Highlands Fellowship The Book of James: Wisdom Transcript
Man, so good to be with you today. I'm I'm glad to be back with you. It's been a while since I've been back with you. And if you're new to Highlands, I just want to say, man, welcome home. And I'm not sure where you're watching from today. Maybe you're at home or on TV at one of our locations up in Marian or over in Bristol. Maybe you're out in chapel or you're in one of our cafes or country. But I would just say I believe God has brought you here today. and I have a message that he has laid on my heart that I hope will encourage you in your walk with him.
So before we get started, uh some of you that are new to Highlands, I now have the opportunity of leading our global work. And if you've been in Highlands very long, you know that our DNA, our 31-year history, we believe and it's part of our vision today that God wants our church to change the world. So, Pastor Tim has sort of charged me with this opportunity and man, what a privilege it's been. And I just want to give you a little update on all that we're doing all over the world because when you give to our church through your regular offerings or through difference maker, you're a part of what God's doing in all these places around the world.
So, we've trained over 400 pastors in over a hundred countries around the world. And we've chosen 10 of these folks to actually really invest in in a deeper way. And uh Dr. Wahed uh he's our partner with 4G3 in all the Middle Eastern countries. He's been our longest partner. Pastor David is in Kenya. Pastor David uh is an amazing leader and he's also a student of our Appalachin School of Theology which I sat on the board of that started down in Nicholsville and now it's expanded. We just built our first location in Uganda, Africa. And catch this guys, we now have over 8,000 students in Africa alone. And Pastor David is leading one of our sites in Kenya.
Pastor Joel in Pakistan, uh, many of you have met him, an amazing leader. He planted Hosea Fellowship now in three locations. This past Easter, he saw 612 people give their hearts to Jesus. God's doing an amazing work through Pakistan. and Pastor Joel, Pastor Georgees in the Ivory Coast, uh, one of our great movemental leaders. He sort of is forming all these uh, conglomerates with all the French-speaking countries in uh, West Africa and he's going to bring a group of them to us here in October for our G3 conference and can't wait to be with them. Pastor Tony, another long-standing partner in South Africa, has brought many leaders here for us to train.
Pastor Vassel in Ukraine. Uh we've been able to work with him since uh since back in 2016, but we've been able to financially support him and seven other pastors in Ukraine for all these 1,500 days of this senseless war that they've had to go through. And God has just used Pastor Vassel in amazing ways. He's one of the leaders of leaders now in Kev and all across Ukraine. Uh we are sending a team to Tanzania. We've been there. This is our 20th year. We work with Pastor Clement and Godwin. Clement in northern Tanzania and Arouchia and Godwin and Dares Salam in southern Tanzania.
Pastor Emanuel really we call him Bishop. Uh he's in Nigeria, the most persecuted country in the world for Christians today. And he's leading disciplehip institutes. One of the boldest Christian guys I've ever been around. And then finally, uh, a homegrown couple, the Weerhols, who are actually in Thailand in that 1040 window sharing the gospel through their ministry of agriculture and chay and and God's expanded their ministry as well. So, you can sort of see this. These are the people. Here's the map of where Highlands is currently working.
And when you watch the local news, uh you will notice that when they give these world pictures of all this chaos that's happening around the world, Hollands has a partner in every one of those places and God is using them in miraculous ways to share the gospel all in the Middle East, all over in Thailand and Myanmar and then throughout Africa. And then I also wanted to just give you a quick update on some trips that we have for the summer. These are four places that we're going. We're going to Honduras. I'll be taking a medical team and we're doing some family ministry there. And then over in Jamaica, we're sending disaster teams with impact missions that will continue to help uh with the hurricane and disaster relief there.
We also have a team going to Tanzania to work with Clement and Godwin again this year. And then we have a team uh for the first time from Highlands going to Bise with Body and Soul Ministries, a ministry that was started out of Kingsport, Tennessee. And they'll be doing a lot of family ministry as well. So unfortunately, all these teams now are field, so you can't really go physically, but you sure can pray for these teams that'll be going to these different places around the world. We're beginning to work on teams for 2027. If you have an interest in going, I'd encourage you to do that. Then by all means, let me know and we'll get you signed up and uh get you ready to go.
