What Were You Expecting?
Notes
Transcript
<Play Lundy Tornado Video>
<Play Lundy Tornado Video>
It was spring break and Grayson Lundy was spending some time with his grandma, Ms. Nancy Colston.
Ms. Nancy is 80 years old - she is the mom of one of our own, Aimee Lundy.
During spring break, a storm blew up and then so did part of the house.
And a lifetime of hard work and memories went swirling through the air and got scattered all over the pasture.
Just like that.
Life is tough. God is tougher.
Life is tough. God is tougher.
Wind is an interesting thing to me.
My front porch overlooks some of Lake Sinclair.
I’m blessed - I know it.
What I find fascinating is watching how the wind plays on the water.
You’re sitting on the porch and you feel a steady breeze.
But as you watch the water, you see strange things happening.
In a second, one small patch of water ripples up, like a strong gust of wind hit it.
But only one small patch - the rest is rippling under the steady breeze.
That patch disappears and then a big patch appears, like someone has focused a giant leaf blower on it.
And sometimes that patch moves across the lake with it’s own special waves, while the rest of the water ripples along.
And all the while, all I feel is a constant breeze.
You cannot get a better metaphor of life that this.
There is a continual, constant breeze of tough that life blows at us all of the time.
But every now and then, a tornado comes along.
Or a death.
Or a stroke.
Or cancer.
Or a knee replacement.
Or a lost job.
Or a test the day after the biggest game of your life.
Or whatever.
In the constant breeze of tough, every now and then, more often than we’d want, harder winds of tough blow in.
This is life.
It is unavoidable.
The winds of tough always blow.
The storms of tougher - they happen when you least expect.
Life is tough. God is tougher.
Life is tough. God is tougher.
We’re starting a new book today.
Go ahead and get your Bibles out and open them to the book of James.
It’s toward the back of the Bible - when you see Hebrews you’re almost home.
If you are joining us by live stream or video, I invite you to get your Bibles out as well.
We have Bibles in the pew racks if you don’t have one with you today.
And as always, if you do not have a Bible, please feel free to take one of ours home as a gift.
It would bless us to no end if you did.
While you are looking up James, let’s talk background right quick.
For the next few months we’ll be working our way through the book of James.
I’ve titled this study, The Path of Faith.
It is my prayer that over time we’ll all understand why.
James was written by someone named James, oddly enough.
Theologians have given three possibilities of who this James was, but the best possibility is none other than James, the brother of Jesus.
It was written about 40 ad which fits in well with James’ life span.
And it was written, as verse one says, “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion.”
Pretty quickly after Jesus was resurrected, people started persecuting Christians.
It got really bad in Jerusalem and a number of Christians “dispersed” across the adjoining countries.
Acts 8:1 lays it out for us.
And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
That day was the day that Deacon Stephen was stoned to death.
The winds of tough always blew.
Now the storm of tougher came along.
James was written to those folks.
But it’s written a little strangely.
It’s written more like a sermon than any of the other letters in the New Testament.
In fact, one of the commentators said that James reads more like sermon notes.
It moves quickly from topic to topic - the transitions are there but they aren’t as clear as other letters.
It’s like sermon notes - used to jog the speakers memory, but not fully fleshed out.
If you wanted to summarize the book in one sentence, I think we could say, “God designed life to be lived with patience and prayer.”
The book has a bunch of topics but really two sections.
Section 1 is chapter 1 - it’s a dive into ourselves.
How we are to think and operate as Christians.
It’s the, “Let’s get ourselves straight” before we move on the second part.
Which is chapters 2 - 5 - that’s a dive into our relationships
It’s how we get along with each other.
So really, the letter follows Jesus’ admonition, when he said, Matthew 7:3
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
James deals with the log first.
Then he heads off to deal with the specks.
So let’s begin the Path of Faith: The book of James.
Hear now the Word of the Lord.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
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.
For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
This is the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
I think one of the most annoying and aggravating things for me is hearing so-called preachers preach about how you are to have health, wealth and happiness in this life.
That somehow, if you are doing whatever their shtick is, you should expect to have an easy, pain free life.
