WEBVTT 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:04.400 Good morning. 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.839 The reading this morning is from the book of James. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.919 In your pew Bible, it's on page a thousand eleven. 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:18.960 James one, verses one through eighteen. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:32.479 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:33.759 Greetings. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:39.840 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:44.960 For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:54.240 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:04.400 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:09.040 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:15.519 For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:20.959 For that person must not suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:26.400 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:39.200 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:45.040 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:49.359 Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:55.280 So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:59.920 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:08.960 For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:15.520 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:22.240 For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:29.599 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 00:02:30.080 --> 00:02:40.719 Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:43.919 Do not be deceived, my brothers. 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:56.000 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:06.479 Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:31.680 Thank you, thank you. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:39.199 If you're uh not enjoying this cold weather, uh you can blame that on me. 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:43.520 We've been looking forward to winter finally arriving in North Dakota. 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:50.319 Now, I realize until we get absolute temperature of minus 30 and a blizzard, it hasn't really arrived. 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:52.800 But there's hope, my friends, there's hope. 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:04.639 I'd like to ask you to turn to the passage that uh Sue just read for us, to James chapter one. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:26.399 We have arrived in our study of this incredible and practical, hard-hitting book, to the end of the first section, the first group of verses, verses two through eighteen. 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:30.879 Throughout all of this, these are not separate thoughts. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:37.839 We've taken four or five messages to talk it through, but they're all interconnected. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:47.759 And the thought which surfaces in our passage this morning is God's constant goodness. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:52.319 God's constant goodness. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:56.399 And this must not be seen in isolation. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:06.399 It's part, it's a flow, in fact, it's kind of the crescendo to what he has been talking about from verse 2 all the way through until now. 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:09.600 And he's been talking about some hard things. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:20.639 He's been talking about trials and difficulties, and he started out by saying, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:27.360 And right from the beginning, he kind of slaps us in the face with some things that are really hard. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:45.199 And all the way through, and he's talking about, and this is James, the younger half-brother of Jesus, who, under the inspiration of God, spoke to those first believers around the year 50 AD. 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:51.519 And God, this thing of inspiration is so powerful. 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:55.759 What I speak are my words. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:01.759 My words are based on what James has spoken. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:22.720 But what James has spoken, through a miracle of what we call inspiration, God so worked in that process, so superintended the process, so that what James wrote was not, it was words from James, but it was not just from James. 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:35.199 It was from the very message of God, down to the words that the believers in the first century who were going through many trials and difficult times needed to hear. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:52.240 And through the preservation of the scriptures down to through the centuries to us, we have not just good thoughts and not just something that Walt gives his commentary on, we have a message for God, from God, to us as well. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:07:05.680 Just as it was applicable and intended for believers in the first century who were going through great trials, so it is applicable to us in the 21st century. 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.839 The trials and the difficulties of life. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:15.680 And the theme throughout this, the whole book, is our faith must work. 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:17.360 And it's very interesting. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:22.959 He begins with the times where it is so very, very hard. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:34.000 And he is seeking to cultivate within us a faith that is rooted in the character and the goodness of God. 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:39.279 That's what we tend to lose sight of when our world falls apart. 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:53.279 And so he has been building slowly but surely, talking about situations, and in our day they're a little bit different from what it may have been for the believers in the first century at a very practical level. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:08:04.639 There's times in which we experience pain and disappointment and broken dreams, or dreams we had that were never fulfilled. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:19.680 Perhaps you always wanted to have children, and for whatever reason God hasn't seen fit to give you children, or you waited with great anticipation and you were expecting, and then something happened, and that child was not here. