everything in context, he's saying before
you actually make a judgment, remove the plank,
this huge plank from your eye, remove that
from your eye and then you can go
and remove the speck from your brother.
So there's self-examination that takes place.
So what he's talking about here is this
eagerness to criticize, this eagerness to put down.
Speaking evil is not constructive criticism or loving
admonishment.
When he says, do not speak evil, sometimes
people jump to the conclusion, well, I can't
say anything.
No, that's not being constructive in your criticism
of someone or love is a loving admonishment.
When you truly love someone, you want to
judge sometimes their lifestyle and make an assessment.
That's why Jesus covered Matthew 18 in the
Bible, where you're supposed to go to a
brother who's caught in sin.
You bring a couple witnesses and you go,
brother, we want to restore you.
That's the whole point is restoration.
And then if he ignores that, then you
bring it to a larger group, the church
body, and they have to treat him much
like an unbeliever, not because they're being mean
and judgmental, but it's because it's the process
that Jesus gave us to lovingly, hopefully restore
somebody to fellowship.
Now that doesn't work as well now in
the 21st century.
Are we in the 21st century?
Yeah, I did think there for a minute.
But back then when you were taken out
of a church, as far as, I don't
know if excommunicated is the right word.
I don't like to use that word.
But if you were shunned and say, listen,
we can't fellowship with you anymore until you
turn from this.
You can't date your father's girlfriend.
Until you turn from that, we can't as
a church fellowship with you.
And they really wouldn't have another person to
fellowship with.
The church was their whole life.
Now when we say, you know what, Matthew,
you're walking down a dangerous path.
Here's what we have to go.
Okay, I'll just go to the church down
the street.
They'll just switch to a different church or
switch to somewhere else.
And so the effect really hasn't, it's really
not as well as it was back in
Jesus's time.
But we still follow the course and it
does work.
The whole goal is restoration, not to hurt
somebody.
So speaking evil is not constructive criticism or
loving admonishment.
It's talking about somebody negatively.
It's putting them down.
So you're raised up, it's tarnishing their image
and hurting their reputation.
It's basically lying.
Or you're telling something about someone that's might
be true, but they don't need to know.
They don't need to know what that person
did or what they went through.
So you're speaking evil of them.
Gossiping is what the Bible would say or
backbiting or slandering.
So I guess this was happening in the
church.
That's who James is writing to.
So does it happen in the church?
Not this church, Shane.
Well, not actually, not that bad.
Not that I'm aware of at least, but
it does happen.
Because we're all guilty at some point of
saying things we probably shouldn't.
So back to that question.
Doesn't the Bible say judge not?
Who are you to tell people what they
can and cannot do?
Well, if we look at John 7 24,
Jesus actually encourages his followers to judge with
righteous judgment.
This misconception of judging is an attempt to
conform the scriptures to support opinions.
So when people say, listen, about gay marriage
or abortion or all these hot topics that
the church isn't supposed to talk about, I
guess, because they're hot topics.
So keep your mouth quiet.
Don't talk about these things.
Who are you to judge?
It's because they don't want God's word to
shine into the light of their sin and
turn from that sin.
They want to say, don't judge me.
I want to continue in my sin.
So most people that don't like to be
judged are caught in this lifestyle and they
don't want the spotlight of God's word put
on them.
We tend to pick and choose certain scriptures
as if they are choices on a menu,
but we can't choose those we like and
discard the rest.
So judging back to Matthew 7 within the
context of Matthew 7 refers to the type
of judgment, like I said earlier, that a
judge would render in a court of law,
such as Romans 14 4.
Who are you to judge another servant?
A judge hears the evidence and pronounces a
judgment.
It has to do with sentencing, not discerning.
So we're not supposed to sentence someone, but
we are called to discern.
I like to use the term fruit inspector.
It's okay to be a fruit inspector.
What I've noticed, I've written articles, many of
you know I write articles for the Christian
Post and different news organizations.
On this whole thing of judging, it's not
real difficult because as Christians we are called
to be the salt and the light.
We are called to discern what is right
and wrong.
We are called to say this is not
right.
This is what's happening in our nation.
This is not right.
The pulpit used to set the tone of
the nation.
I've talked about that before.
We are to judge and to call things
into question, but as I said before, the
truth will offend but my attitude shouldn't.
