Choir, thank you so much. And Brother Ben, thank you for getting them ready. That was, I don't know, I'm not a musician, but I certainly know when I've heard music that has required a good deal of work. And for them to hit those notes and to stay in the music dynamics of that song, that required a good deal of effort and practice. So thank you, choir. Thank you for coming early and getting yourself ready to minister to us, because that's what it was. It was ministry. And it's great to see you all here tonight. Thank you for coming. What a great joy it was to meet many of you as you were leaving this morning after the morning service, and just a delight to have a good time of enjoying meeting those that we have met before, and then to make some many, many new contacts. It was just a great privilege and delight to meet you. There's a great spirit in the morning service, and a good one here tonight. And I have enjoyed, again, getting to know many of you. several of the teenagers that were singing in the morning group and then others around with their parents. And so I've enjoyed that. I always enjoy being around with some young people. and then just meeting a lot of you who've probably been a part of this church for a number of years. Just a great delight. And you are a reflection, as we just heard sung, about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is a great testimony. I love your pastor spirit, don't you? I mean, he's just Mr. Energizer Bunny, I think. I think if he'd gotten caught in that hurricane down in Florida, he would have probably found something positive about it, you know? This is fun, you know, and this is great. I love that. And may his tribe increase. So thank you, pastor. Thank you for your gentle and genuine spirit as you shepherd your flock. Good to see you. If we've not met yet, would love to meet you tonight after the service. I hear there's other doors you can go out. I'll probably be back here, but let's make sure we meet. And I wanna ask you to turn to the book of James with me tonight and use my time. rapidly and get right into the passage. In James chapter one, if you would, church family, if you get that in front of you. And while you're turning to James Epistle, this is not easy, but I need to say it. Don't you hate to make mistakes? I hate to make mistakes. I got back to the room and I got to studying, looking at notes and looking at things and so forth. And I owe you an apology and I'm so sorry. I need to make... In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered, did I say it that way or did I say it the other way? I hope I got it right, but I don't know. If I failed to say it correctly this morning, let me say it correctly tonight, all right? This is what I meant to say this morning. Don't forget, tomorrow night is the most important night of the Bible conference, all right? I'm not real sure what I said this morning, You didn't know where I was going with all that, did you? But I hope to see you here tomorrow night, would you? Tomorrow night's the most important night of the meeting. You say, I don't normally come on a Monday evening. Yeah, I know. I realize that's a little additional time, but we'll have a great time around the word of God, and we'll get right into the time of preaching about this time an hour later tomorrow night, and we'll make use of the time wisely, okay? You say, well, the kids, you know, the kids, they gotta go to school the next day. Yeah, I know, they'll be fine. If you were at home, they'd probably stay up much later anyway, so don't let that be a problem and hope that you'll plan to come. You say, well, I work at night. You say, Brother Morris, my schedule is, my shift at work is night. You know, from what I can see, there are jobs everywhere. Just quit that job. Maybe not, maybe you ought to keep that job and don't change your plans like that, all right? Good, have I given you time to find the book of James? Hopefully you got it here. Do you know who James was? You know, there's several James in the New Testament. We certainly read about one this morning briefly, James and his brother John, sons of Zebedee. A lot can be learned about those guys. James, one of the first apostles. And there were other James, there was another disciple, apostle, that was called James the Less, which simply meant that he was shorter than the other James that we would probably in our vernacular call him shorty today, you know, or something like that. When he was a kid, he might've been called squirt. Who knows? I don't know. But that's not the James that we have here. You may or may not know who this James is, but let me tell you who he is. This particular James, without me going through a great deal of time to explain the answer to this, was the half-brother of Jesus Christ. They had the same mother, Mary, different fathers. James' father was Joseph, of course, and of course we know Jesus was virgin-born. I've often wondered what would it have been like to grow up in a house with Jesus, you know? Hopefully, hopefully Mary and Joseph never said, James, why can't you be more like your big brother? I mean, really, you know, that would have been a difficult one to handle. The truth is, the real truth is, James did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah for the longest time. Would have been interesting to know what he really thought about his mother giving birth and all the talk about her being a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, you know? When James came to a knowledge of normal husband and wife relationships, he must have struggled. And by the way, James was not the only one. Did you know that Jude in our New Testament was also a half-brother of Jesus? These men, we don't know precisely when they finally became believers and followers of Christ. Most argue that probably after they saw Jesus had risen from the dead, they saw him in his resurrected state. Was it before that? Was it at that time or after? I don't know. But James became the first pastor of the church at Jerusalem. How about that one? You read a lot about James in the book of Acts, I say a lot, you read about how they look to him as the lead pastor when a decision had to be made about what do we do about all these Gentiles that are accepting Christ and do we hold them to the same line of responsibilities that we as Jews have had to live by for all of our lifetime and they got word from from Peter, Peter gave testimony as to how Cornelius, the Gentile, was born again and what had happened when he and his household got saved. And