Steward Today.

Well, happy Sunday. If we haven't met yet, my name is Abbie. I'm the pastor here, and I'm so excited to be continuing our series through the book of James. We've been studying James for quite some time, and we've still got a few weeks left, but if you haven't visited the welcome table, we have reading plans available so you can follow along, and dive into scripture not only on Sundays but on your own throughout the week, so that hopefully this isn't the only time you're hearing this passage.

I'm going to go ahead and start today by reading the text we're studying together. It's titled Boasting About Tomorrow, James chapter four, starting in verse thirteen:

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 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. 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 and brag. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin.

James 4:13-17

Another very kind, gentle passage from James. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that we get to read this, and we know that your Spirit is alive and active, speaking and present with us. God, you know our stories.

You know the things we came in here carrying. You know our worries, our concerns as we think about tomorrow. And yet you are present with us right here in this moment. So even now, I invite all of you, in your own way, to focus your attention on the presence of the Lord. Would you say, God, I'm listening?

Would you open up your heart, even if it's been a long time since you've prayed a bold prayer of saying, God, speak? Would you say, God, speak to me? Would you welcome the Holy Spirit to speak to you through this text today? As we sang in worship, in that prayer of saying, God, we open up our hearts to you, we say that once again, that we are open to you, Lord.

So we welcome your presence, and we are present with you. Holy Spirit, would you speak through this text? In your name we pray, amen.

Okay, every time I read James, I think, he's just so harsh. He's so bold, he's so brave, but he's just saying the things, he's saying the things. And he's asking this question in this text today: who are you trusting?

Who are you trusting? Now, when he's talking about this idea of business, making money, and storing things up, we're going to see the parallel from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, when he talks about it in Matthew chapter six, and in Luke, chapter six or seven as well, this idea of don't store up for yourself treasures in heaven. We're going to see all of these parallels coming to life, where James is taking the teachings of Jesus, the life of Jesus, and being so practical. He's saying, let's get to the point, church.

Let's understand this. And remember, he's speaking to a broad audience at this time, not to a specific church, but these are things we can all apply. Now, when we talk about different themes we see in scripture, if you were to guess what's a topic Jesus talks about a lot, most people might think something like prayer. Jesus talked about prayer a lot, there are over five hundred specific references to prayer. But there are over two thousand about money and possessions. Why? Because prayer is an act of dependence, but so is the way we handle our possessions. Generosity is an act of dependence. Both require us to release trust to God.

It requires surrender, in a way, when we live generously, when we don't worry about tomorrow, when we don't worry about storing things up, but instead surrender everything to the present moment and steward the moment we're in. It requires a deep level of trust.

The illusion of control

I want to start by talking about how James, one of the first things we see him doing, is popping this bubble and confronting the illusion of control. He's confronting the illusion of control. When he says, now listen, you who say, today or tomorrow, we'll go to this or that city, we'll spend a year there, we'll carry on business, we'll make money. He's saying, you guys are going around saying, this is what we're going to do, here's the five-year plan. And I get it, because especially when you're in school or studying certain things, you have to plan. He's not saying planning is bad, and we'll get to that.

But he's saying, why? You don't even know what will happen tomorrow. Why are you so set on, this is exactly what my life is going to look like, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, when you don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow? He's like, what is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. He's reminding us how temporary this life is. So although, yes, work hard, make those plans, we cannot pretend that we control the future, that we control tomorrow. And when we focus so much on the future, on planning and preparing, we need to be careful that we're not missing God's presence and his invitation in this very moment. Because there may be things God wants to do in your life right now that, if you're so focused on ten years from now, where am I going to be a year from now, we're going to completely miss it.

Whoa. You never know when a chair might just come and crash. Thank you, Jesus, it didn't. We're safe from the chairs.

But I think about it often, whenever I talk to some of you, we've had this conversation, lots of you, about Madison being such a transient city. I think there are always two ways to approach it: you can be here and think, I'm only here for one year or two years, or this or that. I was going to be here for one year when I first came. Here we are, ten years later. And that first year was a hard thing, because I kept thinking, well, what's next?

What's next? What's next? And then I realized I have two options. I can either always think about what's next and never actually stay planted, never have roots, never make connections, never build friendships, or I can decide to be present where I'm at, to plant, to establish roots, to not worry so much about tomorrow, so that when the Lord, if he uproots me from where I'm at, it's more of a propagation process, and I'm leaving behind deep, established roots. I'm leaving behind seeds I planted for the kingdom that will continue to grow.

