Blue Jean Theology Part 2

Tom Shrader teaches from James 1:2-8 about how Christians should respond to trials and difficulties. He explains that trials are inevitable and come with divine purpose - to test and strengthen faith, producing perseverance and spiritual maturity. Shrader emphasizes that true Christianity must manifest in changed behavior and that believers can find joy even in suffering because God uses all circumstances for their spiritual growth.

“Faith plus testing equals perseverance.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Blue Jean Theology (2011)

Recorded: 1996

Duration: 43 min

Themes: trials, joy, suffering, perseverance, faith, maturity, testing, growth, facing difficulties, going through trials, struggling with hardship, new believer, questioning faith, seeking purpose in pain, needing encouragement, experiencing suffering

Scripture: James 1:2-8, James 1:22, Matthew 13, 1 Corinthians 15:7, Galatians 2, Acts 15

Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, divine providence, testing of faith, perseverance, endurance, spiritual growth, christian living

Full Transcript

Today is the second week that we have undertaken somewhat of a new challenge for us in that we haven't done this for a while. We're going to stop and take a look at a book of the Bible. In this case, what we're looking at is a book that we would identify by the name of the author. It's the book of James. Last week, we laid the foundation for us to begin to build as we spend some time in this book. I have no idea how many weeks we'll spend here, but we'll just keep plowing away through it and continue to tape and make the tapes available for you every other week.

Let me remind you, here's what we looked at last week, and really the focus was on the first verse. We picked out of this three or four very important things. Number one, the author's name is James. Lots of guys identified themselves as James in the Bible, here are some characteristics about this James.

The Author James: Jesus's Half-Brother

Number one, he was the half-brother of Jesus. I want to increase the sensitivity of some of you in this room to understand that there are others in this room for whom that first point is a bombshell, for they have been trained from the very beginning that Mary was a virgin, that she became pregnant through the Holy Spirit, which is all true and all biblical, that as she had Jesus and then after that remained forever a virgin. While that makes for an interesting story, it's not biblically accurate. We find in Matthew 13 a list of some of Jesus' brothers and the fact that He had sisters, plural. James is one of those brothers. Mary is his mother, his father is Joseph, not the Holy Spirit, that's the half-brother.

He also was one to whom Christ appeared after the resurrection. We know that Jesus appeared to groups of people and to individuals, and in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 7, we're told that one of those individuals was James. He was visited by the risen Christ. Also Galatians 2 tells us he was a pillar of the early church, and not just a pillar, we find out in Acts chapter 15 that he was recognized as the leader of the early church, the church of Jerusalem.

He had a nickname, and the guys used to call him Old Camel Knees, and apparently he got that not from some football injury, but he got that by the fact that his knees were disfigured from spending hours and hours and hours on them in prayer. He was ultimately killed in AD 62.

The First New Testament Book Written

What's interesting, again for some, and we have varying levels of understanding and interest and knowledge in the room, but some of us might believe that the Bible is just constructed here in chronological order. In other words, Matthew was the first book written, Revelation the last, and the books in between are displaced as they were written. That's not at all true. James, although we find it at the end of the New Testament, James was the first book written chronologically in the New Testament in AD 49.

This is really the reason that we've selected this as a book study. The emphasis throughout the book of James is on practical aspects of how we're supposed to live in light of the Christian faith. We have tried to make this point to you over and over again. What you believe must affect how you behave. It will affect it. You cannot say you believe something and then not behave accordingly.

Distinctive Christian Living

If you are a Christian, there is to be in your life a distinctive, a difference, something in your life that sets you apart from everyone else, some quality, some aspects, some characteristics that are distinctive to you. They have no merit. Now, this is really, really, really important. They are not the things that cause you to be a Christian. They are the result of you being a Christian. Do you understand the difference? Because you are a Christian and because these truths are practical and because they're real in your life, they'll manifest themselves.

So I'm constantly asking this question, what's the truth? Once I understand that, even in a heavy doctrinal context, once I understand what that truth is, I ask this question, so what? So what does it mean to me? So Jesus rose from the dead. What difference does that make to me and how does that affect the way I live today?

The theme verse for this entire book is found in the first chapter and the 22nd verse where James says, "Be doers of the word, not merely hearers of the word, deceiving yourself." Here's what he says. He said, I want you to do this stuff, not just hear it, and stop kidding yourself. In other words, they were going around saying, here's the truth and here's what we believe, but there were few things in their life that would reinforce that they believed that.