they listened to Paul and Barnabas give testimony of Gentiles getting saved all over wherever they have traveled around. And then they all looked to Pastor James. James, what should we do about these Gentile believers? Should we hold them to Jewish law? And he said, no. No, he said, let's hold them to a holy lifestyle. Let's tell them to live according to a lifestyle that shows that they are separated under the Lord. And he gave some stipulations, but he said, there's no reason for them to have to live under the same things that we've never been able to fulfill accurately and positively and perfectly. We're under the age of grace, he would say. James was a man who was one of the first martyrs for Christ. Stephen, of course, the first. James lost his head as a follower of the Lord and the pastor of the church, but at the time that he writes this particular letter, uniquely enough, again, you may know this, this is chronologically the first letter, the first book written in the New Testament canon of scriptures. Before Matthew wrote his gospel, and Mark, and Luke, John, And an ax was written by Dr. Luke and others before any of the letters by Paul. In the early to mid 40s AD, James pens this letter. And you're gonna read with me here in a moment who he's writing it to. He's writing it to his congregation, his people. He's got a pastor's heart. He's burdened about his flock because they've been scattered abroad as a result of persecution. The Roman Empire was brutally going after God's people. It was going after these Christ followers, these Christians, and were throwing them into arenas where they were being viciously attacked by wild animals, hungry, vicious animals. And so God's people, the churches, were having to go underground. They were having to meet in secret places to have a worship service to spend time with the Lord and some of them were still being caught and captured and they went into the catacombs and all the different places where they were hiding. Here's the point. James writes a letter that was written to these people and he's concerned about them. He wants to encourage them and he doesn't mince words. He pulls no punches. He hits the ground running. Look, if you would, please, in verse one, where James says this, look at it. It says, James, by the way, I love this. He says, James, a servant of God, and notice, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, James didn't say, yeah, I know Jesus better than all of you. You know, he could have given one of those Barney Fife's look of, yeah, I'm pretty much in the know about Jesus. What did he call himself? A slave, a servant, a bondservant of the Lord Jesus, that's his earthly name, Christ, the sent one. To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. All right, there's his greeting. Now, boom, here we go. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse, our old English language says the word temptations. It's not the word that we interpret to mean temptations to sin. It's the same word that could have been translated tests or trials, troubles. He knew his people were hurting. He knew they were scared. He knew they were frantic. They were worried. They were anxious. You say, are you sure that's what that word means in verse two? Yeah, because look at verse three. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect or complete work that ye may be perfect and in higher, that is mature, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. that gives to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he's made low. because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat but it withereth the grass and the flower thereof falleth. And the grace of the fashion of it perisheth. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endures temptation or trials. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. How many of you have older siblings, older brothers, older sisters? Hold up your hands with me if you would, please. How many of you, your sibling that's older than you, you have at least one sister that's older than you? That's my world. I have a sister that's six years older than I. Now tonight, that doesn't mean a whole lot. I mean, six years as adults, just, I mean, you know, we kind of overlook it. I do remind her every year her birthday comes around. Don't forget, you're much older than I am. But other than that, it's not a big deal. But think about this, when we were young kids, six years was a massive distance between two. I mean, think about it. My sister, when she was 16, girls, ladies, and when you remember you being 16, I was 10. Okay, you can get the state of Idaho between those two ages. I'm telling you, there's a vast gap between that galaxy. I mean, 16 and a girl, a 10-year-old boy, our worlds were totally different from one another, completely. And I couldn't understand my sister and the way in which she lived. It didn't make sense to me. She'd have a friend come over, and it was just, I felt sorry for them, because they'd sit in my sister's room, and I thought, they don't have anything to do. They just sit around and talk, you know? How boring is that? Sometimes they'd add a little addition to it. They would roll their hair while they would talk. This is back in the days when you got these big old tin cans or something, and you'd roll your hair up. And nowadays, ladies, you got all these machines you plug in, crank them up to work on the hair. I get it. Yeah, I see it. Smoke comes out of every bathroom. Anyway, I feel sorry for my sister and her friends. talking about, and did you see that guy, and did you see, oh, I just don't understand. And I thought, man, we could be playing army, you know? We could be kicking the football and throwing it and catching it, playing baseball, and they're in there just talking. And so I tried to bring a little entertainment. I tried to, you know, how little brothers can do, it made sense to me. And I would go knock on her door and I'd say, you know, I know you must be sick and tired of just sitting around. And I said, hey, let's go outside, let's play army. It'll be me against you two, two against one. I know the numbers are off, but mentally it works out. And I said, let's, I didn't say that. I just said, let's go ahead and let's, and my sister would get so frustrated. And there's something about an older sister. I don't know if older brothers do this, but an older sister did. My sister would look at me and in frustration, she would say, you gotta add that to the, why don't you just grow up? You don't realize how unfair