SPEAKER_00: Hello, I am Anthony Garcia.
SPEAKER_00: I am so grateful that you tuned in to our social media or to our video ministry here.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for taking the time to listen to these messages.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that they're a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any other questions or ways that we can minister to you, I would be glad to connect with you.
SPEAKER_00: You can do so through the information below.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again, and I hope this message is a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_00: But for this morning, we're in James, and if you remember last week in the book of James, Pastor James here, he established that in this life we will, we will have trials.
SPEAKER_00: It's not if, it's when, when you fall into various trials, when you face afflictions, when you face difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is a trial?
SPEAKER_00: A trial, it's anything that you need God's grace to persevere through.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that we need God's grace to persevere through.
SPEAKER_00: We've all have been there.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in the storm, whether that's difficulty at work, whether that's difficulty in relationships, whether that's difficulty with our physical health, whether that's difficulty financially, whether that's difficulty from all of the above and all the pressures of life.
SPEAKER_00: There are trials in this life and we need God's grace to persevere through them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what else did we learn about trials last week?
SPEAKER_00: We learned that we can approach each trial with joy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not yippee, my car broke down this week, right?
SPEAKER_00: This is an ever-present joy that recognizes God is doing something with this trial.
SPEAKER_00: He might show up in the middle of it, he might change up the situation entirely, but through it all, he is going to grow me up in maturity.
SPEAKER_00: If I approach the trial according to his will.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: And so we learn that trials are gonna come without the testing, without the trials, we cannot mature.
SPEAKER_00: And so today we're gonna turn our attention back to James and we're gonna continue to build upon these verses.
SPEAKER_00: And so, if you would, I'll invite you to stand one more time together and look with me in James, and for sake of context, let's go ahead and read verse number two, and we're gonna read down through verse number eight this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what James says My brethren, these are believers in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or various all sorts of trials.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing this, this is what you need to know: that the trying of your faith, the testing of your faith, it is working.
SPEAKER_00: It worketh patience, endurance, toughness, steadfastness, but you need to let patience have her perfect work.
SPEAKER_00: You need to allow it to be complete so that you may be perfect, mature, and entire, lacking or wanting nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number five.
SPEAKER_00: This is our main text here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abraid not, and it shall be given him.
SPEAKER_00: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.
SPEAKER_00: For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray this morning together.
SPEAKER_00: And as I pray out loud, I want to encourage you to pray in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Ask the Lord to speak to you today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you so much for your goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that you give us knowledge from your word so that we can know how this life is to work.
SPEAKER_00: We can know what's the reason behind trials, we can see your goodness even in the midst of our pain, the midst of our difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I thank you that you gave us the greater picture, the end of the story, that one day all trials will cease, all afflictions will be gone, we won't face uh all the needs that we have in this present life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I pray that you'd give us endurance.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you'd give us toughness.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you'd give us a steadfastness that is built upon a firm foundation within your word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I pray that you would mature us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: God, that you would help our faith as it is tried, as it is tested, to stand strong.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would help me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: God, I admit, Lord, that I am a weak preacher, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I lack the insight that I need into your word, into the hearts of your flock.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, I need you to please fill me and use your word today to pierce our hearts exactly where we need correction, where we need encouragement, where we need growth.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, take your word and teach us and help us to have ears of faith this morning so that we may grow by the good verses, the good scripture that you've provided for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we give you glory for all that's said and done today, and we thank you for your grace on our lives that we can meet together in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Give us strength, help us to focus, help us to receive today.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for standing.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever failed an important test?
SPEAKER_00: I had a test whenever I was a teenager.
SPEAKER_00: It was my driver's license test.
SPEAKER_00: I was able to get my permit when I was uh 15 and a half, and you have to take a written test, and then you have to get so many hours behind the wheel, and then from there you're able to schedule your driving test.
SPEAKER_00: And I had uh um this knowledge that was being built up of knowing how to turn the car on and knowing how the turn signals work, and you start to get a little bit of a feel of uh of the turn radius and what you're supposed to do, how to stop sign, you know, whose turn is it first, how to merge lanes, all these things, right?
SPEAKER_00: I had the knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I had this being built up into me through training, through preparation, through practice, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then when it came time to take my test, I had someone uh uh in in my church who he gave me this advice.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, you should, he said, I always tell people to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Go take your test.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't remember, my dad might remember, I can't remember what the town was called, but he said, Hey, go take your test over here at this town because it's smaller than Fresno and Clovis, and and you should be able to pass it a lot easier.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, I'll sign up and I'll take my test over there, and I'll take it in this town that I've never driven in before, that I'm not real familiar with, I'll go take it over there.
