SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: James Chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: I am taking an unexpected detour this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I was all prepared to preach on Matthew chapter 10, but when news about the new COVID orders from our county health officer and governor came out, my spirit was stirred to go in a different direction.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible or your device, I encourage you to follow along in James chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to begin reading in verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: Continue all the way through chapter 5 and verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God says, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
SPEAKER_00: What is your life?
SPEAKER_00: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
SPEAKER_00: Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or do that.
SPEAKER_00: As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth eaten, your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire.
SPEAKER_00: You have laid up treasure in the last days.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_00: You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self indulgence, you have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter, you have condemned and murdered the righteous person.
SPEAKER_00: He does not resist you.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Behold how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.
SPEAKER_00: You also be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
SPEAKER_00: Behold the judge is standing at the door.
SPEAKER_00: As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
SPEAKER_00: But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or by any other oath.
SPEAKER_00: But let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: My title for this sermon this morning is In Masks We Trust.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't laugh like First Service laughed.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that is fully tongue-in-cheek.
SPEAKER_00: It's intended to get a rise out of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's intended to stir something up in you.
SPEAKER_00: I am concerned, beloved, by some of what I see and hear.
SPEAKER_00: I would not be so concerned if what I see and hear is found only in the world that does not know Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The world does not have the spirit of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I cannot expect it to speak or to act or to live as though it does.
SPEAKER_00: But what concerns me is when I see the spirit of the world taking up residence in those who ought to be controlled by the spirit of the living Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always honest.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to be forthright.
SPEAKER_00: That's a better word.
SPEAKER_00: I have mostly held my tongue and controlled my spirit for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: But like Jeremiah, it has only resulted in the fire in my bones from the Word of God to burn hotter and higher.
SPEAKER_00: God's command to me is to proclaim Christ, to warn everyone, and to teach everyone so that I might present you mature in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Apostle Paul said of his ministry to the church at Colossae in Colossians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And he went on from there to say that he wanted the hearts of those believers to be encouraged, to be knit together in love, to reach all of the riches of the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is in Christ, in whom are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I say that in order that no one might delude you with plausible arguments.
SPEAKER_00: Sentence later, he continued, Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, being rooted and built up together and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to the human's traditions, according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Eight months into life with COVID, let's have a heart check to ensure that we have not been deluded or taken captive, but instead are following Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as I say that, let me make it very clear.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about wearing a mask.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about social distancing.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about quarantining.
SPEAKER_00: Those are gonna come up again and again, but that's not what it's about.
SPEAKER_00: It's about your heart.
SPEAKER_00: James says, come now.
SPEAKER_00: You who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna do our business there.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna trade and we're going to return home wealthier than when we left.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to say, You don't even know what tomorrow is gonna bring.
SPEAKER_00: Much less a month from now or a year from now.
SPEAKER_00: He says it's it's arrogant to claim that you know that.
SPEAKER_00: And what it really is is evil.
SPEAKER_00: All boasting, all such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the first thing that we need to recognize from what James has to say to us it is evil to entrust your life to anything or anyone except Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Those aren't my words.
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what he says.
SPEAKER_00: As it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, it is arrogant to claim any sense of control over your life.
SPEAKER_00: See, arrogance, by its very nature, claims control.
SPEAKER_00: It claims to be able to say this or to say that with truthfulness and to get a response.
SPEAKER_00: It claims to have control over what I can or cannot do or what my plans are going to be.
SPEAKER_00: It claims control over my life and maybe even over the lives of others.
SPEAKER_00: Arrogance claims authority over life.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I have the right, I have the position, I have the strength and the power to claim something.
SPEAKER_00: Arrogance ultimately claims sovereignty over life.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I am in a position to declare what I am going to do.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I am in a position to declare what will or will not happen to me.
SPEAKER_00: And then James says that God steps into that place with a reality-shattering truth.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is a mist.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mist.
SPEAKER_00: That fog coming out of your mouth on a cold morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's just there and then gone.
SPEAKER_00: It's that steam rising from a perfectly hot cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_00: Comes up about six, eight, or ten inches and then it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: That's your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's my life.
SPEAKER_00: Your steps, your very steps are determined.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 16, 9 says, The heart of a man plans his way, but Yahweh establishes his steps.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 20, 24, a man's steps are from Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Your steps are determined, and your time is appointed.
SPEAKER_00: Job 14, verse 5 says, Man's days are determined, and the number of his months is in God, and you have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot add an extra minute to your life.
