Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles this morning to the Book of James, and I'm going to begin a new series here.
[00:00:09] It'll get interrupted with vacation and all the rest of that stuff, but just want you to know this is exciting, looking at the Book of James. And I want to talk about something that I think we can all relate to.
[00:00:22] Challenge. Anybody here have any challenges in your life?
[00:00:26] How about I'll get us all? How many have trials in your life? Anybody have trials in your life? How many have temptations in your life?
[00:00:34] Oh, my goodness, every hand should be up. If your hand is not up, are you breathing Trials and temptations?
[00:00:43] James is going to talk about it. And it's amazing to me how many of God's people in the course of history have been imprisoned.
[00:00:51] You know, I think back to the apostle Paul. Persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, left for years, awaiting trial. Then there was Joseph from the Old Testament, trapped in prison while falsely accused with no appeal, forgotten by the one guy that knew that Joseph was able to be set free from this prison. He forgot all about him. Then we're reminded that Jesus was falsely accused, imprisoned and crucified. John the Baptist was imprisoned, later beheaded. James was imprisoned, put to death by the sword. Peter, who, though imprisoned, was supernaturally released by an angel. How many know you almost have to have this on your resume to be a saint. You know I got thrown in jail, right?
[00:01:33] Paul wrote some of his most important letters from a prison cell. We could go on and discuss people like John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress While spending 12 years in prison simply because he was preaching the Gospel. The list is long and lengthy, extends even to this hour in countries around our world where believers are being persecuted and put in prison simply because of their faith.
[00:01:58] So how do people handle pressures, challenges, and trials of this kind? Those are pretty big ones, right? How can a person maintain a right and godly attitude and find hope in seemingly hopeless situations? Great questions. There are many people who feel trapped by their current situation in life. I'm a pastor. I hear all kinds of stuff, and I know many of you are undergoing severe trial.
[00:02:22] I'm not speaking of being literally trapped or imprisoned, but maybe feeling trapped and imprisoned, you know, by life situations or maybe life's commitments or life's responsibilities. Others are trapped in unhealthy bodies, suffering with debilitating diseases.
[00:02:39] Like Job, who was not only trapped in a body enduring extreme suffering while surrounded by friends who were falsely judging him. How many know? You add a little bit more to the Trial, right? Not only am I suffering, I got people telling me why I'm suffering. And they were totally wrong.
[00:02:55] They were telling him his sickness was due to the fact that he had sinned against God, which in Job's case, we know was totally untrue. And I know that because I've read the prologue of the story where God said about Job, he was a blameless man. How would you like to have God say that about you? You're a blameless person, and then your friends are saying you're a sinner. You know, I want to believe God's report. Isn't that true?
[00:03:19] So incredible, you know, so for other people, so many challenges in their life. Think, you know, some of you may know who Joni Tada Erickson or Erickson Tada is, you know, a young woman who was a quadriplegic by an accident. And, you know, I can't imagine living in that condition from 17 years old for the rest of her life.
[00:03:45] What a challenge that was. And I'm sure people meant well and said, jody, Joni, you could be healed. And that's true. God can heal people. I'm not against, and I believe in it. I believe God can divinely heal people. But does God heal every single person? Not necessarily, except for when they get to heaven. We know that that's true.
[00:04:04] And I wonder how many people probably said stupid things to her, like, you know, you just need a little more faith or whatever concepts we have, we have to be careful what we're saying to people. For all the people who have experienced God's healing in their body, there are others who continue to suffer. How many know that's true? You know, I've been a pastor for 43 years. I know this is true. You know, they've prayed, they've cried out to God, they've agonized, they fasted, they've had other people pray. But you know, what God does instead of healing them, he gives them a special grace.
[00:04:39] And I know this to be true because the scriptures teach this, and we'll look at that later on in the message. For others, maybe you're struggling with financial. Some of you struggle with psychological issues or other life.
[00:04:52] I call related limitations.
[00:04:55] Some people are born, you know, I had someone share, you know, that, you know, they had nothing to do with them. They were born to a mother who was abusing alcohol, and they have a case of fetal alcohol syndrome, you know, what did she do wrong?
[00:05:11] Nothing. And so we have these situations in life, and there are those maybe who feel trapped. I'LL call them difficult marriages, or they have family, extended family that's got a lot of difficulty, or their job seems unbearable. The single mother who cannot escape or scrape enough time and resources to keep body and soul together.