The Call for Radical Life Change

This quote from the skeptic Kierkegaard, who was once being a target of a Christian man who was sharing with Kierkegaard his faith, Kierkegaard said, "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, you must look a little more redeemed." Here's what I discovered early on, is that when I became a Christian, the people in my sphere of influence knew about it very quickly. It was a radical, physical, overt change. You could just tell by looking that something was different.

I discovered early on that those people who were not Christians, who knew that I had made a profession of faith, had a much higher standard for my living than even I had. But they would look at me, and it was not unusual for them to say, "Tom, is that how a Christian behaves?" You and I need to understand, and the answer to that is, no, that isn't how a Christian behaves. You and I need to understand that in our life, and I cannot be more emphatic than this, there must be radical life change that flows from a radical change in a world view.

There are an alarming number, to me, I see it in some of our studies, there are an alarmingly high number of sexually active singles that come to these studies and feel very comfortable here, and I have no idea how or why they can. If you are involved in sex outside of marriage, and you're just blowing along, maybe it's somebody

If someone says they can live in sexual immorality now because they're going to get married someday, or maybe it's just a fling and no big deal because God's going to forgive them, they need to understand that if that is their view, in all likelihood, they are not a Christian at all. If they can slander and cut and slice and dice people, living destructively and taking no hostages, just ripping people apart, and at the end of the day there is no remorse for that in their mind, in all likelihood, they're not a Christian at all. If they can steal and say "God will forgive me," they're not a Christian at all. That's the intensity of this issue.

We live in a time where it's become almost fashionable to be a Christian, certainly fashionable to be spiritual. What has happened in that context is the culture has come in and taken real Christianity and created a caricature of that, as someone who goes to church, or studies the Bible, or comes in and listens to something like this, or maybe even plays good religious music. That's not what makes you a Christian.

What Makes a True Christian

A Christian is a man or woman who's come to the point in their life when they understand that they're a sinner, and they're separated from God by that sin, and there's nothing they can do. There's no church they can join, there's no prayer they can pray, there's no manifestation they can do, no money they can give. All they can do is throw themselves on God's grace and on God's mercy and find salvation only through the person of Christ.

I had a discussion with a guy last week who's trying to say to me, "Golly, you guys are narrow. Do you really believe Jesus is the only way?" I said to him, "If I didn't, I wouldn't do what I do. I believe it with all my heart."

"What about the innocent person in Africa, or South America, or Australia, or Asia, or America? What about that innocent person that's never heard?" There's an operative word in there. You know what it is? Innocent. There isn't anybody innocent. There isn't anybody innocent—that's the whole point.

The Reality of Human Nature

Last night at church, we did a baby dedication for one of the most singularly cute babies I've ever seen. Beautiful little curly hair, and it was her one-year birthday. Her mom had written this beautiful letter to her, and her mom was reading it about all the things she liked. She said, "Oh, I love your smile." Just as she did, she looked over, and this one-year-old kid with this beautiful curly hair smiled ear to ear. The women were crying, and the guys were going, and all of this stuff was happening.

It was very hard for me to have to point out at this point, "This is a rotten, sinful kid." Kind of broke the moment a little bit, but we forget that. That's the way we come into this world, and if we die in that condition, we'll never be united with Christ in heaven.

Stakes are huge. I don't know what kind of money the Super Bowl brought to the valley. I kept saying to my brother, "This thing is really a big deal," and it took me a while to figure this out. Finally, about the fifth blimp that went over our house, I said, "This is a big deal. This is really something." No matter how big it is, it pales in comparison to this singular issue right here, for this is a matter of eternal life or eternal death.

Faith Must Affect How We Live

When I understand those truths, it's not enough to say, "I got it in my head." That's terrific. What I say is, "I've got it in my head, therefore, it must affect the way that I live."

I go through this over and over again. I have a lot of friends who run businesses, and they say, "I would never hire a Christian." Well, obviously, you had some sort of bad experience, but I can't imagine putting it in the paper and saying, "Wanted: pagan, heathen, with no conscience, no morals, will lie, steal, and cheat." That doesn't make any sense.

