Introduction:
My Trial: --------------------------------------------------
How to Profit from Trials: Change The Way You See Them (James 1:1-12)
- See trials as Strengthening you. (Jas 1:3-4)
- See trials as Teaching you. (Jas 1:5-8)
- See trials as Humbling you. (Jas 1:9-11)
- See trials as Testing you. (Jas 1:12)
Hebrews 12:2 - looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:30-00:33
If you please would open up your Bibles to the book of James.
00:35-00:38
Did you know that Jesus Christ had half brothers?
00:40-00:46
Jesus Christ, his mother was Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, fully God, fully man.
00:46-00:50
But after Jesus was born, the Bible tells us Mary and Joseph had other kids.
00:51-00:54
And they, technically, they would be half brothers of Jesus.
00:56-00:59
And the book of James was written by one of those half brothers.
00:59-01:08
Jesus' brothers, half brothers, they didn't believe in Jesus until after he resurrected.
01:09-01:17
And James not only became a believer, but he became an early church leader, according to Acts 15 and 1 Corinthians 15.
01:18-01:30
And James 1, verse one, it says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes of Israel and the dispersion.
01:31-01:31
Greetings.
01:33-01:39
James wrote this letter to Jews who were scattered abroad due to persecution in that day.
01:41-01:54
And as we kick off this series, we're going to be going through the book of James and see under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we're gonna learn how to live what you believe.
01:56-02:02
James has 108 verses in it, and 54 of those are imperatives.
02:04-02:06
So this is going to be really practical.
02:07-02:10
Our series is called Intentional Faith, a how-to guide.
02:11-02:13
All right, so let's bow our heads.
02:13-02:17
I'm gonna ask that you would please pray for me, and I'll pray for you.
02:19-02:20
Let's get into God's word together.
02:26-02:28
Father, we've come here today to hear from you.
02:30-02:43
So Father, let your word be clear and open our hearts to receive your word for what it is.
02:44-02:46
Father, let this be a time of renewing our minds.
02:50-02:57
Father, it's my prayer that every single one of us walks out of here different than when we came in.
02:59-03:01
We pray in Jesus' name.
03:02-03:05
All of God's people said, amen.
03:06-03:16
I have a Jeep Wrangler and I didn't know this when I got it, but I guess people that drive those have this game that they play.
03:16-03:17
You know about duck, duck, Jeep?
03:17-03:18
Do you know about that?
03:18-03:19
I didn't know anything about it.
03:20-03:27
But apparently you stick rubber ducks in the handle of another Jeep Wrangler.
03:27-03:28
I don't really play that.
03:29-03:31
All right, it's not as fun as it sounds.
03:32-03:33
I don't really play.
03:34-03:41
But I got in the Jeep one day, Aaron had borrowed it, it's like, it's ours, all right.
03:42-03:43
So Aaron drove it the day before.
03:44-03:49
And the next day when I got in, There was one of these ducks on the dash.
03:51-03:58
And like I said, I'm not really crazy about it because every time you go around Ben's, he's clunking around, he's at your feet, he's all over the place.
03:59-04:01
Maybe you're supposed to tape them down or something, I don't know.
04:02-04:06
But I remember looking at this stupid thing, thinking, I can't wait to get rid of this.
04:07-04:09
I gotta find another Jeep so I can...
04:11-04:13
You're like, well, what's the problem?
04:13-04:15
Well, first of all, notice he's like leopard skinned.
04:16-04:16
(congregation laughing)
04:17-04:21
And you might not know this, but ducks are not naturally leopard skinned.
04:23-04:25
So I'm like, I can't wait to get rid of this dumb thing.
04:29-04:38
Well, I told Erin that, I said, I said, "Where'd the duck come from?" And I said, "I can't wait to get rid of that." She goes, "No, you don't wanna get rid of it." I'm like, "Yeah, I do wanna get rid of it.
04:38-05:01
"I don't want that stupid thing bouncing around "and it's just dumb, right?" She goes, "You don't wanna get rid of that." I said, "Why?" She said, "I gotta tell you how I got it." She said, "The other day when I took the Jeep, "the boys and I went into the dollar store." And she said, "This little boy came running up to her.
