Live Free with Josh Howerton - Check Your Attitude | Ep. 342 | Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Too often we judge others based on what we see in them while letting things slide in our own lives. God wants us to live in humility, but too often we try to be the judge and think we have all the answers. Our lives are short, and it matters what we do with them. He’s the one ultimately in control of our lives, not us… and that’s a really good thing! For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.combe. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to the Daily Drive, wherever you're listening from. Grateful to have you with us today. My name is Mike, and we've been going through the book of James together, and today finds us where we left off yesterday in Chapter 4, verse 11.

You know, I was flipping channels the other day, and I saw this gymnast literally flipping, and she was taking a run and start and saw him through the air with like a quadruple somersaw with a twist, and then totally sticks the land. I mean, she was incredible. And she got a 9.3. And I'm thinking, what? Again, watching the NBA slam dunk contest, having played a lot of basketball and being a little shy of 5 foot 9, I know how difficult what those high flyers are attempting to do.

They'll take off from the free throw line or take the ball with the head of a teammate or do a 360 dunk while taking the ball through their legs, absolutely mind-blowing. And the judges, 8.5. Again, what, what? What was wrong with that? How in the world could you find out?

mine fault and that. Then I examine the way that I've treated other people too often in my life. Instead of being wowed by their performance, I can find a little something wrong. And instead of celebrating with them, I can criticize. And if I'm not careful, I can even judge and condemn. You know, James has been on a role about selfish ambition and jealousy of what comes out of our mouth. And here, he keeps it going when he says this in verse 11. My friends, don't say cruel things about others.

If you do or if you condemn others, you're condemning God's law. And if you condemn the law, you put yourself above the law and refuse to obey either it or God who gave it. God is our judge, and he can save or destroy us. What right do you have to condemn anyone? Now, the Bible talks repeatedly about discerning good from evil and making sure that our closest companions have a strong character. So in order to do that, we have to use good judgment. But that's not the same as setting yourself up as the judge and condemning someone. There is only one judge, and we have to leave the final verdict to him.

You might have heard or remember that Jesus talked about this in his famous sermon on him out when he said this in Matthew chapter 7, don't condemn others, and God won't condemn you. God will be as hard on you as you are on others. He will treat you exactly as you treat them. You can see the speck in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye. How can you say, my friend, let me take the speck out of your eye when you don't see the log in your own eye. First, take the log out of your own eye, then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend's eye. Now, Jesus didn't say that we shouldn't help point out things in each other that might need attention,

because we all need some honest friends like that. And friends who will say to us, hey, you got a little broccoli in your teeth here, get like a nose hair sticking out, or it seems like, you know, you've been more irritable than normal lately. And that's a good thing to have those kind of people in their life. But as we are trying to help others, we have to be self-aware and take care of the glaring issues in our own life. If we don't, we're setting ourselves up as fault-finding judges with selfish motives. And then James shifts a bit. In verse 13, I've noticed this letter is a bit like the Book of Proverbs.

Kind of jumps around a little bit where there's not this real thematic flow, but just practical things. The Holy Spirit is prompting James through his own personality and experience to run. to write down. So he's going on about judging other people and criticism and slander in session. Then he says this, look here, you who say, today or tomorrow, we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there, and we will make a profit. Now, he's certainly not knocking those of you who are diligent planners. He's not saying it's wrong to have long-term goals, or to sit down with a financial consultant to be prepared. The Bible is full of

scriptures that teach the wisdom of all of that. He's just getting ready to point out the brevity of life and how you and I can act like it isn't and that we control it. Did you notice that there were three different mentions of the word we? We will do this and we will go there and we will get that. And there's no mention of God whatsoever. And so James asked this question in verse 14. How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog. It's here a little while and they're and it's gone. My wife and I lived in Ventura, California for the past eight years. It's a beautiful place to live in the morning. The marine layer comes in over the ocean and pretty much blankets the entire town until about 9 o'clock and then it burns off. And James is saying that's what your

life is like. I mean, it rolls in like a fog and around 9 o'clock, you're gone. We've all experienced the loss of loved ones and friends. I mean, we say one day they're here the next day, you know, we're standing next to a casket, and standing next to a casket, people filed by us, I was just talking to him a couple of weeks ago. I mean, life is so short and so unpredictable. So James is saying, don't go around thinking that you have control over it all.

Instead, spend your days walking with the one who really does. Verse 15, what you ought to say is, if the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that. He just saying, live with humility and dependence, knowing that we can make her plan. but the Lord determines our steps. He holds the keys to life and death, and we have to trust him with the keys.

So our attitudes shouldn't be. Man, I got some great plans for my life, got it all mapped out. Rather, our attitude should be, you know what, I'm going to trust the Lord with all my heart, and I'm not going to boastfully lean on my own understanding. I'm going to acknowledge his better ways. I'm just going to trust that He will make my path straight. Every breath I take is a gift from him,

and my life is in his hands. then he says in verse 16, otherwise you're boasting about your own pretitious plants, and all such boasting is evil. Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. And the context here is, it's a sin to know that you should walk in humble defendants

with God and still run your own life. So let's be grateful today for the breath in our lungs, for the people in our lives, for the goodness of God, and let's trust his better wisdom, and let's walk humbly with them today. And one day when the fog does burn off, and it will. We will see him face to face. Have a great day. See you back tomorrow.

Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.