So, back to James. We've been in this series in James and today I want to talk to you in the passage I have about making decisions. How to make decisions. And man, life is full of decisions, isn't it? Uh I I remember hearing about this young entrepreneur and he wanted to go into business and start his business. And so he finally gets an appointment with a successful CEO that's over a big business, real successful business. And the young man uh meets with this guy and he says, "Hey," he said, "What's the secret of business success?" And the CEO says, "Well, young man, the secret is wise decisions."
And so the young guy says, 'Well, you know, how can I learn to make wise decisions? The CEO says,"Experience, experience." And the young guy says, 'Well, that's great. How do I get experience? And the CEO says, "Dumb decisions. Dumb decisions." Now, I could write a book on dumb decisions. Matter of fact, along with this study, we're doing everyday devotionals. And I'm doing devotions this week, and my devotions are five dumb decisions that I've made. All right? So, it's just going to be real and I'm going to talk to you about some dumb decisions I've made. I can do one for every year, but anyway, we're going to do five that I've, you know, sort of healed from and can at least talk about.
But again, when we talk about this idea of life and how we're always in a mode of making decisions, our life revolves around decisionmaking and we need to make wise decisions. Now, in case you didn't get here the last couple of weeks, a little review of the book of James. I've talked through the book of James several times. It's an amazing book. And, uh, let me tell you a little bit about it. So, James is the halfb brotherther of Jesus. If you didn't know this, uh, Matthew tells us that Jesus had four halfbros. He had James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas.
Now, James here is not James the Apostle that we studied about earlier. It's a different James. Judas is not the same one that hung himself. It's a different Judas. Those names were common like our names now. And then he also tells us that Jesus had two halfsisters. We at least know he had six in his family, maybe more. Then in the early days growing up with Jesus, most of his family were not followers of Jesus. But after the resurrection, they almost all that we know from church history become devout followers of Jesus. James becomes a follower of Jesus and he becomes the leader, the pastor of the most influential church at the time, church in Jerusalem.
And actually, church history tells us that James pastored this church right in the heart of Jerusalem for 30 years. 30 long years. He's referred to as old camel knees. You've been around a camel before, maybe. You know how nasty their knees are. James was always on his knees praying because he had such an influential position and he was a man of prayer and God used him in amazing ways. This book is really considered to be the proverbs of the New Testament. It's an amazing book. James writes it to the Jewish believers who have now been scattered away from Jerusalem all throughout Asia Minor. And it's a book about practical Christian living.
Not only did James want you to know that you can come to faith in Jesus Christ, but once you do, then you're to live the Christian life out by doing what the word of God teaches us to do. Now, in James later years, he was such a devout believer that he gets called in before the high priest Ananas and the Sanhedrin, the court of the day. And they said, "James, if you do not renounce your belief and your faith in Jesus because he was causing too much of a stir, we're going to kill you." And so James, of course, did not renounce his faith in Jesus. And church history tells us they took him to the highest point of the temple wall in Jerusalem and cast him over the wall to his death, AD60.
This book was written 12 years before his death. It's the earliest of the apostles and it's a fascinating book that we have. His writing comes before Paul. So sometimes when you look at the New Testament, it's a little it's a little dicey because you think it's at the end, but actually James is the earliest of the epistles. So with that in review, let's look at what Pastor Tim has asked me to to discuss today. James chapter 1. Look with me. If you brought your Bible or on your app, look with me in verse five. We're going to look 5 through8.
This is what it says. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Now, today I just want to give you three things. All right? I've always been a pretty simple guy. I'm not very smart at all. I want to give you three things. That's all I want you to remember. James gives us the problem. All right? We're going to see the problem when we face decisions. And then he always gives us the solution. So we're going to look at the solution. And finally, we're going to finish up with God's promise. Those three things.
So what's the problem? The problem that we have is indecision. It's just indecision. That's the problem. And James clarifies it here for us in verse eight when he says, "A double-minded man, he's unstable in all of his ways." That phrase double-minded, it's an interesting phrase. It it actually means that we face decisions that pull us apart. That we all have decisions in life and we have different ways to make that decision and we get confused and we are often divided within our loyalties. We're divided within our priorities.
And James describes this frustration that I think we can all relate to today. When we have to make a decision and we're pulled in two different directions and whatever direction we go, somebody's going to be upset. There's no win that everybody's going to be happy in the decisions that we're faced with in life. It's just not. And yet, we have to make decisions. And he says double-mindedness is devastating to us. It's debilitating. It causes us a lot of instability where our lives become unstable. So this is the problem indecision.