It might mean there are friendships that are hard to say goodbye to, but you've made those deep connections. But for so many of us, we'd rather live in this illusion of trying to control tomorrow, plan for tomorrow, rather than being present and addressing what God wants to do today. Because the reality is, we can plan all we want, but we don't really know where we're going. We don't know how long we're going to stay. We don't know exactly what we're going to do with our lives.

And I feel like anyone, if you've lived for any amount of time, probably has stories of, how did I get here? This wasn't the plan. I never saw myself working this job. I never saw myself in this career or living in this part of town, fill in the blank. We know those stories.

So the problem isn't planning. The problem is assuming we're the ones in control of our future. The problem comes from us saying, well, I'm going to be secure if I have this much in my savings account. I'm never going to be lonely again if I have this many friends in my life and I fill my time with people. We have to recognize that control is an illusion.

We don't know, but we can trust God with tomorrow. But here's the thing about control: most of us don't seek out control because we're prideful and arrogant. We seek out control because, if we're honest, we're afraid. We want certainty, we want predictability, we want safety. We were wired to seek these things, to feel safe, to know that rent's going to be paid for the next month. It gives our bodies a physical sense of relief, compared to if we're going, I don't know how we're going to pay the mortgage. So we think, well, if I can just control my future, then I'm not going to fail.

But what this does is, when things do fail, because they will, we suddenly don't know how to live and act and move and breathe and be, because we've put way too much security in what we can control, rather than trusting God with our tomorrows. So we need to continue to accept, and I recognize as we accept this, there's a piece of grief that comes with it, because it's hard. This is not some easy thing. But we have to accept that there are a lot of things in life we cannot control. And the more we learn to surrender this to the Lord, and to lean into the things we can control, the easier it's going to be to handle these things when they come, because we know how to rely on the Spirit.

We know how to rely on Jesus as our provider, because there are things in life we can't control. We can't control the economy. We can't control other people. We cannot control when we have an unexpected health crisis or diagnosis. We probably all know the stories of the healthiest people, the ones who ate right and were active and strong.

All of a sudden something happens that nobody could predict or plan for. We cannot control global events that are happening. We cannot control tomorrow. But what we can do is learn how to respond to the invitations in the present moment that God has for us today.

Idols, and the rich fool

As James starts to address this, he's talking first about control, but I also want us to look at control as often a form of idols in our life. The things we control most often are what become our idols. Now, growing up, I always thought of idols as physical things. I did not think of idols as my worries, my stress, the things I'm trying to control. But he's heading so uncomfortably close to home when he says, you are so obsessed with planning for tomorrow that you are missing stewarding today. An idol is something we trust to save us. We might say, well, I'm not worshiping money, but is money what we think is going to keep us from ever feeling without? You might not say, I worship people and friendships and relationships, but do you think, well, if I just had the perfect marriage or the perfect relationship, I would never feel alone?

I would never feel brokenness. I would never feel this. We put people in places they were never meant to be. We put things on pedestals where there's no place for them. They're never going to save us.

The sooner we can acknowledge the idols and the things we're trying to look to for safety and control, and surrender that, the sooner we're going to be able to live in that freedom of relying on Jesus in the way we were created to. Whatever comes to mind when you think of the things you cannot surrender, those are the things that reveal what we're really worshiping.

I want to read a parable in Luke 12, the parable of the rich fool. This is different from the parable where Jesus tells the rich man to go and sell all his possessions. I do think it's interesting that Jesus did not tell every single person with wealth that it's bad to have anything, bad to have a house. He did tell his disciples, when they came to follow him, leave it all behind, come follow me, don't rely on those things. And he told this one specific rich man to sell everything, because he recognized that was an idol. But to follow Jesus, to be holy and pure and set apart, doesn't mean we can't own homes, we can't have cars, we can't do those things. It's about stewarding the things God has given us. It's about knowing, can we surrender it at all times?