[00:05:31] And just the demands of trying to be a parent like both mom and dad to the child. Sometimes I can't even imagine being in that situation, how challenging that is, and trying to find meaning and purpose for themselves and their children. Or, you know, sometimes some of them even forget about their kids, which I think is a shame. But they need assistance. They need help.
[00:05:55] So I think the cry of the psalmist kind of is reflected in moments like this or in situations like this. Listen to what David writes. He said, oh, that I had wings of a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. In other words, I'm looking for a way out. I'm looking for an escapism. And you know, sometimes people self medicate because they feel there's no way out.
[00:06:16] But David says, I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.
[00:06:23] Wouldn't that be great? I would hurry to my.
[00:06:26] So what do we. Let me go back here. So what do we do when we feel like this? What do we do when life seems unbearable? What do we do in a great trial and a difficulty in our lives? When we feel hemmed in, we can't see a way out.
[00:06:42] It's obvious we're being tested.
[00:06:44] You know, Paul had moments in his own life when he cried out to God for deliverance. He described it as a thorn in the flesh. Listen to how he describes it here. Back in 2 Corinthians, he said, because of these surpassing great revelations, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited. So Paul's now building a rationale why God's allowing this.
[00:07:06] I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Now, you know, scholars argue over what was this. You know, some people say, well, it was because of all the persecution he suffered. Well, that could have been the right answer. Some people say, well, you know, Paul talked about having issues with his health. You know, he said, you would even have given me your eyes if you could. Maybe he was struggling. We don't know what the issue is. Isn't it interesting? Sometimes the Bible just remains a bit vague and it all of a sudden, it leaves room for more things falling into that sphere. But however, whatever it was, listen to what he says. Three times I pleaded to the Lord to take it away from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
[00:07:55] So I'm going to pause here for a moment. I want to shatter all of the motivational speakers that say you can do and be anything you want to do and be. How many know that's not true?
[00:08:05] And actually, it frustrates people because we all in this room have limitations.
[00:08:11] Some of you say, boy, I sure would like to sing better, but that's not my gift, right? Whatever it is, there's limitations in your life. And we all. You know, part of being human, the human condition, is accepting the fact that God puts certain abilities, skills, and gifts in our life, but we don't have all of them. And I believe one of the reasons is so that you and I can become interdependent, that we need other people in our lives. We just can't do this all on our own. You know, I know there's some very gifted people, and they just act like they don't need anybody else. But then a crisis comes into their lives way beyond them, and those people don't do well with it. Believe me, they struggle because, you know, up until that point, they were able to do a lot. But God wants to reveal to us that all of us in this room, we need God's grace.
[00:08:59] Every single person. There's not one person on the planet that does not need God's enabling grace to help them in this life.
[00:09:07] Now, as we go to the book of James here, even James, can you imagine? I keep. I remember this crazy comedian, you know, he's talking about, you know, growing up with Jesus because Mary and Joseph had children afterwards, and James and the book of Jude. Jude was one of Jesus half brothers. James was one of Jesus half brothers. It took them a while to figure out Jesus was the Messiah, but when they finally got it, it was great. They followed and recognized Jesus for who he really was. But I could just hear Mary and Joseph say, why don't you just be a little bit more like your brother Jesus?
[00:09:44] That's a hard act to follow, guys.
[00:09:46] So I'm sure that they had some problems with Jesus. And, you know, when Jesus went into ministry, I know they had a little problem with him because, you know, Jesus was so consumed with ministry, they thought he was a bit insane. The Book of Mark says that. So there were some tensions between them and Jesus and their relationships. I can just see the tension there. But now James has turned around and he becomes a leader in the church. And he writes this beautiful letter and he shares these marvelous words of encouragement to believers that are struggling around the Mediterranean basis. And he knows they're suffering persecution and all kinds of trials. And so he wants to write a letter to encourage them and to give them what I call skills, the toolbox to handle life's greatest challenges and to overcome the temptations that are coming their way. And he's going to pass that information on to you and to me. And let's take a look at the book of James, starting in verse one. James, a servant of God. Isn't that interesting? He didn't say, oh, James, the half brother of Jesus. You know, I know Jesus. I grew up with him. No, he just says, I'm a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Greetings. And in chapter one, we're going to discover two primary areas that I think we struggle with and we feel trapped. And James gives us amazing insight to help us experience hope in overcoming the pressures both within our souls and. And beyond our soul.
