Life’s Pitfalls and Discoveries
Wisdom with Trials and Temptations
James chapter 1:5-1:18
Introduction-
Good morning everyone, today we continue our study of the pitfalls of life and the discoveries that can be found to help us avoid them.
Last week we looked at un-forgiveness as the pitfall and the discovery that forgiveness can set a person free and allows us to live as God intended. We all want forgiveness when we make mistakes but few are willing to give forgiveness when someone else makes a mistake or does us wrong.
Today I want to look at putting the necessary guidelines in our life that serve as a bumper when we begin to go off track.
James records some important text on the subject and we will break it down into two sessions, (1) looking at the wisdom that is available if we are willing to hear it and (2) About keeping our minds centered and focused on God so that we don’t stumble and set ourselves up for failure.
James chapter 1:5-1:18 Read from Bible
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
George W. Bush, in an airport lobby, noticed a man in a flowing white robe with a long flowing white beard and flowing white hair. The man had a staff in one hand and some stone tablets under the other arm. George W. approached the man and inquired, “Aren’t you Moses?” The man ignored George W. and stared at the ceiling. George W. positioned himself more directly in the man’s view and asked again, “Aren’t you Moses?” The man continued to look at the ceiling. George W. tugged at the man’s sleeve and asked once again, “Aren’t you Moses?” The man finally replied, the last time I spoke to a bush I had to spend forty years in the desert.
The only way to have a better life, to have a fulfilling life is by listening and doing what the Lord has told us in His Word to us.
John 10:10-
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
The thief (Satan) has come to destroy everything in your life of worth and take away the joy and fulfillment that God promises by telling you and convincing you that you can do whatever you want and be satisfied and complete and it is a lie straight out of Hell and smells like smoke.
I do not see a devil behind every door but I see lives destroyed because they have turned their back on God and think that they knew better than God for their lives and they are a mess.
This has been a hard month for me, I saw two of my friends my age pass away and it is a reality check to make sure that we have things right in our lives. One I am confident is with the Lord and one that I am not sure of and breaks my heart to think he could be lost for eternity.
Guidelines and guard rails are set up by God to help us and guide us and we have the option of (1) Trusting God with our lives and our future or (2) Do things our way.
“If any of you lack wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
I think God has a sense of humor. If you don’t believe me think about this- God who tells us if we lack wisdom, He will give us wisdom. Compared to God, who would know more? Who would be the one lacking wisdom? Would anyone of us honestly want to challenge God on who knows best?
Intelligence is not the same as wisdom. I know a lot of smart people that I believe do not have a lick of common sense and make very bad spiritual choices that they will or have already regretted.
Illustration-
Muhammad Ali was on an airplane ready for takeoff and the flight attendant asked him to put his seat belt on. He replied… Superman don’t need a seat belt. She moved on thinking that he would get it strapped in a moment. She returned and asked him again to fasten his seatbelt and again he replied… superman don’t need no seatbelt. Out of frustration, she answers back briskly…Superman don’t need an airplane. Get the seatbelt on or leave the plane.
We think we are special.
We think that we are invincible.
We think we have all the answers.
We think that we know best.
Have you ever done anything dumb or stupid? Of course, we all have. God asking us if we lack wisdom, we should ask of him.
Every one of us ought to be in that line looking and wanting His wisdom.
He tells us verse 6 that when we are smart enough to ask Him for wisdom, Godly wisdom that we need to know who we are asking for wisdom and believe and trust that what He gives us is truth. He tells us to know what we believe and not be double-minded and wishy -washy of our faith. He says that when you need answers, (you lack wisdom) that you should come to him. The important thing is to realize who has the truth and seek out His truth for whatever you are going through in life.
I think a person can spend a lifetime in the book of proverbs and get answers to most every question that comes up in life. It may not have the latest name to it, but life questions are answered. If they are not answered directly, I believe He gives us wisdom to take His principals and character qualities to find the answers we are needing.
Trials and Temptations
(12) “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those that love him.”
