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[00:00] first I do want to thank Jacob for recording last week's message by Raymond
[00:04] because I wasn't here and it was it was a great message thank you Raymond for
[00:08] that it was it was awesome and even though it said that it was AI generated or
[00:15] something like that I'm thinking okay Raymond's using AI now to write a sermon
[00:19] then I realized it's just a transcript so I haven't figured out how to do an AI
[00:24] generated sermon yet but I've kudos to you if you so what just a quick kind of
[00:33] one sentence maybe two sentence recap of last week because it does play into
[00:37] what we're going to talk about this week and if I could summarize it then you
[00:41] know you can you can tell me later if I don't do a good job at it but I would
[00:44] say this trials are a refining process it's a testing of our faith designed to
[00:50] draw closer to God and to be more like a son Jesus and we need to remain steadfast
[00:56] and joyful knowing that God is doing a good work in and through us that's my
[01:03] two sentence so no it would have been really short it would have been that so
[01:10] you know today we're gonna keep inching forward and James we're gonna take the
[01:13] next four verses chapter one we're in chapter one still verses five through
[01:19] eight just four verses would somebody read that for me verses five through
[01:25] eight any volunteers
[01:28] all right if any of you lacks wisdom you should ask God to give generously to
[01:35] all without finding fault and it will be given to him but when he asks we must
[01:39] believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown
[01:45] and tossed by the wind that man should not think he won't receive anything from
[01:49] the world he is a double-minded man unstable in all he does thank you great
[01:56] passage great passage about wisdom and so I pulled out three things that I thank
[02:04] God wants us to pay attention to from this passage today and I'm forgive me as
[02:10] I'm playing with my computer and figuring out how to do this too so I usually use
[02:14] an iPad so this is a little different so there's three points that I just
[02:19] generally want to talk about the first point would be the connection to trials
[02:23] the connection to trials so to start with I want to highlight something Raymond
[02:28] Hinnadat last week in his message this passage on wisdom might seem out of
[02:33] place right it just kind of pops in here after we talk about trials but it's
[02:38] not it's not a separate topic that James is throwing out here even though
[02:44] it's often used that way people will grab onto this first and when they need to
[02:48] make a decision in life or something looking for wisdom and that's okay but
[02:52] it's the passage is actually telling us and the scriptures are to be read in this
[02:59] case and interpreted as part of the larger discussion on trials the passage
[03:05] is telling us that when we're in a trial God is asking us to come to him
[03:10] basically that's the summary of it and this passage if you look there's trials
[03:17] in front of it and then there's another section that Ray will talk about next
[03:20] week on humility and then it talks about trials again so all these are in the
[03:25] context in chapter one about of trials so there's a lesson to be learned here
[03:32] one that's good for you as you journey through life this idea that God wants
[03:36] you to come to him and ask for wisdom and this wisdom is spoken about here is
[03:41] directly related to those trials in the fact I would make an argument that in
[03:47] order to make it through the refining process successfully and to remain
[03:52] steadfast through it we need wisdom we need wisdom and that's what I believe
[03:57] God is really saying here so that's when I say the connection to trials that's
[04:02] the first point the second point is that we want to spend a few minutes looking
[04:07] at would be the characteristics of godly wisdom
[04:11] the characteristics of godly wisdom so in the passage you can pick out several
[04:18] characteristics of godly wisdom there's probably more than what I'm
[04:23] going to touch on but I picked out four so there's four kind of characteristics
[04:28] that I think godly wisdom has the first is wisdom is additive in other words
[04:35] it says if you lack if any of you lack so if you lack so you might not lack
[04:42] right so there's other ways that we might obtain
[04:45] wisdom maybe through reading the Word of God or as
