Suffering with Wisdom

A loud, cuddly dog who refuses to listen turns into a mirror for a much bigger problem: we’re great at hearing, and not so great at doing. We’re surrounded by unlimited Christian content, Bible teaching, podcasts, and “wisdom” on demand, yet it’s shockingly easy to walk out unchanged. So we slow down and start a new walk through the Book of James with one driving idea: truth should always lead to action, not just information.

We dig into James 1:1-12 with real context. James isn’t flexing his connection to Jesus; he calls himself a servant, and that humility matters. He’s writing to scattered believers under pressure, facing rejection, instability, and suffering. Then he drops the line that still feels jarring: “Count it all joy when you meet trials.” We talk about what steadfastness actually means, why endurance is rare in our culture, and how God can use hardship to refine faith the way fire purifies metal.

From there, James reframes what we should ask for when life hurts. Not just strength, but wisdom: grace applied, perspective that knows the end of the story. We wrestle with doubt, double-mindedness, and the temptation to treat God like one option among many. And we land on what truly lasts when wealth, status, health, and plans fade, plus a personal story from the NICU that puts endurance and love into real-life terms.

If you want practical Bible study that aims for spiritual growth, Christian resilience, and faith in action, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s going through it, and leave a review. What part of suffering do you need wisdom for right now?

Transcript

Meet Gian And Rocket

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Summon, how are we doing tonight? That's fun. All right, all right. Well, as always, I am grateful to be here. And honestly, I just feel extremely privileged. I know I say that often, but I really do mean it. I I'm so privileged to see what God is doing in the lives of the people here. He's doing some really cool stuff. And I'm I'm just excited to be a part of it. Um, that being said, if you don't know me, I'm Gian. Hi, nice to meet you. Um and so often I like to do because you don't know me, I don't really know you, you know, I just try to help bridge the gap and just I want you guys to get to know me. So something about me is um I have, you know, I'm a little biased, but I have the best wife and the best daughter. If we could get some pictures, there's Sailor in her little rage. Um, she's a party girl, as you can see. Um, and Michaela's my wife. I love them dearly. Um, nope, but um, yeah, I have the best wife, best daughter, and depending on who you ask, I have the best dog. This is Rocket, meet Rocket. Um now, Rocket is awesome. Just let me explain to you why. Rocket loves to play fetch. He's cuddly, he's playful, he's energetic, but he can totally vibe. Um, he's a little angsty, right? He's just he can like he's great because like he's not a guard dog per se, but if there was someone coming in, I would know because he's gonna let me know. He's gonna bark, and he's gonna so he keeps me on my toes. He's small, but he's not small enough where he would be not be considered a dog, but he's small enough where he looks like a baby golden doodle, and so he's just like he's man, and he's also hypoallergenic. Like my wife is allergic to cats and dogs, and so him being hypoallergenic is perfect because you know now we can have a dog, and this is the best part Rocket is kind of like a mix between a dog and a kitten because he has like the parkour skills. If you I don't know if you can really see that picture, he was at Luke and Angela's and he was trying to climb out. He has, as I put, aura. Um, and so why the fact that anyone would not like Rocket is a mystery to me. But I I'll give you some reasons why some people might not might not like Rocket. So, like I said, Rocket will let you know something's happening, and so he likes he barks. He doesn't have like a little whimper bark, he barks and he has a loud bark, and it's kind of high pitched and it's a little annoying, especially when it's at 2 a.m. That is, or Sailor had just fallen asleep. That is tough. Um, he's so cuddly that he will literally start to walk on the bed and start to walk on your head. And he doesn't do it to me, but he loves to do it to my wife where he loves to like lay on her pillow and his butt be towards her face. So she's she's not happy about that. And then he also likes to um he does this really cute thing. It's it's just he'll go to the edge of the bed and he'll start dry heaving. He'll go. And I'm just like, oh no. And you would expect, like, oh, I can move him fast enough. Never. The amount of times Roggy has thrown up in my bed is innumerable. Um, and he's he also likes to do these things. He brings all his toys onto the bed, and then at night, because we take them off the bed, they're on the floor, and so my wife as she goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night, is always stepping on bones that are partially in sharp. Um and the last thing is like I said, Rocket's really cuddly, really loving. He's just it's a little bit too much. Can we get that? Can we get can we get a nope? Oh, yeah. Wait, will we go back? Nope. Nope. Other way. Other direct the nope. Other way, guys. We this yeah, there we go. So Rocket and sorry if you've ever babysat my dog. I I'm sorry, yeah. But the worst of the worst of all of it is Rocket will do this thing where you can talk to him, you can say his name, he will look right at you, he'll engage you, right? He'll he'll make eye contact with you, and he'll start to like you you think he's listening to you, and then you tell him to do something, and he he just looks at you. You're like, Rocket, I need you to get off the bed for a moment. I need to fix the blankets. He he will not listen to you. And then you could, or you tell him in this moment, back we I know, we're gonna keep showing it. You can tell him, Rocket, get off, and he's locked in. So he's he is not he is not breaking contact. Um, and you know he can hear you because he looks at you and he's just like, I'm not, no. Um, but here's the thing right, I have to tell him the same thing over again, and it can get annoying, but he's a dog. Everyone in here agrees, like, man, that's a dog, that makes sense, that he doesn't understand you.

