James | Week 1

My name is Alan. It's good to see you just

singing. So again, so we see that the new

song that we sang is legit. One of my favorite favorite

songs right now, it's called the hope of Christ that somebody

asked me about just a second ago and I've been singing it for

about the past month or so and so funny story with it.

We came out of the song and Christ alone and I could not for

the life of me. Get the tune of it in my head,

just going to admit this right now and so I started to sing it.

And I know this song kind of front to back, except for when

we come out of that, all I have is the Christ of in Christ

alone. So what Anchor Holds, which is

totally wrong. And so thank you, Wesley, for

singing that verse shout out because he's much smarter than

me. And so I don't know how this is.

Going to go is what I'm saying. Because the part that I actually

do most of the time didn't go so well with that.

So I don't do this a whole lot so just I want to prepare you

here. I've got sticky notes that I

always fill to write on there where you can see them like I

right at the wrong way, so it's going to be fun.

That's going to be fun. We're going to be in, in the

Book of James today. But so before that, if you are

new here, my name, my name is Alan.

I am one of our pastors Elders here at the church.

I Don't Preach A whole whole lot but I'm part of our pastoral

team. And so most of the time What I

Do Is Sing as I've said and you know, forget a lot of that.

So we'll try to keep up with this but it is it's a pleasure

to get to do this. This is the only church that

I've ever been a part of that. Had that had a team, like, what

we've got here and praise God, for that.

We've got a team Kyle, Jasper myself.

James and Steve. And so you get the privilege of,

we might get out a little quicker.

Wicker today and we might go around like this but I think

it'll be good. So before we get started, let's

open your Bibles to the Book of James and we are going to walk

through the first 11. Verses today James 1 verses 1

James 1:1–11

through 11 And James just James. It was up here.

There's a lot of James's. We're going to talk about that

in a second to. There's James is all throughout

the Bible. We're going through in

homegroup, we're going through a study of James.

And so if you're in homegroups, what we're going to be doing, is

what we talked about on Wednesday nights.

We're going to try to reinforce on Sunday mornings for the next

ten or so weeks, I believe it is.

So this is week one. We talked about James 1 through

11 in home groups, if so, if you're interested in home

groups, there's a little study book if you don't have one.

Come find myself or James or Steve, we can make sure that we

get you one today. All right, so let's let's just

pray that I don't forget everything and and then we'll

get to it. Okay.

Lord, we love you. Thank you for your goodness and

for your kindness and for being so gracious.

Thank you for allowing us to come together and to study your

word to sing out, praises, and to do life with each.

Each other, thanks for allowing us to gather as one body.

To go in the same direction just to say, Lord that you are that

you are Savior and that you are King.

And that we are not. In Jesus name, amen.

So, first part is that I don't particularly like to read

things. I'll just be honest with you all

there. I'm not a big fan of reading a

lot, but I have to read a lot and so I get through it.

But here's what I'm finding that.

I am a big fan of them. I'm a big fan of learning

things. Anybody like that, like, some

people can read and you're great at school and you like to study

things and you're very Analytical in your brain.

So that's typically not me. I like to talk.

About things and I like to hear people explain things and then

my brain kind of puts them in an order that makes sense with me.

And then I like to learn stuff that way.

And so I don't a personality thing at work the other day and

mine is Tapped Out on the unconventional thinking I

haven't seen anybody else's yet. That's as far on the

unconventional South. So my brain works a little bit

like that Kyle smile and he knows he's talk to me if you've

had a conversation with me before you probably know that

but I like to learn things and so learning things is is

important. And so before we get into James,

I want to talk about who James was what the Book of James is

about and some of the specifics within it because the historical

context of it really helps me understand what I'm trying to

learn. Okay.

And so I want to talk about who James was what the main point or

the main idea of it is this helps us put it all into context

because without context we can take things out of context which

You see a lot in the Christian world and a lot of places, which

means we just grab versus from anywhere little, you know,

snippet and we apply it to every single aspect of our lives.

And sometimes that might be great, but sometimes that might

be very harmful because that's not the intent of the scripture,

right? So, so the first thing we've got

to ask. Is, who is James?

There's quite a few James as mentioned in the Bible.

There's two different Disciples of Jesus that are named James,

there's James, son of Zebedee. And then there's James son of

alphaeus, I think so. He said close.

And there's even some controversy between that.

