Speaker 1: Hey, what up?
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message as you're finding your seat.
Speaker 1: Would you go ahead and fist somebody around you?
Speaker 1: Thank you, worship band.
Speaker 1: Fist, bump somebody around you and say you're going to make it.
Speaker 1: Tell them they're going to make it.
Speaker 1: People were trying to tell them they weren't going to make it and you need to tell them they are going to make it.
Speaker 1: We're talking about suffering.
Speaker 1: Today we're starting a brand new series called I Can't Even.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we feel like the pressures of life and the difficulties are so rough that we're screaming I can't even handle this trial.
Speaker 1: This is also a series where we're going to look at the book of James, and the book of James is written by a guy named James, who is also actually Jesus's half-brother, and he was writing to a group of believers.
Speaker 1: Key point they were already believers.
Speaker 1: He's writing to them and he's saying hey, y'all need to grow up.
Speaker 1: Would you slap your neighbor on the knee, tell him grow up.
Speaker 1: James is going to help us over the next several weeks to grow up and we're going to start with the topic of suffering.
Speaker 1: We've got a strange relationship with suffering.
Speaker 1: Most of us don't like it and yet it is very much part of the human experience.
Speaker 1: Now don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't like suffering any more than you do.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate stuff like indoor plumbing and medicine and hospitals and all that kind of thing, but I think it's kind of funny how people try to get out of suffering sometimes.
Speaker 1: So I found this on complexcom.
Speaker 1: These are real inventions, things that people attempted to invent to alleviate suffering.
Speaker 1: The first one is air-conditioned shoes.
Speaker 1: Somebody they just couldn't handle their feet not being cooler while wearing shoes Did a little research on this one.
Speaker 1: Actually, there's nothing conditioned about the air, those are just holes in the bottom of the shoes.
Speaker 1: I don't think they did too well.
Speaker 1: Here's another one, the iPoddy.
Speaker 1: Concerned parents don't want their toddler to have to go without an electronic device even when they're learning the potty.
Speaker 1: So this iPoddy helps your little one to stay engaged on the potty.
Speaker 1: How many know that whatever iPad is on there is not the same after one seating.
Speaker 1: So if you are really concerned about that kind of suffering, you're going to want to pick up the iPoddy.
Speaker 1: Here's another one that people knew mankind needed a solution for the wine glass holder necklace.
Speaker 1: Hey man, if you're going to be drinking your wine, you can't be holding all kinds of glasses.
Speaker 1: Okay, you need to just put this right here like a feed bag, because you got stuff to do.
Speaker 1: Just put this right here like a feed bag, because you got stuff to do, probably like operate heavy machinery.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you got your beer bracelets on, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But either way, if that is your suffering, I hope that you don't pick it up.
Speaker 1: But my point is, my friends, people invent all kinds of weird stuff to avoid suffering, and I think our generation in particular has a difficult time with the idea of suffering.
Speaker 1: So when we're studying the Bible, one thing that's helpful to do is to look at the original hearers, like whoever this letter or this book was written, to look at them and say what was like me about them or what is like them about me.
Speaker 1: What similarities do I have with the ancient culture this is being written to, and one thing that you should know about this culture that James is writing to is.
Speaker 1: They had a little bit different take on suffering than we do.
Speaker 1: They didn't like it, but it was more a part of life, like they just accepted that suffering was a part of how it rolled here on planet earth and they believed that there was stuff after death.
Speaker 1: Most believe that, whether even if it wasn't a Jewish or Christian faith, they believe something happened after death and there would be compensation or consolation for some of the suffering that happened on planet earth.
Speaker 1: We, on the other hand, have a very secular mindset and we practice life very secularly.
Speaker 1: Even if we are a Christ follower, we often behave in such a way that would tell others that we believe this is all there is.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons we don't like suffering, because if you lose here, you just lose, and if you have a loss here, man, there's nothing to make up for it later.
Speaker 1: There's no value in it.
Speaker 1: You just lost your one shot and the only thing left to do is sue, and that's what people do here.
Speaker 1: But that's very different than the way James's original hearers thought about suffering.
