Sermon Tone Analysis

Recap

This passage is about true and false wisdom.

True wisdom comes from God, false wisdom comes from humans.

True wisdom says there is a God; the God of the Bible is the one true God.

False wisdom says there is no god.

True wisdom says God is good and is the source of everything, visible and invisible.

False wisdom says there’s no such thing as good or evil, everything we see happened by random chance.

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The kind of wisdom you have, shows up in how you live.

Just as faith without deeds is dead, you can’t claim to have true wisdom, but then practise false wisdom.

But before we get into that, we need to highlight something about God.

First, God is for himself.

God is for God.

Second, God designed his world to work a certain way; we can choose to live in that way, or rebel against it.

Expect trials; rejoice in them, because God is good.

Trials happen.

Not, they might happen, they happen.

If you’re not in a trial right now, you will be, for sure.

Many of you are in trials right now.

An example of a trial is a difficult marriage, being sick, the death of a loved one, a child who is going astray.

That’s why James says we will face trials of many kinds.

There are many trials.

Trials, if they are not happening right now for you, are building, coming, like an approaching storm.

It isn’t just one trial; it is days of trials, many trials.

How is God for God?

Consider , “The Lord is my shepherd, I want for nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness.”

Now, so far, it sounds like this is all about me.

And that resonates, right?

Don’t we want everything to be about me?

When you get home from work, you want your spouse to ask you, “How was your day?”

You want to be able to sit down, do nothing, watch TV.

You’d love it if your spouse went up to you as soon as you came home and said, “Don’t worry about the kids, they’re at my parents, don’t worry about supper, it’ll be ready in half an hour, here’s the paper, the baseball game’s on TV, and why don’t I get you a drink?”

The Bible paints a realistic picture about life.

It is not perfect, perfection is coming, but it isn’t yet here.

We’re waiting for it to come.

But we live in a dirty, messy world where people get sick, people die, people are wrongly accused, and people are tired, weak, and heartbroken.

But by God’s grace they endure, they are strengthened, renewed, heartened.

And in the midst of it all there’s joy.

God commands us to take joy in trials.

How is that even possible?

Two ways: first, we have to look at trials as a means to maturity.

Look at verses three and four, “because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

We want life to be all about me.

We live in a world that is telling us it is all about me.

We have a new word in the Oxford English dictionary, that sums this up perfectly, selfie.

We have selfie sticks, so that we can take photos of ourselves without having to ask anyone else to hold our phones or cameras, so that we can prove that we are somewhere.

It isn’t enough to have pictures of being somewhere.

We have to be in the pictures.

Six people were gored by bison in Yellowstone National Park this year because they were trying to get selfies with the buffalo!

How silly is that?

But God is for God, that’s why continues, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

Why does God do what he does for me?

For his name’s sake.

For the sake of his honour, for the sake of his character, for the sake of his nature, his love.

How does growth and maturity happen?

Does it happen when things are good and easy?

How do you build muscle mass?

You lift heavy weights, you face resistance.

How do you learn, you fail and you try again until you get it right.

Not only is this true for the physical world, it is true spiritually.

We grow, we get stronger, we mature when we face resistance, when we fail and try again.

puts it this way, God acts, for the praise of his glorious grace.

God works in order to get praise.

We desire the opposite.

We want maturity without trials and tests.

We’d rather be content and complacent.

A.W. Tozer compares this attitude to a field.

A fallow field just lies around and does nothing.

It fears no plough, no pain, and no struggle.

But it experiences nothing of new life, new growth, and new potential.

When the farmer comes, and lowers the plough and tears into the soil, the field experiences pain and discomfort.

But it breaks up the ground, so that seeds can flourish and grow.

The plough represents the trials and tests.

God breaks up our ground, so that we can grow.

When you’re in the midst of a trial, it is hard to see the power and might of new life.

But those who’ve gone through it know that what comes is totally worth it.

Now that sounds like God has a selfie problem.

But it doesn’t really.

Think about when you were little, and you accomplished something for the first time.

Maybe you scored your first goal, maybe you can remember or you’ve seen when you took your first step, or rode your bike for the first time without training wheels.

What did your parents do?

They praised you, they shared in your joy.

Praise is an expression of joy!

When we praise God, we’re expressing joy, delight in the amazing grace of God.

And that only happens when we realise that it isn’t about us, it is about God.

See, if we live our lives and it is all about us, we live with expectations.

When I come home from work, if I expect dinner to be ready, the kids quietly reading or playing, and my gorgeous wife greeting me with a kiss.

Okay, that’s pretty much everyday.

But if I think it is all about me, I’ll have demands, and I’ll be like, “I better get what I want.”

I won’t be free to love my wife, my kids, my family.

I’m not free to forgive, to lay down my life, to put others first.

Read Verse 5-8

Second, trials remind us of our total need for God.

When things go well, who gets the credit?

WE do.

When things go wrong?

We blame God.