05:03-05:04
"He goes, 'Excuse me, ma'am.
05:05-05:13
"'Ma'am, is that your Jeep outside?'" And she said, "Yes, it is." He goes, "Oh, oh, hang on, I'll be right back." And he vanished.
05:14-05:20
And he came back and he said, "I wanna give this to you." And Aaron's like, "Oh, that's so sweet.
05:22-05:44
Isn't that precious?" Well, the little boy was with his grandma and his grandma told Aaron, she said, "You know, little hunter, he saves up his allowance just to buy these to give to people that have Jeeps." She said, "We don't even have one." He saves up his allowance to buy these to give away.
05:45-05:48
And she said, "And do you know what he asked for for his birthday?
05:50-05:55
He wanted rubber ducks to give away." And Aaron told me that story.
05:56-06:00
And I'm like, "Honored!
06:03-06:04
So precious.
06:06-06:08
So guess what I'm going to have for the rest of my life?
06:10-06:12
I'll have this long after the Jeep.
06:15-06:23
But you know, getting that new information about this changed the way that I look at this.
06:26-06:30
I went from, this is a stupid thing I can't wait to get rid of to, wow.
06:33-06:39
Somewhere out there is a little boy that is so selfless that this is where he directs money and energy.
06:41-06:49
Because you see, this duck teaches us, it's all about the way you look at it.
06:51-06:57
The duck didn't change, but the way I see it did change.
07:00-07:11
Now look at James 1, verse two, where he says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, "When you meet trials of various kinds." Stop there.
07:13-07:14
Okay, coming out of the gate hot.
07:16-07:22
James is like, "Good morning, let's talk about trials." We all have them, right?
07:23-07:26
And notice he says various kinds, okay?
07:26-07:29
So it's not just like one thing, we all have them.
07:29-07:33
And for some of us, maybe it's a health trial.
07:33-07:35
Maybe you're dealing with something debilitating.
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It just doesn't go away.
07:39-07:45
Maybe it's diabetes or MS or arthritis, or maybe that's your trial.
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Or for some people, it's a financial trial.
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Maybe you've suffered a job loss, or maybe inflation is crippling you.
07:55-07:58
And for a lot of people, it's maybe a trial in your family.
07:59-08:04
You know, I just can't ever seem to get my marriage on track and I don't know what to do.
08:04-08:08
and my spouse and I just aren't on the same page ever.
08:09-08:10
Or maybe it's parenting.
08:11-08:16
Yeah, I thought parenting would look a lot different than it does, and I just, I don't know how to get through to this kid of mine.
08:19-08:23
Maybe your trial has to do with work or school, right?
08:25-08:28
It's just too much, I can't seem to get caught up.
08:31-08:33
Maybe your trial is here in the church.
08:34-08:38
Maybe there are conflicts or broken relationships right here.
08:41-08:42
But there's various trials.
08:44-08:49
So what I want you to do, on your outline, and I hope you got one, on the top it says My Trial.
08:50-09:02
I want you to take a moment and I want you to write down right now the trial in your your life that seems to be giving you the biggest hardship.
09:03-09:04
Go ahead, take a moment, write that down.
09:05-09:12
And if you're like, "Jeff, I have several." Pick the one that is the worst.
09:13-09:14
Pick the one that's the hardest.
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Write something down.
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What trial are you going through right now?
09:18-09:27
And if you're like, "I don't really have any trials at all right now," then this is gonna be a long sermon for you.
09:28-09:30
But write down my trial.
09:33-09:39
What is it in your life that you would consider a trial or a hardship that you're enduring?
09:40-09:41
Write it down.
09:52-09:53
Because you're going to be referencing that.
09:56-09:58
And I want you to look at that trial, Look at that thing you wrote down.
09:59-10:01
And then look back at the text.
10:01-10:03
What does James say to do with it?
10:03-10:08
He says, "Count it all joy." What?
10:10-10:11
And by the way, that's a command.
10:13-10:14
You have to commit to this.
10:15-10:17
You have to make some decisions ahead of time.