Speaker 1: And suffering man, it has long-term consequences, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: We know this, we watch this in our own lives.
Speaker 1: We watch it in lives of other people.
Speaker 1: There's a man that came to know Jesus in a relational way, in a very tight way, the same time that I did about 20 years ago and started off, was really cooking for it, really going for it, really enjoying the fire of God living in his heart, living for the things of the kingdom Wasn't too far into his walk, however, where some of the difficulties that come with life on planet earth began to really pile up in his life and, instead of turning toward Jesus to help him through that, turned away from Jesus.
Speaker 1: Well, after about 15 years he did come back to know the Lord and I love this guy very much, still a good brother and yet during that 15 years, because of his resentments, because of his buildups, made a lot of mistakes, made a lot of mistakes that you don't get to redo, like with his marriage, with his kids, with his career really embraced multiple levels of darkness, and today you know it's just a very different story than if he wouldn't have allowed his heart to harden like he did back then.
Speaker 1: Many of you know folks like this.
Speaker 1: You've had a difficult experience because of the resentment that comes from really just unexpected suffering in life and James comes to speak to us about suffering.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want us to get off track.
Speaker 1: So he's writing to this group of believers and he says hey, listen, there's a lot of hardship here on planet earth and I'm afraid that you're going to miss the point of it.
Speaker 1: He knows that many of these folks they're embracing ways of carnality.
Speaker 1: Their spiritual walk isn't much to speak of.
Speaker 1: It's rather shallow.
Speaker 1: They're using their minds and their lips the wrong way and they're just embracing increasing levels of darkness.
Speaker 1: It's just hey, man, I got to warn you, you're going to experience trial and you got to respond to it the right way, because God wants to use trial in your life to really turbocharge your spiritual walk.
Speaker 1: He wants to use it to get you to go further, faster.
Speaker 1: He wants to this theological word, he wants to sanctify you with it, meaning make you more like Jesus Christ, instead of waste it and allow it to just make you bitter.
Speaker 1: And James is like the ultimate Yoda figure okay, of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: He's this really wise guy.
Speaker 1: He is the Lord's brother.
Speaker 1: He was the chief elder in Jerusalem until the year 67 AD when he was martyred.
Speaker 1: But when James would speak, people would listen.
Speaker 1: They want to hear his awesome wisdom and we're going to hear his wisdom.
Speaker 1: And his first bit of wisdom to us is hey, man, you've got to recognize that God is interested in actual faith, faith that does something, faith that shows up in your life.
Speaker 1: Here is the bottom line for James, and we're going to see this throughout the entire series Maturity means your faith leaves a footprint.
Speaker 1: Maturity means your faith leaves a footprint.
Speaker 1: Yes, you believe, but your belief should show up in real life, especially the way that you respond to trials.
Speaker 1: So let's look at James, chapter one, verse one.
Speaker 1: James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, greetings.
Speaker 1: He says my friends, it matters how you respond to these tests, you folks who are scattered.
Speaker 1: When he says the 12 tribes, that's just a spiritual way of referring to believers.
Speaker 1: In that time Israelites even themselves didn't define themselves by tribe really anymore.
Speaker 1: That was a spiritual way of talking about new covenant folks who are attached relationally to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And so he's talking to them.
Speaker 1: He says hey, man, I know about your doubts, I know about your anger, but you've got to know it's important how you respond to your difficulties, because if you don't respond right, they actually become more difficult.
Speaker 1: So I need you to grow up.
Speaker 1: Even when you say I can't even, god says yes, you can.
Speaker 1: Compassionately, he says you can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you.
Speaker 1: And James says faith, that is phony, eventually fizzles out.
Speaker 1: So I need you to make a decision right now.
Speaker 1: I need you to decide.
Speaker 1: It's not that you can't even, it's that, yes, you can.
Speaker 1: Even with God's help, we're going to find that these tests that we get, we all get them, you get them, I get them.
Speaker 1: What's strange about the kingdom is often you get the test first and then the lesson.
Speaker 1: In fact, in a certain kind of way, the test is the lesson.
Speaker 1: We take the test and then we didn't do it all right.
