Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Guest (Male): I'd like to say good morning to everyone. If you would, please stand for our scripture reading. Today's scripture is found in Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 8. Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 8.

Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Lord add a blessing to the reading of His word. You may be seated.

Pastor Ray P. Smith: Well amen. Perhaps some of you thought that the sermon for today would be from Romans chapter 5 because that's the passage that was read. But no, that is not so. I had Romans 5 read because it deals with the topic that we are going to talk about this morning.

I would invite you to take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me back to the book of James. James chapter 1. James chapter 1. And we are going to cover three more verses. James chapter 1 beginning with verse 2. It says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Father thank you so much again for this day, and thank you for all that you do. Thank you that you are the way maker. When there was no way out that we could see, Lord you made a way, and we thank you for that. You are the solution. We could not save ourselves, but you rescued us not because you had to, you simply chose to because you are just so good. And we want to thank you for that.

Thank you for allowing us to assemble together to sing your praises. Thank you for allowing us to greet one another in your name. Thank you for allowing us to give and acknowledge your ownership of all that is in our possession. And now Father thank you for the great privilege of sitting at your feet and allowing you to speak to our hearts and allow your Spirit the freedom to just deal with those issues in our heart that are out of kilter with your will.

We only ask that you bind the evil one that he have no part in what takes place in the next few minutes. And that Father the grace that you give us so abundantly might be used by us efficiently to listen to you attentively. And we'll give you the praise and the honor and the thanksgiving. We'll be careful to do that because we ask these things in Jesus's name and for His sake. Amen.

James chapter 1 deals with a number of issues. One of which is authenticity. And I was reading an article that talked about counterfeiting. And it said this, "Counterfeiting is a major problem in our society. Forged money, credit cards, jewelry, works of art, virtually everything else of value are passed off as genuine to deceive the unaware."

Now it even makes its way into churches. I struggled with whether or not to even say it Brother Wayne, but I am going to say it. You know we even at our church, we had someone give us a rather generous donation. Cash. And as they gave, then as we took it to the bank, we slid the money out, the teller was looking at the money and they slid back a $50 bill. And they said that's not real. So I was like okay amen. Counterfeits happen all the time.

Now in my simplicity and goodness, well I have no goodness apart from Christ, but I do have a lot of simplicity. I assume that the person who gave that generous donation was not aware that the bill that they gave was not really real. It was a counterfeit. And so I'm not mad at them about that, but I do know I chuckle when we talked about it because counterfeiting is real. It happens.

The most valuable thing that there is in life though is the gift of salvation. And so it should not surprise us that there are counterfeits out there. Satan the enemy of our souls and every person's soul, now he pushes out there that which is pretend faith. It's not real faith. And because he is a deceiver and a liar, 2 Corinthians 10 telling us that he parades himself as an angel of light. He pretends that he's good when he's not. He's a counterfeit.

And so Paul says it's no great issue, I mean it doesn't surprise us that he has his own agents out there who pass themselves off as the agents of God. The counterfeit. There are people standing in pulpits claiming to represent the authentic gospel, the authentic faith, the authentic Savior, but they are liars and deceivers. And sometimes people they listen to this and they follow these individuals and they think that they're okay, but they're in danger. They've been deceived.

And of course because counterfeits abound, there is the important thing of putting out there the faith, the truth. How do you know if what you believe is true? Well you have to assess it. You have to examine it in light of what the scriptures say. You know I was reading where they said a diamond crafter what they would do is they would take diamonds and they would put them in water.

Because a diamond, if it's a real diamond, if you put it in water, there's this brilliant sparkle that comes out of it. But if you put it in the water and there isn't much of a sparkle, that's not a real diamond. It's passed off as one, but it's not. And in the same way the faith, the true faith of God, it has to be examined in order to see if it is legitimate to prove its authenticity.

