Guardrails

Description

In this message from James 4:11-17, Dr. Kurt Bjorklund reveals how God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble, offering three essential guardrails for the new year: avoiding slander, holding plans with open hands, and embracing godly obligation. Discover how these biblical principles can help you invite God's favor rather than his opposition as you step into the year ahead.

Summary and Application

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, many of us are thinking about goals, resolutions, and plans for the months ahead. We want to eat healthier, be more fit, cultivate better friendships, and advance ourselves in various areas of life. These are good aspirations, but Kurt warns us that "sometimes what can happen is our good plans can become very self-focused plans." When we become consumed with our own agendas, we actually position ourselves against God's best for our lives.

In his message from James 4:11-17, Kurt offers three biblical guardrails that can help us invite God's favor rather than his opposition as we move into the new year. These aren't burdensome rules but protective principles—like guardrails on a bridge—that keep us on the path of humility and grace.

The Foundation: God's Favor for the Humble

Before diving into the three guardrails, Kurt establishes the foundational principle from James 4:6: "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble." This is the lens through which we must view everything else. When we operate in pride—thinking we have life figured out, that we're in control, or that we don't need accountability—we invite God's opposition. But when we live with humility and open hands before God, we position ourselves to receive his favor.

Kurt acknowledges that stating these principles as "commands" might feel uncomfortable, especially at a church that typically emphasizes grace over law. But he explains that biblical commands function like a guardian or teacher. Using the analogy of telling children not to touch a hot stove or play in the street, he notes: "Your goal in instruction is to get to a point where they don't actually need the instruction." The principles become internalized wisdom rather than external rules we begrudgingly follow.

Guardrail #1: Don't Slander Others

The first guardrail comes from James 4:11-12: "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister, judges them, speaks against the law and judges it... But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?"

Slander can be subtle. It happens when we compare ourselves favorably to others, criticize someone behind their back, or question another person's motives. Kurt explains that "when I run down somebody else, what I'm actually doing is I'm judging them. And if I'm judging them, I'm setting myself up as the standard." This is an act of pride because we're essentially claiming the right to be the judge—a position that belongs to God alone.

As we enter a new year, this guardrail challenges us to examine our speech patterns. Are we people who tear others down to make ourselves look better, feel better, or appear better? If so, we're inviting opposition rather than favor.

Guardrail #2: Don't Presume on Your Future

The second guardrail addresses our tendency to make plans as if we're in complete control. James 4:13-16 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 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."

Kurt clarifies that this passage isn't condemning planning itself. Rather, it's addressing "planning as if God doesn't exist." We presume that we have control over tomorrow, that we know what the future will bring, and that we orchestrate the events of our lives. But Scripture reminds us that we're merely "a mist"—here for a brief moment and then gone.

The solution isn't to stop planning but to "hold your plans with an open hand," Kurt explains. "You need to say, 'God, here's what I'd like to do. Here's what I think makes sense. But ultimately, if it's your will, I'll do this.'" This posture of humility recognizes that God's will is better than our own, even when we can't see the full picture.

Guardrail #3: Don't Resist Obligation

The final guardrail may be the most countercultural in our freedom-obsessed society. James 4:17 states: "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them."

Many of us pride ourselves on being "free agents" with minimal obligations. We want to remain spontaneously available to help when needs arise, but Kurt points out the danger: "What some of us do is we're so focused on being ready to spontaneously respond that we have no structured obligation in our lives."

Christianity isn't about avoiding commitment. Kurt reminds us that "grace is not about avoiding obligation. It's about embracing what God has done, but also being able to say, 'He has given me a place and people to serve. And so I'm willing to take that on.'" There's a healthy place for structured commitment—regularly serving in a ministry, consistently giving financially, showing up for a small group, or taking on leadership responsibilities.

The key is balance. Some people over-commit and leave no margin for spontaneous responsiveness. Others avoid all structured obligation in the name of freedom. Both extremes miss the mark.

Living for God's Favor

Kurt concludes with a penetrating question for all of us: "Will you say, 'Okay, God, as I stand here on a cusp of a new year, will I just say, "Hey, I've got my agenda, my way forward," and run that direction?' Or will you be able to say, 'God, I am going to live with open hands in terms of what I say about people, my plans, and even what's asked of me, because I want your favor in the new year'?"

