God Opposes Arrogance

 Amen. There are times where we just worship. And worship is with our minds, it's with our hearts. It connects to our emotions at times. There are other things that like to connect to our emotions as well. Like movies, for instance. They love to connect to our emotions on a number of different ways. One of those ways is when they build in a character into the movie itself that you just want to, ugh, that person, you know? They're so arrogant that you're just like, ugh, and you just can't wait for them to get what's coming to them. Depending on your age, you remember some of those characters. Maybe if we went, you know, back into the '70s, you'd remember Apollo Creed, right? I mean, it was just like, early on it was like, ugh, you just wanted Rocky to win, right? He made himself, he was so arrogant. Or maybe you're an '80s kid, and Johnny Lawrence from the original, the real "Karate Kid," right? The original "Karate Kid." Johnny Lawrence was like arrogance personified. Or you could push off into the '90s and "Shawshank Redemption," and you had Warden Norton who made it even worse by being arrogant, and cloaking it in all of this religious language and talk. It just made it even more gross. And then you, certainly in the '90s, you had Shooter McGavin in "Happy Gilmore," and you just were like, this guy, he's incredibly arrogant, right? And then in the 2000s, you've got Regina George from "Mean Girls." Of course you could have picked a whole host of those mean girls, but she would be definitely one of them. And then maybe a little more currently you'd have Draco Malfoy, who, you know, you were just like, ugh, come on, Harry, you gotta do something with this guy, right? And the funny thing is, is that when we look at all of those characters, we can't wait for all of them to get what's coming to them, right? They're so arrogant that we're just like, oh, man, I just cannot wait. It's part of the tension of the movie, and we want them to get what is coming to them. They all have different forms of arrogance. They don't all look exactly the same. The way that arrogance shows itself might look a little bit different. But what I'm concerned about today is that for many of us, maybe it's possible that no matter what arrogance looks like and what form it takes, here's what we think: regardless of what arrogance looks like, I just know it doesn't look like me. That's oftentimes where we find ourselves. I don't know fully, you know, whatever arrogance looks like, and I've seen it in a million places, whatever arrogance looks like, I know this. It doesn't look like me. I don't know if you heard the story, it's not a true one. I don't know if you heard the story about the pilot and the professor and the nurse and the hiker that were in an airplane, and they were just, you know, flying along. And then the plane started, you know, you know, doing all this stuff, and now the plane's going down. But there's only three parachutes. Problem. There's four people, right? The pilot looks over at them and says, "Hey, look. My plane, my parachutes." He puts on one and he jumps. Now there's three of them left. The professor looks at them all and says, "Well, here's the bottom line. I'm brilliant and the world needs me. So, I'm taking one." He jumps. And now you've just got the nurse and the hiker. And the nurse looks at the hiker and says, "My whole life has been giving my own life away. That's what I've done for my career. And so in this case, I'm just gonna let you have the last parachute." And the hiker says, "That's super kind of you, but no worries. There's still two." And they're like, "What?" He said, "Yeah, the professor apparently thought he was brilliant, but he jumped out with my backpack on." See, part of the reason we laugh is 'cause it's a funny story. Maybe another part of the reason that we laugh is because we're so self-assured that we would never do something so stupid as that. And we think to ourselves, idiot, right? You see, the problem with arrogance is one that James won't let us get away with. We won't be able to just look outside and look at everybody else and figure out what their problem is. James won't let us off the hook. As we've been studying in the book of James, you've realized pretty clearly, haven't you, that James doesn't let any of us off the hook for anything. James is very straightforward in his speech, and really what happens is, what he writes exposes all of our hearts. Now last week we were looking at wisdom and humility and how they cannot be separated. They're inseparable in their very nature. And while James is teaching about that in chapter 4, he quotes from the book of Proverbs, and in the book of Proverbs, he makes this statement. It's in James 4:6. He says God "gives us more grace. And that's why Scripture says," he's referring to Proverbs chapter 3, "God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble." Now the point that James was making, and as we studied last week, for those of you who've been tracking with us, James was highlighting this, really the second part of that verse, that what God will do is, he'll show grace or favor to the humble. And then he unpacks that by talking about submission to God and humbling ourselves before the Lord. That's what he was emphasizing. But this week in the passages that we're going to look at, starting in 4:11 and going all the way through 5:6, what we're gonna see James doing is unpacking the first part of that, the first part of that quote from Proverbs, that "God opposes the proud." And he's gonna highlight what that looks like. What does that kind of arrogance actually look like? And if I were summarizing what we're gonna study today, it would be three words, and really simple. God opposes arrogance. God opposes arrogance. That's really what we're gonna be talking about today. If you're trying to say, "Hey, what was the message about?" You know, when you're leaving and somebody in the parking lot got here really late