SPEAKER_00: And so we sign up and we go to take the driving test, and I go and I get into they call my name, right?
SPEAKER_00: I go and I get into the vehicle, and I know all this stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00: I know how these things are supposed to work, I know what's on the test, and then I get in the car and I drive and I get through most of the tests until the very end.
SPEAKER_00: It's a smaller town, and I was used to Fresno, I was used to here where much of the time it's lights.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's stop signs, but usually if you're if you're at an intersection and you have a light, you might have some unyielded left-hand turns, but but not too many.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in this town, it's mainly unyielded, these yielded left-hand turns, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where you where you pull up and you have to kind of wait for oncoming traffic, and then if there's no traffic, you have the right of way and you can go.
SPEAKER_00: So I came to one of those areas where he said, All right, go ahead and take a left here.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was at the very end of the test.
SPEAKER_00: Like we are driving back into uh uh the DMV area, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I go and I pull up and I just my brain just fizzled at this point, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of slowed down.
SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait a minute, what do I do here?
SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of stopped, and then I noticed that there was oncoming cars, wasn't a stop light, it wasn't a stop sign, and then another car came, and then I was getting ready to go when I was supposed to yield, and then when I had the opportunity to, just go across, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so I received, because I messed up that section of the test, a critical error.
SPEAKER_00: Failed the test, did not get my driver's license that day, had to re uh uh uh do the appointment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember how many tries you give, but had to redo the appointment.
SPEAKER_00: I was so disappointed, I was so frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my parents thought like surely he's gonna pass the test.
SPEAKER_00: So when I remember telling them, no, I failed, they thought I was kidding.
SPEAKER_00: They thought I was just joking, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh man, really, you failed the test.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember that situation where I had the knowledge built up, right?
SPEAKER_00: I had the knowledge built up.
SPEAKER_00: I I went to take that test, but I didn't have all the wisdom, all the practice that I needed to pass that particular test, and I failed.
SPEAKER_00: James gives us this importance for us to have within the tests of life, we need to have both knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We need both.
SPEAKER_00: We need knowledge and we need wisdom so that we don't make a critical error and fail the test.
SPEAKER_00: What is knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: The word knowledge in the Bible it denotes an understanding, a recognition, or an acknowledgement.
SPEAKER_00: To know something is to perceive it or to be aware of it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in our culture today, we have very uh readily accessible knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: All right, you can take your phones out this morning, and and and and how many of you do this to your friends and stuff, right?
SPEAKER_00: You fact-check them, and they might say something, you're like, all right, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna check that out, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you have knowledge, you have information that's very accessible to you, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Under uh over all sorts of topics, right?
SPEAKER_00: Hey Google, hey Siri, let me learn how to fix my car from YouTube, right?
SPEAKER_00: And those things are a blessing, those things are helpful, and we have knowledge immediately at our grasp.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to recognize here, right, is that this is not just general knowledge, right?
SPEAKER_00: We just don't want to just build up all sorts of facts into our life while they can be helpful and we can know different things, but what we need to know in order to face our trials, in order to face our tests, is we need to know God personally, and we need to know what his word teaches.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we looked at a little bit last week.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing this, count it all joy when you fall into all sorts of trials.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing this.
SPEAKER_00: You need to know how God uses trials in your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have this biblical knowledge, if you don't have this biblical knowledge, then you're not gonna know, you're not gonna be able to face the trials properly.
SPEAKER_00: So you need to know the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can get information from all sorts of places.
SPEAKER_00: We can get information from social media, we can get information from YouTube, we get information from Google, whatever, right?
SPEAKER_00: But we have to be careful that we monitor all the information through the lens of the scripture, right?
SPEAKER_00: We can't just go based off of so-and-so said uh uh uh that trials are such and such, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's look at the word of God, and here's what God says about trials.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know the purpose behind them, God's perspective, then you can be set up for all sorts of confusion.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you don't know what the Bible says, if you don't know what the Bible says about salvation, then you can be greatly confused and led the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful for our outreach yesterday and had an opportunity to witness to someone and share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the common response, the common response that you hear from many people is, well, I'm not such a bad person.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I'm I'm kind of nice, I'm not the worst person in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But if that is all the knowledge that you have and you don't know what the scripture teaches, then you're gonna head the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta know what the Bible says about salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you need to know what the Bible says about eternal security.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're worried that you're gonna lose your salvation every single week and you sin and you trip up and you think, oh great, I gotta get saved again, well then your limited knowledge is gonna lead you astray.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you need to know how temptations work, you need to know that there's actually spiritual warfare, you need to know all sorts of good Bible doctrine because when you have that knowledge, then you can respond properly to it.
