"Excuse Me -- Can I Get Some Directions?"
James 1:5-7
OPEN: Today we are continuing in our study in the book of James. Last we introduced the book and took a look at the topic just the first couple of verses. James started out by talking about getting a different perspective on our problems. He told us to consider it pure joy when we have problems of various kinds. He's trying to teach us how we can have a different perspective on our problems -- how we should be profiting from our problems.
How do you profit from your problems?
You realize what they are from heaven's perspective -- they are a test. You remember from last week, we looked at a number of times throughout the Bible where it says God is a testing God. Problems situations are ordained by God to test us -- not so he can find how we are doing, but so that we can find out how we are doing.
Let me show you how this plays out in spiritual formation:
"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away." (Luke 8:11-13)
That little phrase "a time of testing" is a very interesting phrase. It is a crucial part of God's design for people so that the reality of their faith, what it really is, can be made manifest. The word "time" here is not chronos which means chronological time, like right now it's 6:35 or so, it's not chronological time in the sense of calendars and watches. It is kairos, that's a different word. That means a destined time, a time of opportunity, a circumstance, a particular season. There is often a time of testing when a person says they receive the word. The test is different for every person -- because the revelation which we need to discover is different for each of us. I think the tests focuses on an area of our life which we are reluctant to give over to Christ's Lordship -- there are areas in which we face problems and difficulties to help us to discover that we have not yet surrendered as much as we claim -- or they are areas in which we are self-deceived into thinking that we have surrendered but in reality we haven't. In this verse there are people who believe they have received the Word but their faith is shallow. Now they may not know that, or they maybe unwilling to be honest about it -- so there is a time of testing to help them discover it. Because there is no root -- they fall away.
So our problems have a purpose - all of them. What are some of those purposes?
Problems Come To Test The Strength Of Our Faith
Problems Come to Humble Us
Problems Teach Us To Find Answers In A New and Different Way.
Problems Help Keep Us Focused On The Glory of Heaven
Problems Teach Us How To Assist Others Who Are Experiencing Problems
Problems Teach Us How To Love God With All Our Heart
Ok so we know that God uses problems to test us and to teach us -- that doesn't necessarily mean that we know how to respond to problems properly. If Problems are a test -- How can I be sure to learn what God wants me to learn?
- Provide An Environment In Which God Can Accomplish His Purpose In Your Life.
Not every student learns the same thing in the class room. And it's not necessarily the fault of the teacher. Sometimes there is something about the student -- it might be his home or family environment - it might have something to do with study habits or it might have something to do with his attitude towards wanting to learn and mature. Every student has a unique personality and temperament. There is an environment in which God works that makes learning from the problems in our life possible. I'm going to call it the Path to Maturity -- because ultimately that what the Lord is trying to bring about in your life and mine -- maturity. That's what it says in verse 4: Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
The Path to Maturity:
Joyous Attitude: Verse 2, "count it all joy...or total joy, or sheer joy, or unmixed joy, or pure joy...when you fall into various trials." James takes joy and trails and jams them together. And something inside of us goes, "tilt" Irrational, right? How in world can James combine joy and trials together? And by the way -- this is something that we are to do before we get to the point of actually being in the trail. If we are considering it considering it joy --we are carrying joy into the trail that facing on the front end of it. We are "in joy" before we get into the trail -- and we carry joy into the trail with us. And as we come out on the other side of the problem -- our joy has not diminished. This is not manufacturing a false joy in the midst of a problem. This is establishing a joyful attitude on the front end and not loosing it as you go through the trail you are facing. If you don't have joy on the front of the trial -- you're not going to find it in the midst of the trail. If I were to rewrite this verse I would have say "Consider it all joy when you avoid problems of many kinds" - it would make me happy if I can avoid facing a trail or a test, right? You remember when the teacher walked into the room and said, "Today's test is canceled." Celebration time, right?
Now listen to me for a moment because I really want you to catch what is happening here -- this is just so important. Because from the typical way that we see problems this is impossible and ridiculous but what I really want you to get a hold of is why God says this -- this is about freedom. This is the typical way in which the average person lives their life: They wake up in the morning and they are thinking about their problem. They go into the bathroom to shower and brush their teeth and they are thinking about their problem. They go into the kitchen and for breakfast and they are thinking about their problem. They get into their car and they are thinking about their problem --(you might turn the radio on for a moment to help drown it out but it's still there) You arrive at work -- you go to lunch -- you drive home --you eat supper -- you watch tv -- you get into bed - you drift off to sleep and all the time you are thinking about your problem.