That's the difference.
The truth will offend but my attitude shouldn't.
It shouldn't be a judgmental, go get them,
angry person.
You've seen those people on TV, right?
You're like, oh, please don't be representing Christianity
right now.
Please.
They're just mean and nasty and they picket
and they protest the soldiers funerals and just
groups out there that are terrible.
It's all about judgment and being mean and
nasty and arrogant.
I believe you can speak the truth boldly,
but you can speak it and underscore it
with love.
But then you have the complete other side
and that's why I mention sometimes, and I
do talk about Joel Steen a little bit,
because he doesn't upset anybody.
There's no offense.
Nobody's offended.
Nobody's upset.
So you can't have that extreme either because
the word of God by its nature, truth
by its nature will offend.
When you're calling sinners to repentance, when you're
talking about the judgment of God, the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God, it's going
to offend and rightly so.
The gospel offends.
If it doesn't offend, there might be something
wrong because if we're trying to distort and
soften it up and candy coat it and
make it easy, that's not the gospel.
But we also don't want to make it
hard and in your face type of an
approach.
You have to find that balance.
So Romans 14 is very interesting on this
topic of judging.
Romans 14 is based on convictions.
Who are you to judge another servant?
To his own master he stands or falls.
And you're probably going, Shane, do you have
a few examples?
I'm glad you asked.
I've got quite a few examples.
And believe it or not, yours truly has
fallen in this area before of being judgmental.
The truth, guys, you know who you are.
It's all about truth.
And you've got to be careful because you
can be the arrogant one.
You can be the judgmental one.
And all of you that are all, it's
all about love.
And it's only Jesus' love and just His
love.
Be careful.
Come back to the truth side.
You've got to get a little boldness in
you.
You've got to balance truth and love.
So here's, I believe, what Paul is talking
about, how it applied to us today and
not judging in our convictions.
And this topic has actually come up.
I've gotten emails with people who don't live
in this area per se, out of the
state.
One guy's up in Canada.
We kind of go back and forth.
But on this whole issue of holidays, does
a person, people don't celebrate Easter?
You know, if they don't want to celebrate
Christmas?
Halloween?
I wouldn't celebrate Halloween, by the way, but
just, you know, maybe turn it into a
good day, but not what people celebrate.
But this issue of holidays, you've got to
allow some flexibility and freedoms because there are
convictions that maybe I don't share that you
share, or you share and I don't share.
And I'm, I can't believe you're celebrating Easter.
It's Estar.
It's a goddess of Estar.
And those fertility eggs, and you're putting little
eggs around, and you're letting your kids collect
the Easter eggs.
You're just so off base.
My goodness, what are you thinking?
And then I'm judging.
Then I'm forming an attitude.
I'm speaking evil.
And I'm like, tell my wife, can you
believe these guys?
This is unbelievable.
They're celebrating this.
They're doing this.
So we can do that in holidays.
What about schooling?
Public school, charter school, homeschool?
Hmm.
Getting some good arguments there, can't we?
Well, how could you use it?
I mean, I've got good friends in all
three of those.
Pastors I look up to, I could name
them now.
Many of you have read Francis Chen's book,
I believe.
And there's other pastors that their kids are
in the public school.
They're just in it.
In San Francisco, up in that area, the
Bay Area, or Texas, or California.
And people are like, oh, how can they
do that?
Well, you talk with them, and they believe
it's a mission field for them.
And they're teaching their kids and training in
that environment.
And, you know, and I have some thoughts
on that.
But I, you know, you can't be judgmental.
You don't know that, that the own, a
person's convictions, charter schools, well, Shane, it's part
of the government.
Yeah, but, you know, if a person has
a conviction that they don't feel wrong about
doing this, and they're able to teach their
kids, and they're able to use that resource,
and then there's homeschooling, and then homeschooling gets
a bad rap, and everybody, we have this
judgmental spirit.
So when it comes to convictions like this
of the conscience, we can't, we can have
strong opinions.
But I have a feeling that it applies
here.
Because we're putting our own convictions on other
people.
And I've noticed too, that a person seasoned
in their faith, 20 years, very mature, they're
gonna have stronger convictions than a person who's
been a Christian two years or a year.
Like how can they go to that movie?
Oh, my goodness, don't they know?