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:36.080 Or we stand before a casket, or we recognize that our friends have betrayed us and they've stuck daggers, as it were, in our heart, and our reputation and our sense of who we are is drawn through the mud. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:43.120 Or we face a doctor's report that nobody wants to face. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:48.559 It's talking about what is our faith like in those situations. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:09:00.480 And a faith that works is not just a faith that is strong and vibrant in the fine, wonderful, beautiful moments of life. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:03.519 And by God's grace, we have some of those. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:12.320 And you can think back on times where life was sweet and God was near, and that was your emotion, that was your experience. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:15.200 I find that out in nature more than anything else. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:29.279 I love to get out and hike and walk, and when the mountains are beautiful and the sunset is lovely, or when that little dear child is born and you look and you're afraid you're going to drop it and break it or some horrible thing. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:36.080 Or whatever it is, there's these wonderful, wonderful moments that God so graciously gives us. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:42.639 And when life is sweet and God is near, it's not hard to see who He is. 00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:44.879 He's there in that little child. 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:48.320 He's there in that beautiful sunset. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:10:02.720 The reality of our faith is made most clear when life is not sweet and God does not feel near to us. 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:05.759 And that's the reality of life. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:09.279 It's not all of life, but it is the reality of life. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:13.120 If you think I'm overplaying that, just live a little longer. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:15.600 Life is hard. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:20.960 There are deep sorrows and pain and tears. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:32.960 And how we function and how we respond to that and where we end up through a process of working through that shows the reality of our faith. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:46.559 And our faith doesn't work, if it doesn't work in those situations, if we don't get there, like the psalmist often did, beginning his psalm, and he's angry at God, or he's afraid, or he's consumed with his enemies. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:54.559 But with, I think the exception of perhaps one of the psalms, by the end he sees again who God is. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:59.360 That's the process of walking by faith in a very real sense. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.240 And James is helping us. 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:22.799 And this beautiful, beautiful few verses this morning about God's constant goodness must be seen in that setting of the things that wrench our souls and cause us to doubt, cause us to fear, cause us to ask all kinds of questions. 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:24.240 He understands that. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:35.759 And yet he brings us to a perception, a deep conviction of his constant goodness. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:44.399 Now, so I just want to clarify what we're talking about in verses 16 to 18 is just part of a flow. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:49.360 He started speaking in verse 2 about joy in the midst of trials. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:55.759 How bizarre! I don't like trials, you don't like trials, I don't like pain, pain hurts, pain stinks. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:59.200 There's days that are really miserable. 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:26.480 And in those moments, by God's grace, when we have a hold of, by our fingernails, as it were, a realization and a perception or a memory, even, of the fact that God is good, then our faith develops and we develop what I called spiritual resilience, what is called here perseverance. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:33.039 And in the midst of the trials, one of the things that God wants to remind us about is that God is doing some good things. 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:42.799 He's developing some things in our life that do not get developed when life is sweet and God feels near. 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:45.519 And with no pain, there is no gain. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:50.960 That's not just for physical exercise, that's for spiritual life as well. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:56.639 There are things that we only learn, my friends, through trials and difficulties. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:12:59.679 I dearly wish it were not so. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:08.879 And when I see those I love, or when I see those around me going through it, my heart just breaks with them. 00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:22.799 But I know and I've experienced, and in our better moments, you know and you've experienced that sometimes the most important things for us to learn, we only learn through difficulties. 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:28.639 And the end result is a deep persuasion of God's constant goodness. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:36.000 So he says, if you lack wisdom, and it doesn't mean which college do I go to, it means, God, what are your purposes? 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:39.360 You're good, but what good are you doing in this? 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:49.519 Then we can ask of God, and he freely gives us a perception of who he is, whether the exact answer to the question is given or not. 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:52.559 But but don't be double-minded. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:54.720 Don't have a divided heart. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:14:11.679 Don't be like us sitting at the Olive Garden with this big menu, and we're trying to figure out, and I think this might be good, and I think that might be good, and and so the the the waiter comes and goes around, you hope they begin with somebody else, so I can finally make up my mind by the time he gets to me. 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:13.519 Now that's an undivided heart. