Teach me your ways, o Lord
Notes
Transcript
A Christian will be known in what they do - not what they say or declare!
A Christian will be known in what they do - not what they say or declare!
Rouan, today you spoke your faith. Are you ready now, to live your faith?
And when life shoots fiery darts of hatred and jealousy at you, will you hold on to your faith?
You know it will be hard, don’t you?
Will you persevere?
I pray that you and I will persevere together, brother
in the strength of the Lord alone!
And you, brothers and sisters, who call yourselves “members of the Body of Christ,”?
We have all spoken our faith, made a Profession of faith, as will the three J’s (Jonathan, Joshua and Jacques)
but, how are you travelling living your faith day by day?
Loved ones, as we start this sermon series from the book of James, I hope and pray today will be the start of a whole new way of living.
Because the way of the world just does not cut it!
And we all, sooner or later, have to make up our minds on how we are going to live.
If we are going to call ourselves Christian
all around us - and within us - will sooner or later say:
well then why can’t we see it!
Show us you are a Christian!
because before I can see it, I won’t believe it!
and until now, I have not seen it!
“Your life looks no different than mine” says the atheist acquaintance.”
The way James used to be, before he came to believe in Jesus.
Truly believe in Jesus.
To the degree that he understood
that outside a life in Jesus
there is only one other way to live
the way of the world!
And so he writes this letter ...
And the letter is what it is
because James has become what he is
a Christian!
And he wants to explain to others what Christianity is all about.
A letter of concern
A letter of concern
But James’ letter is more than a
“how to be a Christian” manual!
James is writing to a people
who are faced with real world living.
And in the real world
people are tempted and tested in their resolve
to live life to the full.
In fact, much of one’s life is taken up by trying to work out
what “living life to the full” means
isn’t that so?
And there is a lot of help along the way:
For instance, Joel Osteen has claimed he knows the way:
He wrote a book, called “Living your best life now”.
And interestingly, his evaluation and his advice for Christian living
looks nothing like the advice James is about to give in his letter!
For Osteen it is about saying the right thing, about being rich and happy and healty … now!
Before you die … and then there is … … NOTHING!
For James it is coming to know who Jesus is
and understanding that he came to set us free from our slavery
of chasing after temporary pleasure and happiness
and that we can be satisfied and at peace
… even when we are poor and sickly
… and seemingly deserted by all
… and dying!
Look at verse 2
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,
You see?
James is saying ...
As I was growing up, with Jesus,
I soon became enslaved by worry and fear and anger and jealousy
Like everyone around us, we would hope for the day Messiah came
to overthrow the Roman overlords!
But not too quickly, mind you!
We lived in a world of oppression!
We wanted to set out and make posters that read: “Jewish lives matter!”
And nothing seemed to change when we went to church on Saturdays
as the law prescribed!
And by the way, for all of their shameful abandon of any moral order
the Romans knew how to throw a party!
Life was all about oppression in those days!
Our parents wouldn’t let us have any fun!
My friends’ dads used to joke about how their wives wear the trousers in their homes
The elders in Church knew the law back to front
but on Sundays after church we would often find them at the Tattersalls
We were living in a fake world
and because we were neither committed Christians,
nor full blown worldly atheists
our lives were mostly miserable!
To which James now says:
If only you knew what to make of it all ...
Look at verse 3
3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
It is as you see the false promise of pleasure and prosperity
that you will stand firm against it
and say: You are liars, you pagan propagators!
True happiness comes from living pure lives
the way Jesus wants us to be!
True happiness come from caring about those who are lost
and lonely, and sick, and poor!
True joy comes from being satisfied in God,
no matter how much money I make
or whether I have the latest Iphone or Samsung
True peace comes when I come to understand that
the more I resist the call to line up for the race to health wealth and happiness
the stronger, and richer, and happier er er I get!
True joy and peace and happiness, is found in Jesus!
9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation,
That is what wisdom is!
Verse 5
5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
Have you asked?
How do you pray, when you are less than happy?
what do you ask for?
Have you ever prayed for wisdom?
Not the kind of wisdom that will give you good marks in a test, so that you can get a great atar
so that you can get a great job
so that you can be rich ...
Are your prayers little more than shopping lists for the stuff you want?
And when you ask, do you trust God?
Or do you doubt God!
Like James was, when he doubted Jesus at first!
6 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
“Lord, give me good marks, please”
“Lord, let my sick child live.” Please!
God, let me win the lottery. Please!
And when God answers your prayer with a resounding “no!”
As he is able. Because, afterall, He is God, and we are not!
Then we disown Him! Then we say: I will not believe in Him anymore
as if our not believing in Him will mean He does not exist!! TUT TUT!
10 but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
11 For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.
No, loved ones!
Find your peace in the ceratinty that Jesus is our Saviour!
Come to gather the chosen ones of God
to enter into His glory - even now -
but for evermore!
Even now, and at just the right time!
And even now, for ever more!
12 Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
It won’t be easy!
No trial is!
Peter get’s it!
6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials
7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
James now gets it!
In our trials, we are purified!
It is not as if God sends trials on our way,
but He knows trials will come ...
indeed, like sea billows roll
wave after wave
crashing against a rock face of suffering
(such is this life, often, isn’t it?)
But in God’s strength, we face our trials
we hold firm to Jesus’ instructions of how to live
in the face of all adversity and temptation
and then we will rejoice!
And we will be happy, at last!
You see that?
13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.
14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.
Seeing temptation for what it is - the means to an end!(v14)
The Devil’s end purpose!
There is a progression, if you think about it!
14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.
15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
Think about it: From desire to temptation, to sin - to death
Even death, while we are still alive!
The death that comes with regret; with guilt; with the shame of having been caught out!
No, says James!
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
True peace and joy is from above!
From the same source as the One in whose image we are made!
It is from God
secured through Jesus!
The Jesus once did not know for who He was
but came to understand who He is!
18 By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.