And judgmental, and mean and arrogant and backbiting,
and we can start to have that critical
spirit come up.
And I've repented of this many times before.
I'm sure I'll have to again.
What about food?
There are people who don't think we should
eat meat.
Vegan, I know vegan Christians who are very
adamant about this, and they'll have a case,
you know, a good case.
And then I say, well, Jesus ate fish,
and it kind of throws a monkey wrench
into that thought.
But they see how the government, I mean,
if I showed you clips of how our
meat is processed, you would vomit.
It's terrible.
So they have strong convictions in that area.
And I respect those convictions.
And it can go down the list, a
lifestyle.
I mean, sometimes, you know, like, how can
they be a Christian, live in that home
and drive that car?
Wow, a Corvette?
$50,000 Corvette?
Wow, what?
How is that possible?
What about if I rolled up in one
of those?
No, it wouldn't look good, would it?
Perception, but we start to form these, and
people look at their neighbors when the garage
doors open, they draw, what's in there?
Oh, my goodness, three Harleys.
Three Harleys.
He's got $75,000.
I remember one guy, he claimed to be
a Christian, and I didn't see a lot
of fruit, but he spent, and he doesn't
have a lot of money.
He took out a loan of $40,000
on a chopper that they custom-made for
him.
And I'm like, oh, what is, Lord, help
me.
But I saw this judgmental spirit coming up.
Now, there's nothing wrong with saying, in my
mind, that's not wise investment.
I don't think I would do that, but
then leave it at that.
I can keep going if you like.
What about movies?
How can people watch certain movies?
Now, I think that some of these things
aren't necessarily a gray area.
Like, yeah, you can go watch a new
movie, Ouija, or all this darkness and seance,
and all this, you know, vampires and a
cult.
I mean, that's their choice, and I think
things like that, you're crossing the line.
Darkness should not entertain the church.
But there are people who say you shouldn't
go to a cinema at all.
You shouldn't go to the movies at all.
It's of the devil, any type of movie.
I haven't recently, but I used to get
emails monthly that said, I need to repent
and put on a suit and tie, because
real pastors preach in a suit and tie.
And you've got to be in your suit
and tie.
You've got to have your King James Bible
version, and judging and judging and judging.
And should we present ourselves the best we
can in God's house?
Of course.
You know, you'll walk into Flip Flops and
your hair undone, and when I had hair,
and you know, it's just, oh, I don't
care.
So we should present ourselves well.
But it's conviction, conviction of our own hearts.
I'm reading a 1957 commentary on James, and
one of the gentlemen is talking about this
topic.
He had a friend of his that didn't
want any slides in church at all.
Back to the movie thing again.
No slides, nothing in church at all.
Don't put any slides up there.
But this commentator didn't agree, because when missionaries
would come in and want to show slides,
he saw there's nothing wrong with that.
But this friend was adamant, that does not
belong in God's house.
So you see, you've got to have a
little bit of leeway there.
And I've seen, I've seen movie clips that
have played in church and inappropriate.
They don't need it.
A lot of times the pastors need to
be filled with the fire and the spirit
of God and the spirit of truth.
You don't need a lot of gimmicks.
And look at that, isn't that cool?
And trying to make people laugh and trying
to relate to the culture.
And so I have opinions about that.
I think I'm kind of careful in that
area.
We don't, I remember, I don't even know
if I should say anything.
It's been a while, so I probably should.
But there's a church in town.
I actually talked to the pastor.
He was talking about lying.
And he played a clip from Jim Carrey's
movie, Liar Liar.
And the clip was so inappropriate.
I could not even, I looked at my
wife, I'm like, I'm in a church.
This is unbelievable.
And he goes, oh, I didn't really see
that.
You know, the talent, this tech guy must
have did that.
And I'm like, I can't believe it.
So I was judgmental.
But in that case, I think in the
right way, you don't need to see barely
clad women in a post up there as
you're explaining about lying.
Just talk about lying from God's word.
You don't need to show all these little
bells and whistles and things like that.
So judgmentalism.
People, even about television, you know, we shouldn't
have a TV in the lobby.
Well, it's not running Netflix all day long.
It's showing our missionaries and our bulletin and
things that they did in the Kids Connection
building.
See, I believe the media and things like
that can be used for good or evil.
It's a neutral source.
It's what you do with it.
You've got to be careful.