And that's what James is talking about. When we look at the book of James, we're going to discover that James has a whole series of tests that are designed to prove whether or not the faith that the person claiming to have is an authentic faith. Now last week when we started our introduction to the book of James, we asked the question: who is James? And we mentioned there are four Jameses in the New Testament.

We looked at a timeline for the faith of James. How he started as a doubter, but then he wound up being a follower of Christ and a servant of His. We looked at some noteworthy features of the book, its Jewish elements throughout the book. We asked the question, "Well why would we preach through the book of James?" Because James talks about genuine faith and he has this balance between genuine faith and the work that genuine faith produces.

And he says if it's real faith it'll work. You don't work to have faith, but you work because you have faith. And then we looked at a modest outline of the book. In that suggested outline I gave you a word for each chapter, a statement for each chapter. You'll notice here the mature believer. And the word mature shows up over and over because mature faith has certain elements to it.

And in chapter 1 you can tell if a faith is mature or maturing because God uses suffering to actually authenticate that faith. Chapter 2 talks about service. Chapter 3 talks about speech. Chapter 4 talks about separation. Chapter 5 talks about the second coming. Now the verses that I want us to look at this morning, verses 2 through 4, I highlighted some keywords so you can know how many points I'm going to give.

Now you may say, "Well he's going to give four points because there are four words highlighted." Actually the words "let" and "have", that's one word in the Greek. So actually there are only three points that I want to cover this morning when we talk about faith. He says, "Consider it joy when you encounter various trials. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

In order to triumph over the trials that come our way, in order to have ascendancy over the difficulties that suffering brings, then I have to do three things. I have to think correctly, I have to understand correctly, and I have to respond correctly. And those are the three things that we're talking about that James is talking about in these three verses.

So let's look at this. First of all let's talk about the priority of my attitude. My attitude. I have to think correctly. My attitude has to have the priority because, well I give you at least three reasons. A joyful attitude is imperative. And I say it's imperative because the word there is in the imperative. Number one is because my attitude, this is John Maxwell told me, he says this: "My attitude determines my altitude."

I will soar because I have a good attitude, or I will crash and burn because I have a miserable, lousy, no-good attitude. My attitude determines my altitude. And I can have joy. He says, "Consider it all joy." The word consider, hegemonmai, it literally means to think about it. To have already decided. James says when difficult circumstances when they pop up, then you ought to push up an attitude of joy.

Consider it all joy. You look at the bright side of everything. I told you before about this guy, and it's a true story. He was robbed on the streets. And when he got robbed he said, "Praise the Lord." Why would he praise the Lord? He said, "Well number one because I didn't get killed." And you know that's a good reason, I'm still alive.

"Number two I'm grateful because you know all they took was money. And money can be replaced." He said, "Number three the truth of the matter is I'm not the one doing the robbing." Now but for the grace of God, there go I. The difference between my ability to walk in righteousness and this person who's out robbing is the grace of God.

When I have an encounter with someone like that who is living without the grace of God and I see the damage that living without the grace of God has brought to their life, I am grateful for the grace of God. And so when this unfortunate circumstance happened he said, "Well praise the Lord." Because you look at the bright side of it. I can always do that. James says, "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials."

He says here that there are different kinds of trials that come up in life. Different types. He says you encounter various trials. The word various is an interesting word because it points out the fact that the trials just kind of come and they surround you. It's not like they come and you can run away from them.

This is the same word as used when Jesus talks about the story of the Good Samaritan. He says the man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves. That's the word. And what the picture there is that he turned the corner and there were thieves in front of him and there were thieves here that came out and he was surrounded by thieves.

And he couldn't get away. They did a beat down on him and took all of his stuff leaving him for half dead. And this is the word that James uses. He says listen circumstances they come and they surround you. And you can't get away from them. And when that happens he says you ought to push up an attitude of joy. Now those circumstances they vary. They're random. They come aggressively. They come whether I want them or not. I'm not saying, "Oh boy it'd be great if I could have some hard times today." Don't worry about it. They're coming.