Underneath this I want to give you three things. Here's the thing about when we're indecisive in our decision making. It causes us to be unstable. You know where it causes us to be unstable? It causes us to be unstable in our emotions. I mean this is so true, isn't it? When we have decisions and we don't know which way to go, it's stressful when you can't decide and you wonder when you make the decision. Well, did I make the right decision? It creates this emotional instability in your life and you just at times can't make up your mind.
It's like the old boy went to the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist says, "Are you indecisive?" And he says, "Yes and no." He said, "Well, what do you mean by that?" He said, "Well, I used to be, but now I'm not sure." And I think there's times we can relate to this guy. Indecision causes unstable emotions. It also causes unstable relationships. I mean, think about your marriage. If you're married, you got to decide, are you all in? Are you all out? And when you don't know and you're indecisive, it's unstable.
when you have your job and you think this is what God wants me to do and you go and then all of a sudden you have some rough days and you know what I'm not sure this is what God wants for me and you get unstable in your job and then you move from job to job to job and you're you know more stress in your life. I I think about as a parent uh you can really be unstable as a parent and you can tell your kids to do one thing and then you do another and that causes so much unstability in your whole family. Now once you decide when you're faced with a decision and you've made that decision it's a snap. You know once you're able to decide and make decision that's the hard part. But so many times our problem James says is indecision. We just don't know what to do.
And it really causes you to be unstable in your spiritual life. I mean, this is what James says. He says that person in verse 7 should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. When we're unstable and indecisive, it blocks our prayers. Indecision keeps God from giving and it keeps you from receiving what God has to offer. You know, some some of you say, "Well, you know, why didn't God answer my prayers?" And sometimes we pray and the way we pray is so vague. There's nothing specific about it. We wouldn't know if God answered our prayers or not.
And maybe you've really never decided, "This is what God, I need you to do in my life. God, this is what I want you to do." And you have a clearcut, focused goal of where you're headed in your life. That's just like our church. If we didn't have a clear vision, why we'd be going it' be everybody would have a vision. But God has spoken to Pastor Tim. He's given us a clear vision to make disciples, love our community, and change the world. And you also need that in your own life. So the problem, James says, indecision. And when we have indecision, it causes us to be unstable in our emotions, in our relationships, in our spiritual life.
Now, here's the solution. This is what James says. The solution is point number two. He says you when you face indecision, you have to get God's wisdom. You got to get God's wisdom. It's what he says in verse five. Look at it. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to what's that word there? to all that means you without finding fault and it will be given to you. So again, let me give you three things here about getting God's wisdom.
The first thing is you got to admit you need God's wisdom. I mean honestly when James says this in verse 5, if any of you lack wisdom, it's sort of sarcastic the way he says it because we all lack wisdom. Every one of us. It is a universal need. Now the Bible talks a lot about wisdom. But in our culture today, what we seem to value is knowledge, right? I mean, we crave knowledge because knowledge is something we we can actually acquire. We think about knowledge, we think about our education, we think about our degrees. God is not impressed with knowledge. God is impressed with wisdom.
There's a huge difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge we get through education and experience. And the way it sort of works is that that we go out and we get our knowledge and we get our degree and we think we have arrived and we think we know everything, right? And yet we all know people, if we're honest, that got a bunch of degrees and they don't know how to tie their shoes. I mean, that's just the way it is. The process that God wants is he wants you to get knowledge and he wants your knowledge to produce understanding. And then when you have understanding, it eventually leads to wisdom.
Now, we know there's earthly wisdom and we know there's godly wisdom. Big difference. And I want people who are I'm going to associate with, for instance, if I'm going to get on an airplane, I want my pilot to have earthly wisdom. I want him to have gone to school. I want him to know how to fly that airplane. I want him to know what to do if something happens. I want a good pilot. If if I have a a surgery, I want my doc to know how to cut on me. I want him to have cut on other people before me. I want him to have gone to medical school. And I want him to be like at the top of his class.
Earthly wisdom is a good thing when it is applied to you. But it's different than godly wisdom. The scripture says the only way that you can get godly wisdom is you got to have relationship with Jesus Christ. It's the only way. You can't get God's wisdom apart from him. So if you're here today, you may have a lot of earthly wisdom and you may have a lot of degrees and knowledge. That's awesome. But if you don't have God's wisdom in your life, James says you're in a heap of trouble. You really need the wisdom of God. So the first thing we got to do is we got to admit we need it.