How do they possibly reconcile such theological drivel with these words from the very lips of Yahweh Himself?
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
God kind of piled on there, didn’t He?
He could have simply said, “Because you chose to make your own path, your own path you shall make. Life will be tough.”
And then for the remainder of the Bible, God constantly reinforces the truth, “But I am tougher.”
Why would anyone with half a brain read God’s curse in Genesis and expect anything more out of life than pain and hard work?
It doesn’t make good walking around sense.
Life - because of the fall - because of sin - is tough.
And sometimes because we just love our sin. it gets tougher.
And sometimes we’re just innocent bystanders and it gets tougher still.
What do you do with that?
Do you ask, “Why me, Lord?”
We’re going to learn that it’s OK to ask that a few times, but it’s not OK to live in it.
It’s OK to ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
It’s not OK to live in that.
It’s OK to doubt - everything.
It’s not OK to live in doubt.
James says, James 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,”
James says to count those hard times as joy.
And we might not say it, but we think it - that’s a bunch of nonsense.
So we’re going to tackle that so we can get it, but...
Before we tackle that, I want to look at the word “meet” first.
See it? James 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,”
Ms. Nancy - Aimee’s mom “met” a trial.
A friend had a fender bender the other day - he “met” a trial.
One of our Cub Scout dads got bit by a copperhead the other day - he “met” a trial.
In this context, meet means “to experience somewhat suddenly that which is difficult or bad.”
I like that phrase, “somewhat suddenly,” don’t you?
A tornado qualifies as somewhat suddenly, don’t you think?
I wonder in all our years living in the south, how many thunderstorms have you lived through?
I enjoy them really - always have.
I love to sit on the porch and watch them coming in.
Feel the wind - watch the lightning flash in the sky
But I’ve never met a tornado.
I suspect most of you haven’t either.
But you have met other things that hit somewhat suddenly and they were difficult or bad.
James calls these somewhat sudden tough times, trials - and here is the key to understanding the word “joy.”
Now ya’ll, listen to me.
I need you to pay attention - I realize that in this 30 - 35 minutes I have today, I’m combatting years of bad teaching.
I’m not saying everyone has preached badly and I’m the only one who is right.
What I am saying that some of the loudest and some of the most popular teachings on every day life are bad teaching.
And I don’t want you ignorant of the truth.
You might remember hearing this from the book of Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus “met” a trial.
Yes, Jesus knew the cross was coming, but no one else did.
Just like in our lives everyday, the Lord knows what’s coming next, but we don’t have a clue.
In Jesus’ life, from the outside looking in, the cross was a somewhat sudden experience that was difficult or bad, wasn’t it?
Wasn’t it?
Yet, Jesus endured it - He didn’t like it - “despising the shame” - but He endured it.
Why?
Well you know why, but that’s the answer to our puzzle.
There was a purpose.
There was a purpose to His pain and there is a purpose to our pain.
In verses 2 - 4, James explains to us that the somewhat sudden, difficult or bad things that happen in our lives are there for a purpose.
They are not capricious and arbitrary.
They are not random and we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Why do bad things happen suddenly and unexpectedly?
I refer you back to Genesis 3.
How do we successfully deal with them?
We quit looking at them as things that happened to us and instead look at them as lessons God is using to make us strong.
To make us tougher.
Like Jesus.
When we say, “Why me? Why did this happen to me?” what we are saying is that thing that happened was without purpose.
And that is patently untrue.
When tough times come, whether it is because God brought it to your life or God is allowing it into your life, doesn’t matter - God is sovereign.
When tough times come, God’s purpose in the tough time is the “testing of your faith.”
The testing, the trial is there to point out to us the genuineness of our faith.
If our faith is genuine, listen - it will bear up under difficult circumstances.
Genuine faith bears up under difficult circumstances.
Listen to James 1:4 “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Parents, this is where we sometimes fail our kids.
As much as it hurts us, there are times that our kids need to suffer.
They need to know that God will see them through the hard times because, you and I both know, it’s not going to get any easier for them.
We will scratch our our living by the sweat of our brow - no job is easy - ever - as their lives will not get easier as time passes.