SPEAKER_00: Neither can you take away a minute from the time that has been appointed to you.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 39, verse 5, Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
SPEAKER_00: Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, to live and to act in such a way that assumes any sense of control, authority, or sovereignty over my life or my destiny in life is arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: Even more, it is evil.
SPEAKER_00: It is evil.
SPEAKER_00: All such boasting is evil.
SPEAKER_00: James doesn't pull punches, does he?
SPEAKER_00: He just lays it right out there.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime that we wrestle control of our own lives into our own hands, we are doing evil.
SPEAKER_00: So he says in verse 17, so do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Now, James isn't speaking about masks and social distancing and quarantining.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying, do the right thing and wear a mask, do the right thing and social distance, do the right thing and stay home.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We too often take normal, everyday, even common sense things, and we elevate them to the place of moral issues, to the place of religious issues where something is right or wrong.
SPEAKER_00: There's a moral element to it.
SPEAKER_00: And then we use those elevated items that have been placed in issues of morality to whack our brothers and sisters in Christ over the head with if they disagree with us.
SPEAKER_00: Wearing masks and social distancing and quarantining are not moral issues.
SPEAKER_00: The context here demands that the right thing is trusting God with your life.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting God with your life.
SPEAKER_00: The wrong thing is to act in arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's apply that for a moment to our current situation with this coronavirus.
SPEAKER_00: If we before I go down this road, let me just say yet again.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about whether or not you should wear a mask.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about whether you should distance.
SPEAKER_00: It's about your heart.
SPEAKER_00: But let's apply it and see how this works out.
SPEAKER_00: If we follow all of the guidance given to us, all of the health guidance given to us, and we do so believing that following those rules will save us from the virus, we are doing the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: To believe that it will save you from the virus.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is assuming the power and the sovereignty of God over all things for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That is saying, I can control my own life.
SPEAKER_00: If we follow all of the guidance ourselves, and then we go to judge those who don't follow it because they're putting us at risk of sickness and maybe even death, that's doing the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's assuming that God is not sovereign over my life, and that God is not sovereign over your life.
SPEAKER_00: If we follow all the rules, or even if we don't follow all the rules, and we somehow become COVID positive, and then we go about skulking and groaning and casting blame around as if it's someone else's fault, we are failing to trust God with our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, these are matters of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Do we trust God with our lives?
SPEAKER_00: You can still wear a mask and trust God with your life.
SPEAKER_00: You can social distance and trust God with your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about those things, it's about the heart.
SPEAKER_00: If you know, if you know that you need to trust God and you don't, it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Again, in the context, the right thing is trusting God, the wrong thing is not trusting God arrogantly.
SPEAKER_00: So if you know to trust God and you don't trust him, it is sin.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, I think a lot of us need to confess.
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us need some confession.
SPEAKER_00: It is evil to not trust God with your life.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: James continues on in chapter 5, and he tells us it's not only evil, it's worthless.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't do any good.
SPEAKER_00: Now he gives us an illustration here, a particular situation about rich people, probably rich believers in the local church.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You rich, you weep and howl for the mysteries that are coming upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Your riches have rotted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
SPEAKER_00: And because they have trusted entirely in their riches, that has moved them to treat other people poorly.
SPEAKER_00: Now understand that in the whole context of Scripture, this is just an illustration.
SPEAKER_00: This is just an example of trusting in something.
SPEAKER_00: And riches might be at the top of the list of the easiest thing in which to trust.
SPEAKER_00: If your bank accounts are good and if your retirement is all in good shape, that's a very easy place in which to rest.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not all there is in which to trust.
SPEAKER_00: Told my wife last night that I've got a three-hour sermon.
SPEAKER_00: So I hope you filled up on the snacks out in the four year.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is replete with illustrations of things in which people trust.
SPEAKER_00: We just don't have time to work all the way through them.
SPEAKER_00: If you want a list of them, I can give them to you later.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just run through them.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite one of all of these illustrations is Jeremiah 2.13, where God says to his people, you had a fountain of living water.
SPEAKER_00: Fresh, perfectly clear, reviving, life-giving water, and you exchanged that for a cistern that leaks.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking about defense abilities, they've trusted in chariots, horses, bows, swords, armies, warriors.
SPEAKER_00: They trust in idols, formed images, riches, extortion, robbery.