10:21-10:23
And you're like, you're looking at yours.
10:23-10:26
You're like, that's easy for you to say, Jeff.
10:26-10:27
You don't know what I wrote down.
10:27-10:30
And you're saying that you want me to feel good about this.
10:30-10:31
Is that what you're saying?
10:31-10:33
I should feel good about this.
10:33-10:36
And I would say, who said anything about feelings?
10:37-10:43
I think that's part of the problem as we get so used to being led by our feelings.
10:45-10:50
But that's not what I'm saying because that's not what James is saying.
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Literally, what he's saying is think forward.
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That word consider or count it.
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He's saying, think forward.
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This is a thinking thing.
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This has to start in your mind.
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This is about the way you process it.
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James is saying, whatever trial you're going through, you need to think through the implications of that trial because it's all in the way that you see it.
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Nobody loves a trial, nobody signs up for it.
11:27-11:29
They're painful and I'm not discounting that at all.
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But the joy comes in looking ahead to see how God is going to use it.
11:40-11:43
You know, it's easy to see the benefits of a trial in a rear view mirror, right?
11:44-11:51
Now I went through this hardship and looking back now, I see exactly why God allowed that and what he did through it.
11:51-11:54
And yeah, it's easy to see in retrospect.
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Hindsight's 20/20, right?
11:58-12:00
You're like, "Oh, that's comforting, Pastor Jeff.
12:01-12:09
Thank you for that." So you're saying in a good 40 years, I can count this all joy, but hey, hey, hey, hey, what about today?
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What about today?
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How can I count it all joy today?
12:17-12:22
Well, when it comes to your trials, there's some things that you can't do.
12:25-12:29
You can't change the duration of it, that we would all like to.
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Yeah, can this be over soon?
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You can't make it vanish.
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You can't reverse the effects.
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But there's one thing that you can do.
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There's one thing that only you can do.
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And that one thing that you can do, if you are willing to do it, will actually make you profit from your trial.
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That this thing you wrote down, if you do this one thing, you're going to look at that and say, "Hey, this was painful, but this was good." What's that one thing?
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You gotta change the way you see it.
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So on your outline, "How to Profit from Trials." I love that title because it makes me sound like somebody from an infomercial. "You too can profit from trials!" That'd be like the world's worst infomercial.
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I'll stick to selling rubber ducks.
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How to profit from trials, change the way you see them.
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You ready?
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Let's change our perspective a bit.
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Number one, write this down.
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You need to see trials as strengthening you.
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That thing you wrote down, see trials as strengthening you.
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Look at verse three.
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He says, "For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." Stop there.
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That word know, that you know, there's different words for know in the Greek.
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And this word know doesn't mean like, I read about this in a book somewhere.
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This word know means personal experience.
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Like you really understand something because you've been through it.
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He says, you know, these trials that you're going through, that God uses them to make you stronger.
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And you're like, yeah, yeah, I know that.
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I've been through that before.
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I've gone through trials and I've seen this.
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I've been here before and I know this.
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We got to address an elephant in the room when we talk about trials.
14:58-15:03
Maybe it's splitting hairs, but some people say, well, when trials come into my life, what is that?
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Like, does God cause it?
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Is God up in heaven, like constructing it and causing it?
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And this is exactly what I'm gonna put the whammy on this person.
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Does God cause it?
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Or does God allow it?
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That God's up in heaven seeing all this bad stuff happening to you, and he's like, "Okay, I'll permit that." And which isn't?
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Well, if you read the book of Job, we can safely say that everything that's happening to you is only by God's sovereign permission.
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That nothing comes into your life without God signing off on it.
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So this thing that you wrote down, your trial, please hear me church, you can't attribute this to bad luck.
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You can't attribute this to bad people.
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You can't even really ultimately attribute this to Satan because who's the sovereign one?
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Shout it out, who's the sovereign one?
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God is.
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So if it's in your life, he signed off on it.
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And he's allowing and using every trial for his purposes.
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And that's where James starts, where he says, you're gonna get to the place where you say, I know God's walking me through this right now in order to produce steadfastness.
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It's to give me patience.
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It's to give me more resolve.
