Steadfast Wisdom - James 1:5-12

INTRO

My wife loves thrift store shopping.

I saw what looked to me to be a disheveled patchwork fabric with loose strings.

Hannah told me to flip it over to see a woven tapestry.

In our lives we may never truly grasp the unique mix of happiness and sorrow that we experience, as we only see a limited perspective of the bigger picture.

We see only the underside of the tapestry - the loose strings of difficult moments.

It’s only when we will stand before God that he will turn the canvas over and we will see all that he has done.

We are continuing through the book of James and today we come to what initially seems like a totally separate thought from what we saw last week that God is using our trials for our good.

If we look at the tail end of verse 4 (snag one of the Bibles in front of you)

We see that the goal of trials is that we are made perfect and complete in Christ and we see it says lacking in nothing.

Today we start off in verse 5 and it starts with, “if any of you lacks...”

The idea being and if you find yourself lacking here is what you should do.

James is now going to walk through how we can come before the Lord to find direction, how we can have wisdom.

Here is the Big Idea.

Big Idea: A steadfast life trusts in God alone.

Today you may be coming in with frustration.

Maybe you find yourself lacking.

James isn’t here to beat you down but to lift you up and encourage you to know that the Lord sees you, knows you and welcomes you.

So let’s start into this and see first the call to...

1. Trust God’s Wisdom

Look at verse 5

James 1:5–8 (ESV)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

As we looked at trials last week I know it resonated for several of us.

Usually if we are in a moment of difficulty usually it’s natural for us to want to cry out, “Why God?!”

“Why me?”

“Please get me out of this!”

But how many of us while being tested say, “Lord, I need wisdom - please use this moment, this pain, this trial, to increase my wisdom and understanding of you and how you would call me to live.”

That is exactly what James is telling us to do here.

Do you desire wisdom?

Many of us want knowledge.

Knowledge is not wisdom.

Wisdom is not just the accumulation of information.

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise … There is no fool so great as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

Charles Spurgeon

Wisdom is knowledge and understanding.

Here is a helpful definition of wisdom: understanding for living.

James tells us to ask God for wisdom...for understanding for living.

Vs. 5 says let him ask the God who gives generously

The literal reading is let him ask the always giving God.

The Scriptures are constantly telling us that this is the character of God.

"He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25).

"He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32).

One writer says that God is like a water-pitcher tilted toward his children, just waiting to pour wisdom over the trial-parched landscape of our lives, if we would but ask.

So instead of simply asking for our trials to go away we should ask for the wisdom to trust God in them.

We can know that if we ask God he won’t chide us.

It says he gives without reproach without rebuke.

He isn’t like an annoyed parent that says I gave you a head so use it.

No, God invites us to ask for Wisdom

Again Wisdom is understanding for living.

It is discernment and insight.

It’s the application of knowledge.

In a biblical context it is the ability to discern the truth and walk in the wisdom of God.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 1:24-25

1 Corinthians 1:24–25 (ESV)

but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

We see that Jesus is the wisdom of God.

This paints a broader picture...We cannot know true wisdom apart from Jesus.

Wisdom may not always look like what you expect.

God's wisdom stands in stark contrast to the wisdom of the world.

And the world will look at the wisdom of God and think that it is foolishness, but it is actually the way of the world that is foolish in the sight of God.

This is the message of the upside-down kingdom that Jesus spoke of in The Sermon on The Mount in Matthew 5-7.

In the kingdom of God, the last are first.

In the kingdom of God those who mourn their sin are comforted, the persecuted and poor in spirit inherit the kingdom, and those who hunger for righteousness are satisfied.

It is the wisdom of God and the truth of the upside-down kingdom that allows us to have joy in trials and to trust God when things don't make sense.

This pursuit of wisdom can at moments feel trite.

Like…can’t I just have the answer, can’t we be done with this?!

There is an ancient legend of a king who loved chess.

He challenged visitors to a game, and was usually victorious.

One day a traveling sage visited the kingdom and was challenged to a game.

To entice him to play, the king offered to give the sage whatever reward he asked if he won. When the king was defeated, to honor his word he asked the sage what prize he would like.

The sage asked for one grain of rice to placed on the first square of the chessboard, and then that it be doubled on each following square.

The request seemed modest, and the king ordered a bag of rice to be brought.

One grain was placed on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth and so on.

But it quickly became apparent the terms of the request were impossible to meet.

By the twenty-first square more than one million grains of rice would be required.

By the thirty-first square the total would go over one billion—with more than half of the chessboard still left to go.

The story serves to teach us this lesson small things have a big impact when they are added together.

It is important that we seek God’s wisdom for every decision we make, regardless of how small it seems to us.

When God adds to our wisdom and understanding, it grows stronger and stronger.

This call to wisdom comes with an ask for us to have faith.

We must have faith to trust God when we find ourselves in the upside-down kingdom and faith to trust His plan when suffering comes our way.

The wisdom of God is trusting Him in every season.

James here coins a new word - Double-Minded.

Double-minded here is the opposite of faith.