You say, "I haven't had a hard time in a minute." Well keep going. Amen. There are various types of trials. I put down a couple of them. Sometimes it involves ill health. Maybe you thought you were doing well, you woke up and I got this ache. And you go to the doctor and the doctor says, "Oh." Like this one man I read about.

He went to the doctor and the doctor says, "Well I've got some bad news." He says, "Well what's the bad news?" He says, "Well you don't have long." "You don't have long to what?" He says, "You don't have long to live." "Well how long do I have?" He says, "Well ten." "Ten what?" "Nine, eight..." You see sometimes circumstances might catch you and you don't know it was going to be like that. Life can be that way.

Ill health. Sometimes tragedy strikes like I sister Dyson she texted and talked about her sibling there and had a stroke and just like that so she's on a plane to see her. And those things they just kind of crop up. Persecution. Maybe on your job, maybe in your school, maybe in your neighborhood. Sometimes maybe there's misunderstanding.

I remember when I was working with the youth and I think I told you before we had a youth program where we put a skit together because I love doing skits. And we put the skit together and the kids were doing their part. I'm at the back of the church and man dying on the inside because I want this skit to go really well. And it did.

And there was a part in there full of levity and people were laughing. And that relieved me and I'm laughing. And it was good. At the end of the youth Sunday program I come out and Kim White comes up and she says, "Ray I ought to give you a piece of my mind." "Why?" "You were in the back laughing at us." I'm like, "No I was laughing with you." "No you weren't."

And she just kind of gave me a piece of her mind. And when that happens you just say, "Praise the Lord." And you go on. Sometimes people misunderstand what you do. These circumstances they vary but they come. Sometimes you have needs that are unfulfilled and you know all you can do is call out to God. Trials come. They're various. They're random. But they are coming.

And the third thing, and this to me was a very encouraging thing. You know I cannot plan the nature of my trials, but I can prepare for them. I can't know when hard times are going to come, but I know they're coming. And so I can prepare myself for them. I can prepare by having a good attitude about the life that God has allowed me to have.

And I told you about the Chinese farmer and his son. He only had the one son, it's just the two of them to run the ranch and do all the labor. And they had one horse. And one day the son left the gate unlocked and the horse got out. Their only source of productivity. And his neighbors heard about it and said, "Oh man that's bad. That's really bad."

And the father he said, "Well how do you know? How do you know that's bad? How do you know?" And sure enough a couple of days later that horse came back and he ran into the corral followed by a dozen other wild horses. And they locked the gate. And now all his neighbors said, "Man apparently it wasn't bad. Apparently it was really good."

You know what the man said? He says, "How do you know? How do you know that's good? How do you know?" Sure enough one day the son was trying to break one of the wild horses. That thing bucked him, threw him down and broke his leg. And the old man is feeble, he can't work, and his only son who can do all the work is like busted. No work. Neighbors heard about it, you know what they said? "Man that's bad. That's really bad."

You know what that man said? He says, "How do you know? How do you know that's bad? How do you know?" Sure enough war broke out in China. And the Chinese warlord came through and he took every able-bodied young man off to war, never to return again. But you know who didn't go? The young man because his leg was bad.

So the moral of the story is you never know, right? So you know you keep a good attitude no matter what because you never know what God's doing. But you know that He's doing something because God unlike you and me, He never wastes time. He never wastes energy. He never wastes opportunity. God is always doing something.

And Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 28 that all the things that He's doing, they're all working together for what? For good to those who love God. And so I can prepare even for the difficulties because I know that God's got something good in mind no matter what it is when these circumstances, the adversities, the trials come and surround me. I don't panic. I don't fret. I don't speak a foreign language. I praise God.

You know sometimes I get on state. Most of my trials in life come as a result of driving down I-20. You know when I get to Panola Road and Wesley Chapel there's something about, I think there's a special demon that just sits there and just causes upheaval all the time. And see I'm not as smart as my dear brother Vince Scott because Vince has told me a number of times.

