The First Sunday in Lent [B] and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. James 1: Every good gift

Transcription

1 INTRODUCTION The First Sunday in Lent [B] What is a Buffet? Genesis 22:1-18 James 1:-18 Mark 1:9-15 What is a Money Buffet? SETTING Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights James 1: In a sense, James is writing about Two Buffets : One Buffet consist of all the things you can rightly enjoy; One Buffet consist of all the things you should always avoid. THE DIVINE BUFFET Let s start at the end and work our way back to the beginning of the Epistle Reading. coming down from the Father of lights with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1: How is Life a Buffet? Sunday, February 22, 2015 A Copy of the Full Text of the Message is Included Below, After the Message Guide. James describes those Gifts of the Divine in two ways: Every Good Gift [Explain below:]

2 Every Perfect Gift [Explain below:] Being Drawn Away [Explain below:] Luther sums this up so well in his Explanation of the First Article of the Apostles Creed: God, in His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, has set a Buffet of all manner of Good and Perfect Gifts, Gifts given with the best of intentions for us, Gifts that from beginning to end, are appropriate, good, and satisfying. THE DEVOID BUFFET What more could there be? Enticed [Explain below:] Thus, a person is tempted when he is inflamed, burning with desire, and he leaves behind the safe zone and takes the bait of taking something that is harmful, sinful, forbidden. A HEALTHY FAITH, IS A HAPPY (BLESSED FAITH! Explain the relation of the word Blessed and the word Happy : 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. James 1:16 James cautions his readers about a Deception. What Decep tion? First, the word Deception here means, (ðëáíüù, planaô, passive), to be led astray, to be misled. Do not be led astray, Do not allow yourselves to be misled! James warning is Do not be led away from the Divine Buffet! There is another Buffet. However, what is on this Buffet is not there with a good intention, nor is it good for you! 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. James 1:13 When you see the items on this Buffet know that they are not from God! 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. James 1:14 Literally, James writes: A man, however, is tempted by his own passionate desire, being drawn away and enticed. James explains what is going on inside of us when we look at this other Buffet. By His Own Passionate Desire [Explain below:] So, James writes: which God has promised to those who love Him. James 1: CONCLUSION The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: 6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 1 Timothy 6:6-8 Can you be content with the well intentioned and through and through good gifts of God to you? Can you be a compassionate giver of what God has blessed you, of love, encouragement, of material blessings? Can you stand steadfast in Faith, in godliness and contentment, when the burning desires arise within, staying in the safe zone of the Divine buffet, refusing to wander out and be baited by the Devoid buffet? A Healthy Faith is a Happy Faith!

3 INTRODUCTION First Sunday in Lent B 2015 Have you ever seen a Money Buffet? You know what a Buffet is, right? Food of all sorts, meats, vegetables, fruits, deserts, is set out, sometimes on a table, or a counter, or in a restaurant. Well, when you go into a restaurant, there s the Food buffet and then, there s the Money buffet. The Money buffet is located where? On the tables! Usually the money is among the dirty dishes, bowls, glasses or cups. My mother tells the story of how one young child went around the tables in a restaurant and helped himself to all that money just lying there on the tables. Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, $1 bills, $5 bills; (An assortment of money, a real Buffet.) I m sure that child thought, Who wants to go to the Food buffet, when there s a Money buffet! Have you ever seen a Money Buffet? Have you ever served yourself at the Money Buffet? Why not? Would it be wrong to serve yourself at the Money Buffet? Well, not if you re the waiter/waitress of those tables! SETTING When you go into the Buffet restaurant, you are focused on what? The Food buffet or the Money buffet? Obviously, the Food buffet! You ve paid or will pay for that! The Money buffet, well, I doubt you re even tempted! You just walk right past the tables and the money on the tables. In a way, that s what James is writing about: Two Buffets! One is the Food buffet, One is the Money buffet. One Buffet is all the things you can right enjoy. The other Buffet is all the things you should just walk right on by and never touch! THE DIVINE BUFFET Let s start at the end and work our way back to the beginning of the Epistle Reading. coming down from the Father of lights with Whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1: Life is a Buffet in which God sets many wonderful gifts before us. Gifts that are good, are good for us, and that give us pleasure, that provide us with comfort. James describes those Gifts of the Divine in two ways: Every Good Gift The meaning here is Every Well Intentioned Gift. You ve given a Well Intentioned Gift! a donation to a good cause, maybe the Red Cross, or the American Cancer Association, or the Girl Scouts. God s gifts, the gifts that God gives to all people, are Well Intentioned, given for the purpose of our good! Every Perfect Gift The meaning here is Good from beginning to end, through and through. Receiving this gift, using this gift, is proper (not sinful), and good for us (results in something good). God s gifts are good from beginning to end, receiving them, using them and in the end blessed by them. Luther sums this up so well in his Explanation of the First Article of the Apostles Creed: I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. God, in His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, has set a Buffet of all manner of Good and Perfect Gifts, Gifts given with the best of intentions for us, Gifts that from beginning to end, are appropriate, good, and satisfying.