because of whatever reason. They thought it was time change, you know, this week instead of last week, or whatever, right? "What was the message about?" God opposes arrogance. You see, and what we have to remember is this, is that we love thinking of ourselves as somebody who's not affected by this idea of arrogance. We have a tendency to always think in they and them categories instead of me and us categories. But what I would ask you to do for our time together here in these few minutes, is maybe not to think to yourselves, oh, Jerry, this message on arrogance, I can't wait for some people I know to hear this. Oh, Jerry, I cannot wait to send them the link, because I know somebody who needs this so badly. Jerry, you go. You go, man. James, I'm cheering for you. You go and get those people that need to hear this message, and I'll be praying that they listen. I'm hoping that that's not the posture you take. I'm hoping the posture you take is that you and I, we need to hear what the Spirit-inspired words from James's pen are going to speak to us, because what I think you will see is that he will begin to expose all of our hearts. Now, I'm gonna give you five different ways that arrogance shows itself from the text itself. But here's what you should know, the first three are gonna go pretty quickly because they build on one another. So let me start by simply saying this. The first kinda way that arrogance shows itself is arrogance toward others. I want you to look with me in verse number 11. At the very beginning part it says, "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them," and then at the very end of verse number 12 it says this, "But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?" Now James uses some language here, he talks about brothers and sisters, and he talks about neighbor, and he's borrowing from the language of Jesus. Jesus used both of those terminologies when he was talking about people, those who are brothers and sisters in Christ and those who are defined as our neighbor. And what James is saying is that we are not to slander or to judge them, our brothers or sisters or our neighbor, that we're not supposed to do that. Now what does he mean when he's saying judge them? I think James is using the term in the same way that Jesus used the term. Remember that's his brother. And basically what James, because it's the earliest of the New Testament writings that we have, what he was operating off of was the Old Testament law, and was operating off of the teaching of his brother, Jesus. And I think he's borrowing from the way that Jesus used the term judge when Jesus said this in Luke 6, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven." You see, what Jesus was doing was linking the idea of judging people with condemnation, right? Now we know from the New Testament that the New Testament talks about this idea of judgment in a different way as well. It talks about this idea of judgment in terms of discernment, that there are things that we do to discern what's going on. And by the way, the church, in terms of its authority, and leaders in the church in their authority, have been given authority to be able to make judgments about behavior that is sinful, and as a result can confront that behavior and call that behavior out. Now, very carefully, listen. You do that graciously, you do that humbly. You do that where there's not a tree sticking out of your face when you're trying to remove a speck of sawdust from your brother or sister's eye. This is about discernment. James is talking about judgment that is aimed in the direction of condemnation, right? And he says very clearly, don't slander your brother or sister, don't judge them. This is about condemnation. Now, why is it arrogant to do that toward other people? Here's why. Because it demonstrates an arrogance toward the law. And this is what James will tell us in that verse, in verse number 11, says this, "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you're not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it." See, James says, the reason that it's arrogant, that you demonstrate this arrogance toward others when you slander them or when you condemn them or when you judge them, is because now what you've done is that when you're judging them, you're standing in judgment of the law itself. Because the law itself has said, "Don't do that." But you're willing to do it. So you're not just being arrogant towards your brother or sister or to your neighbor, you're being arrogant toward the very law of God. What law is James referring to here? Probably what he's already called the royal law. The royal law is summed up with love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your, what? Neighbor as yourself, right? And he's already quoted from that in Leviticus chapter 19. It says this, "Don't go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the Lord. Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you'll not share in their guilt. Don't seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." You see, this is what we call the royal law, because it's kind of the king of all laws, right? Love God and love your neighbor. And so instead of judgment that is aimed in the direction of condemnation, the royal law teaches us to love. Instead of judgment, we are called to mercy. And James has already talked about that idea as well. So you can see that we are being arrogant toward other people when we are slandering them or making judgements about them, or in a condemning type of way, because what we're doing is we are actually standing in judgment over the law that God has given to us. And here's the thing, James has already told us, he wants us to be doers of the word. He wants action. He wants obedience. But you cannot be a doer of the word when you are standing in judgment over it. You can't do it, right? So there's an arrogance that's demonstrated toward other people. There's an arrogance that's demonstrated toward