All right, good morning church family.
You as you guys find your seats, if you would open your Bibles to
the book of James. We start a new study last week
after finishing the Book of Numbers.
We have been going through numbers for almost a year and
last week we started the book of James.
So if you're visiting this morning, you've only missed one
week of the series. We looked at the 1st 4 verses of
James and this morning we're going to look 4 verses, James
152, 8. The title of the sermon is this.
God promised to give wisdom. So let's read the text openness
and a word of prayer and then we'll jump into the sermon this
morning, James chapter 1 beginning in verse 5.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously
to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts.
It's 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.
He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.
If you will pray with me. Got to pray this morning that
you would please give us the gift of faith to believe that
when we need wisdom and when we come to you and ask for it, you
will give it. Give us faith to believe God
that you have promised this. It is not a maybe.
It is not a on some days, but that you have promised your
children that if any of us lacks wisdom, all we have to do is
come to you and ask and ask in faith and you will give it.
Help us to believe that this morning.
Lord I pray in Jesus name, Amen. Yesterday I was helping my son
Ezra with his one of his essays. I don't normally get involved in
the school work, Lauren usually does that, but I was being him
with his essay. He did not know that I was going
to help him with his essay. And one of the the essay
question was something along the lines of it.
It was like if you have 3 wishes, what would you wish for?
And that was the assignment that his teacher at the Co-op.
If you have 3 wishes, what would you wish for?
You know what his wishes were number one, that he would
glorify God #2 God would give him wisdom and #3 that he would
be able to accept God's will as a dad.
I there are a few things you could be more proud of.
You know, we that's a very common question, right?
If you had three wishes and and you know, there's always that,
but you can't ask for more wishes.
It's in the movie Aladdin, right, That that idea.
Sometimes, you know, we may wit, you know, wish ourselves like
well, I would love for that to happen.
This actually did happen to someone one time, except it was
one wish. God came to Solomon and he said
to him, ask what I shall give to you.
In other words, he basically told Solomon, you have one wish,
name it, I'll give it to you. Out of all the things that
Solomon could ask for, do you remember what his request was?
He said, give me now wisdom and knowledge.
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern
your people, that I may discern good from evil.
You may read that story and think I would love to have that
opportunity. I wish God would give me one
wish. I wish God would say name it and
it's yours. Well, we may not get that offer,
but here's the thing. We do get access to the very
same thing that Solomon asked for and that God gave him,
because God in this verse has promised to give us wisdom.
And that's what the sermon is about this morning.
God promises to give his people wisdom as we work our way
through the text. I'm going to start with the next
position of the text. I'm going to break it down,
break down these 4 verses into 9 parts and so and then I'll give
application at the end. So let's start looking at verse
5A where James writes if any of you lacks wisdom.
Now last week James had said that God gives us trials and
these trials are to produce steadfastness in our life.
And then he says let's steadfastness have its full
effect. And the reason for this is that
we will then be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing,
lacking in nothing. But then here James says, if any
of you lacks wisdom, we must remember that when James says
lacking in nothing, that is on the day of judgement, he is
saying that on the day of judgement we will lack nothing.
We will be perfect and complete. Until then, we all lack in
things, all of us lack in multiple things, and one of the
things that we lack is wisdom, James writes.
If any of you lacks wisdom. Let's break this down.
He says if any of you. Now, the reality is that all of
us lack wisdom. Nobody is perfectly wise except
Jesus Christ. If any of you lacks the word for
LAX, here is the same word in verse 4, same exact word.
It means to be deficient in something that ought to be
present for whatever reason. If you LAX.
What wisdom? Not every question.
What is wisdom? Well, we could we take the whole
rest of the sermon on that topic, right?
I'm going to give my personal definition.
I'm not saying you need to go with this definition.
I'm not saying it's the best definition.
Through the years I have tried to come up with the definition
for this. There are multiple definitions
of wisdom, but this is how I understand the term being used
in scripture. Here's my personal and I've
shortened it from the way I traditionally defined it.
Here it is. Wisdom is the ability to discern
right from wrong and the good from the best.
And there was 2 parts of this. Wisdom is the big you don't
think of. Wisdom is making like good
decisions or but but really wisdom is the ability to discern
right from wrong right? Can I discern what's right and
what's wrong? What is God's will and what is
not God's will? It also is the ability to
discern what is good from what is best.
