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Scripture Reading Matthew 5:1-11
Welcome
Good Morning and thank you for being here this morning.
If you are new with us today, I am glad you are here today.
If you have any questions please find me after church or fill out a connection card with your contact information and I would love to get in contact with you.
We have a couple of announcements today.
We have an informational meeting today after church.
A we transition to what God has for us we want to make sure everyone is informed as much as possible.
We will discuss next steps and answer questions.
It will be here in the sanctuary.
Announcements
Women's Potluck Brunch.
Next Saturday at 10:00 am.
Small groups start up the second week of October
Prayers
God’s Direction for the Church
Those that are dealing with sickness and health issues.
Clara Barker - Hip Surgery Recovery
The Lost People in our lives.
Let us Pray
Introduction
We are continuing in James chapter 1 this morning, so go ahead and turn there while we recap where we are so far.
James is writing to dispersed believers and he is giving them encouragement and teaching them how to deal with suffering in their lives.
There was persecution going on and many of them were fleeing from this persecution.
Obviously this would have led to some hardships and trials.
James, when you read it in our bibles can look like bullet points of instruction.
Instruction on trials and then on gaining wisdom and then instruction to the rich and poor.
This really isn’t what James is trying to share with his readers.
James is providing a progression of thought to deal with suffering.
He starts with a change in mindset with regards to the trials themselves.
He give a purpose to them.
They just don’t make life miserable they develop and grow the believer into maturity and endurance.
Even to the point of lacking nothing.
He says to consider them joy or to rejoice in them.
This is not how a person naturally thinks about the hardships of life.
He then gives an example and the source of the wisdom, God.
A believer needs to live with this mindset.
He or she must see that they need to live in a wise way in order to deal with trials of life.
To live in a way that uses the knowledge and experience that we have with common sense.
This is the correct application of correct knowledge.
But he gives a warning and a caveat, the person must have confidence that God will provide the wisdom that is needed to live correctly in these trials.
We are not to be double-minded or divided between two loyalties.
We must not hesitate in asking.
When we do this God’s word says that he gives abundantly, without criticism.
James says a correct view of the world is required to live this life as a believer in this world.
He continues with a specific example of how this wisdom is applied and the difference it makes in the trial experienced.
Let us stand as we read our scripture this morning.
James 1:2–12 (CSB)
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
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.
6 But let him ask in faith without doubting.
For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, 8 being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, 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.
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.
What does it mean to be rich or poor?
James’ readers are warned about being double-minded or having divided loyalties.
It would be hard to think of an area of our world that is less divisive than money.
Wealth or the pursuit of is has been a sticking point and a stumbling block for a long time.
There have always been the haves and the have nots.
In our world today, the drive for wealth is tenacious.
It has almost no boundaries, people will compromise almost any and every aspect of their lives to gain more.
People will give up their families, their time, their health, their ethics, their morals.
They will beg for it, steal for it, they will destroy for it, they will kill for it.
It is so divisive.
There are two types of people in our world, those that have little and want more and those who have a lot and want more.
I am reminded of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 5:10–12 (CSB)
10 The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income.
This too is futile.
11 When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes?
12 The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.
Isn’t this still true?
We live in a culture that is never satisfied.
Never satisfied on any level.
Even though people will drive towards wealth, Jesus says in Matthew that we will always have the poor in the world.
This is true of our day and the time that James wrote this letter.
The believers were being persecuted and leaving behind much of their wealth and possessions.
Imagine being in the Ukraine today.
Forced out of your home and leaving behind everything you own.
To run for your life.
To be instantly poor beyond anything you have ever experienced.
This was a reality for many in the church.
But James is going to flip conventional, man’s wisdom, on its head.
Encouragement to the Poor
James 1:9–10 (CSB)
9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, 10 but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
The church had and always will have people in it of every economic class.
James speaks first to the poor and then to the rich but he does not say that having money or not having money is the issue.
The issue is not seeing the world with a Spirit filled world view.
To see the world with God’s wisdom.
It is not about having or not having but about what has value.
He starts with the poor.
“Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation.”
He is talking to Christian men and women.
Humble means a low or insignificant position.
The poor.
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