When I've traveled around the world and been with missionaries in different remote villages, I've heard these stories, and one of my favorites, one that really shaped me, was about a man who's been pastoring for years, and he goes to these remote villages where people have almost nothing. He says, here's what's hard for me when I come to America and talk to pastors: they'll ask, well, aren't you worried about retirement? And aren't you worried about this, and aren't you worried about that? And he says, I can worry about that, but I don't even know if I'm going to make it to retirement. He's not trying to be morbid or extreme, he's saying, I don't know, but I have to trust God. What I do know is, when someone comes to me and says, we literally need twenty US dollars to buy this medicine that's going to save someone's life, you better believe I'm going to give it, rather than give it to my investments that month, and save someone's life. Because I know today what I can do with what God has given me.

And I don't know about tomorrow. So it's not promoting, yes, we can plan, we can save, we can invest, we can do these things. But are we willing to surrender every moment to what the Lord is doing for his kingdom? As we sing about, God, we want to see your kingdom come, well, guess what?

We are the vessels of that. We are the ones who today get to walk around this city and represent God's kingdom. We get to be the ones who bring that hope, that forgiveness, that healing, that restoration to people. So when we say, kingdom come, it's, yes, it's coming through us, through our obedience, our yes, our willingness to surrender everything in our hands. So let me get to this parable, I promise, this text is just wrecking me this week.

The parable of the rich fool, in Luke 12, verse 13:

Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Luke 12:13

And I love this, because it reminds me of being the pastor at any family gathering, or some of you have done this, if you invite me over to your home and it's like, okay, pastor, pray. I'm like, you all can pray too. What's going on?

Jesus replied, man, who appointed me a judge between you? Then he said to them, watch out, be on guard against all kinds of greed, life does not consist of an abundance of possessions. And he told them 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 will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have 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? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God. Then Jesus said to his disciples: I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, your body is more than clothes. Consider the ravens, they do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Luke 12:14-26

I just love that. He's like, why am I the one? Come on, guys, get it together.

There's a lot going on there, but if we get nothing else, be like the birds. Be like the birds that don't worry about where it's coming from. They know there's going to be food.

We might have to fly around a little longer some days than others, but there's going to be food, there's going to be provision. Jesus is using a bird, something today we don't really need a lot of cultural context to understand what he's saying. But for us to live that way. When we talk about the rich man here, notice the first thing he goes to, wow, I have all these blessings, and that instant thought is, what do I do with them all? This is where we see it go wrong. When we receive an abundance, and the Lord pours out abundance on his people, our invitation is not, let's build bigger barns to store it all, but to steward it. To say, God, who can I give to? Lord, what do you want to do with these resources?

When we have free time, I'm not just talking about money, it's not to say, I'm just going to delight, I'm just going to dwell. It's, Lord, is there anyone who could use a friend? God, is there anyone who needs encouragement right now that I should be praying for and interceding for? It's with every type of position or possession in our life for us to sit and not say, this is just for me to delight in, because we know our life is but a vapor, and we're living for eternity. That means we don't have to pretend the things we taste here on earth are going to be the best things, because they're not. We don't have to pretend this trip we're saving for is going to be the best sights we've ever seen, because it's not. We're living for eternity. That means we can steward today because we trust God fully with our tomorrow.

This is our invitation as followers of Jesus, to not be people who store up, but people who steward every single thing placed in our hands. We are to be stewards of what God is doing in our lives, and not just storing it up. The trap of the enemy is for us to stay stuck worrying about tomorrow, and to store up for today rather than stewarding and surrendering and letting him multiply the things flowing through our hands.

Steward today, trust God with tomorrow

Jesus continues:

Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you eat or drink, do not worry about it. Seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

Luke 12:27-31

Notice Jesus doesn't say tomorrow doesn't matter, but he says tomorrow doesn't belong to us, it's the Lord's. We are not guaranteed. One of my favorite Bible teachers always says we don't actually know how old we are. I think, okay, I'm thirty-one, but I don't know how many years I have left. We're not guaranteed we're all going to live until our seventies or eighties. So how does that change the way we live today, recognizing that every day is a gift, not for us to store up, not for us to worry about tomorrow, but for us to steward and surrender to what the Lord might do with this present moment? It belongs to God, but we can control how we steward it.