Religious pictures up in different places.
And because of my knowing a lot about
Roman Catholicism, I'm kind of, you know, leery
with having a lot of those little relics
and pictures up and things like that.
I kind of, you know, I just, I
don't like that personally.
But there are people I know that love
the Lord that they've got them all over
their house.
And so you have to kind of, you
know, just get rid of that judgmental spirit
and realize that people have their own convictions.
A communion.
There's a big, there's convictions about that as
well.
How should we do it?
There's people adamant that you use real wine
and a certain kind of unleavened bread.
And that's probably not a good idea.
If you've got 30 people who are former
alcoholics and one taste of that's going to
set them back in that direction.
Or do you take communion in this type
of setting and pass the plate?
Or the kind that we used to do
in Lancaster, that type of setting.
And really if you look at the Bible,
communion was when believers are coming together, they're
fellowshipping, they're breaking bread, they're having a meal
together.
The right way to probably do it is
to have a potluck.
And where believers coming together were remembering what
Christ did on the cross.
But there's no wrong way to do it.
But we can become judgmental.
Can't churches do that?
Why are they standing?
Why are they sitting?
Why are they raising their hands?
Why aren't they raising their hands?
They're too charismatic.
They're not charismatic enough.
Why is he not wearing a suit and
tie?
Why is he wearing a suit and tie?
Why are they using hymnals?
Why aren't they using hymnals?
Why do they have pews?
Why don't they have chairs?
Why don't they?
And we just, this judgmentalism, this what Paul
would say here, who are we to judge
another man's conscience?
Alcohol is another big one.
You know, then the church, and you've got,
you've asked Baptists, they say never.
You ask Presbyterians, they say every night, brother.
And we know the Bible's clear that in
moderation, very limited, don't post on Facebook, don't
make it a big deal, burying up, it
shouldn't be too often or you're addicted, you're
hooked to it.
It's pretty clear.
But when we start to put, you know,
now there's a lot of, well I wouldn't
say a lot, but friends I know who
are young pastors, it's scary because they like
to have now, make their own beer and
have beer tasting at the Bible study, and
it's not tasting, it turns into a six
pack per person.
I mean, that's just not working.
That's not wise.
That's not a good thing.
So we can take these areas and become
judgmental about them.
So I think that's what Paul was talking
about in Romans 14.
Take Romans 14 and read it.
He talks about, you know, if you don't
want to eat meat because your brother will
stumble and this whole idea of our own
conscience.
So here's a few things that have helped
me over the years.
The Bible talks about erring on the side
of grace.
If I'm going to err, I'm going to
err on the side of grace.
Unless it's an issue that needs to be
dealt with, unless it's a pretty big issue,
we're going to err on the side of
grace.
Also, know the facts.
Know the facts.
Hear both sides.
I've been embarrassed so many times when I've
rushed to a judgment hearing only one side
and not waiting to hear both sides.
And is it necessary to say something?
When he says, speak evil of no one.
So if we're going to say something, I
often ask myself, is it necessary?
Does this need to be said?
Is it going to build this person up?
Is there a reason why I need to
bring this to somebody's attention?
And the biggest one of all, what I
said earlier, Jesus said, remove the plank from
your eye first.
See, you can rightly judge others if you
move the plank from your eye first.
Well Shane, what is that?
That is humbling yourself.
It's when we humble ourselves and we say,
you know what?
I haven't mastered certain areas.
I need help in this area or I
want to be humble about this and loving.
And you go to the person or whatever
this involves and there's humility there.
You're not rushing to judgment.
I'm always concerned about those who want to
rush to judgment.
Shane, you go get them.
Go get them.
Let the church get them.
Let's apply Matthew 18.
Wait a minute.
It's just been a week.
What are you talking about?
There's a process here.
So those who are eager to judge, we
shouldn't be eager.
It should break our heart.
We shouldn't be eager to judge and yeah,
go get them Shane or go get them
whoever.
And there has to be this loving humility
there.
And we also should, it's a little uncomfortable,
but call others out when they are gossiping.
Say something.
I usually say, well, you know what?
You need to go talk to that person.
We don't need to talk about it right
now.
You need to talk about it.
You need to go to them directly if
they've bothered you.
Well, yeah, but no, you need to take
it and you, because you can be the
catalyst for gossip or you can stop it.