He says, "I don't get on 20 without checking my GPS first." And I'm like that, I always check my GPS after I get on 20. And I'm going well and then I turn that corner and then I see all these red lights. And I say something spiritual like, "Praise the Lord." It's not what I think, but then that's what comes out you know because I want to be spiritually speaking.

Anyway I can prepare. And why would I be able to have an attitude of joy even in the midst of difficulties? Well verse 3 tells me that there's a purpose to my trials. He says, "Knowing." Knowing there's something that I know. There's a purpose for my trial. God is doing something and trials become beneficial when three things take place.

Number one I understand the true purpose. That is that God is doing, He's active, and He's using this. This circumstance it seems like something that I wouldn't welcome, something that I wouldn't want. But it's something that God has chosen for me to have. And because God has chosen for me to have it, He's going to work something out of my life or into my life through this circumstance. And that's an amazing thing because I can have joy knowing that He's got this under control.

I realize secondly that you know the trial doesn't come to exasperate me, but to expose the weak parts of my faith. You know sometimes I work on, I haven't done it in a while. The last time I did it, it cost me you know some money to get it repaired by somebody that knew what they were doing. But you know I used to work on soldering copper pipes.

Because sometimes you know you're in an older home the pipes they they rust or they do something and you know they leak. And when they leak then your basement gets moisturized. And so what I had to do is I had to replace the pipes. To replace the pipes you gotta cut, cut, and then you gotta solder. And when you get your cellophane torch and you get your little replacement pipes and the fittings and you have to put the little strip on there to suck in the silver nitrate and all that kind of stuff you know that guys know about and ladies are like, "What, what?"

Well okay. But anyway you do all of that and when you get done because you've turned the water off in the whole house and you know then that's when you discover that your wife needs the water on like post haste. So you say, "Okay I'm going to turn it on in a minute." But before you turn that water on, you know you gotta make sure you did your stuff right.

How do you know if you did it right? Well easy, you turn the water on and you look. And if the water shoots back in your face you ain't do it right. So you say, "Okay it's coming." And you gotta do it all over again, right? But you know you test it, you test it. Why? Because you don't want it to leak, right?

You know I replaced something in my kitchen underneath the sink. And when I got done replacing everything, I noticed that there was one little plastic fitting in the bag. And I had put everything together. I'm like, "I know where this goes, but you know I think it's going to be okay." So I turn the water back on and I look and there was no water coming out. I'm like, "See I didn't need that."

And then I went down to my office down in the basement. When I came back up, my beloved whom I love more than life, she says, "You know there's water all over the kitchen floor." "Really?" It said, "Yeah." And then she opened the cabinet and there's water messing up the wood at the bottom. I'm like, "Okay apparently I needed that." So I had to turn the water back off and I had to go and I had to do what I should have done the first place.

Now between the time that I got it fixed and discovering the water, she said something to me. She said, "I thought you fixed that." Like, "I think I know what the problem is." In fact I was pretty sure what the problem was. I didn't put that piece back in there. But you know you point it out and then you test it and when you do it right, it works right. That simple. Life is like that, right?

Well you know what God does? God He allows my faith to be examined. To prove whether or not it's legitimate. To prove whether or not it's strong. To prove whether or not there are gaps in it. And how does He do that? How does He test it? He allows hard times to come. He lets trials come.

Trials test my faith. And see I can rejoice because when the trials come, I know that they don't come after me. Now temptations come after me. Now that's a different story we'll talk about that in a few weeks. That's what Satan does. But God He allows trials because He's exposing the weak areas of my faith so that I can get strong.

He wants to make me stronger. And because I know that, then when the hard times come I don't say, "God hates me. Why would I ever deserve this?" No I say, "Well praise God." Because if there is a deficient part of my faith, if there's an area of weakness in my life, He's going to expose it so that I can be strengthened by it. And when you have that attitude, then you can have an attitude of joy. And you don't have to be upset. And again you don't have to speak a foreign language.