Second thing we got to do is we got to ask for it. We have to ask for God to give it to us. I love how James does it so simply. He says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God." How do you get God's wisdom? The Bible says you get God's wisdom by asking God. God's wisdom, duh, comes from God. We we learn this in the Old Testament. Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 2:6, "It's the Lord who gives wisdom. From him comes knowledge and understanding."
You remember in the Old Testament, one of the neat stories, King Solomon, and he's over the king, he's king of Israel, and God has given him favor. And Solomon comes to God and God is so in favor of him. He says,"Solomon, dude, what is it that you want more than anything else? Because you've cared for my people so well, I'm going to give it to you." And you know what Solomon asked for? Solomon said, "Lord, I need your wisdom. I need your wisdom." And that pleased God so much that not only did he give Solomon wisdom, he's known as the wisest person in the world other than Jesus, but he blessed him in so many other ways.
What about you? If God came to you today and say, "Hey, you you know I want to bless you." What is it if you could ask God for anything in the world, what would you ask for? Would it be Lord, I want your wisdom? Well, that would please him if you did. James says we don't have his wisdom because we don't ask. Look what he says over in chapter 4:2. You have not because you ask not. So, the solution, we got to get God's wisdom. We have to admit we need it. We got to ask for it.
And then the third thing, this is really important. Don't want you to miss this. You got to anticipate God's going to give it to you. You know, so many times we ask, but we don't really ask the right way. We have to ask in faith. Notice what he says here in verse five and six. When you pray, if any of you lack wisdom, you should ask of God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it'll be given to you. Now, catch this. When you ask, you must believe and not doubt.
So, if you want God's wisdom, first you got to admit you need it. Then you got to ask God. And then James says, "Now when you when you ask, you ask God in the right way and you ask him in faith, believing and not doubting." Here's what this means. The key to getting God's wisdom is prayer. And the condition according to James is our faith. Have you ever prayed a prayer? I mean, I have. If you ever prayed a prayer and and as soon as you finish praying, right when you finish, you say to yourself, I really need God to do this. God ain't going to do that. You know, I I don't I don't think God's going to answer that prayer.
And then a day or so goes by and you said, I knew I wouldn't get an answer to that prayer. And what James is saying is is you set yourself up. God says, "If you can't believe that you're going to get it, then don't even waste your time praying about it." And he says, "Pray in faith and believe and thank God in advance." Doubt is really debilitating for us to get the wisdom of God. It hinders God from working in your life.
I I love this story in New Testament. You remember Peter's really messed up and he's denied the Lord and then he sees the Lord and and uh he comes out to the Lord and he jumps out of the boat and he's walking on the water and he keeps his focus on God and he's looking at Jesus and all of a sudden he takes his eyes off God and he looks at his circumstances and he thinks I can't walk on water. And as soon as he takes his focus off God and looks at the problem he's in, he begins to sink. Doubt crepe in faith moved out.
And isn't it true in your life? The moment that you take your eyes off the Lord and you begin to put your eyes on your problem and your circumstances, you sink too. I know I do. You know, some of you, God brought you here or you're watching on television today and you have a major problem and you have to make a decision and you need God's wisdom. And the reason that you don't have wisdom is because you got your focus and your thoughts on the problem and not on Jesus.
I want to I want to go back and I just want to encourage you that this is a a giant problem so many of us have and we think Lord I'm in such a mess and God I I have I have made these decisions and I've ended up in this place. How in the world will I ever solve this? Lord I'm backed in a corner. The situation I'm in it looks impossible. All right. Look up. Good news here, okay? God specializes in the impossible. And God would say to you today, get your eyes off the problem and get your eyes on Jesus and believe and don't doubt.
Remember, James says, "He who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind." If you want to receive anything from God, you got to believe in advance that God's going to give it to you and trust in faith that he will. And finally, last thing we see the promise. God actually will give you his wisdom. Now, this is awesome news. In James chapter 1 verse 5, it says this. If you lack wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault. And notice what he says. I will be and I and it will be given to you.
The truth is God wants to give you his wisdom. He created you. He knows how best to help you. And just like it pleased God when Solomon asked for wisdom, it pleases him when you ask for wisdom. And you say, "All right, Lord. I'm facing this. I don't have the foggiest idea what I'm supposed to do." Just stop right there. Say, "All right, God, I'm going to ask you and I need your wisdom." And God is a giving God. And the scripture says he gives without finding fault. Isn't that good? Because if he found, he'd find fault every one of us. He gives cheerfully.
