An Overview of the Mature — James 1:1-11

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit

[00:00:12] Nate Holdridge.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:19] Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:24] Starting a new study in God's Word today will probably take about 12 or 13 weeks to go through this five chapter

[00:00:33] Epistle in the New Testament is found at the end of your Bibles if you'd like to turn there James chapter

[00:00:38] One this morning and as you guys are turning there

[00:00:41] I wanted to put my own stamp of approval and excitement

[00:00:46] Upon the how not to read the Bible equipped conference that's coming up in a couple of weekends

[00:00:51] In the forward to the book that pastor Dan wrote

[00:00:56] Sean McDowell said this he said Dan's book is

[00:01:01] Practical it is interesting and it is honest

[00:01:05] And I think you're going to find that the material that we cover that weekend is going to greatly help you

[00:01:12] You know younger people especially are looking into God's Word and asking big questions about Scripture

[00:01:19] And as we know the Scripture is the foundation of our whole faith without this book without this Bible

[00:01:25] The second we begin to doubt it question it think that it doesn't speak to us today is inaccurate filled with errors is

[00:01:34] poison

[00:01:36] dangerous

[00:01:37] Something that human beings should not meditate upon or build their lives upon the second

[00:01:42] We begin thinking that way is the second that we begin losing our way as a people

[00:01:48] And so this conference is very important because it puts the Bible where it's supposed to be up there

[00:01:53] Above all things and helps us understand some of those trickier or difficult

[00:01:57] Passages that make us scratch our heads at times so I'm incurred I'm encouraging all of you excited to have all of you come out

[00:02:04] That weekend to that

[00:02:07] Conference alright, let's read our text today. We're gonna read it twice this morning

[00:02:12] We're gonna read the whole thing on the front end

[00:02:14] We're gonna read James 1 1 through 11 and and then we'll read it again as we move through this teaching

[00:02:20] So let's start out together James 1 verse 1

[00:02:24] James a servant of God and

[00:02:29] Of the Lord Jesus Christ

[00:02:33] To the 12 tribes in the dispersion

[00:02:37] greetings

[00:02:39] Count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds

[00:02:46] For you know that the testing of your faith produces stead fastness and let stead fastness have

[00:02:54] its full effect that

[00:02:56] You may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing

[00:03:02] If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask

[00:03:05] God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him

[00:03:11] But verse 6 let him ask in faith with no doubting

[00:03:16] For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind

[00:03:22] For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything

[00:03:28] From the Lord. He is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways verse 9

[00:03:34] Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his

[00:03:41] Humiliation because like a flower of the grass he will pass away

[00:03:47] For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass its flower

[00:03:52] Falls and its beauty parishes so also will the rich man

[00:03:57] Fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Let's pray together and ask

[00:04:05] The Lord the minister to us today from his word Lord. We thank you for this

[00:04:09] amazing book that in a couple of weeks we're going to set our minds upon and

[00:04:16] Lord we pray and ask that today you would speak to us from it

[00:04:22] Lord this little letter that James wrote almost

[00:04:26] 2000 years ago we asked Lord that you would use it to shape us shape our vision of

[00:04:31] where you are trying to take us as we

[00:04:34] Walk with you as we experience you

[00:04:37] So Lord we bow before you today. We ask and invite the presence of your spirit here in this moment

[00:04:46] We come Lord as a people in need

[00:04:52] Strengthen us we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I

[00:04:59] Think it would be hard for us to imagine

[00:05:02] How powerful how beautiful how wonderful it must have been to be part of that first

[00:05:10] wave of

[00:05:12] Christianity

[00:05:14] To be a Jewish person who your whole life had been told that a figure was coming

[00:05:21] some day

[00:05:22] to be a king

[00:05:24] Forever in the line of David and then to discover that he came and that his name was Jesus

[00:05:30] And that he was crucified and that he rose from the dead

[00:05:36] to discover all of that and to place your faith and trust in him in a

[00:05:41] powerful time and moment to be there in

[00:05:45] Jerusalem as

[00:05:46] The spirit is poured out upon the church and the gifts of the spirit are in full operation

[00:05:53] miracles happening

[00:05:55] thousands of people giving their lives to Jesus hyper

[00:05:59] Generosity

[00:06:00] Overcoming this brand new community of faith. I think it must have been such a powerful

[00:06:08] beautiful moment to have been alive

[00:06:12] Now Jesus had told these early people these early believers

[00:06:18] He'd said you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

[00:06:22] Judea a little further out

[00:06:24] Samaria even further out and to the ends of the earth

[00:06:27] But the problem is that things were so good there in Jerusalem. Why would you ever want to leave?

