Sermon Tone Analysis

Ask God for Wisdom

Jas 1:5–8 “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.”

Pray

Recap last sermon.

James, The brother of our Lord and leader in the early church at Jerusalem, wrote this epistle to dispersed Jewish Christians calling them to authentic Christian living.

The overarching theme is to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

It could be said that James’ epistle in the How-To-Guide to living out your Christian faith.

James very briefly and humbly introduces himself as “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then wasting no time he instructs the immediate audience and of course us as well to [count it all joy when we meet trials of many kinds.]

We as Christ’s redeemed people are to be joyful in our trials.

The trials we go through are not just happenstance or chance though.

As Nick pointed out last week, our sovereign God ordains them for our good.

In Genesis 50: 20 Joseph speaking to his brothers regarding their selling him into slavery and fabricating a story to tell their father, Jacob , that he was killed by a wild beast has this to say;

Think about this .

This pretty terrible thing (or several terrible things) happened to Joseph.

He was hated by his brothers and they at first plotted to kill him.

But one of them lovingly suggests to the others

“let’s just throw him into a pit”, afterward he was sold into slavery.

He eventually ends up in prison for a very long time and now years later on the other side of all the bad, instead of being biter, he sees the good that God meant in all of it.

Not just his own good, but the good of his brothers and their families and the entire nation of Egypt as well as surrounding lands who could come and buy food during this 7 years long famine.

Some of you can relate to this a lot better than the rest of us.

Before you were saved you may have been in the lowest possible place in your whole life .

You may have been addicted to drugs or alcohol or both, you may have been the victim of abuse, or some other equally bad situation.

And in that lowest time in your life, you may have asked God “why me?”

But even though someone who victimized you meant it for evil, or you yourself meant it for evil, (seeking the pleasure of sin to your OWN detriment) God meant it for good!

And most likely not just your good.

There are people who are witnesses to the change that happened to you and your conversion is a testimony to the power of God to save sinners.

For some of you, your pre-salvation experiences (I mean the lowest times) are the very thing you draw upon to minister to others.

You can relate to a person who has had a similar experience better than anyone else.

In those times of trial pre and post conversion God is doing something in you.

Pre conversion, he is leading you TO the cross by showing you just how weak you are and how you need Him so very much.

Post salvation, when trials come, they are meant to sanctify us.

They (as James writes) test our faith.

They reveal weaknesses in us and sins not yet put to death.

They help us to increase in piety and holiness as we hold fast to the hope that our Savior lives and He intercedes to the Father on our behalf.

These trials strengthen our faith because they stretch our faith to limits it could never reach in easy times.

Trials back us into a corner and surround us on all sides until there is nowhere else to look but up.

Psalm 44 is a wonderful illustration of dependence on God in tough times when He seems far away.

If you have your bible please turn there with me now.

These Sons of Korah, believing in the greatness of God and His power as informed by their forefathers are reaching out to Him.

Even though he seems far away and they are not feeling blessed in their current circumstances, they are seeking His face as a direct result of their consequences.

They are crying out to the only one who can save them out of their state of misery and defeat.

You see, it is these trials that they are going through that God is using to disciple them, to teach them to depend on Him in all circumstances.

What is happening here is sanctification.

God disciplines us to make us more like Jesus.

This transformation that happens through the entirety of our Christian life, this growing us in holiness, removal of sin, teaching us to rely on God in all aspects of our lives, growing us in Christlikeness, to better reflect the character of God, whose image we bear is certainly for our good.

But, more than that it is for God’s glory.

And the author or author’s of this psalm get that.

You see it in the last line of the psalm “Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!”

For the sake of the fame of YHWH.

So the world will know that this is the kind of God we serve.

So that anyone who witnesses our plight and sees God pulling us up out of it will know that He is faithful to His promises and that He loves His chosen people.

The prayer I pray most often is this.

“God, please don’t leave me like this.”

Because I still live in this body of sin and I too easily forget that my eternal destination is far better than my current location.

This kind of prayer will surely be answered by God giving us “trials of various kinds” as they are called in James 1;2.

That is a long way to go to get us caught up to where today’s verses pick up, but with all that in mind, the what (trials) and the why (making us more like our Savior), In verse 5, James gives us the HOW.

Verse 5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God” One commentary I read in preparation for today says those words could also be translated “Since you lack wisdom”.

This would certainly make sense because we know from Proverbs 14 12

Navigating God-given trials alone will lead us in the exact opposite direction they are intended to lead us.

Living life apart from God, we make a real mess of things.

We desperately need His help.

On my way home from work on Friday, I drove past a woman whose car had just run out of gas.

She had 2 kids in the car and was pushing it towards a parking lot, trying to get out of traffic.

I am sure she thought this would be easy enough since the initial push was down-hill.

But, while she was pushing, her kids were trying to climb out of their seats and, also there was no one steering the car and the whole thing could have gone really bad for any number of reasons.

I pulled over to help her and now with help she could steer while I pushed.

Then at a certain point I had to pull the car, with my truck, up-hill into the parking lot and even before the final push to put her car safely into a parking space she had her head down and was praying.

Thanking God for sending help.

She could not have gotten her car there on her own.

James tells us to ask God for wisdom in trials.

We should consider how amazing it is that this is even possible.

A wretch like you and me, sinners who by our very nature rejected God and lived life only for our own pleasure and sometimes still do because we struggle to remember who we are in Christ.

We who “were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind Ephesians 2;3

WE? can now come before the throne of grace in the name of Jesus and ask for wisdom from God who is Holy, Holy, Holy?

YES! this is possible because God so loved the world that HE gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3;16.

And we have been adopted as sons and daughters.

And because God the Father is a good Father, he gives generously to all without reproach.

Our Heavenly Father gives wisdom WITHOUT reproach.

Contrary to probably every father’s day card I have ever recieved, I am not the world’s best dad.

Sometimes when my children ask for something my response is “get it yourself” or “ask your mother”.

God is not like that.

He does not chastise us for our lack of godly wisdom.

He does not chastise us for the timeliness of our request.

He gives without reproach.

He is a good, good Father.

He is generous and full of grace.

HE is abounding in steadfast love.

He is faithful and just.

Blessed be the name of our God.

The surety that God Will give wisdom is made clear here but not the method.

God may choose to impart wisdom to you by recalling to your mind a verse of scripture that is helpful in a moment of weakness.

It may be that he has surrounded you with godly people who council you through a particular situation or hold you accountable in your sin struggles.

Maybe it is your spouse, or parents.

We are particularly blessed in a way that the original recipients of this letter were not.

We all have a bible that we can consult for God’s instruction.

And if you don’t have one, please don’t leave here today without one.