Often there can be two choices where both right but one of them
is better than the other right. God laid 2 choices before you.
Neither of them will be disobedience.
Wisdom is the ability to discern what is a good decision and what
is the best decision. That's what I'm going to go
with. It's OK if you define this
differently. Let's look at 1st 5B.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God.
Let him ask God. Now, as I frequently like to
point out, we should always notice what the text doesn't
say. James doesn't say.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him research diligently.
If any of you lacks wisdom, make your best possible decision.
If any of you lacks wisdom, ask a wise person.
Now, none of those are wrong, they are just not the best thing
that we can do. If we need wisdom, the very best
thing that any of us can do is to ask God.
I want to point out that this is not a suggestion.
Ask in the Greek is an imperative verb.
It's a command. In fact, there's only one other
person in the New Testament that actually commands us to ask, and
it is the Lord Jesus Christ. Three times Jesus commands us to
ask our Father. Now, why should we ask God?
5C Who gives generously to all without reproach?
I want you to notice 4 descriptions of how God gives #1
continuously. Continuously gives is a
participle, which means it's an ongoing action.
It's not as though God gives one time where you ask God for
wisdom and he gives it to you that once and it's like a one
time deal and that's it. You used up your your wisdom
card for the for all of the rest of your life.
God gives wisdom continuously through the Christian life #2 He
gives generously, generously. This is not the normal Greek
word for generously. It's a Greek word.
It means straightforward, simply, above board, sincerely,
openly. It really carries the idea that
God gives with a simple mind. The best translation might be a
sincere mind, a sincere heart. God gives wisdom with a sincere
heart #3 He gives to all. All.
Not just the pastors, not just the elders, not just the
deacons, not just the teachers, not just the missionaries, not
just to the leaders, not just to the mature, but to all.
All who ask, everyone who ask, He gives children.
And four, He gives without reproach.
What does that mean? Without reproach, Literally
without finding fault, without reprimand.
Other words, God doesn't shame us that we need wisdom.
He is not like an earthly father that when your 25 year old son
ask you, dad, how do I change a tire?
What's wrong with you? You don't have to change a tire.
You're 25 and some of you are like, I don't know how to change
a tire. He is not like that where he
reprimands us, shames us, that we don't know something, looking
for 5D, and it will be given him.
It will be given him. The verb here is a future
passive indicative. All of those matter.
It's not just a grammar lesson here.
It's a future passive indicative.
All of those matter. First, it's a future verb.
What does that mean? It means God will give this
wisdom at a later time. He might give it right then and
there, but it's important that we not think of God as a
computer where we just simply go and download wisdom right when
you pray, it's not as though God right then right there downloads
it to you. Doesn't work that way.
God gives wisdom when he's ready to give it.
Future verb. It's a passive verb.
Why is that important? It means wisdom is not achieved.
Wisdom is not earned, it's not learned.
It's given. It is a gift and it is future.
It is passive and it is indicative.
Indicative is the mood of quality.
What does that mean? It's a promise.
James is is saying if you ask God for wisdom, he will give it
to you. Not he might not.
He'll think about it. He will give it.
Now if you read just verse 5, it seems like there are no
conditions to this. But verse 6 clears this up.
Look at verse 6A. But let him ask in faith.
So there is one condition to this, asking with two sides, one
condition, two sides. The first side is this.
Let him ask in faith. Now 2 questions to that.
Number one, what does it mean to ask in faith?
What does that mean to ask God for wisdom, Faith?
It means this. It means to believe verse 5.
Remember the two blind men who
were crying out to Jesus. Do you remember what Jesus said
to them? Jesus walked up to them and he
said this. Do you believe that I am able to
do this? And they said yes.
To ask in faith means two things.
A, it means to believe that God is able to do anything that
we're asking him. And B, it means to believe that
God will give me his very best, even if his best is no.
That's what it means to ask in faith #2 why do we need to ask
in faith? Why faith?
A lot of humility. Ask sincerely.
Ask persistently. Why is it faith?
Why does he say ask in faith? Because, as the author of
Hebrews writes, without faith it is impossible to please him.
For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists
and rewards those who seek him. You must believe that God
rewards those who seek Him. 6B with no doubting the other side
of the condition. Remember I said one condition,
two sides. The other side of this condition
is this with no doubting. Now 2 questions with this number
one, what is doubt? What it says no doubting.
What does it mean to doubt? What is doubt?
