Patience in Suffering
Tom Shrader teaches from James 5:7-12 on developing patience during suffering and adversity. He emphasizes that believers can endure trials because Christ is coming again, using illustrations of farmers waiting for harvest and biblical examples like Job. The teaching calls Christians to persevere through hardship while maintaining hope in God's timing and ultimate victory.
“No matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: James (2011)
Recorded: 2011
Duration: 50 min
Themes: patience, suffering, endurance, hope, perseverance, trials, waiting, faith, going through trials, facing chronic illness, experiencing loss, waiting for answers, dealing with hardship, struggling believer, discouraged christian, long-term caregiver
Scripture: James 5:7-12, James 1:2, James 1:26, James 2:4, James 3:2-11, Job 5:7, Acts 14:22, Proverbs 15:18, Proverbs 16:32, 2 Peter 3:15, 1 Peter 4:7, 2 Timothy 4:5, 1 John 3:3, 2 Peter 3:11, Galatians 6:9, Luke 9:51, 1 Peter 5:10, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Peter 5:5-7, Job 42
Theological Themes: eschatology, second coming, sanctification, spiritual maturity, biblical patience, christological hope, suffering theology, perseverance of saints
Full Transcript
Open your Bibles to the book of James. Again, be praying about those if you would, and I mean that seriously. Be praying about just for the finances, for the property. If you need a Bible, raise your hand. If you get a Bible from us, I believe it's page 654. It'll get you in the book of James.
We're at the end of the book, and next week we'll finish it. Today we're going to look at chapter five, verses seven through 12. The following week will be a standalone message, then Easter, and then we'll spend five weeks in the book of Ruth. Then we are going to take summer, and we're going to take 13 weeks and work our way through doctrine. We're going to work through doctrinal truths, and all of the campuses - what made the mergers work is the theological alignment that we have. That'll really come into play as we teach through these 13 weeks of theology.
The Text: James 5:7-12
Chapter five, verse seven: "Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for his precious produce of soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and the late rains. You, too, be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by the heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but your yes be a yes, your no a no, so that you may not fall under judgment."
Observing the Context
I've shared with you before the way that I do a lesson. We got together three and a half, four months ago, and we took the book of James, and we broke it into what we saw were going to be the 13 weeks. When I get a passage like that, the first thing I want to look at is just the immediate context, and I want to look at the surrounding things about it and put it in the context of the book.
When I sit down, just in that reading, there's a couple of things that we can note. One of them is, in verse seven, verse nine, verse 10, and verse 12, James uses the word "brethren" or "my brethren." He said 15, 16 times in this book, he uses that phrase. Part of that is because today, he's coming at them with some very critical things. He wants to emphasize to them, "I'm not just doing this in some arbitrary fashion. I'm treating you as though you were a follower of Christ."
Look at verse seven and verse eight, and again in verse nine. You see the exact phrase in verse seven and eight: "the coming of the Lord," "the coming of the Lord is near." "Behold, the judge is standing at the door." So you get the idea of judgment that's about to take place.
The Theme of Patience
He's saying be patient, and then he gives you an illustration of patience. He says, "Here's the farmer." Be patient. Verse 10: "Here's an example." You need a role model? The prophets. You want another role model? People that don't even know anything about the Bible know Job, and when they hear Job, they think of the what? Patience of Job.
The verse for me, I look at this, and I go, there's a connection here between last week. Last week, Justin was dealing with the whole idea of the rich, and talking about the rich, and he concludes it and says, "Don't resist this, don't resist this oppression." So he comes, and that ties right into patience.
Understanding Verse 12
The verse to me that kind of is hung out there is verse 12. When I look at it really quickly, I'm going, "Well, that just doesn't really fit." Now, God, writing it, tells me that it does fit. But I kind of look at, here's a thought: verse seven through 11. Verse 13 begins this section on prayer. Why is that in there? And I want to deal with it.
When I put the lesson together today, I never really got a feel for timing. It sounds really weird, but almost always, when I'm putting a lesson together, it just falls in. It always amazes me that I kind of end pretty much on time. There's never too little and rarely too much. Putting this lesson, I never got a rhythm in putting the lesson together. So I just want to address verse 12 for a second under the idea that I probably don't get there at the end.
Because it doesn't seem to fit, but I think it does. The word that's translated "but" is also sometimes translated "now" or "since." So I think there's a continuation of a thought here. He's saying, "Brethren, in this whole process here," he's talking about how we're supposed to live. "Don't be taking these wild oaths."
