James - Trials, Wisdom, and Wealth

Well, anyway, my name is Gregg Hampton. I'm one

of the pastors here. If we've never met, I would

love the chance to meet you, maybe buy a coffee,

something like that. At the end of the service,

there'll be a connection card. There's a QR code

for it on most of your tables. You can follow

that and just say your first time guest here

at the house or put in the notes that you would

love to get together. And I'll make sure that

we get that going. We are in the first week of

a summer series that we're just calling James,

because if you're at all familiar with the Bible,

there happens. to be a book in the Bible called

James. And so we're going to spend the summer

going through the different sections of that

book. We're not going like verse by verse, you

know, like verse 3, 4, 5, 6, but we're going

to go in chunks. And so I'm really looking forward

to this. We have a few different people that

are going to be preaching, and I'm looking forward

to hearing what they have to say about the book

of James. Earlier this year, we did a series

called Wisdom Lit. We did a series called Wisdom

Lit because it was about all the different parts.

parts of the Bible that are considered the wisdom

books. And James often gets kind of put into

the edge of that category because James talks

about wisdom a number of times. And most of the

stuff that he talks about would fall into the

category of needing wisdom. But James isn't technically

wisdom literature. James is a pastoral letter.

It's written with the heart and approach. of

a pastor to people that are trying to follow

Jesus. And if we're going to talk about following

Jesus, we're going to end up talking about wisdom.

Now, if you went to Bible college or if you grew

up in like a super Bible Sunday school heavy

church, or if you even some of us have been to

seminary, you will be familiar with the phrase

systematic theology. Systematic theology is like

the schematic for something. It's like the technical

drawing for your phone. None of us actually know

how our phone works, but we know that it works,

right? None of us knows how it's actually put

together, but there is a schematic somewhere.

You can probably find it online with the exact

measurements, with the precise placement of the

battery and the memory. The exact layout of how

one thing connects to every other part. You can

find an intricate illustration of the inner workings

of your device. That is what systematic theology

is like. And some people nerd out about systematic

theology. That is not the book of James. The

book of James is more like what we would call

practical theology. James is more like the first

page of the manual. It's the only page that any

of us reads, right? The quick startup guide.

We go, yeah, I'll just figure it out as I go.

We open the first page. It says, push this button

to turn it on. These are the first instructions.

Step one, turn on the device. Step two, use the

device. Step three, don't throw this device in

fire. James is that direct. He is that. To the

point, he's not trying to parse the finer details

of theology. He's trying to get us to be like

Jesus, to act like Jesus. So let's open up our

Bibles to the book of James. If you have a physical

copy in Flip, it goes James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter,

1, 2, 3 John, and you're going to be towards

the back. If you have a digital app, just click

on the little menu and scroll down until you

see James. If you don't have a Bible of your

own, you can take one of those blue Bibles home

or grab one from the bookshelf out in the lobby.

We're going to start in James chapter 1. And

James 1 · chapter mention

we have a tradition of giving the scriptures

our full attention when they're read in the context

of a sermon. You can do that any number of ways,

but one of the ways you can do that is by standing

with me as I read and as you are able. It goes

like this, James 1. James, a servant of God and

the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in

the dispersion, greetings. My brothers and sisters,

whenever you face various trials, consider it

all joy, because you know that the testing of

your faith produces endurance. And let endurance

complete its work, so that you may be complete

and whole, lacking in nothing. If any of you

is lacking in wisdom, ask God. who gives to all

generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given

to you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for

the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea,

driven and tossed by the wind. For the doubter,

being double -minded and unstable in every way,

must not expect to receive anything from the

Lord. But let the brother or sister of humble

means boast in having a high position, and the

rich in having been humbled. Because the rich

will disappear like a flower in the field. For

the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers

the field. Its flowers fall and its beauty perishes.

It is the same way with the rich. In the midst

of a busy life, they wither away. Let us pray.

God of every tribe, every tongue, every color,

and every nation, we thank you for the scriptures.