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:15.120 What he says is choose. 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:18.559 And it's not do you want the pasta or the fish. 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:23.919 It's it's choose to believe what you know about me. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:26.720 Don't have an undivided heart. 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:35.679 And he keeps weaving this thought that ends up with a deep persuasion and conviction of the constant goodness of God. 00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:49.120 So he calls us to see things his way, and he talks about the brother who is in lowly or difficult circumstances, and he says, My lowly, difficult, circumstanced friends, things are not always as they seem. 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:51.600 I am doing things you do not realize. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:15:04.799 And so we look at those who are oppressed and in difficult circumstances, and while it's appropriate for us to have compassion, we also recognize that, you know, maybe they are better off than we are. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:10.320 We think that if we have what we think we need, if life is good, then God is good. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:21.279 But there is something about the fact that God doesn't rule the world the way we want Him to rule the world. 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:24.240 And things are not as they seem. 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:34.240 It's no great advantage to be greatly gifted, to be greatly wealthy, to have wonderful health, and never go through any trials in life. 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:36.399 It's just not, it's the way we think is good. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:39.200 And God says, we've got to see it his way. 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.759 Things are really not as they seem. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.960 And he says, uh talks about when trials come. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:46.720 Are we gonna pass the test or not? 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:50.799 Are we going to allow that to be a temptation that leads us astray? 00:15:51.039 --> 00:16:01.440 Or is it going to be an opportunity for us to begin the walk across the platform on the graduation ceremony with graduation cum laude? 00:16:03.120 --> 00:16:04.799 Are we gonna pass the test? 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:09.919 And it's a process of life. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:16.559 And in today's passage, he says, do not be deceived. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:26.480 Don't get it wrong here, my beloved brother, my beloved sister, my dear, dear friends. 00:16:26.879 --> 00:16:54.399 Every good and perfect gift, everything that God is doing, and all that comes to us from the hand of God, all that God allows to come into our lives, because He is good, we can believe that there are good purposes in it, and we receive every gift and everything from the hand of God with a deeper and growing conviction of the constant goodness of God. 00:16:55.279 --> 00:17:00.159 Because in God there is no shadow and turning and changing. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:12.079 It's not just that today, you knew I was going to get to it, today is Sunday, the 10th of January 2016, and God is still on the throne. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:16.799 You see, it wasn't just that he was on the throne all last week, but now he's no longer. 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:19.839 There is no shadow of turning with him. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.720 He is ever and always the same. 00:17:22.960 --> 00:17:24.960 He is ever and always good. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:31.039 He is ever and always trustworthy, and that is the foundation for our lives. 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:36.559 As he was before, so he is now, so he shall ever be. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:39.279 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:52.079 God wants us to see him for who he is, and we see him most powerfully when we are weak and hurting and helpless and needy. 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:00.799 Every good and perfect gift, the father of lights that doesn't change. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:12.480 And the greatest example of that, verse 18, of his own will, uh he gave us new birth. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:15.599 We'll get to that. 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:24.640 All right, so he begins with the thought in the beginning of verse 16 um, stop being deceived. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:31.119 That's kind of as strange a statement as counted all joy, my brothers. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:33.279 Stop being deceived. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:51.279 In the midst of the dark, painful, confusing, frightening moments in our lives, we run the risk of wandering off and losing sight of who God is. 00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:55.920 And he says, don't be deceived. 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:01.599 Don't begin to question, or as you begin to question, don't stay there. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:03.440 Don't go there. 00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:10.000 Don't wander in places that are not right and good. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:22.160 You see, when life is sweet and God is near, then it's relatively easy to say, along with the psalmist, Psalm 119, verse 68, good you are and good you do. 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:26.079 But when we're going through it, it's much harder to say that. 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.960 I get it, it is much harder to say that. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:42.559 But don't be deceived by casting off that deep conviction of the goodness and the sovereignty and the sufficiency and the love and the mercy and the compassion and the righteousness and the trustworthy of God. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:45.519 That's why I keep saying it every week. 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.400 It's not because I can't think of anything else to say. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:54.079 Today is a day that ought to remind us that God is still on the throne. 00:19:54.319 --> 00:20:05.599 And God is who he was and who he always will be, and his constant goodness is what James wraps up this discussion with. