James 1:6

0:00 The first goal was to not pass out as I walked up the stairs, so we're doing all right. My name is Brett. I moved back to Kentucky last summer. I've been coming to third since last summer. Prior to moving back to Kentucky, I was in vocational ministry in Texas, and that said, I'm very new to preaching, and so to be able to have the opportunity to do this with you guys is an honor for sure. I'm going to share a little bit of my story just to kind of set up our text tonight, and I just want to say out of the gate, I'm going to be talking a little bit about AA 12-step recovery, and I've learned over the years that that can be a super sensitive topic for some people with sobriety and people's lives in the balance, and so I'm just going to share my experience, but if you want to talk with me more about that at some point, I'd be happy to talk with you. And so I was saved about 10 years ago. At that point in my life, I was religiously involved in AA. And so going to meetings every day outside of work seven days a week, I've probably been to

1:04 a thousand plus AA meetings in my life. I was working the steps. I had a sponsor. I had a grand sponsor. I was sponsoring a ton of guys. And so it was my life. And I wouldn't have had this language back then, but I was a Pharisee in that culture. It was all about what you do. You're not going to be sober if you're not working the program. There's a saying in AA, it works if you work it, and so just that workspace mentality. I had also grown up Catholic, and so it was like a storm, if you will, of just like earning my way to God, and I started attending a faithful Bible-preached church around that time and started to hear the gospel. It was preached explicitly and faithfully, and I was reading the Bible for the first time in my life, and I started to have this inner turmoil because what I was reading in scripture, what I was hearing preached was not lining up with what is explicitly a universalistic worldview in AA. Like they pull no punches. God is

2:05 whoever you want God to be. And, and that's it. And so as I started to just try to navigate that as a brand new believer, trying to figure out like, okay, is my AA life that I've been living is it going to play nice in the sandbox with Christianity? Are they at odds? And so in that, I just started seeking out Christians, or those who at least identified as Christians in AA, and was just like, hey, in Bill's story, chapter one of the big book, he talks about this breakthrough spiritual moment where Ebi Thatcher approaches him and says, why don't you come up with your own conception of God? And it's at that moment, you can read it in the book, where Bill says, like that's when the scales fell off his eyes he was reconciled to God and and Jesus is nowhere in the picture and so like I would read that I'd look at that and I'd ask a self-identifying Christian in a like how do I reconcile that with Jesus saying I'm the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me and so I'm asking questions again to Christians that

3:10 I was seeking out and it was just like time and time again I'm getting like pretty agitated responses. And I was just asking literally like basic questions. And so it was a super difficult season to navigate. And I say all of that to say that I needed wisdom. I needed help to navigate just what I was learning about Christianity. I knew that I was a Christian at that point. I knew that Jesus was God. I knew that there was no other God besides the God of the Bible. And so So that brings us to our text this evening. Our verse tonight is from James chapter 1 verse 6, and I'm going to tell you my main point right up front. In your trials, ask God for wisdom in faith. In your trials, ask God for wisdom in faith. And we're going to look at that in two points. Point one is what to ask for. Point two is how to ask. And so point one, what to ask for.

4:12 Point two, how to ask. If you are following along in a Bible, which I suggest you do, if it's one of the Red Pew Bibles, we're on page 1011. And even though we have our one verse, verse six, I want to walk through some quick context to just kind of set up before we read a little bit. And so verse 1, James, the half-brother of Jesus, he wrote this letter. And then specifically in verse 2, count it all joy, my brothers, when, not if, when, you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And so key in on trials and steadfastness. And then if we jump ahead to verse 12, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. And so, we've got these bookends, and then our verse is in the middle of that. And so, as we read verses 5 through 8, actually, to kind of get the bigger picture, just remember that this exhortation from James is in the context of trials. And so, starting in

5:19 verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask in faith, or let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Here's our verse, 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. Before we look at the two points, I just want to offer a quick disclaimer. These sermons are short and heavy with application and practical, and like I said, the context of this exhortation is suffering, and so I just don't want it to come across as tone deaf. I know that some people are going through incredible suffering, and that's not lost on me, and so I've been praying as I prepared, and yeah, just wanted to say that up front. So point number one, what to ask for, and so if you were to read verse six just in isolation, and that's our verse

6:21 tonight, 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. If I don't look at the context, it can be confusing because what is it that we're asking God for? Am I asking for a job promotion? Am I asking for a spouse? No. The verse before it, verse 5, tells us if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God. And so right out of the gate, what it is we're asking God specifically for here is wisdom. And so we need to define wisdom. And biblically, Proverbs 9, 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. And so even as Greg preached this morning, it's not enough to just hear God's Word. You need to heed God's Word. It's knowledge applied. It's knowledge coupled with right action. And I can know that I shouldn't text and drive. I can know that I shouldn't look at my phone. And sometimes, foolishly, I do. And so even as Pastor Aaron

7:27 Menikoff a couple of months ago said when he was preaching in Proverbs, biblical wisdom is knowing how to live in a fallen world. It's active. And so we've defined wisdom, and I want us to briefly consider a question before we start to talk about how to ask. And so if you're type A taking notes, We've only got two points, but this question you could say is a sub-point of point one. The question is, why don't we ask for wisdom in our trials?

7:58 And I think that there's two that come to mind. And so, considering our pride, we can say that God is omniscient, all-knowing. We can sing about it. We can give lip service. But I know that I still sometimes live in a way as if I'm omniscient and he's not. And clearly, that is not the case. and so just having to check my pride at the door, understanding that I do need God's help, I don't see rightly, especially in the midst of difficulty, and then I also think discouragement can be another reason why we don't ask for wisdom. There's been times in my life where the suffering has been intense, and I kind of get numb to where I just feel like, is God even listening when I pray? Is it just bouncing off the sky? Is he going to do anything? Does he care?

