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"Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" - Psalm 90:12

Even though Moses tells us to number days. We get comfortable, coast, and we assume our lives will be long, full, & lasting. But really, even a long life is short, maybe 70 years, more if we’re lucky. Many lives are much shorter than that. We don’t have an endless supply of days. Our lives are a vapor. Often, when we make plans, we don’t act like a vapor. Instead, we operate as though we are some kind of immovable concrete pillar. Do your most ambitious plans, personal, professional, or financial, consider the cost or impact on the Kingdom of God? Are most of your professional or financial decisions driven primarily by a spreadsheet?
Or do the values Jesus taught in the SOTM have an equal impact on your calculations as the numbers do? Do you constantly forge ahead with plans, big or small without wise counsel from those within your church family? When you pray, are your prayers primarily that God would pave the way smooth for your plans to be successful? Are you more focused on your comfortable retirement plan than how to be sure you can relentlessly serve God in your
community of believers until the very end? Today’s passage deals with this constant tension between our plans & God's plans, & the humility necessary to honestly pray “your will be done” and truly mean it.

Has someone ever unfairly judged, slandered, or gossiped about you? How did that make you feel? I remember as a member of a church staff being publicly slandered with false accusations. It was devastating for me and my family in ways you can’t even imagine. To this day I still carry baggage from it. Even when someone slanders or gossips about something you actually did wrong, it’s still painful, and makes it even worse. Ok, here’s another question. Have you slandered or passed judgement on a brother or sister in your church? Sadly, I must confess, even though I went through that pain… I have been guilty of doing the same thing. Looking back, I am embarrassed by my hypocrisy. It’s very humbling when this reality hits you isn’t it? If we are all being transparent, we’ve all both given and received slander. Its painful, that moment when you realize you are no better than your accuser, or the one who has accused you. But our willingness to recognize this is an important test of your ropes of faith. So must go there together today. It’s important for us to understand where this all comes from, so that we can be on guard against it. And as we do, it will be easy to think of someone else. Don’t. Focus on yourself…. Ok are we ready?

(James 4:11-12) Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against 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 only one lawgiver & judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Have you ever felt like you are going the wrong direction in life, like you’re on a road you aren’t supposed to be on? As followers of Jesus, this is what it feels like, what happens, when we put too much hope in earthly things. When we’ve let our passion for earthy things become our primary desire, our primary hopes. Throughout the Bible, we’re warned that earthly hope always overpromises, and without fail, always, underdelivers. And all of us have been there. All of us have been led astray, and disappointed when earthly hope fails us. Earthly hope can convince you to make a wrong turn, down the wrong road, toward the wrong destination. Earthly hope always seems to cost more than you anticipated, leaving you disappointed & sometimes devastated. But the Bible also describes another kind of hope, it’s the opposite of earthly hope, it’s called Resurrection Hope. Resurrection hope is everything earthly hope is not. Resurrection hope is reliable, inspiring, healing & transformative. Unlike earthly, false hope, Resurrection hope doesn’t mislead you. It keeps you on the right path. What kind of hope is your primary hope today? I think Easter Sunday is the perfect day to answer that question. Today, we will look at a story that contrasts the difference between false hope and Resurrection Hope.

Last week was a hard sermon, as James taught us to look within ourselves for the cause of fights within the church. Our selfish, individualistic, arrogant pursuit of our own desires & passions put us at odds with each other, and with God. It was a tough message, but James provided a beautiful, soft landing, reminding us that God gives MORE GRACE! Have you ever experienced the joy, the liberation that comes when God answers our humble prayers for more grace? It’s something the unredeemed can’t understand; joy (supernatural satisfaction) flowing from our humble repentance. Because genuine, humble repentance at cross, is the only place where that harvest of righteousness can begin. Many people seek that experiential bliss with God, those moments where his presence is unmistakable. Scripture teaches nothing brings us closer to God than when we draw near to Him in humility to pray for more grace! In fact, humble repentance provides more intimacy w/God & is more powerful than anything else in a Christian’s life. Humble repentance brings us closer to God than any earthly blessing, worship song, or spiritual experience. That’s why understanding what true humility & repentance looks like is an important test of our ropes of faith. In fact, the most powerful repentance isn’t personal induvial repentance, but corporate, community repentance.

(James 4:6-10) But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hangs, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning & your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you.

Have you ever witnessed, or been part of a fight in church? Maybe not fists, but words? I’ve seen church fights over some pretty crazy things, sometimes over little things, and other times big things. I’ve seen church fights over what version of the Bible should be preached from, even what time the service should start. I’ve seen church fights, people even leaving a church family because it wasn’t “woke” enough or “MAGA” enough. I’ve seen church fights over carpet color, drums, coffee pots… I’ve even seen fights over communion, and apple fritters! There’s lots of reasons church people fight, but did you know, these things aren’t the actual reason we fight? In fact, even if all these things met your criteria, if everyone agreed on all these things, there would still be fights. Those are just excuses, things we blame, manifestations of a much bigger problem that starts deep within each of us. The real cause is when we are sitting on the fence, when we want it both ways, we want to love God & love this world. When our internal desires & passions make us double-minded, unstable, putting us in conflict w/each other & w/God. Every one of us has been here, in arrogance gotten angry when a brother or sister interferes w/our agenda or passions. How we respond when we’ve forgotten how much we need grace is another important test of our ropes of faith.

Wisdom is the guiding force, directing our decisions. The kind of wisdom we embrace determines the choices we make. In its simplest form, there are only 2 kinds of wisdom. There’s earthly wisdom and there’s Heavenly wisdom. Earthly wisdom starts off ok. It's alluring, promising, satisfying. Even people in churches are drawn to earthly wisdom. But earthly wisdom’s cunning is inspired by our own selfish, sinful lusts that draw us away from following Jesus. The consequences of earthly wisdom vary from small stupid choices, all the way to destructive, vile, evil. Heavenly wisdom is the opposite. It’s inspired by a desire for humility, peace, mercy, & a harvest of righteousness. It seems like it should be easy to tell the two apart. But most people can’t tell the difference until it’s too late. What makes it difficult is earthly wisdom doesn’t start out looking demonic, if that were true it would be easy to spot. But that’s where it ends up if you can’t spot earthly wisdom soon enough & know how to deal with it. These two kinds of wisdom couldn’t be more different & being able to tell them apart is an important test of our faith.

(JAMES 3:13–18) WHO IS WISE AND UNDERSTANDING AMONG YOU? BY HIS GOOD CONDUCT LET HIM SHOW HIS WORKS IN THE MEEKNESS OF WISDOM. [14] BUT IF YOU HAVE BITTER JEALOUSY AND SELFISH AMBITION IN YOUR HEARTS, DO NOT BOAST AND BE FALSE TO THE TRUTH. [15] THIS IS NOT THE WISDOM THAT COMES DOWN FROM ABOVE, BUT IS EARTHLY, UNSPIRITUAL, DEMONIC. [16] FOR WHERE JEALOUSY AND SELFISH AMBITION EXIST, THERE WILL BE DISORDER AND
EVERY VILE PRACTICE. [17] BUT THE WISDOM FROM ABOVE IS FIRST PURE, THEN PEACEABLE, GENTLE, OPEN TO REASON, FULL OF MERCY AND GOOD FRUITS, IMPARTIAL AND SINCERE. [18] AND A HARVEST OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS SOWN IN PEACE BY THOSE WHO MAKE PEACE.