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:15.680 It's in the context of when we're tempted to doubt God's goodness. 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:32.319 And of course, the one of the most natural, one of the most understandable, one of the most common, one of the most human responses when we go through deep personal waters, is to say, God, why me? 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.119 Why are you doing this to me? 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:37.279 Don't you love me, God? 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:49.440 We begin to doubt who God is because everything around us, the circumstances, our feelings, the situation, where is the God who was sweet and near? 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:53.920 Right now it's painful and he seems so far away. 00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:04.160 And he's saying, in those particular moments, do not, my friends, do not allow yourself to wander. 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.119 And so he gives a command. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:10.079 It's not just good advice, don't be deceived. 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:11.680 It's a command. 00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:14.160 But listen to the way he says it. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:16.400 I just I love this. 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:18.559 Verse 16. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:20.640 Don't be deceived. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:33.039 My beloved brothers, my beloved sisters, my dear friends, says James. 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.960 My dear children, says God. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:39.200 Don't be misled. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:41.279 I love you. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.160 And there's this warmth, there's this tenderness of relationship. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:50.160 He did the same thing in verse 2 count it all joy. 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:54.799 No, he says, Count it all joy, my brothers. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:59.759 He brings truth to us in a context of relationship. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:01.119 And love. 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:05.519 Very, very significant. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:19.519 If you picture yourself, for example, standing with a friend or talking on the phone or sitting over coffee with a friend whose life has just fallen apart. 00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:22.160 Maybe they just got the report of cancer. 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:35.680 Or maybe it's like I described a couple of weeks, a few weeks ago, my best friend calls, and now for the second time, his second wife walks out on him and he is utterly shattered. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:37.759 Now, what am I supposed to say? 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:41.200 You stand someone in front of an open grave. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:45.119 Someone whose child just died. 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:47.039 What are you supposed to say? 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:52.480 Well, what you're not supposed to say is, would you just buck up? 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:56.079 Did you miss theology 101? 00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:01.039 Don't you know that God is sovereign, God is on the throne, God is in control, just deal with it. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:04.160 That's not what James says. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:07.279 But neither does he water down the truth. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:10.000 Neither does he say, oh, everything's going to be fine. 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:13.119 Just, you know, it's it's really not that bad. 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:16.960 He speaks the truth and he does it in love. 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:28.720 And he softens the command in a context in which we're very vulnerable without compromising the truth of who God is. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:40.000 It's not in every moment right and necessary to go into an exposition of the doctrine of God and his sovereignty and his goodness. 00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:42.799 Sometimes you just need to shut up and listen and love. 00:23:43.599 --> 00:24:00.240 But if that's all we're doing and we're not helping ourselves and others to perceive the reality and to not be deceived about the character of God, then we are missing what God wants to do. 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:06.720 It's just far easier to hear hard things when you know you're loved. 00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:11.039 And unfortunately, for many people, we don't know we were loved. 00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:15.680 We weren't maybe raised that way, or we're ashamed, or whatever it can be. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:24.400 And just a loving, helpful, godly relationship, a spiritual friendship with someone. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:33.359 And in that context, you can just say, I know that hurts, but I love you. 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:35.440 And God loves you. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:42.400 And I know it doesn't feel that way right now, but God is good and he's doing good things. 00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:50.960 So much easier to receive that truth encapsulate it in a relationship of love and gentleness. 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:56.240 Now, what he actually says is very interesting. 00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:59.759 It's don't wander from the path. 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:13.599 The word that is used here for deception in its original root meaning had to do with somebody who was on a path and began to wander like a vagabond, just kind of floating all around. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:17.039 Says, don't get off the path, don't be deceived. 00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:24.240 And as I was thinking about this, it reminded me of I love to hike. 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:28.000 And we used to live in the mountains, not the flatlands of North Dakota. 00:25:28.079 --> 00:25:31.599 We lived from our backyard, we could see the High Alps. 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:45.039 And every week, I would take Monday as my day off, Saturday as a workday, Monday as my day off, and 50 out of 52 weeks a year, I was out hiking, abandoning my wife and kids, of course, but uh no. 