We cannot control tomorrow, but we can control how we steward today. I think one of the things I've struggled with the most in ministry is helping people navigate this idea of call and purpose, because sometimes we have this big thing in the church world of, what's your call, what's your purpose, and we live in such an individualized culture, it's like, what is your God-dream, what's the dream God's put on your heart. It took me a while to feel unsettled with that language, and I didn't even really know why. Sometimes I have a hard time talking about being called to ministry, or is it just that I said yes to Jesus and we ended up here, how does that work? Because when we look at scripture, God has a dream, God has a vision, God has a plan, and we all get to play roles in that, and it's going to look different at different times. This idea of call is for all of us: to follow Jesus, to be his disciples. It's for all of us to go and make disciples of Jesus, a disciple being someone in the process of becoming like their teacher. That's why we say, we're here to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. So we all have the same call, the same purpose, and we can get so caught up in, well, I don't know if I have this call, this purpose, this ministry, fill in the blank.

Now, sometimes God might speak, and he might say, hey, I have this really specific thing I want you to do. And sometimes you're going to see that specific thing happen. Other times that specific dream or vision might have been to get you off of your chair and moving in that direction, because we're just sitting and praying and waiting, Lord, do you want me to do anything, do you have any plans for my life? He does.

He has plans for your life. And it's in the present. It's in the moment. It's not five, ten years from now. So how do we trust God with tomorrow?

The one thing I want to point out here in this scripture is that Jesus is looking for people, and James is emphasizing this, that are saying, if it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that. He's looking for people who are saying, Lord, it's about your will, it's about what you want, and we are going to be after that. So we're either going to sit back and try to control our futures, or we're going to start living this way. But I want to talk about this line, because I think it's often abused in church culture too. I had a moment, probably about four years ago, where I was navigating a lot of things, and we're always navigating, I was like, okay, how do I have another job and also pastor a church and do these things? So everyone kept saying, you've got to talk to this one pastor, he's got this massive church and he's also balancing this other thing, you've got to talk to him. I was like, okay.

So I was somewhere, and someone introduced us and set it up for me to have coffee with him. I had all these practical questions, like, how do you manage your staff meetings and your board meetings and this, this, and this. Then I found out he had like eighty full-time paid staff. I was like, oh, yeah, we're different.

That's not what we're going for here. A little different. But then I thought, now I know how you're doing it all. Okay, awesome. But then he said something to me, and I couldn't figure out in the moment why I didn't like it.

He said, I just wake up, and I asked him again, all these practical questions, I had notes. And he said, I just wake up every day and say, Lord, what would you have me do? And I thought, really? At first you think, that sounds so good and holy and spiritual. But I thought, so if the Lord tells me that, even though I have our entire team planned to have our board meeting after church on Sunday, and the Lord just says no, and I don't show up, then everyone has to cancel the meeting even though they rearranged their days and schedules and all of this, or if the Lord just says, don't preach a sermon, I don't get this. And we can use this, honestly, as an excuse for just laziness. We can use this as a cop-out to say, the Lord didn't tell me to go and be kind today, so I just sat at home. The Lord told me, don't go to work today, you just need to sleep, and I'm going to sleep.

Or the classic, right, then we do it the other way: hey, you have to go on this date with me because the Lord told me you're my spouse. We see that all the time. And we all laugh, because we know versions of this exist. Or it's like when you break up with someone, and you say, the Lord said no.

Like, just say you don't like the person, it's okay, it's okay, we can say it, we can be grown and move on. But sometimes we use, is it the Lord's will or is it not, like, do you have people around you to love? It's the Lord's will that you love them. Are you in conflict, do you have people you should probably forgive, and maybe address the conflict? It's the Lord's will that you forgive them and address the conflict. Do you have people around you, do you know anyone who's hungry around us? It's the Lord's will that we feed them, that we clothe people, that we pray for the sick, that we also go into professions that help heal the sick, and go and pray for people in need. Do we know people who need Jesus? It is our mandate. It is the Lord's will that we share that love of Jesus with them.

So if you ask me to pray for you, for your purpose and your call, I'm going to tell you all of this. I'm going to say, you have a purpose, you have a call. Start where you are, steward today, and trust God with tomorrow.

Because James is not teaching us to just sprinkle, the Lord's will for me to do this, or not to do this, over everything. And this isn't saying we don't ask God for specific direction, we do. But if we're not hearing those things, we don't have to sit back and be lazy and wait for God to put something crazy and big on our heart. Because what the world needs more of today is people, everyday people like us, showing up to work a little bit different. Walking around our block a little bit different. Treating the wait staff at the restaurants we go to a little bit different. That's what this world needs more of.