The Recurring Theme of the Tongue
The idea of the tongue has been present all through this book. Chapter one, verse 26: "If anyone thinks himself religious but he doesn't bridle his tongue, he deceives himself." Chapter two, verse four: he says, "I want you to speak and act as though we're judged by the law of liberty." He tells us to be slow to speak, quick to listen. Chapter three, verses two through 11 is all about the tongue.
And then here, in that day and age, and especially within the Jewish culture, they had developed a very - the Jews in particular -
The Problem with Oaths and Swearing
The Jewish culture had developed a very complex system of taking an oath, of swearing. It was kind of an acknowledgment that we intuitively aren't really honest people. Our heart really is filled with lies and we tend to... well, the phone rings, and your kid answers the phone, and it popped up on your TV who it was, and you don't recognize them. They say, "Dad, it's for you." Your flinch is to say, "Tell him I'm not home." So they say, "He's not home." That's kind of how that goes. That doesn't work too well, and I'll be careful in that process. But that's our flinch.
So the oath was designed to say, "I swear." I swear in this solemn way, what I'm about to say is true, and I want to come under this burden. The word "oath" in the Hebrew is the idea of "to swear." In the Greek, it's the idea of "to bind" or "to strengthen." So what they're doing is taking the statement you're making and adding an impact to it.
We do it sometimes without even taking an oath. You've had this conversation all the time. Sometimes you'll say it—I find myself saying it sometimes, but I'll notice people say it a lot in conversation. You'll be talking and conversing and moving along, and then all of a sudden, they'll say, "Let me be honest with you." Well, what does that make you wonder about the first 15 minutes? Well, I was lying before?
Let Your Yes Be Yes
So He's saying, don't do that. You don't need to do that, because your heart's regenerated. You're a new creature. Here's what you need to do. You don't need to be swearing on a stack of Bibles. You don't need to be making a bunch of solemn, frivolous pledges. He said, this ought to be your reaction: Your yes is yes, and your no is no. If you say you're going to do something, do it.
The Power of Little Things
So we have all sorts of illustrations, and I'm big on little things. Big things, we kind of get them right, but it's those little things that put everything together. So really cool to see opening day of baseball this week, because it means we're getting closer to college football. We're almost there—160 days till Iowa's first game.
Well listen, here's who wins football games, by and large: the team that does the little things. The team that blocks, the team that tackles. There you go, it's third and seven, and you run a little screen pass, and you pick up the first down, and there's a holding call, and now it's third and 17, and you don't get it, and you turn the ball over. It's all those little things. It's the same thing that's true in our life—it's the little things.
When We Don't Keep Our Word
So here you go, and this is going to sound a little harsh and a little judgmental. Don't let it be, don't wear it unless it fits. So we'll do something here, we'll have an event here, and we'll get 50 of you that RSVP and say we're going to be here, and then 35 show up. That sets me off like a rocket.
Now do things come up? Sure, but I'll go and check the obituary pages and match them with the people that aren't there, and they're not there. Even if things come up, you're supposed to be here for an event at 7 o'clock on Friday night. Let's say something comes up on Thursday. What do you do? Really, wouldn't you think you'd call? We're sitting here with 15 meals we've wasted, all that food, all that money. It doesn't really matter? It matters a ton.
The Coffee Story
I had a guy come to me and he said, "I want to do what you do." And I said, "Yeah, I just make it look easy." And he said, "No, I want to teach. I think I'd be a great teacher." And I said, "Okay." And he said, "I want to help. Can I help?" And I said, "Yep, this Saturday we've got a men's leadership deal. We need somebody to make coffee." He said, "I can do that."
So I get there Saturday morning—supposed to start at 7, get there about 6:45. Noticeably absent was the fragrant aroma of freshly brewed coffee. So about 5 to 7, this guy comes strolling in like he owns the joint and I said, "Hey, it's good to have you here. We don't have any coffee. What about the coffee?" "I'm going to make coffee." "Yeah, I know. I just didn't get to it."
So afterwards he comes up and he said, "I want to get with you because I want to teach." So now I've been led by the Holy Spirit for hours at this point. So I moved out of being spirit-filled into the flesh and I said to him, "If I can't trust you with coffee, I don't believe God can trust you with a soul." And he disappeared and I never saw him again. That's what happened. If he had any fortitude at that point, he would have confessed he was wrong. That's what I'm saying—little things.
