Playing The Long Game: Don't Give Up Until You Grow Up

August 2, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

To have you. Amen. All right, let's get let's get into it. My text for the for today comes from James chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. From God's Word Translation. God's Word translation. And it reads this way From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to God's faithful people who have been scattered. Greetings. My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. Endure until the testing is over. Then you will be mature, complete, and you won't need anything. That is the word of the Lord. And the title from which I've chosen to preach today is Playing the Lone Game. Don't give up till you grow up. Playing the long game. Don't give up till you grow up. Church, we live in a world that we think we should have everything fast. Fast food. I don't know about y'all, but when I go to McDonald's, by the time I get to the thing and roll down my window, I want them to say, Welcome to McDonald's. How may I help you? I don't want to wait. And then when I go to the next window, I want my food, give them my money, and then I want my food. Don't tell me I got to wait for nothing. We want fast delivery. Y'all know we use Amazon. We got Amazon Prime. We want it either today or tomorrow. We're not waiting two days. We don't care about what they're gonna give us for free. We want it today or tomorrow. And if they late, we calling them and we acting up. How did we ever send somebody money before Zale and Cash Out? How did we do it? I don't even remember for real. They at the thing and they ain't got enough money and they're like, ooh, I need five more dollars. Okay, hold on, here you go. How did we send the money before Zale and Cash Out? And then we want to we want to access information immediately. Uh did you get my text? Well, when did you send it? Right just now? What? I'm doing something. Nobody didn't see the text. Can you wait? We've grown comfortable with fast. And without realizing, church, we can bring that same mindset into our relationship with God. We want fast answers. I had said you pray today, we want to answer tomorrow, but if I pray now, I want it by the time church is over. I really want what I didn't ask you for by the time this service is over. We want fast healing, we want fast breakthroughs, and we sure want fast change it, especially if it's somebody else. Can you hurry up and change them? Because I'm really sick of all of this. But some things in life still require us to play the long game. To play the long game means you don't make decisions based only on what is happening right now. You stay focused on the bigger picture. You keep going even when progress is slow, you keep investing when you don't see immediate results. Some things worth having. Take time, take patience, take consistency, and endurance. And that is true with our walk with Christ. Sometimes we want our answers now. Lord now, when now, breakthrough now, change now, and we pray just like that. We just like our Amazon packages. We want them either by 5 o'clock today or by 4 a.m. in the morning. That's how we want our prayers to be answered. That's how we think God works. But how many of you know that ain't quite how it works? That ain't how it works. The book of James was written by James, the brother of Jesus, who became an important leader in the early church in Jerusalem. James writes to Jewish Christians who have been scattered from their homes and communities and were trying to live out their faith under difficult circumstances. They were dealing with trials, pressure, hardship, conflict, and uncertainty. Is that anybody here today? Anybody dealing with trials, pressure, hardship, conflict, and uncertainty? James doesn't spend much time giving them abstract theology. His letter is extremely practical. He teaches them what faith should look like when times get hard. James isn't telling them to be happy about suffering, he's telling them don't waste what you're going through. We want to go straight from trial to triumph. But James reminds us that there is some growing in the middle of it, in the in-between. We want God to get us out, but God may be working to grow us up. The first thing James wants us to understand is that pressure is a part of the game. James 1, 2-3 says, My brothers and sisters, be very happy when you are tested in different ways. You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. Now, James didn't say if. He didn't say if perhaps by chance, maybe. He didn't say it, you know, it could, it might happen. He said, When, count it all joy. Because if you're going to play the long game with Christ, you have to understand pressure is a part of the game. Some of us grew up believing that if we only do God's will, if we come to church, if we pay our money, if we be good people, if we do all that stuff, that life was gonna be easy for us. That's that's some some folks told us that they sold us a bill of goods. But Jesus said, I said James said, but now let's look at what Jesus said at John 16, 33. In this life, you what will have trouble, but don't worry about it because I have overcome the world. Now I had an old mother in the Lord many, many years ago back in Denver, and she said, you know, Jada, the Christians like to swing out on the promises of God, so why don't they swing out on that one? In this life, in this one right here, you will have tribulation. Pressure is not proof that God has left you. Pressure is not proof that you've lost your favor. Sometimes pressure is simply part of the process. Right, right, right. Think about a natural diamond. Now, I'm not talking about uh cubic zirconians, and I'm not talking about costume jewelry. And y'all know I love costume jewelry, the bigger the better for me. But that stuff ain't real. Now, today I actually do have on some real diamonds, and y'all can't hardly see them. Because when I wear my costume jewelry, they be blinging and blinging and doing all the things. But real natural diamonds don't begin in the jewelry stone. They not costume, it begins as ordinary carbon buried deep under the earth. No spotlight, no applause, no recognition, just darkness and pressure. Over time, under tremendous heat and pressure, that carbon is transformed into one of the hardest and