One of the things that I put down in my notes: I know that these trials they can bring good to my life. They're not to harm me. See I know that, I've learned that they can bring good to my life. I put James 2 through 4. James says because of our faith, next slide, because of our faith Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

We also rejoice too when we run into problems and trials. Rejoice, the word there, it's an interesting word. The word kauchaomai, it means to boast, to brag. You know it's like in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 where Paul he talks about these false teachers and he said, "Well you want to compare?" He says, "Listen." In fact why don't we, we got a few minutes. Keep your finger here and turn over to 2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11. And look at what Paul says here. Verse 16 he says, "I say again let no one think me a fool. But he says I'm going to boast a little." Verse 22 he says, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more."

In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one. God says if you whip a man, if you give him 40 stripes you humiliate him. So what the Jews said: we'll give him 39. That's as far as we can go without violating the will of God.

So they gave Paul much beating as they could give him. He says five times I got whipped with 39 lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.

In weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides the other things what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation? Paul said, "Listen I've been through the wringer again and again and again."

Now what he's saying is those guys that you think are all that, have they been through that? No. But see these are badges of honor. He said, "Well Paul those are hard times." "Yeah but God allowed all of that to strengthen me through all of that because apostles can take it." You know what? Those who belong to Christ can take it.

And that's why God allows it. See when hard times come, those people who are pretending, they won't stick around. They'll be here for a minute. Like this lady came in, she was a drunk and a prostitute. I knew her because she lived up the street. And this drunk and this prostitute came into our church while we was having a revival meeting.

And we had the praise team going, she was dancing and all of that. And as soon as the dancing and the music stopped and the word preached, that lady walked right out that door. They didn't want to hear the word. Pretenders don't want to hear the word of God. And so God He allows difficult times to come.

And in this passage here, Paul says we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials for we know. The word "know" there, oida, it means it means we've been told, we've been taught and we understand that this is how it goes. That's not the word that James uses. James uses a different word for know. He uses the word ginosko which is a word that talks about experience.

Paul is saying now we understand, we've been told, we've run the lesson. But James is saying no, no we know from experience that hard times generate patience. Because God has carried us through that and He's brought us out the other side. And so when it comes again we aren't blown away because we know God's done it before.

Like the song says He did it then, He'll do it again. I know He'll do it again because He made a way before. He's going to do it again. I'm confident. So when I get into a pickle I can still have joy. Joy doesn't depend on circumstances. Joy is independent of circumstances. Circumstances are external; joy is internal. It's something that God does in the heart. He keeps the heart at peace.

The third, the final point that he makes in this particular passage, he says, "Let patience have its perfect work." In other words there is a process going on. And God He is using hard times to mold, to craft, to shape, to strengthen my faith. And so when the hard times come instead of pitching a fit and whining and complaining and other words, instead of doing that then just submit.

And say, "God this is this is where you placed me. This is where I am. You're going to teach me something. You're going to carry me through this. You're going to accomplish your will in this." And so whatever it is you're doing, whatever it is you want to do, I'm good with it. I'm good with it. I say to the Lord, "You good." I submit to the process that you have for me.

I recognize there's a goal. The goal is patience, endurance. There's only one way to have patience and that's hard times. Romans 5: tribulation creates what? Patience. And patience experience. And experience hope. God He's building a path of endurance so that I can be strong.

You ever been around a person as soon as it gets too hot, "Oh man it's hot in here." As soon as a little breeze, "Oh man it's cold in here." Every little thing, they find something to complain about everything. Now raise your hand: how many of you love being around people like that? Nobody. Okay.

Alright well what about the person who maybe it's a little cool but they're like, "Well okay." It's a little warm but well okay. Maybe traffic backs up but they say, "Well amen." "Is it long yet?" "Not yet no." We're not there yet, you can't be late till you get there. We haven't got there yet. "Where are we now?" "Now we're absent." Right? You look at the bright side of it. You don't get all bummed over a circumstance that you cannot change. You just let God use the circumstance to mold in you a patient spirit.

