God Wants Us to Submit Our Plans
(from the Book of James)
How many of you have problems taking direction? As a police officer I can tell you that for many years I had real problems with people who would not take direction from me. I think many people who work in law enforcement fell the same way. I also think that this command presence attitude that I developed as a police officer kept me from surrendering to Jesus for many years. I was in control of my life and I often controlled the fate of others. I made others surrender, and it was difficult to think of myself as someone who would ever surrender to someone else. Today we are going to talk about.
 Accepting God’s Direction
Now, most of us have to take directions every day of our life. Sometimes these directions are life savers, but sometimes they are less than perfect, and less than useful. The following are actual instructions found on the named items:
ON HAIRDRYER INSTRUCTIONS: Do not use while sleeping
ON A BAG OF FRITOS: You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside
ON A BAR OF DIAL SOAP: Directions: Use like regular soap
ON A FROZEN DINNER: Serving suggestion: Defrost
ON A HOTEL-PROVIDED SHOWER CAP IN A BOX: Fits one head
ON MARK & SPENCERS BREAD PUDDING: Product will be hot after heating
ON PACKAGING FOR A ROWENTA IRON: Do not Iron clothes on body
ON BOOTS CHILDRENS COUGH MEDICINE: Do not drive car or operate machinery
ON NYTOL (A SLEEP AID): Warning: may cause drowsiness
ON A KOREAN KITCHEN KNIFE: Warning keep out of children
ON A STRING OF CHINESE MADE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS: For indoor or outdoor use only
ON SAINSBURY’S PEANUTS: Warning: contains nuts
ON AN AMERICAN AIRLINES PACKET OF NUTS: Instructions: open packet, eat nuts
ON A SWEDISH CHAINSAW: Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands
While much of this stuff is about useless to you and I, there are times when it sure would have be nice if someone could tell us what to do, which way to go, what to decide. You know that God would like to be that person in our lives. With infinite wisdom and perfect knowledge, God seeks to be our guide.
 Psalm 23:4
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me
For those of you who don’t know, shepherds in the days in which this psalm was written, would use both a rod and a staff to guide their sheep. The rod was a shorter stick with a knob on the end, in many ways, it resembled a club, and it would be used to discipline stubborn and disobedient sheep so that they would remain with the herd, and on the right track. The staff is the long stick we all think of that has the hook on the end, and it was used by the shepherd to gently guide wandering sheep back toward the group. Listen to how a real shepherd once described the use of a staff:
Sometimes, I have been fascinated to see how one of us will actually hold our staff against the side of some sheep that is a special pet or a favorite, simply so that we are “in touch”. We will walk along this way almost as though it were “hand-in-hand”. The sheep obviously enjoys this special attention from us and revels in the close, personal, intimate contact between us...It is a delightful and moving picture.
Are there times when you feel lost? Like you somehow got off course and can’t seem to find your way back on track? Wouldn’t it be nice to get some guidance or some training so you can learn how to stay on course toward a life of fulfillment and purpose? In my line of work, I am constantly in contact with people who have no purpose and find themselves living minute to minute, day to day. They are lonely, desperate, confused, and sadly on the road to condemnation.
Hebrews 12:7
Let God train you, for he is doing what any loving father does for his children.
God wants to be your guide, your teacher, and sometimes lessons can be painful. Sometimes they feel like he is using a rod, and sometimes like he is using a staff… But let’s face it, there are things out there that compete for our attention, and the world is full of dangers and hazards. Without the love and guidance of a father who is willing to guide and correct his children, we are predisposed to get off track and we will never find our way to the blessed life, and more importantly, to the life of eternity with God in Heaven.
Proverbs 3:5, 6
trust in the LORD with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember the LORD in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.
God wants to direct you and lead you and show you the right way, and he knows that the world is filled with distractions.
Hebrews 13:9
Do not let all kinds of strange teachings lead you from the right way.