Speaker 1: We didn't really trust God, we didn't really believe this was going to be okay, we didn't really pursue him.
Speaker 1: And then we're going to get on the other side and be like, oh, I should have trusted God, guess what?
Speaker 1: Now you get to take the test again.
Speaker 1: So don't worry, you can't flunk out.
Speaker 1: But you take the test and then you learn the lesson and then you get to try to retest in the next trial.
Speaker 1: But James is really concerned that our faith shows up somewhere, that we have a new strategy.
Speaker 1: He wants a faith that results in deeds, and this is different than this, is the step after.
Speaker 1: First we trusted God by grace.
Speaker 1: Through faith, we come to him just as we are, with nothing to bring him.
Speaker 1: He forgives us of our sin, not because we do anything right, but then he says all right, you're forgiven, you're loved.
Speaker 1: Now you're going to experience some trial.
Speaker 1: Now, grow up, you can do this.
Speaker 1: Maturity means your faith leaves a footprint and, man, it really can shut us down.
Speaker 1: Trial does come to purify, but if we're not ready for it, if we're not thinking about it, trial and too much trial can begin to crush us.
Speaker 1: So how do we stay stable in trial?
Speaker 1: Let's look at it.
Speaker 1: Number one take a longer view.
Speaker 1: Take a longer view.
Speaker 1: What does he say?
Speaker 1: Verse two consider it all.
Speaker 1: Joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.
Speaker 1: He didn't say it's going to be joy.
Speaker 1: He didn't say hey, man, trials Like.
Speaker 1: He didn't say that.
Speaker 1: He said you need to regard it as joy when it comes.
Speaker 1: It's not going to feel good, but you have to decide to think about it still as a good thing.
Speaker 1: When you encounter various trials, hey, man, he didn't say if.
Speaker 1: He said when we're going to encounter various trials.
Speaker 1: If you are living on planet earth, you will experience suffering and temptation, and that is part of the deal.
Speaker 1: Even Job, way back in the day, said man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward, and it's various kinds of trouble, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Trial comes and it's unlabeled, it's unexpected, it's unanticipated.
Speaker 1: It's maybe a relational trial, or a professional trial, or a health trial, or some kind of internal wrestling match trial, or some door closed and now you don't think you'll ever get the chance again, or some kind of marital difficulty.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's political difficulties, maybe there's national difficulties, but there's all kinds of difficulties.
Speaker 1: And James says be assured, those are coming and they're going to come in various ways.
Speaker 1: But take heart because there's a point to them.
Speaker 1: God will use them for good.
Speaker 1: This is how God always does things.
Speaker 1: He wants to use them for good.
Speaker 1: Again, in the ancient world people had a weird relationship to their gods.
Speaker 1: They weren't really gods, but they would often try to appease these gods.
Speaker 1: They would hey, if I scratch this random God's back, he'll keep me from suffering.
Speaker 1: Take some of the suffering out of my life.
Speaker 1: Jesus comes along and he says.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I'm going to embrace suffering on your behalf.
Speaker 1: I'm going to suffer for you, but I'm the only God who, through suffering, I bring the victory.
Speaker 1: It's through suffering Jesus brings the victory.
Speaker 1: Let me say it again, because it's more anointed than the amount of amens that I'm getting right now Through suffering, jesus brings the victory.
Speaker 1: That's how it worked on the cross and that's how it works in our lives.
Speaker 1: It's through suffering that Jesus brings the victory, because that's how Jesus rolls.
Speaker 1: That's who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: Can you go ahead and gently slap your neighbor on the shoulder and say it only looks this bad from here.
Speaker 1: It only looks this bad from here.
Speaker 1: Now, don't hit them too hard.
Speaker 1: Don't give them a trial here in the trial message.
Speaker 1: It only looks this bad from here.
Speaker 1: How, how's Jesus going to do it?
Speaker 1: Check it out.
Speaker 1: Verse three this is what James says.
Speaker 1: Verse three knowing that the testing of your faith there it is again, the test.
Speaker 1: It's a test, it's a test of faith produces what does it produce?
Speaker 1: Endurance.
Speaker 1: It comes for a purpose to produce endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result.
