Bible Guys Classics: James 1:5–8

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways. Hey everybody, good morning and welcome to The Bible Guys. Yeah, good to be here again. Yeah, how you feeling about it? Yeah, this is good. This is day three. Yeah, day three. Yeah, this is good. And we're in the middle of a series called Dangerous Prayers, and then all these prayers this week have the theme of God calling us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's been a good week thus far. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So Wesley's here with me. This is the Platinum Edition, and Jeff's out of town in Africa. Yeah, he's in Africa. Isn't that funny? I'm picking random countries. Egypt, Africa, Mexico, I don't know. Yeah, he may have gone to Egypt. I don't know. He does a lot of traveling. Yeah, he was in Egypt not too long ago. Yeah. Excuse me. So today we're starting with a segment. I like these. It's called Would You Rather? Yes. And so I like them, especially with guests. Yeah. Not guests, but like other than Jeff, right? So I guess fill-ins or whatever. So the reason why is because Would You Rather is a game that focuses on the individual, right? Yes. So it helps us to get to know you and me better. Yeah. Especially together. Yeah. So here we go. Number one. And this is for you, Chris. Would you rather only speak in VeggieTales quotes or only communicate through interpretive dance? Okay. So VeggieTales voice or interpretive dance? First of all, VeggieTales only has a very limited amount of tapes, first of all. I say tapes because that's when they came out, during tapes, VCRs. But there's the classic, the bunny, the bunny. That's right. That's right. That's the bunny. But they don't really have a lot of famous quotes. Yeah. But at the same time, so it's limited communication, not a lot of famous quotes. Yeah. But interpretive dance is the worst thing ever. Oh, no. Don't you agree? Yeah. Interpretive dance is so bad. I'm thinking you're going to say interpretive dance has some, you know, like good qualities or something. You're like, it's the worst. Well, I mean, come on. I mean, dancing styles, if you were to tell me you're going to choose a dancing style that I don't necessarily like, like I don't really care for ballet. Yeah. If you're going to tell me go to ballet, I'd be like, okay, I signed up for ballet. Yeah. I enjoy ballet if I know I'm going to ballet. Yeah. But I think probably one of the worst forms of dance... is a free-for-all based on emotion, right? And there's a lot of wavy, a lot of wavy type stuff. That is hilarious. Don't you agree? The wavy. Yeah. It's just like they try to be like, oh, yeah, how can I make a movement? You know, based on that sentence. Yeah. Or this song. You have to exaggerate it. Yes. And, you know, add more emphasis with your body movement. Yeah. So you are not a fan. I'm not a fan, but I would rather, I would rather choose VeggieTales quotes. Okay. On Star Trek, there was an episode on The Next Generation where Captain Picard ran into an entire race of civilizations that only used like 20 phrases to communicate anything they wanted to communicate. And these phrases represented from their history represented like sentiments. Yeah. And somehow by the end of the episode, he was able to figure it out. Okay. And it's like, and it was actually a pretty impressive journey. It was actually like, it was very intelligent. Yeah. It was intelligently written. So I would rather do that with VeggieTales than do my life interpretive dancing. So we will not see you preach and do interpretive dance at the same time. No. That will never happen? No. Okay. Although I don't mind sometimes. interpretive dance during a song that is, um, uh, uh, uh, very loud. Yeah. Like, like a very, like a, uh, like a screaming song. That's a raging type song that has a lot of, uh. A raw emotion. Yeah. If it's a good song. Yeah. I think interpretive dance works best in that environment. Yeah. We spent way too long on. This, on this one. Number two, number two, would you rather host a talent show with zero talent or a lip sync battle? where everyone takes it way too seriously. Ooh, talent show with no talent. Oh, I'm lip sync show. I would do the lip sync thing, I think. Well, there's a lip sync battle that's on TV. Yeah. Where all the celebrities do it. Yeah. And they take it way too seriously. And those are amazing. Yeah, I was going to say the other one would get kind of like, I think, boring after a while. Yeah. If like the no talent one. I would say painful. Yeah. Right? I mean, no talent is really bad. Okay, number three. Would you rather be mentored by Moana or go on a road trip with Olaf? Oh, there's no question. I don't like Moana and I love Olaf. That is funny. But you don't think Olaf is too silly? Oh, I would be delighted through my entire road trip. That is hilarious. I would think my daughter, Tori, it would be her dream to go on a road trip with Olaf. Oh, that's funny. Yeah. What's his name? The guy who does the voice? I don't know who does the actual voice. Yeah, he's great. He also did LeFou in the live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. Okay, yeah. His name's Jay. There's a Jay in there somewhere. Yeah. Everybody listening who knows who he is knows his name. It's funny. Number four, would you rather lead a revival in a bouncy castle, oh my word, or preach a sermon entirely in pirate voice? Oh, man. How do you even.. That is such a random-o question. Yeah, like a revival in a bouncy house. Yeah. Josh something. His name's Josh something. Oh, man. I'm trying to... I don't even know what the answer to this one would be. No, me neither. I guess leading a revival, I guess, would be the better thing. But in a bouncy house, it's going to get interesting quick. So I'm going to have to go with leading a revival because I want to see lives change, but... It's going to happen in a bouncy house. I guess that's how it's happening. I think you're right. Yeah. Because I would try to take the bouncy house and use it in a sermon illustration. Yeah, like somehow. Yeah. But then communicate clearly. Yeah. As opposed to pirate voice. Yeah. Turn to Matthew. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. God loves you, eh? Yeah. I mean, come on. God loves you, matey. Yeah. That's not good. Okay, I had to look it up, as you know. Josh Gad. Oh, that's who it is? Josh Gad. I knew it was a J. Josh Gad is his name. All right, and then.. I think this is me. Would you rather swap lives with a background character in The Chosen or a main character in High School Musical? Well, she wrote that for me, I think. Yeah, so swap lives. Yeah, you had to swap lives with one, either in The Chosen. Okay. I guess, so this is... In The Chosen, I guess you kind of have to narrow that down. Like, who am I swapping lives with in The Chosen? It says background character, so I'm assuming.. Yeah, so if it's a background.. Probably meaning like part of the crowd who gets to listen to Jesus in person. Yeah, so now that would be cool. Right. But like, I don't want to be Judas. You know what I mean? But she said background. Yeah, she did say background. Yeah. So in other words, what you're doing is you're saying... The privilege of being a person who heard Jesus live and repented and followed him and was a part of the early church in Acts chapter 2, even though it was persecuted, or to actually be Troy Bolton. But I kind of feel like, and we're getting way too deep with this, but I kind of feel like you'd get tired of the high school musical thing after a while. Oh, come on, Wildcat. Yeah. You're so crazy. You are so crazy, Wildcat. You know what? I honestly think that there's no question here. There's no temptation to say high school musical in any way, shape, or form. Yeah. Right? How could you pass up? being a person who had the privilege of seeing God's only son. Yeah. Right. And then put that on your resume. Yeah. I mean, come on. Yeah. Now, granted you're not, uh, you're living in the first century where, uh, you know, uh, food and water and all, uh, you know, indoor plumbing. I mean, all that stuff is just the worst. Yeah. That existence even is the worst. Yep. You know, being under Roman occupation or, you know, to be occupied, uh, you know, in oppression is what I'm trying to say. And, um, Like, all that stuff. Oh, it's just terrible. But, you know, that over Troy Bolton, how could you say, I want to sing and go to the University of Utah? Come on. Or listen to Jesus live. Yep, yep. And by the way, I know way too much about high school musicals, you can see. Yeah, you're the musical and movie kind of guy. Well, to be fair, my daughter played Gabriella. which is the lead in High School Musical in her high school play. Oh, wow. So on top of that, both of my daughters and my wife are massive fans. And actually, even my son likes it, too, by default. And I do, too. But they would watch it over and over and over again. Yeah. So that's why I know way too much. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway. Yeah, I'm secure in my manner to say that. Yeah. All right, let's move on. So we're going to go to the book of James. That's where we're reading from today, James, the first chapter. Hey, by the way, that segment had us made a lot of hard choices. Yeah. And you know what? James encourages us to make hard choices as well. That was good. That was good. Good. Segue. So this is James chapter one, verses one through eight. I'm going to read the whole thing. We're going to isolate certain scriptures, certain verses, I should say, but I'm just going to read the whole thing. So James chapter one, starting at verse one says, and I love this. This letter is from James. I love how he lets you know right off the bat. Right off the bat. Yeah. A slave of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm writing to the 12 tribes, Jewish believers scattered abroad, greetings. Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. And if you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver. For a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. That's James. There it is. Chapter one. So, wow. So the prayer itself that we're focusing on is asking God for wisdom. Yes. But the context is just in general, the persecution, perseverance connection, right? So in other words, trials, troubles, tribulations. Yes. Whenever you find yourself in trouble in that way, consider it an opportunity for great joy, James says. And the reason why is because it's going to do certain things in your life that will develop your character. And then to ask for wisdom in that context, right? So that could be a dangerous prayer in some ways. Yeah. Here's the funny thing about that, Chris. It says like in verse three, for you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. I can only speak for myself, but I like the endurance having a chance to grow. I don't like faith is tested. So oftentimes we want the benefits But we don't want the things that you have to go through to get to the benefit. Yeah, all we got to do is look at our diets and our bodies. Yeah. Right? Yeah, well, you're going to the gym later. I'm sure you want to live long. You want to be healthy. Do you necessarily want to do 50 push-ups? Do you necessarily want to do 100 jumping jacks? No, but we oftentimes want the end result healthy. but the process to get there isn't always so fun. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, that's a lot of times when, when our listeners tune in, they always see Jeff and button down shirts. Yeah. Today you're in a button down shirt. Yeah. I'm wearing a t-shirt. Yeah. Because I literally will go directly from here. Yeah. Right over there. Directly to a heritage fitness project and work out. I mean, literally like five minutes later. Yeah. So, so that's oftentimes why I wear t-shirts. But depending on when we film, but, But the bottom line is, yeah, it's a perfect analogy, isn't it? Because we want the benefits without the price. Yeah, without the sacrifice. Yeah, without the sacrifice. Yeah. And if you think about it, anything in this life that's worth doing will cost you something. Yeah. Anything. And that doesn't matter whether it's practical, whether it's related to your job, whether it's relational in your marriage. It doesn't matter whether it's in the church. It doesn't matter what field it's in. Anything that's really worth doing is going to cost you something. And I think that that's really what James is saying. He's saying faith is no different. And so think about the upside of struggle. That's what he's saying. He's saying, listen, count it joy whenever you struggle, because just know this, there's an upside to it. And the upside to it is you're going to build endurance and faith. And he actually says perfect. And what he's meaning is he's not meaning perfect without flaw. He's meaning... Perfection, you know, heading toward perfection, right? To be perfected is to be constantly be working on, right? So the Bible says that God continues to mold us and continues to shape us into the perfect image of Jesus Christ. We will never arrive at perfection, but we're being perfected as we're going along, right? And so, as you're trying to perfect something and something is being perfected, it is working toward perfection. Now, ultimately that promise is true because one day we will be perfect. One day in heaven, we will arrive physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, everything. We will have perfect bodies. We will be without sin once again. No more pain. No more pain. We'll be with our heavenly father. There will be a perfect existence. a Garden of Eden part two, right? That's what's going to happen. The new Jerusalem, you know, heaven laid out for all of us. But in the meantime, while on earth, life is hard, right? Life is hard. We are under the sin and bondage of decay. The Bible says in Romans 8, we're under the curse of this world, right? And so the results of sin play out and life is just difficult. And so therefore we need to lean on, depend on, look to Jesus and God's Holy Spirit's power. But all the while, even though on the outwardly side, we're wasting away, no matter how hard I try to fight it, right? This body's going down. And so I can try my best to hold it off and make it last longer, but it's going down. But on the inside, we're being perfected, you know, and God's going to use us for great things on this earth. That'll reverberate into eternity. And Chris, I like how God gave us an out. You talked about how life is difficult. Yeah. In verse five, it says, if, and I'm paraphrasing here, if you're in that difficult spot, if you don't know what to do, if you're at a crossroads in life, if you have to make a big decision, if you need wisdom, ask our generous God, he's not a stingy God, ask our generous God. That's a great adjective. And he will give it to you. So that lets me know whenever I'm at a point in my life where I need wisdom, I can ask our generous God and he will give me the direction, give me the guidance, give me the wisdom that I need every single time. There is never a time that you ask God for wisdom and he doesn't give it. Now, Sometimes we have an issue with timing. Yeah. We want things instantly. Like, Chris, can I have your phone? Oh, what took so long? That's literally how we are with God. We literally ask for it and we expect instant answers to everything. But we do have the guarantee here because we know that God is a faithful God. He's a just God. He's a generous God. If you're at a crossroads where you don't know what to do, maybe someone watching right now, Chris, has a major decision to make. It could be a job decision, a life decision, whatever that decision is. Ask our generous God, and God will give you the wisdom of what to do in that specific situation. You know what's so funny is, actually, by the time this podcast airs next week, that actually, this will be what, the fourth day? This will be Thursday. No, Wednesday. Wednesday, yes. So this episode's Wednesday. We will only be a couple days away from the weekend series, the first week, of a series that we're starting called Old School. And it's all about the old school disciplines and behaviors that Christians do. And ironically, I'm writing that sermon tonight. And guess what the title is? Finding Wisdom. So I'm literally thinking, praying, and living this right now because we're diving into this. These are things that Christians