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 Sermon > Sunday Evening Service |
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Title |
Do Not Be Double-Minded |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
James 1: 5-8 |
Date |
2009-06-14 |
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Passage
[James 1: 5-8]
"But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
When we go to a restaurant to eat, we see the following kind of people.
They cannot decide which one to choose between two different dishes.
They finally choose one of them after having an agonizing time.
But when they see another person eating the dish they didn't choose, they think it looks much better and regret not having ordered it.
They would have been very happy if they had been satisfied with what they had already ordered. But they want the other dish that they didn't choose, and they are not fully satisfied.
Some people cannot just make up their minds; they anguish over not knowing which one to choose, and finally end up regretting their decision.
It's the same when we ask something before God.
When there is a problem, those who believe in God try to ask God and receive the answer from Him.
Once you make up your mind this way, you should not change your mind.
But suppose that you've made up your mind and you seek God, but there is no answer.
You now have a conflict in your mind thinking, "It is so simple if I take this human method; should I look for another solution?"
If we have double-mindedness, that is, if we have one hand extended toward God and the other toward the world, we cannot receive the answer to our prayers.
Also, it is not easy to resolve your problem completely through worldly methods.
It's difficult to get exactly what you want.
What is the consequence of having double-mindedness? We don't really get anything.
We children of God who believe in Him should ask God and receive the answer to whatever we ask.
We should lead a living Christian life in which we meet and experience the living God.
So far I have explained to you the secrets of receiving the answers since the Day of Blessing.
This message is in line with those explanations, and I hope you will understand the secret to receiving answers.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer to the living God.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today's passage James 1:5 says, "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."
When children ask God for what they lack, God does not rebuke them for their shortcomings.
He is pleased with His children who ask Him, and gives them what they ask abundantly.
He doesn't discriminate against anybody; He gives fairly to everyone.
But He says we have to ask for wisdom, because it is very important.
In Proverbs 3:13-15, Solomon says the following based upon his life experience.
"How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her."
Wisdom is a must for us to be able to lead a blessed life in spirit and body.
The profit gained from the wisdom given to us is much better than gold or silver. It is so very precious.
That is why God tells His children especially to ask for wisdom.
But before we ask God for wisdom, we have to keep one thing in mind.
We have to remember the spiritual law that says we have to ask with faith to receive what we ask.
This is not only about wisdom but for everything for which we ask God.
James 1:6-7 says, "But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,"
The following verse 8 says, "being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
To be double-minded is to have doubts when we ask God something.
You say, "God, I believe that you will give it to me!" But on the other hand, you doubt whether He is really going to give it to you or not.
If we are doubled-minded, we cannot receive what we ask for.
We have to believe completely that He will answer us, without any doubt.
In Mark 11:24 Jesus said, "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you."
Here, He didn't say, "Believe that you will receive them." He said, "Believe that you have received them."
Are you asking God with this kind of sure faith?
Since the Day of Blessing, God has been resolving the root causes of problems and giving us multiple and comprehensive blessings.
Many of you have realized your fundamental problems and received comprehensive blessings.
But there are also others who have not received an answer yet.
Some of you think, "I surely believe I will receive the answer and asked for it with fasting and prayer, but there is no answer."
And if this is your case, are you still praying with unchanging and true faith?
I hope you will consider why your answer is being delayed; isn't it because you are double-minded?
If you don't understand what it is to ask with faith, then, you may think you are asking with faith while you actually are not asking with faith.
Here, 'the faith' refers to 'true faith'.
It is true faith which has no doubt at all.
Then, is there faith that is not true, too?
Yes, there is.
There are two kinds of faith.
One is true faith and the other is faith as knowledge.
In other words, they are refered to as spiritual faith and fleshly faith.
True faith is to believe in God the Creator and Jesus Christ the Savior from the depth of the heart.
Faith as knowledge is just to have heard and to know about God.
They think they believe in God, but they do not believe from the heart.