So some people think that the son of alphaeus, that's not how

you say the name. I don't know how you say it is

that right, okay? I'll fast alpheus.

Some people would say that's the same.

James as the one that writes here, that would just be the

half brother of James, but the James that writes in the Book of

James is the brother of Jesus. So this is a guy that grew up

with Jesus. He is not one of the 12

disciples and so we'll go through that.

So this was the, the brother of Jesus.

We see this in Matthew 13:55 and that he didn't belong or he

Matthew 13:55

didn't even believe in Jesus growing up.

So I want to take you over to John real fast.

If you've got, we're going to flip around a little bit today.

So in John chapter 7, this is after a face of this is after

John 7 · chapter mention

Jesus has done some Miracles already.

This is not. When Jesus is just a little

child. He's already walked on water.

He's already done some stuff and they're going to the Feast of

booths and it says this starting in verse 3, it says so his

brothers said to him leave here and go to Judea that your

Messiah disciples. Also may see the works.

You are doing No one works in secret.

If he seeks to be known. Openly says, if you do these

things, show yourself to the world.

So they're kind of saying this in a mockingly way.

They're saying, listen, if you do all of these things and you

have these wonderful Works, don't do them in secret.

Go do them to the whole world, show yourself to the world, and

then verse 5, it says for not even his brothers believed in

him. So this is, this is James.

He grows up, you know, imagine being the younger sibling and

your brother's the Son of God, you know, I mean, he grows up

with this guy that super smart reads the scriptures and even as

they get older and he sees Jesus doing Miracles, he doesn't

believe. He is skeptical, you know, at

best, okay? So, this is the James that we're

dealing with after the resurrection though.

However, James comes to believe and Christ appears to him.

So Christ appears after his resurrection, he appears to

hundreds of people. I think it says over 500 people,

and then it says, and then he appears first to James and then

he goes to the other Apostles. So he goes and He makes himself

known known to James. So James believes in the Lord.

He starts trusting that all of the stuff that his brother Jesus

I told him is true is real and James stays in Jerusalem with

the pocket of other believers. We see this in Acts James stays

there. He's with Peter, he's with some

other, some other good folks and he starts to become a leader

within the church. So, this is James grew up with

Jesus. Didn't really believe in him.

Resurrection happens. Jesus comes to him.

He believes that Jesus is who he said he was, and then he becomes

a leader. This is a guy that that Paul

actually comes in Galatians. It says Paul comes, and he meets

with with James when Peter escapes prison, one of the

things Peter goes and he tells you know, a tells him of all the

great things that the Lord has done, how he just delivered him

and he Tell James and the brothers, make sure you tell

them the things that the Lord has done.

We know that in the end of Acts that James is also part of what

was called the Jerusalem Council.

So he becomes such a leader that he is part of the council and

not only just part of the council.

He actually has some kind of very high leadership in the

council. He is called a pillar and an

elder of the church and when he gives a speech it's based on On

his Judgment of the things. So he's not just part of this

little Council. He's one of the leaders of the

Jerusalem Council. So, all of that's important, at

least to me to know when we get into talking about James who

this James is, because there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot

of James's within the Bible so that is the James that wrote

This Book of James. It was pretty cool, it kind of

shows how somebody that's very skeptical.

Has done a complete 180 in a sense and is now a leader,

proclaiming boldly. Proclaiming the truth of the

Lord. He's actually called James the

just in a lot and they say that they would that that it had his

knees become so callous because they would find him

historically, they would find him in the temple.

Often all the time on his knees praying to the Lord.

For mainly for the for the Jewish folks to seek the Lord.

So he stayed in Jerusalem history.

The Bible doesn't say how he was how he was killed but history

and Josephus which is a historical writer typically

think that he was theirs do two different stories and they kind

of go together once a you might have been thrown off a temple

off the temple and that that didn't quite kill him so they

stoned him to death. It's kind of historical again

that part's not in the Bible but but but historical it would it's

widely accepted that he was that he was martyred in that.

Way, so he endured some hardship and trial and he was eventually

killed for his faith. But this is all important for me

to know because there is a seemingly controversy if you've

been in Sunday school, I like controversy even talking about

Exodus. I didn't realize I like them as

much as I do but I do there can be on me say not seemingly with

there can be a controversy of two guys in the Bible James and

Paul. And there's a couple of

different approaches when we read the Bible that we can go

to. So, some people have heard that

just say, you know what, we're just going to go.

