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When trials hit and you don't know what to do, God invites you to ask Him for wisdom. He gives generously without reproach, but you must ask in faith with a single-minded heart, not wavering between trust and doubt. Scriptures: James 1:5-8, Psalm 27:4, Acts 1:8
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Hi, thanks for tuning in to this Week's message at C3OC. We hope that it blesses you, equips you, and fills you with faith. Let's dive in. Before we jump into our text, I thought I would tell you. What does Pentecost Sunday actually mean? Pentecost is 50 days from Jesus, death and resurrection, and then 10 days after his ascension to heaven. And when he left, he gave his final command. I said the Great Commission was his second last words. A lot of people think it was his last words, and his last command actually wasn't. His last command is in Acts 1:8, where he says, go and wait in Jerusalem until my power has fallen on you. And so there were 120 people in what is called the upper room, and they were praying for 10 days, which is a little bit of a sad thing to understand that Jesus appeared to 500 people and only 120 remained after 10 days of prayer. What happened to the other 380? We don't know. They're not really talked about. But there were 120. See, I see you guys as the 120 here on Memorial Day weekend. You're not out barbecuing. No. You're here in church. You're the 120. And it says, when the day Pentecost arrives, they were all together in one place. Okay? They were in one accord. And suddenly there came from heaven, a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house. I love when God fills something. He doesn't feel it halfway. He feels it in entirety. When the Holy Spirit is allowed to come into your life, when you put yourself in a place where you can stand in one accord with other people, okay? A lot of people want to live an isolated faith. I'm telling you, that's not actually a real faith that Jesus has called you to live. About 80% of the new Testament is how to deal with other people. That's because you're going to have to deal with other people. Oh, man. People are crazy. So we got to learn. And I'm telling you, if you do it on your own strength, you're going to fail. I know you're strong. I know you're smart. I know you think you're wise. But you're going to fail. We need the Holy Spirit in our life. And it happens by a couple of things. By prayer in our life, by standing in one accord with other people and seeking after him. And so here they are, standing in obedience, seeking God, praying for God. Can you imagine 10 days? Can you imagine if I did a call to the church, Hey, I believe God has called us to pray for 10 days. I wonder how many of us might be standing at the end. I wonder how many of us might be challenged by this. I got to stand there and pray for this long. What am I going to pray about? I run out of things to pray after five minutes, and I'm like, well, I'll give you my list. You could pray for some of the stuff on mine. Sean's got a really long list, too. I could. I could give you his list, you know. But what I'm saying is, is like, we have to devote ourselves to the right things. And I find that a lot of the time we devote ourselves to the wrong things. Prayer is meditating towards God, is what I would say. Okay. It is a continued meditation, continued conversation towards God. And we're going to talk about this in just a moment. James, which is the book we're walking through right now, talks about this. As we are approaching God, we are to pray in a certain way. And so when we approach God, we have to do it with what I would say, unity. The Bible says where there are two or more who are gathered there, I am in the midst, which is a truth that if you rely upon feelings for your whole life, you need to start considering. Sometimes it's like, oh, I don't feel Christ here. And there's two or three who are gathered there in Christ's name, and you're neglecting to say that he is present because you don't feel something. And I wonder how much we are driven by our feelings in an opposite way. Because I don't think Paul felt very good when he was getting beaten and stoned. And it says they dragged him out of the city because he was dead. So they dragged this limp body outside of the city. It says when they dragged him outside, he got up. Okay? It says he was dead. And it says he got up and he walked back into the city. Now, if you had just been stoned to death, would you feel like I going to walk back into the city? No, you're going to say, I'm going to go visit my physical therapist. I'm going to go get some acupuncture and whatever it is. But I'm definitely not going into the city because I don't feel like it, man. I just. We have got to fight against our flesh, which is feelings, and start encouraging ourselves into faith. Where two or more are gathered there, Christ is standing in the middle. That's the truth. I Want to build my life