Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Guest (Male): If you would, please stand for the reading of the scripture. The scripture will be coming from James chapter one verses 5 through 12. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Beginning at verse 5:

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Thank you for the reading of the God's word.

Pastor Ray P. Smith: If you have your copy of the scriptures, I invite you to turn to the book of James, James chapter one. We're going to look at one verse this morning and that will be verse 12. James chapter one, verse 12. This is what it says:

Blessed, happy, to be envied is the man who endures temptation. But when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Father, thank You so much again for this day. Thank You for all Your goodness as always. Thank You for the ladies making the 2-7 courses a priority and celebrating their completion. Father, may the motivation be motivation for those who have yet to take the courses.

Our goal as followers of Christ—He said, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men"—we want to be obedient. We want to follow and we want to pursue the process and the end result. We commit that to You. Father, as we sit at Your feet for the next few minutes, we ask that You might be pleased to speak to our hearts from Your word, thrill our hearts with Your word. Bind the evil one so that Your word will have the preeminence without interruption.

Father, as always, give us strength to use the grace that You give so abundantly to listen to You attentively so that we may walk in Your will deliberately. We'll be careful to give You the praise and the honor and the thanksgiving because we ask all of these things in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.

Warren Wiersbe, one of the men that I follow in my readings pretty much every week, related a story. He recorded this conversation. He said a friend of mine, a gifted secretary, was going through great trials. She had a stroke, her husband had gone blind, and then he had to be taken to the hospital where we were sure he would die.

I saw her in church one Sunday and assured her that I was praying for her. She asked this question: "What are you asking God to do?" Her question startled me and I said, "I'm asking God to help you and give you strength." She said, "I appreciate that, but pray for just one more thing. Pray that I'll have the wisdom not to waste all of this."

James 1:5 says, "If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God." She understood that God was doing something even in the midst of all the struggles, even in the midst of all of the difficulties. When life gets hard, we don't measure the goodness of God by the difficulty of the circumstances. We want to understand exactly what He's doing because God never wastes anything in our lives. She said, "Just pray that I'll have the wisdom to not waste this moment."

Paul says something in Philippians 1:29 that astounds us. He says, "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His name's sake." We don't think of suffering as a privilege. We think of suffering as an intrusion into a happy life. But God, as He maps out our traveling, He programs in a degree of suffering.

James explains that, and that's what we want to look at for just a few minutes. Last week, we talked about the fact that in order to find triumph in our trials, we have to acknowledge God's purposes for our trials. We have to consider the right perspective for the poor and the right perspective for the rich in order to gain God's approval.

I want to talk about finding triumphs in my trials, part two, as we look at verse 12. "Blessed is the man who perseveres." The New King James says "endures," and "endures" isn't a bad word. It's just that I like "perseverance" more. When you endure something, that means you put up with it. But "persevere" means that you pull through it. You stand up under it.

Both of those ideas are found in that Greek word *hupomene*. This man is able to have the pressure on him and he doesn't squirt out from under it because he's trying to escape. He's willing and able to stand there and take it. God builds that kind of stamina and strength in a person. That's why He allows the trials to come.

The man who perseveres under trial, because once he's been approved, he'll receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. I'm blessed by trials because of the perseverance. God allows these hard times to come in order to demonstrate that my faith is real.

There are some people that have pretend faith, pseudo-faith, false faith, and they're in it for a minute but as soon as the difficulties come, they're out of here because they don't want hard times. They've been duped into believing that God only wants to give me the goodies. God is like a spiritual Santa Claus and he just throws out blessings. If the blessings aren't coming down, then something's wrong and He's holding out on you. That's a lie from the pit of hell.

Some people think that God is a genie. He's bottled up and He's not a part of what you do in your decision making until you need Him. Then you rub the bottle, He comes out and gives you three wishes. That's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible, the one who manages your life, the one who organizes your path, the one who keeps you going when you lack strength, He programs into your life difficulties.

I'm blessed because of the perseverance. James 1:12 is a beatitude that reminds us of the ones in Matthew chapter five. This beatitude is a summary of the things that he has said previously in verses 2 through 11. I can persevere because I have an attitude of joy. Your attitude determines your altitude. What you choose to do with the circumstance is more important than the circumstance itself. God wants to teach you how to win in spite of the circumstances.

Verse three talks about having an understanding, knowing, understanding that the testing of your faith is what produces endurance. If I understand what God has in mind and what He's doing, and understand why God allows the hard times, then you don't fall apart when you have them.

