TITLE: Don't Order Vanilla, 3

TEXT: James 4:13-17 ¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

PROPOSITION: God offers us far more choices than we seek.

QUESTION: What?

KEY WORD: Choices

READING: Same

Introduction

1. This is the third part of the series.

2. Use your talents.

3. Do the best you can, with what you have, where you are, as you have opportunity.

4. Don't settle for vanilla in your service to God.

Service

Programs and work of the church

1. Many think they have to be in every program.

a. Better to do ONE thing well

b. "Jack of all trades, Master of none."

2. Pick where you can serve best - DO THAT!

3. James 4:17

1. Does this mean I must do everything I think of?

2. Think of it & don't do it = sin?

3. Real issue "How Can I Best Serve God Today?"

4. List 100 things to do

5. Do 15 of them.

6. Did you sin in NOT doing the 85 others?

7. Do 99 - but not the 1 that is urgent = sin.

Where there is no established program in place

1. Start working.

2. Get two or three others to work with you.

3. Others will start "begging" to participate.

4. Start the ball rolling - others will jump on.

Individual responsibility

1. When you see a need - -

a. Meet that need.

b. Don't call benevolence

2. Galatians 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

3. Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

4. Somewhere out there (poem below)

A Happy Song
by: H. L. Gradowith

Somewhere out there someone is now busy doing good,
Somewhere someone's children are behaving as they should,
Somewhere out there someone is now coming to the Lord,
Somewhere someone's faithfully wielding the Spirit's Sword,
Somewhere out there someone is lending a helping hand,
Somewhere out there someone is helping the weary stand,
Somewhere out there someone is drying another's tear,
Somewhere out there someone is calming another's fear,
Somewhere out there someone is showing how much they care,
Somewhere out there someone is helping by being there,
Somewhere out there someone is praying for another,
Somewhere out there someone is saving a lost brother,
Somewhere out there someone is waking up unafraid,
Somewhere out there someone is glad that the rent is paid,
Somewhere out there someone is happy to be alive,
Somewhere out there someone is not struggling to survive,
Somewhere out there someone is just learning how to smile,
Somewhere out there someone has been smiling all the while,
Somewhere out there people are living and loving too,
My prayer for you is that one of those someone's is you.