Our amazing God knows exactly what kind of tests we need - the exact moments when we need them and the exact duration and intensity that is required in order to bring his desired results in our life.
Secondly, there is another ingredient
-- An Understanding Mind.
James says "because you know" Your attitude is determined by your understanding. You can face pressure and still be positive. In fact that's the only way a Christian should face pressure. It's not just a possibility -- it's a requirement. Rejoicing in the midst of a problem is not based on the power of positive thinking -- it is based on what you know -- on revelation of truth. It's based on what we know of about God's sovereignty, His power, His wisdom, His love, His mercy, His grace, His character, His faithfulness, His plan - Have an understanding mind that knows that God is producing something in your life. Look at what it says in your Bibles -- testing results in what? perseverance -- leads into maturity. Maturity leads into completeness. Completeness results in you not lacking anything.
If you face trails and not know that God is going to produce something on the other side of it -- you will not become better -- you will become bitter. You will get stuck on the "Whys" Why God? Why now? Why me? You need to know that trials produce endurance, that is staying power, persevering power.
Thirdly
- A Submissive Will.
Verse 4 (NIV translation is a little weak) It's an imperative KJV and NASB -- "Let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Ill the way a silversmith produces silver is that he heats up a chunk of silver ore until it produces a spongy kind of liquid molten rock and as he heats the fire the impurities imbedded with silver rise to the top. And he takes a tool and draws it across the surface scraping off the impurities. Then the next day when he arrives in his shop, he heats up the fire again and puts the fire to the rock and the remaining impurities rise to the top again and he removes those impurities and keeps this process up until he can look into what remains and see a perfect reflection of his face. He knew the more he could his reflection in the silver, the purer the silver became. So when James is talking about testing -- he literally lights the fire underneath us -- as he lights the fire what comes bubbling to the surface are the impurities -- the remaining sin in our life. We all say, "Boy I wish I could get rid of the sin in my life." God say, "No problem," and he starts heating up the fire. The gentle silversmith begins to heat things up and as these things rise to the top - he wipes them and he wipes them and the thing he is looking for is to be able to stand over you and see his own reflection in your life. He wants to see himself in you. He wants to see holiness. He wants to see His holy character being reflected back at him. So James says "Let endurance have is perfect result" -- cooperate with what he is doing -- be submissive to the refining process. The word perseverance or in some translations endurance: hupomone -- hupo = under meno -- remain or to stand. In other words -- as these pressure or trails come upon me, I am able to stand and hold the weight. As more and more weight is put upon me I can stand up under it. Now everybody's inclination is to run -- and James is looking at us and saying -- "Don't run -- stay there."
What's the Goal of the Test?
Endurance though the trail (victory) which leads you into maturity.
In other words, let the trial come and let it bring the hupomone -- endurance -- perseverance -- toughness - maturity...spiritual maturity. Let it do what God wants it to do. Let it humble you. Let it wean you from the world. Let it call you to eternal hope. Let it reveal what you really love. Let it teach you to value God's blessing. Let it enable you to help others. Let it develop strength in you so that you can be used for greater ways in the future. Let it discipline you, if that means your purification. In other words, let it do what God wants it to do. Don't fight it. So this should change the way that we pray -- Instead of praying "God help me get out of this problem -- God please take this problem away from me -- God please put an end to this." God show me how to bear up under this. So the right attitude, then, in going into a trial a joyous attitude. The right mind is a knowing mind that understands God's purpose. And a submissive will that eagerly and anxiously accepts it, knowing that through trials we come to be like Christ. That's the path to maturity.