These three guardrails—avoiding slander, holding plans with humility, and embracing godly obligation—aren't about earning God's love or salvation. They're about positioning ourselves to experience his favor and goodness. As you step into the new year, consider how these principles might shape your decisions, relationships, and commitments.

Questions for Reflection

1. Which of the three guardrails—avoiding slander, holding plans with open hands, or embracing obligation—do you find most challenging, and what specific step could you take this week to grow in that area?

2. As you think about your goals and plans for the new year, what would it look like practically to hold them with "open hands" before God, genuinely saying "if it is the Lord's will" rather than presuming you're in control?

• References

  Dallas Willard

  "Grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude and effort is an action."

• Transcript

  Download PDF Version

  INTRODUCTION AND OPENING PRAYER

  Good morning. It's great to be together. I just want to say a special thanks to all of you who prayed, invited, brought people multiple times to services over Christmas Eve week, who served in such a variety of capacities. It allowed us as a church just to serve the broader community in such a significant way. And certainly the numbers were good. But much more important than the numbers, it's the stories that will be told and the changed lives of people.

  A lot of times those take weeks, months, years to hear people say, "You know, it was that Christmas that I came and I began to see for the first time," or "I rediscovered something that had been lost." So again, just thank you for your participation in helping to make Christmas Eve what it is here at Orchard Hill.

  Let's pray together today. God, as we're gathered today, as we pray so often, we ask that you would speak—speak to each of us who are gathered. I ask that my words would reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

  WHY THIS MESSAGE MATTERS NOW

  Today is a day on the calendar that when I plan the teaching for the church, usually gets left blank. And what I mean by that is I'll usually be planning 6-12 months out ahead. And so I know kind of what's coming every week, by and large. But then there are a few weeks that just get left blank because, you know, we're going to be between Christmas and the start of a series and everything.

  And so today I have nothing to say. No, I'm just kidding. It is fun for me in the sense that once a week is blank, it kind of gives me a chance to sense the moment that we're in and then say, "What passage do I want to use to just kind of encourage us in our journey where we are?" And today, being that we're a few days before the start of the year, I think one of the more natural things to do is to consider what it is we want our new year to look like and to start making some adjustments and plans for the new year.

  Some of us probably get to a point where we've done this so many times that we're tired of it and so we don't do it at all. We say, "I'm done with the whole 'new year, improve myself' thing." In fact, I've gotten to a point where I have an annual statement about what I hope will be true for my next year: I'm going to drink more water next year than last year. That is what I'm going to do.

  But despite that, what many of us will do is we'll say, "I want to eat healthier, I want to be more fit, I want to have better friendships. I'm going to work at advancing myself in some area of my life." And we make all of these plans for ourselves and they're good plans. But sometimes what can happen is our good plans can become very self-focused plans. And what I'd like to do today is show you from the book of James, specifically chapter 4, that when we become self-focused in our planning and our thinking, that it actually is detrimental to us.

  And it's a little bit like this: if you've ever been on a bridge and there's no guardrails, and you know, here's kind of a tall bridge, but you would say, "You know what, guardrails are good." And so what I'd like to do is just talk about a few guardrails today that come from James 4 that might help us as we think about the year ahead.

  FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLE: GOD'S FAVOR FOR THE HUMBLE

  But in order just to help us understand kind of why I said it the way I do, James 4:6 says this: "But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says, 'God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.' Submit yourselves then to God."

  So God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble, and then he goes into kind of these instructions. And I'm going to state these instructions today as commands. And if you've been around Orchard Hill, you know that I rarely state the messages as commands, as to-dos. And that's very intentional because I believe that what happens if we're not careful very quickly is we say, "Well, if the message tells me what I should do," then what we do is we adopt that as law and we feel very good if we do it, we feel beaten down if we don't. Either way, we feel kind of good. And it feels good in the moment. But it leaves us not focusing on what Jesus Christ has done, but on what we should do.