[04:49] as Catherine or someone said this morning when they were praying about the
[04:53] wisdom that comes from other people to to help us that may have gone through
[04:57] something so wisdom comes in some other forms but
[05:01] in this case the point is is that wisdom is additive there's this concept that
[05:06] you have some wisdom however you've got it some level of
[05:09] wisdom that you've already gained maybe through trials maybe
[05:12] through advice and my computer just went blank figure out how to stop that from
[05:16] happening
[05:19] rubbing your mouth the whole time I don't know
[05:24] okay but it seems that in a trial right sometimes it's beyond you you don't
[05:33] have that wisdom that pool of wisdom that you have
[05:35] that particular trial you're going through doesn't
[05:39] you know have that wisdom that you need and I think for a lot of Christians our
[05:44] wisdom pool is pretty low right hopefully it's not
[05:48] totally dried up but I think we're short of wisdom in a lot of cases
[05:52] and then you remember Raymond said there's people
[05:55] that don't learn anything from a trial right they go through the trial
[06:00] in a way that it just doesn't seem to help them out it they see it
[06:06] they don't see it is coming from God for his purpose
[06:09] and therefore no refining takes place and in some cases they they might walk
[06:13] away as you mentioned or maybe and maybe we need to question whether they
[06:17] have true saving faith in Jesus at all but in
[06:21] Christ as Christians we do learn from every trial that we go through
[06:25] right a simple example and I think probably one that we may be all faced
[06:31] somebody's angry at something we said in haste is that is that ever happened to
[06:35] you ever said it's in somebody's like yeah
[06:39] um so what happens is we repent we we apologize to that person
[06:46] and we breach the end of the trial hopefully right
[06:50] so next time something comes up that we want to say something clever
[06:55] that wisdom kicks in right and we say wait a second we hold back God bridles
[06:59] our tongue because of the wisdom that he's given us
[07:02] and we don't say anything stupid most of us right
[07:07] okay so that's that's the idea so that wisdom pool starts to fill
[07:13] a bit at a time and we can know that maybe how to deal with a certain trial
[07:17] the next time it comes up unfortunately God always gives us
[07:21] another trial that we haven't gone through to take us to that next level
[07:24] or fortunately depending on how you look at it so that's the first
[07:28] characteristic wisdom's additive the second one is the wisdom is given
[07:31] generously when asked for and I don't need to spend a lot of time on this
[07:37] it's pretty simple and straightforward in the passage
[07:40] God gives wisdom people God gives wisdom all you have to do
[07:43] is ask um there were generously too is in there and it implies that you get
[07:50] all your need all you need and more right it's
[07:53] generously when somebody gives you something generously it's usually
[07:56] more than you need sometimes right um so God's got a lot of
[08:01] a lot of wisdom to give he's ready to fill that cup of wisdom for you to
[08:04] overflowing all you have to do is open
[08:07] the conversation with God and you'll get everything you need
[08:11] right it's the asking part that's sometimes hard isn't it
[08:16] see asking part that's hard because well I'm not exactly sure
[08:21] sure why um but I think it comes down to how do you ask for wisdom you got to
[08:26] pray so if your prayer life is not an active
[08:29] ongoing prayer life with God and you haven't prayed to him for a month or so
[08:32] it might be harder for you to think right away
[08:34] I'd better ask God right so it's tied to your prayer life
[08:38] um you know I think it's safe to say that the amount of wisdom that you're
[08:42] going to be imparted from God is proportional to the amount that you're
[08:46] going to pray right um hopefully that's a challenge for
[08:49] you I know it is for me um and when I think about the
[08:53] passage that we often quote the word says pray without ceasing and first
[08:57] Thessalonians 5 23 it says be joyful always wait a
[09:01] minute be joyful always so it ties in here
[09:07] be joyful always pray continually giving thanks
[09:11] in all circumstances including trials right
[09:15] for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus so praying without ceasing this
[09:19] idea of prayer ties into this wisdom and the amount of wisdom that we're
[09:23] going to receive from God