The Challenge of Being On Time
So here you go, and again, I don't mean this in a critical way. Our service times are 8:30 and 10:30. So my daughter Sarah, when she comes in the morning, she's got three kids. Haley's got three kids. It looks like Grapes of Wrath when they come on campus—you've got boots and all this stuff and shoes and all this stuff. They start five minutes early. How can you not be here on time?
Now are there exceptions? Sure, there are exceptions. But it's amazing to me—every place I go, every church I go to, they'll say people just don't get there on time. By the way, Redemption Church at Gilbert is the best of any church I've been to. We're still not good, but we're the best of any church I've been to. I go to these pastors' conferences and these guys are never on time. It drives me nuts. If you can't be on time for a meeting... see what I'm saying?
That's all He's saying. He's saying listen, you shouldn't have to swear on these things. You just live this way. Are there exceptions? Sure. Do things happen? I get it. But if you say yes, you do it. If you say no, you don't. So that's what I think He's getting at there in verse 12.
There at some places. But I'm going to apply, apply, apply. Got to keep it practical. Let's look at verses 7 through 11.
The context clearly is the idea of trials. If we go back to the first day of our study here, He says in chapter 1 verse 2, "count it all joy" or "consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance." So He's writing to this group of Jewish Christians who are scattered primarily because of persecution. He begins right where they are and He says count it all joy when you encounter these various trials.
We said the first week we learned from that verse that these trials are inevitable. He says count it all joy when they come, when these various trials come. Literally "multicolored"—they come in all shapes and sizes, come in all different ways. You expect trials to come, you don't necessarily know the timing of those trials. Consider it all joy. Why? Because it strengthens you. So that's been a theme all the way through this book.
The Universal Reality of Suffering
We now come to the end of the book and in a sense come full circle. So here's what He's saying: trials and suffering and pain are the universal language. That's to be human, and Christians are not exempt from that. So when you came to Christ in repentance and faith, if you thought that meant everything was going to be easy, you're nuts. If you thought somehow you were going to be exempt, Christians still get sick, still lose jobs, still have relationships that fall apart.
So we have all of those, plus you have the idea—especially in that church, we get it to some minimal level probably—the idea of persecution that's added to this. So it's the idea that you suffer all of life. You've got the relational, physical, financial, whatever it might be. Plus you have this sense in which, as you take a stand for Christ, there will be times where at school or in the marketplace or the neighborhood and relationships...
We had a gal here at church who, when she came to Christ in repentance and faith, she and her husband—their family disowned them. Had nothing to do with them, wouldn't talk to her. The grandmother would still talk to the kids, but really only to tell them what a heretic and a witch their mother was. So she finally had to end that relationship. So there's some suffering.
Here you see it. Understand that's part of human life. Job chapter 5 verse 7: "for man is born for trouble." Paul writes to the church at Galatia—it's recorded in Acts chapter 14 verse 22—"through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." Jesus the night before He died said, "These things I have spoken to you, so in Me you might have peace. In this world you will have tribulation." So that's the guarantee.
Patience with People vs. Endurance in Circumstances
The idea in chapter 1 is to have endurance in the midst of adverse circumstances. The language here deals with people. So the idea here is to be patient, to be long-suffering in the midst of adverse people. So that ties it perfectly into where Justin left off last week in verse 6. You don't resist them, you embrace them.
Then He says, "Therefore be patient." The idea is patient with people. We better say it—He's saying this to you because you have the ability to be patient. Remember what I said? Three or four—I forgot, four times I guess—in verse 7, verse 9, verse 10, verse 12, He speaks to the brethren, to believers. So He says to these believers, "Be patient."
How does He know you have the ability to do that? Well, because Paul has taught us that the fruit of the Spirit—in other words, if Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and I'm indwelt by the Living God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit as the Spirit works in my life will produce love, joy, peace, patience. So you have this ability. You might say, "I can't do it." Yes, you can. It may not be easy. For some it's going to be easier than others, but you have the ability. You have this power within you.
The Nature of Long-Suffering
The word is "long-suffering." You have the ability to—you've heard the term "short fuse"—you have the ability not to be short. You have a long fuse with someone. Proverbs chapter 15 verse 18: "A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute." Proverbs 16:32: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty."
God Himself is patient. Second Peter 3:15—the patience of the Lord regarding our salvation. God is a patient God. He's not infinite, but God is patient. God has not returned yet. God is waiting even for those who are His to respond.