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It's to make me stronger.
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And you gotta start here Because unless you really believe that God is sovereign, unless you really believe that everything that comes into your life first has to pass through His hands until you really believe that, you're never going to have joy.
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But it is all about the way you see it.
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Look at verse 4.
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He says, "And let," underline the word let.
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We're gonna talk about that in a second.
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"And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Let it happen.
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Let it happen.
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This thing, God has allowed this, he's brought it into your life, ultimately to benefit you.
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He says, "Let it happen." In other words, don't fight him on this.
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Like, well, how do you fight God on this?
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What are some ways that we don't let it happen?
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There's lots of ways.
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For some people, it just gets so hard at home, they abandon their family.
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I'm not letting this trial happen.
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I'm walking away.
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Some people drink it away.
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or some other substance.
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You're not letting it happen.
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I think for most people, it's a complaint about it.
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Get on social media, let everyone know how horrible your life is.
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When you do those things, that's not letting steadfastness have its full effect.
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God's trying to do something and you're just like, nah, nah, I'm not interested.
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You're like, "Well, what's God going after?" He tells us right here what God's going after.
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He says the full effect of this steadfastness that comes from this trial is that we may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
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Now when he talks about perfection, understand he's not talking about sinlessness.
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the word means mature, or it can be translated becoming full grown.
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He says, you need to let this happen because God's going to use this to grow you up to full maturity, full maturity.
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You know what that means?
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Well, we know what it means physically, right?
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Physically, you get to a point in your life that you're never more adult.
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You know what I mean?
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At some point in your life, you become full grown.
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You're mature, your bones are done growing.
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You're not going to get taller.
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What is that?
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Age 20, 21, individual results may vary, but you get to the point that your body is fully mature adult, right?
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And in the same way, he's saying the trials will grow you up.
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They will mature you into spiritual adulthood.
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What does that look like?
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What does this maturity look like?
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Well, I can tell you this, as a much younger believer, I had a lot of crises of faith.
20:26-20:33
I think a lot of Christians go through that, that we struggle with, you know, is this really the word of God?
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Is God real?
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Does God really love me?
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Is God really with me through everything that I go through in life?
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Is that really true?
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And I gotta tell you, I don't have those struggles anymore.
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I don't have those doubts.
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Because God has proven himself real and faithful and loving and sustaining.
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Not because my life has been God taking me around all the hardships, it's because God has taken me through them.
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That I stand before you saying, I don't struggle with believing who he is.
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and what he does, he's proven himself.
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That only happens through trials.
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No one's ever gotten stronger in their faith through an easy life.
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And you will profit from trials if you see them strengthening you.
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Because it's all about the way you see it, right?
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Number two, write this down.
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You gotta see trials as teaching you.
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Look at verse 5.
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He says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given him." Now wisdom here in this context, obviously he's talking about trials.
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He's saying when you're trying to navigate through this trial that you're going through, God for the wisdom in getting through this, in understanding this, in changing the way that you see this. Because trials let you learn things that you will never learn any other way. Trials will teach you how to apply this in a way that nothing else can teach So if you want wisdom, James says, you gotta go to God to get it.
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And that is a really fun sentence to say.
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You wanna try it?
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Gotta go to God to get it, say it.
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Right, where do you get wisdom, tell me.
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Gotta go to God to get it.
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You gotta go to God to get it.
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That's where wisdom comes from.
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You gotta go to God to get it.
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And he loves to give it.
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I love this, it says, he gives generously to all without reproach.
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You're like, well, what does that without reproach thing mean?
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Well, you know, have you ever had to have your parents bail you out repeatedly?
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And you've gotten the speech?
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Like, okay, look, like, this is the last time I'm doing this.
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Okay, I am so tired of you screwing up all the time.
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I'm gonna help you, but this is the last time I'm helping you.
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You've got to get it together, man.
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That is with reproach.
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Does God give wisdom like that?
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Never.
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You see, that's a glorious thing.
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When you go to God for wisdom for your trial, do you know what God's answer always is?
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He says, "I am so glad you asked me.
24:10-24:11
"Let me show you, let me teach you.