Information Without Transformation

SPEAKER_01 5:27

When it's a person, though, it's a lot less cute and a lot more concerning. And we all have that friend who's told us about this crazy new thing, and they they put you on, they send you mad videos, and then they don't even like one week later, they're not even doing it themselves. Or we've been there where we're up at 2 a.m., we're watching Goggins and Joe Rogan, and we're like, yo, this is it. I'm gonna lock in, I'm walking, I'm waking up at 7 a.m., and then it hits 8 a.m. and and we're just like we press snooze. And so maybe it's the fact that some of you, you come to church, you read the Bible, you lift up your hands in worship, you're singing songs like we just did, and you sing songs like I surrender, and you nod your head with the message, and yet the moment you leave, you forget everything else and live like everyone else. And so this is us. We live in a day and an age where we have unrestricted access to information, to the truth, and you have podcasts, you have books, you have the internet, now you have AI, and we've become simply consumers. We hear truth, we consume so much information, but very little of it actually affects us. And so I'm bringing this up because it's gonna be the main theme of the book that we're reading for the next few weeks. We're gonna be in the book of James, and the big idea of James is that when we hear truth, it should always lead to action. And this matters because there's a lot of new people here. There's a lot of new people here to the faith. You're coming week after week, and it would be a real miss if you're only getting information but showing no transformation. And so, look, I'm I'm about to describe some people, and I just want you to be honest with yourself about which one you relate to. And so some of you are wrestling with this idea of Jesus. You come to church, you're asking questions, you don't know, you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, but you don't know. Um, but you have a tainted image of what a Jesus follower looks like because someone in a church, someone who called themselves a Christian, said they believed one thing and lived out a completely different thing. And that turned you off to Jesus and the church. Others of you, you might be that person. You come here, you learn about Jesus, and then you go do whatever you want outside these walls. And some of you are brand new, you're hungry, you're learning so much day in and day out, and you need to be careful to not build a tolerance to the truth where you keep hearing something and it just stops landing. And if you've been in the faith for a while, that last one is probably for you. And so over the next several weeks, with a few breaks here and there, we're gonna walk through this book together, and we're gonna learn how to actually study the Bible, we're gonna learn about God, and we're gonna learn what it looks like to live it out. And so we want to be people who engage scripture for both information and transformation. And so these next few weeks, I challenge you, take notes. Maybe you pull up the notes app right now. You you take notes, you write down and you ask questions, you wrestle with the ideas, and then you begin to ask, what are the implications of these ideas and answers if they are true? And so I had a plan to read the entire passage, but it's a little bit long. So um let's just pray and let's just get into it. If you and so right now, right where you are, would you just pray that God would speak to you? Just take a moment. Maybe you never prayed before. Just take a moment, real quick.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Just ask God that He would speak to you through His Word. Now, when you pray for the person that you're like the friend that you write, would you pray that God will you just pray for me? Will you pray that God will just speak to me clearly to you through His word. Lord, we know you can answer these prayers, and so we're trusting in you.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Pray this all in your name. Amen.