I've forgotten the announcements in a connect class. The last one—we have a connect class today. But in essentially every connect class, somebody will ask, "Talk about what you believe about salvation" or "the doctrines of grace," or they'll say, "What about Calvinism?" Most of you have probably never even heard me use the word "Calvinism" because I wouldn't use it except taking the time to define it, because it's so easily misunderstood.
We're talking about how people are saved, and it's often said by people who have no idea what it means in an accusatory way. So it's said, "Oh boy, that's that Calvinistic church." Do we believe that God saves sinners? Yeah, we really do, from beginning to end.
Special Event Announcement
I say all that—this Thursday night at 6 o'clock, I'm in Arcadia and we're doing a one-night, two-hour kind of flyover on the doctrines of grace. So we're going to spend two hours and we're going to diagram the sentence: "God saves sinners." You wouldn't think it would take two hours, but it probably will. We're going to be at our Arcadia location, 42nd and Thomas, 6 o'clock this Thursday. So if you're somebody who's wondering about that, join us up there.
So here's what He's saying: God's slow, God's patient. He's not everlasting in His patience—He's long-suffering. What James is giving us here is the motivation: Be patient, hang in there. I hate that poster that "hang in there" with...
The Challenge of Superficial Comfort
First of all, you're hoping it's a cat, you're hoping it's fallen. But nonetheless, not to offend all you cat lovers, but "hang in there" doesn't help me much. Hang in there. How? Here's the motivation. I love this. This is so cool. And it's so repetitious. And I say the same thing every week. It's right there, verse seven, eight, and nine. The coming of the Lord, the coming of the Lord, the coming of the Lord is near. There's my motivation.
The New Normal of Suffering
So several of you have asked, you're very kind, you were gone last week, how'd it go? It went well, we're in Coronado, how did Susan do? She did fine, but it was a new normal for us. So we used handicap ramps, and we didn't get to do a lot of the things we do. So we had a new normal.
Well, here, this is very important. Normal for these people who are getting this letter, their normal is suffering and pain and hardship. Life is tough. Justin talked to you about it last week. I watched the lesson, and he was talking about rich. So if you make $50,000 a year, you're in the top 1% of earners in the world. 30,000, top 7%. So by the Bible's definition of rich, that's almost everybody in this room.
In that day and age, they would have had one, two change of clothes, that's it. They would be pressed to get to the end of the week and still have food. So they're really hurting, suffering. They're looking for relief.
The Human Desire for Escape
By the way, you tend to be much more that way when things are hard than when things are good, right? So we're looking around and going, "Oh, Lord, come quickly." Why? Well, because it's April 15th. That's why. I mean, that's what we're thinking. It's April 15th. I want out. And I confess, even as I yearn for heaven, and I do, I yearn more to get out of here than to be with Him, and that's not right.
But He's saying that idea that He's coming is the idea that allows you to hang in there. That's His point. The idea is that He's coming again. The Greek word is used throughout the New Testament. It's the idea. This is kind of cool. It's the idea that He's coming and His presence. He's coming and He's staying this time. He's coming and you'll be with Him forever. Hang in for that. Let that be the motivation.
The Promise of His Return
One out of 13 verses in the New Testament deal with the second coming of Christ. Jesus talked about it Himself a great deal. He talked about these will be the signs and this is what He'll see and these will be the birth pains and this is what'll happen. This is how this is going to take place.
Now, nobody knows the day or the hour other than the guys that have the billboards out here. May 21st, I guess, is coming. So here's, let me tell you what. I know when Jesus isn't coming. He isn't coming May 21st. That's what I know. Pretty sure about that. Nobody knows the day or the hour.
He's coming. First Peter four, the end of all things is near. Second Timothy four or five, be sober in all things. Jesus is coming again and He says He's coming quickly. The end is near.
God's Timing vs. Human Timing
Now, that's a relative term, right? When Jesus says He's coming quickly, they're beginning to scoff already. They go, "Wait a minute, He said He's coming quickly. He isn't even here yet." Well, if that was true for them, how much more true for us? We're 2,000 years away. Coming quickly, 2,000 years. But a day is 1,000 years. So in God's economy, He's been gone two days now. But He's coming.
What should I do till then? Let me read the rest of that verse. First Peter four, seven: "The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober in spirit." Second Timothy four or five: "Be sober in all things. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Be ready."