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"Let me show you some things.
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"Oh, I'm so glad you brought this up." He loves to give it.
24:20-24:41
Verse six, he goes on, he says, in asking for wisdom, he says, "But let him ask in faith with no doubting, "for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea "that is driven and tossed by the wind." So look, when you ask God, you have to ask in faith.
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You can't doubt when you ask him.
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You can't pray insincerely.
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You have to come to God believing that he knows and he cares and he has the answer.
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Otherwise, he says you're like a wave.
24:53-25:02
You're just bouncing all around and bouncing all around and never settled, looking everywhere for answers for this.
25:05-25:07
That's a problem when you do that.
25:07-25:08
Here's what I mean.
25:08-25:15
Whatever this thing is you wrote down, and you're like, man, I need some wisdom on how to figure this out, on how to navigate through this.
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So you come to church and you hear a sermon, and you're like, eh, maybe.
25:25-25:30
And then you go to your secular counselor with this and say, help me make sense of this.
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And they give you, You need to learn how to love yourself and forgive yourself and all the other nonsense they tell you.
25:36-25:39
And which by the way, those things aren't really things by the way.
25:40-25:47
And you leave your secular counselor's office and you're like, okay, but you know what?
25:47-25:49
I mean, I get this coworker.
25:50-25:54
He doesn't know the Lord, but it seems like he's been around the track a few times.
25:54-25:57
And you go to him and get some knucklehead advice.
25:58-26:01
And you're like, no, I guess maybe there's some merit in that.
26:01-26:06
Oh, I know, I'll turn on the view and see what those people say about it.
26:07-26:09
And then you listen to them and you're like,
26:09-26:10
(mimics angry sound)
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Do you think that you're going to get an answer from God when you don't really believe that he's the one that has the answer?
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because you're going everywhere else looking for answers.
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Do you really think you're gonna get an answer from God?
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No, you are not going to get anything from God.
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Like, Jeff, how could you say such a thing?
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Well, look at verse seven.
26:46-26:51
"For that person must not suppose "that he will receive anything from the Lord." Do you see that?
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Like, I just can't figure out the answers for my trial.
26:56-26:58
Have you gone to God exclusively about this?
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Or have you tried to put God's word in with this cluster of all these other opinions?
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God doesn't answer doubters.
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He just, he doesn't.
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You gotta go to God saying, I believe that you know, and I want you and you alone to tell me what the answer is for this.
27:25-27:26
Look at verse eight.
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And speaking of the person that's bouncing all around, he says, "He's a double-minded man, "unstable in all his ways." If you aren't settled in God having the answer, then you don't really have faith.
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You just don't.
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It's what James is saying here.
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We profit from trials because they give us the opportunity to get wisdom from God that we don't get otherwise.
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So this trial, This thing that you wrote down, you need to look at it and say, "I'm about to learn something that God wants to teach me, and this is what He's going to use." You'll profit.
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It's all about the way you see it, right?
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Number three, see trials as humbling you.
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out of profit from trials, change the way you see them.
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Number three, see trials as humbling you.
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Look at verses nine, partway through 10 here.
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He says, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation "and let the rich in his humiliation." Stop there.
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Like that's a left turn.
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What's going on here?
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What's really not a left turn?
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It's the same theme here.
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He's saying, "If your trial is being poor, rejoice." It's really humbling.
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We don't have anybody poor here, honestly, not by biblical definition.
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But he says, if you're poor, rejoice because that's really humbling.
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He says, if your trial rich person is suffering a great loss, he says you need to rejoice because that too is really humbling.
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He's saying, let everyone rejoice in his humiliation.
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Right?
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You get humiliation, you get humiliation like Oprah.
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Right?
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Everybody look under your chair.
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You're all getting humbled today.
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He goes on.
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He says, "Because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.
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But the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass.
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Its flower falls and its beauty perishes.
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So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
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Like, what's that all about?
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Well, whether you have nothing or you want for nothing, it's all temporary.
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It is all going to go away.
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Like, well, what's the point?
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Here's the point. There is nothing that is better for you spiritually than humility.