Have you ever received a gift from somebody and and you knew when they were giving it to you, they were giving it to you grudgingly and you accepted, but it took all the joy out of it? Well, God's not that way. The Bible says God, he doesn't give wisdom that way. It's his nature to give. And when you're in a situation and you don't have the foggiest idea how to move forward, you don't have to be embarrassed to ask God. You don't have to beat yourself up and think that he's going to beat you up if you ask him. No, he loves to give his wisdom to you. He wants you to make the right decision so that you can be better for who he's called you to be.
So, a little review. All right, I'm done. Little review. The problem is we all have indecision. And in our indecision, we get unstable in our emotions and our relationships and our spiritual life. James says the solution is to ask God for wisdom. And when we get wisdom, we have to admit that we need it. We got to ask him for it. And we got to anticipate that he's going to give it. and he promises that he will give to all God's wisdom in our life.
Now, as we close, I want I want I want to talk to you about two things. First of all, I want to talk to you about the greatest decision you'll ever make. All right? The greatest decision that you'll ever make is not who you marry. All that's awesome and where you go to school and where you live and what kind of job. Those are all major decision. That's not the greatest one. The greatest one is who's going to be number one in your life? Is it going to be you or is it going to be God? Because if he's number one, and that's the wise decision, your life is going to be so much better.
But if you're number one, you're going to have some trouble. I It's going to be chaos. And you know, when you're trying to be God of your life, you're doing something you were never created to do. And this is what I believe. God brought some of you here today and you've been number one in your life. And you look at your life, it's a mess because that's not who God created you to be. And he wants to be number one in your life. You say, "Well, how do I get God to be number one in my life?" Well, here's what you do. It's real simple. You admit that you're a sinner. You've made mistakes. You believe in what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you. and you confess your sin and repent and invite Jesus Christ into your life.
So right now, wherever you are, if you're TV or one of our locations, I'm going to pray with you and I want you to pray with me as prayers for you and you pray it with me. All right? All of you who want to trust Jesus right now. Let's pray together. Father, right now, God, I admit that I'm lost, that I'm a sinner, and if my life ended right now, I'd die and go to hell. But Lord, I recognize today that the greatest decision I can make is to invite you into my heart and my life. And right now, Jesus, I invite you into my life. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I confess that I'm a sinner and I believe in my heart that you went to the cross and you rose from the dead and I accept you as my savior and my lord in Jesus name. Amen.
Now, if you prayed that prayer, I don't want you to run out today. Or if you're on TV, I want you to get with Pastor Tim. If you're one of our physical locations, there's people around that can help you. We got a book that'll give you the next 21 days on the decision you just made. You're part of the family of God. Now, here's second thing for all of you that are believers. Here's my question for you. What decision are you facing in your life that you need God's wisdom for?
Um several years ago I had the opportunity to go to a Quaker service and Quakers are pretty cool. Uh we think they brought oatmeal but they did a lot more than that. All right. And one of the things they did at the end of the service was the pastor had all the Quakers to just put their hands like like this. And that meant that they were they were just lifting up themselves to God. And then he said, "I want you to turn your hands over." And he said, "These are the things I want you to just let go of. Just let let go of these things. let God speak to you. And he said, "As soon as you've let go of those things, God's speaking to you." He said, "I want you to turn your hands back over and I want you to receive from God."
And I I don't know where you are. I don't know what major decisions you're facing in life, but this is what I know. There's still enough of you that email me and talk to me, and you got a lot of problems in your life just like I do. And without God's help, we're we're doomed. But he wants to help you. and those decisions that you're facing right now, you need God's wisdom. And so I want to pray with you as we close that God would give you his wisdom.
Would you pray? Father, I know all over from where everybody is watching or in person today, we're all facing decisions in our life. And God, I pray that you brought those decisions to surface that we've been trying to handle them on our own. We get stressed out about them. We have the foggiest idea on what decision we could go. But today, God, we're asking and we're admitting we need your wisdom. And God, right now, just speak to our hearts. Help us to know that you're the God of the impossible. And things that may look impossible to us, God, you're going to work those out. You're going to help us to resolve the conflict, to forgive the person who's betrayed us, whatever it is. God, we commit this decision into your hands. And God, I'm asking you to give me wisdom to make a decision that would honor you in Jesus name. Amen.
Hey, I love you guys. I'm so excited about our church, man. I think the best is yet to come. God bless you and have a wonderful, wonderful day.