Have you ever put gasoline on a fire?
Keep that imagery in your mind about this
topic.
That's what we do with gossip.
Gasoline on the fire or water.
We can stop it.
We can stop it dead in its tracks.
There's no reason in a true blood bought
spirit filled church of God that gossip should
be traveling like this and just all over
the place.
It should be stopped dead in its tracks.
And I know if there's been churches who
have actually church disciplined people because they were
gossipers and they would not stop and they
kept putting down the church and putting down
others.
And they, it finally came to a point.
That's how bad gossip is.
So to sum it up, this passage, James
is saying, it's really about fault finding, fault
finding.
Many of you, I talked about John Calvin
before the reformer, John Calvin, who lived in
Geneva, wrote a good set of commentaries.
He said these words of Christ do not
contain an absolute prohibition from judging, but are
intended to cure a disease.
That disease is criticism.
So he's going back to Matthew 7 when
Jesus says, judge not.
He said, these words of Christ do not
contain an absolute prohibition from judging because we
are supposed to judge, but they are intended
to cure the disease of criticism.
Now we all know what a critical heart
is, don't we?
Nobody in this room knows what a critical
heart is.
My Lord.
Nobody's being honest.
We know what a critical heart is.
It's a heart that's critical and pointing out
flaws in others.
And often the reason we do that is
as I pull you down, I'm built up.
Or as I pull you down, I look
more spiritual.
And that's the whole point of this, is
to kill the disease of criticism.
Now regarding moral issues that destroy lives and
dishonor God, we are to judge.
We are to call into question behaviors, choices,
and lifestyles that lead people in a dangerous
direction, especially if these issues are to become
social policy and legally sanctioned.
So I believe the church should be able
to judge and say, you know, target wanting
a grown man to use a restroom with
my daughter is not a good idea.
I'm not buying that.
I'm going to speak out.
Who are you to judge, Shane?
I'll tell you why I'm a judge.
I'm a father of three girls and I'm
going to judge that issue big time.
But what about gay marriage?
You shouldn't say anything.
Sure we should.
The Bible is crystal clear.
Not be mean and in your face, but
to hold the ground.
Do you realize that's the reason all these
things have been able to be passed is
because the church is silent.
We don't want to offend anybody.
We don't want to upset anybody.
But the church is called to be that
beacon of light to point people in the
truth and to judge rightly.
That's what we're supposed to do, to judge
rightly.
Any type of social issue, judge rightly.
Shane, everything from immigration to tax reform to
abortion to gay marriage, God's word is clear
that we're able to judge rightly and say
this is right or this is wrong.
That's very clear in the scriptures.
Now on a different note, within the church
itself, we are to judge.
I talked about that in Matthew 18.
So a healthy church is a church that's
loving and graceful, but when they hear about
something it's like, many examples, I don't want
to list too many, but it hasn't happened
here per se, but other churches where somebody
is caught in adultery.
They're not wanting to work it out with
their wife and the church has to get
involved and step it up a notch and
talk to this person.
Listen, we don't want to go this route.
Well, who are you to judge me?
I'll tell you who I'm going to judge
you.
According to Matthew 18, we have to judge
this lifestyle.
Or somebody, maybe they're living together, they're not
married, they don't want to get married and
like, well, I'll keep ignoring it.
Hopefully they stumble on a verse someday.
Don't want to upset people.
But you don't run right at them.
You see, what's their situation?
What are they doing financially?
Are they believers?
Because you treat believers and unbelievers differently.
Paul says, if somebody is engaged in sexual
morality or all these other things and they're
a believer, have nothing to do with them
if they're not going to repent.
But what about believers or unbelievers, Paul?
He said, no, you'd have to go out
of this whole world to do that.
You're supposed to engage the unbeliever and help
them turn and see their need for Christ.
But the believer who's representing Christ and they're
continuing in the sin of the church is
to shun that, not to be mean and
I can't believe you, I'm judgmental.
I could say, I take heed lest I
fall, but I can't endorse this and we
have to bring this up so that restoration
takes place.
The whole goal of confrontation is restoration.
That's the goal.
That's the purpose.
It's never to kick somebody out and get
rid of them.
It's for restoration.
But what I was saying on a different
note, Titus 3.10 says to warn a
divisive person a few times and after that
have nothing to do with them.