most valuable gemstones on earth. Diamonds aren't formed overnight, they're formed over time, under pressure. You can't rush the process and still expect the diamond. If that carbon could speak in the middle of the process, he probably would say something like, you know what? It's hot. This pressure is too much, and it's going to destroy me. I'm not that interested in being a diamond right now. I could go ahead and be a cubic zirconian. I'm cool with that. But the pressure isn't destroying it, the pressure is transforming it. So maybe today there's some of us here in this building and online. You're under pressure. You're under pressure at work. You're under pressure in your family. You're under pressure in your finances. Your money is funny and your change is showing up strange. You're under pressure in your health. You don't know what to do. They've told you many things are going wrong, and you just don't know what to do. Some of us are even under pressure in ministry. And you've been asking just like that carbon trying to be a diamond. God, why is all this pressure? I'm not really sure I'm that interested in being whatever you're trying to make me to be. James answers the question. You know that such testing of your faith produces endurance. In other words, God is more interested in developing your character than simply removing your pressure. I'll say it again. God is more interested in developing your character than simply removing your pressure. Romans 8 28, my favorite scripture, is up on my wall in my house. It says, and we know that all things work together for the good of those who love the God. It's y'all's favorite too, who love the Lord and who are called according to his purpose. He didn't say it was gonna look good. He didn't say it was gonna feel good, but he said when he got through doing all the making it do what it do, it was gonna be good. God can work through the pressure, God can work through the disappointment, God can work through the delay, and God can work through the pain. So instead of always asking God, when you gonna take me out? When is this gonna stop? When is it gonna be over? How much longer? How long, how long? Maybe you should ask God, what are you producing in me? What are you trying to work out in me? What are you trying to get out of me? Because the pressure may be developing a faith you never had before. It may be teaching you to trust him when you can't trace him. It may be producing perseverance that will prepare you for your next season. Don't let the pressure convince you that God has forgotten you. Sometimes the pressure is evidence that God is still forming something precious in you. Just like the diamond. You may not, and I can probably say you will not enjoy the pressure. But don't quit. Because when God finishes his work, folks won't remember the pressure. They'll see the product that the pressure produced. They're not gonna remember the pressure, they're gonna look at the product. So if you're gonna play the long game, church, you have to remember pressure is part of the game. Point number two, don't tap out, stay in the game. James 1, 4, the A part says, endure till your test is over. James is telling us, don't quit in the middle of what God is still working through. In wrestling and in mixed MMA mixed martial arts, when a fighter is caught in a hold and cannot continue, they tap the mat to or they tap their opponent to signal, I'm done. I surrender, I'm out, stop the fight. That's called tap out, tapping out. How many of you know that life has a way of putting you in a chokehole, honey? Sometimes you be like, I'm out, I'm out. I can't take no more, I don't care, I'm over it. And we want to tap out not because we don't love God. We want to tap out simply because we're tired. It's been too much, it's too much, it's been too long. We're tired of waiting. We prayed so long, we're tired of praying about the same thing, and we don't see no results. We're tired of carrying the weight of the family, the weight of the job, the weight of the church, the weight of ourselves. Tired of wondering, is anything ever gonna change? Or is this just the way it's gonna be? But James says, endure till your test is over. Don't tap out while God is still working. Israel gives us a picture of what happens when the journey gets difficult. God delivered them out of Egypt. He opened up the Red Sea. Y'all watch the Ten Commandments on TV. He opened up the Red Sea and He let them walk through on dry land. And then when Pharaoh's army came along, he swallowed them up in the sea. He fed them with manna. They said they wanted something to eat, so he said, Go outside and pick it up, manna from on high. He was their very first GPS system. He gave them, he they they traveled by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Where they were going was only about an 11-day journey. But it took them 40 years to get there. Somewhere in the middle, they wanted to tap out. They said, you know what? They had various different things. And they said, you know, let's just go on back to Egypt. Let's just go on back and get a leader and go on back to Pharaoh. Let's go back to the crap we was in. Sometimes when forward gets hard, backward starts to look comfortable. Forward is too hard, it's too much. I don't know what we're gonna get. I don't know. This road is rocky. I I don't know what's up there. But I know what's back here. So backward looks comfortable. When I moved to Dallas, it's been it'll be 18 years this month actually. I moved from Virginia and I was here uh a while and I was like, you know what, this ain't it for me. I'm going back to Virginia. I got some friends, I can sleep on their couch, I can get my job back. They didn't want me to leave no way, so I can go back and get my job because this ain't it. It was hot. Though I was raised in Monroe, I had been gone a long time. I wasn't used to this heat. When I came, it was like a hundred degrees straight for a whole bunch of days. I said, why do I why do I live here? I'm going back. I didn't have many friends. I was trying to figure it out. I really didn't, I wasn't making no money, all the things. And though back here in Virginia wasn't all that and all the best, I wasn't ready for this. I couldn't figure this out. I couldn't figure the forward out. Although I had a promise for the forward, I knew