8:45 And obviously, the reality is that he does care. He's definitely listening, but just identifying that even discouragement at times could get in the way of me actually asking God for what we need in our trials, which is wisdom. And so, now let's look at how to ask. If we're in verse 6, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. So, faith and not doubting, two sides of the same coin. If you have faith, you're not doubting. if you are not doubting you have faith and when I've read this in the past just kind of reading through it not really diving deeper I actually get tripped up because verse 5 sounds amazing if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him but and it's like the but why is it but there 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

9:47 and so we have to kind of zero in on what is actually being said here because when I have been discouraged in the past I'll read this and I think that okay so it's up to me I've got to ask in faith I can't doubt and it's the strength of my faith that's going to lead to the not doubting and then God's going to give me the wisdom, but that's not where our confidence comes. That's not the reason why we can ask God in faith without doubting. Verse 5 is the key. It says that God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. And so it's not the strength of our faith that gives us confidence to ask God for wisdom in our trials. It's verse 5. God will give generously to all without reproach. And it will come from him. And so we have a promise from God. Like I think of Proverbs are principles. You can raise up your children in the fear and the

10:47 admonition of the Lord. It's not guaranteed that they're going to follow Jesus. In general, we hope and pray that they'll follow Jesus, but Proverbs are principles. This here in verse 5, this is a promise. And so, we can bank on that. And so, in light of that, how do we actually ask for wisdom? And there's an obvious answer, but I don't think that it could ever be overstated. We have to ask God, pray, God, please give me wisdom. You have to spend time with God, get in the Word, pray the Word, ask God's Spirit to fill you, to lead you. From there, foundation of talking with God first, Seek counsel. Go to your home group leader. Find a mentor. If you don't have a mentor, there are a lot of godly men and women in this church. Ask someone to mentor you, to disciple you. I'm also a huge proponent of biblical counseling. I've been seeing a professional biblical counselor for about eight years now, and there's been some seasons in my life where it's like God is using him to

11:50 literally just keep my head above water. There's been other seasons like right now where it's kind more proactive and a little bit more enjoyable and just like spiritual maintenance. And if even that maybe seems like too much of a commitment right now, we have a counseling and care ministry here at the church. Justin Woods, our associate pastor of counseling, he leads it. Literally all you have to do is go to Third Avenue's website, hover over the resources tab, you'll see a counseling link pop up, and then you fill out a care request form, and Justin will get you connected with someone. And so I say all that to say, whether it's pride or discouragement, don't let any of that get in your way from asking God for wisdom, because He is eager to give us wisdom in our trials. And so I want to close with an encouragement to any non-Christians that may be here, and then circle back to my testimony just briefly. So James' letter, as you probably suppose,

12:54 it's written mainly to Christians, and tonight I've been preaching so far mainly to Christians. If you're not a Christian and you're here, we're grateful that you're here, and as much as all of us need wisdom, there is something that a non-Christian needs infinitely more than wisdom, and that's a reconciled relationship to God. And so if you have never responded to the gospel, if you don't believe that Jesus died for you, that his sinless life could actually be credited to you, and all you literally have to do is just trust him, trust that his life, death, and resurrection is for you, all of your sins, past, present, and future are canceled at the cross.

13:38 And so if that is confusing, if that's unclear, find someone after this service, and don't leave confused, because we can talk with you, we can pray with you, we can try to answer your questions as best we can, and again, we're grateful that you're here. And circling back to that season of life 10 years ago, trying to navigate Christianity AA in God's providence, I had a friend at church who said, hey, you got to listen to this sermon by this guy named Matt Chandler. I had no idea who Matt Chandler was, but I listened to the sermon, and it was incredible, and I started listening to a lot of sermons, and then I found that he had co-written a book called Recovering Redemption, which was the same name as the sermon series that I had been listening to, and so I read that book. Matt had co-written it with another pastor at the Village Church named Michael Snetzer, and in that book, Michael shares his testimony, and he, like me, had been religiously involved in AA. He had spent the first three years of his life

14:39 trying to navigate his newfound faith in Jesus in the rooms of AA and God eventually led him out and he got a master's degree in counseling, went on to get licensed as a professional counselor and started biblical counseling and then Matt eventually hired him to start a gospel-centered recovery ministry at the Village Church. And so I'm reading all of this and I'm like, okay, this is clearly the dude that can help me God's wisdom through this man to navigate this situation. And so I'm living in Arizona. It's a long shot because they're obviously in Texas. I fill out like the general contact form, and I'm like, hey, this is insane because I don't live in your state or go to your church, but if Michael would ever be willing to talk with me, it sounds like he has walked this path before me, and so literally the next day, Michael called me. It was unbelievable. He started deprogramming me and just helped me to see that at the end of the day, the 12 steps of AA are making gospel promises without the gospel and so again I know that can be a sensitive subject but

15:44 at the end of the day there is no relationship with God apart from Christ and so in closing in the midst of your trials ask God for wisdom in faith you can be confident that he will give you wisdom not because your faith is impressive or strong but because his character is perfect in every way, and he has promised to do it. Let's pray. Father, we desperately need wisdom in all situations, not just in trials, not just in suffering, God, but in every moment of every day.

16:18 And so, Lord, for everyone here who is already a Christian, God, I pray whether they're in suffering or they're in a season of reprieve, God, that you would bless them with wisdom, them, that you would guide them, that you would care for them, that you would help them in the ways that only you know they need, and that you would be with them, God, and that you would continue to sanctify them, edify them, encourage them, and God, if there's anyone here who has never repented and trusted in Christ for salvation, I pray that today would be the day, by your grace and for your glory, in Jesus' name I pray, amen.