So you might say -- fine, "I understand that trials are my test and I understand that I need to have certain attitudes during the problem so that God can accomplish what he wants to achieve. But that doesn't mean that I always know what I'm supposed to be learning, or how I'm supposed to be responding." When you are confused what do you need? Wisdom right? -- clear direction. You might understand that your problems are times of testing and you might have adjusted your attitudes to bring them into conformity to what James says here but still need some guidance or direction. Have you ever had a situation when you needed directions to a destination? It's happened to me more than once: I'll be somewhat unsure which road to take so I'll pull over and ask someone for directions. They'll start telling me about stop signs, and "rights" and "lefts" and as I'm listening, it dawns on me they really don't have a clue how to get there. But they'll still go on and on telling me the direction they think I should go. I thank them politely and drive away -- often more confused than before I stopped. I've learned over the years that when I do need to stop and get directions -- I always ask more than one person. It's amazing how many times I've received directions from someone only to find out they were taking me the exact opposite way that I needed to go. We all need a map we can trust. We all need a guide that's reliable.
So James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."
Know That Your Savior Desires To Provide What You Need.
Now we could take that word "wisdom" out because it would be true for anything that is good for us. -- In other words we could say, "If anyone lacks strength, patience... If anyone lacks anything good -- James tells us that all good gifts come down from the Father of the heavenly lights -- You should ask God who gives generously without finding fault and it will be given to him. - One of the attributes of God is that he loves to give -- he is the opposite of stingy. He loves to help people and give and give and give. When you love someone you don't want them to give to you - you want to give to them. We have a God who loves to give.
- without finding fault (KJV says, and upbraideth not) - When God gives -- he doesn't have a bad attitude. He doesn't give begrudgingly -- he doesn't bring up the fact that you don't deserve it. He doesn't go way back into your past and say -- "Well now you need me -- but do you remember when . . . ?" He gives and He gives and He gives. That's His nature as a giving God. He gives sincerely, He gives without hesitation, He gives without mental reservation. He is not giving reluctantly, that's what it means. He isn't saying, "Well, I shouldn't be doing this, but... I'm going to do it, but I sure hope you appreciate it." He isn't playing games about your unworthiness. He isn't reminding you about how undeserving you are. He is good and He is giving and He just keeps giving...holding back nothing.
If you lack wisdom, you're commanded to ask God who gives to all men freely and liberally, holds back nothing and when you ask...at the end of verse 5...it shall be given him, it says.
No wisdom (and this is a promise) needed for the believer's perseverance through a trial is ever withheld from that believer who asks.
Isn't that a wonderful promise? I hope you got that. No wisdom needed for a believer's endurance through a trial is ever withheld from the believer who asks. Sometimes we don't ask. We do everything else but ask God. Sometimes we ought to be found on our knees crying out from our hearts for God to give us His direction. He's saying "Don't live without what you need -- keep asking -- continually asking -- because God loves to give to you." Don't be people of prayer because it what is expected of you -- run to your Heavenly Father because he loves to provide what you need. After giving us his Son how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? James gives a promise -- "It will be given to you."
Prov. 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.
Don't look to yourself for answers. Ask God for direction and wisdom. when you go through the trials of life, whatever they might be, it is the intention of God that you recognize the bankruptcy of human reason and the answers that you might get from other people...and I think about Job who tried to get answers from everybody around him and everybody gave him the wrong answer. And the right answer is always available at the hand of God if we seek from Him to receive that. When you go through a trial, the place to go is to God. That's much more important than running to your friends for answers and getting into the same situation Job got into. I believe the promise of God in this verse is one of the greatest promises in all the Scripture, if not the single greatest promise to a believer living in this world and that is that if he needs wisdom, God gives it to him. I mean, what more is there than that? What more could we want than the divine insight to understand and respond properly to every trial of life?
Now what kind of wisdom are we talking about? We're not talking about philosophical speculation, we're talking about doing the right thing. We're talking about understanding what's happening with the mind of God. We're talking about understanding what impurities God is trying to bring out of the silver of your life. When you say, "I need wisdom -- I need direction," what are you asking for? You're asking for the right thing to do -- what's the proper response -- but not according to man or culture or what other people think -- but what God wants you to do. If God is the silversmith and you are his precious metal --and the Lord has been applying heat in some area of your life - the wisdom you need to discover is "Lord what impurity are you are trying remove from my life with this fiery trial I am facing?" You run to him in prayer and seek his face and ask for the wisdom you need for the problem you are facing. Ill of Martin Luther during the first part of the 16th century spawned the Reformation in which one of the primary principles is the priesthood of every believer -- that we do not need a mediator to go between us and God. That there is a new and a living way to approach him -- because the curtain has been torn from the top to the bottom. It's amazing that the people who know this the best sometimes do it the least. You come to the living God who gives generously without finding fault.