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:50.240 And I would get up on these high mountain trails. 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:54.240 I'm not a mountain climber, but I love a strenuous hike. 00:25:54.480 --> 00:26:00.799 And, you know, on certain trails, you need to be very careful to stay on the trail. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:13.279 Um of my favorite uh hikes, and I'm still hoping that before I die, God will graciously allow me to go back to Otto Boden, Switzerland, and uh to hike that uh mountain. 00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:27.599 But there is a pass that I think about actually fairly regularly, where the path is literally this wide, and if you go off the path this way, you meet Jesus, and if you go off the path that way, you meet Jesus. 00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:32.559 And duh don't wander. 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:38.640 Uh Swiss hiking guides, uh, I don't mean the people, I mean the written maps. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:41.440 Uh the paths are marked out in red. 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:45.599 Some of the paths are red-dotted paths. 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:49.759 Do you know what red dotted paths on a Swiss uh hiking map means? 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:50.880 It means Walt. 00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:52.720 Stay off this path. 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:54.400 It's not for you. 00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:56.799 It's too dangerous for you. 00:26:57.119 --> 00:27:05.359 Now, what if I got up to a point in the trail where it was going this way or this way, and I don't know what's down the path? 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:12.880 Well, there is a red solid line going one way and a dotted line on my map going the other way. 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:15.359 I know where I ought to go, don't wander down there. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:25.440 And yet he's saying, don't be deceived, as though sometimes you look and somebody has come along and changed which path is which. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:29.519 So you blithely wander off the path having been deceived. 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:38.960 Now there's a word picture here, and uh it's all actually hidden, as it were, or deep in the words that he's using. 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:58.319 But the idea is when we let go of a deep conviction of the goodness and involvement of God in our lives, we run the risk of wandering spiritually in places that are incredibly dangerous for us. 00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:01.920 And he just simply says, don't go there. 00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:06.799 There's all kinds of illustrations in the scriptures. 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:12.000 I just want to have you turn to one, which is in the book of Job, in the first couple of chapters of Job. 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:13.599 Job Psalms Proverbs. 00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:22.160 So, middle of your Bible, turn left, last book before Psalms, the beginning chapter. 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:24.000 Won't go into it in detail. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:25.759 You may know the story. 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:34.799 Job was placed by the permission and intent of God in very difficult circumstances. 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:36.559 And he didn't know why. 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:44.640 The first two chapters of the book of Job give us a, it's like the curtain is pulled back and we see some of what God was doing. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:48.160 Job didn't have the privilege of reading Job 1 and 2. 00:28:49.039 --> 00:29:07.519 So he found himself, his wealth was taken away, his family was taken away, his health was taken away, and at one point he found himself sitting on an ash heap with broken pots scraping the scabs off of his body. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.480 Sometimes life feels that way, and sometimes life is that way. 00:29:15.519 --> 00:29:18.720 Job chapter 1, verse 20. 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:24.960 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground. 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:26.799 And what did he do? 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.160 He, what's the text say? 00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:31.920 Worshiped. 00:29:33.039 --> 00:29:40.559 He brought his misery in connection with God, and saw God for who he was, and exalted God. 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:46.799 Verse 21, and he said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return. 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:49.599 The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:52.160 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:29:53.519 --> 00:30:06.480 Now he didn't understand what was going on, but he had a sense of who God was that enabled him to see the things that he enjoyed and valued and received. 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:12.880 The good things came from God, and God also took some good things away. 00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:20.240 Do you have a big enough view of God to imagine that in his love and his goodness he will take good things from you? 00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:27.680 Well, that's what Job says, and look at what verse 22 of chapter 1 says. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:36.640 In all of this, Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with doing wrong. 00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:53.599 But basically he's saying, the good things I receive from the hand of God, and the bad things I receive from the hand of God, and God be praised. 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:54.960 He knows what he's doing. 00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:56.880 What he's doing is good. 00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:02.319 Praise him when things go well, when life is sweet and God is near. 00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:12.400 Praise him when the world falls apart, and I can only say by faith, God is good and God is involved and God is loving. 00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:14.880 I don't feel it, I don't see it. 