95-53 – Wisdom Breakers – Pain Is Your Friend

This sermon is Part 1 of the series "Wisdom Breakers" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

Wisdom Breakers is a study of the book of James. James tells us that as long as our faith is weak and if our faith is wavering, then we can never possess wisdom. When God calls us to fulfill his purpose, HE does not rescind that calling. Often times we can distracted or sidetracked with living out our mission. My identity in Christ is directly related to whether I understand what it means to be a bond servant of Jesus Christ. This is how James identifies himself in the opening of this book. Dr. Betters is about to explain that if we understand that our identity in Christ is that of bond servants to him, that is when we become a threat to the powers of Satan. Because then our identity is clear and we can serve the Lord to our fullest.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Betters, produced by Mark Inc. Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches today's message.

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Take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of James. New Testament Book of James. The very first chapter, James chapter one. I'd like to look together at the first eight verses. James chapter one. Beginning with verse one, we'll read through verse eight. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. You know what is so intriguing about the book of James is how much difficulty throughout the course of church history this book has had finding its mark or its place in the canon of Scripture. Many have doubted over the years that James even belongs in the 66 books. Martin Luther had significant trouble with the book of James and in fact suggested that James should not be included in the canon because of what appears to be its emphasis upon works. Later in the book, he's going to talk about faith without works being dead. And Luther, of course, being one of the spearheaders of the Protestant Reformation, looked at the whole doctrines of Roman Catholicism, saw a great emphasis upon working your way to heaven, and an emphasis upon salvation by works and sanctification by works, and wrestled with that. And of course, we know it gave birth to the three great dogmas of the Reformation: sola gratis, or grace alone, sola fide, faith alone, and sola scriptura, scripture alone. And out of that emerged the great doctrines of justification by faith alone, that a man cannot be justified in the sight of God by what he does. But it is by God's grace and through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross that a man is made right before God. The whole basis of the Reformation was fundamentally laid on that doctrine. Everything revolved around whether or not you believed in justification by faith alone, or justification by faith plus something else, that something else being works. And so there was great, great controversy over whether or not the book of James has its rightful place because at first glance it seems to be inconsistent with the doctrines of justification by grace or by faith alone. In fact, when you get into chapter 1, verse 19 through chapter 2 and verse 26, you can label that whole section true Christianity, is seen in its work. It's what it does. And so some have concluded from that, Luther being one of them, that there's such an emphasis upon works here that James missed the whole fundamental truth of Pauline theology pertaining to justification. In fact, Luther went as far as to say what's vital is what urges Christ. Now, those were his words. They became somewhat symbolic of Lutheran theology. What urges Christ. And over the course of many, many years, different scholars in Lutheran traditions have done great injustice to what Luther was trying to say in referencing what urges Christ. Luther stood up and said, James does not urge Christ. And since it does not urge Christ, it should not have a place in the canon. Now he struggled with that. And many of the framers of the canon as we have it disagreed with that and saw James perfectly fitting within the context of justification by faith, and thus it is included in our canon. Some of the Lutheran scholars went as far as to say, what urges Christ is what you say urges Christ. So you're the listener. You're the one sitting there observing. And so if it urges Christ for you, then it's scripture. If it doesn't urge Christ for you, then it's not scripture. I think you can see how dangerous that kind of a doctrine can become. The individual then determines what is scripture and what isn't scripture. So James is not without its controversy. It is probably the earliest book of all of the New Testament. We know that James was martyred, James, the half-brother of Jesus, was martyred in about 44 A.D., and that most of the New Testament writings came after that. So James is more than likely the earliest of the New Testament books, probably written around 40 A.D. or so. Now here's the intriguing part. James, who was an unbeliever while Jesus was preaching and teaching his ministry, James, the half-brother of Jesus, the one who grew up with him, the one who worked the carpenter shops with him. James, one of the four brothers of Jesus, born out of a relationship between Mary and Joseph, that James became a believer after the resurrection. Jesus appeared to