[00:11:11] I'll call it what's happening outside of us and what's happening inside of us. So if the trials are on the outside, the temptations are coming from the inside. Let's take a look at what James is going to help us with here. And the first area we often feel trapped and we struggle with is in the outward circumstances of life, how do we handle life's pressures? It's a great question. And like I said, some people self medicate.
[00:11:36] Some people try to develop forms of what I call escapism.
[00:11:42] They get involved in things to just escape the pressure. They just don't want to address things, things in life that seem unfavorable to us. And so James begins with our attitude. You're going to love this. He says, here, consider it pure joy. My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, you know, it's funny because I'm reading this, and last night we went to a birthday party a little later on the afternoon. It's Dr. Ratzlaff. He's going to turn 90 on June 14th. So we got invited over. He's got.
[00:12:13] He's got five birthday parties. I was invited to one, but that's nice. I've known him a long time. So anyways, we're coming home. I said, we need to pick up a few groceries. I'm going to the store. I see this rack of books. You know, my eyes always gravitate to books. I'm just a sucker for books. I'm looking at the titles and there's a book titled, you know, Life is a choice.
[00:12:34] You can choose your attitude. Choose a good one.
[00:12:38] I went, I like that, because that's so true. We get to. We can't always choose the situations we're in, but we can choose our attitude. And a lot of times what we do is we choose a bad attitude.
[00:12:51] Come on, now. Isn't that true? We get grumpy. We don't like this. You know, we complain about it. You know, we let everybody know how miserable we feel, how bad we are off, and all the other stuff that goes on. But James says, no, no, no, no.
[00:13:07] I want you to choose a good attitude.
[00:13:09] Consider it pure joy.
[00:13:12] Don't you guys just feel that? You know, when you haven't just tried, you go, yeah, I just feel pure joy, you know? No, he's saying it's an attitude. We can experience joy. You know, it's a choice. We get to choose our attitude. So pick a good one. Right? The Greek word for many kinds of trials is a word that describes diverse, complex, and integr.
[00:13:33] Intricate problems. And it's interesting that the word for many kinds of trials is the same word that Peter uses in First Peter, where he says, every one of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in all its various forms. So the grace now is manifested in many different forms, just like the trials come at us in many different forms. And here's the good news. There's grace for each trial that you and I are in. How many like that idea? So I don't know what trial you're in right now, but I want you to know you could say, God, I need the special grace today for the trial I'm in because it's there for us. You know, we don't get just saved. We don't just get saved by grace. We live by grace. We're empowered by grace. We're enabled to do what God wants us to do by grace. Grace is what helps us. You say, what is grace, Pastor? It's God's favor and it's not deserved. How many go, I'm so glad I don't have to earn so many points before I can take the next trip. You know what I mean? All of these situations in our life, you got to earn this to get that. You got to do this to get that. God says, no, I'm just going to give it to you.
[00:14:43] I'm going to give you this grace to help you get beyond the situation in your life. I'm signing up for God's grace. I sign up for it every morning. I get on my knees, my prayer life, and I say to God, I need grace for today.
[00:14:56] I need wisdom for today. I need strength for today. I need discernment for today.
[00:15:03] How many things might be a good way to start? I'm just asking God, download, please. Holy Spirit, I know you live inside of me, but I need more than what I have right now. I need special grace, you know, to do what I'm going to do today. And God is very gracious. He gives us what we ask for.
[00:15:20] So what I said, Paul and Peter, it should be James and Peter discovered in the complexity of their trial is that God's grace is able to sustain them. Because God's grace is expressed in a variety of ways. In other words, these problems are not simplistic. They're complicated and seemingly so beyond us that we wonder what to do. How many have ever had that in your life? I've got a problem so complicated I can't figure my way out of it. Anybody besides the pastor? Do you get to those places okay? Good. I feel I got company here. You know, misery likes company, right? No, I'm just teasing.
[00:15:57] But these problems many times are generally beyond us. Anybody know what I'm talking about? So some of you here today, you're dealing with situations so difficult, complex and beyond your ability that you may be in a state of despair.
