The Faith-filled Life - All Up in Your Business (Week 6)

We don’t like to wait, especially when it comes to big life decisions. So we fill the waiting with distractions, avoid it, or try to rush the process. But what if there’s a better way? Listen as Pastor Leah Hammett takes us through the final week of All Up In Your Business!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Amen. Amen, everyone. Yes, amen. Well, I am so excited to be here with you more this morning as we conclude our six-week series on getting James getting all up in our business. And let me tell you, boy, has he ever, amen? Woo! He does not play around. James has been giving us the truth and giving us these love punches. Almost like each week I walk in, and whoever is preaching gives me a refreshing punch in the face. I mean, that's how it feels. It's so good. I'm I'm definitely gonna go back, and I feel like I need to start over after all the things that I have learned over the past um six weeks, and this morning is not gonna be any different. Here comes James, and he's gonna end it really well with a big love punch to the face. See, I love communicating with gifts, not like gifts like G-I-F-T, but like gifts. And I even asked my son how to say it. And evidently that's how you say it. But when the when whoever is preaching that with this series, I have felt like this at the beginning of the sermon: like, oh my gosh, what's coming? Lord, how are you gonna get all of it in my business today? And then as the sermon progresses, I like to sink down into the pew, reading my mail for sure. See, God wants to refine us, He wants to change things with inside us, and He wants to do something amazing. And this morning's no different, so let's pray. God, I thank you that you are gonna come in and open our eyes and ears, God, to what you want to say. Lord, I pray that my words will fall away and only your words would be what lands this morning. Lord, we love you and we are here wanting to hear from you. So come move in power in Jesus' name. Everyone said, Amen. Well, see, we as followers of Jesus are called to be different, and James really wants us to focus in on that. We are called to be a different kind of people, we are called to be doers of the word, not just hearers. In other words, James is like, hey, don't be a poser, all right? Don't just say you're a Christian, but actually do what the word says. And once again, this morning, we are going to allow James to come in and he's gonna expose maybe some worldliness that is operating inside of here. He's gonna challenge us to seek divine wisdom from the Lord as we conclude with chapter five, so that we can continue to live out our faith in a way that the Lord instructs us to. Doesn't that sound amazing? All right, well, let's get to it. So there's two things, um, actually, three things that James concludes his book with. The first one and your first homework assignment is he has a warning to the rich. And James, this chapter is so packed full that we don't have time to unpack all of it. So I want you in your quiet time. Yes, you're welcome. You have a quiet time assignment now. Your first assignment is to read that warning to the rich. But we're gonna pick up in verse seven today, and there's two action and application steps in our faith that James addresses: the action and application of patience and waiting. Everyone loves to wait. So good. Yeah. And the action and application of prayer through suffering. Well, there he goes again. Everyone loves to suffer, right? See, James knows that biblical patience, biblical waiting, and the power of prayer are essential to being doers of the word. He does not hold back these things, patience, waiting well, and a stout and healthy prayer life are the way of Jesus. And James emphasizes these things well with key words: action and application. See, we need to actively live and walk in patience. Actively wait on the Lord, obedient while we wait, and actively turn to prayer as a tool in suffering, and then apply such things as we continue to live and walk out our faith as God tells us to do that. So, how do we do that? What does that look like? Well, let's read in verse 7, and the title of these verses, 7 through 12, are Patience in Suffering. James says, be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. That doesn't mean just be patient when I want to, just be patient when it feels good. But no, no, no. As long as our feet are planted on this earth, we need to be patient. He says, See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Here he is again, driving it home. Establish your hearts. That means be firm in it, establish it. For the coming of the Lord is at hand. James is speaking to believers that encounter suffering. And I want to stop right here because this is huge and a huge revelation for us. A lot of times when we come to Jesus, when we surrender our lives over to the Lord, when we give him everything and give him lordship over our lives and walk in lordship, we can have this misconception that we're not gonna suffer anymore. Or maybe we may even have the misconception of that the suffering is gonna subside, it's not gonna