We're going to lean so much on Paul that sometimes they don't

even know what Jesus said, and Paul's always Point people back

to Jesus. Now there's another group that

at times there was a group when we lived in Tennessee, my wife

and I a church right down the road, they completely denounced

Paul. And they said, we're only going

to preach the red letters only, and then there's other groups

that would say But Paul preaches, Grace and James seems

to preach a lot of works and so they can't be hand-in-hand.

And so they're like this. And so, if you just cherry pick

some versus, that's kind of what you get to.

So for instance, let's read we're going to read Romans 3:28.

Romans 3:28

It says this It says for we hold that.

No one is justified by faith apart from works of the loan.

If we hold it, no one is justified by faith.

Apart from works of the law. And then in James to later,

which I'm not going to get to today, James 2:24, it's going to

James 2:24

say this. It says you see that a person is

justified by works and not by faith alone?

So, all of that to kind of wrap in your brain, that when we

picked this two different things, they can look like

they're coming to two different places.

So it's important to know the background of James to know.

James and Paul actually knew each other.

They were all preaching the gospel and they had two very

different people, they were talking to in their books.

So, I hope this is easy enough to follow, this is how my brain

has to track. So, so Paul when he's writing,

Romans is really making a case for Christ to Gentiles, not

Jewish people, and he walks through the history of Israel.

He walks through the chosen elect all the way from the Old

Testament Israel. And even makes a case that those

people reject the Lord. And now he's making this case

for Christ for Gentiles and James, but we're going to see is

met mainly talking to Jewish Believers mainly.

It's applicable in many ways, but he is talking to people that

he stayed in Jerusalem that are Jerusalem or that are Jewish for

the most part. Wealthy L not all of them.

But, but that's a big thing. And that's important to

distinguish because what we're going to see in James is he does

not make a big case for Christ. This is one of the things in our

home group, we brought up the first introduction.

Is it really doesn't lay out? A lot of theological ground for

Jesus. In the Book of James it lays out

practical advice, lays out practical things And so this is

helpful for us as a church because there are a lot of you

out here that would say we are believers and sometimes we go.

Okay, but what do we do, what do we do now in James is a book

that says, if you confess to be a believer in Jesus, you must be

obedient to his word and it'll be tiant's your life will

produce good works. It has to if your life looks

nothing like a Christian, That the Bible describes and your

Works. Look nothing like what the Bible

describes then your faith is dead.

Which is uh it's kind of a hard reality but you can't play.

You can't play both in. So James is going to harp on

that. You can't you can't act like

just a Christian and not obey anything they go hand-in-hand.

So these are not to opt opposing positions grace and works.

These are things that have to work together.

They just have to So that's that's kind of the whole premise

of what we're going to get into and what hopefully I can

communicate with you today. All right.

Well, I guess now we should probably read some of James.

If you all will, please stand and we're going to read James 1

1, through 11. Get back over there.

Okay, so James 1, it says 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 of 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.

It's scorching heat and Withers. The grass.

Its flowers fall and its beauty parishes.

Also will be the rich man. So also, will the rich man fade

away in the midst of his Pursuits.

Let's go to the Lord. Father.

Thank you for your word. We ask that as we as we go

through, just these first 11 verses that you, that you grant

us wisdom this morning to understand your work. that you

help us obey your word and that you help us seek after In Jesus

name. Amen.

I mean you may have seat All right, so number one, we're

point one. I don't really have a point.

So the first thing I'm going to say, I guess James admits in his

very first line that he is now a servant of God and of the Lord

Jesus Christ. We kind of joked about it in our

home group, but it's important to realize that Christ is not

Jesus as last name, right? So, when he's saying that as his

brother as Jesus brother, I mean, James is really, he is

stating Whole conviction, that his brother Jesus is the

Messiah. This is the coming crisis is the

Saviour so he's not so don't ever confuse that word with just

the name that is, that is he is the Messiah.

So, right from the gate, he is saying I am the servant of the

coming Messiah, the or the Messiah that has come of Christ

to the Twelve Tribes. Again, he's speaking to Jewish

to Jewish people here and I'm going to break this down into

about three different. Sections that I see in these

first 11 verses, it's going to come from Joy.

He's going to talk about wisdom, and then he's going to kind of

end with an exaltations of the Lord.

And both Joy and wisdom only come from the Lord.

There's really no other way to get them completely.

And so the first, let's go back to verse 2.