Speaker 1: Oh, god's working for something here, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Speaker 1: What is he saying?
Speaker 1: So you'll be all grown up, so you'll be all ready, ready.
Speaker 1: See, god is a developer.
Speaker 1: That's what he is.
Speaker 1: He's a developer of humans.
Speaker 1: Let's pretend that you and I are going to go to the gym this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're going to give you a bench press bar and you're going to put some weight on it, okay now.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're gonna give you a bench press bar and you're gonna put some weight on it.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, I'm gonna bring along a 25 pound plate and I'm approaching you with it.
Speaker 1: Now, if you don't know my heart, you're gonna think is he gonna club me over the face with that thing?
Speaker 1: Is he bringing that, that heavy thing, to destroy me?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say no, it's not my heart at all.
Speaker 1: I'm here to develop you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put that plate on the bar.
Speaker 1: I'm saying now, do more, do more than you think you can do, do more.
Speaker 1: But I'm not here to destroy you, here to develop you.
Speaker 1: And sometimes we think God is here to destroy us.
Speaker 1: He's allowing so much weight.
Speaker 1: It's so hard.
Speaker 1: And God says fear not, I love you.
Speaker 1: I did not come here to destroy you, but to develop you.
Speaker 1: I want you to be all grown up.
Speaker 1: I want you to reach your full potential.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm doing this, and so we need to embrace the potential the trials have for us.
Speaker 1: Guys, I know this is hard, especially if you're young, because you know you just haven't seen.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're in your teens and early twenties, you just haven't seen God use a bunch of hard stuff yet for good.
Speaker 1: And so it can be hard to be patient and hang on.
Speaker 1: But can I just tell you I'm not an old man, but you know I'm moving along here in life and I've just I've been through enough that I've seen God.
Speaker 1: You know there's an intuition to it.
Speaker 1: Now it's like, yeah, well, that's kind of rough, but God's going to use it.
Speaker 1: God will use trial to equip you and I.
Speaker 1: He'll make you a better spouse, he'll make you a better parent, he'll show you your boundaries, he'll show you the end of yourself.
Speaker 1: He'll show you what is in the human heart.
Speaker 1: He'll show you where the truth is.
Speaker 1: My friend, you're not in control, the power is not with you, and we need to learn these lessons, because we get very impatient, don't we?
Speaker 1: And God is trying to work patience into us.
Speaker 1: And here's what I'm figuring out man, all of life is waiting about something, like it doesn't even matter.
Speaker 1: You get something and then, okay, I got it, but now I'm waiting on this thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, I got it, now I'm waiting on this thing.
Speaker 1: And as you go, you just keep waiting for the next thing and keep waiting for the next thing.
Speaker 1: And God is attempting to work in patience into our life.
Speaker 1: God says I know, I know what to do, I know the right timing.
Speaker 1: You're not in charge.
Speaker 1: It's not for you to be all upset about this.
Speaker 1: The case is before me.
Speaker 1: Now let go, let me shape you, let me give you what I know you need instead of what you think you need.
Speaker 1: And, man, this is so like counterintuitive to our time today.
Speaker 1: So let me just say that I'm a fan boy.
Speaker 1: Okay, I love superhero movies, or I used to collect comics when I was a kid, so I love all the stuff.
Speaker 1: When I see Captain America or Spider-Man on the big screen, man, I love it.
Speaker 1: Here's my only problem with it Superheroes, if you, if you notice this, they never have to train for nothing.
Speaker 1: Like they're all just good at it, like they're great.
Speaker 1: Okay, you got bit by radioactive spiders.
Speaker 1: So now you have like super strength like peter parker, never has to go to the gym.
Speaker 1: Man, you know I'm saying like captain america, okay, they do some.
Speaker 1: I know some fanboys, some sweaties, will get mad at me right now, will curter.
Speaker 1: They trained in issue 245.
Speaker 1: I don't need any emails about that.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm talking about specifically the movies.
Speaker 1: All right, you almost never, even if they're doing some kind of training exercise, like they don't have to get good at what they're good at.
Speaker 1: But you know, in the real world we do.
Speaker 1: That's why I love the Rocky movies, except for number five, because it doesn't count.