Two Essential Components: Readiness and Purpose
So there's two components here that I want to drive home. Number one, be ready. He could come at any time, or you could die at any moment. Functionally, we accomplish the same thing at that point. You have to see the body present with the Lord. He could come at any moment. You could die at any time. How should you live?
So when they asked Martin Luther, "Martin, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do?" And he said, "Plant a tree." What he meant was he wasn't trying to build a memorial. What he was saying is, if I was a gardener, I'd plant a tree. In other words, I'd do what I'm already doing. That's an amazing thing.
We're talking about, Larry Wright's name came up the other day. It comes up almost every day in my life. But we were talking about, and Larry was a guy who really lived with almost no regrets. He might have had big regrets of some things he didn't do, or wish he did them different. But in terms of relationships, you never, like when Larry died, if I'd have seen Larry again, which I didn't get the chance to do, there wasn't anything I had left to say to him, or him to me. There wasn't anything I had left. He was ready. He lived in light of that.
Living in Light of His Return
So it's to live in light of that, but then it's also to be strengthened by it. First John, chapter three, verse three: "He that has this hope in Him of His return purifies himself." Second Peter, chapter three, verse 11: "When we know all these things shall come to pass," in other words, we know Jesus is coming again, "what person ought we be? How should we live? Holy people living godly lives."
So that's what He's driving home. He's saying, "I want you to understand this. You're in a position here where you're suffering." He doesn't gloss over it. He doesn't ignore the reality of how difficult life is. I love that about the scripture. Paints all the sinners, paints the saints with warts and all, right?
The Reality of Christian Suffering
He doesn't gloss over this. He doesn't say it's going to be easy. If anybody told you that you were going to be a Christian and everything would be easy, they lied to you. It's just not. You need to be realistic in this. But it needs, like anything else, it needs context. So hard things come. I had somebody a couple weeks ago, when I finished it, somebody that's very sick, their cancer's back, it's all through them, and
It's very serious. And they were talking about the struggle of finding the joy in the middle of that. Well, I don't want to be frivolous. I'm not saying immediately.
Yesterday, we had a T-ball game. So I'm out, and Yale's playing first. Now, Yale's only three. You have to play four, five, and six to play. So Yale's younger than he should be and smaller. And so I got Yale here. Here's Zoe over here. So I said something in the game I never thought I'd say. Good hit, Zoe. So Zoe's here, and Yale's here. And Zoe's great. I love Zoe. I've learned to love Zoe. So I'm just kind of encouraging. She lost a tooth. So I'm saying, hey, I love your tooth. What happened to it? So we're talking. I said, Zoe, don't let the ball get by you.
I turned. When I turned back, there was as hard a line shot as you can hit—a six-year-old kid hits a line shot, one hop, and hits Yale right in the face. So Yale turns around. I don't remember the moment, to be honest with you. He just had the awareness I was behind him. He turns around, and he runs, and he jumps on me, and he's holding me, and I'm holding him. And I've learned over the years how to deal with it, I think.
So I'm just holding him a little bit. I don't need to look. I said, you doing all right, buddy? And he said, no. And I said, all right, let me see your face. I want to see your face. And I just said, you're not bleeding, and that's a big thing. Yale can handle everything. Broken leg, he'd be fine. Broken arm, fine. But blood—he doesn't like the blood. I said, let me see, buddy. I said, no, I think you're okay. I think you're all right.
He said, I'm going to put you down now, because you have to get back in there. I wouldn't, but you need to. I'd be at the ER at this point. It'd be the last ground ball they'd hit at me. So I said, are you all right, buddy? I'm going to put you down. So I put him down, he pulls his head down, and he's really cute, and he just gets down, and he's right there, and they're waiting, because now they have to get the next kid up. That's an ordeal. And he looks up at me, he said, Papa, I have to stay low. I have to stay low on these ground balls.
And that was a great moment. I'm not saying that when you get hit in the nose, you get hit in the nose. I'm not saying you don't run and jump on me. I'm saying, just like he did, once he caught his breath, and he felt his father's—in this case, his grandfather's—love, he got back in the game.
Life's Challenges and Our Father's Love
So life throws this thing at you, whatever it is. Not saying it doesn't hurt. I'm saying it's going to take your breath away. But once you catch your breath, once you feel your Father's hug, once you know it's okay, you get back in the game. That's all. And this is driven by understanding that there is this day that's coming.