on. Not this feeling on the inside. And all of a sudden, suddenly, suddenly, God can take a long time to move quickly in your life. Don't forfeit because you cannot stand the trial of patience. He is building a resilience within you that even though I don't feel it right now, I will remain steadfast. This is the beginning of James is what we talked about last week. Consider it all joy. Why? So you would remain steadfast in trials and let steadfastness have its. What? Full. Oh, my gosh. Full effect? No. I want patience to be a gift. I want patience to be given to me. But it's a fruit. Fruit isn't given. Fruit is growing. And so for us, we have to submit ourselves that there is a process that Jesus wants to walk us through. So we come around this day of Pentecost to remind ourselves that we need the Holy Spirit. There is theology out there called cessationism which says that the Holy Spirit ended his work with the apostles. That is a false doctrine. Just letting you know that is a false teaching that leads people astray. To live a life of faith by your own works and in your own strength. That's not what Jesus has called us to live. His Holy Spirit is a person. It's not a force. It's not a cloud. It's not some, you know, Star Wars. May the force be with you. The Holy Spirit is a person, okay? And Jesus sent him to be our counselor, our helper, what I would say our revealer, also of revelation within the word, how to apply it to our lives, and a strengthening and a quickening to our souls. I would say we need that in this world. I need to know what's right and wrong. I need the Holy Spirit in my stead, going before me, planning before me, helping strengthen my inner man. Amen, man. So this is importance. The day of Pentecost, the day the Spirit was sent to us. The Spirit is available for you and I here today in Jesus baptism. The Holy Spirit fell upon him when he came out of the water. There's a lot of Holy Spirit references for this day. And James, I would say, is giving us some keys that when we don't know what to do, we know what to do. Because I don't know about you, but sometimes I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. We live in a world where it's like, I'll just fake it till you make it. I'm not about that life, not about faking. It till I make it. I'll faith it, but it's going to be a real faith. And the only way that I can feel myself leaning is that I approach God because I am stupid and he is smart. I tell myself that all the time. I'm not as smart as I think and God is more available than I can recognize. So, title of today's message that I'm going to preach in 15 minutes is when you don't know what to do. When you don't know what to do. Mike Tyson has probably one of my most favorite quotes where he says, everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the face. You can have your strategy, you can have everything laid out for you and be like, this is the way my week's gonna go, this is the way the wedding's gonna go, this is the way the marriage is gonna go, this is the way this job's gonna go. And then bam. Straight just like smacked right in the face. And all of a sudden it's like, oh my gosh, what was my plan again? James walks us through and scriptures don't leave us to the side of having to face trials and what we should do. In James 1:5 to 8 it says this. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. And 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 by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is double minded. He is a double minded man, unstable in his ways. A divided heart. It cannot walk steadily in the wisdom of our God. So we have to ensure that we are not divided in the way we are living our life. We are not divided in the way that we are set up within our heart. Double minded actually means double souled. It means that we have two different pathways that we're trying to live. I believe in the word of God, but I don't act like it's true. Okay, I believe that God can really supply these things, but I don't act like it. I am living in two different modes within my life. So wisdom grants us a godly perspective on our situation that is untainted by our own preferences, desires, fears, wounds, or humanity. Man, I need wisdom in my life. Amen. I don't need TED talks. I don't that don't need inspiration. I don't. I don't. I am not Here to inspire you and hype you up and make you feel so great about your life. It's here to bring conviction and change. That the word of God would prune us and make us sharpen our faith, refine our faith. Right? I don't want to withhold truth from us. Following Jesus is not easy. You have not got the lotto ticket out of problems in your life. But you do have access to a strength that is inexhaustible and a purpose and promises that will be fulfilled in your life. That is 100% true. But there is never a promise that you are not going to have more loaded on your life than you can handle. Some reason that saying got thrown around. God won't give