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:25.519 But who God was last week on the throne is no different than who he is today on the throne, or who he will be next week on the throne. 00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:28.319 So blessed be the name of the Lord. 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:34.880 Or, towards the middle of the next chapter, things continued this way, and it was difficult. 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:44.160 At one point, his helpmeet, his wife, came with a very unhelpful word of counsel. 00:31:44.799 --> 00:31:50.559 Then his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? 00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:52.880 Curse God and die. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:32:01.599 Just live with it, curse God, He's left you, there's no good in this. 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:03.279 Curse God and die. 00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:08.720 Thankfully, I don't have a wife who gives me that kind of counsel. 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:14.559 But Job said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women. 00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:17.839 Shall we not receive good from God? 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:20.640 And shall we not receive evil? 00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:29.359 You see, God in Job's mind was big enough to use bad things for good purposes in his life. 00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:36.000 And he had no idea that God had set the limits. 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:39.200 It wasn't like Satan could have free reign in his life. 00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:41.440 He could go to this point and no further. 00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:44.640 He had to have God's permission to touch Job. 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:48.960 And when he did that and he wanted to go further, he came back again and said, I want to do more. 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:51.759 And God said, You can go this far and no further. 00:32:52.079 --> 00:32:55.599 Is our picture of God the way he's revealed in the scriptures? 00:32:55.680 --> 00:32:57.680 Or is it just the God that we want to have? 00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:05.759 A God, the God who is, is a God who is sovereign and is great and is good and he's working in ways that make no sense to us. 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:07.759 We don't have to make sense of God. 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:09.359 We just have to trust him. 00:33:09.680 --> 00:33:24.640 And he has revealed himself in Scripture as loving and righteous and patient and good and merciful and full of compassion and able to use bad things for our good and for his good. 00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:29.440 And in all of this, Job did not sin with his lips. 00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:39.440 There's a little indicator there of the response of not wandering from the path. 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:45.759 Well, this takes us then back to James verse 17. 00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:51.680 And you've already, hopefully, in your heart and mind been prepared for this. 00:33:51.839 --> 00:33:55.759 Every good and every perfect gift is from above. 00:33:56.400 --> 00:34:03.440 And in the context, these good and perfect gifts are the circumstances which are so hard. 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:06.640 That's the context that he's talking about here. 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:19.840 And he then says, from the Father, it comes from the Father, the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:34.559 One of the things that happens when we really go through difficult times, as we said, is that you begin to question God and why are you doing this to me? 00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:37.599 I thought you loved me. 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:50.079 Another thing that happens, and it's just part of who we are as human beings, our world begins to shrink down the more intense the trauma and the pain is. 00:34:50.320 --> 00:34:54.400 No longer do we really care who wins the playoff game this afternoon. 00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:57.599 No matter do we really care who wins the election. 00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:10.480 No matter do we really care when it gets really tight and really hard, the problems of our kids and their concerns and of other people that we love begins to fade a little bit into the background. 00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:15.760 And in times of intense testing, our world becomes about this big. 00:35:16.159 --> 00:35:18.000 And that's all we see. 00:35:18.159 --> 00:35:24.400 That's just the way a broken human being in a broken world where it often functions. 00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:32.480 And what God is doing is we've we've got a laser focus right now on our pain and on our hurt. 00:35:32.719 --> 00:35:34.880 And very understandably so. 00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:38.559 There is no denying the pain or the hurt, my friends. 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:53.119 But what God does is he begins to open this back up and fill our vision and fill our understanding, not with the Vikings, but with God. 00:35:54.960 --> 00:36:00.719 And what he says here is just so beautiful. 00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:02.400 This is beautiful. 00:36:02.559 --> 00:36:03.440 Who is God? 00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:04.960 God is never changing. 00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:07.840 There is no shadow of turning with God. 00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:11.119 And he uses the illustration from the natural world. 00:36:11.199 --> 00:36:18.320 And James, like his brother, half-brother Jesus, loved to use practical examples from the physical world around him. 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:20.800 And now he's saying, look at nature. 00:36:21.039 --> 00:36:21.840 Look at the sun. 00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:23.599 The sun is always changing. 00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:30.480 It starts here, it just picks, it comes up with this little arching thing that almost blinds you to begin with. 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:31.760 And then it keeps moving. 00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:32.880 It moves all day long. 00:36:33.199 --> 00:36:35.840 The sun never stops, and eventually it sets. 00:36:36.159 --> 00:36:38.480 And look at the sun and the moon and the stars. 00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:40.000 Everything is moving. 