[00:06:35] Why would you want to leave when the spirit is so present and God is doing such a powerful work?

[00:06:40] And you've never felt love like this before and you're just seeing God do these radical things

[00:06:46] Why would you ever want to leave?

[00:06:49] well

[00:06:50] Quickly they gained a reason to leave in the form of persecution

[00:06:56] People began hating on that early group of believers and though the apostles were able to stay in Jerusalem

[00:07:02] And were safe many

[00:07:04] Everyday believers had to run for their lives James calls this group of people in the opening verse the dispersion

[00:07:13] Jewish

[00:07:14] Christians new

[00:07:16] Relievers who have run for their lives and for the gospel to the surrounding regions

[00:07:24] these people had now found themselves in cultures and

[00:07:29] Customs that were so different from what they had grown up in and they're asking a question

[00:07:37] How do we live?

[00:07:40] Life for Jesus in these distant lands. How do we do this?

[00:07:45] We've just left the paradise of revival and

[00:07:51] We are now in the desert of the nations

[00:07:55] How are we supposed to live? How are we supposed to do the mission that Jesus gave us?

[00:08:02] But how are we supposed to just function every day in life?

[00:08:07] How are we supposed to pay the bills?

[00:08:10] How are we supposed to earn a living? How are we supposed to carry out our everyday affairs for Jesus?

[00:08:18] They needed a vision for how to live now

[00:08:21] Fortunately these early dispersed believers had an older brother

[00:08:27] Back in Jerusalem

[00:08:29] His name we learn in the opening verse is James. I love that James

[00:08:36] calls himself the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ because all

[00:08:41] Indications are that this James was the half brother of Jesus

[00:08:47] That after Jesus was born Mary and Joseph went on to have a natural family and the

[00:08:53] Gospels tell us that the brothers and sisters of Jesus did not believe in Jesus

[00:08:58] Until after he rose from the grave, but James writes it man if I was writing this letter

[00:09:04] I would say to the church James the half brother of Jesus

[00:09:10] But what he does instead is he says James a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ

[00:09:16] And then one of his favorite words to use throughout the whole letter is the word brothers

[00:09:21] When he addresses the people

[00:09:23] So I'm a servant of Jesus

[00:09:27] I'm a brother James says to you and James knew the vision that these dispersed

[00:09:35] Believers needed to receive they needed a vision of

[00:09:40] Jesus that's what the book of James is the book of James is an exposition on

[00:09:48] The life the teaching the ministry of Jesus

[00:09:52] In fact one of the things that I did as I prepared to teach you the book of James is I just went through and my own

[00:09:58] Bible study software and I highlighted in red all the verses that sound like Jesus is teaching only from the sermon on the mount

[00:10:09] Every chapter there's something that James is

[00:10:12] Cross-referencing or alluding to from the life and the ministry and the teaching of Jesus

[00:10:18] It's like it's like James

[00:10:20] ingested Jesus

[00:10:22] Digested Jesus and reproduced Jesus in a pistol form for these believers and listen

[00:10:29] We just like that early generation. We need a vision for how to live life

[00:10:35] We need a vision

[00:10:37] You see we can say all day long that we're that God wants to change us

[00:10:40] We can say all day long that God wants to transform us

[00:10:43] But so often we import our definitions of what that looks like

[00:10:49] Into that vision of where God is trying to take us

[00:10:52] But we can't get to that destination

[00:10:55] We have to go to the place that God has prescribed and the book of James will show us a vision of the kind of life

[00:11:03] That the Holy Spirit is trying to produce in

[00:11:08] Us James steps forward as the voice to this early church saying this is how to live your life now

[00:11:16] Spoiler alert if you look in verse 4 he says to these believers he hints at his objective

[00:11:23] He says I want you to be perfect and complete lacking nothing

[00:11:30] Like don't you chuckle a little bit when you say that I was kind of imagining as I was thinking about this passage

[00:11:36] I was imagining somebody rolling into their life group and

[00:11:40] Saying to their life group, you know

[00:11:41] The Lord has like put something on my heart just things that I think God wants to do in my life

[00:11:47] And I imagine them saying to the group. I think that God wants to make us

[00:11:53] me and all of you here

[00:11:56] perfect and complete

[00:11:59] lacking in nothing and

[00:12:01] I was just kind of imagining how that would go down in the room

[00:12:04] I thought you know like there'd probably be like a little bit of like gentle rebuke, you know like hey brother