We thank you that we have them. to consider,

to read, to learn from. I pray that whatever

you have for us to learn today, I pray that it

would stick, that it would become a part of the

framework of our faith, that our faith would

become stronger as we become more like your son,

Jesus. Amen. You can have a seat. All right,

so James doesn't waste any time getting straight

to the point. He spends one verse on a greeting,

and then he spends ten verses hitting three major

things pretty hard. He talks about trials, he

talks about wisdom, and he talks about wealth.

He doesn't mince words. You notice that a lot

throughout the book of James, that James does

not mince words. He says exactly what he means,

and he means exactly. What he says, because he

never wants the reader to walk away wondering

what he really meant. Because James knows what

they are walking into. The people that would

have first read this book, they lived in a world

that was changing rapidly. And it wasn't getting

more friendly to people that called themselves

Christians. That did eventually happen. Under

the Emperor Constantine, Christianity became

the official religion of the empire, and it became

a much friendlier environment. But that is not

what is happening for the people that are first

reading this book. The Jewish Christians that

James is writing to, they're scattered. They're

far from their preferred home. The Christians

that are reading this after or around the year

70, have just experienced the temple in Jerusalem

being leveled, the temple being destroyed. And

most Jews had been expelled from the holy city

of Jerusalem by the Roman armies. The people

that were first reading this were experiencing

real trials every day. And they were trying to

follow a Jesus that at that point they had never

seen with their own two eyes. They were living

on faith. And as it turns out, faith comes with

challenges. Listen, and especially to the young

people in the room, I want you to hear me say

this. If someone tells you that all your problems

are going to go away because you're a Christian,

they're lying. James says that they're wrong.

If someone tells you that if you follow Jesus,

all your problems are going to go away, they're

selling you a gospel that's going to spoil every

time something bad happens. Instead, James says,

consider it all joy when you face trials of every

kind, because the testing of your faith produces

what? Endurance. Paul writes about this as well.

He says, suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance.

produces character, and character produces hope.

Bible writers aren't confused about what life

is really like. And so they give us a framework

for how we're supposed to process it. We can

either frame our trials with woe and despair,

or we can let joy be our imagination. For the

future. Because joy is future facing. Joy assumes

that what I feel today, what I experience now,

will be useful later. And so I shouldn't give

up. Now that doesn't mean that we should want

bad things to happen. And that doesn't mean that

we shouldn't object to the injustices that we

see or that we experience. And it doesn't mean

that God made that trial happen to you. Bad things

happen. It's the nature of the world that we

live in. But we can have the mindset that trials

aren't... Does anybody remember when Apple came

out with their foldable phone? Anybody? Anybody

remembers? Apple came out with their foldable

phone. Yeah, it was called the iPhone 6 Plus.

You guys don't remember BendGate? Come on. 2014.

The iPhone 6 Plus comes out. Some of us remember

because we owned this phone. And if you put this

phone in your back pocket and sat down, it would

bend. It was not supposed to. The iPhone 6 Plus

was 7 .2 times more likely to bend than the iPhone

5 that had come before it. Apple messed up in

every Buddy noticed, except for apparently you

guys who 10 years ago... But here's the thing.

Every phone company noticed, and they started

making a big deal about how their phones didn't

bend when they weren't supposed to. Every phone

company, every device -making company started

talking about the tests that they had put their

phones through to see if it would bend. If you

follow tech people on YouTube... Every new phone

that would come out, they would do the bend test.

Does anybody remember this? They would do the

bend test to make sure that it wouldn't bend

like the iPhone 6 Plus. See, they didn't just

notice the mistake. They learned from it. From

that point on, you're not going to buy a phone

that bends anymore. Because they learned the

lesson. Now the only phones that bend are the

ones that are supposed to. Some trials are going

to bend us. It's just the nature of life. But

the experience is supposed to increase our endurance,

not break us. The stress is supposed to teach

us how to endure the next thing that might come.

And if we let joy be the framework for how we

experience the trials that we are going through

right now, we will be more ready and prepared

for what comes next. So then James turns our

attention to wisdom. And he keeps it simple.

