Good evening. I was assigned this night very recently. Recently as in this week. And whenever I have a short notice, time to speak on God's Word, there's different factors that go into what you choose. Let's just talk about speaking in general. Sometimes you choose a topic because It is something you've been studying specifically to preach. And sometimes you choose a topic because it is something that you're really passionate about and you want to convey that because you think other people may benefit from it. And then there are other times like tonight where The reason that I chose what I chose was because I needed to hear it myself. It was something that I was kind of dealing with and figured this particular passage is something I need to re-look at and other people here may benefit from it because they may be dealing with the same things, having the same circumstances. So for tonight, we're going to look at James 1, verses 1-8. And if you've been coming here any length of time, you'll know that Pastor Schweitzer has taught on this several times. And he likes to talk about temptations and trials and the difficulties of life and how there are opportunities for growth. And that is the subject of tonight, is seeing our trials as opportunities for growth. So I'll start out by reading these verses for us, and then we'll have a word of prayer, and then I'm gonna go through each of these eight verses and describe what the significance is of each verse and how we can apply this and view our difficulties in life as opportunities not just to suffer, because obviously we don't want to just look at difficulties for the sake of looking at suffering, but for the opportunity of becoming more Christ-like in the process. So James chapter 1 says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." Lord, I thank you for this passage, and I thank you for what we can learn from it. I thank you for leading me to this particular passage at this particular time, and I pray that we would all benefit from it, that we would all find something here that we can use to apply in our individual situations. We don't all face the same things. We don't all live the same lives. We often live very different lives. But I pray that each person, as they live their life, would be able to find something from this passage that they can apply to their own situation and that will benefit them as they become more like your son. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, first of all, this first verse gives us some background on this passage. James says he's a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you know who this James is, it's the half-brother of Jesus. And the fact that he describes himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ is significant because James was Jewish and at one point in his life, in John 7.35 I believe it is, says that Jesus' own brethren didn't believe on him. So the fact that Jesus' half-brother here is writing a book and then saying it's of God, he's a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, shows the faith that James has in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And so I always look at that and think that is a significant thing that if we just skip over, We miss a lot. Okay, so faith in Jesus Christ is extremely extremely important and here the author which is James But also ultimately God is saying that he is a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ And he writes to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. So at this period in history, the 12 tribes of Israel were experiencing a lot of persecution. And what that did is that scattered them, drove them all over the place. They actually were seeking to get away from the things they were facing. So they split up and they were all dispersed. And so James is writing this not to a people group that is in a great situation. He's actually writing to people in a difficult situation. People that are being kind of under duress, and so as a result, they're all spread out, and everybody's going their own way, and they're separated. And that's not ideal for them, but that's the situation to which the context of this writing is. It's that they're dispersed. And so, for stars, we can recognize that the audience, the intended audience of this book is not just people who are going through life experiencing great things, but actually people experiencing difficulty. Actually, people going through difficult times, through trials, and as a result, they're dispersed. And then he writes, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. So he's telling them to look at it as a good thing. when you experience various testing. So divers is like diverse or multifaceted or various, right? It's unique things. There's many different types of trials a person could face. And I'm sure if we went around the room tonight, we could find a whole bunch of different things. As a matter of fact, this is Wednesday night when we take prayer requests. And so a lot of people will actually raise their hand describe the types of trials they're going through. And so when that happens, we can see that we're not all going through the same exact type of thing. It's very different. Some people, you know, it's physical. Some people it's spiritual. Some people it's relational. You never know what it might be. Sometimes it's a combination of those things. And so he says to count it all joy, when you fall into these various temptations, which are like trials, difficulties, the things in life which we don't always appreciate. But he's saying, count it all joy when you experience these things. And he says in verse 3, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. So, working patience. Patience is like endurance. So he's saying that we should look at trials as a positive thing, not because we enjoy suffering. But we should look at them as a positive thing because of what they bring about. The trying of your faith it works or accomplishes, it brings about patience, which is endurance. And it is actually something that strengthens us if we go through these things correctly, if at least we have a correct view of them. If we have a correct view of trials, it