[00:12:10] You know you're being a little legalistic right now. We're a grace people, you know

[00:12:16] You're being a little too harsh

[00:12:18] You're you're setting the bar a little too high

[00:12:21] But here comes James the brother of Jesus an apostle in the early church

[00:12:26] And he says this is what I'm hoping for in your life that you would be perfect and complete

[00:12:31] Lacking nothing and when James says this

[00:12:34] He's actually just quoting from the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said in Matthew 548 you therefore should be perfect

[00:12:40] As your heavenly father is perfect

[00:12:42] now

[00:12:43] You don't need to get up and leave right now like oh man this pastor has gone off the rails

[00:12:48] He's starting to think that we will be perfect on this side of eternity no sin

[00:12:53] Error lists or whatever and if you think that if you're that guy, you're like yes

[00:12:57] I do think that I will be perfect on this side of eternity

[00:13:00] And I think I'm probably pretty close and maybe even I've already gotten there

[00:13:04] I would really love to talk with you after the service

[00:13:07] What James is saying what Jesus is saying is that yes one day when we meet our Lord and maker as believers face to face

[00:13:19] We will be changed and transformed to be just like him. We will become perfect

[00:13:23] But he is also saying to us that we should not have in our minds this thought that says I'm just gonna wait

[00:13:32] until that

[00:13:33] glorification moment and not care about

[00:13:37] Sanctification or maturity or wholeness today in fact that word perfect or complete can be translated that way wholeness or

[00:13:46] The word I'm using maturity. I

[00:13:49] Think that what James is doing in this letter is he is giving a sketch a

[00:13:55] profile a picture a

[00:13:58] Rendering of what maturity looks like should we walk with the Lord and submit ourselves to him?

[00:14:06] So

[00:14:07] That's what we're going to do as we look at this book

[00:14:09] So who should want to meditate on the book of James people who want to become more mature?

[00:14:15] Anybody here? That's you like man. I would love that more complete more whole as a human

[00:14:21] people who need a vision

[00:14:24] For what that looks like, you know, they say we really can't transform into something that we don't have a vision for

[00:14:30] That we're not able to see it's part of the reason why having a model example a mentor a teacher

[00:14:38] In your life is so important because when they're healthy and mature

[00:14:41] They give you a vision for where God might be taking you and and we need that vision

[00:14:47] So if you want that that's what the book of James is for

[00:14:50] Book of James is for people who are into becoming like Jesus

[00:14:55] Because they love their father and believe in the power of the Holy Spirit

[00:15:01] All right now James when he gives this vision of maturity in these five chapters

[00:15:06] There's three themes that he's gonna repeat over and over again. He's gonna talk about trials in lots of different ways

[00:15:13] He's gonna talk about wisdom in lots of different ways, and he's gonna talk about

[00:15:19] Wealth and poverty in lots of different ways

[00:15:21] And so that's why we're gonna look at all 11 verses of the first chapter this morning because he

[00:15:27] Breaks out those themes. He introduces those themes

[00:15:30] All right

[00:15:31] So here's the first thing that I want you to see in James's overview of maturity that we're looking at this morning

[00:15:37] I'll put it on the screen for you number one the mature

[00:15:40] Want everything that happens to them to make them more like Jesus?

[00:15:47] Okay, the mature want everything that happens in their lives to make them more like Jesus

[00:15:56] Let's read verse two through four together again. He says count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds

[00:16:07] For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and

[00:16:12] Let steadfastness have its full effect

[00:16:16] That you there it is again may be perfect and complete mature whole

[00:16:23] lacking

[00:16:24] Nothing

[00:16:25] All right, I just love this from James. It's like he just gets his cards out on the table

[00:16:29] He's very honest. He says total honesty right now. I've got a goal for you

[00:16:33] I've got a dream for you dispersed out there probably to the east of Jerusalem

[00:16:38] You believers my goal for you my dream for you is that you would come into a completion and a maturity a wholeness

[00:16:45] In the Christian life and experience yes, that is your final

[00:16:49] Destination when you meet Jesus when he returns for us as his people or after our death

[00:16:55] But I want you to pursue this constantly in your life James is saying and since being perfect and complete

[00:17:05] Lacking nothing is the goal

[00:17:07] What James says here in these first few verses is that it's possible for us to have joy in the face of

[00:17:14] trials

[00:17:16] Not because we're overjoyed by the fact that we're in trials like oh this is so exciting and it's very

[00:17:23] enjoyable to suffer a little bit that's not why but because we know what trials can

[00:17:30] Produce in our lives and because we want to be like Jesus

[00:17:34] We have a reason to rejoice when difficulties come into our lives because of what they can produce

[00:17:40] What can they produce according to James?