So, count it all joy. My brothers, when you meet

Trials of various kinds for, you know, that the testing of Faith

produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full

effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

So steadfastness, it really means like under pressure.

So it is saying, stand firm, even when things are piling

down. Even when there is an Amount of

pressure. We are to be steadfast which

means we are to be able to be stable.

And joy helps us do that. Count it Joy.

So I want to bring up something that I think is very important

that I've heard a lot here, not just at the church but that work

everywhere else is that Joy is not happiness.

Okay, Joy is not happiness. So happiness is fleeting

happiness, is something that happens right now.

Happiness is something that comes and goes happiness is

something that the world tells us to seek for.

Do what makes you happy? Oh I will be happier if if only

this would make me happy and you know blah blah blah But here's

another side to that coin. So here's some things that

happiness brings about, it brings about, you know, instant

gratification type things. But it also brings about really

bad stuff like bitterness. Happiness.

Brings about all kinds of different evils.

The reasonably because it always leaves always.

Happiness can be here today, can be gone tomorrow.

Happiness can be something that you that you seek and seek and

seek for, and then once you get it, guess what?

You no longer happy with it. Anybody ever been there before I

have? I've had a lot of conversations

with people that say, I feel like I deserve happiness.

But you don't, you don't happiness, isn't something that

is is to really even be sought after there are things that make

us happy and that's fine. But we are to cert seek after

Joy. So, Joy is a different side of

that coin. Joy is something that's only

produced by the Lord. Joy is something you can have in

despair. Joy is something that you can

have when all of your happiness is broken and torn apart.

And I was talking with with with my wife Shay last night and it

brought about this example of that.

Happiness. The result of happiness that I

see in the church. Of years of striving after

happiness. Is is, is the, I don't know, the

great way to say it. It's the bitter person that

can't stand anything. Now that we've all seen in

churches, from time to time, you know, they're the people that

that have spent their whole lives, whether they're young or

old. I don't suppose it really

matters that have sought after happiness and it is failed,

time, and time and time again. Or maybe it all eventually Came

Crashing Down. And nobody wants to be around

them. That's a result of happiness.

Which I know sounds kind of backwards.

Because it's fleeting the results of joy is and I might

have already told the story previously, but there's a guy,

he wrote a book called The Master Plan of evangelism years

ago, his name's Robert Coleman. And when I got to spend time

with him, I was in California. And the guy I got to share a

room and he was like 87 or something.

And I got to share a room with this guy and he would walk

around in these conferences all day long had.

I don't think you had to use a cane at that point but anyway, I

was exhausted. I know he was exhausted and he

would wake up and I kid you not, he would wake up.

First words out of his mouth, he would be singing unto the Lord,

stood would get up, get in the shower and just sing like, he

woke me up is pretty annoying. I'm like, I'm trying to sleep,

we'd have to get up at like 5 a.m. and this guy there was Joy

all over. That is the difference from a

life lived of Joy seeking after the Lord, rather than just

trying to do things for the Lord.

The try to bring about happiness.

And I'll never forget it because I'm like, I want to be like that

guy. Like, how do I get to be like

that guy? To wear all of my faults

regardless at that time. I want to say his wife was going

through. It was it was not a great time

in his life. I don't know what exactly was

happening, but it was the most joyous man I've ever heard.

He wanted to tell everybody about What the Lord Has Done.

He wanted to proclaim the gospel but not from a he was a speaker,

not from a speakers Duty. Which a lot of other speakers

there. It was just a stark difference

in this man and it was just the joy of the Lord.

So the joy of the Lord comes from saturating ourselves with

this. Right here, the word of God.

And it comes from this next part that we're going to get into

about seeking wisdom and being with believers.

But I want you to try to separate those things because

they're equated in our society of joy and happiness but they're

not, they're not the same thing at all.

One of them can be gone like that.

The other one is a is a resounding thing.

We can stand firm on because it is of the Lord.

So let's move on to verse 5, and let's say okay well I want some

of that Joy. Now what how do I how do I get

this amazing Joy? You're talking about?

Well, He starts laying it out a little bit.

He says, 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.

For he is a double minded, man. Unstable in all of his ways.

So let's read about wisdom real fast, if you've got your Bibles.

Let's turn over to Proverbs 2. We're going to read one through

15 real quick. And says, this is my son, if you

receive my words and treasure at my Commandments with you, making

your ear, a tentative to wisdom, and inclining, your heart to

understanding. Yes, if you call out for insight

and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it,

like, silver and search for it, as for Hidden Treasures, then

you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge

of God for the Lord gives wisdom.