Verse four talks about having a submissive mind. He said, "Let patience have its way in your life so that you can be patient and complete." God wants you to have a faith with no gaps in it. So, the hard times come to examine the gaps in your faith. It'll point out the deficiencies so that you know how to get stronger. God wants you to have a faith that's complete and entire and lacking nothing.

Verses five through eight say have a believing heart. Those are the verses that say if you lack wisdom, ask God because He gives liberally. He won't make fun of you for asking. He'll give it to you, but you have to ask in faith. You have to believe that God is the rewarder for those who seek Him.

Then having a humble heart, verses 9 through 11, recognizing that it's not really about me and about what I want. It's about God and what He wants. So, being willing to let God have His way. In the end of all of that, you have to trust God. You have to believe that He's a rewarder of the ones who diligently seek Him.

Don't be like the man who was a mountain climber and he slipped and he just managed to catch onto the edge of the cliff. As he looked around, there's nobody there and below him, certain death. He was not a religious man but he had religious friends who taught him about God. So he looked up and said, "God, if You're up there, help me."

To his surprise, God answered him. He said, "You want My help?" He said, "Yes, I'll do anything." He said, "Okay, let go." Then he asked the question that we often ask. He said, "Is there anybody else up there?" Don't be like that person lacking in faith. You have to trust God and believe that what He has in mind for you is the very best thing for you. Commit your way to Him. I'm blessed because of the perseverance and it comes because I have those five attitudes.

Secondly, I'm blessed by my trials because of the process. We talked about the process a little bit last week, but today I want us to look at Ephesians 2:8-10. For God saved you by His grace when you believed. You can't take credit for this. Nobody's going to be able to come to God and say, "Well, I did a pretty good job," or "My good outweighed my bad." I mean, I know I did some bad things but I did more good things than bad things. God's not going to hear that because if you were going to earn your way into heaven, you'd have to be perfect.

Matthew 5:48, you'd have to be perfect. None of us are perfect. We were born in sin and you were a sinner by nature and by choice. As a result, you could never come into God's presence and offer up anything that's good because you're a sinner. But God still loved you. He loves you now. He loved you before you even got here.

He demonstrated that love for you in sending His Son. Christ, the scripture says, tasted death for each one of us. Christ never sinned, and the soul that sins will die. Jesus never sinned, so He didn't have to die. He says, "No one takes My life from Me. I lay it down of My own initiative." Why would Christ lay His life down? He laid His life down for you and to cover your sin, to take away your sins, and to live the kind of life, the righteous life, that you could never live.

Then His righteousness is credited to your account and your sin was laid on Him. That's how much God loved you. It had nothing to do with anything you did. It's all about Him. So verse nine says salvation is not a reward for the good things you've done, so no one of us can boast about it. We are God's masterpiece.

I like that. It's *poiema*, from which we get the word poem. He's writing verse and rhyme through our lives and the things that He arranges in our lives. He's created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. God brought you into the world for a purpose and God wants you to accomplish His purpose. In fact, your life will not have meaning and abundance apart from adopting the purposes of God.

Three works that are involved in a completed Christian life. Number one, the work that God does for us, which is salvation. Christ gave His life for us. He completed the work that God demanded on the cross. Secondly, there's the work that God does in us. We call that sanctification. It's the process of becoming more and more like Jesus in our character.

We allow Him to carve out the different things in our lives that don't resemble Christ, like Michelangelo. When asked how he could sculpt these great masterpieces of art, he said, "Well, the picture already exists in the granite. I just chip away everything that doesn't belong there."

That's what the spirit of God does. Christ in us and He chips away all of the areas in our lives, my heart, Christ's home. He chips away every area that does not reflect His glory so that we become more and more like Him in our character. That's exactly what He desires to do. If we allow Him, He will complete that work in us. If we fight against Him, then the work doesn't happen and we don't resemble Christ. God builds our character and we become more like Jesus.

I put down some verses that explain a little bit of God's process. In Exodus chapter 13, we see this really interesting situation. It says when Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shorter route to the Promised Land.

God said if the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. They might moonwalk right back into slavery. So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. God knew that when He delivered His people, they weren't ready to take the land that He had promised them. So when He set them free, He had to train them in order to become the people who were able to do the thing that He had in mind for them to do.

So after a little while, Exodus 17, after the people had gone out, they've run out of water or had no water, bitter water. They were hot, thirsty, tired and they cry out, they grumble, they moan. God answers, He meets their needs. He met their need for water, He met their need for food. He gave them manna, He gave them quail meat. He gave them everything they needed when they needed it to teach them that they could trust Him for everything that they needed. That was the goal. We find that in Deuteronomy chapter eight.