the law. But here's what makes it even worse, is because that's actually an arrogance toward God. That's actually an arrogance toward God. Look at what verse 12 says. "There's only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?" He says there is only one Lawgiver and Judge. Just one. But what happens is this. When we judge in condemnation our brother or sister or our neighbor, what we're doing is we're arrogantly standing over them and standing over the law. We're making a judgment about the law. But we're not just making a judgment about the law. What we're actually doing is making a judgment about God, because God's the one who's given us this very thing, and he is the only Lawgiver and Judge. And what we're doing is we're trying to unseat God. Are you following James's line of understanding here? We're trying to unseat God, because he alone is the Lawgiver and Judge, but we're putting ourselves in the place of lawgiver. In other words, we're saying, "I have a right to judge you, because I have generated a standard by which I'm going to judge you," instead of leaving that to the very Lawgiver, and the very Judge who alone can judge. And by the way, not only will he judge, but he alone can save and destroy, according to James. Here he's probably borrowing the language of Jesus again. Jesus said, "Don't be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." James is reminding us of the nature of God. And instead of standing in God's place and thus standing over the law and thus standing over other people, he calls us to not be those kind of arrogant people, but instead to embrace the mercy of God and leave the judgment to God. That's the kind of people that he is looking for. Remember, we're not talking just here about discernment, we're talking about condemnation. And then James, of course, in verse number 12 when he says, "But who are you to judge your neighbor?" You know what he's saying to us all? Who do you think you are? Who do you actually think you are? Because you are arrogantly doing this, which is contradicting the very law of Jesus, the law of God that he's given to us. And as a result, you're standing in God's place as lawgiver and judge. How arrogant can you be? Who do you think you are in doing such a thing? So he tells us about arrogance toward others and arrogance toward the law and arrogance toward God. But then he moves this forward by talking about the arrogance of presumption. The arrogance of presumption. Here's what I, you know what presumption is, right? When we presume things. It means that we kind of, maybe our best guess, this is what's going to occur and those kinds of things. Maybe there's a little bit of evidence, but maybe not much evidence, but whatever, we're presuming and/or assuming things are going to occur. What is it that we presume in our arrogance? Well, here's the first. We presume the future, don't we? Some of you realize this is true. Listen to how James phrases it in verses 13 and 14. He says, "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.' Why, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James is now talking to a different group of people. He's actually referring now to a bunch of merchants. When James is writing, he's writing to kind of the spread-out church all over the place who've kind of left Jerusalem for the sake of persecution that was going on. But even within the letter, and they did this sometimes in the ancient world, they would refer to different audiences, even audiences that weren't necessarily reading the letter. And now he's talking to those merchants. They may be believers, they may not be believers, it's hard to quite know, but he's talking to those who travel around for their lives. And he's basically saying, "Hey, listen, you who say all of these things." And he's basically saying, "Why are you presuming on your future?" Did you catch how much they are presuming upon in what he said? Look again in verse number 13. "Now listen, you who say," watch this, "'Today or tomorrow.'" What's he talking about here? Time. They're presuming upon time, right? And then he says, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city." Now he's presuming upon location. We'll "spend a year there." Now he's presuming upon duration. And we'll "carry on business and we'll make money." Now he's actually talking about outcomes. Do you wanna talk about how presumptuous this is, when you're presuming your future, your time, your location, the duration you're going to be there, and the outcomes of that? Wow. James is saying, "This is ultimately the height of arrogance, to think that we sit in the seat of God and that we can somehow presume our own futures." The difficulty with this that we have to remember in presuming our own futures, is that we've left God out of the equation. James, by the way, is not against planning. Some of you are going, is James telling us we shouldn't plan anything, we should just roll through life? Some of you would love that. Some of you that are wired that way. "I know, I've been trying to tell my boss, 'What does it matter? Like, just roll with it,'" right? And the boss isn't going for it, right? James is not opposed to plans. He's opposed to plans that leave God out. That's what he's opposed to. Because what that is, is the arrogance of presumption. Oh, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna go here, I'm gonna go there. This is what I'm gonna do when I get there. And these are the outcomes that are gonna be there. Really? You've got that kind of power? You've got that kind of control that you can do all of those things? James says, "You don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow. Who do you think you are? You don't know what tomorrow holds!" Do you know that people who die on a particular day, the day before, many of them didn't think they were gonna die. Some of them may have, depending on the illness or whatever, but many times that people die, they didn't think that that was