SPEAKER_00: We have to know God, a relationship with Him, and you need to know this book.
SPEAKER_00: What the Word of God teaches.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing is important.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs one, seven says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, being in awe of God, having a relationship with God is the beginning of knowing truth.
SPEAKER_00: There are many smart, brilliant people that have great knowledge concerning this earth, but they lack true knowledge because they reject the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And our greatest need as humans is to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We need a relationship with Him, and we need a relationship to His Word.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we have to know.
SPEAKER_00: We have to know these things, but we have to understand this as well.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between knowledge, and there's a difference between knowledge and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, knowledge it's been said that you can have knowledge without wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: You can know certain truths from the scripture, you can know at times people memorize thousands, thousands of verses, whole books, and they know different things, they know different facts, but it can be dangerous because it's only knowledge and it hasn't translated to practical wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with the word of God in your life?
SPEAKER_00: You can have knowledge without wisdom, but you can't have wisdom without knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we need both.
SPEAKER_00: We need both.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: What is wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Kent Hughes he says, wisdom in distinction to knowledge is understanding for living.
SPEAKER_00: And biblical wisdom is understanding for living that surpasses earthly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so there's a distinction between knowledge and wisdom, but later in James chapter three, we're not gonna go over it today.
SPEAKER_00: James gives us at the end of chapter number three, there's a distinction between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: There's a distinction between being wise according to the ways of this world and being wise according to the ways of God.
SPEAKER_00: For example, imagine someone at the self-checkout scanning their items, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you scan, beep, put it in the bag, scan, beep, put it in the bag, but then you have this one item that's a little bit more expensive, and so instead of scanning that item, you take something else and beep, scan the less expensive item and put that item in the bag, and you walk out and you're good, right?
SPEAKER_00: Worldly wisdom says, that's smart.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: You still scanned the barcode, you still got what you needed, but you got it for a cheaper price.
SPEAKER_00: Be honest, worldly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: They said, man, that's the way to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Right, that was pretty clever.
SPEAKER_00: You worked the system.
SPEAKER_00: All right, but that's not godly wisdom, is it?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not godly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So just for an example, understand that earthly wisdom, it asks, how can I benefit?
SPEAKER_00: Godly wisdom asks what honors the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Earthly wisdom isn't even really true wisdom, even though the world applauds it.
SPEAKER_00: True wisdom, true knowledge, it must come from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 2, 6.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord giveth wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Out of his mouth, his word, cometh knowledge and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, we've got to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Where are we getting our knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: Where are we getting our wisdom from?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's lots of sources that we can go to, but I want to tell you this morning, we have to go to the word.
SPEAKER_00: His mouth.
SPEAKER_00: From his mouth comes true wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: True wisdom is gifted from God as we call and rely on him in genuine faith.
SPEAKER_00: We need wisdom for living, especially in trials.
SPEAKER_00: We need wisdom for living, but especially in trials.
SPEAKER_00: You see, all throughout the scripture, God speaks of this necessity for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: But here in the context, what James is getting at is that you need wisdom, especially with dealing with trials.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we do not naturally possess wisdom, we do not naturally live wisely because we do not naturally know God and want God in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But it is through the wisdom of God that we can come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior, is through his word, and then when we know Christ, then we can know wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We're in desperate need of wisdom because without God's wisdom, life does not work properly.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be unprepared for the situations that come into our life, and you will be unprofitable for the life that is to come.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be unprepared and unprofitable.
SPEAKER_00: This life will be a waste.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so it's only as we're confronted with what the people of the world thought is the foolishness of the cross that we can be rescued from our own ways.
SPEAKER_00: It's the foolishness of Christ crucified that rescues us from our lack of wisdom, following our own understanding, following our own ways.
SPEAKER_00: When we come to Jesus Christ and we recognize our need for him, he saves us from ourselves and our foolish ways.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout Proverbs, there are a few different characters that are personified that are examples for us.
SPEAKER_00: There's the scorner, this is one who's a mocker.
SPEAKER_00: They cause strife because not only do they not believe the truth, but they reject the truth and they try to get others to reject it as well.