But here he says while the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. They said, "Wait a minute now. We're the people of God. He just brought us out of Egypt. He brought this cloud down so the Egyptian army couldn't find us and they stayed away all night. He made a path through the Red Sea so we could walk through on dry ground. He delivered us and then He drowned all of those armies in the water. God protected us. We're safe."

Well, how come He's letting these Amalekites attack us? Why would God do that? Why didn't He cover our rear guard? Why didn't He set us apart so that we were safe? Because they needed to learn how to fight. So he said Moses commanded Joshua, "Choose some men. Go out, fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow I'll stand on top of the hill. I'll hold the staff of God up in my hand."

So Joshua did what Moses said and he fought the Amalekites. If you know the story, you know Moses is standing up there. He's got that staff up and when he holds his hands up with that staff, the children of Israel, they were defeating the Amalekites. Then his arms got tired and he put his hands down. When he put his hands down, the Amalekites defeated the children of Israel.

They realized that. So they got a rock, sat him down and his two brothers, they stood on either side of him and they held his hands up until Joshua was able to overwhelm the Amalekites. Two things out of that that are very important. Number one is the importance of prayer. As Moses intercedes, holds his hands up toward God, victory belongs to the Lord. You don't win because you're smart. You don't win because you're clever. You win because God is everything and He does everything.

The difference between winning and losing for you is the difference that God makes. If you're not willing to trust Him, if you're not willing to follow Him, if you're not willing to submit to Him, you won't have the victory. The evil one, the enemy of your soul, the devil, he'll smack you right down and he'll stomp on you, too. He'll do it because you let him, because you won't trust the one who gives you victory.

A very important thing there. Secondly, of course, they're learning that God is the one who gives us victory. Paul says, "Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus." The victory belongs to the Lord. We sing that song, "Victory belongs to Jesus. Victory belongs to Him."

It's more than just a song. It's a very true statement. I need to learn that prayer is a preparation for the battle. Prayer is the battle. You win on your knees in prayer and then you stand up and then you go out and pick up the emblems of war. You pick up the pieces of victory because God has won.

As you do that, as you go out, as you take on tasks, as things get in your face and you say this is beyond my ability—but nothing's beyond Your ability. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you're able to ask or think. You form a conclusion in your mind that if I just follow the Lord, if I let God fight the battles, that's a winning proposition. I don't have to worry about losing. I can win in Him.

Then you reach a point, Psalm 119, verses 33 through 35, a very important principle. He says, "Teach me your decrees, O Lord. I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding and I'll obey your instructions. I will put them into practice with all my heart. I'll do everything you say."

I love verse 35. You knew that because I highlighted those words. He says, "Make me walk along the path of your commandments, for that is where my happiness is found." If I want to be happy, if I want to have joy, it's because I'm going to order my steps. I'm going to do the derech thing. The derech is a way. You know how a path is formed? A path is formed when you continually walk that way.

You might come up into an area and you see the grass is worn right here and you can see a definite path. That's because somebody's gone that way, gone that way, or you've gone that way, gone that way. Because you've repeatedly gone over the same ground, it forms a path. Well, God has a path. God has a way.

As you follow His commandments, as you walk in His steps, you know what you do? You form paths of righteousness. We learn and then we live by habit. God forms spiritual habits in our lives one step at a time. As we walk in obedience to His will over and over and over, the will of God becomes muscle memory and we think about doing it without even thinking about doing it.

We find ourselves following Him instead of deviating off into sin. God wants us to form habit patterns that lend themselves to righteous living. That's one of the things about the 2-7 courses. The discipline of daily quiet time, spending time with God, learning to hear His voice, learning to understand His will, learning to know how He speaks to you, learning what His will for you is—all of those things over and over and over. 33 weeks of that, seven days a week. It takes 60 repetitions to form a habit, but over 33 weeks, whatever 7 times 33 is, over 200 and something, that's way more than 60. You'll be walking in righteousness because of the disciplines that have been formed.

Three works involved. Number one, the work God does for us. Number two, the work that God does in us. Number three, the work that God does through us. God wants to perform His will through you. When the Bible says in Ephesians 2:10 we are His masterpiece, His workmanship, His poiema, created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works.

God already has in mind something that He wants you to do. His purposes for you, He brought you into the world with the purpose for a purpose, and then He prepares you using hard times to toughen you up, to prepare you so that you can do the very things that He brought you into the world to do. That is service.

God builds character before He calls to service. He must work in us before He can work through us. If you don't remember anything else, remember: God wants to do a work in me. He wants to do a work on the inside and because my heart is changed and yoked to Him, it's going to change how I live, everything that happens on the outside.