He says, if you lack it, what? Ask for it. It's

as simple as that. If you lack it, if you lack

wisdom, if you want wisdom, just ask. Some of

us... Struggle to ask for what we really need.

We're afraid that if we ask, we'll just be told

no anyway. Maybe life has conditioned us that

even if we ask for what we really need, we're

not going to get it anyway. But James says if

you need wisdom, ask and mean it. It reminds

me of what Jesus was teaching his disciples.

In Matthew 7, verse 7, he says, keep on asking.

Matthew 7:7

And you will receive what you ask for. Keep on

knocking and the door will be open. Keep on seeking

and you will find. They're both saying the same

thing. Don't go halfway. Don't stop halfway.

Don't ask for wisdom if it's not what you really

want. And don't stop asking God for what you

think you really need. Make up your mind and

then follow. And if you're already looking at

what you're going through through the lens of

joy, you will be that much more prepared or encouraged

to know that you can follow through. As I mentioned

earlier, we've already gone through a series

on wisdom literature in the Bible this year because...

I felt this conviction that we needed to talk

about wisdom a lot this year. I don't know if

it's just because of what's happening in the

world or if it's just because there are things

that are happening in our lives, but I just felt

like we need to be talking about wisdom as a

church, as individuals. We need wisdom in our

families. We need wisdom at our jobs. We need

wisdom in our neighborhoods, in every single

area of our lives. We need wisdom. What we know

is this, is that wisdom can develop over time.

Wisdom can be like a bank of knowledge and information

that builds up, and then you learn how to use

that wisdom over the course of time. But I also

think that wisdom can be like a tankless water

heater. Does anybody have a tankless water heater

at home? Anybody? I know one person that wants

one. Jen would like to have a tankless water

heater at home. The first time I ever saw tankless

water heaters was in India, when I went to India

some years back. Every bathroom that I went to

had this little, like, green egg -shaped thing

that was fastened to the wall, and at first I

had no idea what it was, but then I figured out,

oh, okay, every time I turn on the hot water,

I hear it do something. Other parts of the country

use these a lot more, because you don't need

to have a hot water heater that has 20, 40, 50

gallons of water just always staying hot. when

you can put a tankless water heater in each room

that needs water, in your bathroom, in your kitchen,

and then when you turn on that hot water, it

creates that hot water for you in the moment

that you need it. In Mark 13, Jesus said that

when you get arrested and go on trial, don't

worry in advance about what to say. Just say

what God tells you at the time. For it is not

you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has wisdom available in the moment

when we need it. Even if you don't feel like

you have a tank full of wisdom, if you ask when

you need it, God will give you the wisdom for

that moment. In that moment, A wisdom can also,

again, help us turn backwards and look at the

trials that we're going through with a sense

of joy. All right. So five or six verses, he's

talked about trials. He's turned us into wisdom.

And then James hits our favorite subject in the

first ten verses, and he talks about money. He

hits the subject of wealth inequality, actually.

We're not completely sure. which James wrote

the book of James. That's the truth. We're not

sure. But tradition tells us that it was written

by the half -brother of Jesus. That half -brother

of Jesus was not someone that was one of the

12 disciples. He was not someone that we know

or... as someone that was following Jesus closely

as Jesus was doing his ministry. And yet somehow

that is the James who ends up being the head

of the church in Jerusalem. When you read through

the book of Acts and you see Paul and Barnabas

coming and asking the Jerusalem council what

they should do, this James, tradition tells us,

is the one that is leading the church there.

One thing I love about that concept, that idea,

is that as I read the book of James, I can see

how everything that he is saying, I can pull

directly from something that Jesus already taught.

Jesus talked plenty about trials. He said, I

have told you these things for you will have

troubles in this world, but take heart for I

have overcome. He's the one that said, don't

worry about what to say, for the Holy Spirit

will tell you what to say in the moment. Jesus

had a lot to say about wealth inequality as well.

James takes after Jesus when he's saying this,

because Jesus said, you can't love God and money.