So what does a surrendered life look like? A surrendered life is not, I'm not going to budget, I'm just going to spend my money on whatever I want and trust the Lord's going to provide, that's not living a surrendered life. A surrendered life says, I'm going to plan, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to be faithful, and I'm going to trust God completely, and if God ever says, hey, do this crazy scary thing, I'm prepared to do it. But I'm not going to just be foolish and be doing all this crazy stuff all the time. We're going to start with the everyday.

We're going to steward the small, and we're going to trust God with tomorrow.

Boasting, pride, and doing the good we know

As we continue, I want to address verse sixteen: as it is, you boast and brag, all such boasting is evil. He's addressing again this root of pride. Pride is not always loud. Pride is not always obvious, but it's usually a very subtle belief, which is why we have to dig deep to address it.

Pride sometimes is really addressing, where am I putting my security for my future? Do I, at the end of the day, kind of believe I can manage the outcome? Do I really believe I can protect myself? Do I believe I can take care of everything? Because if we're being honest, specifically in this westernized American culture, we do have such a promotion of self-reliance. It is celebrated, whether it's financially a good decision for you or not, that at eighteen you move out of your parents' house, you go to college, you get these degrees, you pay for your own rent, you get your own place, and that is celebrated as success. And that's not bad, I moved out at eighteen, I went to college, I got degrees, and I never moved back, that's not a bad thing, most of us probably did something similar. But it can almost sometimes be shamed, like, oh my gosh, what do you mean you're not out on your own, self-sustaining, where in other cultures it's totally normal to be, if it doesn't make sense for you to move out, you're going to live as a family unit, you're going to function as a family unit, we're a family. And we can lose that so much in culture, where we rely so much on self that we lose relying on other people, let alone relying on God as our provider, where it's celebrated for you to make yourself out to be this self-reliant individual, you can support yourself.

It goes on and on. But Jesus teaches the concept of, apart from me, you can do nothing. And that's the good news we get to be reminded of, that we do not have to do it on our own. We do not have to be these people figuring out our call and our purpose alone, but Jesus is with us every step of the way. This goes back again to the illusion of control.

God is in control whether we acknowledge it or not. At some points of our life we're more aware of it, at others we're not, but he's always in control. The question is whether we're going to live as if he's in control, or whether we're going to continue to live apart from him and rely on ourselves rather than surrender. Verse seventeen is so simple. James just says it:

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin.

James 4:17

He's ending this so clearly, do good things, do good things. We want to see the kingdom come, go do good kingdom work, go do good things. Why is he emphasizing doing here? I want to talk about this: knowledge alone does not transform us. If I say that, everyone's like, yeah, I get that. We often think that understanding something is enough, but most of us know things we don't actually do. I'm sure a lot of us have watched Grey's Anatomy, and we think we know how to perform surgery, we don't, and we're not out there operating just because we watched or read about this procedure. Just because you read about it and know it doesn't mean you're going to go do it. We know so much that we don't do. We know we should exercise. We know we should sleep more.

We know we probably shouldn't eat as much sugar as we do, yet we're going to keep doing it. And this goes on and on. We know we should forgive. We know we should pray, but we don't do it. Those things are only going to help us if we actually do it.

Transformation happens when truth moves from just information into embodiment. It moves into practice, into our habits. This is how God designed us to be. Think about when you learned to ride a bike, if you learned to ride a bike.

When you learn to ride a bike, you can watch someone ride a bike, maybe someone can give you a little tutorial on how to ride a bike, but you can't actually know what it feels like until you get on that bike and start going. Eventually you have to get on the bike if you want to ride a bike. Spiritual practice is the same way.

Whenever people ask me about what it was like training to be a pastor, and what was the most helpful part, I ran into the president of my university somewhere once, and he said, I'm curious for you now, after this much time out as a pastor, what was the most beneficial part of your program? I took a moment, and the only thing that came up wasn't my theology classes, although they were great, wasn't the mentorship I received and all these exegetical papers I wrote on New Testament covenant theories. That was great, great knowledge. But what trained me the most was being a resident advisor. What trained me to be a pastor wasn't studying lament and grief, it was when I was an RA on my floor, and someone's parent was tragically killed in an accident, and I had to sit on the floor and weep with them, and grieve and lament and live it out. We can learn a lot of things, and we love to study, that's why I'm like, everyone come to this Bible Project event, we love studying the Word, we love theology. That stuff matters, because it does inform how we live, how we understand the kingdom we're trying to live out. So we have to study the Word.