It is the opposite of wisdom.

Listen to how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage: People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

Double minded.

John Bunyan called him Mr. Facing-both ways.

We are double-minded when we pray, but also try to do things our own way.

We are double-minded when we say that we surrender, and then we are overcome with the anxiety and worry of our situation.

We are double-minded when we say that we are laying our burdens before Him, and then we pick them back up again.

When we find ourselves giving into being double-minded, the remedy is repentance.

We repent and then we ask Him to give us His wisdom.

God is the Giver and He has an infinite supply of grace and wisdom for His people.

In Mark 9, a father comes to Jesus asking for healing for his son.

He says, Lord if you can.

Jesus responds questioning, “if you can?!” - Hey man do you know who you are talking to here?!

He knows that Jesus can do it but he’s weary of all the years of struggle.

In verse 23 he speaks to Jesus and this is what he says Mark 9:24

Mark 9:24 (ESV)

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

This man knew that Jesus was the answer, but he still struggled to understand and trust.

James in this passage is not telling us that we will never struggle.

Rather, James is telling us that we must trust Him through the struggle.

The father in Mark 9 was not double-minded.

He was transparent before God and Jesus would heal his son that day.

Faith doesn't mean that we never struggle, but it means that we know where to take those struggles.

That is what grows our faith.

When Jesus asks his disciples to have faith like a mustard seed he doesn't mean have a tiny faith.

Listen to pastor Jonathan Stephen on this:

Like the mustard seed, the kingdom starts small but grows exponentially. Similarly, what the disciples needed was not their totally inadequate little faith' but 'faith like a mustard seed', which would grow until it could accomplish the seemingly impossible...If little faith' were enough to overcome the fear that paralyses our Christian life and service, then Jesus would not have constantly told the apostles in no uncertain terms that it was not. Nor would they have asked him on at least one occasion to increase their faith. So let us not be content with the crippling results of a fearful, little faith. The living faith we first received when Christ saved us was, like a seed, designed to grow and bear fruit. Though God alone gives the growth, we are called to nurture and exorcize this precious gift. That way he is glorified and we are blessed. _Jonathan Stephen

We must ask God for the wisdom to view our life and trials in light of the truth.

We need to have our minds renewed so that we can understand God's plan through testing.

We need His wisdom so that we can understand our life in light of verses 2-4.

We need His wisdom to know that we will not always understand, but we can always trust.

We need our minds to be rooted in the truth of His Word so that we will be able to live in wisdom.

So we start here with trusting in God’s wisdom.

Let’s see second the call to rely on God’s resources.

2. Rely on God’s Resources

James 1:9–11 (ESV)

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

We are quick to compare.

We are quick to think that someone else has a better situation than we do.

We scroll social media and wonder why it seems that others have a better (marriage, job, car, house) ________(fill in the blank) than we do.

James uses the contrast of wealth and poverty to illustrate spiritual truth for us.

James uses an illustration that many of us can understand, but we can also think about other situations in our life in which we are tempted to compare.

From singleness and marriage to motherhood and infertility, to the struggles we face in comparing our marriages, our weight, and even our gifts and talents, we are prone to compare ourselves to each other.

James seeks to point our attention to the things that are eternal and ultimately to point our attention to the Eternal One.

In the context of the various trials that we face in this life, we may be tempted to think that when it comes to poverty and wealth, poverty is the trial.

But that is not the case that James is going to make.

Whether we find ourselves with great financial resources or we find ourselves with little, our temptation is to seek satisfaction in the things of this world instead of in Jesus.

For the person who has little, this may be evidenced in a pursuit of more or a lack of trust in God to supply what we need.

For the person with wealth, the temptation may be to think that they have earned it all themselves or to devote their time to the accumulation of wealth.

When John D. Rockefeller died, one man was curious about how much he left behind.

Determined to find out, he set up an appointment with one of Rockefeller’s highest aides and asked, “How much did Rockefeller leave behind?”

The aide answered, “All of it.”

Whether rich or poor we are in danger of living a life in pursuit of the things of this world.

But James is telling us that there is a greater thing to pursue.

There is a greater One to pursue.

James reminds us in these verses that trials have a remarkable leveling effect.

If you are poor, you should boast in the fact that your circumstances are actually leading you to trust in God;

and in the absence of physical resources, you are driven to boast in your (paradoxically) rich status as a child of God.

On the other hand, if you are rich, be careful.

Trials will remind you that money can’t solve your problems, and all of the stuff you fill your life with can’t cover up your hurts.

One day all that stuff is going to be burned in the fire, and you’re going to have nothing left.

Will your life be built on those physical resources or on the spiritual resources only God can provide?

Poverty calls us to look down, wealth call us to look out, but neither stir us to look up.

Look up Coram Deo.

Rest on the resources that God gives.

Lets see finally the call to live for His reward.

3. Live For His Reward

James 1:12 (ESV)

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Last week we talked about how James was the half-brother of Jesus.

This book echoes Jesus’ most well known teaching the sermon on the mount.

Clearly Jesus had been listening to his older brother.