that statement is? You know? You know, oh, you want me to grow up? Oh, okay, here, let me find that magic button, you know, and push the lever of some sort or another and I'm now grown up. I'm 17 and my voice has changed and I want to roll my hair. I mean, there's just not a, there wasn't, there was nothing I could do. There was no massive quick trip to grow up. You know, when James is writing this letter, he is telling people that he loves deeply and dearly. He's saying to them, I want you to keep growing. I want you to grow up. But he knew it wasn't going to happen by some spiritual button that they were going to find where they grow up quickly and then all of a sudden they would be spiritually mature and entire and complete, lacking in very little of their spiritual life and ready to go pastor churches on their own. He wasn't saying that. He realized, as we all must realize as you look at scriptures and interpret it correctly, to grow spiritually takes time, sure. Some of you have known the Lord for a long time. Others of you may be young in the Lord. Thank God for every age bracket in the church family. Don't ever get tired of seeing new believers coming to Christ. It's a great joy. It's like having a baby in the church family. They ask questions that you left long ago. Don't ever let a Hardingville Bible to become a church where you've got to reach a certain level of spiritual depth before you can be a part of us. No, no, no, no. You love people right where they are and watch them develop and grow. And James is saying to these people, you need to grow. Look at verse 4 with me again. He said, let patience, or that word is also the word steadfastness, or endurance, like an endurance runner, let it have its, he personalizes it, let it have her perfect or complete work, its complete effect in your life, that You may be perfect, that is, mature and entire. There's the word mature. Lacking, wanting, nothing. He's saying that you may be fully developed, spiritually mature. But don't miss the main point tonight. And the main point is what he said in verse 2. He said if you're going to have this kind of spiritual growth and development and advancement in your Christian life, It always includes trials, troubles, difficulties, tests. None of us like that. We don't want to have it. We'd love to rearrange it for some other time. But if you don't want to be a weak Christian, if you don't want to be a shallow believer, if you don't want to be spiritually immature, if you do not want to be undeveloped, you're going to go through trials spiritually. And the pastor is telling us that. You say, Morris, what's that got to do with? what we're looking at this week. Let me tell you something, many a Christian has tapped the brakes spiritually, has been moving along quite well for a while, and then all of a sudden when things cave in around them and things go wrong, they just wonder, where's God in all this? If you'll study the scriptures, you'll find some of the strongest followers of the Lord went through the darkest of trials. There was this guy named Job, ever heard of him? He couldn't understand why in the world is this going on in my life. You know what Job did not have? The book of Job. He didn't have the book of Job. He didn't know what was happening. Some would argue though, I don't know, did Job write the book later on, his own book story? I don't know, I don't think so. It could have been Eliab, the fourth man. I don't know who it was. It could have been that Job wouldn't have known what was going on with all the trials he was facing until he got to heaven, maybe. It could have been when he got to heaven, he went, oh, is that what that was all about? This conversation between Satan and the Lord. How about Joseph? mistreated by brothers thrown into a pit and then taken down to Egypt and left and expected to be dead and then wound up a slave and then lied about and wound up in a prison before he ever became the second in command of the most powerful nation on earth. How many times did Joseph possibly scratch his head and say, now, what did I do to deserve this? Joseph, God's just doing something in your life you can't see right now. You know I could go on and look at other examples in the Bible. Did you know that $18.4 billion, that's with a B, $18.4 billion are spent annually in America on anxiety drugs? Now, wait a minute. I'm not against going to the doctor if you need a doctor's help. Don't misinterpret me tonight. that the world talks about how to manage stress. If you'll go read the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount and other messages, you'll find that Jesus never said, I want you to manage stress. I want you to see it eliminated. Take no thought, none for tomorrow. Take no thought for your frame, because you can't worry yourself a cubit added to your stature or to your lifetime. Take no thought for your food. Take no thought for what you're going to wear. Take no thought for the future. Stop worrying. Cut it out. It's not a matter of managing stress. It's a matter of understanding that Jesus wants us to eliminate worry and stress. Now, there may be someone sitting here tonight going, oh, no. Oh, no. Morris, are you gonna preach on worry? Don't worry about it. The truth is, most of us are experts in anxiety. All of us. Now I realize in most homes, and don't punch your spouse when I say this, in most homes, there's usually a resident worrier that takes care of most of the worries in the household, okay? But we're all worriers. We all know what it is to be frantic, but some of us have got our PhD degree in the matter. Who's going to get elected? What's this country coming to? I don't know, but I've read the last chapter. Wait a minute, I do know what this world's coming to. It may be sooner than we realize. I don't know. If you watch a lot of headline news and get the headline news report, you're going to live in hysteria all the time. You're going to get headline hysteria thinking, oh, no, oh, oh, what's happening over there in the Middle East? Well, it's not good. What's going on? That person's lying. That's not true about that. Okay. Yeah, I understand. You can get yourself all worked up about what's going on in today's culture. And it bothers me as much as it bothers you. We're not supposed to worry. You say, Morris, I'm doing good. Everything's going great for me tonight. I'm doing fine. My bills are all paid. My kid is finally passing geometry. You know, After the fourth year, it's about time. And the car's running great, and my boss is pleased with my