James, and some suggest, and I think rightfully so, in a private appearance where Jesus appears to James, who became the titular head of the first century church. If there was a head of the first century church in Jerusalem, it was not Peter. If there was a head of the first century church, it was James. James was the one who presided over the council. James was the one who mediated in Jerusalem. He was the first bishop of the Jerusalem church. But now here's the real irony of this book. James is written, if you look at verse 1, it says, to the twelve tribes, diasperod. That's a Greek word which means spread about or scattered. To the twelve tribes, scattered among the nations. Now who are these twelve tribes and why were they scattered among the nations? There was intense persecution that drove the church out of Jerusalem and into the four corners of the earth. Many Christians lost their homes. They lost their way of making a living. They lost their position in society. They lost their religious connections. They were thrown out of the synagogues. They were demoralized, they were desocialized, and they were scattered as the result of intense persecution. James is still located as the head of the New Testament church in Jerusalem. He's still there. He's still secure. He's still in his home. Now eventually we are told that he was thrown off the temple, literally off the temple, and stoned to death because he would not recant his position that Jesus is the gate through which all men must pass. We know that James eventually became a martyr, but when this book was written, he was secure. The saints were scattered, they were being persecuted, they were the ones that were having to face terrible, life-threatening, and painful situations. So he begins his letter by saying, consider it pure joy, pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Some have conjectured, critics of James have conjectured, there's a man that's lost touch with reality. Here is a pastor who doesn't know what it's like to live in the real world. How could he stand there on his perch in Jerusalem, safe and secure, and say to the Christians who were being scattered and persecuted, consider it pure joy when you fall into different trials. And so James is not without its problems. In the first 18 verses of chapter 1, he deals with this whole issue of Christian maturity in the light of trials. In fact, you can entitle that Trials and Christian Maturity. Chapter 1, verses 1 through 18. Then he moves from that and begins a discussion about the relationship between the Word of God, the law of God, and the relationship of faith and works. Then he gets into some very practical problems that were existent in the church, not the least of which is how Christians treated one another with their tongues. We still have that problem today, don't we? How Christians treated one another with their speech. Dissension that came as the result of how Christians talked to one another and acted in the presence of one another. When you come to chapter 4, verse 13, all the way through chapter 5 and verse 11, he says, now, Christian, you need to broaden your perspective on life. You are not an island unto yourself. There is a whole world out there with which you must interact. And so he begins a discussion in chapter 4, verse 13, about the need to factor our plans into the whole concept of a sovereign God. I cannot make plans for tomorrow because I live under the jurisdiction of a sovereign God. I must recognize God's judgment in my life. I must recognize that God will reward the righteous and that he will punish the unrighteous. And then in chapter 5, beginning with verse 12 through the end of the book, he gives some final exhortations. He talks about oaths in verse 12. He talks about prayer and healing in verses 13 through 18. And then he talks about the responsibility that we have as Christians one for another, the relationships within the body. He wrote this letter from Jerusalem during his reign as the first bishop of Jerusalem, right around the middle of the 40s of that first century. It is perhaps the earliest New Testament book. Now here's his audience. James is trying to reach Christians who were formerly Jews, Jewish converts, Jewish people who converted to Christianity. In fact, it has caused some to doubt the authenticity of the book of James because there's so much Jewish language in it. People have criticized and said, where's the Christian language? Why all of the Jewish language, for example, the Old Testament law is mentioned throughout the book of James? The synagogue is mentioned in chapter 2, verse 2, for example. There's a wide use of Old Testament and Jewish metaphors. In fact, if you look at chapter 1, verse 1, he directs this or addresses this to the 12 tribes, that's a Hebraic expression, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Friends, as early as 40 A.D., as early as 40 A.D. when this letter was written, already the New Testament community had seen or drawn the connection between the old covenant people of Israel and the new covenant people of Israel. That the church became the Israel of God. That God's purpose is fulfilled in accomplishing what he planned to accomplish for Old Testament Israel, New Testament Israel, those two that are put together simply are called the Church of Jesus Christ. There is no special purpose of God for the