[09:27] so all circumstances that is when that is when we are to be is when we're
[09:32] supposed to be joyful thankful and powerful
[09:35] that's the walk of the believer right all circumstances
[09:39] number three characteristic of God's wisdom it's given without
[09:43] reproach and Steve read the niv which I think was a great
[09:47] um the ESV says give him without reproach king james says
[09:51] abrade if not whatever that means but but niv says without finding fault and
[09:58] I think that's a good translation to help us understand the meaning
[10:01] it's given freely not dependent on the trial that we're in
[10:06] which might even be related to something sinful that God's dealing with
[10:10] it's not dependent on doing the right thing or or the current status of even
[10:15] our relationship with God other than that we are saved and
[10:18] as child so in other words it's part of God's grace
[10:23] right it's given because of who he is not because of what we have done
[10:29] in that trial if it was we'd be in trouble we'd be in big trouble
[10:33] it's because of God's grace that that is given there's nothing you need to do
[10:38] but ask it's like saving faith right there's nothing you need to do
[10:44] it's not your part it's God's and now this thing has come crazy on me again
[10:49] sorry so that's the third characteristic and finally
[10:54] the fourth one um and I think this is a big one and it ties it all together
[10:59] wisdom is to be received and applied by faith in fact it says if you don't have
[11:05] faith you're gonna be tossed around you know you
[11:09] you're not gonna find the direction and you definitely
[11:12] will not receive any godly wisdom or if you do receive it
[11:17] you won't be able to identify it because you're using your own will and your own
[11:22] worldly wisdom and you'll be confused by the two
[11:26] and you'll be tossed around like it's like a cork on the seat
[11:29] um or somebody stumbling around drunk or blind
[11:34] so when you ask your eyes of faith need to be open
[11:38] and watchful for the wisdom download that's coming not
[11:43] shift your take over and say well yeah i've asked God but i think i should do this
[11:49] keep your eyes open for the wisdom that's going to be coming it's going to come
[11:53] it's what the bible says so those are the four kind of
[11:58] points that i would say that um the passage shows us as the characteristics
[12:04] of wisdom of godly wisdom so so far we've looked at
[12:09] wisdom's connection to trials we've looked at the characteristics of godly
[12:13] wisdom and finally and i want to spend the most time on this item
[12:17] that will dig deeper and we'll look at the construction of wisdom
[12:21] the construction of wisdom in other words what is it
[12:23] what really is it and how does it really work
[12:26] in the life of the believer
[12:32] and again i'm struggling a little bit here but we'll keep going
[12:37] yeah
[12:39] this whole sermon has been so the first question we need to ask is
[12:44] what's the definition of wisdom right what is as James and God kind of unpack
[12:48] it here what's what's the definition of of godly wisdom that we have
[12:53] and you know God's word does it talk a lot about wisdom in other places
[12:56] yeah it does so i think there's things to that we can learn
[13:01] and understand a little bit but first of all it's clear here that it's
[13:06] godly wisdom that we're seeking right it's
[13:09] you know we're asking God so hopefully we're receiving godly wisdom
[13:12] because as i said in case you don't know it there's also worldly wisdom
[13:17] and so we're going to look a little bit at worldly wisdom to
[13:20] help us understand godly wisdom and there's a big difference
[13:24] so i'd like to read a passage in first Corinthians if you want to turn
[13:28] there you can it's it's uh first Corinthians chapter one
[13:31] beginning at verse 18 and it's a good passage i'm not going to read it all
[13:35] you might want to come back to it after because there's a lot of really good
[13:38] teaching in there about wisdom and the wisdom of the world versus
[13:42] god's wisdom
[13:45] so first Corinthians chapter one beginning at verse 18 and i'm i'm
[13:48] reading from the niv steve so right on with your a brother
[13:52] for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing
[13:57] but to us who are being saved it's the power of god
[14:00] for it's written i will destroy the wisdom of the wise
[14:03] the intelligence of the intelligent i will frustrate
[14:06] where is the wise person where is the teacher of the law