Here's the definition of the Greek word to be uncertain, to
be at odds with oneself to waiver.
Waiver is actually the best translation there.
We just, but you know some more, it literally means like to
waver, right? You're kind of just wavering
like, you know, somebody, Hey man, you want to go hiking this
weekend? That's, that's the idea.
It's to waver. Doubt can come in many forms,
doubting God's ability, God's wisdom, God's character, God's
discernment, God's judgement. Doubt can come in many forms #2
Second question, Why must there be no doubting?
Why do we need to ask in faith with no doubting?
Here's why. Because doubt is the enemy of
faith. They will not coexist.
They might coexist for a short period of time, but one of them
will squeeze the other one out. They won't stay together.
One of them will eventually push the other one out.
That's just how it works. Verse 6C For the one who doubts
is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the
wind. What does James mean by this?
The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind. James is making the point we can
either be a wave or a rock. If you ever watch the sea on a
stormy day, the waves are extremely unstable.
They're currently unpredictable. They just, they're just going
left to right, up and down. The wind blows and the waves
just go all over the place, right?
Contrast this with a giant rock in the ocean.
Stormy, it gets, it doesn't move.
You see, the enemy has all kinds of wind currents, currents of
anxiety, wind currents of fear, wind currents of anger, wind
currents of worldliness. And what doubt does?
It raises A sail and gives the enemy something to work with.
That was when we doubt, we have raised a sail.
The enemy, we'll just toss you back and forth.
Belief, doubt, trust. I don't know.
I like God. I'm not sure I like God's plan.
I don't know. That's what doubt does.
Look at verse 7. For that person must not suppose
that he will receive anything from the Lord.
Now he says that person, who is that person?
It's the doubting person in verse 6.
That person is the Doughty person in verse 6.
James says he must not suppose, could also be translated as
think or expect. He must not think or expect.
He must not think or expect that he will receive anything from
the Lord. Now I want to be clear.
James is not saying that we'll never answer our prayers if we
have doubt. He's not saying that God is
merciful. God is gracious, and he may
choose to give us something in spite of our doubt.
He may very well do that. But James is saying we shouldn't
expect to receive it if we have doubt.
Now, why would God withhold? Because we have doubt.
Or if I ask God for something, but I doubt whether he's
actually going to give it to me, why would God withhold it?
Because I have doubt? Well, think of it like this.
Imagine if God always gave us what we asked for despite our
doubt. How would we ever grow?
How would we ever learn to trust Him?
Look at verse 8. He is a double minded man,
unstable in all his ways. What does it mean to be a double
minded man? The Greek word is die psychos.
You can see like psychos can mean soul or mind and then die
meaning double or two. A lot of commentators think that
James invented this word. This Greek word literally 2
souls or two minds. Another word has one mind for
the Lord and one mind for the world.
One mind for the Lord, one mind for the world.
This reminds us of Jesus words when he said no can serve 2
masters. Here's what it it's like this.
I trust God, I do, but what about this?
I know God will give me what I need, but what if he doesn't?
If he doesn't, I know God is able.
Matt. Yes, yes, yes, I know God is
able. I just need a backup plan just
in case. James says This is a double
minded person and their double mindedness makes them unstable.
It can also be translated. Restless, in other words,
reduces rest for our souls. Doubt produces anxiety.
I have never met someone who was I would call to be an anxious
person who I thought rested in the sovereignty of God and vice
versa. I have never met someone that
rested in the sovereignty of God who was just constantly anxious
all the time. Application of the text.
I have 7 points of application #1 the beginning of wisdom is
this get wisdom, IE acknowledge that we lack it.
It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
The beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom, IE acknowledge that
we lack it. You ever heard the phrase?
The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
You've heard that idea right? The more you know, the more you
realize you don't know. The idea is that the person who
boasts in their knowledge ever meeting somebody who like how to
boast and how much they know, all they are actually are
testifying to is their ignorance.
If someone boasts in what they know, all they are testifying to
is their own ignorance, because the truly knowledgeable person
knows how much they don't know. The same is true for wisdom, the
wise. No, they are not wise, not in
and of themselves. They recognize that in and of
myself, I am not wise. That's why Solomon wrote The
beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom.
It implies that to be wise, you already have to have some
measure of wisdom to know that you need wisdom, James writes.
If any of you lacks wisdom, we all lack wisdom.