do. The series is focused on Christian behaviors and spiritual discipline. So finding wisdom is what Solomon says is a thing that you should do above all else to recognize that wisdom is number one, attainable, and number two, that if you do this, that you've done the most important thing. Because Solomon, of course, was a guy in the Old Testament who he had the privilege of God saying, I'll give you anything you want. And so, because he could have asked for riches and fame, he decided to say, God, I'll tell you what, give me wisdom above all else. God said, because you've done that. Which is brilliant. It's brilliant. Because if you get the wisdom, you can manufacture more wealth. That's right. If you have the wisdom of how to do it. Right. So forget the wealth, give me the wisdom. Right. So consequently, he was the wisest and richest man who ever lived. And what's the best part about it is, for me, is that God says that because you've asked of this, you know, you asked this of me, you will be the wisest man who ever has ever lived or will ever live. Yeah. So no human being, no matter how smart. They are, will ever be wiser than Saul. Yeah. That is mind-blowing. Yeah. Think about all the brilliant people in this whole history. Yeah. Think of Einstein and, you know, different people. When we think of, like, having smarts and things like that. Yeah. But Solomon wins. Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah. So, yeah. So how do you find wisdom? Well, again... You go to, number one, God's word is the source of wisdom, right? So you have to line up. If you're looking for advice, as you suggested, right, or implied, then go to God's word first. You're never going to be given advice from God or any wisdom that's going to be contradictory to God's word. Yeah. Number two, what am I going to say? Godly counsel. Yeah. Right? You got to get godly counsel. Because these are people who know you, hopefully. They're trusted. They're godly. So they can speak into your circumstance with intelligence and insight. but at the same time, they're also Christians. Now, I'm going to be a little blunt here, Chris. Yep. Make sure when you do what Chris is telling you, you don't go to people who know no more than you. That's a good point. So maybe that friend that you normally talk to depending on where they are at in their Christian walk, may not be the best person to talk about this situation. So I think that there's a caveat there. So yeah, you do definitely wanna make sure it is someone who's going to give you godly wisdom, not someone who will say, Chris, you're not getting along with that person. Yeah, you should punch him in the eye. That's right. You don't want that person giving you. Right, that's right. Yeah, and don't be afraid also to get multiple sources of godly wisdom. And here's the reason why. I remember in college, I didn't realize my home pastor, I say home pastor because I was in college, and in my home church, I didn't realize how hard of a time he was going through as an individual. In fact, unfortunately, since then, he sort of lost his faith. And he dropped out of ministry and he actually makes a public statement, well, public to his friends that he's no longer a person of faith. Wow. And so talk about a radical disappointment, right? But anyway, but at the time I didn't realize that's where he was. But at the time he was my spiritual mentor. And I went to him and said, hey, I have a piece of advice to ask you. And looking at the time, I followed every single advice he gave me. Every single piece of advice. I went to him for like three major things and he gave me advice and I followed it. And I'm not kidding you when I say 30 years later, I regret to a large degree all three of his pieces of advice. Wow. Now, it didn't go against God's word. Yeah. It just sort of, you know, it was a combination of, you know, that plus, you know, his knowledge of me and life experience and everything else. I thought to myself, like, I wish I would have gone to three or four people. Yeah. Because these were big decisions and he gave me wrong advice and steered me the wrong way. And I could name you my friends, people in my life who say they did the same thing. They went to one source. Yeah. Listen to that one person. Mm-hmm. And wish they would have sought the godly counsel of multiple people. Yeah. Because, you know, Dave Wilson told me this just the other day. He said, he goes, I really wish I would have listened to somebody else other than my mentor on this one decision because 50 years later, I'm regretting it. Yeah. You know, or 45 years later, whatever it is. Because that's why God gives us others in our lives. That's true. To surround us and point us in the right direction. Guide us, pray for us, encourage us. and then counsel us, right? Yeah. And Chris, if I can throw this in, because I know we're running out of time, that verse five ends with, he will not rebuke you for asking. And I love that. Yeah, that's right. We can ask God for wisdom and he's not going to get mad. God isn't too busy for your conversation, your request, whatever you have to ask him, he will not rebuke you. He's, as a matter of fact, Chris, he's glad to hear from us. That's right. He's glad when we seek him for counsel and for wisdom and things of that nature. So yeah, that's just a good thing to remember. That's great. Well, that's a great thought to end with. That's our time. And so hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on The Bible Guys.