Speaker 1: In the Rocky movies there's always like this scene montage of okay, rocky's got the big bad guy at the end, he's got to go into this like long training regimen, right, like he's got to get ready and it's hard and it's almost killing him just to get there.
Speaker 1: We need to live more like Rocky than we do like superheroes, because that's really how God operates.
Speaker 1: God says I'm testing you, I'm training you, I'm increasing your endurance, you're going to be a little good and then you're going to fall back and you're going to get a little better and fall back.
Speaker 1: And get a little better and fall back.
Speaker 1: That's how God grows us up.
Speaker 1: It's not like Captain America, it's much more like Rocky.
Speaker 1: And you know that's the way that it was with Bible people.
Speaker 1: They had to train, they had to get it right.
Speaker 1: Jesus had to grow up and then take his test.
Speaker 1: But you know, jesus passed them and we can learn how to pass our tests the same way that Jesus did.
Speaker 1: Do you remember in John, chapter 11, when Jesus comes and he finds his friend Lazarus dead?
Speaker 1: He could have arrived four days earlier and saved Lazarus from dying.
Speaker 1: But he shows up and Jesus displays this awesome thing that only Jesus could do he displays three different emotions all at the same time.
Speaker 1: Verse 35 says Jesus wept.
Speaker 1: And so here we have Jesus, and he's sad.
Speaker 1: He's also angry.
Speaker 1: We find out in this test.
Speaker 1: He's mad at sin.
Speaker 1: He's mad at this death.
Speaker 1: This is not how he designed planet earth to go.
Speaker 1: But you know what else he is.
Speaker 1: He's mad at sin.
Speaker 1: He's mad at this death.
Speaker 1: This is not how he designed planet earth to go.
Speaker 1: But you know what else he is.
Speaker 1: He's super confident.
Speaker 1: He's super believing.
Speaker 1: Any minute I'm going to raise this guy from the dead.
Speaker 1: This is completely fine.
Speaker 1: This is going to work together for a higher glory than me just healing him.
Speaker 1: And so, jesus, he is sad, he is angry and he's also confident in Father God.
Speaker 1: And that's what you and I need to be.
Speaker 1: It's okay to be angry, it's okay to be sad.
Speaker 1: You don't have to not admit that you're going through this trial, that this is hard.
Speaker 1: But then we've got to declare with Jesus God works all things together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: There's nothing going on that isn't in God's control and God can use to point to the Father and actually make it better in our lives if we'll stay in faith.
Speaker 1: That's how Jesus did it, and I know that we all can get sorry for ourselves.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we just start feeling down, feeling bad about ourselves.
Speaker 1: I want you to consider the Apostle Paul.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's a guy.
Speaker 1: Now you don't have this in your text, let me just read it to you 2 Corinthians 11, 24.
Speaker 1: Listen to this guy's life if you're feeling sorry for yourself.
Speaker 1: Five different times, the Jewish leaders gave me 39 lashes.
Speaker 1: Okay, imagine being whipped 39 times times.
Speaker 1: Five lashes, three times.
Speaker 1: I was beaten with rods Once.
Speaker 1: I was stoned three times.
Speaker 1: I was shipwrecked.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, man, on time two of being shipwrecked.
Speaker 1: I'm like, are you serious?
Speaker 1: How does one guy get shipwrecked so often?
Speaker 1: Once I spent a whole night, a day and day adrift in the sea.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, after hour three I'd be like God.
Speaker 1: It is cold out here.
Speaker 1: I'm all wet.
Speaker 1: There's probably sharks in the water somewhere.
Speaker 1: Are you serious that I have to go through this?
Speaker 1: And yet listen to Paul's response.
Speaker 1: Sorry, yeah, paul's response.
Speaker 1: He says, therefore, same letter, therefore, verse 16, 2 Corinthians 4.
Speaker 1: Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
Speaker 1: He says my body's getting old and falling apart, but my inner man is getting younger, for momentary light, affliction, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison.
Speaker 1: It's beyond comparing with sitting in the sea for a day and a night While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Speaker 1: What does Paul say to us?