Now it gives us an illustration that they would get. It's the illustration of a farmer. Though I'm from Iowa, I don't know anything about farming. But I get this. You prepare the soil, you plant the seed, you nurture it, it grows, and then you have a harvest. But you don't plant on Sunday morning and harvest on Monday morning. There's a time gap in there. When Haley planted a garden with the boys, they planted the garden. Literally, they're up the next morning going, where are the flowers? Where are the tomatoes? Well, we learn. We learn patience.
The Uncertainty of God's Timing
Now there's something that I thought about. I think this is interesting. There's something that I thought about even in this comparison is at least in the farming component, I know kind of when the harvest is. So when we in Iowa, they would plant corn. We knew that by the 4th of July that corn needed to be knee high. We have to have that corn knee high by the 4th. We have a measuring stick. We know about when we're going to be able to pick that corn.
What He says here is, we don't know when He's coming, we just know that He's coming. So in the midst of all the yuck—you fill in here whatever that is in your life. Whatever that hardship is. That kid that's in rebellion, that parent that's in rebellion. That sickness, that job, that financial—a lot of financial stuff. It just isn't working out the way we had it planned.
In the midst of this, we know that God either caused it or allowed it. We want it to be used for our good and for His glory. So that's what He started the book with. For our good. "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance." Our good. We want to be strong in the Lord. We want to endure. We want to persevere. We want to break the tape.
Finishing Strong
When we were gone, whenever I'm on vacation, I'm always contemplating life. And I'm trying to figure out this and that and Susan's just kind of passively listening. I didn't even know if she was listening. And then she said to me, you know, you're always talking about finishing strong. Have you calibrated into your thing there finishing strong? Because it doesn't sound like it. It sounds like you're more concerned about your comfort. I said, you know, I liked it better when you were really sick. I didn't say that. I didn't say that to her. But you see what I'm saying there?
For my good. His glory. Now go to Galatians 6:9. Don't turn there. Let me read it. And it makes sense. "Let us not grow weary in doing well, for in due season we shall reap if we don't faint." See what He's saying? Don't grow weary. Why? Because it's tiring. It's a heavy load. It's a burden. All this stuff is coming at you. It's real. And it'll beat you and tear you apart and defeat you, unless you don't grow weary. You become patient. You trust in Him. You see His return. And that builds you up.
Being Propped Up by Truth
In Luke chapter 9 verse 51, Luke tells us that Jesus determined that He would go to Jerusalem. The idea that "determined" there is the same idea here. It means literally to prop up. This truth is to prop you up. This is what's—
to sustain you. This becomes your crutch, in a sense. Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 10, "After you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who is called to your eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." God's working in all this. God's the one who's in control. So set your mind on this truth.
If you go back to chapter 1 verse 6, it's an idea that he talked about all the way through here—this idea that we can't have this duality of mind. We can't doubt. Chapter 1 verse 6, he said we must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea tossed about. He is, verse 8, double-minded, unstable in all his ways. He says, "I don't want you to be double-minded. I want you to understand that the end is near." 1 Peter 4:7, "The Lord is at hand." 1 John 2:18, "My children, it is the last time." This is here. This is the reality.
That's what he's driving home. You're going to have all these trials, all these difficulties. And the motivation to sustain you in the midst of this is the reality that Jesus is coming again.
The Hope of Christ's Return
Keep that place marked in James chapter 5 and turn to the left, page 641 in the Bible we gave you. It's 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Paul's writing to the church at Thessalonica. They are a bit confused because they have this understanding that Jesus is coming again soon. And they're confused because they now see people who are Christians dying and they're going, "How's this going to all play out?"
So 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13, Paul tells them why he's writing: "We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not be grieving as those as the rest who have no hope." He said, "We don't want you to be like a Gentile. We want you to have hope here. You don't have to grieve."
So when we're at a funeral, and we're sitting here and here's somebody who's died, we're not weeping and grieving in sorrow that we're not sure what happened. In fact, when we're at a funeral and we're crying—and I get it, and I'm sure I would in those instances—and we're weeping, it's because we've lost somebody who we really love. But they're really, in a sense, totally natural tears, but they're really more for us than for them. You're not weeping for them. They're in heaven. You're saying, "Oh, we'd want to have them back." Why would they want to come back? They're in heaven. So we're not hopeless in the midst of this.