Jews. We are not dispensationalists in the sense that we believe that God has one purpose for Israel and another purpose for the church. That we are a kind of parentheses that God has turned to because the Jews have rejected him. That simply is not biblical doctrine. The Old Testament covenant people of Israel in the New Testament are called the Israel of God. It is the covenant people, the elect of God, now made up of Jew and Gentile alike, for whom Christ died on the cross. And so when James says to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations, he is referring to the Christian community that has now been scattered, and he calls them the twelve tribes who are scattered among the nations. This is a sermon letter. Actually, if you look at James and some of the breakdowns that I just gave you, each of those are like mini sermons, homilies that James must have preached. They were put down in written form and circulated among the church. This became an encyclical letter. It was a letter that was spread throughout the church because it had so much in the way of practical application and pastoral admonition. There's a loose structure in James, sort of like sermons have, a loose structure. There's not a rigidity in preaching per se that dots every I and crosses every T. There's a looseness and a freedom that is involved in preaching, and some have conjectured that James was indeed preaching, and that these messages were put down in written form and disseminated. Well, now knowing that, let me tell you fundamentally in this first chapter what he's talking about, and specifically what he's talking about in these first eight verses. If you look at James chapter 1, verse 2, he says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. If you wanted to put a paragraph heading on verses 1 through 4, you could say chapter 1, 1 through 4 represents a sermon or a homily, a message all of us need to memorize. Every one of you need to understand what these first four verses mean because every one of us faced trial in this life. If you wanted to put a heading on those first four verses, you would say this represents the mature view of suffering. There is an immature view of suffering, and there's a mature view of suffering. This is the mature view. And right off the bat, right off the bat, James uses a colorful expression. A colorful word, a pregnant word, a word that is jam-packed with meaning when he refers to himself as James, a servant of God? Now there are several words for servant. The one he chose here is the word bond slave. That's where a mature view of suffering begins. We are mere bond slaves. Now let me ask you something. Does a bond slave have any rights? Shake your head, no. A bond slave has no rights. He doesn't have the right to comfort, he doesn't have the right to peace, he doesn't have the right to joy, he doesn't have the right to sustenance, he doesn't have the right to life itself. When James used that expression, he was talking about the lowest of the low of the slavery market. He says, now I am a bond slave of Jesus Christ. That's the starting point of understanding suffering. Getting perspective and maturity in our suffering begins when you see yourself as a bond slave. Just looking at your faces right now, and knowing that if I were sitting where you're sitting, listening to what I'm listening to, I am immediately reacting against that. Aren't you? You might be saying up there intellectually and spiritually, yes, if I am going to be a spiritual giant, I have to at least say that and admit that I'm a bond slave. And so if somebody were to come to you and say, are you a bond slave of Jesus? Yes, I'm a bond slave of Jesus, are you? A bond slave of Jesus has no rights. As a bond slave of Jesus, I have no rights. Would you say that with me? As a bond slave of Jesus, I have no rights. Listen, close your eyes and say that. As a bond slave of Jesus, I have no rights. No rights. So anything that comes to you that brings pleasure is a gift. Right? Shake your head, yes, right? Are you following me? The problem with us, we don't want to admit that. We are raised in a society and in a nation that demands even the most beyond basic rights. I not only have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I have the right to it at your expense. And it doesn't matter if I stump all over you to get it. As long as I get it, that's what's important. That's the society we live in. The problem is that message over the last 30, 40, 50 years has filtered its way into the church. And when you say, I am a bond servant of Jesus, therefore I have no rights, you don't really believe it. You say, How do you know? Let someone trample on your rights and see how you respond, and then you'll know whether or not you really believe it. Especially let God interrupt your life. Disturb the flood. And you'll quickly discern why the church is made up of such immature people. We can't even tithe. And we're bond servants. You know why we don't tithe? Because my money belongs to me. What's that saying? I'm not a bond slave. This is not a sermon about money. I've told you before: if you can't give out of gratitude to God, keep it. I'd rather you keep it than give it. And I say it again, keep it. Don't dishonor the church by giving grudge money. But we can't even tithe. Opportunity knocks at our door for us to share our faith with someone. We