Can I get a Christian who perhaps is not the greatest worker in the world? You bet. As a Christian, you should be the best. I'm not saying you're the best, because you may not have all the skills, but you should be the most conscientious employee in the whole place. If you are a Christian who runs a business, they ought to be pounding down your door to work for someone like you, because all of this translates into real life. That's the way it's supposed to be.

You look at each other, and you kind of smirk, and you kind of laugh, because it isn't, but I don't deal with what isn't. I've got to deal with how this is supposed to be, and that's the way it's supposed to be.

James's Identification with Christ

This guy James, with all of these credentials, identifies himself as a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. Jesus—that's His earthly name. It means that He came to save His people from their sin. God gave Him that name, and He's Christ. He's the Messiah.

Again, to these Jews, who were the recipients of this letter, the idea of Jesus as the Messiah would ring through their ears. For you and me, it kind of blows through. These people prayed every day for the Messiah. They looked day after day after day for the Messiah, and to find out that Jesus was the Messiah is an enormous deal to them. It's the fulfillment of all that Old Testament prophecy.

There were different views of what that Messiah might be. Some looked for a political Messiah, some an economic Messiah, some a war-like Messiah who would throw off the shackles of Rome. But they knew this: that there would be salvation through that Messiah.

Christ comes to herald salvation, but He does something very, very important. He does not say, "This is the way to salvation, this is the way to truth." He says, "I am the truth. I am the way"—singular, me, a person, nobody else. "I'm not pointing you to some body of direction, I'm pointing you to me. I am the door. It's through me that you have access to the Father and no other way."

The brother doesn't go through that resume that we looked at at the beginning, but humbly says, "I'm a slave to Him." He said, "I'm writing to you, to the twelve tribes, to the Jewish Christians." These Jewish Christians are all over the place. Some remain in Jerusalem, some still working in conjunction with some aspects of Judaism, but that was really the exception. He identifies them as the twelve tribes who are scattered abroad.

Scattered for two reasons: a good reason and a bad reason. The good reason was this—they took literally Christ's command to go and make disciples of all nations. So they were going with this message that Jesus is the Messiah. Others were scattered for reasons of persecution. Their families, as they became Christians, would have a funeral for them, literally pronounce them dead. They were ostracized from that. Their economic network was shut down because they had no way of doing commerce or doing business because all of the businesses were Jewish and they were under intense physical persecution as well, and they're gone.

James writes to them. Again, as you thumb through the New Testament, you'll see epistles like Galatians and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians and Corinthians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy—you'll see books that are written to specific individuals or specific groups. This is called a general epistle. It goes out to the Jewish Christian community in general.

Jumping Right Into the Text

Now, all of that is what we set up last week. Immediately, if we throw out verse 1 in terms of saying that's introduction, if we say the body or the text begins in verse 2, he goes right into the topic. There's no "hey, how are you doing? What's the weather like? Is it hot there? It's been raining here." There's none of that stuff. He goes right in and he says, "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials."

Let me remind you that the text is from the New American Standard. The parenthetical inserts are words from either the NIV or the New King James or a literal Greek translation that would enhance for us that meaning, let's say, a little bit beyond the New American Standard.

So he says this: "Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter or when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, and let that endurance or that perseverance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect. That is, that you may be mature and lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously, who gives without reproach, without finding fault." He doesn't go, "Wait a minute, wisdom, I gave you wisdom yesterday. I'm not giving you any more wisdom." That's not how He gives. He gives generously and He says, "If you ask, it'll be given."

"But let him ask in faith and without doubting. This is the way to ask. For the one who doubts is like the surfer of the wave, and the sea is driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man think for a second. Let not you suppose for a minute that you will receive anything from God if you ask in doubting. For you will be a double-minded man." And that word means literally, you will have two allegiances, one foot in the God stuff, one thing in the world, unstable in all that you do.

Everything Has Purpose and Meaning

James goes right into the body of his text and he deals straight away with a topic and he deals with it in a way that very honestly at first reading, you kind of want to go, "Are you sure you picked the right words?" He comes right into these twelve tribes that are scattered and it seems to me he understands their condition and understands where they are and why they're there and the first thing he wants to do is tell them everything has a purpose and a meaning.

You're going through difficult times. Life is really tough. Things are not easy. Life stinks. And to you, he says, you even more so and you even have more problems in that you're doing the right thing. It's one thing, isn't it, in your own mind when you do something and you kind of do a wrong thing and you do it for the wrong reasons and you do it the wrong way and it kind of blows up, at least in your mind you've still got a little "why me" in there, but you kind of go, "Eh, I screwed it up."