be as bad. But let me tell you, James tells us no, no, no, you're gonna suffer. But I love that transition word. We have hope because we have a savior who's never gonna leave us, who's never gonna forsake us, and who is going to be with us in the suffering. And even in John 16, it says, I have said these things to you, and this is Jesus talking, that in me, so in Jesus, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation or troubles or trials. So how cool is that? So troubles are inevitable, but then we're gonna get God's peace in troubles. Y'all, this is good news this morning, church. This is great news, and then he goes on, but take heart. When Jesus says this, I feel like Jesus is saying, I've got this. So peace be with you. But take heart. I have overcome the world. We can have that hope that when we suffer, God has overcome suffering. One day we're not gonna have to suffer anymore. But that suffering is normal. And sometimes we as Christ followers just need to be reminded that it's normal and it's okay, and we're gonna be okay. Jesus is honest about this world having trouble until he comes back for us, and that we would experience trouble because the world is broken. But he is telling us that while troubles are gonna happen, that we're gonna have that peace. See, it was never a guarantee, church, that suffering would not be a part of our story. It's an illusion and it's a pipe dream that the enemy wants us to believe, to think that troubles are not a part of our story. So back to James. James says to the believers that are suffering, he says, there's a solution. We need to be patient in those times until the Lord, until the Lord's coming. He's not referring to Christ's return. He's not only referring to Christ's return, he's exhorting believers to be patient until the Lord comes and he wants to get in. The Lord wants to get into our circumstances and get into our business. See, we have this societal problem with patience and waiting and suffering, even Christians. We are actually the ones that should be patient, should suffer well the most because we have that hope in Jesus. We have the helper, we have the one that is for us and not against us, but we struggle to apply patience. There's that word, apply. And we sure don't like to wait. I don't know about you, but I don't like to wait. You know, like when something good is cooking, like I want it. You know, I don't like to wait. This has become a societal norm that has spread like a plague, and we can often equate patience with twiddling of our thumbs. When I'm called to be patient or in seasons where I need patience, that means that I'm just gonna sit back. I have to be passive and I have to twiddle my thumbs, which makes it feel even worse. But James illustrates the concept using the farmer to help us out here. We all know what a farmer is, right? We do. I mean, I know that we don't grow things here in West Texas, really. We grow dirt and H E B bags. That's what we grow. A lot, a lot of dirt. Oh, and this is the season where we see them the most, right? Where the wind is coming in, and man, it just is all over. But when the farmer waits, he waits for the precious fruit of the earth. He doesn't sit on his porch in the rocking chair, he doesn't twiddle his thumbs. No, he daily cares for the crops while he waits. He has a responsibility, he has a call to be busy, he has a call to participate with what the Lord is calling him to, to care for the things that the Lord has entrusted him to while he waits. See, he's not passive, but he acknowledges the call and he knows that the promise is coming. James goes on about the farmer. The farmer must exercise and apply patience until the early end, the late rains. Here's a really geeky side note, a weather side note, okay? The early and late rains describe the Palestinian climate. The early rains being right after the farmer sows the seed, and the late rains refers to just before the harvest. It's both and. The Lord provided the early rains and the late rains. Now, if you think of the duration between the seed and the harvest, that's a long time. The farmer patiently waits, fulfilling his call, even though he finds himself in a season of waiting. Church, are we looking for the early and the late rains? Are we looking for the little God-breathed moments, lessons that he wants to teach us in the waiting, how he's sustaining us, the baby steps in between? Are we just sowing the seed and wanting the immediate harvest? See, God is at work between the seed and the harvest, and we cannot miss these things. Just as the hypothetical farmer waits and holds that responsibility, we have to do the same and keep going. Staying focused on the task at hand and in the seasons of waiting. One of my favorite Old Testament um examples of this is Nehemiah. And I'm gonna give you the cliff notes. That's that's homework assignment number two. You see how I'm like mapping out your quiet time? It's awesome. I'm giving you all the tools. You're welcome. So Nehemiah is one of my favorite books, and he's one of my favorite dudes in the Bible. Like I love him so much. He was assigned to build a wall, and it was a huge