Living Out Faith: Wisdom and Maturity in Trials
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1.
"Hey, all of you that are about to go into the real world, you're gonna have some real problems. Let me talk to you about real life in the real world. That's what it feels like that he's doing. But this isn't just for graduating seniors. This is for all of us. And I think a lot of us have an expectation of life, especially when you're young. So if you're here, you're graduating, you're graduating college, whatever it is, I think most of us have like these beautiful dreams for our life. We have like all these ambitious goals. We've got a picture in our mind of the perfect life, don't we? And when we're young, we're often thinking about, man, this is the life that I am going to build. This is what I'm gonna live. And most of us, we think it is smooth sailing. It's just gonna move up and to the right." [44:44]
2.
"Life is never a flat line, is it? In fact, what happens when you have flat line? You're dead. Can I tell you what life really looks like? It really looks like this. Go ahead, put this up. That's what life really looks like, doesn't it? Isn't that the symbol for life? Doesn't that mean you got a heartbeat? Doesn't that mean you got a pulse? Doesn't that mean? That's what life, and what I'm saying is," [46:45]
3.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face what? Say that out loud. Whenever you face, yeah. Is that, that's kind of hard to take, isn't it? Don't you get happy when life gets bad? That's what he's saying. Come on, guys, consider it joy. This is good stuff. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be what? Say it out loud. So you may be mature and what? Complete, not lacking anything." [43:36]
4.
"Pain isn't always a bad thing. Do you know that? I mean, I know we don't like pain. But I think if we're honest, we recognize that pain isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes pain's a good thing. I think about situations in life where you burn your hand, you pull your hand away from it. The pain, the sensors of it is to keep you from actually hurting yourself even more. I think about going to the gym. Guess what the gym brings? Pain, right? I'm just grateful I had a dad growing up who was always into working out. He would get us into working out and he would always say, no pain. Oh, y'all know, you had a dad that did that too, right? No pain, no gain, son. And you gotta put some pain on your muscles if you wanna develop them." [49:24]
5.
"Even if you don't believe in God, maybe you're just curious about faith. Maybe you're not even sure about Jesus. I believe the things that you find in this little book, if you apply to your life, will make your life better. I really do. It's just, there's just something about it that kind of just is filled with just wisdom for life that I think is really powerful." [39:31]
### Quotes for Members
1.
"We would not have started this church if it weren't for him. And when I didn't know what I was doing as a brand new pastor, green behind the ears, didn't know anything about it, I, I, there was something that, that gave me a comfort to step out in faith and try it was knowing that I had someone a little bit older and wiser who'd been there before with me. We, we've got a young generation that needs the older generation just to have the, to encouragement to step out in faith and do big things. Today, I even have a mentor in ministry who is 10 years older than me, who's been doing ministry 10 years longer than me. When I don't know what to do, guess what? You better bet I'm picking up the phone and I'm calling because I wanna make the wisest decision." [01:13:29]
2.
"Here's the key. When you seek counsel and advice from others, you have to listen to them. You gotta listen to them. I think sometimes we got this, I know it all attitude. I know I might be young, but I'm a lot smarter than I look kind of thing. But let me just tell you, when you seek advice from older people, scripture says it's important to listen to them. In fact, Proverbs 12, 15 says, the way of fools seems right to them. But the wise do what? They listen to advice. See, it's foolish to say, I know what I'm doing. But the wise actually listen to advice. And so I would encourage you, you can ask God for wisdom. You can seek it from others. And then here's the third one. The third one is this, is to read and apply scripture. To read and apply scripture." [01:14:29]
3.
"Here's the perspective James is trying to give us when we look at trials, when we face tribulations, when we go through things, when we deal with disappointment, when we deal with betrayal, when we go through hardship, when we face loss, when we deal with grief, when we deal with scarcity, when we go through this. He's trying to help us understand that it's not wasted with God, that trials aren't pointless, that God uses them to test you so he can develop something in you. Here's what I know about when it comes to life and when it comes to faith. We actually understand this, that only what is tested can be what? Trusted. Only what can be tested, what is tested can be trusted. We don't like to be tested, but here's what I know. You look at someone who's gone through some stuff, there's somebody that you can trust what they have to say." [51:08]
4.
"Can I tell you what I think the goal of life is, what James is saying? He's saying this, that the goal isn't to live problem-free, it's to develop maturity. Ah, that was so good. I'm gonna say it for everybody in the back that missed it. The goal isn't to live problem-free, it's to develop maturity. The goal of life isn't to live hakuna matata. It's my problem-free philosophy, hakuna matata. That's not my goal for life and it shouldn't be yours. That's not the goal for life. The goal for life is not smooth sailing. The goal for life isn't an easy life. The goal for life isn't problem-free, but the goal for life is actually, this is what James says, is developing maturity. And here's why. Because the best parts of life come on the other side of struggle." [52:39]
5.
"Here's what I know about that idea of a maturing faith when it comes to maturity. It's really hard to know how to measure maturity. It is, right? It's kind of hard to know. I mean, some things I think are easier than others. Physically, you can tell when somebody's maturing, right? It's common. Like when you're a guy and you're maturing, you know, when you hit puberty, it's easy to tell because your voice cracks all the time. I remember being in school. Going through that process. Got a question, hey, teacher. And you're like, oh dear, got something in my throat. You can tell when we're maturing physically. And women, you know, you have body changes, you got monthly things you're dealing with. It's really clear to tell physically when we're maturing. But emotionally and mentally and spiritually, with our faith, it's hard to know. And so I was processing with the Bible, and Jesus said this, book of James and I'm thinking how do we know how do I know there's a measure of maturity in me and this is what I get from the book of James and that is this that the measure of maturity is wisdom measure of maturity is wisdom it's not knowledge it's wisdom." [59:04]
Ask a question about this sermon
1.