effort at work. And we've got some new stuff in the house, and the retirement fund is looking really good, and everything is going great. I'm just telling you, Morris, really, things are going good. I'm happy for you. I really am. Just keep going to bed at night. Keep getting up in the morning. The next phone call may rock your world and change things dramatically. The next trip down the road could be something that happens that your family will struggle with trying to comprehend. Why? James is writing about something that one size fits all. He's saying, brethren, consider it all joy when you fall into various types of trials and testings. He says, because God is trying to help you to have a healthy soul, a mature and spiritual, healthy Christian life. And he gives us some principles to know how to help us in our spiritual development. Now I'm looking at a group for people here tonight. You came on Sunday night. You no doubt want to become spiritually stronger. You want to be spiritually healthy. You want to be spiritually vibrant. I doubt if there's anyone here. There may be one or two, I don't know, who don't care about that. But for the most part, my guess is a Sunday night crowd here at Hardingville Bible is a group of people that would say, you know, yeah, I want to develop. I want to keep growing. I know there's no magic button for me to, but what have I got to do? Well, let the pastor explain it to you. He says, you're going to have trials. You've had trials all of your life. We all have. The five-year-old has a trial. They have trial when their toy breaks. or someone takes it away from them in the nursery, or toddler room, or wherever they may be right now. The 15-year-old has a trial when they get mistreated at school. They get overlooked, and they don't make a ball team, or someone makes fun of them, and they hurt. They feel embarrassed. It's tough sometimes. The 25-year-old's trial is some maybe their hardship is that they're still unmarried, and their friends are already married. The 45-year-old's trial could be that he is disturbed because all the dreams he had at the beginning of his journey into the business world, some of his desires and dreams are not being fulfilled and he goes through what many people call the midlife crisis. The 65-year-old's trial is disturbed because the doctor tells him about a debilitating disease. And the 75-year-old's hardship is maybe their their loved one, their companion of life passes away. Every age has trials. Every one of us knows what we're doing, knows that we're gonna face them. And I'm looking at folks tonight, you may be going through things right now that's disturbed you and bothered you and you don't understand, and you are, don't get mad, just listen, you may be addicted to anxiety. I didn't say anxiety drugs, I said anxiety. There's a franticness to you. There's a fearfulness to you. There's a hot temper to you. And other people feel your fears and worries and franticness and troubles and your forehead and wrinkles and you've added years on your life because of the worries of life. What are we going to do? You know, most of the time, most of the time, our trouble spots of life are things like, you know, getting stuck in traffic and you're going to be late for work, you know. a train comes along and slows down the traffic, or your plane gets delayed, or you come home from the grocery store and you put everything out and you go, I forgot the paper towels, you know, I got to go back. You keep getting a robo call, someone trying to get you to buy their insurance or something, you go, leave me alone. Every once in a while you get something that is a major issue. I probably shared last time I was here, I don't remember, but I probably shared with you back in 2018, I heard the word cancer for the first time, the only time in my life. The doctor said to me, I had multiple myeloma, a cancer in my bone marrow. It was a blood disorder. I'm in remission tonight, thank the Lord. I had to fight it for a year. That's not a word you wanna hear. I had to get a stem cell bone marrow transplant. Not a comfortable little journey. Tonight, I have a daughter-in-law who's in stage four cancer. I'm just begging God to allow us to keep her here on earth for as long as we can have her. Some of us know what it is. You know what it is to have what we would call major trials. But most of us just face little difficulties on a day in and day out basis. What are we supposed to do? You say, preacher, I mean, when things are unraveling and things are caving in, what am I supposed to do? Let Pastor James tell you. Go back to verse two. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. The word diverse means various. The first thing he tells us to do is this. Accept it. Accept the trial. Oh, you say, well, that's nice. You know, I don't want the trial. No, none of us do. Now, I mean, wouldn't it be nice if an angel was sent from heaven and came and woke you up in the middle of the night and said, sorry to bother you. I know it's three o'clock in the morning, but I was just sent by your heavenly father. He wants to tell you that tomorrow afternoon, you're going to have a car accident. It's going to total your car. You'll wind up in the hospital, but it's going to be a painful thing. It's going to happen about about 10 minutes after three. Is that going to work with your schedule? You know, you'd say, let me think about it. No. Can we reschedule that for the year 3817, you know? Somewhere far, far away that it won't happen to me. If you knew when it was gonna happen, you would avoid it, but we don't know when. Notice that James does not say in this verse, Some of you who are reading my epistle will go through various trials, but there'll be some of you, you won't face trials. Now you won't, so let me just have the attention of these other people. Let me explain to them what they're supposed to, no, no. He's telling all of God's people, when you fall, he doesn't say if, and he doesn't say how. He said, my brethren, consider it, count it, reckon on it, bank on it. It's going to happen. When you fall into various testings, you ask your young people in a classroom if they have to take a test. Don't ever forget this. Somebody is giving the test. That teacher's the one issuing the test. And when you go through a test, don't forget, there's someone giving the test. There's someone who's not lost control of your life. Your God in heaven wants what's best for you to improve you, to bring you to fruitfulness, to bring us to spiritual maturity, as he says in verse 