James Writes To Scattered Believers

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Alright, so if you have your Bibles, if you have a Bible and you want to start heading over to the book of James, again, we're gonna be in the first 12 verses, and maybe you know you you you don't have a Bible again, we're gonna have the verses up on the screen at some point, or I don't know, maybe the per maybe not. Um, but yeah, we're we're gonna jump right in into verse one. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings. And so it's not uncommon if you've read the Bible before, to really just move past these introductions. You're just like, man, I know this, like, let me skip the intro, let me get to the show. Like that, that's how we treat it. Um, but when we do that, we start to miss out on some really cool stuff and honestly significant stuff. Like, first and foremost, we see right off the rip that who wrote this? James. Who is James? That's a valid question. That's the kind of questions you want to ask when you're reading the Bible. Well, we know that James is the half-brother of Jesus. He even had a street name, which is pretty cool, James the Just. And what makes this intro we're slowing down on is that we don't see that in here. You notice that he says James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't say, yo, I'm the half-brother of Jesus, guys. He's not trying to get street cred out here. He is simply saying he's a servant. And that's crazy when you consider the fact that Jesus' brother, both James and Jude, for most of their life did not believe in Jesus. They didn't believe that he was who he said he was. He didn't, they didn't believe he was the Messiah. They didn't believe he was God, they definitely didn't believe he was a savior. Um so what happened? What happened? Because in the Gospels we see that James and Jude that think their brother is crazy, and then something happens, and we know through study and through the got like the rest of the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 15 to 7, that Jesus appeared to James after the resurrection. Now that alone is not what sold James and Jude. That's a significant part, but let me ask you, how many of you guys here have siblings? Alright. You guys know your siblings. You know all their mistakes, you know all their mess ups, you know all their flaws, and if one of them for some reason somehow came back from the dead and they came to you, you'd be like, I still don't think you're God. I know you too well. I've lived with you, I know you can't be God. But the fact is that James and Jude had saw Jesus his entire life, and they had nothing to say against him. And so when Jesus resurrects, it confirms that not only that the life he was living in all facets of his life, plus the resurrection, made him God. And so he goes from saying his brother is crazy to be to saying, I'm just a servant of him. He equates Jesus with God. He says, of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is why this is important that you just don't skip over these intros, that even though it's two sentences, it you can just move past it and not think much of it. But there's there's a lot of depth in the Bible that you can dig in and get out. And so that's that's the first part, right? Secondly, it says, To the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings. So this was written, we get from the context, 12 tribes throughout the entire Bible is something spoken to of Israel. Israel was comprised of 12 different tribes, and they made up the Jewish nation of Israel. And so when he says to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, we can see that he's talking to the group of Jews who had now accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Now, this is important when you read the Bible, when you study the Bible, that you have to realize this is actually written to someone. Like these are real people. And this matters because now, as you read the Bible, as you read the text that we're about to unpack, we need to start to have their mindset. We need context. What were they going through? What's going on? And so I'm gonna fill you in, and and I want you to learn to do this practice as you read the Bible. We're gonna go into it right now where first, if this is a Jewish audience, if I'm a Jew in the Roman Empire, I got a really bad gig. Rome is ruling over me, and so I'm overtaxed, I'm oppressed, I don't have the same rights as the Roman citizens, I'm seen as less than, I'm usually persecuted, there's rules to protect my persecutors. But now if I'm Jewish, I already got a bad gig. If I'm Jewish and I accept Jesus, things get even worse. Because now the only people who I could relate to, the outcast, the persecuted, now they are making me an outcast. They they think that I am I'm I'm I'm convinced by a lie. They think that I'm crazy. And so they might they might kick me out of my job, they might disown me as a family member. They're gonna, every social circle that I would be allowed into, which wasn't many, right? I'm I'm a I'm a minority in a really tough situation. I can't even get that. And Rome sees me as a threat because I'm not calling Caesar Lord, I'm calling Jesus Lord. And so now they might think, oh, this guy's an insurrectionist. He's gotta go. And so I want you to build that frame of mind right now because this is the first words out of James's mouth to these people.