"Hey, all of you that are about to go into the real world, you're gonna have some real problems. Let me talk to you about real life in the real world. That's what it feels like that he's doing. But this isn't just for graduating seniors. This is for all of us. And I think a lot of us have an expectation of life, especially when you're young. So if you're here, you're graduating, you're graduating college, whatever it is, I think most of us have like these beautiful dreams for our life. We have like all these ambitious goals. We've got a picture in our mind of the perfect life, don't we? And when we're young, we're often thinking about, man, this is the life that I am going to build. This is what I'm gonna live. And most of us, we think it is smooth sailing. It's just gonna move up and to the right." [44:44]
2.
"Life is never a flat line, is it? In fact, what happens when you have flat line? You're dead. Can I tell you what life really looks like? It really looks like this. Go ahead, put this up. That's what life really looks like, doesn't it? Isn't that the symbol for life? Doesn't that mean you got a heartbeat? Doesn't that mean you got a pulse? Doesn't that mean? That's what life, and what I'm saying is," [46:45]
3.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face what? Say that out loud. Whenever you face, yeah. Is that, that's kind of hard to take, isn't it? Don't you get happy when life gets bad? That's what he's saying. Come on, guys, consider it joy. This is good stuff. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be what? Say it out loud. So you may be mature and what? Complete, not lacking anything." [43:36]
4.
"Pain isn't always a bad thing. Do you know that? I mean, I know we don't like pain. But I think if we're honest, we recognize that pain isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes pain's a good thing. I think about situations in life where you burn your hand, you pull your hand away from it. The pain, the sensors of it is to keep you from actually hurting yourself even more. I think about going to the gym. Guess what the gym brings? Pain, right? I'm just grateful I had a dad growing up who was always into working out. He would get us into working out and he would always say, no pain. Oh, y'all know, you had a dad that did that too, right? No pain, no gain, son. And you gotta put some pain on your muscles if you wanna develop them." [49:24]
5.
"Even if you don't believe in God, maybe you're just curious about faith. Maybe you're not even sure about Jesus. I believe the things that you find in this little book, if you apply to your life, will make your life better. I really do. It's just, there's just something about it that kind of just is filled with just wisdom for life that I think is really powerful." [39:31]
### Quotes for Members
1.
"We would not have started this church if it weren't for him. And when I didn't know what I was doing as a brand new pastor, green behind the ears, didn't know anything about it, I, I, there was something that, that gave me a comfort to step out in faith and try it was knowing that I had someone a little bit older and wiser who'd been there before with me. We, we've got a young generation that needs the older generation just to have the, to encouragement to step out in faith and do big things. Today, I even have a mentor in ministry who is 10 years older than me, who's been doing ministry 10 years longer than me. When I don't know what to do, guess what? You better bet I'm picking up the phone and I'm calling because I wanna make the wisest decision." [01:13:29]
2.
"Here's the key. When you seek counsel and advice from others, you have to listen to them. You gotta listen to them. I think sometimes we got this, I know it all attitude. I know I might be young, but I'm a lot smarter than I look kind of thing. But let me just tell you, when you seek advice from older people, scripture says it's important to listen to them. In fact, Proverbs 12, 15 says, the way of fools seems right to them. But the wise do what? They listen to advice. See, it's foolish to say, I know what I'm doing. But the wise actually listen to advice. And so I would encourage you, you can ask God for wisdom. You can seek it from others. And then here's the third one. The third one is this, is to read and apply scripture. To read and apply scripture." [01:14:29]
3.
"Here's the perspective James is trying to give us when we look at trials, when we face tribulations, when we go through things, when we deal with disappointment, when we deal with betrayal, when we go through hardship, when we face loss, when we deal with grief, when we deal with scarcity, when we go through this. He's trying to help us understand that it's not wasted with God, that trials aren't pointless, that God uses them to test you so he can develop something in you. Here's what I know about when it comes to life and when it comes to faith. We actually understand this, that only what is tested can be what? Trusted. Only what can be tested, what is tested can be trusted. We don't like to be tested, but here's what I know. You look at someone who's gone through some stuff, there's somebody that you can trust what they have to say." [51:08]
4.
"Can I tell you what I think the goal of life is, what James is saying? He's saying this, that the goal isn't to live problem-free, it's to develop maturity. Ah, that was so good. I'm gonna say it for everybody in the back that missed it. The goal isn't to live problem-free, it's to develop maturity. The goal of life isn't to live hakuna matata. It's my problem-free philosophy, hakuna matata. That's not my goal for life and it shouldn't be yours. That's not the goal for life. The goal for life is not smooth sailing. The goal for life isn't an easy life. The goal for life isn't problem-free, but the goal for life is actually, this is what James says, is developing maturity. And here's why. Because the best parts of life come on the other side of struggle." [52:39]
5.
"Here's what I know about that idea of a maturing faith when it comes to maturity. It's really hard to know how to measure maturity. It is, right? It's kind of hard to know. I mean, some things I think are easier than others. Physically, you can tell when somebody's maturing, right? It's common. Like when you're a guy and you're maturing, you know, when you hit puberty, it's easy to tell because your voice cracks all the time. I remember being in school. Going through that process. Got a question, hey, teacher. And you're like, oh dear, got something in my throat. You can tell when we're maturing physically. And women, you know, you have body changes, you got monthly things you're dealing with. It's really clear to tell physically when we're maturing. But emotionally and mentally and spiritually, with our faith, it's hard to know. And so I was processing with the Bible, and Jesus said this, book of James and I'm thinking how do we know how do I know there's a measure of maturity in me and this is what I get from the book of James and that is this that the measure of maturity is wisdom measure of maturity is wisdom it's not knowledge it's wisdom." [59:04]
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