The world is full of strange teachings. Teachings bout what is important in life, and what we should focus on. Sometimes the world’s teachers are simply our culture in general. it is very easy to be distracted by the things of this world. God wants us to be focused on Him, and he knows that there are several things that will distract us; we need his guidance to get us back on track. And we need to face the things that de-rail us.
My Life, My Problems
We have to be realistic and understand the fact that we can be derailed by materialism. Sometimes we can let our desire for 'stuff' shape our plans completely:
James 4:1-4:2
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
That’s very interesting, don’t you think? James tells us that we don’t have, because we don’t ask. Now a lot of prosperity doctrine pastors will tell you that we simply need to pray for everything and God will give it to us, but that’s not what James is saying. There is always a tension between want we think we want and what God knows we need. I may want any number of things, and there are many things that I can actually afford to get. But God knows what I need and if I will run everything that I purse through God first, I will discover that I can be very happy with a lot less. If I am really in a constant dialogue with God, praying and listening to His will for my life, I will find that God will send me exactly what I need, even if it may not be what I originally wanted.
God has a strategy to help us deal with our materialism. God has been generous with all of us and He simply calls us to be generous toward others. You should pray for it because God generously gives us everything for our enjoyment.
1 Timothy 6:17 to 6:19
Command those who are rich in the things of this life not to be proud, but to place their hope, not in such an uncertain thing as riches, but in God, who generously gives us everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share with others. In this way they will store up for themselves a treasure which will be a solid foundation for the future. And then they will be able to win the life which is true life.
Underline the words generous and share. God promises us that if we can learn to be truly generous with the things that came from God to begin with, we will be able to win the life which is true life. A true life that embraces true joy. And a life of true joy from god is a life that overflows with thanksgiving.
Psalm 86:12
I will give thanks to You, o Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Your name forever.
Underline 'thanks'. God has a simple directive for us when materialism becomes a problem in our lives.
My Life Lived His Way
Are you ready for a change? Are you ready to start living as God has designed you to live? Then begin right now by understanding the need to give and be thankful.
The Power of Pleasure
Materialism is not the only thing that can derail us from intimacy and relationship with God. Let’s face it, many of us still struggle with issues of pleasure seeking. Look at what Solomon observed:
Ecclesiastes 2:1
I said to myself, “come now, let’s give pleasure a try. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” but I found that this, too, was meaningless.
There are many kinds of pleasure pursuits, opportunities that we have to chase fun and excitement and thrills. We begin over time to lust after the pleasures of life and it shouldn’t surprise us that these efforts often lead us to unhealthy relationships. it shouldn’t surprise us that the single strongest manifestation of pleasure seeking in our world occurs through our relationships with people. God has so much to say about the lust that exists in our world. While we don’ talk about it much in church, next to materialism, lust is the single largest distraction in our world.
The two largest types of sites that are presently hosted on the internet are Christian sites and pornography sites. It is a classic battle of good verses evil, and battle of God verse the fallen heart of man. A comprehensive two-year study by Alexa Research, a leading web intelligence and traffic measurement service, has revealed...”sex” was the most popular term for which people searched. of all the terms searched for online, roughly 1 of every 300 terms, were “sex.” according to their online searching habits, people want “sex” more than they want “games,” “music,” “travel,” “jokes,” “cars,” “jobs,” “weather” and “health” combined. According to the most recent data, 61% of all high school seniors have had sexual intercourse, about half are currently sexually active, and 21% have had 4 or more partners. When we allow our passions to control us, we lose site of the direction God would have for us.
Romans 1:25, 26
They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen. Because they do this, God has given them over to shameful passions.
God knows we can so easily be caught up the grips of passion
Ephesians 2:3
All of us used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were under God’s anger just like everyone else.
My Life, My Problems
It’s my life and I can continue to live it my way, that’s for sure. But if I’m going to do that, I am going to have to remember that I am no different than anyone else. We can all be derailed by lust. God has some great advice about how we can handle our passions:
James 4:3-4:4
And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure. You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God.