[00:16:12] How many have ever gotten to that place where you in a state of despair? Okay, listen up. This is important. And you're wondering, what should I do?
[00:16:22] You know, how can I cope right now?
[00:16:25] You know, the Bible is so realistic about life. There are times and situations that come into our lives. And Paul himself experienced a moment in his life that he got to the point where he even despaired of life itself.
[00:16:39] Wow, that's a pretty intense despair.
[00:16:43] You know, let's talk about mental health issues for a minute. Is this a mental health issue where you're despairing even of life? Wouldn't that be a great way to describe a mental health issue?
[00:16:53] Come on, don't you think the Bible has something to say about that? Of course it does.
[00:16:58] Listen to what it says. So let's turn to Paul's moment of despairing even of life. And we're going to learn something.
[00:17:05] We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired of life itself.
[00:17:19] How many? That's pretty intense.
[00:17:22] Would you say that that's intense. How many say this is intense?
[00:17:26] I would say, this is intense.
[00:17:28] You're despairing of life itself. Listen what he says now.
[00:17:31] Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death.
[00:17:36] So, you know, sometimes we say, God, why are you letting this happen? Why are you letting me be overwhelmed? Why are you letting all of this come into my life? I just can't take it anymore. Paul says, this happened, okay, God's going to tell us now why it's happening. But this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves.
[00:17:54] Let's be honest, who are we relying on?
[00:17:58] The reason why we struggle so much, if we're honest, is we're looking to ourselves.
[00:18:05] And Paul says, God is allowing this to happen so that we would stop relying on our abilities.
[00:18:11] We'd begin to cry out to God and say, God, I can't do it anymore.
[00:18:15] And the moment we surrender and say, I can't do it, would you help me? Is the moment God steps in.
[00:18:23] We have to get to those places in our lives where we come to the end of ourselves.
[00:18:29] Because most of the time we're trusting in ourselves.
[00:18:33] And it's very difficult for us to trust God. We struggle with that.
[00:18:38] You know why? Because we want to be in control.
[00:18:41] And sometimes God goes, I'm going to make life so crazy. You will not be able to control what's happening right now.
[00:18:48] And you're going to have to let go, and you're going to have to trust me to take you through.
[00:18:53] So the simple answer is that we'll stop looking to ourselves, we'll stop looking to other people, and we'll begin to rely on God in a way that we've never relied on God before. So when you start relying on God in a way you've never relied before, you know what's happening. You are now growing spiritually.
[00:19:11] Isn't that amazing?
[00:19:12] You see, you can stay spiritually immature and weak, or you can become spiritually strong and discover that God is more than enough.
[00:19:23] And then you become fearless and bold and courageous. You become what God always intended for you to become.
[00:19:32] Because you know, God's not interested in us looking to ourselves. Do you think David came against this giant in his own strength?
[00:19:42] No. He said to Goliath, you're coming to me with swords and spears and military armament, but I'm coming to you in the name of the Most High God. Because I've had an experience in the past that when the bear attacked the sheep, God's spirit came on David, and David was able to fend off that bear and save that sheep. Isn't that amazing? He was courageous because he had an experience with God.
[00:20:09] Many of us in this room, what we really need is an experience with God.
[00:20:13] So we stop relying on ourselves. We start relying on God at a higher level. The second thing I notice about is the need for a community of believers.
[00:20:26] I am, you know, in our society and our individualistic thinking, there's so many people say, well, I believe in God, but I don't need church.
[00:20:35] That's a lie.
[00:20:36] You need the believers.
[00:20:39] You know, you can't, you know, get off the inner tube and just scrolling around listening to different preachers all the time and never going to church. You need to be in community.
[00:20:46] Yeah, but I don't get along with people, Pastor.
[00:20:51] You know, you're immature.
[00:20:55] You got to grow up.
[00:20:56] You know, I'm easily offended.
[00:21:01] Got to grow up.
[00:21:02] You know what I mean? Listen, there's 27 one anothers in the Bible.
[00:21:08] Love one another, pray for one another, care for one another, bear one another's burdens. We can just go to one another, one another, one another. How do you practice those things?
[00:21:17] Do you know it's easy to be a saint in the desert in the 4th century, they'd go off in the desert. They live in a solitary state, and they'd go, I'm a saint.