Jesus said, don't worry about your food or your

clothes. Not even Solomon was clothed as well

as the flowers in the field. He said, if that

is how God clothes the grass of the field, which

is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the

fire, will he not much more clothe you? Jesus

said, do not invite the rich when you have a

banquet, but invite the poor and the humble.

Jesus said, the last will be first and the first

will be last. Jesus said, it's easier for a camel

to go through the eye of a needle than for a

rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus

said, blessed are the meek. Jesus said, the poor

will inherit the earth. Jesus said, the rich

will be humbled. James is trying to get us to

ask ourselves, as we're looking at the trials

that we experience in life, when we're looking

at the concept of wisdom, Why does it seem like

we all still want to be wealthy? Why does it

seem like if we were really honest, none of us,

probably not, I shouldn't say none of us, most

of us are still unsatisfied with what we have.

Jesus and James both confront right here at the

top of this letter that wealth is not what we

should be looking for. The truth is, the wealthier

that we are, and hear this, the wealthier that

we are, the more that God will expect of us with

what has been given to us. The wealthier that

we are, the more God will expect of us in how

we use that wealth. So James says, if you have

less, be grateful. Because if you have more,

as Kendrick Lamar says, sit down, be humble.

Because every flower fades. And every earthly

beauty is fleeting. Some of us don't realize

that we would trade the trials and challenges

we have now for the trials and troubles we would

experience if we were as wealthy as we wanted

to be. I don't know. Is it awkward to say that?

God's completely okay with all of us being just

average financially? Is it okay to say that?

Is that uncomfortable for anybody in the room?

I don't know. Trials, wisdom, wealth, ten verses.

So what do we do with any of this? How do we

practice this or participate with these scriptures?

And here at the end, I actually just want us

to take a minute. I want us to take a minute

and reflect and ask which one of these three

things God is wanting us to have special attention

for this week. To actually legitimately decide

today that I'm going to pay attention to this

idea this week. To think about how you view the

trials that you experience. To think about...

the wisdom that you may need, or to think about

your relationship to money. I don't think that

it's my place to tell you which one of those

things is your issue or which one of those things

that you specifically need to think about. But

I do think that even in this moment that the

Holy Spirit is already moving in your heart,

making you go, yeah, I need to think about that.

So let's actually just take a moment of silence,

listen to the Holy Spirit, and in this moment

decide, this week I'm going to give special attention

to how I think about my trials, to how I seek

wisdom, or how I have a relationship to my finances.

I know mine. And I think he'd be okay with me

telling the story of it. My dad became a Christian

when he was 50 years old, which means that I

was 20. And I was in college at the time. And

my dad realized that the amount of grants that

I might be eligible was directly related to the

amount of money that our family made. And my

dad had reached enough years with John Deere

that he could retire. And he thought, okay, I'm

going to retire for a number of reasons. One,

because it might help Greg out. But I remember

talking to him about it. But he also said specifically

that becoming a Christian caused him to notice

that really he was working harder so he could

have more money so that he could spend more money.

And he knew. that the truth was that he could

live on retirement if he was just wise with how

he used the money that God was giving him. And

I know that I have the same issue. That I go,

anytime we get an extra $100 here, a few hundred

dollars there, magically it always seems like

it's still just about enough. But anytime we've

had less, we've still always been okay. And I

know that God wants me to pay more attention

to the pennies instead of thinking about the

big things. Does that make sense? So whatever

the Lord put on your heart, whether it's how

you view your trials, how you seek wisdom, or

your relationship with money, let's make the

commitment today that you're going to give attention

to that this week and let God work with you in

how that develops. Amen? Let's pray. Father,

we thank you for the scriptures. We thank you

for the book of James. And we thank you that

we get to come and we get to hear different voices

talk about something that was written almost

2 ,000 years ago that still has so much to tell

us today. Pray that our hearts would be humble,

that we would be open to what you teach us, and

that we would act, that we would be practical

in the way that we follow you. In the name of

Jesus, we pray. Amen.