SPEAKER_00: There's a scorner.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs talks a lot about the scorner.
SPEAKER_00: There's the fool.
SPEAKER_00: The fool is stubborn and they lean on their own understanding instead of submitting to God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes embracing destructive behaviors.
SPEAKER_00: The fool.
SPEAKER_00: The simple, these are ones that are easily influenced.
SPEAKER_00: They might do okay if they're insulated by a group of those that are wise, and they might kind of be uh drawn towards that way, but if they're around fools or they're around a scorn.
SPEAKER_00: Then they can be easily drawn to that path.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the wise.
SPEAKER_00: These are those that know the Lord, because you can't be wise unless you know the Lord, know his word, and follow his ways.
SPEAKER_00: The scorner, the fool, the simple, the wise.
SPEAKER_00: We can only be the wise when we receive God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.
SPEAKER_00: It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
SPEAKER_00: This is where wisdom begins.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Christ as your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Our great need in this life is wisdom, and we only become wise as we know God.
SPEAKER_00: But what we see here in James, James chapter number five, is that we lack wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We need it, but we lack it.
SPEAKER_00: James here, he says, if any of you lack wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: James is uh the the wording of the text here is kind of a polite way of saying you do need wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's not if it's sense of course.
SPEAKER_00: Since of course, you in your own ways, even as a Christian, you lack the wisdom that you need in the trial.
SPEAKER_00: Now the problem is that this is humbling because now I have to recognize I don't know all the things, I'm not as wise as I would like to think.
SPEAKER_00: James is saying, since you of course lack wisdom that you need, this is humbling.
SPEAKER_00: God places us in these trials and situations where we don't know what to do, so that we draw closer to him.
SPEAKER_00: But using the example of the children of Israel again, what happens at times is we're placed in this trial and we think God's just trying to make me miserable when in fact he's trying to grow me in maturity, but we face the trial, and instead of saying, God, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
SPEAKER_00: We need your wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We need you to fix this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have water, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we grumble, we complain, we get angry, we get fearful, we get in despair, we go through every other avenue instead of saying, God, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: We lack wisdom and we need you.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples in the in the boat, as the storm was raging and as Jesus was sleeping, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, don't you care about us?
SPEAKER_00: Wake up! Can't you see that we're about to die?
SPEAKER_00: They're in despair.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they went to the right person, they just went the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Jesus, well, what are we gonna do in this storm?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, what are we gonna do with the feeding of the 5,000?
SPEAKER_00: And Philip's there trying to calculate.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to, we don't even have enough.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, even if we had this much money, it wouldn't be enough to feed all these people.
SPEAKER_00: Philip, calm down.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has it handled.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we run in despair, we run in complaint, we do everything else when what God wants us to do is say, Lord, we lack wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: We need you in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We admit that we're not as wise as we like to think.
SPEAKER_00: We're not as knowledgeable as we like to think.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what to do in these moments.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a hard thing to do?
SPEAKER_00: That's a humbling thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to admit that we can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like to admit that I can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how long it takes, I want to be able to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: But God says we have to get to the point where we say, No, I lack wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 3, 5 and 7, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: In all your ways, acknowledge him.
SPEAKER_00: And what will he do?
SPEAKER_00: He will direct your paths.
SPEAKER_00: Be not wise in your own eyes near the Lord and depart from evil.
SPEAKER_00: We need wisdom and we lack wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's bad news because as we said last week, we all face trials.
SPEAKER_00: We're either going into one, we just came out of one, or we're getting prepared for one, right?
SPEAKER_00: So this is bad, okay.
SPEAKER_00: I lack wisdom, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of helpless here.
SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: But James says here's the good news God can give you wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: God can give you wisdom, and he wants to give you wisdom for your trial today, for the issue that you're facing, for the difficulty, for the hurdle that you have to jump over.
SPEAKER_00: God has the wisdom necessary for the trial.
SPEAKER_00: It did not come into your life to his surprise.
SPEAKER_00: He knows all about it.
SPEAKER_00: But he gives us some conditions.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us some conditions to receive his wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: First, you have to actually admit that you lack the wisdom necessary for the trial.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is humbling.
SPEAKER_00: You have to admit that you lack it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're only willing to admit that you lack wisdom and need wisdom, then God cannot dispense his wisdom to you.