SPEAKER_00: This is an interesting one.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 112, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: We put our trust in bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Put our trust in people, in rulers, treacherous people, oppression, perverseness, deceptive words, untruthful neighbors and family.
SPEAKER_00: Put our trust in lies, personal accomplishments, and our own treasures.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 18, 9 says that we put our trust in our own righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the most astounding and convicting one is Proverbs 28-26.
SPEAKER_00: We put our trust in our own minds, in our own ability to think and process, to take in information and to decide right or wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is clear that we are constantly barraged with things that bargain for our trust.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is it's not like going to a garage sale and getting a good bargain.
SPEAKER_00: These are all bad bargains.
SPEAKER_00: We listen.
SPEAKER_00: We listen and have our ears open and we receive these bargainings and we listen to their lives of safety.
SPEAKER_00: We listen to their lives of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: We listen to their lies of strength, their lies of hope.
SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden we feel as though God is silent.
SPEAKER_00: He's not listening to us.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayers are unanswered, and sickness and death and tragedy gets closer and closer, and without even knowing it, it is in masks in which we trust.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we are guilty of evil arrogance if we think that we are immune to the devil's beguiling work of making us trust in the creation instead of the creator.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Scripture says, trust only in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Would you human read?
SPEAKER_00: Take your Bible to Psalm 4.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to walk through some passages with you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this and even more to feel it.
SPEAKER_00: Feel the repetition of what Scripture says.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 4.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 4, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Offer right sacrifices and put trust in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 20.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 20, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God.
SPEAKER_00: My cousin wrote that verse out on a card and taped it to my dashboard when we were sophomores in college.
SPEAKER_00: He was riding with me, and I took a left turn in an unfamiliar area.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't realize that the line of trees that I saw actually separated one-way streets.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd made a left-hand turn into a wrong way on a one-way street.
SPEAKER_00: And after that he teased me for the rest of the year.
SPEAKER_00: Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: twenty two four.
SPEAKER_00: In you our fathers trusted.
SPEAKER_00: They trusted, and you delivered them.
SPEAKER_00: To you they cried and were rescued.
SPEAKER_00: In you they trusted and were not put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: CHAPTER thirty-one.
SPEAKER_00: Verse six.
SPEAKER_00: I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter forty.
SPEAKER_00: Verse four: Blessed is the one who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud or go astray after a lie.
SPEAKER_00: You get the idea, right?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to sixty-two.
SPEAKER_00: It just goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: It goes on and on.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm sixty-two, verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in him at all times, O people.
SPEAKER_00: Pour out your hearts before him.
SPEAKER_00: For God is a refuge for us.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm eighty-six.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm eighty-six, two.
SPEAKER_00: Preserve my life, God, for I am godly.
SPEAKER_00: Save your servant who trusts in you.
SPEAKER_00: You are my God.
SPEAKER_00: You all know Proverbs 3.5, right?
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, only not on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him.
SPEAKER_00: Trust.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to Isaiah 12.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 12.
SPEAKER_00: There's this this seems repetitive, I know, but there's a reason that God repeats him so.
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear this again and again and again, and we need to feel it again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 12, 2.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, God is my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I will trust and not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: For Yahweh God is my strength and my song.
SPEAKER_00: He has become my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I know somebody's going to say, but Pastor, you're just you're up there speaking and you've not had COVID.
SPEAKER_00: You're not in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say that when you haven't faced those same things.
SPEAKER_00: There's some truth in that.
SPEAKER_00: But let's look at a couple of illustrations in the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And I think these two just very clearly defy that comeback.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 3, the lives of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
SPEAKER_00: We know them better as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
SPEAKER_00: They refused to worship the king's golden image, and he threw them into a fire so hot that the fire killed the men who threw them in.
SPEAKER_00: God, of course, rescued them.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't even smell like smoke.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 3, verse 28, Nebuchadnezzar says, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve or worship any God except their own God.
SPEAKER_00: Later in chapter 6, Daniel refuses to stop worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: As a result, he is thrown into the lion's den and God rescues him.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel chapter 6, verse 23, the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.
SPEAKER_00: So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God.
SPEAKER_00: See, friends, it is possible for the child of God to trust even in the midst of deadly circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean it's easy.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture speaks of trusting in God with all of life more than 120 times.
SPEAKER_00: And you thought we went through a lot of them.