Speaker 1: He says hey, baby, take the longer view.
Speaker 1: Take the long view.
Speaker 1: Don't look at what's right in front of you.
Speaker 1: Look at what's out up ahead.
Speaker 1: Take the longer view.
Speaker 1: Paul had a thorn in his flesh, the Bible tells us.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even tell us what that is, it's just metaphoric.
Speaker 1: It means I had a really difficult trial.
Speaker 1: It hurt, couldn't get away from it.
Speaker 1: And Paul says I asked God to take it away three times and God said finally my grace is sufficient for you.
Speaker 1: Paul, the answer is no, I'm not taking it away.
Speaker 1: I'm not taking away this trial.
Speaker 1: You get to keep it and my presence with you will be enough for you to bear it.
Speaker 1: You know that reminds me of when I got sick.
Speaker 1: I was sick for four and a half years, had this just debilitating autoimmune disease, had to stop going to work, couldn't really even move, very painful and along about month three of being in that after I'm like Jesus, you need to deliver me.
Speaker 1: Oh God, I need to be healed.
Speaker 1: Oh God, move in my life, jesus, jesus, jesus, come on, you're a healer, heal me.
Speaker 1: Around month three you just go.
Speaker 1: Okay, god's not saying yes.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to have to relax in this pain, I'm just going to have to be here.
Speaker 1: But you know, there was a tremendous rest in it.
Speaker 1: There's a tremendous peace in it, because after months of saying God, would you do this, would you do this, would you do this?
Speaker 1: My soul said God knows about it.
Speaker 1: And his answer is no.
Speaker 1: Right now it's all right.
Speaker 1: God knows.
Speaker 1: God has given this to you, carter, go ahead and let God be God, because here's the deal.
Speaker 1: My friend, you know this precious and I know your pain is real.
Speaker 1: I know that it's hard.
Speaker 1: God knows best, god knows what to do, god knows what the agenda is.
Speaker 1: God knows what he's trying to do in your and my life and we can't see it.
Speaker 1: That's why we've got to take the long view.
Speaker 1: We've got to take the heavenly view.
Speaker 1: We've got to say this is a fleeting moment that is not worthy to be compared to the glory that I'm going to experience for going through this with a good attitude and with praise on my lips.
Speaker 1: And you know now Paul's not having a very bad day.
Speaker 1: That thorn doesn't bother him anymore.
Speaker 1: He's been in heaven for 2000 years and he's been accruing credit in his account because he wrote it down.
Speaker 1: And now his story has been shared the world over multiple times because he trusted God and said God knows best.
Speaker 1: Would you just gently whisper to your friend.
Speaker 1: God knows best.
Speaker 1: He does know best, he really does.
Speaker 1: So, yes, let's take the longer view.
Speaker 1: But here's number two pursue a personalized wisdom.
Speaker 1: Let's pursue a personalized wisdom.
Speaker 1: Verse five says but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all, generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Speaker 1: Now I think it is absolutely a general principle that if we ask God for wisdom and believe he's going to give it to us, he will.
Speaker 1: But in this context, I think it's so important for us to see God wants to give us wisdom about our trials.
Speaker 1: So we're in this difficult space and we say, god, I need wisdom.
Speaker 1: I need wisdom to know my steps.
Speaker 1: I need wisdom to know what to do next.
Speaker 1: We've all got steps.
Speaker 1: We talk about that all the time here.
Speaker 1: We say, hey, man, you got to take your next spiritual growth steps.
Speaker 1: Well, when you're in that place of pain, it's so easy to just react and just move fast, like, oh, you know, we're reacting, I got to fix something, I got to do something.
Speaker 1: And God says, no, calm down, you're in the dark, get still, get slow and go to prayer and say, jesus, I need to know my one, two, three, four, five.
Speaker 1: Next steps.
Speaker 1: I need to know what to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not smart enough to know what to do in this trial.
Speaker 1: There may be things I can do to shape it or shift it.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to get advice, I'm going to do research, I'm going to find out from other people's what they think about my situation, but I'm not going to leave the place of patient prayer because I need specific, nuanced instructions from the master who's allowing me to go through this trial.