going to happen the next day. They were talking about all the plans that they had, all the things they were gonna do. We presume upon the future by leaving God out of our planning. And James says, "That's the height of arrogance. You don't even know what's gonna happen tomorrow. What is your life?" He says, "Your life is like mist!" And James there, he's borrowing from the language of the prophets when he refers to that. Hosea says it in Hosea 13, "Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window." He's just borrowing the language of the Old Testament prophets. I remember when I was growing up in Georgia, my grandmother on my dad's side, my paternal grandmother, she would be cooking these potatoes in her kitchen. And I used to love as a little kid, to just sit there and watch the steam come off of the potatoes as she was boiling them. And I would actually, like, it was a game to me, I would try and track it as it came off and watch how far it went. And it would just do this. Goodbye, right? It would just be here for just a moment and then it's gone. And I'd be like, wait, what? You know, where did it go? Here's what James says: that's what your life is like. You're out here presuming about all the things that are- This is what your life is like. It's like a mist. You see it and then you don't. And we should not be a people who presume upon our future. It is the height of presumptive arrogance. But we also presume control, don't we? We presume that we have control. Look at verse 15 and 16. After James tells them, like, "What is your life? You don't even know what tomorrow holds," he said, "Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil." And James just calls it what it is. He says this is the height of arrogance, to act like we know everything. We don't. If the Lord wills, we will do this and we will do that. But if he doesn't, we're just gonna trust him, right? Instead of our arrogant boasting about all the things that we're going to do, and this presumption that we have control. We don't know near as much as we think we do! "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are your ways above our ways and your thoughts above our thoughts," says the Lord. We don't know remotely as much as we think we know, but we get all content that we've got it going on. There was a baseball manager back in the day named Earl Weaver. He coached the Baltimore Orioles. He wrote a book called "Weaver on Strategy." And it was a, you know, baseball people love reading books on baseball strategy, right? Nerds like me. But Earl Weaver in his book would tell different stories about strategies that he had in a baseball game. But he actually told a story that involved Reggie Jackson. Some of you remember that name. He only played in Baltimore one year. And when he was there playing for Earl Weaver, he ended up walking and won at bat, and he's at first base. And Earl Weaver kinda had a rule that, you don't steal unless I tell you to steal. And there's a reason for that, right? His responsibility has to do with everything. But Reggie Jackson's on first base, and Reggie's pretty fast. And he says in his mind, you know, "I'm fast, I'm reading the pitcher. I don't think the catcher's got that good of an arm, and I think I can swipe this bag." And he does. He swipes it and he comes up, you know, and he's kinda looking in, and Weaver's just kinda looking out there like, I know I didn't give you the steal sign. And Reggie's like, that's okay, 'cause I'm just fast. And I can do it, you know? And he swiped the bag. And he's just standing out there feeling pretty self-assured on second base. But Earl Weaver tells the story, the reason that I didn't tell him to steal is because the batter right behind him was our second-best hitter. And now we left an empty base open. So what they did is they just intentionally walked him. And now the next guy that was coming up was a really bad matchup with the pitcher that was pitching. And I knew I was gonna have to pinch-hit for him to bring in another batter. And now I was gonna have to start depleting my bench too early in the game. Because Earl Weaver is thinking about the whole picture, and Reggie Jackson was just thinking about stealing second base. Sometimes we think we know more than we do, but we're not seeing the whole picture. We're not seeing everything that God sees, but somehow we think that we're in control. We have this arrogant presumption that we're in control of everything. But as James leaned on the writing and the wisdom of the proverbs, Proverbs chapter number 19 says this, "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." We are not nearly in as control as we thought we were. So we presume our future, we presume control, but we also presume our own righteousness. Here's what I mean by that. James 4:17 says this, "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them." Now oftentimes we've lifted this verse out of its context. And it definitely has a wider application, certainly, but in the context that we're in, here's what James is saying: you can't just go on living your life and not factoring God into the equation of all your decision-making and your future and all of those things, and think that you're righteous. You can't do that. Because you know something. You know what you know? That God is sovereign over time, that God is sovereign over the world, that God is sovereign over our futures, that God alone has all knowledge. And if you know that and you don't factor him into any of your decision-making or your plans, then it is sin for you. I will not allow you to go on thinking that you are righteous, even if you talk a good game, because you know the good you're supposed to do. And that is, submit yourself to the Lord. Humble yourself before God. Live in humble dependence on him. You know the good you're supposed to do, and when you don't do it, it is sin. So he doesn't even let us get away with puffing up our own righteousness in this context. 