From his mouth, come knowledge and understanding.

He stores up, sound wisdom for the upright.

He is a shield to those who walk in Integrity guarding the paths

of Injustice and watching over the way of his Saints then you

will understand righteousness and Justice and Equity every

good path for wisdom. Will come into your heart and

knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

Discretion will watch over you understanding will guard, you

delivering you from the way of evil, from Men of perverted

speech, who forsake the path of righteousness, to walk in the

ways of Darkness who rejoice and doing evil.

And Light in the purse perverseness of evil men whose

paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.

So we get back if we want to look at Joy.

First, we've got to ask the Lord for it, and we've got to seek

his wisdom. And wisdom and something else

that I want to try to debunk today from what our society

teaches. So our society teaches that

you've got to go after something called Happiness, The Pursuit of

Happiness, right? That's what we need.

And really, if you want to get there, you've got to be wise.

But the way that the world talks about wise is going to be a

couple different things, like think of think of what you would

think. Our society would tell us would

be wise things to do. And they're generally going to

be the choices that we make. A lot would have to do probably

financially, so make really good Financial choices.

That's a really wise thing to do study and know a lot of good

historical facts. Well, that's pretty wise in our

political realm, knowing different issues, right?

So if you want to be wise, you've got to know different

political issues and and keep up with the news and all of that

some stuff stuff. So just kind of wise and wisdom

is generally, I think associated with Being smart.

Making wise choices, not doing things that we shouldn't do.

What? You're all good.

I'm not saying go make bad and poor decisions.

These are good things but don't rely on.

Just your smartness or intelligence to make good

decisions because at some point you're going to make a really

bad decision. And it's going to either, it's

going to cost you money. It's going to cost you friends.

It's going to cost you reputation.

It's going to cost all kinds of things.

And so to kind of counter that with what the scripture talks

about wisdom is, when the scripture talks about wisdom,

you don't really hear any of that, you don't hear if things

that you do, what you hear is seek the Lord for it first and

foremost. And it says that he will give

it. So we seek the Lord for wisdom

first, but then it says, when you seek wisdom, these are the

things that you'll find is that you'll find a fear of the Lord.

So rather than just making good choices, you will find a fear of

the Lord. It says that this this wisdom

will also Shield you to walk with Integrity.

So you throw Integrity into the category of what does wisdom

look like? Wisdom looks like integrity.

That's something that guards your path.

This is now. Wisdom wisdom is something that

that helps us with discretion, both with our heart and with our

soul, to follow the lord, And it helps deliver you from evil.

So the whole last part it's saying when you seek out this

wisdom it helps you stay away from the perverse of - of man,

these terrible, things of speech, all of this other stuff.

And so, throw the intellect part out again.

Not saying that we shouldn't seek any of that, but that is

not true wisdom, that's just learning things which, again, at

the start, I like to do. I like to learn things that's

fine. But when we lean on our

learning, we're missing a whole big part of Leaning, not on our

understanding, but leaning on the Lord.

So the Lord's wisdom just looks vastly different.

He looks at somebody and he says what?

I can give you and wisdom will be a life of Integrity, a life

of character, a life above reproach, somebody that loves

somebody that seeks after my face. and not that seeks, after

all of these other things of the world, And he'll still guide us

in those other things over the world with his holy spirit.

But we're not to lean on those things by any means. so, I hope

that's tracking And then, so it's not about material things.

I do want to bring that up. So we here as a church would

reject something. What's called the Prosperity

Gospel? Which a lot of people would take

versus like this out of context. That just says, ask God, and he

will give generously And if you don't get it, you lack the

faith. And if you do get it, then you

must have strong faith and it's a blessing to you.

This is one of the verses that would been taken out.

So here we would say we're not just would say, I think the

Bible is very clear that this is not talking about that at all.

This is talking about wisdom when he's saying ask the Lord

and He will give it generously. James is referring to wisdom

here. Ask the Lord for wisdom.

It's not referring to material things at all.

He's not even referring to. Well, I'll stop there.

Yeah. So ask for wisdom and then he

goes on and he just says with with no doubting for a person

that doubts is like somebody that is just tossed to and fro.

So what I want to ask you today and kind of plead with you is to

seek the Lord for wisdom and to examine your life.