Our True Source of Hope
He's saying, "Here's my real hope." While we were gone, I watched a lot of television, and there's just no reason to be encouraged by anything you see. I can't find anything to be encouraged about. The Middle East is a mess, international's a mess, at home's a mess. You don't have people in the House, the Senate, and the White House, for sure, who are serious about trying to fix this whole economic thing. It isn't going to be fixed. They don't have the will to fix it. We don't have the fortitude to take what it takes. We're screwed. We're screwed 48,000 different ways. There's no way out.
Whenever I say that, people say, "Man, you're negative." Not really. I think I'm pretty realistic. I'm just saying, I never had my hopes in the Republican Party, or the Democratic Party, or the Tea Party. I don't have my hope in Barack Obama. I don't have my hope in Mitt Romney, or Tim Pawlenty. I don't have my hope in Ronald Reagan. My hope is in Christ.
I know all of this is a mess. I don't have a hope that here you go, so we got Abraham Lincoln. Good guy, right? "United States of America, last best hope for mankind." Really? Mankind's in big trouble. The last best hope for mankind is Christ. So here's our hope. And what he's saying is, you got to keep this right smack in front of you always.
The Reality of Christ's Coming
So I want you to be informed. And he's going to tell them what happens. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus." So he's going to talk about fallen asleep, those who have died. If we believe that Christ rose again, there's our hope. We'll talk about that obviously Easter morning.
"For this I say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord"—so Jesus is going to come again—"will not precede those that have fallen asleep, those that have died. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the shout and with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first." So those who are Christians, who are dead, in crematories, the sea, the water, the cemetery, wherever they are, they're going to rise.
And then he says in verse 17, "We who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, so we shall always be with the Lord." That's an amazing truth. So when I say—and I don't say this for effect, though I think it's effective—we gotta remember that no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.
And what he's saying to those people, to you and me, is that Jesus is coming again. He's who He said He was. He's in control. It's going to happen. It's true. It's real.
The Purpose of This Truth
Now almost always when this passage is taught, the focus then becomes on rapture, trib, pre-trib, all that. And I am one—I confess it. Some of you are not this way. That's not that interesting to me. Some of you are into it. Knock yourselves out. Not my big deal. Here's what I know. But it's important. It's one of every 13 verses. So it's important.
What's the point? He wants us to know He's coming again. So we'll be ready. So we'll be strengthened. It's like doctrine. Thirteen weeks of doctrine. You should rejoice in that because we're going to show you how doctrine relates to everyday life. Here's the payoff pitch. Verse
The Land of the Living
Therefore comfort one another with these words. That's why this is important. Because as we look around us, we tend to look at everything and this looks like the real world to us. So in our human understanding, our intuition tells us that we're in the land of the living. When we die, we go to the land of the dead.
What Jesus tells us is this is the land of the dead and we go to the land of the living. And that's the hope that sustains us. I taught this a week in Priority Living, Five Guaranteed Ways to Eliminate Stress in Your Life. The general theme of it is a lot of this - that God's in control and this is our hope and all things work together for good.
A Civil War Soldier's Wisdom
I read a poem that's credited to an unknown or anonymous Civil War soldier. I have no clue if it's real or not. It doesn't matter. It's great:
"I ask God for strength that I might achieve and I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I ask God for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I ask for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I ask for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God. I ask for all things that I might enjoy life and I was given life that I may enjoy all things."
Here's the great part - this is so good: "I got nothing I asked for and everything I hoped for."
God's Economy of Happiness
Because see that's what we ask. "God I want to be happy. God I want to be happy. If I get that deal I'll be happy. God give me that deal." And He doesn't give me that deal. He takes that deal away and I find real happiness. That's God's economy of happiness. The word that God uses is blessed.
So if I start and we just begin to work our way around the room, we just take time. I start with Patty and Paul and just encourage all of you. Share something, sometime in your life where you really saw God work and God really exposed Himself to you and God really grew you. Almost all of you would highlight a time of adversity. And you would end with this: "I wouldn't want to go through it again but I wouldn't trade it for the world." That's what He's saying.
So in a sense when we look at life we don't even know good and bad. Not morally speaking - we know that. So if you're thinking today about stealing don't do that. You're thinking about committing adultery don't do that. We know those. We're saying circumstantially. So you look back and you say here's this thing that God did in my life that was a moment of incredible teaching for me. Almost always at the moment it came we would have resisted it and said "I don't want it. It's not good. It's bad." He knows. That's all He's saying.