4. So he says, consider it all joy when you fall. Accept it. It's going to happen. Don't fall into the false theology that says, You know, everything's going great. I mean, the bills are all paid, and in fact, the boss is talking about increasing the pay. Boy, things are going great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I must really be pleasing God right now. You better be careful of that kind of thinking, because the moment things begin to unravel around you, you're going to immediately default to the thought, God, why are you mad at me? He's not mad. He's improving you. Friends, trials are not God's whippings. God the Father will bring trouble into your life to correct us, but you know something? He's a loving Father, and whenever I have stepped out of the way, He knows how to correct me, and I knew that's what He was doing. No, friends, His trials that James is talking about here are God's tools to improve us, to carve into us more of Jesus Christ. Troubles come. And they come suddenly, look at verse two, look at it. My brethren, count it all joy when you, look at the word, fall. Have you ever fallen slowly? Ever gone snow skiing up here and you took a fall? You ever slipped on ice up here? You know, you don't go, uh-oh, I'm falling. Oh, no. Hey, can you hand me that pillow? I need to put this down underneath me here before I hit the ground. I mean, there are times you're on your face or your backside, it happens so fast, you don't have any time to prepare for it. Trials come so quickly. They come rapidly. You don't know when they're going to happen. He says, when you fall, and by the way, when you fall, they hurt. It hurts. And they come in different forms. He says, when you fall into diverse, various types of test, testings and trials. What is he saying? He says, count it, allow it. Allow it to take place. Don't fight God in what he's doing. Allow the Lord to improve you. Accept it rather than being overwhelmed by the emotions of, oh God, why are you doing this? I don't understand. You don't have to always understand that God's doing something. Now you may be going through a real heavy trial right now tonight. Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher that most pastors and preachers quote, said that all believers have either just come out of a storm, or they're in the midst of a storm, or they're about to enter a storm. That's the journey of the Christian life. And the truth is, tonight what James is saying to us is, you've got to accept it. It's going to happen. There's a purpose behind it. What is it? Verse 4, that you may be complete and mature, fully developed, a spiritual growth that will never take place any other way. except by going through that difficult time of trial and testing. Let me ask you something, when did you grow the most in your Christian life? When everything was smooth sailing? Or when everything is difficult and you're saying, oh God, I need you. Oh Lord, I wanna just, oh God, I'm gonna spend more time in your word to find out what you're doing and God, I wanna hear your voice. Yeah, you grew during times of trial. So do I. A man saw a butterfly trying to get out of a caterpillar, excuse me, out of a cocoon that a caterpillar had woven around him. And it was time for that butterfly to start working its way out. And that cocoon was shaking and moving around, and that butterfly was doing its best to get out. And that man admired the work of the change that was taking place. And all of a sudden, he saw a layer of the cocoon fall off, and yet the butterfly still couldn't get out. So the man thought, well, I think I want to help. So he took his ballpoint pen, and he said, I'm going to start trying to help that butterfly get out. And he started working on the layers of the cocoon and tried to get it removed so that butterfly could get out. And after a while, he had gotten much of that cocoon removed, and the butterfly came stumbling out. Wings were undeveloped. He could not fly. And it died in its beauty. was diminished. Why? Because a butterfly needed the struggle of getting out of that cocoon. And the man made it to where he couldn't go through the effort of getting out of the cocoon. Don't fight God. Recognize God's doing something that only he can do. Number one, accept the trial. Number two, advance with the right attitude. Instead of throwing up an angry spirit, look what verse 2 says. Brethren, count it all. Here's our word. Joy. Your pastor encouraged all of us tonight to have joy. And it's right here in the verse that we look at together tonight. Consider it all joy. When? Everything's going great? No. When you're falling into various types of tests and trials. Whatever you may be going through. Emotional. Financial. Relational. Employment. You can't even explain to somebody else what you're going through. But you're going through a difficult time. A spirit of anxiety and worry and fearfulness. Maybe you would even classify it as a stage of depression. I don't understand. You may not ever understand. What does he say? Advance with the right attitude. Well, what is that right attitude, Pastor James? Joy. Oh, you say, that's cruel, Brother Morris. How can someone have a car wreck or have something that they're told by the doctor that's a bad report or a relationship implodes around them and they're going, oh, I'm so full of happiness. That's not what I said. Happiness and joy are two different things. We use those words interchangeably, but joy is an inside job Happiness is an outside job when everything happening around me is according to good Happenings and my hap is good. Then I say I'm happy. I'm so happy you step out on the parking lot and the wind Blows along a hundred dollar bill on the parking lot. You go whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and you stop it thing you go unbelievable And the first thing you think is, I hope it's not one of those gospel tracks that looks like a, I hope it's the real thing, you know? You reach down, you pick it up, it's the real thing. And you think, well, maybe somebody dropped this. And so you turn to ask. And so somewhere on the parking lot, you go, excuse me, did someone drop this? And nobody can hear you. And so nobody responds. You go, hot dog, I got a $100 bill. What very possibly is going to happen is when you go home and you come home from work tomorrow and you check the mail, there may be an additional bill you weren't expecting. Someone needs $100. That's more likely to happen. You see, happiness is based upon the happenings around me. Oh, I just got a $100 bill, a gift. Oh, this is wonderful. I'm so happy. OK, life doesn't always happen that way, does it? What's Pastor James trying to tell us? He's saying to us, have joy on the inside regardless of what's happening on the outside. Count it all joy. When it's going to happen, it's inevitable. You fall, it's going to be hurtful, into various forms of trials. We don't enjoy the trials. But we can enjoy the fact that we know that a sovereign, loving Father He's calling the shots. He's improving us. And he's doing what only he can do. And it doesn't come out of our mouths easily. But we can say to our God, Lord, I don't know what you're doing. But as best I know how, I'm going to trust you. Look, friends, joy is not is not the subtraction of all my problems. I only enjoy by the subtraction of my problems. Joy is the addition of the confident peace. God's got this. He's got it. He's in charge. And I can trust him and rest on him. You come to a fork in the road, you have to decide, do I go to the right or do I go to the left? In one direction, It's, I'm going to get angry. I'm going to get frustrated. Everything's going, you just hit some difficulty in life and you got a fork in the road. I'm going to get so mad. I don't understand. And God, where are you? I love you. You know I do. I've been trying to live for you. It has nothing to do with the trial. Or you come to that fork in the road and you say, Lord, I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to trust you as best I know how. I'm going to keep my joy. I'm going to rest in peace in you. Peter put it like this in 1 Peter 5, 10. After that you have suffered a while, the God of all grace make you perfect. There's that word again. Establish, strengthen and settle you. It's like that weightlifter during the Olympics just a few, what are we looking at now, weeks or months ago, some guy that comes out, he doesn't have a neck, he's got a head and a body, and they come out, they weigh the same as a house. And they come out, and he goes over and he grabs that barbell. I was gonna show you how I do it, but time's getting away. And so he grabs that barbell, and what does he do? He jerks it up. and the two sides of the barbell are bent down. Every man watches this, and the barbell bends down, and he's holding it, and everything inside of him is shaking, then he has to jerk it up over his head, and he goes, and I mean his arms, his shoulders, his whole body is shaking, and he's waiting for a buzzer to ring, and when that buzzer rings, he drops the barbell. For what purpose? To get a medal that's gold, or silver, or bronze, or he hopes to get something like that. because he's representing his country. It's painful as he bears under that weight, but he's trying to do it for a goal in mind. You know the idea there is when you fall into trials, we are to bear under. How do you have joy? Knowing that God is keeping the records and he's improving us. And if you'll look at verse 12 again, I read it earlier. He says, blessed is the man that endures trials test for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Let me hurriedly finish. Not only should you. Advance with the right attitude accept the trial advance with the right attitude number three access Available resources you say Morris. What am I supposed to do when things are caving in around me when things are difficult? What am I supposed to do? You've got some available resources to access. What are they? well, you know many times we take verse 5 here in James letter and And we incorporate it into any conversation. Someone needs help. They're trying to make a decision about a job or a house or a marriage or whatever. And we say, well, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. And it's a fine general application. But in the context of what James is saying here, he's saying when you're going through a trial, you're going to need wisdom. And so he says there in verse 5, if any man lack wisdom, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. What is a resource when I'm going through something? I've got wisdom available to me. I've got wisdom that's beyond my natural ability to think things through about. It sounds something like this, Lord, I don't know what you're doing. but I want to have joy while I'm going through this hardship. Lord, I don't know how to comprehend everything that you're trying to teach me, so give me wisdom. Lord, help me as I proceed in this trial. There's another resource, not only wisdom, but prayer. Look at verse five. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. One of the greatest times of prayer you'll ever have in your life is when you're going through trials, and you know that already. Go read the Psalms, and you're studying the Psalms, I understand, throughout. studies on, I think, Wednesday nights here at the church. My point to us tonight is that the cry of the psalmist is so often saying, oh God, I need your help, I need you to deliver me, deliver me, deliver me. That's written many times in the Psalms. Look, prayer is a resource for a believer. That is to go to God and say, God, I don't know what you're doing. I'm doing my best to rest in you, to trust in you, God. Strengthen me. And there's one more resource, I love this. Let him ask of God that gives to all men liberally and upbraids not, and it shall be given him. What's that? Are you ready? Grace. It's a resource of grace. You say, ah, you and your preacher words, you know, grace. Yeah, okay, we sing it, I understand. Grace is undeserved favor from God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but no, wait a minute. Let's be practical here. Let's understand what James is saying to us. He said, when you're going through a difficulty of life that you can't even wrap your brain around and you're trying to navigate yourself through these difficult times, understand you have wisdom that's available to you. And if you call out to God for wisdom, you'll find yourself having wisdom and you'll also have God's grace. You say, what does that mean? Look for it. Look for God's goodness when going through a trial. It may come through a phone call. It may be that someone will send you a text or an email that says, hey, God just laid you on my heart. You doing all right? Just thought I'd give you a call and say, hey, just want you to know, can I pray for you about anything? I got one of those messages this morning before I left the house. Good friend I met just a few weeks ago. Look for God's gift of grace in your life. It may be coming right now. I would love to think