The word hupomone, patience, it means it means that you have the ability to remain under. That's literally what it means. It's like you're under pressure and you want to squirt out. But instead of squirting out, instead of trying to get away, you have staying power. You're able to just stay right there and deal with it. That's what patience says.

Like Gothard says: "Patience is giving a problem to God without giving Him a deadline to solve it." See you handle this God, you do it in your space, you do it when you want to. I'll sit here because if you knew that I couldn't take it, you wouldn't bring it. But because you allowed it to come, that means that you know I can take it because you strengthened me to do so.

You think about Abraham and you think about the fact that when you get to Genesis 22, Abraham had some great faith. Now when God called him in chapter 12, he left and he didn't know where he was going. He gets to 13 and there was a famine and the brother went down to Egypt and lied because he was scared. And then later on he goes to the coast of the Philistines and he said there ain't no God up in here. He lies again.

But you know God takes care of him. God actually keeps the king from messing with his wife even though he took her into his harem. And God came to him in a dream, said, "You're a dead man. This is a you took this man's wife." He said, "Well he said it was his sister. I'm innocent." God says, "Yeah that's why I didn't let you touch her. I'm in control here. Now he says restore the man his wife and he'll pray for you."

Can you imagine what that's like? Imagine you're Abraham, you lied through your teeth, you deceived this man and as a result you brought hard times on this whole village. And then he comes to you and says, "I understand you're a prophet. You're a mouthpiece for God. And God sent me to you so you can pray for me so I can be healed." You scoundrel.

I mean how embarrassing is that to Abraham? I've lied and deceived but I gotta pray for this man because God is the one who uses me. And God He wants to use my life not to hurt people but to be a blessing to people. And so He works through all of that. And He has God make a promise to him in 15. And even though he messes up listening to his wife in 16, by the time he gets to the point where his wife at 90 years old has a baby, there's hope.

He's 100 years old and then later on God says, "That son I gave you, the one that is going to be the promise through whom I make you a great nation, I want you to take him up to a mountain I'm going to show you and I want you to sacrifice him." What's Abraham do? "Oh come on man I mean you promised me! No." No that's not what he does.

The scripture says he gets up early in the morning, he gets his two men, he gets his son, he puts the wood on his son, he says let's go. And when they get to the place God says that's the mountain, Mount Moriah where they built the temple later. When he sees that, he says to them, "Listen you guys stay here. Me and the lad we're going to go up there, we're going to sacrifice to God, and we are coming back."

How does he know? Because this is the child that God's promised him. And God says put him to death, I'll put him to death. If I put him to death God's gotta bring him back to life because God's going to keep His promise. He's gone from a weak and unbelieving, let's say he's just shallow in his faith, until now he believes that God can do the impossible.

God has grown him. That's what God's doing in your life. He's growing you. And He's using adversity, He's using difficulty, He's using contrariness on the part of other people. He's using different tools to build you into a bigger, better, broader, brighter follower of Christ. You gotta work with Him, focus on the process that He's doing, not on the pain that the process is producing.

Because God wants to make you like His son. Hard times happen, but you can have a good attitude. I told you about this guy, my time's getting away from me. This guy he's construction worker, he's a bricklayer. And I read you what it says. So Donald he applied for time off work for the following reason.

He says, "When I got to the building I found that the hurricane had knocked off some bricks around the top. So I climbed onto the roof and rigged up a beam with a pulley and hoisted a couple of barrels full of bricks to the top of the building. Then I went to the bottom and holding onto the line I began releasing it. Suddenly the barrel of bricks was much heavier than I was, and before I knew what was happening the barrel started coming down, jerking me up.

And because I went up so fast I decided to hang on because I was too far from the ground to jump. About halfway up I met the barrel of bricks coming down fast. I received a blow on my shoulder then I continued to the top banging my head against the beam, getting my fingers pinched and jammed in the pulley. But when the barrel hit the ground hard it burst its bottom allowing the bricks to spill out.