you more than you can handle. False. Okay. If he only gave you what you could handle, then you wouldn't need him in your life. I could not handle my addictions, the drugs, the alcohol. I could not handle my depression on my own. I needed something that was stronger than me. Which is why God gets into the picture and he lifts the burdens off your life that you cannot. When we trust Him. So what do we do when we're hit by these trials and I don't know what to do? Point number one is ask God for wisdom. Ask God for wisdom. Such a deep point, isn't it? James 1:5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach. And it will be given to him. That's promised language. It will be given to you. There's a couple of things here. I love that it says it this way, that wisdom is attainable for you. Some of you might denote yourself, I will never be wise. I'm stupid. I've made so many dumb decisions in my life. I've been withheld from the courts of God where wisdom is given. I'm never going to be smart or whatever it is. I'm telling you that wisdom is attainable in this life, not via always by experience. I wish we didn't always have to get taught by experience. That's why the Book of Proverbs exists, so that we would be led down different pathways. But for some reason, us humans love to tempt fate and situations and learn by experience, which is generally pain and trial, right? But wisdom is attainable. This is good news. This is the second thing is the wisdom that we need is not natural. It is a supernatural wisdom and that is accessed by seeking and asking God. The few things that I would say about asking God for wisdom is that you have to be prepared for the answer to not suit your preference for the situation. That answer is also to be tested. As the word of God would tell us, test every spirit and test every word that comes in. How do you test a word? The person to your left and to your right who has been granted a different perspective. The leadership within this church, coming to them and saying, hey, like, I feel like God's saying this to me, that is awesome. Let's pray about it. And having God reveal over and over again that this is wisdom from God, God's wisdom will never be contrary to his word. Okay? It will never contradict his word. And even though we are looking for an answer, maybe to reinforce the decision we want to make, I find people who have too much counsel. It's because they're seeking out for people to give them the answer they want to hear. I've asked 25 people about this decision. No, no, just have three. Just have three. Three wise people praying. People in your world who you go to, who have lived a longer time in the faith than you go to them and ask, you know, I need wisdom on these occasions. This is what I'm hearing. So we ask God for wisdom. Trials expose how little wisdom we naturally possess. Fear clouds our discernment. Offense distorts our perspective. Pain narrows our vision down to just right now and right here. And emotion will override the truth. Some of us don't even realize how fragile our thinking really is until life begins to squeeze us. Right? Isn't that funny? We think, oh, I'm so strong in the faith, nothing's gonna shake me. And this. This is how I fight my battles. Yeah. My best days and my worst days. And then a worst day comes, and we're like, oh, shoot. And we feel the squeeze coming on. I said, shoot. Squeeze. We feel the squeeze coming on our life, and we feel the frailty of this faith. Ah, stop turning up. Stop making the phone calls. My prayer life is starting to fade. My character at work is starting to get a little off kilter. My attitude is shifting now. I feel loose. I don't want to read the Bible anymore. For whatever reason. I'm so stressed, I start running everywhere else. And James says, good. In these moments, there's a great video that the holy saint Jocko Willink made. I'm kidding. I think he's a holy saint. But he. He made a video that talks about when you face troubles in your life. Good. Because you now have an opportunity to get stronger in that area. And I think for us, we have to take on this perspective like, oh, God's not answering the prayer in the way that I'm praying it. So don't try and change God, change your prayers, change your situation, go good. Because what a great joy it is to encounter the problem that I'm currently encountering. Ask God, don't ask your panic, don't ask culture, don't ask TED talk online, ask God, go to the source of life. He opened his mouth in the cosmos just unfurled out of there. He said, let there be light. So why wouldn't we go to this person, this father, this Lord, this God who is sitting there and he's saying, I am available for you if you have the ears to listen. If you come to me with no doubt, if you come to me undivided in your heart, like I've already made the decision that what God says is what I'm going to do. That's my single mindedness on this issue is I don't care what the advice is that God gives me, I'm gonna do it. Oh