say, I can't do that. I can't do that. And yet we're under marching orders, we're bond slaves of Jesus. He's given us clear-cut direction, he's told us exactly what we need to do, and we don't do it. But we'll come to church and say, I am a servant of the Lord, I'm a soldier of the cross, I'm a bond slave of Jesus. Think about what you just said. I am a bond slave of Jesus, therefore I have no rights. How many rights? No rights. You know what the Greek for no is? No. Zero. No rights. None. Nada. Nothing. Zero. That's how James. James begins the letter. James, yes, I am a person and a character of worth. Yes, I am one of the elect of God, but James, here's where my identity is. Notice he doesn't say James, Reverend James, Father James, Bishop James, Monsignor James, Pastor James, Pope James. He says, here's where my identity is, here's my starting point in dealing with affliction. Here's the mature view. James, a bondservant of Jesus. To you, the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad, that's the high view, friends, of self. My identity in Christ is all directly related to whether or not I understand what it means to be a bondservant of Jesus Christ. You know the greatest problem we have to deal with in the church? The greatest problem we have to deal with is this whole issue of our identity. When a man comes to grips with who he is in Christ, now this is not meant to be a coarse expression. This is not meant to offend. All hell literally breaks loose. When bond slavery becomes spiritually who I am in terms of my identity in Christ, that's when hell is threatened. As long as I am demanding my rights, claiming my rights, viewing God's action in my life as invasions, questioning his movements, questioning and doubting, wavering like the wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed, as long as I am in that mode, hell is secure. There's no threat. But put a man on his face before God. Humble him in contrition before God, where he yields his rights and bows before the cross and says, I am your bondservant. All hell breaks loose. That's when a man, that's when a woman becomes a threat to the kingdom of hell. The question is, are you in that place right now? Even as I ask you that question, I cataloged four things in my life. I know of four things in my life right now that have kept me from being a bond slave of Christ. As soon as I made that statement to you, the Holy Spirit said to me, one, two, three, four, Chuck, there they are. Confess them to the people. Tell them that you've got those areas. I've got those areas. And so as long as I cling to those particular areas in my life, I'm no threat to Satan. When I release those areas, when I bow in those areas, when I confess those areas, the Spirit of God begins to use me. What's your checklist look like? What's it look like? Are you a bond servant? A bond slave of Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 2. He says, if you want to write a paraphrase across verse 2, here it is. You ready for this? Christian? Bond slave Christian? Pain is your best friend. Pain is your best friend. Consider it pure kara. Greek word. Grace or joy. The root word of the charismata or the gifts of the spirit is the Greek word kar, which means joy, or caris where we get grace from. You put those terms together, you've got the gifts of the spirit, the joy of the spirit, the grace of the spirit. In other words, fundamental to whether or not I understand what it means to be a bond slave is the convicting power of the Holy Spirit at work in my life. Where the Spirit of God begins to point out things to me. Now here it is. How does he do this? He does this through one of the very best friends that we have that none of us like. How many of you have best friends that you don't like? Those terms don't go together, do they? I don't have any best friends that I don't like. People who are my best friends, I usually like them. They usually like me. What James is giving us here is an oxymoron. Your best friend is the one thing in your life you don't want, and that's pain. Pain. Hold your place there, go to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Is this a theme you find elsewhere in Scripture? Romans chapter 5. And look with me at verse 1. Boy, I wish I had the time to preach on this text. Can't do it justice, just reading it to you. Therefore, verse 1, Romans 5, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. That's the word chorus. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. But it doesn't stop there. Most Christians would not have a problem reading those first two verses. They'd say amen to that. Great doctrine, Paul. I love that. Good stuff. Write it on the front page of my diary. Let it be on my tombstone. I believe in justification by faith. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior. But do you believe verse 3? Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings. Because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, character, hope, and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. Hope. Look at 1 Peter. Go past James, go to 1 Peter, and look with me at verse 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, these have come. What are the these referring to? The different trials, the grief that you're carrying, the pain, the struggles, the heartache, the trials, the testings, the temptations, the pain, the P-A-I-N. These have come. Why? So that your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. That means comes again. There's that theme again. Go back to Matthew's gospel. See what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. Did he not warn us ahead of time? Did he not tell us ahead of time that pain needs to become our friend? What did he say in verse 11? Matthew chapter 5. Happy! By the way, that's a poor translation. Blessed, by the way, that's a poor translation. Happy and blessed, the Greek term is more descriptive than that. It speaks of an inner joy. Blessed are you when people insult you. How many of you believe that this morning? And persecute you. And falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad. Because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So here is a theme that Jesus gives us in Matthew 5 that is expounded upon by James and by Paul and by Peter. It is a theme that carries us through the New Testament. That suffering and pain and injury and tribulation and fire and testing are your best friend. Here's the problem with us. Go back to James. Here is the real problem. He says in verse 3, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Now here's the problem, verse 5. He just said in verse 4 that you shouldn't lack anything. But he opens up verse 5 by saying, But there is something you lack. And you know what that something is? Wisdom. Wisdom. He says in verse 3, endurance is the fruit of a mature view of suffering. Well, why is it so critical to have endurance if we're saved by grace? Why do we have to endure? If God has told us in his word you're saved by grace plus nothing else, why do we need to endure? Interesting word there in verse 3 where it says faith develops perseverance. Underscore that word perseverance. It's the Greek word hupomone. Now there's two words in the Greek for perseverance. The first word that we have is macrothumia. Now the word macrothumia references patience or endurance toward people. Whenever he's talking about be patient toward one another or among one another or toward your boss or toward your wife or toward your husband, the word macrothumia is used. But whenever he's talking about endurance or patience concerning your circumstances or your lot in life, or sudden invasions from God, he uses the word hupamone. Huppamone is a word, again, that is pregnant with meaning. And you'll find that the best way in which to see the logical extension of the word hupamone is in 1 Thessalonians 1-3. So go over to 1 Thessalonians or back to 1 Thessalonians and look with me at 1-3, because in that passage there is a connection made between Hupamone and something else that is extremely critical to the Christian. 1 Thessalonians, look with me at chapter 1 and verse 3. 1 Thessalonians 1, 3. He says, we continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance. There's that word, hoopamone. Your endurance, here it is, inspired by something. He's not just telling us by using the word hoopamone, tighten up your belt buckle, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. You know, some have called it sola bootstrapping, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, and just take a nice deep breath and tough it out. Be a man. No. There's a motivation behind the word hoopamone. If I am going to be able to endure my lot, if I am going to be able to persevere to the glory of God and be a bond servant and see my sufferings as a friend, I have to have something in view. And here in 1 Thessalonians 1:3, he makes a direct correlation between the word hoopomone and something else. He says, so that your endurance inspired by, what's that word? Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what hope is? Something we haven't received yet. I cannot say I hope for something if I already have it. Otherwise, I shouldn't be hoping for it because I already have it. Right? To hope for something is to have my eyes fixed on an objective, on a goal, on a purpose. Now, if you go back to James, you're going to see what he does with this. Hoopamone is called the hoopamone of hope in 1 Thessalonians 1:3. To lose hope is to lose. When you lose hope, you've lost. When hope flies out the window, you've lost. That's why endurance is so critical. That's why hoopamone is so critical. I gotta tell you, I have come close to losing hope. I have come very close to losing hope. And when you lose hope, here's what happens: you no longer care about holiness. You no longer care about pleasing God. You no longer care about your relationship with God or your relationship to God's people, because when you lose hope, you've lost. That's why endurance is so critical. Because once you've lost Hupomone with the view or the perspective of eternity, you've lost. You've lost. You're a defeated Christian at that point. My faith is being tried by the fires of grief, physical pain, exhaustion, and depression. I battle those every day of my life. It is an hour by hour, moment by moment, second by second exchange between me and God. It is my thorn in the flesh. And every time that happens, the enemies of my soul, grief, physical pain, exhaustion, depression, rise up and accuse so that I will lose hope and lose. You following me? That's why pain is the best friend if it's viewed from the right perspective. Now here it is. Look at verse four. Hoopamone, perseverance, must