Now I was heavier than the barrel so I started coming down again fast at high speed. Halfway down I met the barrel coming up fast and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground I landed on the pile of spilled bricks getting several painful cuts and bruises. He said at this point I must have lost my presence of mind because I let go of my grip on the line. The barrel came down fast giving me another blow on my head and putting me in the hospital. He says I respectfully request sick leave."

Well you could say he didn't curse the whole time, he didn't make a major deal. He said, "Well can can I get some time off because I need to heal?" Now something like that has probably never happened to you, hopefully. If it did, I hope you said three words: "Praise the Lord." I ain't even going to wait for a response.

Things could be worse is the point that I'm trying to say. So James says when hard times come, listen, don't run from them as intruders, welcome them as friends because God is He doing something great, wonderful in your life. Let me give you three quick points of application and then we're done. What does God want me to know? What does He want me to feel? What does He want me to do?

Number one: only a fool would try to fake it until they can make it. Some people have a counterfeit faith. Some people come in and pretend that they belong, that they're possessors of faith, but it's not true. And God is going to use hard times to drive them away because it's not real to them. You're not going to fake it until you make it, you're going to fake it until the truth of the matter comes out that you never wanted to be a part of it and then you're going to leave.

Number two: trials are never out of God's control. They're not out of God's control. I don't I don't have to fret over anything no matter how difficult it is because the God who has me in His hands also has my circumstance in His hands. And He will arrange the circumstance so that out of it comes that which is good and beneficial for me.

And the third thing: because God says He doesn't want any gaps in my faith, He wants me to be perfect. He wants me to be, the word there is entirely whole. God wants me to have a faith like Abraham at the end that does not waver or doubt. No gaps in it. The gap should only be a place to shop. It should never be a part of my faith.

There's a song that comes to mind, I won't sing it because you know I don't want you to go out kicking and screaming, but I will read you the words. You know the song, in fact I don't guarantee, but I'm pretty sure that before I'm done reading the words you'll be singing the tune in your head.

The song goes like this: "I've had many tears and sorrows, I've had questions for tomorrow. There've been times I didn't know right from wrong. But in every situation God gave me blessed consolation. That my trials come to only make me strong. I've been to lots of places, I've seen a lot of faces, but there were times that I felt so all alone.

But in my lonely hours, my precious lonely hours, Jesus let me know that I was His own. And that's why the chorus says, 'Through it all, through it all I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all I've learned to depend upon His word.'

I love the last part. That's why I put the song up here. He says, 'So I thank God for the mountains. I thank Him for the valleys. I thank Him for the storms He's put me through. Because if I never had a problem I would've known that He could solve them. I wouldn't know what faith in God could do.' God wants to use the circumstances to build a bigger, better, bolder, brighter faith in you. He wants you to trust Him, to let Him do it. My trials only come to make me strong.

Father thank you again for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the process. And the truth of the matter is we all go through difficulties. There are things that happen in our lives we didn't plan on, we didn't program, we wouldn't especially like. But no matter what it is, every circumstance that comes into my life it comes tested, tried, approved by you.

And as a result of that we can have joy because we know that you're working out something. You're making me stronger, you're making me bolder, you're making me deeper, you're making me wiser. You are making my faith even greater. And I thank you for it. Strengthen us to to stay by the stuff and participate in the process.

I pray Father if there's anyone here that doesn't know Jesus in the pardon of their sins, that they would not leave here today without making the decision to bow the knee of their hearts, surrender their lives to Christ, let Him call the shots. After all He's the only one that knows best how to do it. And we'll pray for them that they'll make that decision today.

And for those of us that know Christ, may we walk like it, may we live like it, may we speak like it, may we respond like it. May we cooperate with you in all that you want us to do. We ask these things in Jesus's name and for His sake. Amen.