  And yet sometimes we need to understand a little bit about what's commanded—even in the New Testament, where there are commands—in order to understand God's desires for us, God's best for us.

  UNDERSTANDING THE LAW AS A GUARDIAN

  Just for a moment before we jump into this, I want to just show you something the New Testament says about the law, because I think it's helpful to think about commands. Here's Galatians chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. I don't have it on the screen. Here's what it says: "Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith."

  And that word "guardian" that's used there in the original language is a word that meant someone who was in charge of the care of a minor, generally several kids. And so their job was to protect, to educate, to train the kids. So here's what Paul, the Apostle Paul, is saying. He's saying the law is like a nanny, a grade school teacher. It's someone who's helping you to get the basics before the gospel comes along and moves you past the law.

  Now, you could understand that wrongly as, "Okay, so the law is just something that we use to get to the gospel." Or you could understand that kind of wrongly in terms of saying, "Well, the law is something that I need in order to kind of move me on in life." But the picture of the guardian here is helpful. And the reason I say that is, here's what you know if you have kids. You've done this somewhere along the line. That is, you give them instructions that are for their good, but your goal in instruction is to get to a point where they don't actually need the instruction.

  So, for example, you tell your kid, "Don't touch the stove." Why do you tell them not to touch the stove? Because you love them, don't want them to burn their hand. It's just good. But the point isn't to say, "Don't touch the stove because I have a rule." It's to say, "I'm trying to train you." And the thing about something like that is you don't actually need to train them a whole lot because the first time they touch it, they go, "That thing's hot. I guess I won't do that again. That's unpleasant."

  Or when you tell your child, "Don't play in the street," you don't do that to restrict their freedom. You do it because you know that maybe playing in the street is dangerous. But your goal isn't to have a rule that stays in place. Your goal is to say, "I want to train you so that one day you won't need the rule."

  So I have four boys. They're older now, but when they were little, we would say, "Don't go in the street." But you know what I haven't said to any of my boys in years? I have not said, "Don't go in the street," because they don't need that kind of instruction anymore. That's the idea of the guardian and the relationship of the law to the person of faith. It doesn't make the law irrelevant. It just makes it so that you've so embraced it into your heart and soul that it's no longer something that you need to keep going back to, to say, "Here's what I need."

  Now, having said that, I'm going to state some things in command form today. And my hope is that these are things that you know, but they'll serve as reminders for guardrails for the favor of God in the year that's ahead.

  GUARDRAIL #1: DON'T SLANDER OTHERS

  And so the first one is this. And that is in James chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, I think we see the simple command: don't slander others. Here's where I get this. James chapter 4, verse 11: "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another." See where I got it? "Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister, judges them, speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you, who are you to judge your neighbor?"

  So again, context: God opposes the proud, gives favor to the humble. And then he says, "Listen, don't slander your neighbor." Now, slander, just for the sake of clarity, is speaking against somebody, running them down. It can be very subtle. Sometimes we do it when we compare ourselves to others. Sometimes we do it by saying something critical about somebody else. Sometimes we do it by calling into question somebody's motives.

  And here's what is being said: that when I run down somebody else, what I'm actually doing is I'm judging them. And if I'm judging them, I'm setting myself up as the standard. I'm saying, "I'm the one who gets to decide what's right or wrong." And that's actually an act of pride because there's only one judge, there's only one lawgiver, and I'm not it.

  And so what happens is when I slander somebody else—when I speak against them, when I run them down—what I'm actually doing is I'm elevating myself. And if I elevate myself, I'm inviting God's opposition rather than his favor. And so one of the guardrails as we go into a new year is simply to say, "Hey, am I a person who tears other people down in order to make myself look better, feel better, or appear better to those around me?"

  Because if I do that, I'm actually inviting opposition rather than favor. So the first guardrail is simply this: don't slander others.

  GUARDRAIL #2: DON'T PRESUME ON YOUR FUTURE

  The second guardrail comes from verses 13 through 16. And that is: don't presume on your future. Here's what it says in James 4:13-16: "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 in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil."

  Now, here's what's being addressed. What's being addressed here is not planning. What's being addressed is planning as if God doesn't exist. In other words, presuming that you have control over tomorrow, that you know what tomorrow will bring, that somehow you are the one who orchestrates the events of your life.