Count It All Joy In Trials

SPEAKER_01 16:22

These people who are really lived, who really are struggling at this time. What does he say? He says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. James, what? Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. I'm being persecuted. I have nothing. I'm my my family's disowning me. What do you mean, count it all joy? This statement was and still remains one of the most jarring statements in the Bible. Because all of us feel this. When we have trials, when we have suffering, our instinct is not that has to be celebrated. We start to think, that's really bad. That's really bad. And James is saying, Count it old joy, it doesn't really make sense. And you feel that. Like maybe maybe some of you relate to the earliest followers of Jesus. Maybe you started following Jesus this past year and you notice it, man. People don't want to hang out with you as much. They're like, bro, you used to be mad fun. You used to go drink with us and you used to go party, and now you just what are you doing? You're going to church? You're going to group? Or your family starts to look down on you, they're like, this is just a phase. This is just something you're going through. You you'll get over it. Or maybe maybe it's not that. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's the fact that right now gas is 450, rent's higher than ever. AI is gonna take our jobs. If you're in college right now, I can't even imagine what it would be to look like to look for a job right now. Because it's just like, what do we do? And then on top of all that, you're working and working and working just to make ends meet, and you know what? Your car broke down.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Maybe, maybe it's you're just you just got sick randomly.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Maybe it's just that all of a sudden you're dealing with this sickness that you never thought, or this injury. Maybe you're a sports player and you got an injury and you're just like, Man, my I had one, I had a I had something going for me. Now what? For some of you, it's I know it's funny, but it's true. Maybe it's the wedding invitation or the Instagram post for your friend. And part of you is happy for them, but the other part is like, man, everyone's moving on. Everyone's moving forward with their life. Am I falling behind? He says, Count that joy. Why? Why would he say something like that? So he's gonna tell us. We're gonna read here in verse three. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And so we're gonna try to track with James here because he is saying that we can count it all joy because it's producing steadfastness, or your translation might say patience, and this should stand out to us as interesting because when I hear that, when I hear, oh, it's producing steadfastness, I don't think, you know what, that's worth it. I I I don't think that. I I ra if if it was up to me, and thank the Lord I'm not the Lord, um, if you're like me and I had to choose off a first read, I'm like, I'd rather not. I think I'm okay. I'd rather not have steadfastness. So clearly, me and James, or you and James, are attributing different significance to this trait if he says it's worth the suffering. He's saying count it all joy because you know it's producing steadfastness. And so if you're like me, and it's like, what does that even mean? And so we're we're we need to define this word. Well, so we're gonna do it right now. Because it's a word we often hear in church, and it can feel underwhelming or maybe not clear, and so here's what it means it can be defined as patience, endurance, constant, and firm. Quite literally in the text, it means the ability to hold out in the face of difficulty. And this is not to be confused with the Greek philosophy of stoicism, right? Like you actually do feel the emotions as you're going through the struggle, but you persevere through it. Um and so an example of this is Hachi. How many of you know have seen the movie Hachi? One person. Okay, this is great. This is great. I'm not worried about this at all. I I planned for this actually. Um, it's a movie that's based on the true story, and here's a quick rundown. Hachi is based on this story about this amazing dog. I mean, just he's he's great, he's almost as good as Rocket. Um, but yeah, this dog develops a special bond with his owner. And halfway throughout the movie, uh, the owner of the dog uh dies of a heart attack. It's pretty depressing. I know. But this dog, man, he goes every single day to this train station where his owner used to come. Every single day he goes, even after his owner died, and he's waiting there. And people are trying to take the dog in, but the dog won't be like he's just there. He's there through the winter, through the fall, through spring, through the summer, on and on and on and on and on again, until one day, after many, many years of Hachi waiting for his owner, he finally died. In that place that he waited. And Hachi was so well known that they made a statue of him. Do we have that statue? This is in Japan, by the way. Japanese dogs are different. He's a legend. And so they they recognized, like, man, Hachi was steadfast. Like he he he he stuck it out. But do you want to know something sadder? As me and Pac worked through through this, we wanted a, we were like, man, who's like a popular person in our day and age who really exemplifies steadfastness? Like that would really be easy for us to connect. And we couldn't find one. And so we settled for a dog. It's funny, but it's sad. As a culture, we lack steadfastness because we don't want ordinary faithfulness. We don't want the slow, hidden, hard, consistent things. We want the moment. We want the platform. We want the glory, the superhero scene. But the truth is, those moments are often preceded by long, long periods of hidden steadfastness through everything, through the good times and the bad times. And when that moment comes, they're ready. It's nothing new to them.