So we are to judge in different areas.
But here's what I want to talk about
on a different note.
In the church, we can become wrongly judgmental.
I've seen this before many times.
Because we have a certain gifting or a
certain calling, we tend to judge others that
don't.
For example, those who have a calling towards
politics, Dobson, Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, David
Barton, Wall Builders, and all these people you're
seeing.
Thank God for them.
Thank God for people.
Can you imagine we just give up on
everything?
We don't have Christian judges.
So thank God for them.
But then you have people who are primarily
called to pastor and to teach.
They have a different calling.
They're not going to have that same desire
for all these political things.
So the people on the political side say,
why aren't you being more political?
And the people on the side who aren't
political say, why aren't you being more according
to God's word and just preaching?
Well, he hasn't called me a preacher.
He's called me to get involved in here.
Well, he's called me, and we wrongly judge
each other.
Why aren't you caring more about the mission
field in Syria or Iraq or persecute a
Christian chain?
I can't believe your church.
Why?
Because that's your passion.
That's your passion.
That's what God's called you to do.
So we come alongside of each other and
our giftings, we use our giftings together.
Thank God for people like John MacArthur.
But not real political.
He's a teacher.
And thank God for these people who are
political because they're involved in policy.
They're involved in what the world's going to
look like for my children and your kids
and your grandkids.
God wants us in all areas of life
making a difference.
So be careful there because that's where I,
and I sometimes have to pull back because
I'm more the John the Baptist, not the
John the Apostle.
Lay on Jesus's breast and just sing a
song.
He's just real soft.
So when those pastors that are kind of
cowardly and don't want to say anything and
they're just loving and smiling, I have to
be careful because that's not quite my calling.
And they need to be careful because, oh,
he's just mean and spirited and he's just,
you know, no, no, no, no, no.
The God's Word is in my belly like
a burning fire.
I can't hold it back.
Where's your burning fire?
But there is a time, I believe, and
a place that we do need to sometimes
lovingly challenge because I think the pulpits have
been silent in many areas.
I think we've been not wanting to offend.
We don't want to offend people with the
truth so we candy coat it.
We don't want to offend people with the
truth so we don't say certain things.
We don't, we don't talk about certain things
and that needs to be challenged.
So that's another thing that happens in the
church.
People, and I've seen this, people have such
a desire for a certain thing.
Abortion.
There's people, we've had people that they want
to go sit in front of Planned Parenthood
and protest and pray for those people and
thank God for that.
But, Shane, why aren't you there every weekend?
Well, because I'm preaching and because I've got
kids and they become judgmental and then that
person who's in Africa, why aren't you more
African?
I'm like, well, why aren't you this?
Why aren't you more in the Word of
God?
Why aren't you more in worship?
Why don't I ever see you at church?
And see how we can start judging each
other instead of using those God-given gifts
to come alongside and be the body of
Christ.
How can I encourage the person whose gifting
is that and mine might not be?
So I've just seen this in the church
a lot.
That's why you'll see there's a big divide.
That's why there's a big divide in the
church.
I believe on this issue, the whole issue,
I don't want to keep bringing it up,
but on politics, it's because God has clearly
called some people to that arena without a
shadow of a doubt.
God instituted the government, the family institution, the
church institution.
He ordained the government.
He said in Romans 13 to submit to
the government.
They are God's avengers.
If you do evil, be scared.
Be very afraid because they do not bear
the sword in vain.
So we want godly people in those positions,
but we also want godly people in the
pulpits.
And we have to really just understand that
there are different callings.
Did I get that point across?
Okay, good.
Now we're going to get into this next
week a little bit.
Verse 13.
I'm going to talk more about next week,
but I want to leave you with this.
Verse 13.
This is about not boasting about tomorrow.
This whole point is, if you look in
your Bibles, James 4.13, it might say,
do not boast about tomorrow.
Come now, you say, you who say, tomorrow
or today or tomorrow, we will go to
such and such a city, spend a year
there, buy and sell and make a profit.
Whereas you do not know what will happen
tomorrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appears for
a little time and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord
wills, we shall live and do this or
that.
But now you boast in your arrogance, and
all such boasting is evil.
Therefore, to him who knows to do good
and does not do it, to him it
is sin.
And at the first reading, people might say,
boy, he's being hardcore.