Speaker 1: Some of you know of Alex Hanold.
Speaker 1: He's a free climber I think one of the most famous in the world and what he does is he climbs mountain faces without any safety gear.
Speaker 1: That's how he gets a rush.
Speaker 1: But I want you to watch this video of him doing this and I want you to see some parallels between the way he scales this cliff and the way we should be trying to go through our difficult trials.
Speaker 1: Let's watch it together.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw it when he was climbing, but they actually sped up the camera a little bit as he's climbing there.
Speaker 1: He's going super slow, he's holding on to this cliff face and all he can do is go turtle pace.
Speaker 1: He finds this handhold.
Speaker 1: Finds this handhold, pulls himself up.
Speaker 1: And, my friends, that's sometimes how we've got to go through trials.
Speaker 1: Through prayer, we're saying Jesus, show me wisdom here, and show me wisdom here, I'm not going to go too fast, just show me what to do.
Speaker 1: Got to stay still.
Speaker 1: Got to stay slow, asking the Lord, pull me up there.
Speaker 1: I know there's something on the other side of this trial, I know there's a payoff at the end, but I've got to go slow.
Speaker 1: How does James describe that we should do this?
Speaker 1: He says verse six.
Speaker 1: But he must ask in faith, without any doubting.
Speaker 1: For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.
Speaker 1: Hey, are you in a trial right now and need some wisdom?
Speaker 1: God says don't embrace two different lifestyles, don't be double-minded.
Speaker 1: I know that some of us hear that and we're afraid.
Speaker 1: Does that mean if I doubt it all, then God's going to not answer my prayer?
Speaker 1: I don't really believe that's what the scripture is teaching, because in other places in the New testament, jesus says you don't have to have perfect faith to see god move.
Speaker 1: Rather, I think we're seeing two different versions of life.
Speaker 1: Someone is tottering back and forth between a life that is living for god and a life that isn't.
Speaker 1: They're saying oh god, give me wisdom to know what to do, but over here I'm embracing all these forms of evil.
Speaker 1: And god says don't be double-minded.
Speaker 1: If you want to go my way, then go my way.
Speaker 1: Don't embrace the ways of darkness and think that I'm going to send you my wisdom.
Speaker 1: Then you've already declared through your pursuit of evil, that you don't want my ways.
Speaker 1: Reminds me of Matthew 7, 24.
Speaker 1: Jesus is in the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1: He's telling the people about.
Speaker 1: You know, listening to my word is a lot like the man that builds his house on the rock versus the dummy man that builds his house on the sand.
Speaker 1: He says anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
Speaker 1: Jesus wants our lives built on the solid rock.
Speaker 1: And he says when you're in trial, when you're scaling that cliff, face.
Speaker 1: One of the questions you need to ask is where is my life built?
Speaker 1: On God's word, on God's way, on what God wants me to do, on God's agenda on God's timing and where really am I?
Speaker 1: Over in the sand, just doing my own thing, not caring what God's way is, not caring what he would want me to do.
Speaker 1: God says use that trial time to push your house more over on the rock.
Speaker 1: And you might say well, carter, I'm a Christian.
Speaker 1: Of course my house is on the rock.
Speaker 1: I know categorically if you're a Christian.
Speaker 1: Yes, your house is on the rock.
Speaker 1: But practically speaking, most of the Christians I know are really somewhere in the middle Parts of their house are on the rock.
Speaker 1: But then they've got these holes in life where they've built it on the sand.
Speaker 1: And God says I want to use your trial to get you off the sand, so your house is more on the rock.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you are there places that you need to choose God's timing, choose God's choice, choose God's relationships?
Speaker 1: For you, maybe for some of us it's just an identity thing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God's trying to use difficulty to get our identity grounded in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Listen here if you're a Christian, you gotta understand your identity is not what you do, it's not what your job is, it's not what your relationship status is, it's not what your Facebook status is, it's not anything that you do or have accomplished or have been given.
Speaker 1: Your identity, your core thing, it's not even your gender.
Speaker 1: Your core thing is that you are Jesus's precious.
Speaker 1: That's what you are A redeemed, blood bought creature that he has redonkulous affection for.