We are not nearly in as control as we thought we were. So we presume our future, we presume control, but we also presume our own righteousness. Here's what I mean by that. James 4:17 says this, "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them." Now oftentimes we've lifted this verse out of its context. And it definitely has a wider application, certainly, but in the context that we're in, here's what James is saying: you can't just go on living your life and not factoring God into the equation of all your decision-making and your future and all of those things, and think that you're righteous. You can't do that. Because you know something. You know what you know? That God is sovereign over time, that God is sovereign over the world, that God is sovereign over our futures, that God alone has all knowledge. And if you know that and you don't factor him into any of your decision-making or your plans, then it is sin for you. I will not allow you to go on thinking that you are righteous, even if you talk a good game, because you know the good you're supposed to do. And that is, submit yourself to the Lord. Humble yourself before God. Live in humble dependence on him. You know the good you're supposed to do, and when you don't do it, it is sin. So he doesn't even let us get away with puffing up our own righteousness in this context. So, there's an arrogance of presumption. God is opposed to arrogance in all forms, but he gives us one more form, and it's this: the arrogance of wealth. This is where we begin to move into chapter number 5, and it's as if James is still continuing this line of thought. Remember that the chapter breaks are put in by human beings, not by the Lord, that these weren't written in chapters. They were written all as one letter, and we sometimes divide it out based on certain thoughts, right? But his thought is continuing. Look in verse number 1. He says, "Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you." Wow, that's a very straightforward statement. And what happens right now is at this point of the letter, the letter begins to take a little bit of a shift. It starts to change direction. Let me explain. You see, the people that James is writing to, generally speaking, are facing some financial hardship. There's been a famine at the same time that this was written. They're finding oppression in some of the places where they work, because people think that Christians are a problem in the Roman Empire, and so they're facing a lot of financial difficulty. And what James does is he now addresses an arrogant group of wealthy people, and by talking to you rich people, James is actually addressing a group that's not reading the letter. What he's doing is he's addressing the people that are reading the letter that are probably under the difficulty of financial strain, and now he's talking about their oppressors, who probably aren't going to read the letter. Most scholarship believes he's referring to this in the same way that Jesus was referring to it when Jesus talked about the rich in Luke chapter 6. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep." Jesus was talking about those who are putting their trust in wealth itself. But at the end of the day, James knows that there are still oppressors that are out there that are doing that to even God's people. But whether or not these are believers or not believers, and I don't know, it doesn't tell us directly, what I do know is that the lessons should be something that we all ultimately embrace. First of all, he reminds them that if you're putting all your faith in that, the miseries that are coming for you, they're many. They're many. And then you know what else happens? What happens is they start believing the lies that wealth begins to tell them. You know what some of those lies are? Here's one: that it's permanent. That's a lie that wealth will tell you. In fact, what James does is he paints an upside-down picture of that in verses 2 and 3. Watch what he says. "Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded." These are images that James is trying to use to help remind us all and remind them that, hey, you think that wealth is somehow permanent because you've got stuff, and because you've got gold and silver. You think that that's all gonna be fine. It actually corrodes. The moths can eat your clothes, the coins can corrode. He's borrowing from the language of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount again, right? Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourself treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." Jesus is helping remind us, and James is helping reaffirm that, that there's no permanence in wealth. And it's crazy to start thinking in those terms. You've heard the saying before, right? There is no such thing as a funeral hearse that pulls a U-Haul. Because none of that goes with you when you die. The only thing that goes with you when you die is if you stored up for yourselves treasures in heaven as opposed to treasures on earth. When we are arrogantly acquiring everything, trying to trust in its permanence, all of that is going away. But when we are investing in the sake of the kingdom of God, even though we don't see it yet, we are storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven. So, its permanence. That's a lie. Its witness. I'll tell you why we think that that's a problem here, because look in verses 3 and 4. It says, "Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. And the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty." That phrase Lord Almighty, or Lord Sabaoth, or Lord of hosts, or Lord of angel