We want to be able to imitate Him. We want to be able to follow Him. We want to be able to speak like Him. We may not be like the shoe man at the shoe repair store. There was this sign that came in the shoe repair store. It says, "We will heal you. We will save your sole. We will even dye for you." Talk about imitating Christ.

That's not exactly what we want to do, but he's trying to imitate what God says. That's how I want to live my life. I want to be able to talk like Jesus. Remember the apostles? They were carried in before the religious leadership and they wanted to get them to stop speaking about Christ. The scripture says they noted the boldness of these men and then they said they noticed that they were like Jesus. They talked like Him, they were bold like Him, they acted like Him, they had His purposes. May that be true of you and me.

God prepares for service and we can see that. We have examples of that in the scriptures. We see Joseph, how God prepared him for service, prepared him to be the Prime Minister of Egypt. How? By having him thrown into slavery, by having him falsely accused and thrown into prison.

You say, "Why would God treat him like that?" Because God was molding him, molding him, molding him. So when he comes out of prison to stand before Pharaoh—when he stood before the brothers, he was bragging about those dreams he had, but when he stood before Pharaoh after all of this time, he says, "You know what? Interpretation of dreams comes from God. God will give you the answer and this is what you see and this is what it means." They said, "You know what? He's the guy to do it," and they chose him to be the Prime Minister of Egypt.

You look at the children of Israel, as I mentioned before, and how He taught them, having delivered them and then bringing them into battle skirmishes. They fought against the Amalekites, then they fought against the Amorites and captured their land. Next thing you know, they were ready to go into the Promised Land. They knew how to fight.

You look at Moses, 40-40-40. Moses, he spent 40 years in Egypt learning all of the wisdom of Egypt. But then he spent 40 years on the backside of the desert learning how to raise sheep, sheep-ology. Then he had those last 40 years working with two-footed sheep, people. He had to lead them for 40 years and he had more problems with the two-legged sheep than he had with the four-legged sheep. But he was prepared to lead them because of the way God had trained him. 80 years of training to do 40 years of ministry.

God doesn't waste His time, He doesn't waste our time, He doesn't waste our circumstances. All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. God brought you here for a purpose and He trains you for the purposes, and that training involves, again, hard times.

The final thing is because of the promise. Look at what he says at the latter part of verse 12. It says when he has been approved, once he's passed the test, once there are no gaps in his faith, once he has grown and matured, he's able to stand strong no matter what life throws at him. At the end of the stretch, he'll receive the crown of life.

Two things that I see here that I want to close with. Number one, the promise, the gift of life. Even when we think about how hard this life can be, even though we think about all of the difficulties that we will encounter in life, at the end, this life is temporary. On the other side, there is an eternity. There is peace and joy and bliss and it lasts forever.

Paul says this affliction that we suffer right now, he says is light and it's momentary. But in the end, there's a far greater glory that is ours. It's kind of like Jesus. When Jesus came in His first coming, His incarnation, He was humiliated. But after the humiliation, there is honor, seated at the right hand of the Father. After he was abused, he was exalted. That comes on the back end.

The life that you have now, the difficulties that you have now, they don't last long. But what God has for you on the other side is never going to fade away. I fix my hope on the gift of life that God is giving me. I didn't deserve it, but He gave it to me anyway.

The final thing is the grace of love. He says he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Learning to love God and to appreciate what He's doing in my life, that's the end result of spending time with Him every day in His word. It affects all that we do.

In fact, Wiersbe says why do we have a joyful attitude as we face trials? Because we love God and He loves us and He will not harm us. Why do we have an understanding mind? Because He loves us and has shared His truth with us and we love Him in return. Why do we have a surrendered will? Because we love Him. Where there is love, there is surrender and obedience. Why do we have a believing heart? Because love and faith go together. When you love someone, you trust them and you don't hesitate to ask them for help.

When you learn to love God, when you allow Him to come in bringing His love—the scripture says in Romans 5, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts"—I'm counseling this couple now, premarital counseling. I say to them, as I say to every couple I counsel, the most important thing that you can do for your spouse is to fall more deeply in love with Jesus Christ.

The more you love Christ, the more His love is shed abroad in your heart and you have more of His love to give. His love is other-focused. Just think about what the Spirit of God does in your life because you've fallen in love with Christ. He creates these nine things in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

He produces those things in you and you have those things in your life, you can be around anybody and they will really love being around you. If you don't have those things in your life, you're mean, surly, something. Then they see you coming and they go, "Oh my God." You don't want an "Oh my God" reputation. You want an "Oh yes" reputation. That's what God produces in you because His love comes in and His love fills you up and you're able to give it away and there's no end to the having of it. You'll have a life that adds value to everybody.