James is pointing us to the upside-down kingdom that Jesus preached about.

The crown of life is promised to those that endure.

For James original readers, the word crown would not have brought to mind the crown of royalty, but instead the wreath placed on the head of an athlete at the end of a race.

This is the reward for faithfulness and endurance.

There is reward for walking through the trials of this life in faithfulness.

Jesus is standing at the finish line cheering us on, but He is also with us.

He not only runs with us, but carries us through this race.

We run the race in union and communion with Him.

The blessing here is blessing that only God can give.

It is the blessing reserved for those who love Him.

This world tries to pull our gaze to the temporary, but we shift our gaze to the Eternal One. He is altogether lovely.

He is worthy of worship and worthy of all of our hearts.

The life of blessing is reserved for those who love Him.

Several years ago a man reported his observations of the effects of a hurricane on a southeastern Gulf Coast town.

As he walked up and down the ravaged streets, he observed that the palm trees had been uprooted and flung about.

Once tall and majestic, their root systems were too shallow to withstand the hurricane force winds.

But as he proceeded, he came upon a lone oak tree.

The leaves had been blown away and some of the smaller branches ripped off, but the roots had gone deep, and the tree held its position.

And in due season it would again produce leaves.

So it is with us. If we are to endure in times of great stress and difficulty, we must beforehand have put down a depth of character that is rooted in the eternal.

It’s then we will sustain the blows of the trial.

What are you rooted in?

What are you living for?

For many of us we have ambitions.

Maybe we are trying to amass wealth and security for our family.

Perhaps we want to leave something for our kids.

Maybe we want to be known and respected.

Maybe we want to make something of ourselves.

Time sets things in perspective.

The tragic reality is that in a few generations most of us will be forgotten.

All of our efforts to have a nicer home, or to have that promotion, or to have more leisure.

It’s going to be gone.

James wants you to shift your gaze from the fleeting rewards that fade away and focus on what lasts.

This may seem counterintuitive in our culture that values comfort, convenience, and instant gratification.

But James is not talking about a fleeting happiness that comes from temporary circumstances.

He speaks of a profound, lasting, and soul-satisfying joy that comes from a faith that endures through trials.

The gospel tells us that Jesus Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He was raised again on the third day.

But why? To reconcile us to God.

To give us himself.

I shared a quote from one of my favorite books Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent last week.

He talks about the ultimate prize the gospel purchases for us and that for which we should all hope for.

This is long but so good listen to this:

In the New Testament, the gospel is several times referred to as “the gospel of God.” Such an expression should be understood in the fullest sense possible. The gospel is called “the gospel of God,” not simply because it is from God, nor merely because it is accomplished through God, but also because ultimately it leads me to God, who is Himself its greatest Prize. Indeed, what makes the gospel such great news is God, who brings me to Himself and then gives Himself so freely to me through Jesus Christ.

The essence of eternal life is not found in just having my sins forgiven, in possessing a mansion in heaven, or in having streets of gold on which to walk forever. Rather, the essence of eternal life is intimately knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Everything else that God gives to me in the gospel serves merely to bring me to Himself so that this great end might be achieved. Christ died for the forgiveness of my sins so that I might be brought “to God.” Christ is preparing a place for me in heaven so that He might receive me “to Himself” and have me forever with Him where He is. And yes, there is a great street of gold in heaven, but is there any doubt where the street leads? Unquestionably, it leads straight to the throne of God Himself, as do all of God’s gifts to me in the gospel.

As I meditate on the gospel each day, I find my thoughts inevitably traveling from the gifts I’ve received to the Giver of those gifts; and the more my thoughts are directed to Him, the more I experience the essence of eternal life. The “gospel of God” is from God, comes through God, and leads me to God; and it is in Him that my soul finds its truest joy and rest. _Milton Vincent

Here is the beauty of what James is telling you Coram Deo.

Your trials serve to bring you this prize.

As we endure through moments of hardship and difficulty God often strips away the things that would take our focus off of him.

Some of you have heard me tell the story of being dumped by my ex-fiancé 3 months before our wedding.

I was crushed.

I thought for sure we were gonna get married and do ministry together and build a family.

I remember driving to the little country church I was preaching at during college.

I was so sad.

I’m pretty sure I pulled up listening to a break-up mixtape of emo songs.

I remember being in the pews as Gail one of the elders led the singing.

I looked at the page it was turn your eyes upon Jesus.

O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.

I broke into tears.

God was inviting me to look away from circumstances and to look to the one who would never leave or forsake me.

Look to the one who never fails.

What are you living for?

What are you striving for?

Everything in this world fails, not Jesus.

If you want to live a lift that endures, a life that is steadfast...

Trust in God alone.

Application Questions:

Where is a situation in my life that I need wisdom? Where am I tempted to look for wisdom outside of the Lord?

Do I think of God as the constantly giving God or am I hesitant to ask Him for wisdom?

What areas am I tempted to compare in? How might poverty and wealth distract from God?

What am I living for? How can I turn my eyes to Jesus?