  And what he's saying is, "Listen, you don't even know if you're going to be here tomorrow. You are a mist. You appear for a little while and then you vanish." And so if that's true, then you need to hold your plans with an open hand. You need to say, "God, here's what I'd like to do. Here's what I think makes sense. But ultimately, if it's your will, I'll do this."

  Now, this doesn't mean you don't plan. It doesn't mean you don't set goals. It doesn't mean you don't think about the future. What it means is you hold your plans with humility. You hold them saying, "God, I think this is what makes sense, but I could be wrong. And ultimately, I want your will more than I want my will."

  And so what he's saying is: don't presume on your future. Don't act as if you're in control. Don't act as if you know what tomorrow will bring. Instead, hold your plans with open hands and say, "God, if it's your will, I'll do this or that."

  And again, this is a pride issue. Because when I presume that I know the future, when I presume that I'm in control, I'm elevating myself. I'm saying, "I've got this figured out." And if I do that, I'm inviting opposition rather than favor.

  So the second guardrail is: don't presume on your future. Hold your plans with open hands. Hold them with humility. Hold them saying, "God, if it's your will, I'll do this."

  GUARDRAIL #3: DON'T RESIST OBLIGATION

  And then the third guardrail comes from verse 17. And that is: don't resist obligation. Here's what it says in James 4:17: "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them."

  Now, this is addressing something that I think is common in our culture. And that is, we like to think of ourselves as free agents. We like to think that we don't have obligations to anyone or anything. We like to think that we get to decide what we do, when we do it, how we do it. And there's a sense in which that can be good—to be responsive, to be flexible, to be available.

  But what can happen is we can become so focused on avoiding obligation that we actually miss opportunities to serve, to give, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. And what this verse is saying is: if you know the good you ought to do and you don't do it, for you it is sin.

  In other words, there are times when we should embrace obligation. There are times when we should say, "You know what? I'm going to commit to this. I'm going to be part of this. I'm going to serve here. I'm going to give here. I'm going to show up here." Not because someone's forcing me to, but because this is good. This is right. This is part of how God has designed life to work.

  And some of us are on completely the other side. We're so good at avoiding obligation that we're obliged to almost no one or anything in our lives. And here what is being instructed in James is he says, "If you know to do good and you choose not to do it, for you it is sin." And what he's driving at here is that obligation should not be completely avoided in our lives.

  Now sometimes we avoid obligation through saying, "I'll do good when I see it, when I recognize it, and I want to be free to just respond and help somebody, whether it be financially or somehow in service if I see the need." And that's a good thing to be done. But what some of us do is we're so focused on being ready to spontaneously respond that we have no structured obligation in our lives. And others of us will do so much structure in our lives that we don't have any space to be spontaneously responsive and do the good that we know to do.

  And here again, all he's saying is: as you plan your year, don't avoid obligation. Because Christianity isn't ultimately about avoiding obligation. Grace is not about avoiding obligation. It's about embracing what God has done, but also being able to say, "He has given me a place and people to serve. And so I'm willing to take that on."

  A PARABLE ABOUT OBLIGATION

  There's an old poem that has been around for years. Let me just read this to you. It's about somebody else. Here's what he says:

  "Let me tell you the story of four young lads by the name of Tom, Dick, Harry and Joe. Their full names in fact were as such: Tom Somebody, Dick Everybody, Harry Anybody and Joe Nobody. Together they were best friends. But I must confess, when it came to a task, they weren't very good. You see, whenever they were given a job, they all began to fight because this is how it always went: Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it and Anyone could have done it. And in the end, Nobody always ended up with the task. When Nobody did it, Somebody was angry because it was Everybody's job, but Everybody thought that Somebody would do it instead. Now, Nobody realized that Nobody would do it. So consequently Everybody blamed Somebody and Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place."

  Now don't start arguing yet, because I have another story of these friends to tell. Now, as you may have guessed, these four friends were fun, active and busy people. But what they accomplished was a shame, and Everybody knew it. You see, Everybody had a good idea and Everybody thought Somebody would follow it through. However, Somebody thought Anybody would work on it, and Anybody thought Everybody should do it. So Nobody ended up working on it again.