What does God want me to do? What does He want me to know? What does He want me to feel? Let me give you four quick thoughts. Number one, faith is always tested. No matter what, if you have good faith, true faith, it's going to be tested. If you have lousy faith, bad faith, false faith, it's going to be tested. God tests all of those to see if there's real trust in Him. It's going to happen. Only the pretenders will walk away. Those who are serious about their faith in Christ, they'll be there. They'll follow Him no matter what.

Number two, testing works for us, not against us. It's not as though God is punishing us. God is proving the genuineness of our faith. Number three, trials rightly used help us mature. The people who never have any difficulties in life, they grow up to be weak people who are sometimes occasional, shiftless. There's no substance there. They're not made strong, they're not toughened up. As a result, when difficulties come, they fall apart.

Finally, the results of serving Christ are literally out of this world. There is the blessing of an eternity of spending time with Him. God wants to bless your life. He wants to bless my life. He wants to make me a mature follower, but maturity comes in the midst of difficulties and He programs them in. I need to see it for what it is and recognize how much He loves me.

One evening, a mother was busy fixing supper. Her little boy came up to her and gave her a piece of paper. She dried her hands on her apron and she read the paper. The paper said:

For cutting the grass, $5. For cleaning up my room this week, $1. For going to the store for you, 50 cents. Babysitting my kid brother while you went shopping, 25 cents. Taking out the garbage, $1.

The list went on and on and on. At the bottom, it says total owed: $14.75. Her mother looked at him standing there, thinking things, and then she picked up the pen. She turned the paper over and she wrote:

For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me, no charge. For all the nights that I sat up with you, doctored and prayed for you, no charge. For all the trying times and all the tears that you caused through the years, no charge. For all the times I wiped your nose and your butt, no charge. For all the toys and food and clothes, no charge. Son, when you add it up, the cost of my love for you, no charge.

When the boy finished reading his mother's list, there were tears in his eyes. He looked up at his mom and he said, "Mom, I really love you." Then he took the pen, turned the paper back over to his list and he wrote in big letters: paid in full.

For all of the grief that I bring into the world, Jesus says, "No charge. I gave My life for you. I will give you all things that pertain to life and godliness." Do you need wisdom? Just ask. Do you need strength? Just ask. Do you need resources? Just ask. Do you need affection and love? Just ask. Do you need purpose? Just ask. How much are You going to charge me to give me all of this stuff? Jesus says, "No charge. That's how much I love you. I want you to experience and know and grow in My love." That's why He programs in hard times.

Father, thank You so much again for this day. Thank You for Your love for us. Father, thank You that as incredible as it seems, the difficulties that You allow to come into our lives, they're not proof that You punish us. In fact, they're no punishment at all. The price for our deliverance has already been paid by our Lord Jesus and Your great love for us is demonstrated in Your sending Him.

But not only did You send Your Son, You sent Your Spirit and He will live in the heart of anyone that receives Jesus as Savior and Lord. We thank You for His abiding presence in us. Thank You that we can have peace, peace with You, peace from You. Thank You that we can have Your purposes. Thank You, Father, for all of the things that You provide freely given if we would surrender our lives to Your Son.

I pray that we be willing not to chafe, not to complain, not to grow in bitterness, not to look on the downside of all of our circumstances, but may every circumstance cause us to look up and see that above all of it stands a God who in love has arranged the circumstances to produce growth and maturity and demonstrate His love and protection in our lives.

Help us to cease from complaining. Help us to turn away from the darkness of depression. Help us, Father, to look up to You in Your great love. May we be warmed by it and may we walk in it. I do pray that if there's anyone here today, perhaps they came in without a relationship with You, being under Your judgment, even not recognizing how dark the doom is that is judgment.

But they don't have to be judged because You poured out the punishment on Christ so that they can live. No one goes to hell with their sins unpaid for. It's just that they refuse to accept the payment. They refuse to believe on Your Son. Father, I pray if there's anyone here today who has not put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, still trying to figure out their own meaning in life, Father, I pray that You would open their eyes, that You would speak to their hearts, that they might bow the knee of their lives and surrender to Jesus, the one who truly loves them.

They'll find in You that joy and purpose in life. For those of us that have received You again, may we walk in the liberty and the love found in our Lord. May we be difference-makers who add value to those around us. We ask these things in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.