that it's coming right now. in this message, because you may be going through something and you're sitting there tonight saying, God, did you tell Morris to preach this for me? That's a gift from the Lord. The psalmist said, show me a token for good. Show me a work of your grace in my life. Someone may give a smile to you at work at a time when you just really needed it. I don't know. I don't know in what form or manner in which it's going to come, but you can mark it down. God knows how to give us his presence and his grace. The songwriter wrote the words, there are moments on our journey following our Lord. When God illumines every step we take, there are times when circumstances make perfect sense to us as we try to understand each move he makes. But when the path grows dim and our questions have no answers, turn to Him. Bow the knee. Trust the heart of your Father and the answer goes beyond what you can see. Bow the knee. Lift your eyes toward heaven and believe the one who holds eternity. And when you don't understand the purpose of His plan, In the presence of your king, bow the knee. Did you see Naomi when she came back home from Moab? She's husbandless. She's childless. Two boys died in Moab. Did she even really want to go to Moab? I don't know. She might have just been a submissive wife to follow her husband. God's people weren't supposed to go to Moab. And after all those years, she comes back to that little town of Bethlehem. And the ladies in town, ladies, you don't want to hear this. The ladies looked at Naomi and they said, is that Naomi? She looks a lot different. She really looks older. She looks haggard. She looks worn out. And Naomi said, don't call me Naomi. What? The name Naomi meant pleasantness, pleasant one, joyful. No, she said, don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara, which means bitter. My life is just a bitter thing. I'm stuck with this Gentile woman, Ruth. Couldn't get her to stay back in Moab. I don't have a husband. I don't have a child. I don't know how we're even gonna make ends meet. Oh, my life is filled with bitter sorrow. When I read that in Ruth 2, you know what I want to say? I want to say, would you just be patient? Naomi, hang in there. In two more chapters, you're going to be holding a baby that is in the line of Messiah. You haven't seen the last chapter, Naomi. God is doing something that makes sense to you. You're gonna be holding a baby who's gonna be the great-grandfather of the king, David, who Israelites are still talking about to this day. They got the Star of David, and I love Israel. I hope you do. Here's the point. The Son of God would come through that line. It didn't make sense to her why things were going like they were. And so often, it doesn't make sense to you and me why we're facing what we're facing. Access available resources, wisdom, prayer, and look for the grace of God in your life who gives liberally to all men and upbraids not. And there's one more thing. I won't preach it because of time. Not only should you accept the trial, advance with the right attitude of joy, God's doing something. accessing the available resources. But I read to you verse 12 twice. So my final comments from Pastor James' words are simply this. Abide in the eternal perspective. What does he say there in verse 12? He says, blessed is the man that endures testings for when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life. That's what we're going to receive in eternity, eternal life. He's going to receive the crown of life, which the Lord's promised to them that love him. What's James telling us? He's telling us, keep your eyes on eternity. Quit being caught up in the whirlwind and the moral meltdown of today. Oh, what's this world at? Keep your eyes on an eternal perspective. Martin Luther, the great reformer, 500 years plus, said this. He said, I have two dates on my calendar, today and that day. I'm living for that day. I'm going to live today in light of that day. I'm gonna live recognizing that God is doing things in my life today that will be recognized in the final days. Ron Hamilton didn't understand when he was told that he might have cancer in his eye, and he lost that eye to surgery, cancer took it away. He had no idea what value is there gonna be to this. Well, take a look at your hymn book in this room tonight. Take a look at the music that your choir and others, we often sing together, Ron Hamilton, as our families, for the most part, have been raised by Patch the Pirate. He didn't understand God was doing something that would make an impact. Years ago, just a few years ago, I went home to In my home after several meetings, usually our home church, the secretary would gather all of our mail together and she would ship it out to some location where we were going to be at at some church. And most of the time when the mail showed up, it was like mail that was two to three weeks behind and we'd see bills and other things that we were waiting for, you know. I called the secretary and I said, hey, Mrs. Smith, I said, I'm coming home. I'm passing through just briefly between meetings. And I said, just let the mail sit there in the office and I'll come up there and pick it all up and get the mail. So one night I said to my two granddaughters at the time, they were there in our house, I said, hey, Munchkins, y'all wanna go with Papa up to the church and get his mail? Yeah, we wanna go out with Papa. I love that. I said, all right, let's go. These two little girls, one was, the baby was like three, maybe four, and she was sitting in her car seat directly behind me in the back. Her older sister was probably about nine, eight, nine, something like that. She was sitting over in the back seat on the passenger side and I was driving, it was nighttime. And we were coming up to the church and the buildings would be empty. And I said, now girls, I know you love for Papa to chase you. And I said, you got the big church building and you want to go hide in rooms and you love for me to go find you and you try to scare me. I said, that's a lot of fun, but we can't do that tonight. I said, because it's almost 10 o'clock. And at 10 o'clock, there's an alarm system that kicks into our church buildings. And I said, we've got to get in, get the mail, and get out before 10 o'clock. And I said, we've got plenty of time. We can do it. But if I've got to go find you hiding in the building, I said, we could pass that 10 o'clock mark. So I said, don't do that. I said, OK. Well, the talkative one sitting over here in the passenger