SPEAKER_00: And this is difficult because we like to have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: This is humbling to admit because we have so much knowledge and it's so accessible to us that we figure by man's wisdom, by eye understanding, we can figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: But what God does at times in trials is he gets us to the position where you can't handle it, he has to handle it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to go to him and ask God for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Let him ask of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you have to admit, yeah, yes, I lack wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: James, right here, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: Let him ask of God.
SPEAKER_00: Can you consider that for just a moment?
SPEAKER_00: That the God of the universe, who is all-knowing, who is outside of time, who is the ancient of days, as we just sung about, says, Hey, you lack wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Come and ask me, and I'm gonna give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what an amazing truth that God desires for you to know him so personally that he desires to be so involved in your life that he invites you to come and ask him for the wisdom that is needed.
SPEAKER_00: Let him ask of God.
SPEAKER_00: God's only a prayer away.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how James tells us to ask.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abrayeth not, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have to ask in faith.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what James says.
SPEAKER_00: I love that he that that the Lord in his goodness, he describes himself for us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have to ask in faith that is dependent upon God's character, who he is, and upon his promises that are found within his word.
SPEAKER_00: We at times think that God is someone that we are bothering, that is too busy for us, that is frustrated, that we are coming to him with yet another burden.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think that this new difficulty, that this new need for wisdom is something that is pestering God or annoying God.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what we do is we project our own human dependency on God.
SPEAKER_00: Because we get like that at times, and so we project our own human frailties and we place it on God when, in fact, what God says, how he describes himself, is that he gives to all men liberally, generously, and abraid not.
SPEAKER_00: This means that he doesn't give you the help in a in a in a condescending, passive-aggressive type of way.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh okay, you need the help again, Anthony.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Like, haven't you learned this already?
SPEAKER_00: Here, here's a wisdom, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: You need it once more.
SPEAKER_00: I'm only gonna give you a little bit of wisdom this time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm only gonna give you a little bit of help this time because you've come to me one too many times and you're really pestering me and being a bother.
SPEAKER_00: That is not how God is.
SPEAKER_00: He does never, he never describes himself in that way.
SPEAKER_00: We project it on him.
SPEAKER_00: And so then we don't come to him in faith.
SPEAKER_00: We hold on to it.
SPEAKER_00: We think, oh, this is my trial to bear.
SPEAKER_00: That this is my trial to figure out.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I gotta have, I gotta have just the right knowledge to it.
SPEAKER_00: And if I do this and I do that, then everything will all be figured out.
SPEAKER_00: And what God is saying instead is come to me, child.
SPEAKER_00: I give, I give good gifts, I give them out generously.
SPEAKER_00: I give them out without being passive-aggressive towards you or angry with you or bitter at you that you're coming to me again.
SPEAKER_00: No, God describes himself as one that desires to give and to give again and to give again and to give again.
SPEAKER_00: And he actually commands us.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 3, 5, through 7 that we read earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: In all your ways, acknowledge him.
SPEAKER_00: What's in all your ways?
SPEAKER_00: In all your ways.
SPEAKER_00: Take that lead to God.
SPEAKER_00: God's not one that is seeking to belittle us because we have this request.
SPEAKER_00: No, we need to ask God in faith, believing in his character and his promise.
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of verse number five, what does it say?
SPEAKER_00: And it shall be given him.
SPEAKER_00: It will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: The wisdom that you need for the trial, the wisdom that you need for the difficulty, the wisdom that you need for the decision, the wisdom that you need in life.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to God believing, God, you're a good God, God, you're a generous God, God, you want to help me in the situation, and it's not a surprise to you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, would you please give me the wisdom that I lack?
SPEAKER_00: God wants to give it and he will give it.
SPEAKER_00: There's one last condition that we have to look at.
SPEAKER_00: Because James gives us both a visual, and he, in a sense, coins for us this phrase double-minded in verse number eight, which he will get into later in chapter number four.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his final condition.
SPEAKER_00: As we ask God, we ask him in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Says nothing wavering, verse number six.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing doubting.
SPEAKER_00: For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed, going back and forth and back and forth, and the wind pushes you one direction, and your emotions push you one direction, and you watch that one video that pushes you another direction, and you hear that advice from someone that though they're a nice person, they don't know the Bible, and they push you a different direction.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is the idea that this wave, you're being pushed and you're being tossed.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta ask in faith, nothing wavering.
SPEAKER_00: You're not you're not doubting, because this is the word picture that you're like.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're like that wave.