[00:17:44] Well, he says in verse 3 and 4 that trials as they test our faith can produce

[00:17:51] steadfastness

[00:17:52] Are this word steadfastness is important. It's a word in the Bible that is used to describe staying power

[00:18:00] resolve

[00:18:01] commitment

[00:18:03] Constancy and endurance a lot of people do not pass through trials with steadfastness

[00:18:10] It's more of a passive

[00:18:12] submission to the trial okay, the truck the trial is happening

[00:18:17] I'm just getting worked by it, but that's not what James is speaking of he's talking about an endurance that builds

[00:18:24] You know, you know maybe to put some skin on this. It's it's less like the

[00:18:30] Parent of little kids who are just saying all the time like oh kids. They're so hard

[00:18:37] They're so difficult, you know, they just do what they want to do and they're just like you carried along like like waves

[00:18:43] Beating down on them over and over again, but the person who instead says this is hard

[00:18:49] But I'm a parent and I'm going to parent. I'm gonna be active in this work

[00:18:55] I'm gonna throw my energy towards this work

[00:18:58] I'm going to be steadfast as I pass through this difficulty and trial

[00:19:06] James says that we should let steadfastness have its full effect in our lives

[00:19:10] Which is the perfect complete and lacking nothing. How did trials do that?

[00:19:16] Well, James says there in verse 3 that they test our faith

[00:19:21] They test our faith. What does that mean to have a trial?

[00:19:25] Test your faith. It does that mean that when a trial comes into your life

[00:19:30] There's Scott your father in heaven and he's saying alright. This is gonna prove whether they have

[00:19:37] Saving faith or not. I don't think that's what James is saying

[00:19:42] The word test is a word that means strengthen or steal to build resolve in

[00:19:48] Something I think what he's saying is is that trials if we let them have their full effect in our lives

[00:19:55] They can do a work of strengthening or tempering us that if we weren't in the trial

[00:20:02] We wouldn't be able to receive it, you know when you build a sky scraper

[00:20:07] They have to they have to temper the steel that goes into that structure heated up to incredible

[00:20:15] Temperatures cool it down heat it up again cool it down in order to strengthen that steel so that it can become

[00:20:23] skyscraper grade and in a sense it's like God is saying there's a work. I want to do through your life

[00:20:30] There are people I want to reach

[00:20:32] There's a world that I care for and love and

[00:20:36] In order for you to be strengthened to become what is needed to build that kind of life

[00:20:43] I'm going to use the trials in your life to temper you to strengthen you to build

[00:20:49] You up to what I'm trying to produce in your life

[00:20:53] And I love the way that James says it he says there are various

[00:20:57] Trials that do this. It's like James doesn't even try to list out all the kinds of trials that there are

[00:21:03] Because he could have just spent like thousands of words, you know getting into their health trials and

[00:21:08] Then there's financial trials and then there's emotional trials then there's a

[00:21:14] Relational trials then there's parenting trials just through that one out there

[00:21:18] There's all these different kinds of trials that we can go through but James says God can use the various trials to build

[00:21:24] Our lives so what is the goal? The goal he says is to become perfect and complete lacking nothing

[00:21:30] The process is to be tested by trials that can lead to wholeness and then what is the response?

[00:21:38] This is the one that trips us out the most the the response is to rejoice at the potential

[00:21:44] Of what trials can produce in us

[00:21:48] That's why he says to count it all

[00:21:51] joy when you fall into

[00:21:54] various trials

[00:21:56] Like I already said, this isn't some kind of

[00:22:01] psychotic happiness at

[00:22:03] the

[00:22:04] entrance of some major trial in your life like oh, this is so exciting right now

[00:22:10] You know, I just I've been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. Oh

[00:22:15] Praise the Lord, you know, it's not that

[00:22:18] This is not, you know, some kind of plastic

[00:22:22] false

[00:22:23] Response how's it going? Oh

[00:22:26] So good

[00:22:28] It's not that this is also not some weird name it and claim it

[00:22:39] Project

[00:22:41] What you want

[00:22:44] Manifestation mumbo jumbo. It's not that this is just saying and there are really hard things

[00:22:51] That I fall into in life

[00:22:54] They confuse me they stress me they press me

[00:22:59] They're painful to go through. I don't know why I go through them. I can't wait to not go through them

[00:23:07] But I am thankful. I'm like

[00:23:11] Accounting it that's the word that he uses. It's like an accounting term. I'm counting it as joy