When there is a test, this faith-as-knowledge will be revealed as true faith or not.
Those who have faith as knowledge know in their heads that God is almighty because they've heard many messages.
But they don't really believe from heart, so they rely on the world. They are unable to rely on God completely.
Those who doubt, namely those who are double-minded have the faith that is the faith as knowledge.
Asking with true faith and asking with knowledge-faith will lead to completely different results.
When I explain to you the differences, please check your hearts very well.
If by any chance you are double-minded, I hope you will ask with true faith from now on and receive the answer as quickly as possible.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when you ask with true faith, first of all, you will be at peace in any kind of situation.
On the other hand, those who are double-minded will become anxious and impatient.
As said in Jame 1:6 latter part, "the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind," their mind is shaken by the test and trials.
For example, those of you who have little children must have experienced a situation where your children had a high fever.
Usually parents become so restless and worried that they would rather be sick instead of their children.
In this kind of a case, most of you Manmin members will rely on God.
You will look for things you need to repent, and receive prayer recorded on the telephone system or receive handkerchief prayer.
But if the situation gets worse even after relying on God this way, you may change your mind.
If you relied on God with true faith, your heart won't be shaken even in this situation.
You will rather give thanks thinking that it is your blessing.
But if you have asked with knowledge-faith, you will be nervous thinking, "Is my child going to be OK? What if he gets worse?"
Furthermore, you may even complain against God thinking, "I asked with faith, and why isn't my child recovering?"
Having such a thought itself proves that you didn't ask with true faith.
Now, please think about yourself, as to what kind of attitude you had in such situations.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if you ask with true faith without being double-minded, secondly, you do not change your minds.
You would ask without wavering until an answer is received.
On the other hand, those who ask with double-mindedness will change their mind when the answer is delayed.
For example, while they are offering a vowed prayer for something, they just break the vow.
Or they change the prayer topic or lower their goal.
We should realize this is lacking trust in God.
Most people waiting for God's answer want to receive an answer immediately.
Also, they want God to answer in the way they want it to be answered.
But God considers all the conditions together, including the measure of faith of each individual and His justice, then He gives us the best thing at the best moment.
Therefore, the duration of time can be different for an answer to be given for each one.
Also, the way that God gives His answer will be different.
For example, when Jesus healed those who were sick, He used different methods for different people.
The woman who had been bleeding for twelve years was healed just by touching the edge of Jesus' clothes.
But the ten leprous men in Samaria were different.
He didn't lay His hand on them or touched them.
He just told them to go and show themselves to the priest.
He just told them to check their healing with the priest, even before He healed them.
From their standpoint, it all may have been different from what they had expected.
But the ten lepers obeyed anyway.
Then, what happened?
They were all healed while they were going to the priest.
They went obeying Jesus' word.
Also, in the interim they did not doubt or change their minds.
If they changed their mind and went away only because they saw no sign of healing, they wouldn't have been healed.
They were healed because they obeyed until they were healed.
When you ask God with faith, you will also face this kind of situation.
For example, let's say that in an emergency you need some great amount of money.
So, you earnestly ask God.
But there was no answer, and you have only one day remaining.
At this time, if you get discouraged thinking, "Why doesn't God answer me?" then it means you had a change of mind.
If you ask with true faith, God can give you what you need on the day, or even just one minute before you have to pay.
God cannot answer you because you did not show true faith by changing your mind along the way.
Of course, this does not mean you can just be stubborn about everything you ask for in prayer.
1 John 5:14 says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." As mentioned, we can receive the answer when we ask without a changing of mind and according to God's will.
Therefore, when we ask God for something, we need wisdom to discern what God's real answer is.
Also, even though you ask without any change of mind, you cannot receive the answer if you ask from within your lust.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, those who ask with true faith, thirdly, will cry out in prayer.
They cry out in prayer because they believe that God will certainly answer them.
You know Jeremiah 33:3 very well, which says, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." These words were given to Jeremiah.