But how about when you do the right thing for the right reason and you do everything as it's supposed to go and it still blows up in your face? That's the time where you kind of go, "Wait a minute, God, why me now?" That's the situation these Jews are in. They're scattered. They've come to Christ in repentance and faith.

Not like you where you can just waltz right in and straight up that escalator and carry that Bible and get a cup of fresh brewed coffee and sit down in a nice environment and listen and take away a tape. That's not their deal. They've given it all up. They've got nothing. They've lost everything physically, everything economically. In that condition, now they're scattered and they've done that for the cause of Christ.

When You Encounter Trials

And now James says you need to understand some stuff. And when he writes to these people, I believe he speaks volumes to you and me as well. I think we can pull practical application out of that first verse and we can do it quickly in our lives. Here's what he says about trials. He uses an interesting word in verse 2. He says this: "When you encounter various trials."

I remember the first time I read it, I thought, "Oh, no, no, no. He meant to say 'if you encounter various trials.'" But if he meant to say "if you encounter various trials," what would have happened? He would have said "if," obviously. He meant "when," because in life trials are inevitable.

Now this is really, really, really important. The word that's translated there as "trials" or "testing" is virtually identical to the word that's translated "temptation" later on. When things come into your life and they're from God, they are trials or tests. When they come into your life and it's produced by Satan or his demons or your flesh, it's a temptation. What the heck is the difference?

One is designed to tear you apart and kill you and destroy you. One is designed to build your faith and to make you stronger.

It's like you've done with your own kids and you're sitting there and you're swatting them and you're saying, "Hey, this is hurting me more than it's hurting you." I remember the first time I ever said that, I'm thinking, "Holy cow, I can't believe I said that. This is hurting me more than it's hurting you." And I remember Sarah looking around and said, "I really doubt that." And I said, "Well, she's got a point because I'm kind of enjoying it because you deserve it, you little creep."

Well, in life, God brings these trials.

Everything That Happens Is Either Caused by or Permitted by God

Now, here you go, and again, please be sensitive. This may be nothing to many of you, but I'm telling you, for some people in the room, this is really hard stuff. Everything that's happened in your life is either caused by or permitted by God—everything.

Last night at church, we had a lady stand up, and she's a young lady. She can't be 30. She found some lumps in her neck. She's been twice through cancer surgery and chemotherapy, and they're back again. As soon as she was done, a lady stood up, and her neighbor is a two-year-old baby who had a tumor on her brain, and they went in and they couldn't get it all. And that just cascades around the room.

It was a great moment to stop and say, "See, you all come waltzing in here thinking everything is okay. There is so much hurt and pain." I'll tell you what, whatever it is there in this room right here today, there is so much hurt and so much pain—physical, spiritual, emotional—you can't even begin to imagine it. If we could put a little truth serum in your coffee and give you a microphone and pass it around the room, I guarantee you it would blow your mind how much pain there is.

The Dangerous Theology of Limiting God's Sovereignty

What am I supposed to say? "God, I know you didn't want me to have this cancer. I know that you..." Wait a minute, if He didn't want you to have cancer, He'd take it away. He could do that. Isn't He an almighty God? This is where we get into a very shaky theology.

There was an awful book written a few years ago called "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." And lots of you have read it and said it's very good and it's very helpful and it makes me feel good. And I say to you, so does morphine. But the problem with the book is, it's filled with heresy. And what it does is begin to change the nature of God.

My experience has been, when we suffer or when we sit down and we have a cup of coffee and you're really hurting, as we're talking, one of the great tendencies is to somehow begin to change God.

God's Goodness Isn't Dependent on Our Circumstances

Most of you know that my daughter was in a very serious car accident in October. And it was God's grace and God's mercy that really spared her beyond where she is. She's still got four years of mouth surgery and all that junk to get through. But she's up and around and back in school and really you'd be hard-pressed, other than she's skinny as a rail, you'd be hard-pressed to know there was anything wrong with her.

And I had, I can't tell you how many people come up and just say, "Hey, I heard about Sarah and I heard she's doing all right. Isn't God good the way He spared her?" And I let that go. But let me make this point to you: God is good even if she died. God is good even if she's a vegetable today. What happened to Sarah is not a reflection of whether God is good or not. God is good.