I would even challenge those people who say they enjoy their jobs so much they feel like they’ve never worked a day in their life.
I’d ask them, “So you are telling me you NEVER had a bad day or a hard time or a somewhat sudden, difficult or bad thing happen to you?”
They have - because that’s life.
But James is telling us that all hardships are trials to prove to us that the Lord - it’s a cliche’ but it works - “if the Lord brings you to it, He will see you through it.”
The Lord wants you to know that His children always prevail.
Now, King James and some other versions translate steadfastness as patience - and that’s a good word - we just misunderstand it.
We think of patience as simply enduring something.
We have patience with our children, we have patience with our co-workers, our students, our teachers.
We quietly and, well, patiently, endure their whatever.
That’s not steadfastness.
Steadfastness is active.
It’s grit.
It’s determination.
It’s bare knuckles and clenched fists.
It is far from passive.
In verse 5 - 8 James points that out.
“If any of you lacks wisdom,” listen - if any of you don’t know what to do - ever been there?
He’s not simply talking about having good common sense wisdom - James is talking about actively trying to figure your situation.
You don’t know what to do - you are about to go crazy trying to figure it out - everyone has advice and it’s all different advice.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach,”
Now this is pretty direct - so pay attention here.
You don’t know what to do - pray - ask God what to do.
Then pay attention because God is promising right here that He will lead you through the tough time.
He will generously answer you, meaning He will give you exactly the direction you need.
Now this is good, listen, “without reproach.”
You know what that means?
It means that if you are in a mess because you got yourself into a mess - that your sin got you into a mess.
When you come to God humbly, knowing it was your sin that made this mess, begging forgiveness from His and you pray expecting an answer.
He will answer, fully, completely and without requiring a pound of your flesh in the process.
Remember all of the people Jesus simply said, “Go your way and sin no more.”
He didn’t change His vocabulary because you think what you did was the stupidest thing any one human being could do.
His response to every humble and contrite heart is the same, “Go your way and sin no more.”
But - and you know there was a catch right - and there is a catch.
James 1:6-7 “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;”
Here’s the catch, if you pray asking for wisdom, and you begin to see God’s direction but you start trying to figure out how to hedge your bets.
That you want God’s answer, but you still want things to end up the way you want it to end up, don’t “suppose that [you] will receive anything from the Lord.”
“He is a double-minded man,” - not two faced - saying one thing to one person and another thing to another.
No, this is a man who wants to have one foot in church and another foot in the world - he wants to play by both set of rules.
James says clearly, don’t expect anything from God.
Sounds harsh?
Well, we all know Jesus is an old softy, right?
What does old Softy have to say?
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ”
And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
A man came to Jesus.
A good man.
A respectable and honorable man - a man you would want to be friends with.
He came to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus looked into the man’s soul and saw that His treasure wasn’t the Lord, His treasure was treasure.
You heard what Jesus told him to do - and you heard that the man left sorrowful because he didn’t want to be poor - even if that’s what Jesus wanted.
Now, did you hear the last sentence?
Unless the man repented and sold his possessions - unless the man repented and followed Jesus - Jesus let the man die and go to hell.
The man’s choice.
Old Softy isn’t so soft, is He?
Let me add this real quick - verses 9 - 11 talk about rich and poor.
Netted out, James is simply saying we are all in this together.
Because we all belong to God.
So, let me bullet point this for us.
First, life is tough by design.
We chose to be the captains of our own destiny, the Lord obliged.
But, for those who will follow Him, He will lead.
Second, some times in life are tougher than others.
These tough times have a purpose.
And that purpose is to show you that you have the strength to make it through because the Lord will give you the strength to see it through.
And the more tough times you endure, the stronger your faith in Jesus because the more you see His wisdom in your deliverance.
The more intense the training, the more successful the game.
Third, don’t feel guilty because you doubt sometimes.
James isn’t talking about those moments when it’s just too much.
And you melt in the floor in tears.
Or you go outside and curse out the dog.
Jesus will give you more than you can bear. so that you will do what James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
Life is tough. God is tougher.
Life is tough. God is tougher.
When you hang out with the tough guy, you are bound to win.