And to not be tossed around by the by the waves and the wind.

And what that means is to not, be somebody that walks in here.

And says, man, I love the Lord and then you walk out and your

life looks radically different. I've been there, I've done that.

I remember clearly on on the day when I was I think I was at some

kind of Youth campus has been years ago, and I knew that when

I left that something had to change because I could no longer

try to straddle and play this church game, straddle the fence

and say well I'm going to I know the answer is because I've got

this knowledge because I've read I've heard this stuff.

But man, I was Far From The Lord.

And so I tried doing both and that is that is you're being

tossed to and fro your double minded and it says not that you

just double minded. It makes a you know it doesn't

say the word but it's basically saying that you are a fool and

you are unstable in all of your ways.

And that's where our wisdom will get us.

So counterintuitive there. Your wisdom as smart and as

intellectual. And as great as you maybe at all

kinds of things, if you rely on that, you will be unstable

tossed to and fro So rather Church, let's not be fools.

Let's seek the Lord for his wisdom for his wisdom alone.

We can stand on. So don't don't play this church

game, don't do it. Trust in the Lord for your

wisdom. Stop relying on yourself this.

I'm, this is for me right here. I've done that.

To say, I never do it would still be a lie.

I mean I want to fully rely on his word and not my own

abilities. I like to do things.

I can in some of our meetings like that's I would like you to

tell me what to do. I want to do it which is which

is fine. But what?

That translates for me, A lot of times is I don't trust others

and I rely on myself, I do that at work a lot.

I'll do that here. And it's harmful, it's harmful.

And it might work for a while. You might be like, well, I've

been doing that. And everything is going fine.

It will crash it. Will it will crash.

Ask the Lord for wisdom. He will give it generously.

Let's move on the last part here, exaltation of the Lord.

So it says this in verse 9, it says let the lowly brother boast

in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation because like

the flower of the grass, he will pass away for the sun rises

with. It's scorching heat and Withers.

The grass, it's flowers fall and its beauty parishes.

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his

Pursuits. So, there's a, there's a couple

of myths that he's that. I'm going to get to.

So, again, James is talking to mostly wealthy Jewish leaders,

okay? And these Jewish leaders, and we

get later in the book will do things like, and just Pharisees

in general, would Things. Like they would they would wear

all this nice stuff and they really prop themselves up and

they would look down on others and they would look down on

people that might not have this kind of prominence and so What?

He's not saying it all with the wisdom part or any of that.

He's really not talking about anything to do with money.

Per se is far as like, because I've heard it been preached this

way before to is this isn't dealing with anything money-wise

but he's addressing people that have money because those that

that's kind of people he's talking to.

And so he's primarily talking to wealthy Jewish people that

tended to treat the poor. Those in poverty, was some type

of Custer was some type of unfair treatment a lot of times.

And so he's talking to Believers here again, that's important to

remember. And so and there's a lot of,

there's a lot of wealth in the Bible.

So I'm not trying to make any kind of case that having any

kind of wealth is terrible. You see things like we're

talking about in Sunday school from Joseph, to Moses that lived

in Pharaoh's house and we get on to the Kings.

I mean, there's a, there's a plethora of wealth in the Bible.

But again, to try to debunk that God gives generously, this is

not any kind of prosperity thing, the New Testament in

Jesus, they actually worn a lot about having wealth.

And, and Jesus says some things that are, that are warnings.

No, and Mark 10, he says, how hard it is for a rich man to

enter Heaven. And then later on tour earlier,

in Mark, actually, he talks about, you can't serve both God

and money. You can't have two different

Masters. And then I want to read this.

So I feel like I'm jumping around now my brains going.

But in first Timothy we're going to read in chapter 6.

Verses 8 and 9. And it says, if I can find it,

Yeah, it says, but if we have food and clothing with these

things, we will be content with those who desire to be rich fall

into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful

desires that plunge, people into ruin and destruction.

And so what he's trying to point to here is James is really

trying to get to the heart of some of those people that think

they've made it or think they have something because they've

got wealth. And so he brings out a couple

things. He says, let the lowly boast in

their exaltation so he's telling them that if you do not have

much boast in the Lord for what he has done regardless of the

circumstance, Your circumstance, maybe down, we can lift the Lord

high and say, look at him, don't look at me.