Couldn't God have intervened and stopped that? Obviously. Let me give you something else. They're in a car going under the speed limit and going through a green light. They're doing everything right. The little girl driving, her parents are right before them. Everything right. Everything right. And these three kids in a stolen pickup run a red light and hit her and get out and run away. Didn't do anything wrong.

And to my knowledge, I don't think there was 30 seconds of time among any of the four members of our family trying to figure out, "God, what are you trying to do?" And I don't minimize that. I'm just saying it for us was a gigantic trial and test. And we came out very strong. We sat in the emergency room that night and there were some of her friends there and one of her teachers and they were all milling around and I said, "One thing I know for sure, when this is over, Sarah's either going to be a lot stronger or a lot weaker. She isn't going to be the same."

God's Purpose in Our Trials

These things come. God can stop them in a heartbeat. I don't care what your suffering is or what your pain is. God can stop it right now. But He doesn't. Why? Because He has something better for you. He has something coming out of this pain that is best for you.

These trials come, they're inevitable, they're varied. Just as every person's fingerprint is different, God is working in your life and what Barb needs is different than what Mark needs. So the trials in her life are going to be different than the trials in his life, even though they're husband and wife. They'll have joint trials, but they'll have individual trials. God's going to put you into a fire that He's not going to put me in.

Here's something else: These babies arrive unexpectedly. You have not the foggiest idea when a trial is coming.

The Unexpected Nature of Trials

Let me prove this to you if I could. Let me say to you, we'll play a little game right now. Let me say to you, God is going to try you in a significant way before noon on Sunday. Get in your mind what that trial would be. God's going to try you, each one of you. God's going to put a trial in your life between now and noon Sunday. In that silent ten seconds, what popped into your mind that might be a trial that God would give you? Anyone?

All happened collectively, and it was real. Go ahead.

"The things that pop into your mind are unspeakable."

Oh, they're unspeakable. If it popped into your mind, you wouldn't even want to verbalize it. Really? No. Okay. Anybody want to verbalize one? No? Sickness?

Something happened to my daughter. Stroke. See, those are the things that you think of. I mean, inevitably, if I say you're going to be tested, here's what I mean, here's what I would think of. I would think of one of the kids getting sick. I would think of one of the kids getting killed. I would think something happened to Susan or something happened to me, or I guarantee you, we're talking about not wanting to speak, we don't want to say this, losing a job, economic costs. Those are the things we think of.

Here's my contention. You are tested day after day after day after day after day, and you don't even realize the test is going on. We think of these gigantic tests, and you have these little bitty opportunities to encourage someone with a nice word. That's a test. How are you doing? To help someone. To spend time in prayer.

The True Nature of Testing

See, when we think of testing, we think of adversity, we think of poverty, we think of hardship. Let me tell you something. For every hundred people that can pass the poverty test, there's only one that can handle the prosperity test. That's the real test. It's like a budget. When I'm making 15 grand a year, that's when everybody wants to put me on a budget, and I understand that's important. Let me tell you when you need a budget. You need a budget when you're making 150 grand a year. That's when you fritter the money away. That's when you buy a $250 dress instead of a $70 dress, or a $35 dress. If you're willing to shop at Marshalls at 15, you should be sitting there now. What would that say to your peers? Who cares? They don't care. They're too busy looking at themselves.

Here come these tests flooding in. I'll give you a great test. Not sickness. Here's another great test: health. You can move around. You are healthy. You haven't had a stroke. You're mobile. You've got energy. You've got opportunity. What are you doing with it? There's a huge test, see?

The Purpose Behind Trials

Now here's what He says. Those tests come unexpectedly, and they have a purpose, and the purpose is to test your faith. And when that faith is tested, it becomes real.

I was never much of a student, and I hated math, and I hated science. I hated them all, but I hated math and science especially. And science, I thought, was really stupid, because we had to take what we called classroom, and then once a week we had lab. That's the Christian life. You've got classroom. That's what we're doing here. And then you've got lab. That's what happens when you walk out the door. Because what I understood is in science, in the classroom, when I had the book, it was a lot easier than when we went to the lab and had to figure it out ourselves.