assignment from the Lord. But the enemy came strong to try to distract him from doing what God had called him to do. So scripture says that he had a sword in one hand, knowing that there was gonna be distraction and that it was going to be a hard season, while also continuing to build the wall with the other hand. That is action and application. Right there. Patience, knowing that he has a task where he is going to have to exercise patience, leaning on the Lord, but ready to go, not sitting in the rocking chair twiddling his thumbs. We actively wait. That's what we do, and that's how we're different. We know that God is at work. We have faith and trust that he will be faithful, that he will fulfill his promises, that he has spoken over us, over our family, and that he is going to send the rain even in the desert. A rain for sowing in the beginning, and a rain for the harvest, the fulfillment. And he'll be so faithful to do so. I have um picked up a hobby. Are y'all ready to hear this? I know. You know, we just have to fill things sometimes, fill time. And I have so much time on my hands that I have decided to do a sourdough starter and make my own sourdough bread. Why? Why? Listen, if you get a gift of a sourdough loaf, they've spent two days. Okay? They love you a whole lot. Like a whole lot. You're one of their favorite people. And I decided to bake. And this did not turn out really great. I have said more bread terms in the past two months than I've ever wanted to say in my life. Bulk fermentation, stretching and folding. The water has to be just right at this certain temperature, and you have to wait for it to rise like 80 million times before you even bake it. It is excruciating. And the first time that I did it, this was what it looked like. It's coming. There it is. Yeah, pita bread. Anyone want some hummus? Let's just go at it. And my amazing husband actually tried it. God bless him. Yeah. Y'all pray for him. I make him try all the things. Okay, listen, I am a really good cook too. And I am a good baker. So this was really disappointing. And I don't struggle with pride at all. This area, this one hurt, guys. So what did I do when this happened? What did I do? I sought wisdom. I had a friend who did it, does amazing sourdough, and then I'm gonna sell them out. Our own Pastor Oscar cooks or bakes amazing sourdough. Like he does cheddar and jalapeno and honey oat and all these things. I'm like, listen, bro, I'm just trying to get the the main thing, the main thing. Like, I just gotta get the regular loaf. I can't do any of the add-ons right now. And so, like, I got wisdom from him, and he's like, stir it this way and stretch and full this way, and it's so it's really awkward. Anyway, so I did, and this was my second loaf. What? Okay. But then after the second loaf, it went back to pita bread. It did. Um, but I've I've got to go to this one. This loaf produced this harvest. Oh yeah. Those are turkey, bacon, avocado, caramelized onion sandwiches that were bomb. They were so good. Y'all, this harvest was amazing because I didn't rush the process and I let it do what it was supposed to do. And two days later, we ate sandwiches and the whole loaf was gone. The whole loaf was gone. And just for kicks and giggles, I'm gonna show you what Pastor Oscar's loaves look like. Yeah, way different. I know. You see, like how you know the thing that's called an ear, that little slit where it raises up. Yeah, look at his ear. You need to go to Pastor Oscar and be like, you have a great ear. He'll know exactly, he'll know exactly what you mean, and it'll be awesome. So listen, the weight is worth it when we don't rush the weight. I had to be disciplined in the process. I had to stick to the steps. I couldn't rush. I wasn't waiting passively. I had to do things in between the steps. I had a responsibility. And then I had to trust the process of making the bread. And the same is true for us. We have a responsibility when we're called to be patient and obedient to fulfill the call in seasons of waiting, trusting God that He's up to something very good every time we wait, friends. Let us not quit when the waiting season comes, but let us be a people who don't quit before we hear God's guidance and his voice in a certain area. And let's not get anxious when waiting is the call. I'm gonna say it again. When waiting is the call. Sometimes waiting is the call. I see Christians struggle with the wait all the time, myself included. Where has our God grit gone? Where is our faith? Where is the farmer that waits and is patient to receive the fruit of the harvest? Knowing that the harvest is coming. James speaks of God grit in verse 10. Let's read it. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and of Ruth, guys, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate, and how he is merciful. What does he say will happen? What does James say will happen to those who suffer and stay steadfast? They were blessed. Those who remain steadfast don't quit when it gets hard, will be blessed. There is a blessing to look for in the wait. And sometimes in seasons of waiting, news flash, he gives us other blessings that we didn't even pray for. Are we looking for that? Are we just focusing on what we want it to turn out like? No, we can trust God's outcome. And that brings us to the last part of the book of James: action and application through prayer. See, James offers a way out and a tool in the midst of suffering. And the answer is super simple. It's prayer. Let's read in verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? And look at this simple three-word sentence. Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