[00:23:16] I might not feel it even but I'm counting it as joy because of what God can do in my life

[00:23:23] through this difficulty

[00:23:25] this to me to say it and

[00:23:28] In a way that I can understand is

[00:23:31] One of the most punk rock things I think you can do

[00:23:35] It's just a

[00:23:37] The hardship is coming in and I'm trusting the Lord

[00:23:43] The Jesus person that James envisioned in this letter is someone who thinks that God just might be doing his finest and

[00:23:52] Most beautiful work when they pass through trials

[00:23:55] This is a person who wants everything that happens to them to make them more like Jesus

[00:24:02] And so they rejoice at what trials might produce in them now now for a second. I just want to say this

[00:24:07] I don't think we should be super shocked by this

[00:24:11] Because if you think about what Christianity is

[00:24:14] It's the message of God so loving the world that he sent his only begotten son and when he sent his son. What happened?

[00:24:22] He was crucified

[00:24:25] Buried and then rose from the grave when we believe in him. What do we become class?

[00:24:31] sons

[00:24:32] sons we get the

[00:24:35] Adoption as sons. I think that's part of the reason it doesn't say sons and daughters is because we become

[00:24:41] Like Jesus before the father we get his position in other words

[00:24:47] Wouldn't it make sense that the God who still loves the world would send his

[00:24:53] sons and

[00:24:55] daughters into this world at times with a bit of difficulty and pain and suffering

[00:25:01] So that he could use us to reach our world. That's what James is saying

[00:25:07] A mature person says I want everything that happens to me

[00:25:12] To make me more like Jesus and some of you are going through terrible things right now

[00:25:18] I'll just let you know that if you were to share those things with me

[00:25:21] This would probably be the last verse that I would take you to right in that moment

[00:25:25] You know a lot of people have given

[00:25:29] Bad counsel by just flippantly throwing this out. Oh, you're in a trial

[00:25:34] Well, you should count it all joy then you know and trying to get people to act differently when they're in pain

[00:25:40] But when we're in our right mind and we're not in the midst of the trial to say this is this is the mentality

[00:25:45] I want to adopt when I'm in there and maybe right now you are in that trial and the Lord is trying to minister to you

[00:25:50] I'm doing something in your life

[00:25:54] Okay, so let's think about the next thing then that James mentions number two the mature

[00:25:59] Follow the father's wisdom no matter what the mature follow the father's wisdom

[00:26:06] No matter what he says in verse five

[00:26:14] If any of you

[00:26:17] Lacks wisdom

[00:26:18] Let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him

[00:26:24] 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

[00:26:31] That person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord

[00:26:35] He's a double-minded man

[00:26:37] unstable in all his ways, okay

[00:26:41] Like I said earlier James is unpacking his big three themes trials wisdom and poverty and wealth kind of put together

[00:26:49] And here he begins unpacking the theme of wisdom, but why does he do that right here?

[00:26:54] And why does he talk about it all throughout the letter?

[00:26:56] I think the big reason here is because when you're going through a trial and

[00:27:00] When you've got this apostolic word saying to you God can be using this to make you steadfast

[00:27:07] And hold and mature and complete let it have its perfect work in your life

[00:27:13] It can become confusing

[00:27:16] What is God trying to do I?

[00:27:19] Need wisdom about this. I need a perspective about this because I just

[00:27:24] Can't see it and sometimes we won't see it for many many years

[00:27:28] I'm convinced there are some things we will not see until all accounts are settled and we're staring the Lord face-to-face in eternity

[00:27:36] But there are times that we need wisdom from God God. What is it that you are doing or what is it that I should do?

[00:27:42] What should my response be

[00:27:45] As I'm passing through this trial and if you think about James's audience, I'm sure there were moments. They were very disoriented

[00:27:52] There's indications through the letter that they were experiencing a housing crisis

[00:27:56] That they were having a difficult time finding shelter because of their Christianity

[00:28:02] They were going through some kind of light economic persecution

[00:28:06] It seems like and they're living far from Jerusalem far from Jewish culture that they'd grown up in and known and

[00:28:13] Experienced and loved they're just in a new place if they're feeling an experiencing culture shock

[00:28:19] I was just messaging last week with

[00:28:22] Pastor Josh Shively who we sent out a few months ago to Thailand and he was just sharing with me about the reality of culture shock

[00:28:30] The reality of being in a different place where everything is different. He's like bro is

[00:28:35] stressful just to go to the grocery store

[00:28:39] You know everything is just done so differently and these people they were experiencing all of that on top of