God brings you these, and if you will, you can almost put it in a mathematical formula. Faith plus testing equals perseverance. I can study this book and study this book, and I can hear about God's love and grace, and I can hear that He'll never test me beyond that which I can endure. And I can hear that anything that comes into my life will ultimately work for good. And I can hear that nothing can separate me from Christ. But as much as I hear this, and as much as I may know it in my head, nothing moves it from my head to my heart like reality, like suffering, like pain, like hurt.

The Refining Process

When that comes, it's not designed to destroy you. It's designed to build you up and to make you stronger. It's designed like that metal, to put it in the fire, to begin the process of purifying it. And I put it in the fire, and I heat it up, and I get rid of all the junk in there, and it all goes away until I have a pure metal. That's what trials are designed to do.

So you've got to figure this out as these come into your life, because you know they're going to come. You know they're going to be there. And here's what he said, consider it all joy.

Joy Versus Happiness

The response that he says you have is to have a joyful response, not happy. Some of us confuse these words. Happy is a circumstantial word. I mean, who can't - okay, I buy a stock today at a dollar, it goes to five dollars tomorrow. Who can't be happy in that deal? I've got a wife, and all she does is love me, and I'm blessed. Her biggest job in life is to make me happy, and she loves to do it. Or I've got a husband, and you wouldn't believe this guy. He's just there, he takes care of me, everything's right. And a boss, interesting guy, he just said, I want you to work a little less, and I want to pay you a little more. Okay, who can't be happy - I know what I forgot to say. This is hypothetical, okay. Who can't be happy in that setting?

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about joy. We're talking about something that flows out of a relationship with Christ. When the Holy Spirit comes into my life, and that happens at the point of regeneration. That happens when I'm born again. The Holy Spirit begins to produce in my life love, joy. And that joy is evidenced not in good times. In fact, people don't even see it.

It's like this situation with Sarah. I used that illustration with Sarah, and I can't tell you how many people say to me, that really wasn't a test. A real test would have been if she had died. That would have been a real test. I said, holy cow, what do you guys want? You know, how much of this do you need from me? Joy isn't evidenced when everything's going well. Joy is manifest in difficult times. You can't even have joy until you have suffering, in a sense, to manifest.

How to Respond to Trials

So how do you react to this? Okay, here's the thing. We painted, frankly, if you're here today, and you're not a Christian, you're going to be going, I'm not sure that's what I want to sign up for. But how do I manifest that? What's my reaction? As a believer, if you're here and you're a Christian, difficult times are coming. What are some key thoughts?

Number one, you better keep in mind the big picture. You need a satellite view of your life, and you get that from God's

Word. That's what God says. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My words aren't your words. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. See, I want God's Word.

When the Suns were struggling a few weeks ago, and as things had hit a really dark point, Charles Cotton made a comment to the press. I find him just terrific and enjoyable and incredibly insightful. Charles' comment was, "You know what I noticed? The sun came up this morning, and it came up right on time." That's a good perspective.

When Danny Manning blew his knee out, there was a great Danny Manning story about a month ago. Manning was saying he called his wife to tell her that this had happened. She picked up the phone, and he started to tell her, and she said, "Oh no, oh my, oh no." His daughter was there and overheard this, and she said, "Mommy, mommy, did daddy's plane crash?" Well, all of a sudden, he goes, "That's just a knee."

By the way, that doesn't minimize—I don't believe for one second that attitude has diminished Charles' intensity on the court. In any way does that trivialize Danny's knee injury. All it does is put it in perspective. All it does is give it a backdrop. This isn't the biggest thing in the world, and there is something greater than this that plays itself out. It's understanding the big picture.

Understanding the Big Picture

The big picture for you as a man or woman of God is this: God wants you to come to Him in repentance and faith, and then live a life that brings honor and glory to Him by serving others, and to be faithful to Him until the very end. You are done serving Him when you die.

I'm going this Saturday to speak to the Southern California Senior Citizens Association. My whole message to them is: God is done with you when you assume room temperature. When you die, that's when He's done, and not until then. Until your very last breath, God has an intent for using you. Very honestly and candidly, some of the most dramatic impact you're going to have will be in the way that you die. You aren't done until you're dead, and then you're with Christ forever. That's the big picture.

The other thing to remember is that God is in control. We've talked about that before. There's no maverick molecule loose in the universe that's outside His jurisdiction that can sometime, over a great span of time, somehow sabotage God's plan. God's plan will be done.