How Suffering Refines Your Faith

SPEAKER_01 23:22

And so what this means is when James tells us to count it all joy, that this is being formed in us, he's pointing to the reality that steadfastness is critical to the Christian life. That no matter what comes your way, if you remain faithful even through all the emotions, he says, you will be more complete, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. That's exactly what it says. What does that mean? It means you'll be more like Jesus. That is critical to us because it makes us more like Jesus. And so, contrary to our instincts, trial and suffering has a purpose. In fact, I love how it says, when, right? When you face trials of various kinds, it doesn't say if. Notice that? He says, when you face trials of various kinds, because the reality is hardship, suffering is a universal thing. No matter who you are, you will come across this. And here's the thing, it often reveals what we put our faith in and refines what's already in us. You can't see it in the English, but in the Greek, the word test, I think it's dokuminio. I don't know if that's how you pronounce it, but that's how I'm pronouncing it, is this idea of metal working, that you put ore into the fire, and that as the fire increases, the impurities start to rise up, and if there's anything valuable beneath, that will remain. And so he's saying that that's what's happening here. And that the more you repeat that, the more pure that metal gets. And in the same way, God is actively using the difficulties in our lives to reveal what our faith is actually in. Because trials expose the fragility of whatever we're trusting in. For the Christian, a trial brings things to the surface. It starts to show us things we so easily tend to hope in. But it's not to crush you, right? It's a kindness, it's to refine us. It's to reveal, man, we've been hoping in the wrong things. But to those who don't know Jesus, and maybe that's you today, maybe you're still learning, you're still figuring this out, but trials will expose what's fragile.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

But unlike the Christian, the trial can crush you.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Because it leaves you often realizing that the object of your faith can do nothing for you, can't save you. So that's why we see when a breakup occurs, when a job is lost, when your health goes, or you fill in the blank, that's the question that trials force us to ask. If this thing gets taken from me, does my whole world fall apart with it? Because if it does, maybe my faith was in that thing more than I realized. So we're