There's only one who is perfectly wise at all times, and
we all need wisdom as a result. Common when young men finish
seminary this was this was true of me too.
I'm I'm It's very common when young men finish seminary to
think that they know something. But knowledge is not wisdom.
Doctrine is not wisdom Bible competency is not wisdom.
Experience is not wisdom. You see, in the economics of
wisdom we are all running a deficit #2 there are two AIS.
There is artificial intelligence, and there is the
author of intelligence. There are two AIS.
There is artificial intelligence, and there is the
author of Intelligence. I was watching a YouTube video
several years back, this is several years ago, and it was
discussing how there is a growing disconnect between young
adults and their parents and especially their grandparents.
There's a growing disconnect, right?
And what this video was saying is that one of the reasons for
this is that people, young people, no longer need their
parents or grandparents for advice.
One of the examples that gave was that if something was broken
in your car or something was broken in your house, and years
past, people would call up their dad or call up their grandpa and
they would help you or they would give advice.
Or if you're baking something and it's just not turning out
the way that you want it to turn out for whatever reason, they
would call up their mom or their grandma and they would help you.
But now we have YouTube. Need to change out your brake
light. There's a YouTube video for
that. I realized I was guilty of this.
If I have a question on how to fix something, I just go to
YouTube. There's a video for how to do it
now. This was several years ago.
How much more is it true now with AI?
People look up on AI. People look up marriage advice.
I that's fascinating to me. People look up marriage advice.
I actually saw an article yesterday.
I this is this is after I wrote the sermon.
I saw an article yesterday that said people are turning to AI
for financial advice. People look up marriage advice,
they look up financial advice, they look up career advice, they
look up health advice with AI. And I'll be honest, if you think
I'm just like a curmudgeon grumpy old man, listen, it's
impressive. I'm a fan.
I like it. My wife, I can't, cannot
convince my wife. She refuses to use it.
I'm in. I'm for it.
But here's where I want to caution us.
Here's where I want to caution us.
James doesn't say. If any of you lacks wisdom, let
him ask ChatGPT. Let him ask Gemini.
Let him ask copilot. I mean, anybody's asking
copilot. Sorry Microsoft people, he says.
Let him ask God. There are two AIS, Artificial
intelligence and the author of Intelligence.
You see, the world can give us knowledge.
It can give us information. It can give us facts.
It can give us statistics. It can give us methods.
It can give us ideas. It can give us advice.
But here's what it cannot give wisdom.
Only God can give wisdom. AI may take the place of your
mom or dad or grandpa or grandma.
I hope that it doesn't, but it may.
Do not let it take the place of your God.
You will never. I don't care how good they get
this, you will never outgrow your need to ask God.
Three, our God gives continuously, generously, and
partially and ungrudgingly. We looked at those earlier
continuously, generously, and partially and ungrudgingly.
And this is so important. Why?
Because I find that sometimes we are tempted to believe that God
gives occasionally, sparingly, arbitrarily, and begrudgingly.
We ask God for something and we think maybe he'll give it, maybe
he won't. If he does give it, it'll
probably be the bare minimum. If he doesn't give it, it's
probably because I'm not on his good side.
This week probably presents me for asking him in the first
place. It's very easy for us to have a
warped view of who our Father is, and yet James tells us we
are to ask God, who gives generously to all without
reproach. He gives 4 descriptions in that
phrase. I'm going to look at them
briefly #1 He gives continuously.
Gives is a participle as I mentioned, which means he
doesn't just give once, He gives continuously.
He did not give his people mana for the first year in the desert
and tell them, all right guys, y'all figure it out from here.
He gave them mana all 40 years in the desert #2 he gives
generously. Jesus did not just give wine at
the wedding, He gave 6 stone jars of it.
He didn't just give a few pieces of bread and fish, He gave them
enough until they all were satisfied.
He didn't just give them fish in their Nets, He gave them so many
fish that their Nets were beginning to break.
Our God gives generously #3 He gives impartially.
God doesn't play favorites. He doesn't play favorites.
Jesus took the time to heal the bleeding woman before he went to
the ruler of the synagogue's house at 4:00.
He doesn't give he he gives ungrudgingly.
When we ask God for something, God never thinks What's wrong
with you? You're asking again.
Didn't you just ask me yesterday for wisdom?
You need it again today, Matt. You're about to turn 44.
You should know this by now. God never thinks that.
