James 1:1-3 – Life’s Travel Bag – Bible study

James 1:1-3 Lifes Travel Bag James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. This epistle starts with the believers in the fire. James was writing to Jewish Christians who were having a terrible time. He speaks of them \#2\ as suffering divers temptations, different troubles. These believers were not just having bad days-alarm didnt go off, Couldnt get my hair to do right, traffic is a booger. These were Having deadly days. There is no handbookother than the BibleFor dealing with these days, but James outlines something that we should make sure we have. Let me mention them to you briefly tonight, BTW, I am going to change the order some of them are given in the Bible because it will flow easier in my train of thought. I. \#2\ "count it all joy" A. I have been saved a long time; and I have read through and even taught through this Book several times; and I never that passage without experiencing a little emotional jolt. 1. Use your imagination now. 2. Its like youre in the army, on foreign soil, behind enemy lines, and you accidently wandered into a mine field. You found out you were in a mine field when you put your foot down on a spot of earth and heard the "click" of the mine being set. Now, if you start to pick your foot upno matter how fast you movebefore your foot ever completely clears the mine, it will go off; but then you think whats the point of trying Even if I had both feet free to run, any direction I run in is covered by more land mines so that I would just step on another. And then from outside the mine field, your preacher shouts at you, "Cheer up." "Count it all joy!" "Just be happy you are where you are." 3. Thats the way these readers must have felt when they read James words. a. And that is exactly what the Bible says for these Christians were literally in a mine field. b. So in the middle of lifes minefields, with your foot on a loaded mine, James says "count it all joy." B. Why does God say that? Lots of reasons: 1. Because God has not forgotten me. a. God never forgets us, but I think we are even more on His mind when we are being tempted. b. Psalm 89:33 Psalm 89:33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 2. Because every temptation has a victory. 1Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. a. Whether we see it or not, there is a way off of that mine and out of that field. b. God says there is a way out of every temptation and a victory over every trial. 3. Because attitudes open and close our eyes. a. To be honest most of the time, we see every challenge like a minefield. b. Most arent. c. We are like the little child who thinks eating a few bites off the plate to get to the desert is equivalent to have every tooth in our head pulled. d. But no matter how bad it is, Gods got it. e. We just need to the right attitude, JOY instead of fear, fret, and a fit. II. \#5\ Wisdom James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. A. Wisdom is the ability to see things the way God sees them. 1. A lot of our problems are immediately eliminated when we see things as God sees them. For example: a. What we thought was a problem was really God working on us. James 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. b. What we thought was a problem was really God creating a way to reward us. James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. c. What we thought was a problem was just the consequences of our own actions. James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 2. I am not going to pretend that makes everything all better because it doesnt. a. Most of the time the present problems are going to have to be dealt with because they are already here. b. But this kind of wisdom can help us in two ways: (1) The wisdom James was telling us to ask God for is the wisdom to know what to do in this situation. (a) I repeat what I already said. (b) Every temptation has a victory. 1Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (c) The wisdom we want tells us what we need to do to "fix" whatever can be fix and to "handle" whatever cannot be fixed. (2) No matter what, the wisdom James was telling us to ask for will keep us from facing these kinds of problems again! c. Years ago, a couple of ladies came into our church. They were young, maybe 30 but probably younger. They loved our church, our people, and everything about us. One of both of them made a profession of faith. They came regular for a while and seemed to be learning; but they dropped out. After that, every few years they would come through and go through similar scenario. As they got older, sometimes it was their problems that brought them in: boy friend problems, the husband problems, then money problems, then kid problemsand so it went on for years. I eventually came to see that these ladies were on a Merry-Go-Round (Although now I guess I should call it an Unmerry-Go-Round.) They kept making the same kinds of mistakes and winding up in the same kind of troubles. Why? Because they lacked wisdom. B. James emphasis was not so much on what wisdom is but how to get it. 1. You cant get wisdom from a school. 2. You dont necessarily get wisdom from mistakes. 3. There is no book where it can be foundexcept the Bible. 4. Where does one get wisdom? \#5\ Ask God for it. 5. If you ask God for wisdom, you already have some. a. You had wisdom enough to be exposed to the Bible. b. You had wisdom enough to listen to it. c. You had wisdom enough to see you needed wisdom. d. You had wisdom enough to ask for it. 6. Now all God has to do is to show you what He is doing in your life in this situation and whatif anythingHe wants you to do. 7. And James said He will! III. \#6\ Faith James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. A. Faith was already mentioned in \#3\, but we will start with it here. B. Faith is the ability to see the invisible things of God. 1. I speak about faith often, and I always tell you that the first three invisible things you need to see are: a. God is. b. God is good. c. God has a plan. 2. Once you can see these things, God can show you other invisible things, such as the details of the invisible plan that he has for your life. C. But James is not as interested in teaching us what faith is as he is in teaching us that faith must be steadfast. James 1:7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 1. An unstable faith produces an unstable Christian. 2. We cannot be on today with our faith and off tomorrow. 3. For faith to do anything, it must be consistent. a. Interesting, God never said we had to have a lot of faith. (1) Jesus said faith as small as the grain of a mustard seed could move mountains. (2) I take it that nether the volume nor the size of our faith is that important. b. Just the consistency of it. 4. Based on that, if you are struggling with your faith, go back to the basic three that I gave you. a. Dont worry about reaching any further than that. b. Just concentrate on holding that tightly. c. I have a notion that everything else will fall into place. IV. \#3-4\ Patience James 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. A. Patience was mentioned second in James list, but I have left it last. B. What is patience? 1. Patience is the ability to wait without frustration and anxiety. 2. I think in this context, the One being waited for is God. a. These Christians are going through a deadly time while serving God. b. The One they want to show up is God. c. They want Him to do something to change their circumstances. 3. So lets insert that, "Patience is the ability to wait ON GOD without frustration and anxiety." a. Again, we are standing on a mine in minefield waiting for God to show up, and He wants us to be joyful, wise, full of faith, and patience. b. That is not easy to do, is it? c. That is the reason I changed the order, d. I believe it gets easiER if we do them in this order. (1) Set our attitude to joy instead of fear, fret, and fit pitching. (2) Be wise, open our eyes to see things as God sees them. (3) Be faithful, believe in God, Gods goodness, and Gods plan. e. And if we do these things, God can give us patience to wait for His plan even while we are standing on a mine in the middle of a minefield. C. I notice that while all four of these are important in dealing with the different troubles of life, the only one that James declared to directly affect us is patience. 1. Once we have patience, we can be made: a. Perfect b. Entire (and defines that, wanting nothing) 2. All four of these are like steps on the ladder. 3. It appears after we climb step four, step five is real growth in Christ. 4. I hope that is what we want.