will help us in our growth. And so temptations means trials, testings, a putting to proof. So it's really a testing of our faith and a putting to proof how strong is our faith actually. Our faith in God, our faith in His providence. faith in his word, which teaches us about his character. How strong is that? Well, we find out when we experience these temptations, these difficulties. It says in verse 4, "...but let patience have for perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." So perfect I think most of us understand it doesn't mean sinless. It doesn't mean without fault or without flaw. Perfect means complete. It's being whole. So it's coming to a point of completion, not perfection. I think we would understand that we're not going to see perfection in this life. We'll eventually be made perfect in Christ at some point, but not in this life, right? So being made perfect and entire is a process, and it's not a process that's going to be completed in this life. But it's that bringing about the completed work that these trials, they have a role in that. And our suffering actually helps us to continue to grow and become more into what Christ, what we're supposed to be in Christ. So we're going to become perfect and entire, wanting nothing. The word wanting is like lacking. So there's like the word want. You won't be in want. Well, we're not going to lack anything when we're eventually brought to this completed state. And again, our trials are bringing that about in us. It's bringing us to this state that ultimately God wants us to reach and which we will ultimately reach at some point. And then verse 5 is a great verse. One of the best verses in this passage, in my opinion, because we all lack wisdom. It says, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. So, lacking wisdom. Who really, if they were honest, could say, oh I've never lacked wisdom, or I don't lack wisdom. Who could say they have enough wisdom? I mean, when you really look at it, Solomon, he asked for wisdom and he became the wisest man. And I still would imagine he would have wanted more wisdom, despite the fact that he was the wisest man ever. I still would bet he would have desired even more wisdom. And the thing is, is we're all going to lack wisdom. We're all going to be placed in situations where we're not going to have a perfect understanding. As a matter of fact, I don't think we ever have a perfect understanding. So you can just basically say, whatever difficulty you're finding yourself in, whatever situation you're in, you could probably use some more wisdom. I know I certainly could, many times, all the time. So he says, if any of you lack wisdom, which he could basically have rewarded that and said, when you lack wisdom, because we're all going to lack it, when you lack it, let him ask of God, because God is the giver of wisdom. So let him ask of God, So liberally is the idea of giving out with like excess and without holding back and giving out generously. So he's giving out this wisdom to those who ask. He's giving it generously. And without holding back, he's just enabling them to have it when they ask for it. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Why? Because he giveth to all men liberally. He's not going to upbraid you. So then, upbraideth means like, it's almost like to come back at somebody with a negative response. So what I wrote down here when I studied the word upbraideth is, to rail it, to chide, to taunt, to rebuke. There's other ways you could describe it. But in other words, when a person asks God for wisdom, they're lacking wisdom. When a person asks God for wisdom, He doesn't come back at them with like a condescending attitude like, oh you don't have wisdom. He actually instead gives them the wisdom that they ask for. So the reason the passage is encouraging us to ask for wisdom from God is because first of all, he's a giver of wisdom, and second of all, because when we ask, he gives it to us liberally. He actually gives it to us in excess. We get a lot of it, instead of him coming back at us like, oh, you don't have wisdom, you should know better. So the reality is, when we lack this wisdom, we've got to ask God, because he's going to give it liberally, and it shall be given him. But then verse six, kind of gives almost a qualifier, if you will. It's almost like you want to ask for this wisdom, but there's, I don't want to say a catch. It's not the best way of phrasing it. I would say there's almost a somewhat of a requirement to get the wisdom. He says in verse 6, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." So we see that almost a qualifier to asking for the wisdom is that we ask in faith. And that we're not wavering when we ask. Because he compares it to a wave of the sea. Now if you've ever been to the ocean, or even if you haven't been there, but if you've just seen a video footage of the ocean and the tide, and you'll see that the waves are very, there is a pattern to them. But a wave just gets like thrown in the air and just like comes crashing down on the surface and it is no more. And it's just very temporary and it's very, it's kind of violent even. And so he's saying that if a person here, is asking while wavering. The person that's wavering, right, for he that wavereth, they're like this wave of the sea that's driven with the wind and tossed. And if you think of, if you've ever seen somebody surfing and they crash, right, it's a very violent crash, even though the water, the water's not as hard as the ground is, it's a pretty violent crash. So the reality here is that we don't wanna waver when we're asking for faith when we're going through these difficult times and we need wisdom and we ask for faith we don't want to waver because he that wavereth is like the wave of the sea like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed and i thought of when i was studying for this i thought of the uh verse in the book of Matthew, I think it's Matthew 17, 20, where Christ said to the disciples that if you have faith as the grain of a mustard seed, which is extremely small, you could move mountains. And so, Don't be discouraged. Don't think like you have to have a superhuman type faith