man, it's so painful. It's so hard. I don't know if I can do it. God will never ask you to do something without giving you access to the spirit of God to give you the strength to complete it. I can assure you of that. But my decision walking into approaching God is whatever he says, I'm already doing it. I've already said yes. Within my heart. Wisdom is attainable and wisdom comes supernaturally. Amen. The best thing is he gives generously without reproach. This I love. I love this because sometimes I think God is annoyed that we have to come to him for help. Like, oh, Sean is coming to me for help again. Oh, here's God. God sitting up there. Wes is coming to me with another prayer request for wisdom. Oh, so annoyed at this. Like he's a Valley girl, you know, with like rolling rolling his eyes at people. That's not God. He's saying in his word, come and ask me. Ask me because he is hungry to give you an answer without reproach. Which means that he does it without scoffing. He does it generously to your world. He does it with a joy. He says you are coming to the right source to ask for help. Some believers just approach God in prayer apologetically instead of confidently. You are a son and a daughter of the Most high. Do get that right? Yes, he is Lord and you are servant. Yes, he is Master and we are his people of his kingdom. But again, he is Father and you are Son and daughter who is approaching a father in prayer. So don't do it with hesitance, hesitancy or embarrassment or ashamed. Come with confidence and ask him for wisdom in your life. And then. Wait, Stop talking. You know when you have a dinner with someone and you ask one question and for two and a half hours they talk. Okay. And you don't say anything because there was no space. Stop talking and listen to what God has to say to you. But he hasn't said anything for 10 minutes. Okay, wait. 15. Wait. Wait upon the Lord, for He is near. So we ask God and he brings wisdom. Point number two, turn supposing into faith. But let him who asks him faith with no doubting. Let him ask him 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. Faith must become steadfast in our life, not situational. If you want to hear more on that, that point itself, go back and listen to last week's sermon, which really centered around this, that the occasion of trials is to fortify our faith, not diminish it. And we have to step into and lean into what God has. I want to turn us into a people who suppose that God is good to a people who are steadfastly knowing that God is good. You know, when you get a text that's like, you know, the text language is always, like, up for grabs, right? You know, you go like, hey, I was wondering about this. And you get a text back that says sure. You know, and it could be taken, like, multiple ways. Sure. Fine. Fine is another one, right? Yeah. How's your, you know, can you do this and this? Fine. Like, I could read that in so many ways. Fine. You know, or fine, yeah, that's fine. Sure. I kind of write sure when I'm a little annoyed. So when I get a sure from someone, I'm kind of like, oh, yeah, that's. This person's annoying. I don't want a sure relationship with God. I don't want this fine relationship with God. No. I want a relationship that stops supposing and starts saying, I'm in this. I'm in it. I'm not to the left. I'm not to the right. I'm sleeping right in the middle of this bed. I'm sitting right in the middle of the chair. I'm not off to the side, just waiting to slip off. No, I'm in this. So I'm Going to stop supposing and stop just half believing. No, I'm invested in this thing. I'm two feet in, I'm front footed and I'm leaning forward. Amen. Stop expecting spiritual stability while remaining internally wavering. Let's solidify this up within us. Amen. And the last point here today, stop living divided. Stop living divided. James 1, 7, 8, it says this for that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man or woman, unstable in all of their ways. Unstable in all of their ways. A divided heart will lead you to an unstable life. James moves from God's generosity and the formation of faith to the condition of our human heart. And this is where the power passage, I would say becomes very confronting because James is saying that this doubting person is tossed to and fro like the waves of the sea. It's unstable, inconsistent, driven by external conditions, never deeply anchored, always shifting. A wave has motion, energy, activity, but it has no direction of its own. It's pushed by everything else. Right. It is entirely governed by its external forces. And that's the point that he is making, that a double minded person is driven by the experience of their life and not anchored by the truth of his word. So I'm telling you, you will experience trial in this life. I'm sorry to say it, you will, as spoken by Christ himself, experience offense by a brother or a sister in this room or close to this room. The Bible talks about it. So what are we to do? We