- But note there is a condition: But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
Respond to God's Guidance With Total Faith
Now he says we must believe and not doubt. Doubt is not unbelief -- doubt is something else. A person who doesn't believe doesn't doubt. He doesn't believe -- period. There is unbelieving on one side of the spectrum -- there is believing on the other side of the spectrum and in between there is doubt. That word means "Sometimes you believe and sometimes you don't believe" Sometimes you think God is going to come through -- and other times you think -- he doesn't care -- he doesn't hear -- this isn't going to happen -- you can't really trust the direction he trying to lead you - you try to go in two directions at the same time. How many of you have a GPS device in your car at this point? Let me ask you a question about it: Do you always the directions it gives you? No -- because oftentimes you know a better way to go than what it tells you. Sometimes it will map out a path and you know a shorter way -- or you know there is likely to be heavier traffic if you go the way it is telling you. So I'm a bit of a skeptic when I respond to the GPS. (besides that I'm a guy -- who hardly ever really needs directions) Some of us treat God like He's a GPS device. We pray - we get a sense of what God is saying in response -- and then we begin to weigh it out and compare it to our desires -- our perspective -- our ideas -- our way of looking at things.
- It's just one more opinion to throw into the mix as I'm considering all my different options. "It's possible I could follow God's direction for me in the midst of my trial -- but Hey I have to consider all my options carefully." They really don't have any real confidence that God's wisdom is the right choice.
Folks listen
-- God's answer in the midst of your trail is not the "right" choice for you --
it's the "only" choice for you.
If you respond to what he is saying to you in the midst of your trail -- I can just about guarantee that you will talk yourself into circling right back to the very same spot that he trying to get you beyond. I mean, how do you think you ended up in the place where you are anyway? How did you get to this difficult spot anyway? Did you get there by wholeheartedly trusting God?-- by wholeheartedly obeying His Word? By wholeheartedly seeking His face? By unreservedly responding to what He has told you? By following His direction for your life? So many times we get to the difficult place because we don't honor God as God. I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac singing over and over again, "You Can Go Your Own Way" Not if you want to follow Jesus. Not if you claim Him as Lord. If you need direction in the midst of your trail --if you need wisdom -- ask Him but when He gives it to you -- don't doubt. Don't debate. Don't weigh it out against the wisdom of your own perspective.
Wave of the Sea - Ill -- The Perfect Storm -- waves 30-40 feet high One moment you are on top of the wave and then it comes all the way back down again. James says -- the person who doubts -- lives that way. One moment they are way up high -- the next they are way down low. They live up one moment and down the next. That's the reward that comes from doubt. And that's a fearful way to live. The worse seas I've ever been on have been 6-8 feet and I was praying all the way in. Ill of getting caught in a sudden storm and fighting the seas all the way in. I finally pulled up behind a whale sightseeing ship and parked on the roll of water it was throwing up behind it. The seas were wild all around me but I rode that all the way back into the harbor in perfect comfort. Would it have made sense for me to choose to get tossed about in my little boat when there was a way to enjoy the ride in comfort?
That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. The word double-minded really translates "two-souled" two minds, a soul divided between God and the world, trusting and not trusting, believing and not believing, a friend of the Lord and a friend of the world. John Bunyan in the classic Pilgrim's Progress called him, Mister Facing Both Ways. This is a person who is confused and doesn't know which way to turn. Bunyan described something that is physically impossible to do, right? Nobody can face two directions at the same time. James is saying that it is spiritually impossible as well. And yet many people try! Now a double-minded person is not someone who renounces God, but he acts as if God doesn't exist -- doesn't care or isn't capable of giving the direction that seems right in his own eyes. Because he doesn't have enough faith in God -- no true loyalty -- his whole life is one of vacillation.
- But here is the point -- now catch this -- this person stays stuck in the trail. He doesn't really move forward, because he doesn't really know which direction to go.
There is a solution: Have a single heart. If you want to pass the stress test -- you need single-hearted devotion to the Lord "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deut. 6:5). There is no other way to truly love Him, trust Him, or serve Him. He has always had that kind of devotion towards you.