[00:28:47] persecution for being believers

[00:28:49] They were I'm sure disoriented and they needed

[00:28:54] Wisdom so James said if you don't have wisdom as you're going through those difficulties and pains in life

[00:29:00] He said ask God to me

[00:29:02] This is an echo of what Jesus said when he said we should ask and seek and knock

[00:29:07] He's saying ask God and God he says in verse 5 will give generously to all without reproach

[00:29:13] And it will be given to him does that mean that every question that we have about our trials will be answered

[00:29:20] I don't think so

[00:29:22] But doesn't mean that if there is perspective or wisdom or insider

[00:29:26] Direction that our Heavenly Father wants to give us that he will give it to us

[00:29:30] I think that's what James is alluding to that God is the source of wisdom go to him ask him for the wisdom

[00:29:38] That you need now we know that we want to do this

[00:29:42] We know that we should do this if you ask ten Christians on the street

[00:29:46] Would you like to pray more than you do would you like to be closer with God than you are?

[00:29:50] I don't know it probably be like eight out of ten nine out of ten would say yeah, that's what I want

[00:29:55] But why do we sometimes not ask God for wisdom?

[00:30:01] I think sometimes in our society and culture we don't ask God for wisdom because we think of everything in very naturalistic terms

[00:30:08] It's all on us. God's not involved the supernatural

[00:30:12] I might believe in it, but it but is is God really

[00:30:16] Practicing doing anything in everyday life. It doesn't seem that way

[00:30:19] I think he just wound everything up and just said you know have at it. That's not the reality of scripture though

[00:30:25] Another reason that we might not ask is because we don't yet have James's perspective on what trials can produce

[00:30:33] As long as we think these are just all terrible that nothing good can come of them

[00:30:38] Then we might not ask the Lord for wisdom. We might only be asking for rescue

[00:30:45] Also, we might be

[00:30:47] surprised

[00:30:48] That God would allow us to pass through the valley of the shadow of death

[00:30:54] Sometimes you see this with someone who's brand new to Jesus

[00:30:57] It's like their whole life changes and it's all just good

[00:31:00] Everything is up into the right in their lives

[00:31:02] And then they go through their first big trial and it's like wait what and a lot of times

[00:31:09] It's because they were in a Christian environment a church environment where that really wasn't talked about

[00:31:15] They kind of the idea was Jesus will make your life fantastic

[00:31:18] And then when life isn't fantastic

[00:31:22] It's what's wrong with me and that will drive someone away from God rather than to God

[00:31:28] Or here's another reason we sometimes don't ask God because we're going through the trial

[00:31:34] We think to ourselves well God must not be that powerful then

[00:31:39] If this is happening to me he must be weaker

[00:31:43] Then I thought

[00:31:45] So why go to him?

[00:31:47] Or we might think that he cannot be bothered with our small

[00:31:53] Little issues, you know, he's got bigger fish to fry. He's saving the world and I'm dealing with a

[00:32:00] Child who won't go to sleep when I tell them to go to sleep. Why would he care?

[00:32:07] But James said in verse 5 the father gives generously to all without reproach

[00:32:12] That means that God is not going to rebuke you

[00:32:16] When you seek him for wisdom about the stuff that you're going through

[00:32:22] now for me, I've found that

[00:32:24] Usually when the Lord begins to give that wisdom it comes either directly from the Bible or

[00:32:30] It comes from really godly people or

[00:32:33] It comes directly from the spirit in my prayer life

[00:32:37] And I've found that the best wisdom that God gives is like a combination of all three of those things

[00:32:42] There it is in the word

[00:32:44] Godly people in my life are

[00:32:46] Doubling down on it and the spirit is bearing witness to it as I cry out to him in prayer

[00:32:54] But James gives a warning

[00:32:56] He says when you're asking God for that wisdom

[00:33:00] You better do so he says in verse 6 in faith with no doubting and then he gives like James loves to do this thing where he

[00:33:07] Like appeals to nature he gives examples from nature and here's our first one. He says because this guy that's doubting

[00:33:12] He's like a wave that's tossed around in the ocean

[00:33:17] And he says that guy should not expect to receive anything

[00:33:21] From the Lord if he has that

[00:33:23] Unbelief in his heart. What does James mean when he says this? Okay?