[00:21:28] But you're not having the pressure of living with screaming kids and unrealistic spouse and unrealistic boss expectations. And life is caving in on me. And financial problems are there. That's the real world, guys. And that's where we live. And that's the world that I believe, that Christianity is designed to bring about transformation and change in our lives.
[00:21:53] He says, he goes on to say, he has delivered us. Past tense. He has delivered us from such deadly peril, and he will deliver us. And on him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers.
[00:22:10] Can I say something? To us, prayer is evidence of genuine faith.
[00:22:18] Because when you're praying, you're going, a lot of times the devil comes. What good is this? You're just talking to the air. Come on. That's a temptation, you know, or I'm spending time here. I could be doing something more profitable with my time, right?
[00:22:32] There's nothing more significant than praying. And I'll tell you why. Because when you and I work, we work. But when we pray, God works.
[00:22:38] And I've noticed, as I've gained time and labored in ministry for a long time now, I find myself praying more and more and more, and I'm praying with more and more people.
[00:22:51] I spend more time, you know what? And I'm seeing God answer prayers, and I'm seeing what's happening when we're praying, how God works. And we're so impatient, but God is working in people's lives. But how many recognize God's given every one of us a will. And some of us are rebels, and we resist God and we fight against God. Meanwhile, moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas are praying, and the pressure is just coming on harder and harder and harder and until finally we go, okay, it's like a wrestling match. I'll cry uncle, I'll surrender, and I'll give in to God.
[00:23:28] When that happens, change starts happening from the inside out. God is interested in transforming us.
[00:23:34] It's really powerful.
[00:23:36] So James challenges our perception and value of trials.
[00:23:41] I don't think we appreciate struggle, pain, and reversals. We all want an easy path, and we all have this. You know, we're living in a culture today that thinks of itself as being totally entitled.
[00:23:53] It's a totally wrong mindset.
[00:23:56] That's why we're weak.
[00:23:58] Listen, if you want to be strong, what's going to have to happen tomorrow? Let's say you say, I'm going to decide. I'm going to get myself in shape physically.
[00:24:06] Some of you are already groaning. I heard that groan.
[00:24:11] What are you going to have to do? You're going to have to work out.
[00:24:15] And working out at, you know, if you haven't done it in a long time, every muscle in your body is going, what in the world are you doing to me?
[00:24:23] You're punishing me.
[00:24:25] Come on now. Isn't that true?
[00:24:28] But listen, after a while, if you don't work out, your body's going, what are you doing to me?
[00:24:35] Where are the endorphins?
[00:24:39] Right?
[00:24:40] You know, where's the stamina?
[00:24:43] You know, I can feel I'm getting weaker.
[00:24:45] And I'll just say this, you know, I'm a senior. I can say this. Seniors, you have to keep moving.
[00:24:51] Don't just give in and sit around. Do nothing. That's unhealthy for you.
[00:24:55] I'm sticking my neck out here. But I think this is the truth, and I think the doctors will agree with me. Keep that body going. Move it right. Keep moving. You know, and, you know, use little weights once in a while. Strengthen your muscle. What's happening? You're resisting. There's resistance happening to your muscle. And so God Goes, I'm going to put you in my spiritual gym and I'm going to put you on weightlifting. Here comes a trial.
[00:25:23] You got to exercise spiritual muscle.
[00:25:27] What are those weights? Prayer.
[00:25:30] You know, I have a vision in this church.
[00:25:34] We're nowhere near it. You know, we have a prayer meeting on Tuesday nights. I count every Tuesday night. You guys don't know this. 21, 22, 24.
[00:25:42] And we have over 900 people attending regularly in this church. We get 22, 24. I'm going, you know, I know you guys pray, some of you, but a lot of you, this would be a good way. I don't know how to pray, Pastor. How are you going to learn?
[00:25:55] You know, I'm challenging you.
[00:25:58] Pick it up.
[00:26:00] I'm challenging you to start praying. You know, you can watch the news and groan, or you can come to the prayer meeting and cry out to God. Which do you think is going to make a bigger difference?
[00:26:11] I think praying.
[00:26:13] He goes on to say, consider pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, why are we to consider it joy? With these complex problems, we generally see trials and troubles and enemies, difficulties, enemies to our soul. God uses trials as a tool to develop our soul. God is producing Christlike character in our lives because he goes on to say, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature.