Patient Like a Farmer
Jesus uses that imagery. Let's go back and we'll take about five minutes here and just finish up. He uses the imagery back to chapter five. He uses the imagery here of being patient like the farmer.
He tells us by the way in verse nine don't be complaining against one another. So apparently there's arguing going on with this church. That's one of the things that I see. It's one of the things I've learned in 20 plus years of being around churches that people are brutal as they accuse other people, speak of other people, say things that are hurtful. They can't be undone. Really it's terrible.
But the judgment is at hand. The judge is standing there. "Vengeance is mine," says the Lord. We don't need to fix it. There's that idea that we'll all stand before the Lord someday and I think a lot of Christians miss this. Not that our sins will be judged - they've already been judged and they were paid for in the cross. There's no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. The judgment is based on rewards that we will receive. It's not based on our punishment of our sin. That was already done. That's what the cross was all about.
Role Models: The Prophets
And He said you need a role model. How about the prophets? These were guys by and large who spoke in the name of the Lord and they were basically hated. They were very unhappy people it seems like. They wrote books with titles like Lamentations. And because they were declaring this truth. And yet they stood for what was true in the midst of that. He said be like them.
The Example of Job
Or maybe consider this. Look at, in verse 11, look at Job. Job had seven sons and three daughters and we're told at the beginning of the book of Job that he had 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and five female donkeys and many servants and he was the greatest man in all the land.
And Satan came to God and said "Sure he's happy. He's got all that stuff." God said okay, go get it. And He takes it away. And Job's still hanging in there. "At least I got my health," Job says. And now comes the boils.
His wife comes to him and says "Curse God and die." And Job says "What shall we do except accept the good from God and not the adversity?" His friends come to him and they begin to accuse and wonder, ask him what's wrong in the midst of all of this.
When Job gets to the very end of this, it's Job chapter 42, here's what he says: "I have heard about you by hearing of my ear but now I've seen you." Here's what he's saying: In the midst of all of this stuff, I'd heard so many things about you but it was kind of theoretical until these trials came along. I'd heard you were a kind God and a loving God and a gracious God. But boy, all of a sudden, in comes this adversity and as it came, with it came your strength and your love and your endurance that allowed me, not on my own strength but on your strength, to endure until the very end. That's what he's saying.
So think about that. Let me close with this. This is how Peter, 1 Peter chapter five verse seven. I'm actually going to go up a little higher. You might turn there. Just go to the left a little bit. It's the next book. 1 Peter chapter five and in verse five, the very end of it, he uses the same Old Testament quote we used
a few weeks ago. 1 Peter 5:5, "God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time." So this whole thing is about God's timing. Remember what He said? Don't grow weary of doing well. God will come and we will endure. Don't grow weary of doing well.
Now in the midst of this, He says God is opposed to the proud, gives grace to the humble. He said God's going to exalt you. Verse seven, "casting all your care or your anxiety on Him." The word that's translated casting there has the idea of depositing. So you think, right before we left town, Susan and I stopped at the bank to deposit a check.
Direct Deposit Your Anxiety
Think of this - I've added one component to this. This is not me, it's a direct deposit. Cast all of your anxiety, all of the hurt, the pain, all that the world brings. We don't minimize them, we acknowledge they're real, we deposit them with Him. We give them to Him. Why? How cool is this? What a great way to end. Cast all our cares on Him because He cares for you.
You ever wonder if you're loved? You ever wonder, does anybody care? He does. Here's what James says. James says you're going to have trials. You're going to meet adverse circumstances and adverse people and here's what you do. They grow you, they strengthen you, you gain endurance through them and you become patient like the farmer. You hang tough like the prophet. You endure like Job. Why? Because God cares for you. Jesus is coming again.
God Enters Our Suffering
It doesn't mean life is smooth and easy. It doesn't mean that the trials and tribulations and the hardship go away. It means that He climbs right in there in the midst of them with you. Now a huge component of that is prayer. And that's what we'll look at next week.
As Vince comes to lead us in our time of communion, let me pray as the guys come. Father, thank you for this amazing truth. Thank you that indeed Jesus is Lord and that we know Him and love Him and He loves us and that we can cast our cares and anxiety on Him. Direct deposit this anxiety on Him. God, you love us. You care for us. Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the Spirit that gives us strength to endure. Father, now as we come to the communion table and our time of worship, remind us you are the one true God. It's you and you alone that we need, that we lean on. Father, we pray to you now in Christ's name, amen.