[00:33:27] Here's how a lot of people take this what James means is that like when you go to God for for wisdom

[00:33:34] You got a really really really

[00:33:38] believe you got a really

[00:33:41] Think that he can give you the wisdom

[00:33:45] That might be what James is saying

[00:33:47] But I think there's like a clue in what James says if you read the whole paragraph

[00:33:51] He says because that guy is a double-minded man

[00:33:55] That person is a double-minded man unstable in all his ways that word faith can mean trust what you have here is a guy

[00:34:02] Who here's what's happening? He's saying I'm going through a trial. I

[00:34:07] Don't know what I should do with the next steps are I think I want God's wisdom

[00:34:12] I'm gonna go to God for that wisdom, but I'm gonna have an opt-out clause

[00:34:18] And if I don't like the answer that God gives

[00:34:23] Then I'll just do what I want to do

[00:34:25] And what James says is God isn't giving wisdom to that person

[00:34:31] God isn't giving wisdom to that double-minded

[00:34:34] Man because what God is looking for is a person who says I'm gonna follow the father's wisdom no matter what

[00:34:41] If it's hard if it's painful if it's contradictory to what I'm feeling I am going to do it

[00:34:48] If it is the wisdom of the Lord Jesus alluded to this when he talked about the man who is trying to serve two masters

[00:34:54] He said it's impossible

[00:34:56] That's what James seems to be alluding to and he says when this happens. It's like a wave-like

[00:35:03] Chaos comes into every area of your life

[00:35:06] I think what James is saying is that God cannot be expected to lead this unledible person

[00:35:13] This would be like a child a student showing up for tutoring

[00:35:19] every single day and

[00:35:21] Then the tutor is there the teacher is there saying this is how you do the problem this how you do the problem in every single day

[00:35:26] The child says I'm not gonna do it that way. I don't want to receive your teaching

[00:35:32] I don't want to receive your direction eventually that tutor is just gonna say hey

[00:35:36] I'm glad you're glad to have you here, you know, you can take a beat

[00:35:38] I'm not gonna spend my time

[00:35:41] Telling you how to work out these equations how to answer these problems because clearly you're not interested in what I have to say

[00:35:48] James is saying when we come to the Lord, we need to trust the Lord when we ask

[00:35:53] We need to be willing to follow the father's wisdom no matter what and it's just been in my heart today

[00:36:00] At this point of the teaching to just say

[00:36:04] Let's take a moment

[00:36:06] To say to God right now

[00:36:08] I want your wisdom in my life and I will do whatever you want. Can you say that to the Lord?

[00:36:15] Lord we want your wisdom

[00:36:18] We're praying God that you would show us what to do how to do it who to be and

[00:36:24] Lord we're saying we will do it

[00:36:26] No matter what thank you Lord in Jesus name

[00:36:30] Okay, let's look at the last little section verse 9 through 11. Here's my last point the mature

[00:36:37] They live based on truer further and better

[00:36:42] Realities, okay, let's read verse 9 through 11 again. He says let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation

[00:36:50] Because like a flower of the grass he will pass away for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass

[00:36:57] Its flower falls its beauty perishes

[00:37:00] So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuit?

[00:37:04] So remember James's three themes trials wisdom now wealth and poverty

[00:37:10] And what he says here is that the lowly brother this means a Christian who they're not well off

[00:37:17] He says this guy should rejoice in his exaltation. What does that mean? That means if you're a

[00:37:24] Christian who is in poverty if you're a Christian who you know, he's like you can't find a place to live all that stuff

[00:37:31] He says one thing you can do is you can celebrate that that's not how it's gonna be forever for you

[00:37:37] There will come a moment of exaltation

[00:37:41] or your whole situation changes and you enter into glory and

[00:37:45] You won't even know what poverty is like at that point

[00:37:48] And then he says and then there are rich Christians well off believers

[00:37:54] And he said what they should rejoice in is their humiliation

[00:37:59] That there will come a day where all that they've worked for here in this world all that they've built up

[00:38:05] it's just gonna

[00:38:07] Burn away and they're gonna enter into eternity like the lowly brother

[00:38:11] And when they're walking down the street in glory

[00:38:14] No one is gonna say like do you know who that guy is? That's the CEO of like nobody's gonna be saying that

[00:38:21] It's gonna be even Stephen. We're all just like we are so

[00:38:27] Blessed that we're even here. That's what James seems to be saying to these people

[00:38:34] He's talking about a coming change of status. That's why I'm saying that the mature person whether they're

[00:38:43] Well off or whether they aren't

[00:38:47] They say I'm gonna live my life though based on truer

[00:38:52] Further and better realities

[00:38:56] Now I recognize that it's sometimes hard for us in like the modern Western Church to categorize ourselves

[00:39:02] Really well like what what am I you know? Am I the am I poor am I rich am I like I don't see a lot of whole lot of