unknown 24:14

Man.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Verses 13 through 15 offers a lot of hope to us as believers. Prayer is a solution, and then James commissions us to pray with great faith through suffering. As we pray through suffering, God is always working. And prayer sustains and upholds our weary and anxious flesh, our waiting spirit, and our suffering soul. And when we pray, the sustaining power of God, it's one of his miracles, guys. The sustaining power of God in the waiting and suffering will be unlike anything that the world can offer you. It's amazing. Prayer upholds you in the suffering. It's foundational, and we can't forget to do it. Let me tell you something. The world offers a lot of easy way outs of suffering. It offers a lot of ways to fill us temporarily in the midst when suffering comes knocking at our door. Temporary numbing or fixing or solutions, but they are empty worldly promises that will never be enough. And it doesn't make suffering subside. And temporary fixes honestly don't make the waiting go any faster either. Can I get an amen from anybody? Yeah. Prayer is a biblical filling that will not return void. And James understood this. He himself suffered. He too found himself in seasons of suffering where he had to wait on the Lord. So James is speaking to us here and getting all up in our business from a place of knowing. And I think it's so gracious to give us a love punch in this area and say, Hey, this is what you do. Don't turn to anything else, but turn to prayer, the word of God, gathering others, godly community. That's how we're different. That's how we do it. All right, y'all ready for me to tell on Pastor Andrew? Yeah, he's like on a plane, you know, like flying back from Manila the World Conference. It's gonna be so good. Okay, so he he actually gave me permission to share this story. So a long time ago, um he uh was helping out uh Pastor Daniel's wife, Kayla. And she was in the parking lot here at the church and she ran out of gas. And so what does a good man do? He's like, I'm I'm coming to the rescue, right? And so he runs to the shed and he grabs a red um gas tank, you know, and what are those filled with? Yeah, right? I mean, they're supposed to be, right? So he just like confidence, right? Boom. Good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good. And her car, when she turns it on, it starts smoking and sputtering. All right, this is this is this is your wife, Pastor Daniel. Yeah, I mean, and you know, like Andrew is like, I have a job here that I might not have anymore. I'm gonna ruin her car. Well, guess what was in there? Diesel. Yeah. Well, someone gave him the wisdom. I don't know who. Maybe he just thought of it on his own because Pastor Andrew is super smart, and he took it to, they they decided to take it to the gas station and um dilute the diesel with more gas. And then it was fine. Okay, and her car was fine, and Andrew kept his job and he wasn't fired. Yay! So good, right? But isn't that true with us too? When we try to fill our tank with something that we shouldn't be filling it with. When we get some bad, I've gotten bad gas before. I haven't put diesel in my car, but I have gotten some bad gas. And you know, like the engine idles and it sputters and it's just not good, right? It's the same when we try to put fillers in our life to fix or to control or to make better. That's what happens with our souls. When we don't turn to prayer, the word of God, godly community. When we're tired, James says pray. When we want to quit and give up, James says pray. When we're overwhelmed with circumstances, we grab trusted friends that are believers and we ask them to pray. And we must not turn to this false gratification in times of waiting and suffering, but we must pray and be careful and aware of the fillers and the temptation, because that's what it is, to fill it with anything other than those things. So I'm gonna give you a list here of things, little red flags, just to be aware of this morning. So we can try to fill the weight and suffering with distraction. Netflix, anyone? You know, like I don't want to face my problems. I just want to go home and just turn on a show. I just need to escape. I need a distraction, right? Or self-care, um, retreating or ignoring or running. Hey, how about I just be an ostrich? If I just put my head in the sand and just ignore it, right? Or control or manipulation. Some of us struggle with that to try to get what we want in times of waiting or times of suffering. We try to manipulate things, we try to control things so that the suffering's not so bad. We don't feel it so much. Or