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God, what is the number one characteristic you are looking for in your people? Without of doubt, it's humility.
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There is nothing better for you than humility.
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And what is it that gets us there?
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This thing.
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See, our default mode is trying to make it on our own steam.
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We live like we don't really need God.
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And then some trial comes along and knocks us down and makes us realize that we do.
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This trial knocks us down and say, you know, I'm not as strong as I thought I was.
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I'm not as in control as I thought I was.
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I really do need God.
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And church, anything that has come into your life that has driven you to your knees, where you cry out to God in utter dependence on Him, you need that.
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Our missionary from Thailand, Barnabas, was here last week.
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I can't believe I missed that.
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So sick.
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But I get to spend a lot of other time with them and was here for the Q and A.
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Did you come for the Q and A?
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It's gonna be, it was recorded.
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It's gonna be available.
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You need to watch it.
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But I've heard him tell this story a couple of times and it just, the story just attached itself to my soul.
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I'm gonna give you the very short version, talk to Barnabas, we'll give you the longer version.
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But there was this girl that was possessed by an evil spirit that he was going after repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.
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And finally, he went to her family's house and she was in her room.
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And he went and he stood in the doorway.
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He tells it so much better than I do, but he stood in the doorway so she couldn't escape because she kept running from him.
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And as he stood in the doorway, he said, she loudly cried.
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just loudly started crying out, so loud.
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And I think most of us in that moment would say, shh, shh, shh, shh, it's okay, be quiet.
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It's okay, don't cry, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
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Do you know what he said to her?
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As she was wailing and crying, he says, "Cry." He says, "Cry as loud as you can.
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Cry." He said, "Because when the baby bird cries, the mother bird hears the cry and comes." He says, "When the baby pig cries, the mother pig hears the cry, and she comes." He says, "You cry, and God, your heavenly Father, He will hear you, and He will come.
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So cry.
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Cry as loud as you can." Which person is better off?
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Which person is better off?
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The person that has this trial in their life, that has caused them to spend so much time on their face crying out to God, or the person who seemingly has no trials and has never felt the need to cry out to God. Which person's better off? It's the person with the trial, isn't it? You see, this thing that you wrote down, has it made you keenly aware of how much you need the Lord? Has it done that? If it has, then you are profiting from this in the greatest possible way. And then finally, number four, how to profit from trials. You've got to see trials as testing you. Look at verse 12. This is like a summary statement. This just says it all, Paul caps it off, he says, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him." You want to profit from trials?
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you've got to see them as a test.
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You're like, "Well, how does that help?" Because I got to tell you, Pastor Jeff, I don't like taking tests.
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Never did.
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How does it help to see my trials as a test?
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And I would respond, "Well, do you really want to go through life not knowing whether you really trust the Lord or not?" Because trials have a way of exposing what's really in here.
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Oh, by the way, God already knows what's in here.
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Trials are so you know what's really in here.
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Trials can't destroy true faith.
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It's never happened.
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Trials never destroy true faith.
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Trials only always ever strengthen true faith.
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But trials do reveal, according to Jesus, Matthew 13, trials do reveal that some people never had faith.
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So I'm gonna ask you this thing you wrote down, How are you responding to it right now?
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How are you doing in responding to this?
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Are you willing to change the way you see it?
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Because of all that James says, isn't incentive enough, he adds on here that there's a crown of life.
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That's reward.
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That's glory, that's exaltation, that's heaven.
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Get that God has promised.
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And who did God promise it to?
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Who did God promise it to?
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What are the last four words in verse 12?
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Say 'em, say 'em.
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Who did God make this promise to?
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Okay, well, two of you got it.
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What are the last four words in verse 12?
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To those who love him.
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Oh, well, that's five.
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Let me back up, scratch that.
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Those who love Him.
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That's who this promise is for.
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It's a test.
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Your trial's a test because nothing, nothing proves allegiance, nothing proves commitment, nothing proves love like a trial.
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That is true in a marriage.
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That is true in a friendship.
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And that is true in your walk with God.
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So, count it all joy when you meet trials.
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Like, oh man, turn a negative into a positive.
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How can that be?