Our God gives continuously, generously, impartially, and
ungrudgingly #4 Wisdom is a rare jewel, but God has promised to
give it. Wisdom is a rare, rare jewel,
but God has promised to get it. Give it.
If you want to learn the performing arts and music, you
can enroll at Juilliard. If you want to learn film and
media, you can enroll in the American Film Institute.
If you want to learn law, you can enroll at Harvard Law
School. If you want to learn medicine,
you can enroll at John Hopkins. If you want to learn business,
you can enroll at the Wharton School.
But if you want to be wise, where do you enroll?
Chinese. Southern Baptist Church?
No, Where do you get wisdom now? 1 answer is to read this book.
Here's the problem. Anybody can read this book.
Jonathan can read this book. I can go out to somebody out
there on drugs who is lost and they can read this book.
Wisdom is knowing how to use this book and how to apply it
correctly. Wisdom is a rare jewel, Job
says. Shall wisdom be found and where
is the place of understanding? Man does not know it's worth and
it is not found in the land of the living.
Job 28 Solomon writes She meaning wisdom personified.
She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire
can compare with her. You see friends, you can find
knowledge, you can find. You can find skill, you can find
success. You can find love, you can find
friends, you can find money. But where can you find wisdom?
It is a rare jewel, but God has promised to give it.
James says Let him ask God and it will be given him.
That is a promise. And brother, sisters, I got to
be honest. That's an encouraging 1 isn't
it? Because how many times do we
just feel stuck and we think I don't know what to do.
I don't know should I date? Should I not?
Should I marry this person or should I not?
Should I invest or should I not? Should I change majors or should
I not change jobs or should I not?
Should we change churches or should we not?
Should we have another child or should we?
How are you going to make these decisions?
God has promised to give you wisdom.
Don't doubt that. Don't doubt that he will give
you wisdom to make the right decision. 5 Faith is the key
that unlocks God's pantry. And no, I didn't intentionally
rhyme that, but I have to worry. I realized it was like, Oh no
rhymes. Faith is the key that unlocks
God's pantry. Verse 5 seems like an
unconditional statement, doesn't it?
In many ways it is, many ways it is.
But James gives this. But in verse 6, it's a condition
2, verse five with two sides. The first side of the condition
is this. We must ask in faith again.
I always like to read what is not there in the text.
James doesn't say Let him ask with maturity, doesn't say let
him ask with humility, a mask with patience.
Let him ask persistence. Now those are all.
But the condition that James gives is this.
Let him ask in faith. You see, God has storehouses of
mercy and grace and blessing and wisdom.
He has storehouses of it. And faith is the key that
unlocks God's pantry. Now, I want to be clear that
James faith is not just James's pet pod project.
It's not something like, you know what, man, James, he was
really big into faith. You know, I don't know why, but
he was really big into it. How many times did Jesus address
faith? Five times Jesus said, Oh you of
little, what faith? When the friends brought their
paralytic to Jesus, what did Jesus see?
When Jesus saw their determination?
No, their faith. When Jesus looked at the
bleeding woman, what did he see? Her faith.
Jesus said to the blind man, according to your What faith be
it done to you? Jesus said whatever you ask in
prayer you will receive. If you have what faith, brothers
and sisters, if you want God to work in your life, then have
faith. You're like, well, where do I
get faith? Pray for it.
You're like, wait a minute. So if I want wisdom, I need to
have faith to have wisdom. If I want faith, I need to pray
to have faith. If I need to have faith to pray,
to have faith. This, the beginning of faith is
this. Get faith.
It all starts on your knees. It's got to start somewhere.
So if you're not even there yet to say I need wisdom, I don't
believe that, then just start and say God, would you just
start with my giving me faith? 6 Doubt is like a hole in a
raft, if left unattended it sinks the vessel.
Doubt is like a hole in a raft, if left unattended it sinks the
vessel. The other side of this condition
is this. With no doubting, James says
that the one who doubt should not suppose that he will receive
anything from the Lord. Now let me clarify 2 things that
James is not saying here. There are denominations that
teach this and I want to clarify.
There are two things he is not saying this number one, James is
not saying that as long as we have faith and we don't doubt,
we will always get what we asked for.
He's not saying that faith and no doubt.
Is necessary to get what we're asking for.
It is not sufficient. Now for wisdom it is, but not
for everything else. It is not to say Lord give me a
spouse and I believe it. I don't doubt you'll give it to
me at all. Doesn't mean he will.