SPEAKER_00: And verse number seven says, For let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You you you live with this wavering, don't think that you're gonna receive the wisdom that you need.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says in verse number eight, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
SPEAKER_00: Or you could say it this way: a double-souled man.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, a double-minded man, a double-souled man.
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
SPEAKER_00: This is as he alludes to later it in double-mindedness in chapter number four.
SPEAKER_00: This is that I I I want to live for God, and I want to believe his word, and and I want to trust him, but then as that waiting period comes, I also kind of believe what the world says about this.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of believe and lean on my own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: I I kind of think that maybe, maybe God doesn't actually want to help me in this situation or have wisdom for me.
SPEAKER_00: We won't verbalize it that way, but our life pattern shows that, yeah, I'm trying to trust God, but uh, but I'm also trying to live this way over here.
SPEAKER_00: You're double-minded, you're like a wave that's driven and tossed.
SPEAKER_00: Some commentators believe that the word there, the way it describes it, it's almost like being out sea and you're tossed every different direction.
SPEAKER_00: Every different direction.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about having this perfect faith, it's about having singular faith.
SPEAKER_00: We are often like the Father who came to Jesus and he said, Lord, I believe, help mine unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: What does God do?
SPEAKER_00: He strengthens our faith.
SPEAKER_00: How does he strengthen our faith?
SPEAKER_00: He strengthens our faith through the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need this knowledge, we need this scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We need to know how God describes himself, we need to know how he works, we need to know his promises so that we come to this need of wisdom, this need of faith, we can have a solid foundation.
SPEAKER_00: It's this, it's I am staking my life on the scriptures, whether it turns out perfectly or not.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the the the the four Hebrew boys that were thrown into the furnace?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, No matter what, King, like we're not bowing either way.
SPEAKER_00: God, he might rescue us, he might not, but we are staking our life on the truth that we believe in God wholeheartedly, and we will not be deterred from the commandments, from the truth that is found within his word.
SPEAKER_00: They were single-minded.
SPEAKER_00: This is the idea.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that it's just a perfect faith because all of us can be honest, and there are times where we're in the middle of it, and we kind of doubt things, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we have these doubts that come in rather from the enemy or from our own thoughts that we're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we have to do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, sometimes in a very practical way, you need to turn off the source of doubt that is coming into your life that is causing you not to believe God.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna turn off the noise at times, and what do you need to do?
SPEAKER_00: You need to be filled with the word of God, and then as you're filled with the word of God, he's gonna strengthen your faith, and you need to be single-minded to say, I am staking my life on the scriptures, whether it works out perfectly or not.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes the trial doesn't end perfectly how you expect it.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: But God is still good, He still has greater purposes in it, even if we don't always understand.
SPEAKER_00: But a double-minded person is like, ah, I kind of want to live for God.
SPEAKER_00: But then I kind of know how I have done things before and it didn't work out perfectly, but it kind of worked out, so I'm gonna I'm gonna try this instead.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be single-minded to say no, Lord, I am, I am wholeheartedly following after you.
SPEAKER_00: Because what is produced in this double-minded life, what is produced is that you will be unstable in all your ways.
SPEAKER_00: You won't have the peace of God because you're gonna be restless, you're gonna be in this wrestling match, you're gonna be turned about, you're like that wave going back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question that we have to ask ourselves is do we trust God in his wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's how his wisdom is sometimes dispensed.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to wait.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we don't like that word either.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like to wait for stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like to stand in line.
SPEAKER_00: I was in Bible college, you know what I would do?
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't even go.
SPEAKER_00: I knew everyone would get out of class and they would have this long lunch line.
SPEAKER_00: I would not go to the lunch line immediately.
SPEAKER_00: I would go back to my dorm instead and do something else so that I could skip the line, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't like to wait in a line.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like to wait.
SPEAKER_00: I want things instant immediately.
SPEAKER_00: But here is the fact of of the way God works sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes trusting him means waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but I can solve the problem if I just but is that God's wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Is that God's wisdom though?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it takes waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting on him.
SPEAKER_00: Your greatest need this morning, our greatest need this morning is to know the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: To grow in knowledge of his word, and to live out his word in practical wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: But we must do so in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wavering, nothing doubting.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope this message was a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in the Phoenix area, we would love to have you come in for a visit.
SPEAKER_00: We're located on Indian School and 23rd Avenue.
SPEAKER_00: If we can be a help to you in any other way, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.
SPEAKER_00: I would love to answer any questions that you had about the sermon, or maybe a question that you have about eternal life and a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: We're here to serve you and to point you to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for watching this message.