Wisdom That Sees The End

SPEAKER_01 26:32

gonna continue. It says, verse 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. And so this seems like a weird turn. When I I had to read this a couple times to really like, why is he making the transition here from suffering and trials and enduring to wisdom? You see, we often think that, hey, when we're going through a tough time, what do we do? We pray to God and we say, we need more strength. God give us more strength, strength to endure, let me make it through. And that's not inherently wrong, but James seems to have a different thought. James' first instinct when there is a trial is to seek wisdom. That's odd. That's really odd. So then we have to ask, and if you notice, as I'm going through this, I'm asking a lot of questions. That's what we do when we read the Bible. What is wisdom? What does he mean by wisdom? And so, classically defined, wisdom is knowledge that's applied. And so, for example, knowledge is you knowing you have work at 8 a.m. We've all been here. Wisdom would be at 12:30 a.m. to not watch one more episode or to play one more match. We've all been there with the boys say, one more match, come on. And you're cooked. But that's that's wisdom. When we we we know something and it impacts our life, and so if normal wisdom is knowledge applied, godly wisdom, the wisdom that James is talking about is grace applied. That is to say, to know the reality of what Jesus did on the cross, and for you and me to understand our standing with God as a result of that. You see, strength can only get us, it can only get us so far. Because no matter how much strength or knowledge or anything in this world, you name it, no matter how much you have of anything, if you do not have this kind of wisdom, when the suffering comes, it's all going to be lost to you. You have no perspective to see anything, because everything is immediate. It will not make sense. Because it's only when we realize what Christ has done, when we realize he has conquered death itself, and now we have eternal life in him, then all of a sudden we can begin to endure. And that's what Paul meant in Romans 8 18. He says, when he said to consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Or even what Jesus Himself did. It says in Hebrews 12, 2, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning his shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. And so God is happy. Meaning you never have to feel bad about asking for this. He says, because he's giving himself to you. That's what he's saying. When you ask for me, you will get me. And when we have that perspective, everything else kind of just starts to fade away. And now we because we often use this verse, man, ask God for wisdom, and he will give it generously and liberally, and I'm guilty of this too, is we often say it to mean that God is promising to give us a direct answer to every specific decision. Like, God, do you want me to do this or do you want me to do that? We start to pray, God, just tell us. Well, we'll I've I've heard it so many times in church circles, is it's like, God, give me clarity. Give me clarity. And I understand the prayer, but really what people mean when they ask for that, what they often want is they want to know what's immediately next. Because they think that if they have that answer, that that's going to give them peace. But James is showing us something deeper. Peace is not always in knowing the next step. The peace is in knowing the end. And that's what makes this wisdom different. The peace is not always knowing what's going to happen tomorrow, the peace is knowing where the whole thing ends. And so if Christ has secured the end, then the trial in front of you is real, but it's not ultimate. And so, can I just stop right here? Because it doesn't mean the trial like doesn't suck. And maybe you need to hear that today. It does suck. Trials stink. I hate them. I really, I do. We all do. It's something instinctively in us. This is why this passage is so contrarian, and that's my kind of guy, but like I don't, I don't, it's so hard to fathom. But when we know the end of the story, like if you know the end of the book, you know what's gonna happen, then the middle, it loses a lot of its significance. It's like re-watching a movie. If you know the end, that moment might be powerful, it might be really difficult, it might make you feel some type of way, but in the end, you know they're gonna win. You know what's gonna happen. And that that ending is glorious, but the the hard moment loses so much. It loses so much weight.

Doubt, Crashing Out, And Double Minds

SPEAKER_01 32:13

And so he says, verse 6, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the person who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. And so, an important distinction here is that James is not James is not referring to doubting here as simply questioning God. Like if you have questions for God, he is more than happy to answer them. But he is talking about the person who the minute the hard thing hits begins to crash out. You know these people. This is our culture. We have this weird thing, it's like common on TikTok, apparently, like just crashing out. Um, and we see it all the time. Like, we've seen our friend who goes through a hard breakup and they go crazy. They they get angry, they hook up, they get drunk, they go on this, like, yes, you do you, queen, lit, and they're just like, it's tough. They're crashing out. Or someone experiences loss, right? And and they numb, they begin to numb with alcohol and they medicate, and and it's it's so common. Like we know these stories, they become tropes, they become struggles and movies that we see because they are real. They are real. And that's why James says this person is like a wave of the sea, because they are unstable. He says, easily shaken up, thinking their world is ending when the trial comes. And he says, when this kind of person, yes, when this kind of person prays, they should expect nothing. Why? Why should they expect nothing? Because this is the person who says, God, I trust you, but the second the pressure comes, they start for looking for someone else to hold them up. This is the person who's lonely and who prays to God, but the next moment they go and they watch porn and they go on that app that they shouldn't, and they start dating that person that they shouldn't be dating, that's not good for them. This is the person who's struggling financially and praise God, help me, but then they go and work and work and work, and when you tell them about reading the Bible or praying or going to church, they scoff at you. And this is the person who's engaged in praise for purity, but in the next moment is crossing boundaries. This is the person for who prays and asks God to help them, but then goes on Chat GPT asking for advice or people or books. You see, in trials, we aren't going to God for wisdom, we just want Him to hold us over till we get the actual thing we want, the thing that we truly believe will save us. And if we're honest, we can tend to see God as an option among many. And at the root of this is we really don't comprehend how poor we are.