Can't we say, here's what I'm going to
do today or tomorrow or next year.
Here's how I'm going to spend my year.
Well, the key is this.
It doesn't say not to talk about or
plan for the future.
It says, don't boast in it.
So the right way to do this is,
Lord, here's what I'd like to do over
the next year.
I'd like to sell my house.
I'd like to move here.
I'd like to do this.
I'd like to store here.
I'd like to get ready for this.
Lord, these are my plans.
My mind sets my plans, but it's your
ways that prevail.
God, would you show me in this area?
I'm giving you full control.
This is your life.
Show me.
This is my plan, but I'd like you
to show me.
And I'll listen to you and I'll obey
you.
That's the right way to do it.
The wrong way to do it is arrogantly
assuming that this is what you're going to
do.
Arrogance is self-willed, and being self-willed
is not God-centered and therefore evil.
Evil, that word, if you look it up
in the Greek or the Hebrew, is something
that opposes the character and nature of God.
So you think, evil, oh no, this is
like terrible.
Yes, it is.
But anything that opposes the character and nature
of God is evil or wicked.
So when a person says, here's what I'm
going to do.
This next year, I'm going to save up.
I'm going to store up.
I'm going to take three trips to all
around the world.
I'm going to plan this.
I don't really care what God says.
This is what I'm doing.
And you're probably like, Christians don't do that,
Shane.
Oh, you have no idea.
Yeah, we tell God, here's what we basically
do more often than not.
Lord, here's what I'm going to do.
Please bless my plans.
And come hell or high water, we are
going to fulfill those plans.
We're going to buy what we want.
We're going to sell what we want.
We're going to move where we want.
We're going to do all these things.
And this is a side note.
I hope nobody takes this the wrong way,
because I don't mean it the wrong way.
But I've seen a lot of people move.
And I don't know if God's in it.
They just want to get out of bad
old California.
Well, guess what?
Good old California is better than 99.9
% of the entire world.
And if you move, make sure it's God's
will.
Because I'd rather be in East Los Angeles
in the center of God's will.
Then move and be outside of his will
just because of some thing you read on
the media that that California is this or
that.
And yeah, it's a hard place to live
sometimes.
But we are so we are so blessed,
and we should be so thankful.
But I've seen people make decisions in their
flesh and not looking.
So that's what this all about.
Don't say here's what I'm gonna do here.
I don't care what really good because the
truth be told when we want to do
something, we don't want to know what God
says about it.
Now, will he call people to move?
Of course, he does it regularly.
He often does it, there's peace, there's assurance,
they're waiting on God, they're looking for opportunities
to serve that they're doing it according to
God's will.
But just be careful because often we make
our plans and we say, Come on, God
bless it.
Come on, you're not blessing it.
And you're still not blessing it.
But I'm still moving forward because I'm too
arrogant to admit that I was wrong.
So that's what he's saying here, all such
boasting saying here's I'm going to do and
being being being proud about what you're going
to do.
So the best thing to do is ask
God for his wisdom before you do anything
significant, even something little.
But the whole point here, he's talking about
those who say Come on, come now say
today or tomorrow, we will go to such
and such a city and spend a year
there buy and sell and make a profit.
He's also the second thing I was going
to get to next week is their focus,
their focus.
It has nothing to do with necessarily God's
will or helping people are serving.
It's all about money and making a profit.
And anytime you make a decision on money
alone, I guarantee nine times out of 10,
you are not going in a good direction.
Well, Shane, shouldn't we consider our of course,
it has to be a consideration.
But those who make decisions based on finances
alone, often have the wrong focus, because they'll
compromise their family, they'll compromise time with their
family, they'll compromise their marriage, they'll compromise.
I don't know if there's a good church
there.
I don't care.
I'm gonna make $10,000 more a year.
I know it's gonna be harder on my
family, but they'll get over.
I know my kids are resilient.
I'll spend more time with them in five
years when I can retire a little younger.
And that's how it goes.
Because we're chasing that almighty dollar.
Let that almighty dollar chase you.
Don't chase it.
Because when you start to make decisions based
on that, you'll sell something you shouldn't sell,
or you'll go somewhere you shouldn't go, or
you'll compromise your integrity.
You'll do things that he says here, they're
evil, they're wrong, they're self-centered, and they're
focused on me.