finish its work. In other words, the pain that has come my way are stepping stones. They are reaching towards something. And here it is. So that you may be mature. That's an interesting word. He talks of maturity and then he says, and complete. Those are like two sides to the same coin: maturity and completeness. Now, friends, don't lose sight of what James is telling us here. Maturity and completeness not lacking anything. He says three things. My pain is designed to make me mature, complete, and not lacking anything. You know, as I studied that in the Greek, it was intriguing, absolutely intriguing for me to discover some things. The words that are used here are explosive terms. One of the words that he uses there for complete is the word telos. Now, telos is where we get teleological from. It speaks of circumstances that are reaching toward a purpose. In other words, it is not an aimlessness. That suffering does not come haphazardly, that it is first filtered through a sovereign hand of a sovereign God to whom I am a bond slave. And he says that all of that is for a telos, a purpose. God is driving us toward a purpose. Now remember what 1 Thessalonians 1:3 said? Hupomone is connected with hope in the coming of Christ. So at least we have in view the coming of Christ. That the coming of Christ is out there. And all of what I am going through in this life, filtered through the sovereign hand of God, is striving toward that purpose. In that day, I will be made complete, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. There will be no more sorrow. There will be no more pain. There will be no more heartaches. And so all that happens in this life is designed to accomplish the purpose of readying me for the telos, the purpose of God in climaxing human history. That's the mature view of suffering. You see, man was created in the image of God, and he lost that image after his fall. This world as we know it, this world as we know it, is a paradise that has been lost. We live in a fallen universe, but God has promised to restore this world to the glory that He ordained before the foundation of the world. And the only people who can occupy that world are people who have been first filtered through the screening and the refining process so that the dross might be removed. And the only way that happens is when God prepares us through the course of events that we call suffering and pain. That's why pain is our friend. Paul, James, Peter, taking their cue from the Lord Jesus Christ, tell us pain becomes a friend only after I learn to take the long view of suffering. The telos. Only after I understand the objective, which is my completeness. You know, if the Bible's telling me here that I am striving toward a purpose of becoming complete physically, emotionally, and spiritually, then what's that say about me now? If I'm going to be complete then, what am I now? Is it that hard? Incomplete. I'm incomplete. That is, where I am right now in my life, I am not ready for that life. I cannot be prepared for that life unless God prepares me. First of all, by saving my soul and justifying me, and then by sanctifying me through the process of the refiner's fire, through suffering, pain, and affliction, in order to get me ready for the ultimate purpose that he has for me in Christ when he comes again. That's what James is talking about. Purpose. You know when that came to light. I've said these things before, but when they really came to light, I wrote myself in my journal of prayer. I said, Lord, here's the prayer. Enable me to take the long view of pain, so that in this life I may mature as I grasp my telos or purpose for this world. Help me to endure my circumstances with hope that one day it will all make sense. One day you will physically, emotionally, and spiritually complete me so that I will lack none of the things that I currently lack. Until that day, Lord, teach me to see pain as my own personal grace builder, for I am your bond slave. And then I dot. We can approach suffering with one of two mindsets: bitterness or joy. Bitterness or joy. Notice he doesn't say, brothers, consider it pure joy if you face trials. Verse two. There are no ifs there, are there? Consider it pure joy. What's that next word? When. When. Trials come in a host of shapes and sizes. And then he says, knowing this, because you know, knowing this, knowing this, knowing that this trial is a part of God's plan. Bowing before it because he has a purpose. Knowing this. Persevere. Don't quit. Don't give up. Keep your eyes on the goal. Keep your eyes on the Savior. You are his bond slave. And all of it's filtered through him first. You know, there's an Arabic proverb that says, sunshine only creates only a desert. Father, we thank you for our suffering. And even as I say that, my spirit rebels against it. Lord, as bond slaves, we lack wisdom. And in this next section of Scripture, you're going to tell us what to do when we lack wisdom. And Lord, as we explore these truths, keep us very, very focused. Focused on you. Not focused on the trials. Focused on you. You are the goal. You are the objective. You are the purpose.

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And so encourage us, Lord, this morning, even in the middle of our trials. Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said.

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