[14:10] where is the philosopher of this age has god not made foolish the wisdom of
[14:14] the world for sense and for sense in the wisdom of god
[14:18] the world through its wisdom did not know him
[14:21] god was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached
[14:24] to save those who believe jews demand signs and greeks look for wisdom
[14:29] but we preach christ crucified a stumbling block by jews and foolishness
[14:34] to gentiles but to those whom god is called both
[14:37] jews and greeks christ the power of god and the wisdom of god
[14:41] for the foolishness of god is wiser than human wisdom
[14:44] and the weakness of god is stronger than human strength
[14:51] so the first thing i see here that is that in many cases godly wisdom and
[14:56] human worldly wisdom are the exact opposite
[15:00] or the exact opposite in many cases and i think that's why we need
[15:05] these trials because in ourselves in our flesh
[15:10] we've got no capacity to make a godly decision if we rely on a human
[15:15] worldly wisdom right because it might be totally wrong it might be totally the
[15:19] opposite of what god is calling us to do
[15:22] there we don't we just don't have that so god must intervene
[15:26] and create a situation or a trial in which he can slow us down for a minute
[15:31] for long enough that we actually turn to him
[15:35] from our busy worldly perspective and worldly lives
[15:40] and the other thing i notice in this passage is
[15:43] the word foolishness did you notice that in there too
[15:46] in foolishness is it really defined as the exact opposite of wisdom if you
[15:50] you don't have godly wisdom you're a fool you can see that
[15:54] in many other places in the bible proverbs ecclesiastes it's
[15:59] full of this discussion about wisdom versus foolishness
[16:06] so godless wisdom or worldly wisdom is a definition of foolishness in many
[16:11] cases and i wouldn't recommend it this is why the
[16:15] man that doesn't receive it by fate stumbles around or is blown around in the
[16:19] trial he's still trying to use his own foolish wisdom right
[16:23] makes sense okay
[16:27] so now i'm going to talk just a little bit about the definition of wisdom
[16:33] and i read a definition that i thought was
[16:36] interesting um it says wisdom is the exercise
[16:40] and practical use of knowledge that that was a
[16:44] a good definition overall because in any situation you've got this set of
[16:48] circumstances and facts which is knowledge right
[16:52] so in a trial you have a situation that you're in
[16:55] that you can observe and see different things about it
[16:59] and if you knew exactly what to do about it
[17:02] it would just be another circumstance of life to be
[17:05] navigated through but a trial a trial is such that
[17:09] you don't know how to navigate through it right
[17:11] you're in a situation that's putting extreme pressure on you
[17:15] and you don't know how to react to it right
[17:18] so how you respond to that trial determines whether or not god's going to
[17:22] use it for his purpose which remember is to
[17:26] draw us closer to him make us more like jesus more usable by him
[17:30] and this is where faith comes in so faith in the one that holds the key to
[17:35] the practical and proper response to the trial this is why we have to ask
[17:40] for wisdom because we can't do it ourselves
[17:43] and Raymond discussed this last week also the key to steadfastness right
[17:47] keeping going and constancy which is another
[17:52] some translations um call it constancy
[17:57] so all this ties together
[18:01] now at at 62 years of age and yes i'm 62
[18:07] hard to believe you'll get you'll get there
[18:12] i'm just moving so i would like to say at 62 that i've got a ton of wisdom right
[18:23] i can navigate pretty much any trial with ease
[18:26] but if i said that i would be a huge huge liar
[18:30] i would be a liar the fact is i would say some of the trials i faced recently
[18:36] have been so difficult that i've just felt crushed under them
[18:41] um and i still do to a degree i'm still in the middle of trials i didn't know
[18:45] if i had to ask probably every hand would go up in here somebody
[18:49] every all of us are going through one trial or another
[18:52] and these trials have been some of the most difficult in my life
[18:56] as the older i get the further down the walk in my christian walk
[19:00] the heart of the trials get so don't think i'll just say that unless you're
[19:05] a better learner than me don't think that trials are just something i got to get