SPEAKER_00: 120 times more than that.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if we trust in the things of this world, we're going to be run ragged with worry and anxiety because the things of this world will not last.
SPEAKER_00: If we trust in the things of this world, we're going to be overcome with effort because nothing is fully trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: But the one whose God is the Lord can fully rest in him.
SPEAKER_00: Now trusting in the Lord does not eliminate living wisely.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean throw all caution to the wind.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what it means.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting the Lord still involves living wisely, but what exactly does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some examples, perhaps, and it's not limited to these.
SPEAKER_00: Living wisely means living with truthful perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Truthful perspective.
SPEAKER_00: What was truthful perspective in Daniel's case?
SPEAKER_00: Well, truthful perspective in Daniel's case was that yes, the king was dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: The lions were more dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: But God's more powerful than all of those.
SPEAKER_00: Truthful perspective in Hanani, Mishael, and Azarai's case is that yes, the fire is dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: God's more powerful than that.
SPEAKER_00: So think about this.
SPEAKER_00: I pulled these stats down yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: As of yesterday, there were 732 deaths in North Dakota from COVID-19.
SPEAKER_00: Not splitting those out in any way, that's just the total.
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of those deaths ought to be mourned and grieved.
SPEAKER_00: Especially those who have perished without Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to mourn every death that occurs in a sin-cursed world, especially those without Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But if we if we think about it, we should live wisely by putting that into perspective.
SPEAKER_00: For example, there were 300 more deaths than that in 2019 from abortion.
SPEAKER_00: In 2019, 600 more people died of cancer.
SPEAKER_00: Just in the state of North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: On the flip side of that, twice as many people have perished from COVID-19 as died of Alzheimer's in 2019.
SPEAKER_00: Twice as many approximately.
SPEAKER_00: Twice more than approximately twice as many have died of COVID than died of stroke in 2019 and of accidents.
SPEAKER_00: Perspective.
SPEAKER_00: But live with truthful perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Live with truthful perspective.
SPEAKER_00: We also need to understand that living wisely means living with eternity in mind.
SPEAKER_00: That really helps me because it helps me understand why the world has gone so crazy over COVID-19.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most heaven that anyone without Christ will ever have.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most heaven that they will ever experience.
SPEAKER_00: So they have to do everything they can to make sure that this life is the best life they can have and that it goes on as long as it can.
SPEAKER_00: But beloved, for the believer in Christ, this is not your best life.
SPEAKER_00: That's still coming.
SPEAKER_00: That's still ahead of you.
SPEAKER_00: Living wisely means living with Scripture in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, helping us walk day by day, moment by moment, issue by issue through God's sin-cursed world to his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And that means that living wisely means living with truth in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And that is incredibly difficult in our modern world where the amount of disinformation and twisted information is so readily available by so-called trusted sources.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God calls us live by truth.
SPEAKER_00: What truth is truth?
SPEAKER_00: So that means we have to go back again and again to the only truth that we know to be true.
SPEAKER_00: Do the right thing, James says.
SPEAKER_00: Do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: What is the right thing?
SPEAKER_00: Trust your life with God alone.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you live or die, or whether you become incredibly ill, it's in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: Not the protective efforts of fallible human beings.
SPEAKER_00: James continues on, and it seems like he it seems like he shifts a little bit here.
SPEAKER_00: And he does, but not entirely out of the context of what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: What he goes on to tell us in verses 7 through 12 is that it is righteous to entrust your life wholly to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's a righteous thing.
SPEAKER_00: It is a right thing, and it is a godly thing to entrust your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on, and he illustrates this by giving us five commands for those who follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Five statements, imperatives for those of us who walk with Christ to live out life in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And we're running out of time, so we've got to go through these quickly.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, be patient in verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient.
SPEAKER_00: There are negative examples all throughout scripture of this.
SPEAKER_00: Given that this is written to a primarily Jewish audience, they would probably think, first of all, of Abraham and Sarah.
SPEAKER_00: God promised Abraham and Sarah a family that couldn't be counted.
SPEAKER_00: So year after year they waited with not even one child, and then they decide, okay, let's get creative.
SPEAKER_00: With Hagar and Ishmael, they try to make their own way, working around God's timetable.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't patient.
SPEAKER_00: God promised a young woman who had twins in her womb that the older would serve the younger.
SPEAKER_00: And yet years later, Jacob and his mother would seek to advance God's purpose by sinfully stealing a birthright.