When this was given, Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard because he prophesied against Zedekiah, King of Judah.
Judah at that time was desolate after the invasion of Babylon.
The situation was depressing for the nation and for Jeremiah, too.
In this situation, God gave him a word of hope when Jeremiah cried out in obedience to God's word.
God revealed to him that Babylon would collapse and Jerusalem would be restored.
Those who ask with faith will cry out in prayer even in most dismal situations.
They believe that the living God listens to their prayer, and so, they cry out believing that He will answer them.
When he heard Jesus was passing by, the blind beggar named Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Because he was sure that Jesus would heal him, he didn't care about other people trying to stop him.
Crying out in prayer reflects how faithful you are in your faith.
Those who do not ask with true faith, they do not cry out even if they have a problem to resolve, or even if they want to receive blessings.
They should cry out even more when they don't see any sign of the answer coming, but instead they lose heart.
It shows they do not have sure faith that they will receive the answer.
I hope you will keep the above points in mind, show true faith in prayer, and receive whatever you ask.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in this message, we looked into the difference between when we ask with true faith and with double-mindedness.
Now, how can we not have double-mindedness but pray with true faith?
Those who want to receive the answer would probably want to ask with true faith without any doubt.
I think many of you know that it is not very easy.
You don't want to doubt, but doubts arise in you. Or, in the interim you may just change your mind.
Sometimes you cannot cry out in prayer.
This is because we cannot possess true faith just because we want it. We can possess it only when God gives it to us.
Also, until we cultivate true faith, there must be a series of processes.
Then, how can God instil true faith in our hearts?
First, we must have the determination that we will ask God only.
We must have the will and determination to rely on God in all things, whenever we have life-problems or heart's desires.
Even when doubts arise moment to moment and when there are temptations, we have to drive them away and just rely on God.
Now, we have to practice the truth diligently following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Whether we are listening to the sermons or we are in prayer, if we realize how we can please God, then we have to do it.
Of course, even when we act this way, we may not receive the answer as quickly as we want.
But God takes into account all our efforts.
Even physical parents are pleased feeling their children are lovely when they lean on them, and try to stay close to their side.
Similarly, God the Father also delights in His children when they try to rely on God alone.
Even though He cannot answer them immediately, He causes their souls to prosper through their deeds of practicing the truth.
He breaks their fleshly thoughts one by one and pulls out the untruths from their hearts.
Romans 8:7 says, "because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so."
As spoken, we cannot have true faith if we have fleshly mindsets and thoughts.
Fleshly thoughts come from the untruths in the heart.
Thus, we can have true faith to the extent that we cast off untruths from our hearts.
It's because we will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and not be controlled by the enemy Satan.
As we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, we will have the confience of heart about receiving the answer.
1 John 3:21-22 says, "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him."
We will change into God's children who receive anything they ask for from God.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God said this year is the year of blessing.
He said He would let us realize the root cause of problems and give us comprehensive blessings.
Do you surely believe that God will give you all these things?
Furthermore, do you also believe that He will accomplish the Canaan Sanctuary and the Grand Sanctuary, and make the whole world our parish?
If you really believe, I hope you will march on until the end just like the ten leprous men who were healed when they believed the word of Jesus until the end.
Believe that you have received everything you are asking.
The good God will answer you according to the faith of each one.
But God wants to hear one final answer from you.
When He asks you, "Do you still love me even after having received the answer?" He wants to hear an 'Amen' from you.
The ten lepers were healed because they showed the faith sufficient to receive healing.
But only one of them returned to the Lord to thank Him.
Not to have double-mindedness is to look up to God in all situations.
It is to love God and rely on Him alone.
It is to have no desire for wealth, honor, authority, worldly knowledge, or human ability but it is only to keep God in the heart.
It is to ask God earnestly without change of attitude even though life is overflowing and there is nothing that can be asked for.
In the name of Jesus Christ I pray that through this love given to God you may receive everything that you may ask.
[Amen] |
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