what the backward was gonna give me. And I said, you know what? I was I was in the middle. Like, should I go back? Should I go forward? Should I go back? Should I go forward? Some of you are standing right now in the middle in the middle. You can't decide if to go back or if you need to go forward. But I'm here to tell you to stay in the game. Don't tap out. Don't let your emotions make you tap out. Don't make what you think make you tap out, stay in the game. Don't quit the process. Because you will never get there if you go back. Point number two, don't tap out, stay in the game. Let me hurry on. And then point three, grow through the game. James 1 through 4 says, I mean 1 and 4, I apologize, says, endure until your testing is over. Then you will be mature and complete, and you won't need anything. Family, the trial isn't the destination. The testing isn't the destination. Even the perseverance isn't the destination. The destination is maturity. God doesn't just want to bring you through something. He wants you to develop you in something. He wants to develop something in you. We want relief. We want it to stop. God wants you to grow. We want the problem to be gone by morning. But God wants us to become more like Christ. He wants us to look more like Christ every day. Don't just come out the trial, saints. Come out different. When you go through all you go through, when you deal with all the stuff you gotta deal with, when you listen to all the folks running their mouth, when you can't figure out how to pay your bills, when you don't know what you're gonna do, come out different when God brings you out. Think differently, respond differently, pray differently, trust differently, handle disappointment. That disappointment that James and Jesus says is gonna happen, handle it differently. You can't keep operating like your old self. There comes a point when spiritual growth should change the way you operate. The old you before, every time you got in an argument, you had to have the last word. The argument was gonna go by 20 extra minutes because you had to have the last word. When you go through, you ought to learn that a gentle answer turns away wrath, according to Proverbs 5:1. The oh, you reacted first. Time something happened, you was ready to get it. You was ready to start talking, you was ready to start moving, you was ready to start shaking. But now, how about you pray first? How about you ask the Lord, what shall I do? The oh, you couldn't handle uncertainty. The old song says life is full of swift transitions. So you don't never know what's gonna happen. But now, instead of freaking out every time something happens that you don't know that's gonna happen, because you don't ever know what's gonna happen, know that God is good. No matter what's going on, God is good and He got you. He said He ain't gonna never leave you, nor is He gonna forsake you. So whether you, no matter what's going on, know instead of freaking out, and yeah, you you get upset, you get anxiety, you get all the things that's part of life, but know that God got you. Maturity does not mean there's never a struggle, it means you don't struggle the same way. You may cry. It's alright. I my my whole thing is feel what you feel. Well, if you feel a little anxiety, okay. If you gotta get some fries, okay. Well, whatever. Feel what you feel. But but now you can cry and get your fries and trust God at the same time. Galatians 5, 22, 23 tells us what the fruit of the Spirit looks like. It looks like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and that everlasting self-control. Fruit is evidence that something has been growing. After all the praying, the waiting, the trials, and times that God brought you through. There ought to be some fruit. It ought to be some fruit. It ought to be some fruit. There should be more patience. There should be more wisdom. You ought to have a little bit more grace because if God gave you grace, you ought to be ready to give grace to somebody else. You ought to not have to crash out every time something happens. There ought to be some more self-control. Pastor done talked for weeks about forgiveness. Now you always want to be forgiven, but you ought to be able to forgive somebody else. You ought to be able to trust and finally you should want to look more like Jesus. Spiritual maturity isn't measured simply by how long you've been in church, it's measured by how much Christ is showing up in you. Same pressure, different you. Same disappointment. Because in this life, this one right here we're living, there will be trouble. Different you. Same uncertainty. Time is filled with swift transitions, but a different you don't settle, y'all, for just looking grown. Don't just look like an adult, don't just look grown. How about we be grown? How about we act grown? How about we do what grown up folks do? How about we do how act like God has called us to act? Why don't we answer and respond in a way that pleases and honors God all the time, or at least most of the time? Don't just be grown. Don't just act grown. Be grown. Playing the game, playing the long game isn't simply about how long you can hold on. It's about who you are becoming while you hold on. Grow through the game. And don't give up until you grow up. And as I found, as I close, remember this. When life gets hard and it will, James and Jesus and I just said it will. Remember that pressure is part of the game. When the journey gets long and it will, don't tap out. When life gets you in a chokehold, don't tap out. Stay in the game. When God brings you through and He sure enough will bring you through. Grow through the game. Act grown, be grown. Because one day you will look back and realize that the pressure didn't break you. It built you. Because the same God who started the story already knows how it ends. As I get ready to finish this out, I'd like to encourage someone today to lift up your head, strengthen your faith, take one more step. Trust God one more day. Pray one more prayer. Believe one more time. Because God is still writing your story. And when the final chapter is written, you will discover that every trial, every tear, every delay, and even every victory was woven together by the hand of God. So family, whatever you do, keep on playing the long game and don't give up until you grow up. Amen.