We want to study the Bible, and we need to practice it, because that is when things transform us. Information is one thing, but we're after being transformed into the likeness of Jesus, and that's going to take some movement. That's going to take us not just knowing the good things to do, but doing the good things. According to a Psychology Today article, and many other times I've heard different versions of this, I recognize that as I preach and teach, if my sermon today was on point, you might remember about thirty percent of what I said, for this week. Two weeks from now, if I asked, what did I preach about, you probably couldn't tell me, honestly, I might not be able to tell you either, if we're being that real. So how do we help things stick? How do we take information into transformation? Well, there are a lot of ways. There are techniques, when you're preaching, you tell stories, you repeat phrases so people remember it. There are all of these techniques. Note-taking helps.

If you're taking notes, that's a mental thing that's going to help you remember. But what's really going to help is when you start living these concepts out, when you start practicing. Because it's one thing for me to teach on generosity.

It's one thing for me to learn about generosity. But I really understood generosity when I was put in a situation where God wanted me to be generous in a way that I thought, if I do this, I really don't know how my mortgage is going to be paid next month. And God, I'm going to have to trust you with tomorrow. But I'm going to steward today anyway. It's through practice that we really learn, which is why as a church we do things like Dwelling in the Word, or our community groups focus on the same text we talk about on Sunday, because research also shows that if you discuss it with somebody, if you tell somebody what you learned, it's going to stick.

You're going to be more likely to put it into action and practice. That's why as a church we don't want to just be about information, but about formation, being formed into the likeness of Jesus, which means we're not just here learning on Sundays and taking in information. My hope is that every single one of us walks out of here thinking, God, how do you want your kingdom to come through me? God, in what ways do I need to steward today and trust you with tomorrow?

Closing invitation to surrender

That's the phrase I've said like ten times today, if you didn't get it: steward today, trust God with tomorrow. I'm going to invite Matthew to come as we get ready to close today. I want us to have a moment to pray and talk to Jesus.

Because again, when we listen to these texts, there are probably different things God is speaking to you through this. And at the end, this so-what is, we need to let go of the illusion of control, and learn to live from a place of saying, if it's the Lord's will that I do this career I got the degree for, and I'm in it for the next twenty years, then God, I will do it faithfully. And if it's the Lord's will that five years from now he says, actually, I've got something different, I'm going to do it faithfully. Which is why, when I talk about when I moved here, I said, I'm going to be here for a year.

And then the Lord very clearly spoke to me, and I knew, oh, it's going to be a little bit longer. So now when people say, what's next, and finally, after about ten years, people have finally stopped asking me, where are you going next? I say, why does there have to be a next?

I say, I'm here. But if at some point the Lord says, you're not, then we're not. Until then, we steward today. And we don't worry about tomorrow. We continue to surrender over and over again.

But I recognize that as we talk about these concepts, these have to be things we practice in the small ways, over and over again, so that when it comes to the big, we're ready to say, yeah, God, I can trust you with that. It comes from a place of being willing to say, okay, I'm going to surrender right now that I'd maybe rather sit at home and be alone, but Lord, I feel like I'm supposed to reach out to this person or give them a call, whatever it may be. It comes in those small moments of doing good over and over again that leads us to experience that, and transforms us in the ways of Jesus. So I felt today, as I was talking about this, that if there are some of you here who maybe are like, I still don't really know about following Jesus, the best way you're going to get to know is by starting to practice his ways.

Yes, read the Bible. Read the stories of Jesus and start to practice it. Start to live into that identity and see what God does with that. Because sometimes we think, well, I can't start living into kingdom come, I can't start doing the good works of Jesus until I know everything. His disciples did not know everything when he called them, but they went.

They fed people. They prayed for people. They clothed people. They stewarded their today, and they trusted God with tomorrow. And if you're here and you're like, I want to get closer to Jesus, start doing good works.

Start saying, Lord, will you challenge me to be kinder than I thought was possible, to be more intentional than I thought was possible? Will you encourage me, even today, as we pray and close, to talk to someone I've maybe never talked to before, if it's out of my comfort zone? These are the things that matter. I want to invite you to stand as we enter into this time of prayer and reflection. And I want to share one more quick story about the importance of not being so focused on tomorrow, in both the good and the bad ways, because sometimes it's anxiety, worry, and control, and sometimes it's, God, what are you doing with my life, and we have the best intentions of wanting to serve him in these big, powerful ways, that we forget about the present. A few years ago I had a friend, and we were talking, and she said, did I ever tell you that you saved my life? And I said, what do you mean, what are you talking about, we've been friends for years. I love teaching the Word of God, but that's just part of me following Jesus, this isn't who I am, this isn't the biggest way I follow Jesus, it's one of the ways I'm obedient to Jesus right now, through teaching the Word. But she didn't point to some sermon I preached.