[00:39:09] Middle-class talk in the Bible like who who am I where am I it's hard for us. I won teacher who

[00:39:17] Went into the ministry, but his father was very wealthy

[00:39:20] And he tells his story about a point where his dad wanted to have like a little family reunion. So he flew

[00:39:27] My friend and his brother

[00:39:29] on a private charter jet down to Mexico so that they could meet him

[00:39:35] on his private yacht that he had sailed down there and he hired a crew to

[00:39:42] Wait on them during their vacation out at sea and they would go fishing and they'd catch stuff

[00:39:48] And then the crew would clean it and cook it and all that and one night he's like it was I was just sitting there

[00:39:53] It was so beautiful

[00:39:55] The Sun was setting the staff was doing all their stuff and I just said to my dad

[00:40:01] I said dad. What's it like to be rich?

[00:40:04] Do people treat you differently?

[00:40:07] And he said my dad turned his head so quickly and looked at me and said I'm not rich. I

[00:40:14] Know people who are rich

[00:40:17] But I'm not one of them

[00:40:20] We just the way we do it is it's like whoever's got more than me those are the rich people

[00:40:26] But the reality is for most of human history and most of the world today

[00:40:32] Pretty much most of us sitting here in this room. We are we would be in that wealthy brother category

[00:40:37] And James is looking at us and he's saying hey

[00:40:41] That's not who you are at the end of the day

[00:40:46] That's not the thing that defines you

[00:40:49] You need to live your life based on better and further and truer

[00:40:56] Realities it's healthy for us to recognize the transient temporary nature

[00:41:03] of life today

[00:41:05] It's just so important. It's so freeing for us now

[00:41:09] I was thinking about this

[00:41:10] I thought you know we probably have a lot of people in this church

[00:41:13] You might be able to categorize yourself in one category or the other

[00:41:16] But probably a lot of us you're like I don't know what I am because I get it Nate like when I'm

[00:41:22] At home at the end of a long day and I sit down with my favorite snack that they imported to my favorite

[00:41:28] Grocery store and I turn on my high definition television and stream Netflix onto my high definition TV

[00:41:34] I get that like I'm wealthy

[00:41:37] But also there's times where some kind of financial tragedy hits me and I don't know how to pay my rent

[00:41:44] And I feel like I'm paycheck to paycheck, you know

[00:41:47] So you're kind of like what what am I and maybe you might say to yourself

[00:41:51] So I guess I just take this passage and I like dismiss the whole thing

[00:41:55] And what I would say to you is no you have the blessing of applying both

[00:42:01] Categories to your life. So, you know sometimes I'm the lowly brother sometimes. I'm the wealthy brother

[00:42:07] But neither of them are my final destination

[00:42:11] That's not who I am fully and totally at the end of the day

[00:42:16] So James starts out this letter

[00:42:19] This exposition of Jesus's life and teaching

[00:42:23] By getting after all three of these themes now I want to warn you as we go through the book of James together

[00:42:30] Like if you're not challenged, I'm not teaching this book correctly. I

[00:42:35] Think I've told this story before but when each summer when our family goes to Lake Tahoe for a couple of weeks

[00:42:42] Everything that I wear is like cozy clothing

[00:42:46] Like I don't wear blue jeans one time that we're there everything that I have has an elastic waistband basically

[00:42:54] and

[00:42:55] When we get back

[00:42:57] It's always like the moment of truth

[00:42:59] You know when I put the the freshly washed jeans on for the first time is like

[00:43:04] I had a really good time and vacation

[00:43:10] You're gonna have moments like that as we go through the book of James

[00:43:14] Where you just feel like there's a gap between what James and visions

[00:43:21] And what I am and what I want to tell you today is like that's okay

[00:43:26] That's okay

[00:43:28] Did we think we were gonna approach a book that says like the Holy Spirit is trying to remake you through and through to become

[00:43:34] More and more like Jesus and then like on day seven of our Christian life get there

[00:43:40] No, this is a long

[00:43:42] Process God loves you God cares for you

[00:43:46] So if that guy came to your life group and said I

[00:43:50] Think the Lord wants to make us perfect and complete lacking nothing. I hope your answer would be

[00:43:55] He loves me when that's happening and when it's not happening

[00:43:59] But I want it to happen. I want to grow to be more and more like the Lord and Master

[00:44:07] That I serve amen

[00:44:09] Thank you for listening if you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monterey

[00:44:17] Please visit Calvary comm you can also find books teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at Nate Holdrich comm

[00:44:27] Thanks again for tuning in. See you next week