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What to do, when you do not know what to do. • Sermon • Submitted
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This letter is a message to the groups of believers to help them get through all they were going through.
??? Steadfastness:
Steadfast Joy
Steadfast Growth
Steadfast Gift
Steadfast Faith
Steadfast Focus
This forced scattering resulted from persecution by men whom the church would have described as “the rich.”66 Thus it is probable that during the pre-AD 70 period the Jerusalem church (and the Palestinian church in general) suffered sporadic persecution from rich Jews (because the rich often oppress the poor, if for no other reason). Thus, while this description could envision official persecution by Romans against a widespread church, it also fits the situation of sporadic persecution of Christians in the vicinity of Palestine by wealthy Jews. (NIGTC)
Who is in control here? Who is challenged by the challenge? God is always in control.
Could it be that tribalism infected the church.
This part of life is short for all classes of people. Socioeconomic, Ethnic, Age, Stage, political, religious, cultural or any other distinction does not diminish the reality of the fragility of life. So give your life to pursue what has the greatest value- A steadfast faith.
Faith
“Count it” How do you value it? Give value to every experience. Don’t celebrate the problem or the pain but the process that brings you closer to God and godliness.
“When you meet” Have an appointment with trouble. A blind date with trouble.
“trials of a various kind” Multifaceted experience. From all angles but with a purpose for the problems. Not determined by you but predetermined by God. Like a trainer who knows an exercise regiment will cause discomfort, strain, and fatigue to you but through the pain, pressure, weight, the exercise will grow you.
“Testing of faith produces steadfastness” The idea, then, is not that trials determine whether a person has faith or not. Rather they strengthen the faith that is already present.
“This is where you participate. You chose to “let it” or “fret it” the full effect of the experience. What if the training, test, the trial doesn’t have any end in sight? What if this life never becomes normal? What if this level of discomfort doesn’t disappear. “grace is sufficient” Keep knowing that you are growing. Keep knowing that you are gaining. Keep knowing that you are The let effect is trusting the training. The fret is to fight against the flow of discovery. Feel the experience to the get the most out of the experience. Pain in productive- biologically, emotionally, developmentally… “When you grow in flow you lack nothing” to produce “deeds of moral integrity”
“Lacking nothing” What is this really? Does this mean I won’t have needs, wants, dissatisfaction? “ no single virtue is actually named. The perfect work, as Mayor, Mitton, Laws, and Dibelius all agree, is not a single virtue, but the perfect character” (NIGTC) the Christian himself is the perfect work: “You are that perfect work” ( “This consisted of a fusion of the ritual and the moral, the legal and the spiritual, the outward and the inward, so intimate that neither was complete without the other.” The NT use of the term has some of these same characteristics. Paul, for example, maintains the present-future tension in that he can look on Christians as “the perfect” but also see the “perfect man” as the end of the process of Christian maturing, which is certainly not complete until the eschaton (1 Cor. 2:6; Eph. 4:13; Col. 4:12; Phil. 3:15).
“Lack wisdom.... ask in faith” Not everything is granted no matter how much you ask, how long you ask. When want God to give us. God does not give us everything we express we desire, everything we want, but the bible does assure us that there are the guaranteed gifts you can receive from God....peace, wisdom...... There some requests God will not honor with a yes because it is not best, but God has given us the answer key to certain questions we have as we live life.
Wisdom is the treasured gift. Wisdom is the way through what you are going through. Wisdom is the guidance David expressed in Ps. 23, not your wisdom from experience but God’s guidance from eternity. In asserting this, he is arguing that those who compromise their faith, who look to both God and the world for their norms and security, are in reality lacking the essence of any faith at all. If they had faith they could have wisdom, which, the context implies, would make them perfect (probably by helping them to discern the situation of testing and react to it properly).
Wisdom in the OT is very closely tied on the one hand to practical action and on the other to God. It is the “Spirit of God” which grants the wisdom to make the tabernacle (Ex. 31:3). Similarly, wisdom relates one to God, not by an increase of theoretical knowledge, but by producing obedience to his commands, i.e. the “fear” of God or deeds of righteousness (Jb. 28:28; Pr. 1:7; 9:10; Je. 4:22). Since God is all skillful and grants wisdom to humans, he is the supreme example of wisdom, which is particularly displayed in his creation of the world (Pr. 3:19; 8:22–31). (NIGTC)
Because wisdom is primarily God’s, it is a gift of his grace.
God is, then, one who gives sincerely, without hesitation or mental reservation. He does not grumble or criticize. His commitment to these people is total and unreserved: they can expect to receive. In so arguing James is surely dependent upon sayings of Jesus such as the saying in Lk. 11:13: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (par. Mt. 7:7–8). God gives sincerely to his children who ask. In fact, he will even give the Holy Spirit or divine wisdom. Here is the picture of the truly good father.*
Examples of ways to stay steady in a good way: Steadfast faith:
9. “Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
10. “and the rich in his humiliation
hypomonen
Two english word chosen by translaters to convey this attribute an equal amount of times are Endurance and Steadfastness
endurance |
Lk 21:19By your endurance you will gain your lives.
Ro 15:4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Ro 5:3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,Ro 5:4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
2 Co 6:4but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions , hardships , calamities,
steadfastness |
2 Th 1:4Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.
Tt 2:2Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
Jas 1:3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.Jas 1:4And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Jas 5:11Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.