[00:26:43] In other words, you're growing up complete. It means you're maturing, you're developing, you're becoming the person you were designed to be, not lacking anything.
[00:26:52] You know, I'm going to tell you what it was like. I've been a pastor, and you have seasons in pastoral ministry. You know, some pastors, they just moved to another church. I just stayed a long time. You know, our church has gone up, it's gone down, it's gone up. It's been all over the map. You know, And I'll be honest with you, when you're a leader, I don't like you going backwards. I'm just being honest. And for seven years, our church went in the wrong direction and it was driving me crazy. And finally I'm crying out to God and I'm going, I must be the problem.
[00:27:21] Should I be stepping away and let somebody else take the leadership of the church? And you know what? I felt God going, I'll answer your question. So I went off that summer and I was preaching at camps and. And God was really moving in those camps. And I had people come up to me saying, pastor, these messages are so life changing and so encouraging. And I felt God saying, you are not the problem. Well, I go, well, the people aren't the problem. I'm not the problem. What's the problem? God goes, no, I'm teaching you. What are you teaching me? Perseverance, endurance. How do you learn endurance?
[00:27:55] You have to endure.
[00:27:56] How do you learn perseverance and patience? You got to persevere. You got to be patient. You got to wait.
[00:28:03] That's not fun stuff. How many go, I'm not patient, Pastor, and I don't persevere at anything. Well, God wants you to. I'm telling you the news. That's why he's allowing things. So you'll mature, you'll get stronger, so that when the next trial comes along, you'll just go, yeah, we've been here before. Oh yeah, I've seen this before. You know, I have experience now. I don't get excited.
[00:28:25] How many know? After a while you learn what God's like. You just relax. You're not getting uptight about it, going, hey, this is the way God's working. He's going to work it all out. He's got a plan. This is not happening randomly. God knows what he's doing. Let's watch what God does.
[00:28:40] So they have a God given purpose in our lives.
[00:28:44] You know, there are opportunities to demonstrate our faith in God. Trials reveal the chaff, the unproductive and unfruitful things in our lives. They reveal the true nature of our character. Are we just professing faith in God or do we actually possess it? Right? You know, we say that we believe that God is our Father, but as long as we remain untested on the points, our beliefs fall short of steady conviction. But suppose that day comes as it will come. I'm quoting now from Alec Moyer. He says this.
[00:29:12] When circumstances seem to mock our creed, when the cruelty of life denies his fatherliness, his silence calls into question his almightiness. And the sheer haphazard, meaningless jumble of events challenge the possibility of. Of a Creator's ordered hand. It is in this way that life's trials test our faith for genuineness. In other words, when it doesn't make sense, and we begin to question, is there a God?
[00:29:37] You see, you're like Job.
[00:29:39] I mean, we know the story. Could you imagine poor old Job? He's serving God wholeheartedly and his whole life gets blown apart.
[00:29:48] And you know, there's a test. Will Job curse God?
[00:29:53] Even his wife said, job, come on, knock it off, buddy. He just said, tell God. Forget it.
[00:29:58] What did he say? I'm not going to do that.
[00:30:01] You know, though he slay me yet, will I trust him?
[00:30:05] He came out of that testing as pure gold.
[00:30:08] He had his moments. And when you study the book, you'll find out that Job did have some things that God refined in his life as well.
[00:30:17] So one reason that God does not always deliver us immediately from every difficulty is it produces certain virtues in our lives, like patience. Patience, endurance, and perseverance. They have to be exercised in order to be strengthened and developed. And development only comes through struggle. How many go, I don't like that, but it's part of growing and maturing. How many know learning? You only learn by struggle. You know, how many, when you went to school, kids are funny. I want an A. They all want A's. Yeah, I know, but you got to learn this stuff. And sometimes you struggle with learning. Anybody ever have moments when you were learning that you were struggling, getting it? You know, a lot of times we think we're stupid. It's not that we're stupid. We're just not picking up on it right now. It takes time. We need certain other blocks to get to it. And then when we have those aha moments. How many have ever had an aha moment? You know, you go, oh, I get it. You know, I'm in math class. You know, you're going, just not getting this stuff. And then all of a sudden you have a moment. Oh, I get it. Now. There's like a little light bulb goes out. Oh, I get it. And that happens in the spiritual arena, too. We have these little aha moments with God. We go, oh, I'm getting it. I get it. It's really powerful.