She didn't point to even a time I was praying for her. She pointed to a moment when she was feeling lonely and isolated and ready to end her life. She said, you didn't even know, but there was a moment in the day when I thought, this is going to be my last day alive. And you were so kind to me that day, and you were the first person in a long time to ask me how I was doing. I didn't know the significance of that moment until years later.

But that's the moment she points to, and she says that intentionality, you saw me, and I felt like nobody saw me, and you saw me. I share that today because we don't know what people are walking through. So you might get caught up thinking, but I don't know how to exegete the text, I don't know what that word even means, I don't know these things. How can I say, God, let your kingdom come through me? By waking up every day and saying, Lord, let your will be done. Let your kingdom come through me, your willing vessel. Not being so stuck on worrying about tomorrow, but being present and stewarding this today. Every conversation with every person you meet, because that's a child of God.

Someone made in his image, to bear his image. People longing for someone to see them. And we can do that. So I want to invite you to take a moment and close your eyes. And often there's a piece of embodiment, if you're comfortable, to hold your hands out in a posture of surrender.

I want to invite you to take a moment and think about what you're holding tightly to, the things you're worrying about, the things you feel so desperate to control. And to say, Holy Spirit, will you show me the things I need to surrender, the ways I need to surrender tomorrow, the ways I've been trying to control things, the ways, if I'm honest, I've put my hope and trust in the wrong things. Will you show me? Would you just have an honest conversation with God? And even if you don't know specifics, just say, yeah, God, I'm laying down my tomorrow.

I surrender to you. And if there are things that are hard, where you think, if I do this, it might mean he's going to invite me into things I don't know how to do, just be honest with the Lord, because he sees you in your present moment, as you're showing up and saying, here I am. Holy Spirit, would you speak to us? Would you show us the things we need to surrender to you?

The ways we've been storing up, the ways we've been stuck in anxiety and worry and control, and the idols in our lives. Holy Spirit, show us, and we surrender to you. Next, I want to give you a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to show you ways you can steward today. Would you ask him for fresh vision for the places he has you? Would you ask him for renewal of strength?

If you're in a place where you think, God, I know you have me here, and I don't know that I want to be here, would you say, Holy Spirit, renew me, strengthen me? Because apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. We need the Spirit of Jesus, and he's with us. So would you invite the Spirit to show you how you need to steward today?

Holy Spirit, would you renew us? Would you strengthen us? Would you give us fresh vision for the places you have us, for the people you've surrounded us with? God, would you give us specific, even good, works you want us to do today? People who need words of encouragement, people we need to forgive, even as we go about our afternoons, would you show us people we can be radically generous and kind to?

Lord, I pray right now over every person in this room. I thank you for this heart of showing up in surrender, saying we might not have all the knowledge, we might not be the ones in control, and we're thankful for that, that we can trust you, God, with our today and our tomorrow. Lord, I pray you'd continue to help us remember these words in scripture, and to know that for us to see your kingdom come, it takes a people submitted to your kingdom, your rule, your reign, your way, Jesus.

So Lord, we seat you high above all else today, as king and ruler of our lives. And I pray for empowerment, Holy Spirit empowerment, as we go into our work weeks, into our classes, into our homes and our families, that it would just be kingdom kindness that flows from us. That it would be kingdom generosity that flows from us. God, that we would see people who are hungry, and be willing and ready and prepared to feed them, that the things we store up, we'd recognize are not just for us to delight in on this side of eternity, but for us to surrender fully to you and to your kingdom.

That when we save, it's not just for us to enjoy, but so that we're ready when people have a need, to say, here, this is your kingdom, God. This is your church. We are your people, and we surrender it to you. So we love you, Jesus, and we thank you for the honor that all of this gets to flow through our hands, that we get to be your vessels, that we get to be your stewards, and that we are promised eternity with you. So we look to that day.

Give us hope for that day, Jesus. It's in your name we pray, amen.