SPEAKER_00: Not being patient.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, James encourages us.
SPEAKER_00: In North Dakota, you've got farmers in your midst.
SPEAKER_00: Talk to them about being patient.
SPEAKER_00: They have no ability to control the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: They prepare the soil, they plant the seed.
SPEAKER_00: If they're blessed, they might have some irrigation to water the ground, but they can't make that seed sprout.
SPEAKER_00: They can't cause it to grow.
SPEAKER_00: They can't cause it to be fertilized.
SPEAKER_00: They can't cause it to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Only God does that.
SPEAKER_00: And they have to do that patiently.
SPEAKER_00: So be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, establish your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Notice in verse 8, he says very emphatically, you also, just as farmers are required to be patient, they have to be patient.
SPEAKER_00: You also be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Then establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is coming back.
SPEAKER_00: It's sooner than it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: It's sooner than when you got here.
SPEAKER_00: So establish your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: This means to fix something firmly in place.
SPEAKER_00: To fix it firmly in place.
SPEAKER_00: It's like putting a fence around your property.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you could dig a fence hole and just slap the fence post in the hole and put the dirt back around it and be good and walk away.
SPEAKER_00: It's an entirely different thing to dig out that hole and put some gravel in the bottom of it so that it doesn't rot the bottom of the post and then put that post in and make sure that it is completely vertical and pour cement around it so that it is firmly in place.
SPEAKER_00: It's the kind of idea that he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, when you go to trust God with your life, do it firmly.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen yourself, establish yourself.
SPEAKER_00: This means to be inwardly firm and committed to who Christ is and what he is to you so that you trust your life to him wholly.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the midst of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 5:10, after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the church in Revelation chapter 3 was commanded to wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 3, 2, wake up and strengthen, establish what remains and is about to die.
SPEAKER_00: He says, make sure that in life, in an unstable world, that you are firmly established in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe the hardest one of all, don't grumble.
SPEAKER_00: Don't grumble.
SPEAKER_00: Now for a Jewish audience, they would most likely go right back to the children of Israel wandering in the desert, right?
SPEAKER_00: They came right out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They were rescued miraculously.
SPEAKER_00: They were miraculously taken through the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: And then just within a matter of days, they're wondering, where's all the water?
SPEAKER_00: And they're grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: God gives them bread from heaven and they're asking God, well, great, that's fine stuff, but you don't give us meat.
SPEAKER_00: Right over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: They're grumbling and they're grumbling at what God's not doing for them.
SPEAKER_00: But notice the emphasis here.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about grumbling towards God.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say?
SPEAKER_00: Do not grumble against one another.
SPEAKER_00: Against one another.
SPEAKER_00: See, the reality is that there's a judge at the door.
SPEAKER_00: Who's the judge?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's at the door.
SPEAKER_00: The potential is judgment if we grumble.
SPEAKER_00: Our grumbling against one another instead of God is a sign of our arrogance and our lack of trusting in God for everything in life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I think a lot of us need some confession.
SPEAKER_00: Command number four.
SPEAKER_00: Take the prophets as examples of patience and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He says, listen, you know about Job.
SPEAKER_00: You've seen God's purpose played out in life.
SPEAKER_00: You know how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, follow the right examples in your life of patience and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: If the information sources, if the media sources that you consume lead you to worry, if they lead you to anxiety, if they lead you to seek control and sovereignty over your life, stop it.
SPEAKER_00: Stop consuming it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the right example.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, well, Pastor, then I won't know what's going on in the world.
SPEAKER_00: So read your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You'll know what's going on in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't say that facetiously, I mean that.
SPEAKER_00: When we are inclined to be impatient, remember Job.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's why we need to read our Bibles, so that when the moment comes, God can prompt our minds and our hearts to remember, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: When we're motivated to grumble against others, remember that God has a purpose that He's working out in you and in somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: When we're struggling to see what God is doing in the midst of hard times, remember he is always compassionate and he's always merciful, regardless of whether or not you can see it or feel it.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the moments when our self-centered arrogance shouts the loudest that we most struggle to see the Lord's compassion and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Because all we see is our own minds, our own thoughts, our own desires.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, do not swear.
SPEAKER_00: He says, above all, my brothers, do not swear.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would he say above all?