[00:31:25] So, you know, one of my deep concerns is about the way movies generally portray relationships.
[00:31:33] You know, we have a very romantic picture of relationships that only began in the 19th century.
[00:31:41] It's not the way it's always been. And I think sometimes our relationships are often superficial and unrealistic.
[00:31:48] And one of the primary ways of God shaping our life is being in a human family, day to day, rubbing elbows, right?
[00:31:56] It's really fascinating. You know, a number of years ago, we actually had Gary Thomas here do a marriage conference. He wrote a beautiful book called Sacred Marriage. And I remember reading this book, and that's why I had Gary come, and I'd heard him before in a conference, and so I approached him about coming, and he did.
[00:32:11] And his premise of his book is powerful. He says, what if Marriage was designed not so much to make us happy, but to make us holy. How many know that's a totally different purpose. You see, our world says, I'm in this world to make myself happy. God goes, no, I'm in this. You're in this world so I can make you holy.
[00:32:30] If you have a see how many go up, that's a totally different aim. So now when you understand that you were made for God's pleasure, you're not created for your pleasure. You're created for God's good pleasure. The Bible teaches that he designed you for a purpose. He saves us from our sin in order for us to do good things that he's prepared in advance for us to do. And he's committed to making us more like himself, which means holy. What's holy, Pastor? It means that we're set apart to do God's purposes in our lives. It's very powerful.
[00:33:01] You're set apart to do God's purposes. So God's commitment to you isn't to make you happy. Sorry, guys. God's commitment to you is to make you holy, is to make you like him. And I'm going to say a little something that when we become holy, we become happy. When we become holy, what's really happening is we're becoming integrated because most people today are broken, they're fragmented. And later on in this message, James is going to challenge us about being duplistic and double minded.
[00:33:31] As a matter of fact, it's right up here. Let me move on because I keep running out of time.
[00:33:38] So how do I live with difficult people? I want to jump into some good stuff here. I think we need to learn to bring our complaints to God. How many think that might be a good way of doing it? We need to learn how to lament our situation correctly. You know, you can criticize the person, you can nag the person, you can tell other people about the problem, but eventually can I tell you the best what to do? Get on your knees and say, God, this person's driving me crazy. This is what they're doing. It's not healthy for them and I'm annoyed by it.
[00:34:09] But this is really an honest conversation, right?
[00:34:13] God says, okay, good, I'll work on them. Meanwhile, you work on you.
[00:34:18] You need to be more patient, you need to be more understanding. You need to be more loving. How's that?
[00:34:24] Wow.
[00:34:25] You know when people come to me when they tell me they got problems, you know what I say? You can't work on your spouse or your kid, only person you can work on is you.
[00:34:34] So if you're going to handle what's happening, you got to make some adjustments in you.
[00:34:39] Most people are a little bit surprised by that tact, but that's really what has to happen. So you can handle that. We need an AA meeting.
[00:34:49] Attitude adjustment.
[00:34:52] That's what we need, an attitude adjustment.
[00:34:55] We often pray for deliverance, and there's nothing wrong with that. I pray for deliverance all the time. But what happens when God doesn't deliver you from the trial and he's delaying it for a season, or he doesn't decide to deliver you at all? Here in James 1, he says, hey, consider pure joy. And then he says, oh, by the way, if you're going to pray for something, here it comes.
[00:35:17] Pray for wisdom.
[00:35:19] You should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. How many think that's beautiful? God says, if you ask for wisdom, I'll give it to you.
[00:35:27] Every day almost. I ask for wisdom.
[00:35:31] And you know what? Wisdom is a gift. Even though I study, it doesn't mean I get, you know, wisdom from studying. I can get knowledge from studying. I get wisdom from God. It comes from God. It's a gift. Then he says something very interesting in the next verses. He goes, but when you ask, you have to believe and not doubt. Because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double minded and unstable in all they do.
[00:36:04] Wow.
[00:36:06] What is he saying? You're inconsistent. You're double minded. And you know why people are double minded? Because they're broken.
[00:36:14] You know, it's really interesting to me.
[00:36:16] Let me say it to you this way.