Learning From Our Trials

Here's something practical. You might want to learn a lesson from this. Here's the tragedy: you go through all this and you come out the other end and you go, "Eh, whatever, I didn't really learn much from that." And then you go and do it again.

Five years ago, I was pleading with you business people: write yourself a memo and stick it in your file and remind yourself of all these promises you're making. "Money's not important. Family's important. Faith is important. No more tax deals." Stick it in your file, because when this baby turns around, I know you—because I know me—and you're going to want to go and make the same mistakes again. I'll be dipped if you don't see them going out and starting to do the same things again.

All of a sudden, we see in this study attendance up, but Thursday noon—which is the youngest and most aggressive, most business-oriented—all of a sudden attendance is starting to drop a little bit. Somebody said, "Why do you think it's dropping?" I can tell you why it's dropping. They're making more money than they've made in any time in the last five or six years. Isn't that something? Didn't learn a lick through all this.

Well, if you're really God's kid, here's the bad news: He's going to put you through it again, and He's going to put you through it again and again and again and again until you learn the lesson. So just learn it.

Having Reasonable Expectations

Have reasonable expectations. Understand that you're going to suffer in this life. That's part of life, and you begin to just expect it. Just because you're faithful to Him, and you're having your quiet time, and you're sharing the gospel, doesn't mean that you aren't going to get sick. Nor does it mean that when you get sick, God's going to heal you. Doesn't work that way. Sometimes it does.

Here's a huge deal: share your burden. It is amazing to me how many people are watching their guts get torn out, and they're not telling anybody about it. I say share your burden for two reasons. Number one, it's good for you. Number two, it's good for the person you share with, because that gives them an opportunity to serve you.

You are in the body of Christ. We are to love one another and encourage one another and share one another's burdens. That's a command. If you're staggering around—maybe you're here today, and you're in the midst of a huge trial and you don't know what to do—I say go back to where you saw God working last. Go back to those things that were happening in your life when you really saw God working in your life. Maybe it's back to the very basics.

Getting Back to the Basics

I was just sharing with somebody: I have developed—and I'm not sure exactly what this is—but all of a sudden, I can't hit my driver very well. It's interesting. To the guys that I talk to, the very first thing they say is, "Well, how's your grip?" Isn't that interesting? You can't get any more basic than that. How do you grab the club?

It's similar to this. If you're in the middle of these trials, you're in the middle of these tribulations, or you're even in good times, don't forget the basics. Swing technique doesn't mean a lick if you don't have the club gripped right.

Here's my thought: whether it's golf or whether it's life, we have a tendency to make this stuff much more complicated than it really is. You pray, you study His Word, you share your faith, you serve one another, you obey His law, and then you live life. That's what it's about.

And here's the last thing. There is no—and it's taken me some time to figure this out, and it probably is because I'm getting older. Here's what

I've discovered there's no way to microwave this process. This thing takes time. That's why those of you that are older are so much, I think, such a valuable asset and resource. You have so much to offer because you've been through it.

I don't know what your personal experience is, but I will tell you there are people all around 25 and 30 years old that would love to have you take them out and buy them a cup of coffee and talk to them about life. They don't tend to do it with their mom, they don't tend to do it with their dad, they don't tend to do it with their own family. They're looking for somebody like you, not somebody who's perfect, not somebody who's got it all figured out, but somebody who can sit there and say, "So what's up?" And then they tell you, and you go, "You know what? I went down that path. Let me tell you what's at the end of that road. You may want to get off that sucker right now." And time will teach you that.

The Purpose Behind the Process

James comes at these scattered Jews and He says, count it all joy when difficult times come. How in the world can I count it all joy? Because there's purpose in it. This process will be developed and grown and it will explode in your individual life.

How can I do that? How can I understand that? Next week we really begin to dissect this process as we work our way through it.

Let's pray and we'll get you on your way. Father, thank You that indeed You are in control. We ask that You would help us see the big picture. Please let us be men and women who are not just hearers of the word, but are doers of the word. Father, help us understand that we are to be both, that it is crucial that our belief is accurate, that we believe that Your Son is the way and the truth and the life. And we pray that that knowledge would not remain in our head, but would move to our heart.

Father, we understand that Your process for that frequently includes trials and tribulations and tough times. God, we say to You, do whatever You need to bring us to the point where our life produces honor and glory to You. God, please do that. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

See you next week.