Title: You Are a Mist
1
Title:--You are a mist
Theme:--Our Transitory Ephemeral Existence
Text:--James 4:13-17
Date:--Sunday, January 15, 2017
Occasion:--My First Sermon in 2017 in CCC
Place:--CCC
Code:--17 – 01
Intro: -- This is a time of year when people make plans, resolutions, and design projects. It is frequently proposed that we make yearly goals and then break them down into monthly, weekly and daily goals. I do this, and so do many of you. However, there’s a danger. And I want to talk to you about this danger. Let’s look closely again at our text.
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
- Human Presumption
- Divine Confrontation
- Divine Correction
Conclusion
- Human presumption:
Now listen: Listen Up! Take heed. James is a NO NONSENSE direct kind of writer, and in this passage (pericope) he addressed the matter of Presumption and Human Temporality.
This passage is directed to you who say “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Who are these kinds of people? These are “take charge” kind of people. These are “A” Types; People who take the bull by the horns. Proactive! They believe that they are in control. “we will” --- “we will go to that or that city” “we will … spend a year there”. “We will … carry on business and make money”. These people boast (v16) and act arrogantly (16). What they are doing is evil (16). Notice, the Bible here doesn’t address those who are adulterers, those who are murderers, those who are criminal thieves. James calls evil those who make their plans independently of God, with a presumption that they are in control.
The journalist asks: Who, what, when, where, why, and how. James considers those kinds of people who are basically self-determined. They can decide when (today or tomorrow), they can decide what “go” … they can decide for themselves, who, “we will” with an independent spirit, self-determination, regardless of what God might have to say about it. Freedom of choice! Self-determination. This is modern man’s declaration of independence and self-determination. It reflects the spirit of our age very well. These people determine “where” they will go: “we will go to this or that city”. They are in charge of the location where they will make their determinations. Notice that these people say “spend a year there”. How long? These people feel that they can determine everything, why they will do: “carry on business and make money.” The materialistic motive predominates their thinking.
SUMMARY: Humanistic. Materialistic. Self-deterministic. Their slogan is “I am the master of my fate”.
POEM BY HADLEY. It is amazing how arrogant this attitude is. And how evil it is. These words “arrogant” and “evil” describe the root attitude of these people. No regard for God. Self-determined.
PP – Hadley - INVICTUS
PP - INVICTUS
- The Confrontation: 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
This is a wake-up call. That is why our text starts off: “NOW LISTEN”. LISTEN UP! And then, after describing the arrogant boasting of the independent, the Holy Spirit, through James, puts things in perspective: Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Humans make plans and determinations as if they were in control. Often, as we make our resolutions, we do so with an attitude of self-determination and self-actualization and autonomy and self-rule. This message at the beginning of the year is meant to remind us to be careful or arrogant presumptions. You make plans for a year, without realizing that you have no control over the rest of the day, or tomorrow, much less, the rest of the year.
The Wake-Up Call: What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. This is a very good question. This is the kind of question that we need to ask before we make plans and resolutions and determinations. What is your life? And the answer is powerful: You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Mist is certainly an appropriate figure for describing the ephemeral nature of life. Mist is here, and then it’s gone. Its fleeting. This text points to the nature of life as transitory and ephemeral. I like the word “ephemeral”. It means “here today, gone tomorrow”. “make-shift”. “short-lived”. “temporary”. Sometimes a picture paints a 1000 words. Consider the 6 following images of the word “ephemeral”. Chose the one that you think best describes the fleeting temporary ephemeral nature of life?
PP +++++
Which is your favourite? WHY?
Perhaps one of the best-known phrases from literature is Shakespeare’s “out, out brief candle”.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Here’s a modern paraphrase of that famous poem:
Out, out, brief candle. Life is nothing more than an illusion. It’s like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. Life is a story told by an idiot, full of noise and emotional disturbance but devoid of meaning.
The Bible uses several phrases to describe our transitory and ephemeral nature. Consider the following verses:
1. Job:
- Remember that my life is but a breath. 7:7
- My days are swifter than a runner, they skim past … like eagles swooping down on their prey. 9:25, 26
2. Moses (Psalm 90)
- They are like the new grass of the morning, though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered. (90:5,6)
- …they quickly pass, and we fly away (Psalm 90:10)
- The Correction: 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
If it is the Lord’s will. Instead of the spirit of independence, what we need is a spirit of dependence on the Lord. Instead of crafting a declaration of independence, we need to craft a declaration of dependence. Instead, you ought to say: “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
- This declaration affirms the sovereignty of the Lord, and it stands in sharp contrast to our sense of sovereignty.
- If the Lord wills, expresses concretely that massive truth that the Lord is in control.
- Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
- We depend on the Lord. Our lives are in His hands. If He wills, we will live, and be able to do this or that.
Conclusion
17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
We have been confronted with our presumptuous attitudes of self-determination. The myth that man is the maker and determiner of his own destiny. We have been challenged by the text to realize our life is but a mist, a blowing in the wind, a flower that is here today and gone tomorrow. We have been instructed: What we ought to say is: If the Lord wills. We are called to recognize Divine sovereignty. We are called to humble ourselves. And the conclusion of our text is crystal clear: 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Prayer
Lord, forgive our sense of independence and self-determination. Help us to realize how fleeting, how ephemeral is our life. Lead us to affirm YOUR sovereignty. YOUR Lordship in the world and in our personal lives. Teach us to depend upon You. And not just say it with our mouths, but affirm it with our minds, our hearts and our wills and our decisions.
AMEN.