I want you to see something here- He (God) says that when we go through trials, those life test that most of the time are unavoidable and usually not our fault, when we get on the other side of them we are stronger than when the trial began.
This is different than learning something the hard way.
This is going through something because of the actions of someone else. The unavoidable issues of health that maybe you were born with. Job loss because of down-sizing or company moving to another state or country.
He says on the other side of trials that we will be stronger, smarter, and ready for the next huddle so that in the end we will journey home with the crown of righteousness
Do you know why a golf ball isn’t smooth? They found that a ball travels farther after it has been dented and banged around a bit. They build them with the dimples in them to fly farther and faster.
Think maybe that is why sometimes the Lord allows us to go through some trials so that we can fly farther and last longer after we have been beat up a little bit?
Running away from our trials may be easier but it will not give us the results that God intends for us. While some of the things we go through God may be telling you to run as far away from it as you can. Run Forrest Run! Get away, get some distance between you and the thing that causes you to stumble.
Most of the time, we will need to face our problem head on, and trust that God will help us through it with His strength and His wisdom.
Nike may say “just do it” but truth is, most things we cannot do without the Lords help and His strength.
David, cried out to God when He realized that he could not do it alone. (Create in me)
Job, fell down and worshipped God, and didn’t listen to bad advice from his friends when he needed the Lords help.
Paul humbled himself before God and needed his power to endure what was ahead of him.
Paul realized that without God he could not accomplish what God wanted from him in his own strength and no one that I know of was beaten up and bruised more than Paul’s ministry for Jesus.
This is what the Lord says about trials in our life.
They are unavoidable things that come up. He is telling us that trials will happen.
He makes no promises that we will not have trials.
God doesn’t paint a pretty picture of exemption from hard and bad things from happening to God’s children.
That is a trial- it is a test of performance like an athlete to make sure that you are ready for the next event or situation that comes up.
God allows tests to make you stronger and gives us wisdom if we will take it to bring us to new levels in our walk with Him.
Temptation is different-
Temptations do not come from God.
(13) “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.”
James 4:7-8
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you, come near to God and He will come near to you.”
God allows trials in your life to make you stronger and ready to do kingdom work.
Temptations do not come from God and come from self or help from the tempter when we are pulled away from God creating better lives for us and dragged into stumbling and falling away by our own evil desires.
I want you to think about this a minute. One of the things we struggle with is comparing our lives to someone else’s. It will either discourage us because the one we compare ourselves to is so much more than we could be and we feel we would never measure up or we compare ourselves to someone that is much worse and we get a confidence of being good.
One we fall short and discouraged and one we feel pretty good about ourselves. Which one do we gravitate toward? Being good.
What happens when we measure ourselves not to someone else but to what God has told us to do? We cannot measure up without God’s help and His grace and mercy.
The doctrine of original sin is that we are born sinners.
We have the sin nature because of the fall and we cannot save ourselves or be good enough because we are born not good enough. So, before we begin, we are doomed without Jesus.
Listen, if you have young kids, don’t take offense of what I am going to say. For those of us that have raised kids, it will be better received.
Babies born with their demanding cry.
Their stiffening bodies when they don’t get their way, gets mom and dads attention.
How cute is it when those same children who have never been taught to be bad begin to do things that they know you don’t like.
They are so small that they cannot even open their eyes, cannot for first months even hold their heads up, cannot feed themselves, cannot meet their own needs, and yet they let you know that they are in charge!
Voddie Bauchanan says it this way-
Called them vipers in diapers!
Until we know how desperate we are, we do not understand.
It is why we do not go to the nice old lady down the block- because she is a nice old lady. That nice lady that everybody likes.
It is why we sometimes stand up at funerals and profess that a person who never wanted God is in a better place.
Supposing he/she would be able to spend time with a God that they did not want while they were living here on this earth.
Closing;
Here is the discovery-
Whatever trial God allows you to go through, He will see you through.
You cannot do it alone and He does not want you to do it alone.
His wisdom is what gets us through.