4 THE DEVOID BUFFET What more could there be? 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. James 1:16 James cautions his readers about a Deception. What Decep tion? First, the word Deception here means, (ðëáíüù, planaô, passive), to be led astray, to be misled. Do not be led astray, Do not allow yourselves to be misled! James warning is Do not be led away from the Divine Buffet! What God provides is given with His good intention and from beginning to end is good for you! Stay with this Buffet an you will be fine! There is another Buffet, or what has the appearance of being a Buffet. However, what is on this Buffet is not there with a good intention, nor is it good for you! 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. James 1:13 When you see the items on this Buffet know that they are not from God! All the items on this Buffet will have their appeal to you, but, they are not good for you. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. James 1:14 Literally, James writes: A man, however, is tempted by his own passionate desire, being drawn away and enticed. James explains what is going on inside of us when we look at this other Buffet. By His Own Passionate Desire Desires in and of themselves are not good or evil. The desire to love and be loved, the desire to be with others and be accepted by others, The desires for food, clothing, a residence, possessions, etc., are normal for every person. But, when any of these desires burn within a person, when a person becomes inflamed with a desire for something or someone, that s a red light flashing, an over heating taking place. Being Drawn Away Leaving behind a safe haven, being drawn out. Most of the time a person takes no or very little risk. With one s money, certain investments involve little or no risk. Such investments offer a small or very limited return. Greed, the desire to get a larger return, to get rich, means stepping out further away from safety, with a greater risk of losing one s money. Enticed Being lured, baited in danger, (sin). Here a hook is baited, a trap is set and baited. The victim is caught, trapped, at he goes to take the bait. Thus, a person is tempted when he is inflamed, burning with desire, and he leaves behind the safe zone and takes the bait of taking something that is forbidden or in a wrong way. With wild life, bait is usually food. With a person, the bait is whatever is the object of the burning desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:15 Burning desire, when it becomes an obsession of our thoughts, our will, leads to sin, to leave the safety zone, wandering out, looking around, taking the bait. Sin, having gone from burning desire, to wandering out, to getting hooked/trapped, ends in death. I have called this, the Devoid Buffet. Devoid, meaning, to empty out, cast out. Something that is Devoid is empty, lacking. What looks good, what looks like it will satisfy us, in the end is an empty promise, a bait that leads to sin, death. A HEALTHY FAITH, IS A HAPPY (BLESSED FAITH! The word often translated as Blessed is sometimes translated with the word Happy. The idea is that the man who is Blessed by God, in Faith, is a Happy man.

5 Thus, the man who lives by faith, the man who has the blessings of God through faith, is a Happy man indeed! So, James writes: which God has promised to those who love Him. James 1: The reality is, we live in a world ruined by sin. We were conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5), corrupt. We have all turned aside from God and His Ways (Psalm 14:2-3). Yet, God has Blessed us with the Holy Spirit, to lead us, empower us, renew us, in God s image. God sets His good Gifts, His perfect Gifts before us. God has supplied us with what we need, spiritually, with Christ and all the Blessings of salvation; physically, with what our bodies need for life and health. Testings, temptations will come before us. We will be tempted to wander away from the Divine buffet, to partake of the Devoid buffet. A Healthy Faith, a Faith the trusts God and His Word, and follows His Spirit within us, is a Faith that will not be drawn away from the Divine buffet for the empty promises, the bait of the Devoid buffet. If the statement Forewarned is Forearmed has any truth, James warning here arms you for the temptations ahead! Can you be a compassionate giver of what God has blessed you, of love, encouragement, of material blessings? Can you stand steadfast in Faith, in godliness and contentment, when the burning desires arise within, staying in the safe zone of the Divine buffet, refusing to wander out and be baited by the Devoid buffet? A Healthy Faith is a Happy Faith! which God has promised to those who love Him. James 1: CONCLUSION The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: 6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 1 Timothy 6:6-8 That s where James left off and where we began: Can you be content with the well intentioned and through and through good gifts of God to you?