If You Lack Wisdom..

James 1:5–8 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

The spiritual completeness talked about in v2-4 can only be achieved or improved by divine wisdom, and no other means.

“Wisdom is the means by which the godly can both discern and carry out the will of God”

God gives generously

James 1:5 “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”

what is wisdom?

it is not knowledge

“Wisdom is the means by which the godly can both discern and carry out the will of God”

Wisdom is putting our knowledge into action in a way that would please God.

James 3:17 “But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

Connect back to Matthew 7:7 ““Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”

Ask God

Wisdom is not just downloaded into your brain at the time you become a believer. It is learned and given through relationship.

story about hanging up deer feeders with grandpa.

Without rebuke

“James makes clear, the believer should have no hesitation in asking God for wisdom, as if God would scold us for not already having all the wisdom we need. Calvin comments, “Since we see that the Lord does not so require from us what is above our strength, but that he is ready to help us, provided we ask, let us, therefore, learn whenever he commands anything, to ask of him the power to perform it.”

God will not look down on you for not already having the wisdom you need

or reproach you for getting into a situation that you need wisdom for.

Sometimes we dig ourselves a hole and are scared to ask for help because we are ashamed and do not want anybody to look down upon us.

I had trouble with math. Did not tell anyone because I was scared of what they may think of me. God is not like that.

Faith in God Alone

James 1:6 “But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.”

Divided loyalty

This is talking about doubt. But a very strong kind. one that is persistent in our faith. Is our walk with Christ more characterized by doubt in him or faith in him?

Abraham over his life would have doubted Gods promise but he remained persistently faithful.

This does not mean that our prayers will be answered when there is no doubt within us at all. But when our spiritual life is characterized by consistency in purpose and intent

the example here is telling. We cannot be the strongest christian one day and completely the opposite the next.

Doubled-minded man

James 1:7–8 “Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

I feel like i often go to God and tell him my problems and ask him to fix them and then immediately try to fix them myself.

Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”

We cannot love God on Sundays and Wednesdays but act life we do not know him the rest of the week.

Loyalty to God or the world

Matthew 22:37–38 “Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

God is not content with half or part of your loyalty.

Satan is. and therefore the world.

God did not die for you to half loyal to him

Unstable in all they do

When we try to live double lives it falls apart.

like me in high school

We need wisdom. God is the source of it.

Questions for August

Hey Trey, I was wondering if you could help me logically prove God's existence without using the Bible

There are arguments for God's existence that are, in my opinion, very convincing, but ultimately God cannot be proven. He is believed in. If logically we could come to an airtight yes or no. Then two things would happen: there would be no atheism, and there would be no faith.

Cause and effect argument(Cosmological Argument)

We can see that everything requiring a cause must have one. If there is an effect, then there must be a cause. We know the universe is an effect. Even atheists agree. If they subscribe to the big bang. The argument goes that the reason for the universe must be greater than the universe, and there needs to be an uncaused cause. We call Him God

Teleological argument(From Design)

Imagine walking on the beach, and you find a perfectly working watch. It tells time perfectly and always in time; you see the astronomically complicated moving parts. You assume that the watch did not just come to be, but that the watch has a creator. In the same way, we see the world is ordered in a complex and complicated fashion that indicates a purposeful creation. Atheists believe in order from Chaos. That seems impossible. We believe order comes from order. And God is the purposeful creator

The moral argument

Need more here

Across all cultures, there is a consistent moral obligation to others. It differs in details, but it can be seen in all of human history. You feel this same obligation when something is done to you, and you feel wronged. That person's actions have broken that moral sense you have of right and wrong. If there is an objective moral law that we can all recognize. Then there has to be a lawgiver. Because the law does not always align with evolution.

If God is all-knowing and self-sufficient, why would He create human beings knowing they would suffer, struggle, sin, and that some would ultimately reject Him? Why bring a world into existence that includes pain and the possibility of hell when He could have simply chosen not to create anything at all?

God is love, and love is inherently shared. God created us not because he needed us, but because he wanted to share his love

Our world includes pain and the possibility of suffering and maybe hell, but God clearly does not want that for you and created you for a different purpose, but he gave you the ability to choose.

If you spend your whole life choosing the world and yourself over God, then that is what he will give you when you die. Complete separation from Him.

God created man with the capacity to choose. Good or evil. Without the capacity to choose there is no value in our decisions. But God created people with great capacity. That has to go both ways, or it is worthless.

“Evil twists God’s divinely intended uses of good creation into abuses that cause pain.”

Our concept of Good and evil has to come from somewhere, and it needs to be objective, or it simply does not hold weight

There are some things we do not know.

Is the devil in hell, or is he all around the world causing destruction?

He is around the world, bound but not yet completely gone. “8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”1 Pe 5:8. Satan, or the devil, was defeated on the cross. Cross. “ 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. Col 2:14–15.” “14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” Heb 2:14–15.

While he still has some power here on earth, it is restrained and in the death throes. The victory was won on the cross, and we are in the aftermath. If Satan cannot win, then he wants as many people to lose as possible

If we know there are false teachers in the world, then why do we follow them?

We are easily deceived.

Often we think those who draw the biggest crowd are right. That is not the case. There are plenty of false teachers with large crowds and many faithful teachers with churches smaller than our youth group.

It actually makes sense that false teachers would have a big crowd; they want money, power, or status, and more people following you gets you that. They often have an easier message than the gospel.

If we do not properly know God’s word, then how can we know who the false teachers are?

“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” Mat 7:15-20

“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.” 1 Jn 4:1

“And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” Acts 17:11