00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:41.599 The planets are moving. 00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:47.360 The earth is moving around the sun, and the earth is spinning on its axis. 00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:48.800 And no. 00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:55.280 What he's saying is everything you see around you changes. 00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:58.639 You never step in the same river twice. 00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:00.639 Have you ever thought about that? 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:03.199 It's no longer the same river. 00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:05.199 There's never any going back. 00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:07.360 Everything changes. 00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:15.280 Everything in creation, everything in our world, everything in our body, everything in our circumstances changes. 00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:18.559 All of life is an adjustment to change. 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:21.280 And it stinks some of it. 00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:27.440 But there's one thing that does not change, and that is who God is. 00:37:27.840 --> 00:37:31.039 And his constant goodness. 00:37:31.440 --> 00:37:33.360 His constant goodness. 00:37:34.480 --> 00:37:41.599 So it's relatively easy to see God when life is sweet and God seems close at hand. 00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:48.880 But there are so many examples in Scripture of the right response in the midst of our difficulties. 00:37:49.039 --> 00:37:58.320 I think of Joseph, the Old Testament story of Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, who was abused, who was thrown into a pit, left to die. 00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:00.159 He didn't end up dying. 00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:20.880 Life went on, and at one point, towards the end of Genesis, Genesis 50, verse 20, he is confronted with his brothers, and he says to them, and by this time they had discovered who he was, and they're getting ready to duck because they had done him dirty, and he had lived with horrible consequences as a result. 00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:26.400 And his response was, You meant it for evil. 00:38:26.639 --> 00:38:28.480 Genesis 50, 20. 00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:35.199 But God meant it for good to bring about his good purposes this very day. 00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:38.480 That's talking about whose God's character was. 00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:43.920 Others mean it for evil, Satan means it for evil, the people who are out to get you mean it for evil. 00:38:44.159 --> 00:38:46.960 And God means all of this for good. 00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:52.880 Is our picture of God big enough to see God in the midst of the bad things of life? 00:38:53.039 --> 00:38:57.679 Or does that by definition mean that God has failed to show up? 00:38:58.079 --> 00:39:00.320 God never fails to show up. 00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:02.239 That's a silly statement. 00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:03.840 God showed up. 00:39:04.320 --> 00:39:08.400 Yikes! Lord, keep me from ever thinking that way. 00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:11.199 Suddenly I have a flash of reality. 00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:12.000 God is here. 00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:13.440 That's what really happens. 00:39:13.760 --> 00:39:15.039 God hasn't changed. 00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:25.679 We've begun to see our world get bigger and focused on the character and the goodness of God. 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:39.280 Every gift that God sends our way is good, and nothing comes from God that is not good. 00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:43.519 God is always and only good. 00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:50.480 What he is doing, well, some of it and our experience stinks. 00:39:51.599 --> 00:39:52.960 It's just our experience. 00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:54.719 It doesn't change who God is. 00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:57.679 God does always and only good. 00:39:58.559 --> 00:40:04.320 And he is on the throne working out his purposes. 00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:08.559 And some of it doesn't make sense to us right now. 00:40:10.079 --> 00:40:10.400 So? 00:40:11.039 --> 00:40:12.880 Does that change who God is? 00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:14.960 Some of it we don't like. 00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:16.239 I get it. 00:40:17.920 --> 00:40:22.159 And in and in what I just need to know is not. 00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:26.639 Walt, don't you understand the sovereignty and the goodness of God? 00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:29.199 What about theology 101? 00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:36.559 No, I just need to hear God say, I love you, I'm with you, I understand, and I'm good. 00:40:37.920 --> 00:40:40.320 Many examples of this. 00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:46.079 One in particular I want to draw your attention to. 00:40:47.280 --> 00:41:00.480 It's Acts chapter 2, verses 22 and 23, and it's talking about God's intention to bring evil and pain into the life of one he loves. 00:41:01.360 --> 00:41:02.320 Jesus. 00:41:03.519 --> 00:41:17.199 If you don't have room in your understanding of who God is to see him intending evil and pain for someone he loves for good, then you don't understand the cross. 00:41:17.760 --> 00:41:20.159 Jesus did not have to go to the cross. 00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.639 God could have found some other way of doing it. 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:33.840 But what Acts chapter 2 says is God handed Jesus over to evil men, quote, according to his God's set purpose and will. 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:41.920 The cross was not just a response, that was an intention of God. 00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:54.960 It is the highest example of a loving God doing painful, harmful things and intending them for good? 00:41:56.639 --> 00:42:12.480 How could we imagine that God intended the cross for Jesus and then not give room in our understanding of God's dealing for us to think that suffering and pain and evil could not possibly be a part of his good and perfect purposes? 00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:19.679 If he's done the greater, how much will he do the lesser with us? 00:42:21.199 --> 00:42:28.639