armies, same translation, right? That this has reached the ears of the God who is sovereign over everything. But you might think because you are wealthy that your stuff testifies about you. Look how hard I've worked. Look how smart I am. Look at all the things I've done. What a wonderful testimony all my stuff has. And James says, "Actually, your stuff is going to testify against you, because you have arrogantly utilized it for your own consumption and for the oppression of other people, and it will testify against you." Let me ask you a question. Let's say that your money was given speech. Let's say your stuff, your possessions, your bank account, could all now talk. I know we're just kinda dreaming here, but let's just say it could. And then God says to your stuff, your bank account, your possessions, your money: "Tell me about your owner." What would it say? How would it testify? Would it say, "Well, my owner sure likes me, and wants to acquire a bunch of me and keep me close. And he does a lot of stuff with me. In fact, he does stuff with me that's not really good for other people." Or, would it say, "Well, God, here's what I know. My owner is apparently owned by you, because it tells me all the time, my owner tells me all the time, what I'm going to do and how I'm going to serve you." That's a question that we have to ask ourselves, because we run into thinking that our stuff will testify properly for us, look how great I am. Look at all the things that I've done. But instead, from a kingdom perspective, it may actually testify against us. So you have to ask yourself the question, what does that say about me, and what does that ultimately mean, and what do I need to do about it? But there's a third way, not only its permanence and its witness, but also its safety. The arrogance of wealth tries to tell us that it keeps us safe. Look at what James says in verse 5. "You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. But you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not even opposing you." James here is demonstrating outrage at those who are wealthy who are oppressing innocent people. Maybe that's during a famine and they're not paying them their wages, and these people are maybe dying, because they don't have anything to eat, potentially. James is angered by that, certainly, but he says you think you're safe because you've lived your life in luxury, and you've lived self-indulgently, consuming all of your stuff. And here's what you don't know. You don't know that you're just like, you are just like those animals that the farmer gives all this food to, and they're, like, living it up. Rah. Think about all those pigs. Probably not in a Jewish context, but in our context. Think about all those pigs, and they are just going to town. And they're just talking to one another like, "This is awesome. We just eat and eat and eat and it's fantastic. We got all the things that we ever wanted." Only to be loaded on the trailer to head to the slaughterhouse for food. They were fattened up for the slaughter. What James is reminding them is this. You think you're safe because of all of this stuff, but there's a judgment that's coming for us all. And that judgment means that you're gonna stand, and you're going to give an account for what you've done and how you've lived your life and what that looks like, and you'll not find your safety in wealth. Jesus illustrated this point as perfectly as it could possibly be illustrated. And here's what he said in this parable in Luke chapter 12. Jesus told this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I'll store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You've got plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry."' But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'" And then Jesus says, "This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God." This is the perfect illustration of what it means to not be arrogant. I mean, he's illustrating by someone who is arrogant, who arrogantly thinks that he is in control of his future, who arrogantly thinks that the stuff that he has is somehow permanent, that it's gonna bear great witness to him, that it's gonna be his safety net, because he's stored it all away and he's got all this stuff, and he can just kick back and take life easy because he thinks he's in control of his own life. And Jesus says, "Nope, this day your life's demanded of you." And now what? Now what do you have? Nothing. God opposes arrogance. He opposes arrogance of every kind. Arrogance burst forth into the world when Satan entered the world, because Satan was filled with his own pride, his own desire to be worshiped. And when he entered into our midst, he brought with him arrogance indeed. The reason that God stands in opposition to arrogance is because God stands in opposition to Satan. He stands in opposition to everything that Satan is. And through the arrogance of the enemy of our souls that was now filtered into the arrogance of people, Jesus himself was murdered. Now this happened, yet not realizing, Satan, not realizing that under the sovereignty of God, that Satan and his minions were just a pawn in God's great redemptive story. Because the humble Jesus who humbled himself in obedience died on a cross but did not stay dead, because those who humble themselves will be exalted. And God raised him up from the grave and gave him the name above every name. And God is also going to send him back, not now as Lamb, but as Lion, to stand in judgment of all the evil arrogance of the enemy, and the arrogant lives that thought that they could live without him.

- [Congregation] Amen.