we give in to weariness. The second that a season of waiting comes, the second that we feel like God is calling us to be patient, the second that a season of suffering comes, we literally just spiral down to a dark place. Oh, well, what always happened is just always gonna happen. Remember the sermon a couple weeks ago that Pastor Andrew gave us. Be careful. Our words have power. Yes? Or we try to force or rush, we try to shorten the weight, or we dig in, strive harder. We think that the weight has something to do with what we do instead of what God wants to do and what God wants to show us inside of the waiting period between seed and harvest, between the early and the late rains, or rebellion. We can get into that mentality of I've tried prayer, it doesn't work. I've tried my own way, I've tried the Christian way, I've tried this, I've tried that, I'm done, I'm gonna run, I'm gonna rebel. Doing the righteous thing, turning to God doesn't make me feel better in the moment, so the God thing must not work. No. God wants to refine us in those times. He wants to make us stronger so we can't rebel and reject when God is trying to make us more and more and more and more like him, because I want to be more like him. I want him to come inside of my heart and my soul, and I want him to refine me. I want to welcome that refinement. None of those seven things produce what we need. But the good news is, like Pastor Andrew putting diesel in Kayla's car, and they took it and they diluted the diesel with more gas. That is how God wants to work in us. When we wander off, when we try to fill our tanks with temporary fixes, his grace comes in, he pulls us back. Let me tell you something. In his kindness, he pulls us back, and he reminds us to seek him through prayer and his word and his truth dilutes the diesel and the bad gas. And we come out stronger. We come out of the struggle stronger. Our knee-jerk reaction should be to pray. And C.S. Lewis says it best. He says, I pray. Because I can't help myself.

unknown 33:40

I need Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time. Waking and sleeping, it doesn't change God, it changes me. Are we willing to let it change us? Are we willing for to let God come in and refine and change us to be different? Are we willing to actively wait, actively pray through suffering? It's risky, I know. But it will not return void. And there will be fruit when we let God change us in seasons of waiting and suffering, not expecting him to be Amazon Prime and arrive on Tuesday. But for real, y'all. We can put those expectations on God and wanting him to be Amazon Prime and arrive quick. And we can welcome the early rains when we sow the seed, but not wait for the late rains. The harvest will come. He does have a plan, and he will deliver us from suffering. When we turn to prayer, prayer will be what holds us in the waiting and the suffering. James wanted us to make sure that we knew that we needed to be different and operate differently, to wait patiently, and even dare I say, to welcome seasons of waiting and to welcome opportunities to be and walk in patience. Eugene Peterson says waiting means going about our assigned task. Action and application. Confident that God will provide the meaning and the solutions. Church, bow your heads. If you find yourself in a time of waiting, a season of suffering. Or maybe a time where you're really having to walk in a lot of patience. I just want you, no one's looking around, everyone's head is bowed. So I just I want you just to raise your hand really high. Raise it high. Yeah. You can put it down. We're gonna do what James said and we're gonna pray. Because we know that we need the sustaining power of God when we're in those seasons. And we don't want to miss a thing that He's trying to do in it. So, God, we come to you right now. And we thank you for who you are, we thank you for the refinement that you have brought to us through James these past six weeks, God. And we bring our season of waiting, suffering, or seasons where we need to walk in patience. God, we bring it to you. We don't want to miss a thing that you're doing. From sowing to harvest, God, we are ready to look around and see your God-breathed moments, how you're making us stronger, God. And we release and surrender the outcome to you right now in Jesus' name. Lord, have your way. We trust you. And just like you did with Moses and the Israelites, when they escaped and they had a sea in front of them that seemed so overwhelming, and the enemy was behind them and they felt trapped. Lord, you came and did what only you can do, and you parted the Red Sea. God, so we ask that you would show us, God, in these seasons that you are working. Lord, and we thank you that you are faithful. May we recount the ways that you have been faithful in the past and that you're gonna continue to be faithful in the future and you'll do it again. So, Lord, sustain us and help us remember to turn to prayer in those times. Return to your word and gather those around us to pray over us as well. God, we thank you for who you are, and we pray this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.