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I gotta remind you, our whole theology is built on that.
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Have you heard of the cross of Jesus Christ?
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Look what we studied this, what was it last year?
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This year?
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I don't know, Hebrews 12 too.
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Says, "Looking to Jesus, "the founder and perfecter of our faith, "who for the joy," we're talking about joy today, "for the joy that was set before him," endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Did the cross make Jesus happy? Did Jesus have warm feelings about going to the cross? No! He agonized over everything that was going to happen.
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through the crucifixion.
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But you see, Jesus looked beyond the cross.
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Oh, the cross of Jesus Christ means so much.
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But it forever stands as a testimony that God can take tragedy and turn it into blessing.
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Listen, whatever this thing is you wrote down, I just need to remind you, God took the worst thing that's ever happened and he turned it into the best thing that's ever happened.
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The worst thing that's ever happened in the history of mankind, God showed up.
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He took the form of man, lived among us, taught us about the love of God, taught us about the kingdom of God.
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What did we do?
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We rejected him, we spit on him, we insulted him, and then we publicly executed him.
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And then we mocked him while he was being executed.
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I can't think of anything more horrific than that.
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But it was out of that, the worst thing that ever happened, that God made the best thing that ever happened because it's through the cross of Jesus Christ that your sins can be forgiven if you will receive him.
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So if God can do that through the cross, you don't think he can bring anything good out of this thing that you wrote down?
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He will.
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Are you willing to change the way you see it?
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I mean, your trial that you wrote down there, that thing at the top of your paper, you have options.
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You have options.
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You can look at this thing and you can see it as unjust pain.
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You can complain about it.
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You can let this thing make you a bitter person.
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You can do that.
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That's an option that you have, but you will never profit from it.
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And I know right now, again, there's somebody sitting here going, you can't see what I wrote down, Jeff, but I'm telling you, there is no way that I could ever profit from this.
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You have no idea.
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And if you said that to me, I would say, "Give me your paper." And I would read it, and I would say, "So you're telling me there's no way this can make you stronger? Is that what you're telling me? Are you telling me that there is no way that you're going to learn anything from this, is that what you're telling me?
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Are you telling me that this thing you wrote down, you're telling me there's no way that this can draw you closer to God?
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Because move down from the list here, from the thing you wrote down, your trial, then look at the list of the things that James says, these prophets that we get from trials.
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You know, I was looking at this list a lot this week, thinking about it.
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And I thought, you know, as Christians, these things that James says we get from trials, the strength, the teaching, the humbling, the testing, aren't these the things that Christians really want most in life?
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I mean, think about it.
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Being a pastor, I talk to a lot of Christians.
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And you know the thing that I constantly hear Christians saying they want?
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They want their faith to be stronger.
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They want wisdom.
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They want to draw closer to God.
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And they want to know that their thing with God, their walk with God is real.
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Well, the only way that these things happen is through this, the thing you wrote at the top.
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So I just wanna ask you, church, will you change the way that you see it?
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Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, I come before you as someone who has struggled so many times in my life to count trials as joy.
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But I just again, Father, ask for myself and for my brothers and sisters here, for those who are watching the stream, for those who are gonna be listening to this or watching it later, I'm just asking God that you would, by the power of your spirit Father, by the wisdom of your word, help us to see our trials, the things that you have sovereignly allowed into our lives.
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Father, we would count them as joy because of everything that you've promised to accomplish through them, if we're willing.
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Father, as hard as it is, Whatever that thing is that we wrote down at the top, and God, you know I wrote something down at the top of my outline.
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As hard as it is, God, I wanna say thank you for that.
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Because of everything that you've done in my life, through it, give my brothers and sisters here eyes to see how you're doing it for them.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read James 1:1-12
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How are trials a “test” (Jas 1:3, 12)? What do they reveal?
James 1:4 says to let steadfastness have its full effect. What are ways people refuse to obey this and resist what God wants to accomplish in trials?
What does it mean that steadfastness makes us “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jas 1:4)?
Share a time when you asked God for wisdom in a trial, and He clearly answered (Jas 1:5).
Breakout
Pray for one another - to see trials according to God’s purposes.