Let's boast in the Lord. And then on the flipside of

that, it says, and the rich boast in humiliation, which

means the rich still at the same time, can't say, hey, look at

me, look what I've done, they lay it all down and say,

although we've got whatever Let me humble myself and still boast

and exalt the Lord. He puts both of these on a

playing on a of the same playing field that we are to boast in

the Lord. Our God I want to read one other

thing from first, Timothy chapter 6, we read 17 through

the end. Says this, as for the rich in

this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set

their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God, who richly

provides us with everything to enjoy, they are to do good to be

rich in. Good Works to be generous and

ready to share the storing up, treasure for themselves as a

good foundation for the future so that they may take, hold of

that which is truly Early life. And he says, oh Timothy guard,

the deposit entrusted to you avoid the irreverent Babble and

contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge for by

professing. It some have swerved from the

faith Grace be with you. This is the same type of thing

that he's saying. He's saying, don't boast in your

riches. They will all Fade Away boast in

The Riches of the or boast in the Lord and be rich in.

Good Works. Be generous do what is good

storing up these things. Not Earthly things are.

What gives you truly lives as take?

Hold of that, that is truly life.

And then when he says guard the deposit entrusted to you, this

also goes along with wisdom like like guard.

This be wise in this avoid irreverent Babble and everything

else that you see it, that's called knowledge.

Avoid all of that, it's foolishness.

Trust in the Lord. so, the question that I have now to

myself after all that, it's okay.

So if I say I'm a Believer, I hear this, I want joy.

I want wisdom. And I want to be able to exalt

the Lord, and all of these things.

What, what do I do? How do I do this?

And so, there's a couple things that we would do.

We do this in obedience to the Lord, we do this by seeking and

trusting and following the Lord and saying he is Lord, he is

King and he is savior. And so when the disciples hear a

lot of this stuff, their answer to Jesus is how do we do this?

This is impossible who then can be saved.

If we have to forego all of the stuff after Jesus says, how hard

it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so, Jesus ends with something that's so hopeful.

He says with man, this is impossible, but With God, all

things are possible. So I want to go back to hope.

That's kind of been a theme here.

This morning, our hope is only only only only in Christ.

There is nothing else. There is no other, he is the

way, not just a way. He is.

The way the truth, the life. Him and him alone can turn our

mourning into dancing. Our sorrow into Joy.

He can turn our faith into sight because we have hope in Christ.

And I love that song that we sing.

That's Wesley, if you'll come on up, man, we're going to sing a

song that is called. He will hold me fast.

That also speaks of the Hope because we in order to truly

sing that we have to believe that.

That Christ is your hope. So I want to say two other

things. As we sing in just a second. if

you're a believer, if you Proclaim Christ as your savior,

if you Proclaim Christ as your king, when we sing these lyrics,

Ask you to search yourself, to believe these lyrics.

And not just sing a song. It's easy to read the words

here. It's easy to come here and

Listen might not have been easy to listen to me to follow but

it's easy to at least come and you hear all of these things.

You hear the knowledge and praise God for it.

But ask God for wisdom to help you believe he has sent his

Spirit the comforter to help teach us these things.

If you're not a believer. Or maybe you're just sitting

there and you're like, huh, this is all new to me.

I asked you to ask the Lord to give you wisdom.

That he may help you in your obedience.

That he may help you understand these things.

Like his word says, I sure don't claim to have all of the

answers. Just want to be faithful and

proclaim the word of God. And James does such a practical

way because the the snares that tie us up in our society, each

and every day are so prevalent that they hold us and they keep

us from as in 1st Timothy. It says the living and truly,

taking hold of life, real life, these things.

Rob you The search for happiness, in the search for

knowledge robs you of Life In Christ.

It's not that it's just not good for you.

It robs you as a tactic to try to keep you away from the Lord.

And so, let's just seek him out in wisdom this morning.

If you don't know the answers, join that club, I don't know all

the answers. But the one that we sing to our

King, has the answers and he will hold us fast.

He will keep us. He will strengthen us.

I'm going to pray for us. If you'll stand, the West is

going to lead us in song. O.

God, may you be proclaimed in this church?

God grant us, wisdom to seek you.

To live a life. God that is that is worthy to be

called an ambassador of Christ. That is not anything that I can

do on my own. From always seek.

Not your ways. And so God I ask that you help

me seek your ways, grant us here as a church, the wisdom to

follow you and seek you and trust you with all that we have.

In Jesus, precious name. Amen.

Amen.