Speaker 1: That's your identity.
Speaker 1: When I was a young pastor, when I was like 22, I wasn't the pastor of this church.
Speaker 1: It was a different church.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have been a pastor at that young, but I was.
Speaker 1: And there was a leadership mistake made not by me.
Speaker 1: But the consequences hit me and overnight I was no longer the pastor of that church.
Speaker 1: The entire church split.
Speaker 1: My identity was rocked because the very next day I was a pizza delivery boy and I was like, oh, how can I go from one to the other?
Speaker 1: And God used the next year to ground me on the rock, to get me into the scriptures and say Carter, your identity was never in your role, it was never in your job title.
Speaker 1: That's just your tasks, that's just a description of what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Your identity is that you are my son.
Speaker 1: Your identity is that I think you're worth coming to get, and that's what he did.
Speaker 1: Coming to get, and that's what he did.
Speaker 1: Hey, god's not mean.
Speaker 1: You guys know this.
Speaker 1: He's not mean, but he will lovingly rend false identities and false loves out of our hands and hearts, and he'll use trials to do it.
Speaker 1: So what do we do At the end of the day?
Speaker 1: We've already prayed, we've sought God for our personal steps, we've decided to take the long view.
Speaker 1: Now, at the end of the day, we stand fast out of love.
Speaker 1: That's how we do it.
Speaker 1: That's how Jesus did it as he was going to the cross.
Speaker 1: He's the real man.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, listen to this.
Speaker 1: Verse 12,.
Speaker 1: Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial.
Speaker 1: For once, he's been approved.
Speaker 1: He will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the man who persevered under trial.
Speaker 1: He was looking forward to what was ahead.
Speaker 1: He wasn't only looking forward to heaven, he was looking forward to you.
Speaker 1: He was looking forward to the spoils of his battle, to the reward of scaling that cliff of the cross.
Speaker 1: And it was you.
Speaker 1: And he said you're worth it.
Speaker 1: And so, my friends, this is the secret, this is how we, when we've done all we can do, this is how we get through it.
Speaker 1: We say, jesus, this difficulty, this marital difficulty, this health difficulty, you are worth it for me to keep climbing.
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep going If nothing ever gets resolved, if I don't get healed, if I don't come out on top.
Speaker 1: Jesus, just because you came and got me, you are worth it for me to keep climbing.
Speaker 1: Just because I love you, you are worth going for it.
Speaker 1: God, I'm not giving up because you didn't give up on me.
Speaker 1: Here's what I'd love to do.
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to stand up.
Speaker 1: I'd love to pray for those of us that are going through something significant right now and you don't know if you're gonna make it, and you feel tremendously discouraged and your hope is leaking out of the bottom.
Speaker 1: Let's all stand up together and we're just going to come before God and I'm going to pray for you.
Speaker 1: And maybe you came with somebody today.
Speaker 1: Maybe that person you know that they're going through.
Speaker 1: No one's going to notice this because we're all going to have our heads down.
Speaker 1: But place your hand on their shoulder just to demonstrate that Jesus is with them, or stick your hand in their hand and let's pray this together Dear Jesus, we want to take the long view.
Speaker 1: We want to know our personalized steps that we need to take and, god, we want to love you in such a way that it will cause us to keep going.
Speaker 1: Many of us have been hurt.
Speaker 1: We don't necessarily know what we're going to do next, and some of us, god, we've asked you again and again to take this away, and you haven't taken it away.
Speaker 1: And so for some of us, god, we're putting it in your hands and we're saying you are God and I am not, and I wish you'd take it away and I wish that you would just let me skip this.
Speaker 1: But if you don't, god knows best.
Speaker 1: God knows best.
Speaker 1: So give us the strength and give us the power and give us the consolation that there is a good God who is on our side, who is going to work everything together for good.
Speaker 1: Help us to be real, help us to cry, help us to be angry, but help us to decide to draw a line in the sand and say no, I will be found believing if it is with my last breath.
Speaker 1: Oh God, help us grow up through our trials.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation.
Speaker 1: Check out Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person.
Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: It's because of you that this is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fiercechurch for more information.
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Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.