Riches Fade When Jesus Is Enough

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Verses 9 says, Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Because like a flower of the grass, it will pass away.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flower falls, and his beauty perishes, so also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. See, the one who has nothing, the one who is absolutely destitute.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

He says, He is the one who can boast. Because at that moment, for the first time, he truly has nothing except Jesus. We often think we look at the poor man and we say, Man, he only has Jesus. That's it. And we think we pity that person, but the truth is he has everything, guys. He has everything, he has the best thing, he has the only thing that will last for a million years from now, a billion years from now, a trillion years from now. He's the only, he, he has the only thing that will actually last. You see, we are the ones who should be pitied. Because we think we have so much. We think we're talented, we think we're smart, we think we're we got money, we got charisma, we got strength. But let me tell you something. There is going to be a day where you can no longer, your your body's not gonna work the same. There's going to be a day where the things you're holding on to, that relationship can be taken from you. There is going to be a day where the thing you build your life on can be just taken right off from under your feet. Why? Because the things of this world will fade away. It's not a suggestion, it's not it's not a theory, it's fact. Let me ask you, do you remember your great-great-great-grandpa? Do you think you have any of his money left? Any of his items? Do you think he didn't have a career and ambition and all of the things that you you have? You think he didn't want to leave a legacy?

SPEAKER_00 38:08

But do you remember him? You don't. I don't remember my great-great-grandpa's name. I don't even know who he is. All of it, my friends, will pass away.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

You see, once we realize how poor we truly are, right? If we have Jesus, we have nothing. If we don't realize this, this is going to seem like foolishness. Suffering for something we can't see, and rejoicing in our trials, our humiliation is going to seem odd to people. It's gonna even be stupid to those around us. Yet the person who is steadfast in Jesus, the person who really understands that I have nothing, I have nothing to offer to God, I brought nothing into this world, and I can take nothing away with me. Once I realize that and I have him, I have everything. That's why he says the rich man can boast in his humiliation. Because he can he realizes for the first time that the only thing he has is him. And so maybe you're in the trial right now. Maybe that's the realization that that needs to happen. You need to realize, man, everything is going to be taken away, but that's okay because I have the one thing that will last forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Like that's the thing. We're gonna have it. You can't take that away from us. And so do you wanna, do you, do you want, don't you want that? Don't don't you don't you wanna hope for things that are gonna last? Do you want your whole life to be teetering on a relationship that could fail, health, that can degrade a career that can be taken from you? If not, rejoice. It says, count it all joy, consider it all joy when you face trials. Rejoice in your humiliation, embrace the suffering because it can create an unwavering faith, which will be the only thing that lasts.

Crown Of Life And NICU Hope

SPEAKER_01 40:26

When you are at your last breath. I think about the thief on the cross. He had nothing, he had nothing, he could do nothing, he couldn't even move his hands, he was pinned, he was a criminal, he had absolutely nothing, and yet what does he do? He recognizes that, and he looks at Jesus, he said, Remember me, you truly are the Son of God. Remember me when you go to paradise. And what does Jesus say to him? My son, today you will be with me in paradise indeed. And so this is the last verse. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. In January, me and my wife had one of the hardest times in our lives. Our daughter Sailor was born and she came early, and we really found ourselves just in a hard place. We had expectations of bringing our daughter home, and instead, for the next few weeks, we would find ourselves in a hospital room visiting our daughter, not knowing when we would be able to take her home. And we found ourselves often sad and frustrated and not knowing where we had no end in sight.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

And here's the thing, we we we would never want that to happen again. But if we had to, we'd do it again and again.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Because we love Sailor so much that the reality of us being together at home at some point, it fueled us to endure that struggle, and that's the same love we can have for Jesus because it's the same love he had for us, that he loves us so much and wants us to be at home with him, that he came and endured the worst kind of pain on our behalf, and I'm sure he'd do it again and again and again, because here's the truth you will endure for what you love. And I don't know who needs to hear this today. Maybe you're not in a trial and you gotta store this away, store this one away in your back pocket, but maybe you're going really through it. I life has been extremely hard and it's been one thing after another, and I want you to know something that God is not wasting these moments. Friends, he's not unaware of the pain and the hurt you feel.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

He knows pain, he knows suffering.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

And yet it might be his very grace in this moment to bring you to the place for you to realize how much you need him. Maybe these trials are producing steadfastness, the thing you've been the thing you've been longing to hold on to, and and and you've been looking for in all the wrong places. Because in a world Where everything could be gone in one second, we need to set our sight on the things that are going to last for eternity. Enjoying the crown, a life with your Savior.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Would you stand with me?