are to pre decide what our response response is. James says and opens this up with some of the hardest advice you can get. Consider it all Joy, pure joy, unadulterated joy, unhyped up joy, uninspired joy. Just consider it pure joy when you face trials of various kinds of because it will make a double mind into a single mind. I can't overlook my favorite psalm in this Psalm 27, which is David in the middle of being surrounded by armies who want to literally chop off his head and put it on a silver platter. They want to kill him, want to kill his whole family, wipe him out. And he is overwhelmed at that time, even his own army is starting to talk against David in this situation. He says, they're surrounding me, they've encamped around me. He opens up with some of the most ganked oh, I love it. I didn't even put the Scriptures up there. But he says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I be afraid of? The Lord is my refuge of what Shall I be afraid like that? That is, that is middle of Compton. That's gangster right there. I want that in my life. Whatever it is in your world, who do you have to fear? When the Lord is your light and your salvation is your refuge, is your source of wisdom. And he says, David goes on and in some, in 27, verse 4, he says this. He says, one thing I have asked of the Lord, that which I will seek after. It's so important that what you ask of the Lord, you seek after also the one thing. Get a little one eyed in your pursuit of this life. Jesus says, seek first the kingdom and all these, all these things will be added to you. I know, I want to seek God for the career and for the girl or for the guy and all of it. Seek first the kingdom, all these other things will get taken care of. But that makes no sense. Welcome to the kingdom of God. You want a life? Jesus says, lay it down and you will gain a life. What? No, I gain a life by conviction, controlling it. No, you want your financial world to get bigger? He says, give and it will be given unto you. What? What the heck? This is the kingdom upside down. It does not run on the laws and principles of the flesh of this world. It runs on the principles of the kingdom. She says, one thing I have seeked after, I've asked of the Lord. I've requested this. Oh, that I will seek after. What is it, David? That I will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Why to ask in his temple for his presence is there. His wisdom is there, his purpose is there. This right now, this is the Great Commission working out the church like God didn't have a plan A. Sorry, a plan B. He had what we would call an unwise investment strategy. You know, the saying goes, don't put all your eggs in one basket. He put all his eggs in one basket and that's a bride of Christ. He said, this is what is going to carry out the great mission and purpose and bring hope to the world. This is the extension of the new Garden of Eden, the house of God. The people of God who are going to multiply and subdue the territory around first call to the garden of Eden has been given to the new children of his covenant. That's you and I. So David is saying this, why? To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire for he will hide me in his shelter in what? In the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the COVID of his tent and he will what? Lift me high upon a rock and now my head shall be lifted above my enemies all around me. It may seem contrary to how the world fights battles, but I'm telling you, when you come into the house of God, when you lay your life upon his altar, when you the division in your life, when you make it one eyed and say, I will seek first the kingdom of God in all that I do, I will seek first the kingdom of God in the way I respond to my wife, I will seek first the kingdom of God in the way that I pursue money. I will seek first the kingdom of God in how I treat people, though I'm having a really bad day, I will seek first reverse the kingdom of God in the way that I live this life that I have been given. And he will lift this. In the house of God, though he's got enemies who literally want to kill him. I don't know if we're ever going to experience this, right? We fear a bad comment on Instagram or, I don't know, like, it's rare that we would feel that our life is under threat. I know that a couple of us have that. But it's in the house of God that your head will be lifted above your enemies. And I will offer in his tent, this is his response. Sacrifices with shouts of joy. And I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Listen, when people worship God, you don't know the battles they're fighting. You don't know the enemies they've defeated. You don't know the wisdom that they're seeking. So be one that shouts alongside one another. Amen. Hey, thanks for tuning in. There's a bunch of different ways that we connect throughout the week, including Sunday mornings, and we would love to see you there. You can check out all the details@c3oc.com.