  Now, one day a contest was announced and all the boys were sent to enter. Now, Everybody thought Anybody could win the prize. Anybody thought Somebody could win it. Somebody thought Everybody would get the prize. Nobody was the smartest of the four, and Nobody was very faithful. Nobody worked very hard. Thus Nobody won the prize.

  Now I have one more tale to tell of yet another friend of the four. This is a sad tale of the death of a man called Somebody Else. You see, all the boys worked at a firm, and at this firm worked Someone Else. Now, the four were greatly saddened to learn of the death of one of the most valuable members of the firm: Someone Else. Someone's passing created a vacancy that was difficult to fill. He had been around for years, and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than the normal person's share of work.

  Whenever Anybody mentioned leadership, Somebody always looked to this wonderful person for inspiration and reason. "Someone Else can do that job." When there was a job to do, a need to be filled, a place of leadership, or a name that was always given, it was this Someone Else. Everyone knew Someone Else was the largest giver of time and money. Whenever there was a financial need, Everybody, Anybody and Somebody always assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference.

  Now Someone Else is gone, and the boys all wonder what they will do. No longer can they utter the words, "Let Someone Else do it." If it's going to be done, one of them will have to do it. And I guess most of the time it will be Nobody.

  Now, obviously that's a little facetious to make a point, but here what I'm trying to just drive at or help us think about is that when we resist obligation, what we might be doing is using the idea of grace to resist even the instruction or the training that the guardian gives us to say, "No, it's okay to take on some obligation," rather than to simply say, "I avoid it all the time."

  GRACE, EFFORT, AND EARNING

  Dallas Willard once wrote this, and I generally respect his writing. He said, "Grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning." Earning is an attitude and effort is an action. And often people will quote that, and I think wrongly, with the idea of saying, "See, you need to make a big effort."

  And what happens when we confuse the message of Christ with law or don't understand this guardian thing that I was trying to talk about earlier, what we do is we end up basically saying, "Well, yeah, grace is all of what God does, but it doesn't mean that you don't still work." And we end up confusing the two.

  But what I want you to see is that the guardian approach to the law says, "This is good, but it's like teaching your kids not to play in the street." In other words, one day it would be great if I didn't need a reminder to say, "Don't slander, don't presume on the future." But it's not bad to go back and say, "These are God's principles that help us live. That obligation can be a good thing in your life."

  But what I don't want to do is start to presume that if I keep these things somehow that that is garnering me salvation or a future with God. These are part of what God gives me to live better—guardrails, if you will.

  CONCLUSION: LIVING FOR GOD'S FAVOR

  And you see, if God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and if slander is part of being proud, not humble; if presuming on my future is part of being proud, not humble; if resisting obligation is part of being proud, not humble—then what I actually want is I want to live in a place where I'm saying I'm inviting the favor of God into my life rather than resisting it through my own pride.

  Now, I don't know what kind of situations are represented here today. I know any group of people—there are many of us who say, "You know, the last year wasn't the year I wanted. The year ahead, I'm not sure will be the year that I want." And that may be a really hard reality right now in some of our lives.

  And yet if we get so focused on our plan and everything else along the way that we can't say, "What do you have for me, God, and what's ahead?" we will end up maybe missing the favor and the goodness of God in the place that he has us.

  And so the question today really is pretty simple: Will you say, "Okay, God, as I stand here on a cusp of a new year, will I just say, 'Hey, I've got my agenda, my way forward,' and run that direction?" Or will you be able to say, "God, I am going to live with open hands in terms of what I say about people, my plans, and even what's asked of me, because I want your favor in the new year"?

  CLOSING PRAYER

  God, we ask today as we're gathered here that we would be people who hear your word and respond in a way that brings your favor. And God, we pray this today in Jesus' name, Amen.

  ---

  AI ENHANCED DISCLAIMER: This transcript has been enhanced using AI technology to improve readability, including the addition of section headers, formatting improvements, and minor grammatical corrections. The core content and meaning of the original sermon have been preserved. For the most authentic experience, please refer to the original audio or video recording.