[00:36:19] When you, you know, the psalmist makes a prayer. He says, unite my heart to fear your name. In other words, he says, I'm struggling.
[00:36:26] I have a mind and two thoughts. I have two thoughts going on. I need to become single minded and I need to ask God to help me to do that.
[00:36:35] So when you become single minded, you're actually becoming integrated.
[00:36:39] And that's where we get the word integrity from. And that's what it means. God is making us whole.
[00:36:46] Most people today are double minded. They're broken, they're not integrated, they're not whole. And to be whole means you become holy. It's very fascinating. All those words go together. It's very powerful. But I'm going to stop right now and I'm going to say, point Two for next week on Father's Day. So today we talked about trials.
[00:37:09] Next week, I'm going to talk about how to overcome temptation. How many are interested in that topic? How to actually win the battle inside of yourself. So today we talked about how to handle the pressures that are coming from the outside.
[00:37:24] Even when I can't change those outside circumstances, I can change my attitude. Next week, I'll talk about how to deal with what's going on on the inside. Does that sound good? So let's stand. I don't want to go over my time. I'm right at my time, but I want to pray.
[00:37:40] So I know that some of you are facing tremendous challenges. You go, how do you know? Pastor, I meet with a lot of people during the week. I hear a lot of stuff.
[00:37:50] And, you know, I want you to know we pray for you. And every time you send one of those connect cards with a prayer request, my staff, they don't even realize this. I make them pray for you.
[00:38:02] You know, I have a whole list of all the requests. And on our staff meetings, we stop. And this is one of the most important things we do. We communicate how the week's going to be played out. And then we actually pray for every single need that you give to us.
[00:38:19] Isn't that beautiful?
[00:38:20] So, yeah, we pray for you. We don't just say it, we do it.
[00:38:24] I think it's important so you know that you're being prayed for.
[00:38:28] But here's even better news.
[00:38:30] Right now, you have one who's always praying for you. His name is Jesus, says he ever lives to make intercession for you. So with every head bowed right now, how many are saying, you know, Pastor, I'm in a very challenging circumstance. Nobody looking around between you and God, yeah, I'll see your hand, but that's it. Because I want to pray. I'm in a challenging situation. Just raise your hand. I want to pray with you. I want to pray for you.
[00:38:56] I want Jesus to keep praying with you.
[00:38:59] Let's believe God to do beautiful things. If God doesn't change your situation, Listen to me now.
[00:39:07] I'm going to pray that God will give you wisdom and that God would give you the right attitude. Remember what I told you. You get to choose your attitude this morning.
[00:39:18] So when you leave here today, you can choose a bad attitude or a good attitude.
[00:39:23] You can do. You know, I love this. Count it. Pure joy. I've decided I'm going to have a joyous attitude. That's what I'm choosing. How many want to choose a joyous attitude. I can't change my circumstances, but I want to have. I want to be filled with joy.
[00:39:37] You know, I want to be a happy camper in the middle of craziness. And you know what happens when you're a happy camper like that in the middle of craziness. People who know you and know your situation go, how in the world can you have joy in that situation?
[00:39:52] It's a choice.
[00:39:53] And God will help you have joy because we're going to ask him to give you joy. So, Father, we pray today. I know so many are walking through great challenges, pressures from the outside circumstances. Some of them they can change, but many of them they cannot. And I pray right now that you'd fill our hearts with joy this morning. You'd fill our hearts with hope. You'd help us, Lord, to understand that we're in a spiritual gymnasium and you're committed to making us more like you.
[00:40:23] And in this process, I believe we're going to mature and grow. We're going to become more loving, more understanding, more patient, more enduring, have greater perseverance. We're going to be able to hang in there like we never have before, Father, so help us to grow up. That's what we're praying for. We're asking for your help. Help us to grow up. Help us to have the right heart attitude, Father, so that we're overcoming the brokenness and the pain and the hurt and the bitterness and the unforgiveness and the anger and all that junk inside of us that's hindering us from growing and moving forward.
[00:40:59] And I just thank you for it. I thank you. You're going to give us wisdom today. I'm praying that every one of us when we leave here today, you're going to fill us with the gift of wisdom. Give us the wisdom right now to handle that circumstance. Give us the joy to sustain us in that circumstances until the day you deliver us from that situation. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. God bless you.