[19:10] through when it's done it's not going to be that way
[19:14] um but through these most recent trials god has
[19:19] really drilled down has put its finger on some deep seated areas of my life
[19:23] sinful areas of my life that are not pleasing to him
[19:27] um and and that's what god wants to do
[19:30] as part of this as well right he wants to sanctify you
[19:34] he wants through trials um because unfortunately that's the only thing
[19:40] in a lot of times our stubborn hearts will respond to we we know we sin
[19:44] but we keep doing it right that's what god you know we could go into a whole
[19:49] other sermon about that um but yet god says god's gonna keep on your
[19:55] tail with a trial until you deal with that situation in your life
[20:01] i'm just telling it because i know okay so but praise be to god and thanks be
[20:08] to god right he's doing what he said he would do
[20:11] and there's joy in that right knowing that he hasn't given up on me
[20:15] or you and he's still willing to take us to that next level
[20:19] there's joy in that
[20:22] it ain't fun there's joy in it
[20:26] um so just a couple more verses i just want to read to you
[20:30] um that talked a little bit about that that look at that
[20:34] Philippians 1 and 15 says being confident of this that he who began a
[20:38] good work in you will carry it on to completion
[20:41] until the day of Christ Jesus right that's part of sanctification he's
[20:46] going to keep going you're not going to give up on you
[20:49] jude 24 which is a dux a doxology that most of us probably know but part of
[20:54] it is is directly regarding this it says to him who is
[20:58] able to keep you from falling and present you before his glorious presence
[21:03] without fault and with great joy and the third passage is also from
[21:09] Philippians this says continue to work out your salvation with fear and
[21:13] trembling for it's god who works in you to will and act
[21:17] according to his purpose this is what trials is all about guys
[21:22] god is working in you
[21:26] and he wants to recognize that come to him join with him
[21:30] ask for his wisdom and see what he's trying to do in your life not just how
[21:35] to get through the trial which most of us want we want to be
[21:37] relieved of the trial but no we need to look for the wisdom that God's giving
[21:42] us what are you doing in my life how are you asking me to
[21:45] change
[21:47] so hopefully that all makes sense and i think god is through this also we
[21:58] need to understand and most of us that have been christians long i've
[22:02] realized that god's preparing us for works that he has prepared
[22:06] in advance for us to do right as we become more godly
[22:10] god's gonna give us things that we we need to do he's preparing us to do more
[22:14] works for him so this fear and trembling that he's talking about you know i
[22:18] always read that verse thinking you know i'm fear and trembling before god but
[22:22] that's not it we don't fear and tremble before
[22:25] as children of god before our gracious and loving heavenly father
[22:30] it's referring to the fearful emotional reactions to trials
[22:34] and trembling the physical reactions to trials
[22:38] so in other words in the middle of these trials when our emotions are going
[22:42] crazy when we physically don't know what to do or maybe
[22:45] saying or doing things we shouldn't do and reacting in the wrong ways
[22:49] it doesn't matter those those things are are okay
[22:55] a lot of times we think of god can't use me because i'm a wreck
[22:58] no god is working in you god is working in you
[23:04] this road of trials that we travel it's going to include those you
[23:08] you being out of sorts you not being able to do it right
[23:13] so be prepared for that but don't think that god is judging you
[23:17] you did that wrong remember he's giving freely to us through his grace
[23:22] everything we need so we're often embarrassed by those kind of
[23:27] reactions in our flustering the trials we react the same way again and again
[23:31] but remember god is there working refining and freely given that wisdom
[23:36] without reproach for really giving it to the children that he loves
[23:42] so finally um i just wanted to make note about one
[23:47] sort of thing too just that god has brought to me over the last couple
[23:54] um you know i referred to areas of my life of sin and things like that and
[23:59] i heard a sermon by john macarthur on trials and he unpacked at least eight
[24:03] things that god accomplishes in the believer by going through trials