to ask for this wisdom and to not waver. Christ said that if you have a tiny bit of faith that you could compare it to the grain of a mustard seed. and you can move mountains with that, it shows that our faith doesn't have to be any type of superhuman amount of faith. It just has to be there. It has to exist. It has to be something. You actually have to have some level of faith, but it doesn't have to be anything that's extraordinary, because the mustard seed is very tiny. And so he said, a grain of a mustard, see that's even tinier. So the reality is, I think we all have, we can all get enough faith. We can all muster up enough faith, if you will. A little play on words. Muster up enough faith to have enough faith that we're not going to waver when we ask. And not become like that wave of the sea, as he describes. And then verse 7 describes what happens if you have no faith when you ask. He says, So if we ask with no faith, if we don't have any faith and we're wavering like this wave of the sea that's being driven with the wind and tossed, We shouldn't count on receiving anything of the Lord because He wants us to ask in faith. And faith is like a huge theme throughout the Word of God. Having faith in God, having faith in His Word, having faith in His purposes. It's a huge, huge theme. And you see it in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. You see it used in all sorts of different ways. And there's different types of faith. But the reality is, is having faith is very important. to the Christian life. And so, he says, for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. And that is the man that asks without faith, the man that waivers. So, when you ask for wisdom, ask in faith, and don't waiver. Because if you do, don't expect to receive what you're asking for. He's not going to honor that type of request. And then the last verse to look at is, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So I wrote down some things about being double-minded. The first thing is that double-minded has a rough equivalent of being two-spirited. Or another word I found is vacillating, which is like being indecisive. You ever think vacillating is like going back and forth. constantly shifting. So one thing is, have you ever heard of an oscillating fan? Like the fans that blow on this side for a little bit and then they turn over to this side and they blow on this side for a little bit and then they go back, right? Well that's like the wavering, the going back and forth. that he's talking about, the being double-minded, not having, being indecisive would be a good way of putting it, being, having a lack of resoluteness. The double-minded man is somebody who has like this split, they're pursuing like two things at the same time, they can't really decide what they want, they can't really decide what they're going after. That's what this idea of being double-minded is. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And being unstable reminds us of the wave, right? The wave is very unstable. The wave gets thrown up in the air, comes crashing down. And then it is no more. It's a pretty short-lived thing. And so this all reads together really well. He uses the descriptor of the wave. And then he says, don't let that man think you shall receive anything of the Lord. And he says, because a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And when we follow, when we have faith in Christ, we have to follow him wholeheartedly. So that's how we start out with in the Christian life, right? We start out following him wholeheartedly. And so, it's that mentality that has to continue on as we continue to serve God, as we continue to live a Christian life. We have to continue with that same mindset and not be a double-minded individual. So I think we'll close with this, but kind of by way of summarizing here, there's nobody that's going to be able to go through this life without experiencing difficulties and sufferings and testings of their faith. It's just, it's really impossible. Because Christ said that we're gonna experience tribulation in this life. He pretty much guaranteed it. There's really no way around it. So, when we are in those situations, we need to look at them as opportunities to grow, to become more perfect, which again doesn't mean without fault, but perfect in the sense of more complete. And when we look at our trials as almost a catalyst to speed up our growth, we can see them as more of a positive thing. We can look at them with a positive light. I understand the trial itself may not be positive. In other words, if you fall and you break your leg, it's not a positive thing that your leg is broken. But the reality is, through breaking your leg, you may learn a lot of things that will help complete you in your coming to become more like Christ. So then, when you're going through all of that, and you need wisdom, You have to ask for it of God and ask for it in faith without wavering. And when you do that, God promises to give you that wisdom and He promises to give it to you readily. It's not like He's going to hold it back or reprimand you for asking. As long as you ask in faith, you're going to receive it and you're going to receive it generously. And that is a great thing. And I hope that as a result of this passage, we can all look at the difficulties that we're going through. And I'm sure there's many here. We can look at those things as opportunities to grow and become more complete in our walk with Christ. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I pray that all of us, and myself especially, would be able to look at the difficulties of life and evaluate them with a biblical mindset, and that is that they are there intentionally, and they're there to help us to become more Christ-like, and we're not We shouldn't look at them with a negative outlook, but look at them as an opportunity to grow and become more like your son. I pray that you would bless this time of prayer that we're about to have and that you would just strengthen the individuals here, Lord, in their individual trials and their suffering and the things they're going through. We pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.