Sermon Cloud

Here's the text I used for Sunday, I veered from it a bit but it gives a good chunk of what we talked about.

Matthew 17:15-20  “if you had more faith…”?

Reading Proverbs 2:1-10

What god gives as oppose to what we gain for ourselves is actually better than what we can get for ourselves. 

Good morning everyone, if I don’t know you yet my name is Chris Leonardo, one of the pastors and elders here at evergreen.  Our time together last week ended with james chapter 1 verse 4 with the words, “lacking in nothing.”  I’m lacking in tons of stuff, and I presume most of you are too, since you’re here…?

James is talking to his brothers and sisters telling them that difficult times in their lives are chances to grow, which is a really difficult thing to hear when your life isn’t good. 

Usually pain or difficulty comes because of some sort of loss.  Death, growing up, getting old, paying bills, fighting with your family, moving etc.  In times of extreme difficulty there’s nearly always something we had, or that we thought we could or would have, that is lost.

Losing the idea that your father is supposed to be a man without flaws, or that your spouse, or maybe even your…uh…pastor, is a man or woman without flaws is hard.  The world feels more vulnerable, actually the world feels more hostile and I end up feeling much more vulnerable. 

This morning as we read thorugh this section, notice how James seems to hang with the idea that often gain is found in the midst of loss.  I think its safe to say that one of the big pieces of this is that what you and I can give to ourselves will work some of the time, and may often result in loss.  What God offers to us is so much more valuable than what we can gain ourselves. 

So we start there this morning.  James takes us to a great place in light of difficulty, he writes about wisdom.  A few weeks back we all kinda shot different definitions of wisdom around and if I remember correctly we decided on “the ability to know what to do with what you know.”  We discussed the differences between knowledge and wisdom, and how most of us know a few special people with wisdom who may or may not have an encyclopedic knowledge of anything other than daily life. 

So James describes how his brothers and sisters, can get to wisdom.  What is your characiture of a wise person?  Why?

-old man, big beard

-sitting on a mountain

-speaks slowly

-solemn

It seems that many of us view wisdom as something that just comes to us through life experience, or learning from someone.  That can be the case, let’s see what James says. 

Vs. 5

Seriously, that’s it.  That’s pretty easy.  You just ask, God gives.  I have nothing more to say.  Let’s call it a day and go home.   

All you have to do is ask.  God just gives the stuff away.  Did anyone of you hear that Seinfeld bit about Halloween?  He says that the only coherent thought a child has until they’re about 10 years old is GET CANDY.  He talks about the first time kids hear about Halloween and their like “Wait, what?  They’re just giving the stuff away?  Who is?...EVERYONE WE KNOW IS JUST GIVING AWAY CANDY!?” 

We’re so used to a cost/benefit sort of transaction with this.  You’re going to have to climb a mountain and sit alone until you become wise, you’re going to have to have all the fun whipped about of you until you become solemn. 

The only real catch is that the mere act of asking for wisdom implies something about you, doesn’t it?  It would almost be easier if it was a one time payment of 149.99 instead of a bunch of ‘easy’ installments, you know?  This isn’t something I want to keep reminding myself! 

So in light of thise lets read the next few verses

9-11

Why do you think James goes here next?

How can you boast about being poor?  Who does that, ever?  And what rich person boasts that they’ve been humbled by God to carry all this money around?  Really, I mean we may have met super rich people that say they’re humbled but we’re kind of like, “Whatever man.”  If you brag about something related to financial status you’re never bragging that you’re in tough times.  At first read this feels like cool bible talk that may not have much to do with us.  First off, let’s just talk about what we see in this section. 

-the people who are poor are more likely to go towards God in seeking wisdom

-wealth clouds judgement and sometimes gives a false sense of importance and or accomplishment.

-Maybe he wants to encourage those who are are poor, in light of what we just read, and also to bring the rich some perspective on our lives. 

We’re going to sing a little bit, if singing isn’t your deal, or you don’t know these songs or whatever please be welcome to interact with the stuff in the back, walk around, contemplate some of what we’ve been talking about etc. 

12-15

God does not tempt us.  He’s no that annoying.  We all carry things around that we don’t want to let go of, even though we know they’re terrible.  We’re ok with certain things, not willing to give them up.  Think about it, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  The first thing that comes to mind when you read this is probably a good indication of what you allow to control you.   

That me, that’s you.  We’re sort of ok with this in theory, and sometimes this thing that keeps carrying us away from what we know is good.  There’s quite a contrast between this section and what we see James writing about next. 

We change all the time.  One minute we’re sitting here in church goin, “Man I really want to get to know Jesus and pursue wisdom and read more of this book and get to know some people and start getting my life together.”  The next day we’re right back where we were. 

Let’s camp here for the next couple of minutes, what do you all see here?  Why would he use some of the phrases he uses? 

And we come again to the last verse here, God gives birth to us by giving us his word.  Once again, God gives.  God simply doesn’t change.  He doesn’t stop giving.  The hand of God is wide open to everyone.  Often we Christians have drawn a picture of Jesus standing in front of God, sort of like a secret service agent standing in front of the president, or a hockey goaley adamantly blocking every one of your attempts to get to know who God is until you get it perfectly right,  only letting the special few who are in the special circle in. 

But James tells us something completely different, he says that if we move towards God, asking that our gaps be filled, that our hearts be wise and changed to be more like the heart of God, then we will see that not only do we become more like God but we move towards what we spoke of earlier, a life that is “lacking in nothing.”   

Its sometimes hard for us to believe because we simply aren’t that consistent.  Its sometimes difficult to believe things of other people that we don’t believe of ourselves.  If as a little kid you were ever made fun of for breaking up the fight or standing up for the kid everyone picked on, then you know exactly what we’re talking about.  We can’t claim that we’re fully realized, perfect and don’t change, so its hard for us to interact with God because it so blatantly points out our flaws.  If you don’t really think you’re incomplete and needy, then no one really wants to hang out with you…ahem…which may tell you that you’re flawed in some way ?   

And maybe that’s why James wrote what he did towards the beginning of this section about actually meaning what you ask of God.  Really meaning the question may actually be part of the answer to it. 

We’re going to sing a little bit more and I’m going to ask you if there’s anything you’d like to say or add to what we’ve come up with this morning,.  Again, feel free to take any posture of worship that is comfortable for you, but please whatever you do, lean into God.  Ask.