SPEAKER_00: Why on this last point of not swearing, why would he say, above all of these things, do not swear?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it seems to be that this is the conclusion to what began in verse 13 of chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when we take an oath for something, when we swear to something, that we're going to do something, or this is going to happen, or we're going to do this or do that, we're doing exactly like the rich people in chapter 4, verses 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_00: We are saying, I have it within my power and my ability to control life in such a way that I will do this.
SPEAKER_00: So when you have to swear to do something, or take an oath to do something, you're being arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: You're assuming sovereignty from God for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We act as though we can control life in such a way that we can actually follow through on our oath.
SPEAKER_00: And James says, don't act arrogantly, just be men and women of your word.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you might fall into God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God's children, those whom he's making into the image of Jesus Christ, live out the change that he's working in them by trusting with all of life.
SPEAKER_00: That trust is seen in patience, especially in hard times.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen in having a settled heart that trusts.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen in not grumbling against others.
SPEAKER_00: It's seen in seeking to be like the godly people of the past and by being people of our word.
SPEAKER_00: And James ends there.
SPEAKER_00: Do the right thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's still that group out there that says, Yeah, but you haven't had anybody close to you die of COVID-19.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't.
SPEAKER_00: Not had it myself that I'm aware of.
SPEAKER_00: So what about them?
SPEAKER_00: What do we say to them?
SPEAKER_00: You know, there they're let's face it, there are some that are struggling currently.
SPEAKER_00: There are some that have continuing effects.
SPEAKER_00: Some might be struggling with an effect infection they had in the past.
SPEAKER_00: What do we say?
SPEAKER_00: How do we encourage them and encourage one another and be encouraged ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you three quick thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: Let's deal with the hardest one first.
SPEAKER_00: The one that is most difficult for us, I think, to wrap our brains around.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that we must truly believe that death is hopeful for those in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I get fully why the unbelieving world is torn apart when people die.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to grieve with them.
SPEAKER_00: I get why people are scared.
SPEAKER_00: This is all they have.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have placed your faith and trust in Christ, death is a graduation.
SPEAKER_00: It's hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 2.10, do not fear what you are about to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have tribulation.
SPEAKER_00: Be faithful all the way to death, and I will give you the crown of life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Philippians 1.21, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Do we rest in that?
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 3.21, talking about Christ who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he could say in 2 Corinthians 5.8, yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a homebody.
SPEAKER_00: I like to be at home.
SPEAKER_00: But even at home, there's a part of me that isn't at home.
SPEAKER_00: And I'd rather be at home.
SPEAKER_00: Do we really, truly, as God's people, believe that death is hopeful?
SPEAKER_00: Or do we believe that it is all that we have here and now?
SPEAKER_00: That ought to motivate us to be encouraged, to be like the people in the book of Hebrews and chapter 11 in the Hall of Fame of Faith.
SPEAKER_00: It says that they.
SPEAKER_00: Loved not their lives to the death because they knew that there was something better coming.
SPEAKER_00: That's hard.
SPEAKER_00: That's really hard, especially when the death is of a loved one that's close to you.
SPEAKER_00: But just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: And in those moments, we have to work to conform our feelings and our emotions to what is true.
SPEAKER_00: Second encouragement: submit your life to God's providential arranging of everything.
SPEAKER_00: Oh beloved, there's so much encouragement and comfort in this.
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen in Matthew's gospel together, every hair of your head is known by God.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's not so much of a struggle for God.
SPEAKER_00: For others, it's more.
SPEAKER_00: Your steps are ordered by providence.
SPEAKER_00: Your days are arranged, your time is appointed.
SPEAKER_00: And all of that your sovereign God has done to bring eternal glory to himself.
SPEAKER_00: Not to you, not to me.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, let's rest in the truth that suffering is a gracious gift.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is the hardest one.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering is a gracious gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 1.29, it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.
SPEAKER_00: The word granted means graced.
SPEAKER_00: It has been graced to you.
SPEAKER_00: It has been graciously given to you to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Every opportunity, every moment that God has given you to suffer in this sin-cursed world is his gracious gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: You will struggle with control over your life until you relinquish all of your life to that truth.
SPEAKER_00: So we end with 1 Peter 4.19.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, therefore, let those who do suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: We confess that it is a very hard, hard thing for us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, it's hard for us to be these kind of people.
SPEAKER_00: This is the world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: So we ask that you would help us to do it even better.
SPEAKER_00: Enable us to relinquish our treasures in this world and to have an eternal focus that looks to the glory of the risen Lord, who is over all and above all.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.