seat in the back seat, was just asking a question every other second. Well, Papa, what happens when the alarm goes off? I said, well, it's a loud alarm, really loud. And I said, it rings on the inside and on the outside of the buildings. It's ear-piercing. And I said, and then the police department gets contacted, and they show up. I said, it's connected with the police department. They're gonna show up. And I said, then I have to explain to them who I am and who you are and what we're doing. And I said, but we're not gonna have to concern ourselves with that. Everything's gonna be fine. We'll get in and get out. Don't hide from me. Well, Papa, what if we, no, don't do that. No, I said, you stay with me. And she just got all these questions and so forth. The little one behind me was listening to all this. She asked no questions. She's just listening. So when we pulled up, I can remember this so vividly. We pulled up. I didn't realize what was going on. Normally, I have to get back behind and undo her car seats. Have you done a car seat lately? You got to have a drill, and you got to have a crowbar. I mean, they lock those kids in. Well, that's normally what I would have to do. But somehow or another, that little munchkin of a girl had undone her belts and so forth. And by the time I opened the back door, she was standing right there ready to go. When I opened the door, she flew out of that back seat into my arms and grabbed my neck with her two arms and her legs wrapped around my midsection. And she just held on for dear life. And she started shaking. And I said, Amberly, Ambers, I said, what is, what are you, what is going on? You said you're shaking. Everything's fine, sweetheart. I said, All of my talking about alarms and police and she could just see her papa being carried off to jail or something. It scared that precious little girl. No reason to be afraid. None. But I was the grown up in the crowd. I know that. I also knew we had plenty of time to get accomplished what we needed to do. But she didn't know. She's just a little girl. It didn't make sense. It scared her. She clung to me. She shook. And I kept saying, Amberlee, it's fine, sweetheart. Papa's got you. It's good. And she just gripped me tighter. I went over and opened up the door of the church building. We walked inside. And she lifted her head and looked around and buried her head back down at my shoulder. Started walking down the hall. My other granddaughter had me by the hand. And we were walking. And we walked up. And we went to the mailroom to get all my mail. By the time I got to the mailroom, I had this thought. I kind of like this. This is really special. This precious little life is clinging to me, knowing that I'll take care of her. And all I can do is say, I got you. I got this. There's no reason for you to be afraid. Later on, I got to thinking, Lord, how many times have I allowed something simple and silly but it looks big to me. Scare me. Worry me. Trouble me. Depress me. And you say, Morris, I got this. I got you. And I wonder if sometimes the Lord, one of the reasons he allows it to happen is because he wants us to cling like never before. to the one who said, coming to me, or you who labor and are heavy laden. And I'll give you rest, for I am meek and lowly. And I'll take care of you. The burden will be light. I'm here with you. So tonight, friend, if you're going through something that I don't know about, You got to go see the doctor this week and it concerns you? I mean, I don't know. And I say to you tonight, take this truth from the Lord because it's there. For those of you who are saying, you know, I'm really not going through anything right now, Maurice, then put it in your pocket and remember what Pastor James is telling us. Accept the trial. It's going to happen. Advance with the right attitude, have joy. God's doing something that won't happen any other way. Access available resources of wisdom, prayer, and grace, and abide in an internal perspective, knowing that God's keeping the books. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Thank you again for listening tonight. To God's people tonight, can I encourage you to consider something? Normally, we stand up and we encourage people to go to prayer. Tonight, I'm going to do something maybe a tad bit different. I'm just going to ask you to stay seated. I will need a pianist. We'll have some music in a moment. In a moment, I'm going to pray briefly, and then I'm just going to let you have time alone with the Lord. And if you're carrying a heavy weight tonight, tell the Lord, Lord, I'm gonna bear under because I know that you're teaching me something and you've got me. It doesn't make sense to me, but it doesn't have to make sense to me. You put it in your own words. You tell him, Lord, I heard from you tonight. If you're not going through a trouble or trial, you may have family members or someone that you love that's going through a hardship. Talk to the Lord about them. But all of us could say, I know what this is all about. And in the moment of your season of prayer, would you include with your prayer something along this line, Lord, help me during this Bible conference to grow and mature. And Lord, you know that means I may have to face something I don't wanna face, but Lord, I want to take another step spiritually. I want to advance. Now listen carefully, when you're through praying, and it won't take you that long, when you're through praying, just stand up. We're going in an opposite direction. Pray, when you're through praying, just stand up. If the person next to you prays longer than you, don't feel guilty. It's not a contest to see who can pray the longest. Just stand up when you're through praying. If the person next to you finishes before you're through praying, don't feel rushed. You finished your prayer. You say, preacher man, I don't really wanna pray. Then stand up whenever you want to. Pastor Turner will be here and ready to close out in just a moment. There'll be music being played. You can take time with your Lord. You take that burden to the Lord and say to the Lord also, Lord, I wanna take another spiritual step forward. Help me to do just that. Father, thank you for these, my new friends. I pray that in a very special way, we'll all sense that you're bringing about a maturing in our life that only you can create. Thank you for the scripture that James gives us. ever-growing and maturing, completely developed in you. We ask in your wonderful name. The time there is for you, dear friend. Take time with your Lord.