God is calling us to direct our love in a righteous way toward Him. Don’t aim at the world, aim at your God.
1 John 2:15 to 2:17
Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.
God has a solution for us; he has direction for our lives:
2 Timothy 2:22
Run from anything that stimulates youthful lust. Follow anything that makes you want to do right. Pursue faith and love and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.
Underline these three words: run, follow, pursue. These are action words and they give us the answer for the passions that can derail us. First, we have to run from the first sign of worldly lust. But it’s not enough to simply run from the source. A runner gets on the blocks and takes off with great enthusiasm. He strains and struggles and pours great passion into the run, but it’s not because he is running from something, it is because he is running toward something. He strains and pushes toward a finish line. It’s not enough for us to simply run from lust, we have to know who it is that we are running toward. It’s not enough to pour out the evil in our lives and simply leave our lives empty. Unless we replace the evil with something even greater, something that truly fills us, we will find ourselves in even worse shape. Look at what Jesus said about the spiritual condition of Israel. It applies to our lives as well:
Matthew 12:43 to 12:45
When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ so it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.
It’s not enough to run, you have to re-fill
My Life Lived His Way
OK, ready to commit to a change of life? If so, we’re going to need to exchange the world’s lust for God’s love.
The Peril of Pride
Finally, there is still another thing that can de-rail us from relationship with God, and it is the root of all distractions.
Titus 2:7
Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves.
There’s a lesson we need to learn from the greatest of all angels. a created being, just as we are created beings, a creature that though so much of himself that he had ambition to remove God’s position altogether, to see himself as an equal with complete control of his own life. Aren’t we all guilty of that at one time or another? Thinking we don’t need God and can ignore his direction? I think it can be argued that all sin is the product of pride. Lying, stealing, cheating, lusting, murdering, indulging. It all comes from a desire to satisfy our personal desires at the expense of others or God’s righteousness.
My Life, My Problems
We’ve got to admit to the truth of our condition and part of this condition is the truth that we can be derailed by pride:
James 4:5 to 4:8
Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
God has a plan to help us deal with our pride and our inherent nature to focus on ourselves. He calls us to freedom, not just freedom from the penalty of everlasting separation from God, but the freedom of our pride:
Galatians 5:13
For you have been called to live in freedom... not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.
Underline 'serve'. If you want to deal with your pride, and all of us need to, you are going to have to step out in faith and serve. Service is the mechanism by which we can submit our lives to God and step out of our own prideful behavior.
My Life Lived His Way
You want to be more like God? You want to make a change in your own life? Then step out of your self absorption and serve
The Guide to Everlasting Life
So what is it that God is trying to direct us toward? What is the promise? Certainly it is for a life that is righteous and rewarding. A life where God is seen for who he truly is: wonderful, exciting, passionate, generous, pure, holy, true. But there is something else that God is pointing us toward:
Psalm 49:7
A person can never redeem himself; he cannot pay God the price for his life, because the payment for a human life is too great. What he could pay would never be enough to keep him from the grave, to let him live forever.
The Bible is more than a good book, it is God’s guide book. Every page, from every author, intended to give us direction. To guide us toward a blessed life, but more importantly to show us the way to redemption. To point us to Jesus Christ. The only way to God.
Why Would You Redeem Me When I’m Not Worthy of Your Love?
You might be wondering why God would even want to bring you home, considering all the things you have done. Well, God’s promise is three fold. He will forgive you for a past in which you denied him in word and deed, give you a blessed life today in which you can feel and understand His power, and secure a future in Heaven. He simply wants you to accept His Son and accept His direction. To take Jesus as your savior.
What Would Happen If I lived My Life the Way God Wanted Me to Live It?
Imagine a life in which you began to rely on God’s direction instead of your own. That would be a life worth living… | 