- This is what God is going to do. So let me ask you a question. Those of us who know the Lord, we should embrace a life of humble dependence on God, and flee from the language and the heart posture of hell that is one of arrogance in any way. Because friends, God is sovereign over time. God is sovereign over our lives. God is sovereign over our futures. God alone is the Lawgiver and the Judge. God is in need of nothing. Yet he graciously provides us what we need and intends that we use it for his glory. This is the model that Jesus gave us. You remember what Paul said about Jesus? "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich." Jesus used the resources of his life to glorify God and for the good of other people. You see, friends, the only thing I can tell you that the cure for arrogance that God has given us is Jesus. That's the cure. And when the life of Jesus is in us, it now takes away the arrogance of life, and instead creates a humble dependence upon him. Here's what I'd like for us to do. Our band's gonna come back out and they're gonna sing a song over us, and I want us to take these few moments and I want us to reflect. I want us to pause in our own hearts, not about anybody else, but just about us, and what the Spirit may be saying to us about what pieces of our hearts may be still yet filled with arrogance. Does that have to do with the way that we look or talk about other people? Does that have to do with the way that we think about our future? We're too busy talking about all the things we're gonna manifest for ourselves, because we've got that kinda power or something, when God alone is in charge of our future. Or maybe it has to do with our stuff, our possessions, our willingness to be generous. I don't know what it may be. But whatever it is, let God do what he wants to do in your life. Repent where you need to repent. And then do works that give evidence of repentance. Determine that you will do what God has called us to do. So take this moment right now, and just bow your heads if you would, and take these moments to just reflect on what the Lord wants to do in and through you, and how he's speaking to you. And you can just remain there in your seat. They'll sing this song over you. If you want the words of this song to become your prayer, feel free to have that happen. Just do business with the Lord right here. And in a moment, I'll be right back to finish us out, to pray, and to dismiss us. ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every burden, every crown ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every lie and every doubt ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Oh, I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, God ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every burden, every crown ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ Every lie and every doubt ♪ ♪ This is my surrender, whoa ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, oh ♪ ♪ And I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, God ♪ ♪ I will make room ♪ ♪ For you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to, oh ♪ ♪ I will make room for you ♪ ♪ Only you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Only you, only ♪ ♪ Only you ♪ ♪ Have your way ♪ ♪ Have your way ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Break up the ground of manmade tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better ♪ ♪ Oh, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground of manmade tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better ♪ ♪ Oh, your way is better ♪ ♪ Shake up the ground of manmade tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better ♪ ♪ Oh, your way is better ♪ ♪ Oh, shake up the ground of manmade tradition ♪ ♪ Break down the walls of all my religion ♪ ♪ Your way is better ♪ ♪ Oh, your way is better ♪ ♪ So I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ I will make room for you ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ To do whatever you want to ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ You are all I'm chasing now ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ Here is where I lay it down ♪ ♪ You are all I'm chasing now ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪ ♪ This is my surrender ♪

- There aren't any of us that sit above the Word. All of us, me and you, we exist under it. And our lives are meant to be lived in humble dependence on the Lord. That's what James is calling us to. Because what it does is it demonstrates God's power and God's glory and God's sovereignty in and through our lives to a world that desperately needs him. When we live like the rest of the world and look like the rest of the world, that's not the witness to the world that we need. And so maybe you're here, and the Spirit has spoken to your heart about some areas of your own heart. Then you can, when I dismiss us in just a moment, you can stay right here, or you can take one of the folks that'll be up front by the hand if you want them to pray for you, whatever it is you need to do. But here's what I would say, and I say this in love. You may be here, and you may have missed the most arrogant thing in your world, and that is to think that you could live life without God's Son Jesus, saving you, forgiving you, and rescuing you. The writer of Hebrews says it's almost as if we trample underfoot the blood of God's Son and treat it like a common thing. Jesus died for us because the only way we can be reconciled to the Father is through his death on our behalf, dying for our sin, taking upon himself the justice of God that really was meant for us, and rising from the dead, conquering sin and hell and the grave on our behalf. So if that's your need, to put your faith or trust in Jesus, maybe you could take one of these men or women by the hand and basically just be able to say, "Hey, I need to receive Jesus." And they'd love to pray with you and talk to you about that. Father, thank you for the good work that you do by your Spirit in the hearts of people. But it's not work that has to be manipulated. It's work that you do in our hearts. So would you do your good pleasure in every one of our hearts, so that we may be shaped more into the image of Jesus and demonstrate to the world the glory of who you are. We pray this now in Jesus' name, amen.