[24:06] now i'm not going to go through eight more things
[24:09] but he did but one stood out to me that probably because of what i was going
[24:14] through um and it kind of um set my focus on this
[24:20] one item that popped out to me and the one i thought most about was this
[24:25] god uses trials to take our focus off of worldly things
[24:29] take care focus off of worldly things there's two kind of main things right
[24:33] two kind of main kind of categories of worldly things
[24:36] right the one and the one that the preacher focused on was
[24:39] kind of the the things of this world that maybe aren't really bad like you
[24:43] know money possessions jobs reputation things like that right
[24:48] health you know all the physical things right
[24:51] um that we we we want to have right the more trials you go through the more
[24:59] you the more you realize that those things have less
[25:02] and less value right and eventually they'll have no value
[25:06] they'll all be gone one day right they'll all be gone
[25:10] they'll all pass away um and the other category
[25:15] flip it over of worldly things are the negative or evil things right we can
[25:19] summarize them probably with uh with the word sin right
[25:24] the fallenness of this world right so this sanctification process that we
[25:29] talked about is working on our salvation as paul put it
[25:33] god wants a draw us closer to become more and more Christ like
[25:36] wean us off of our sin just like the good things of the world sin and death
[25:41] will what will happen to them they'll be done away with right
[25:46] they will no longer exist for the christian
[25:49] they'll be done away with so we learn to hate our sin and we receive
[25:53] the power to overcome it through trials as well
[25:56] so the worldly things have less draw for us both the positive
[26:02] and the negative as as we go through trials
[26:06] so as we close i just want to tie it back to wisdom um
[26:10] you know why would we need or want to ask for godly wisdom in the middle of
[26:14] of a trial you know i would say this i would say this the essence of a trial
[26:20] is that you're put in a position hold on to say my thing went
[26:28] you're put in a position by god where you're under intense stress or
[26:32] agony that you don't know how to deal with right this is why we need godly
[26:36] wisdom and we need faith in god to ask for it
[26:40] we need to believe that he will supply it and be open to the change he's working
[26:44] with us refining us as we move through it and the thing about a trial is it's in
[26:49] the now it's not the past and it's not the future
[26:52] it's right now and as i as i said before i know that there are probably trials in
[26:57] the life of every person in this room if there's not
[26:59] you're you're about to go into one i'll tell you that
[27:03] so uh and it wrote those trials make us more usable by god and i know deep down
[27:08] that's what we do all want i think as christians that's what we want so
[27:12] surrender to that process let god have his way in you
[27:16] don't push back against him because uh he's going to win
[27:20] he is going to win in the end i guarantee it
[27:25] look at the life of paul look at the life of jacob look at the life of many of the
[27:30] uh people in the bible they were deeply flawed individuals right jacob was a
[27:35] deceiver you know paul was a persecutor of the church
[27:38] god broke them through trials so considerate pure joy brethren
[27:44] when you face trials of many kinds god is at work
[27:48] let's pray
[27:51] thank you jesus for for the your word thank you for
[28:00] the wisdom that you give us freely in the midst of
[28:03] whatever circumstance that we're going through thank you
[28:07] lord that you're working in us thank you for these trials
[28:11] and we can consider it joyful lord not not the circumstance itself
[28:16] it's going to it might crush or cause agony in us
[28:19] but we can be joyful deeply knowing that you're working in us
[28:24] for your glory making us drawing us closer to you
[28:29] showing your love for us for your children thank you so much for that lord
[28:34] thank you for your word we love you um
[28:37] and uh i love everyone in this room i pray your
[28:41] grace upon them as they go through whatever it is they're going through
[28:45] i pray that their eyes would be open i pray that they would turn to you
[28:49] and ask you for the wisdom as to how to navigate the trial but also
[28:55] what are you trying to do in them thank you so much in jesus name amen