That is a necessary condition. It is not a sufficient
condition. 2 James is not saying that if we don't get what we
asked for, it means one of two things.
Either a we didn't have enough faith or B we doubted.
If you don't get what you're asking for, it doesn't mean that
either a you didn't have enough faith or B you had doubt.
It doesn't mean that I recently sat down at a coffee shop with
someone and they were asking me how are they to think of their
doubts? They weren't sure if it was
normal for a Christian to have doubts and they thought, you
know, if I do have doubts, that maybe it means I'm not even a
Christian, right? Like, because I, I feel like,
you know, they were like, I go to church and seems like people
here, you know, like nobody else here has has doubts and I feel
like I'm the only one who has it.
Does I mean I'm not saved. I mean, I'm not a Christian.
I would give is this doubt is like a hole in the raft, if left
unattended it will sink the vessel.
Remember the Father who brought his demon possessed son to the
disciples while Jesus and the other three disciples were up on
the mountain, they brought him to the disciples the other nine
and they couldn't cast out the demon.
And when Jesus came down, he approached the Father, and they
bring the boy to Jesus. And the Father says to him, but
if you can do anything, have compassion on us.
You remember what Jesus said to him.
If you can, if you can, all things are possible for the one
who believes. Now immediately the father of
the child cried out. This I believe, help my
unbelief. Now what does that mean?
Now here's the thing. Did Jesus turn to him when he
said this I believe help my unbelief?
Did Jesus turn to him and say, sorry, you have doubt, I'm not
going to heal him. See you, You just admitted you
had doubt. Sorry.
He heals the boy. He heals him.
Now, interesting enough that when the disciples came to
Jesus, they asked, they said, why couldn't we cast the demon
out? Do you remember what you said to
them because of your little faith?
How do we make sense of that? Here's how I think we should
make sense of this. It appears to me that the
disciples were looking to themselves to heal this boy.
They thought they could do it on demand because they had done it
before and because they were looking to themselves.
Their faith was lacking. But the Father, well, he looked
to Jesus, Even though his faith is small, his faith is
struggling. It's barely there.
He looked to Jesus. How do we know that?
Because of the word help, help my unbelief.
He's basically saying my raft is floating, but it's sinking.
Help me. See Brother Scissor, Doubt can
take many forms. Doubt.
You can doubt the goodness of God.
You can doubt the power of God. You can doubt the plan of God.
You can doubt the purpose of God.
You can doubt the love of God. You can doubt the wisdom of God.
You can doubt the justice of God.
And that doubt in your heart. It is like a hole in your raft
and if you leave it unattended it will sink the vessel.
We must go to God and faith, even if we are struggling in
doubt, we must go to God and ask Him.
God, will you patch up this hole?
I've actually got a lot of holes in my raft.
Will you patch them up? Seven last point.
Faith gives you an anchor. Doubt gives the enemy a sail.
Faith gives you an anchor, Doubt gives the enemy a sail.
James says that a person who doubts is like the sea, and the
sea is totally holding to the wind.
The wind blows and it drives and it tosses this sea back and
forth and it's chaotic, right? You ever met somebody?
You ever met somebody who's chaotic?
They're calls a man without a double minded man, stable in all
his ways. We sometimes call this spiritual
schizophrenia. Think of it like this.
If your heart and your mind and your soul is a ship on the sea,
your heart, your mind, your soul, it's a ship on the sea.
Faith gives you an anchor. Doubt gives the enemy a sail.
Faith not only brings our vessel to God, but it anchors us in the
harbour of God, and no matter how much the wind blows, we are
well anchored in the Lord. But doubt gives the enemy a
sail. It gives him something to work
with. The enemy stirs up storms.
That's what he does. Last week we looked at trials.
A lot of these trials are from the enemy.
He stirs up storms and these storms will toss us back and
forth. One moment we are trusting God
and the next moment we are trusting ourselves.
One moment we are following, and the next moment we are following
the world's plan. One moment we are freely resting
in the sovereignty of God, and the next moment we are
imprisoned by our own anxiety. Brothers and sisters, there's
always a storm on the horizon. You look out of your life,
there's always a storm on the horizon.
Doubt raises A sail and it gives the enemy something to work
with. Drop your anchor into the ocean
of God's Providence and you will not be easily moved.
Let's pray.