Finding Joy in the Process and the Pain - Louie Giglio

James is about real faith James is about the kind of fate that actually works not a faith it is an internal decision that we make that's invisible to the world around us but James is about a faith that is so infectious that once it gets ahold of your heart it works its way out into every single area of your life in fact chapter 1 ends with this encouragement if anyone considers himself religious now the word religious isn't a great word to a lot of us because we we don't consider ourselves religious we consider ourself faithful followers of Jesus but James means that when he says religious hearing so he's not talking about go to church stand up sit down say the right thing and pray the right prayer give the right amount of money act religious he's talking about people of faith in Jesus if anyone considers himself so can we just say that a person of faith in Jesus yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue he deceives himself or herself and his faith in Jesus is worthless see that's James James are like oh you go to Passion City Church oh you're you're in a community group oh you're a door holder well you know what your tongue is burning down for relationships right now therefore your passion city church community group bla bla bla bla bla bla bla that isn't worth anything and no thank you I don't want to come with you to the 1145 gathering you're like whoo man Oh like we just got caught a little legalistic up in here like no we're just talking about real faith James is not giving any of us a pass he's not going oh that's cool you're a follower of Jesus but you just cut your coworker down in front of six other people man that is making Jesus looked really good at your company well then I wasn't about Jesus it was just you know the guy's a jerk and everyone knows that I mean everybody agreed with I mean and it's not like I'm like saying something everybody doesn't already know the guy is a punk well if everybody already knew it then probably wasn't any use in saying it again and James is like right up in my grill he goes on to say this is the kind of followers of Jesus thank God our Father accepts as pure and faultless these are the kind of people God is going yes thank you these are my followers it's the ones who look after orphans and widows in their distress and those who keep themselves from being polluted by the world so James either saying don't give me a religion that's all show and no dough don't give me a religion it's all about the external and not about the internal here's what God wants God wants people who don't burn down other people's lives with their tongues and God wants people who see every Widow in every orphan and move in their direction oh and somebody who has a water treatment plant going on between the external world around them and their heart God's looking for that person that's James so the next few weeks get ready things are gonna change in our lives in the next few weeks but hello this is the best part about the change in our lives all of it is going to be stuff we want and need and all of it is going to be the kind of change that the world around us has been waiting to see the church exhibit all this time and so thank God and thank you God for the power of your word the power to change everything about our lives when you talk about changing everything about our lives this text we're jumping in today it is crazy talk verse 2 consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds now maybe at 5:15 maybe you're still applauding we can't hear you so you're not piped in I'll give you a minute just to let it kind of taper off slowly people are cheering and probably shouting and waving hankies and high-fiving their neighbors people are embracing and hugging each other and going this is so correct up so glad we came but it's pretty quiet over here at Cumberland we're two verses into this journey that we're on and James by the power of the Holy Spirit says hey here's here's what I'd like to start okay a my life's been radically changed by my brother who's not my brother and I'm a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm writing to those of you who are now scattered out into the world so that whole idea is that we're not all comfy all holed up in Jerusalem anymore but the persecution of Jerusalem is actually pushing the church out into the known world and in light of that here's what I'd like to begin I want us to just absolutely consider it a big big boatload of joy when we face all kind of different trials in our lives and people are like oh okay not so sure I'm into that because that sounds like crazy talk to me but what I'm learning about James is it's all crazy talk in a world that's upside-down because God is trying to set you and me right side up in an upside-down world and pretty much everything he's saying to us in an upside-down world sounds like crazy talk and surely consider it all joy when you face various kinds of trials sounds like crazy talk but if you go down it just a little bit to the end of verse four it gets a whole lot better verse four B which would be the back half of the verse says this so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything can't get an amen on that who wants to be mature all of us do who wants to be complete all of us do who would like to be able to say about our lives I'm not lacking anything in my personal development as a follower of Jesus I'm actually growing into the person he had in mind in the first place we all want that result but that result begins up with the process and the process is a little bit challenging he says in verse 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature this is what we want and complete not lacking anything so we see the result and then we see the process and then that's where we say well I might be okay if I lack a few things I might be good if I'm not like fully completely totally mature just like kind of sorta mature because if the processes trials trials tests tests produces and what it produces then allows me to become mature and complete I might just be okay to be like a middle school Christian all my life and not really to be a grown woman or a grown man but God has a different picture in mind for you today God is looking at you and he sees something amazing in your life anybody been to Florence Italy one of the great cities of the world anybody been to Florence yes a lot of us have been there phenomenal place my name's sake they're actually Florence's and everything you see around Florence is that fleur-de-lis which we the French version of the flower symbol that's on the Saints football helmet which you see all over Florence but it's not French it's Italian because it's in Florence and in Italian you say that word fleur-de-lis GTO my name our name so we love Florence if you walk the streets of Florence and you don't know what you're gonna find you go down to this one little church one of my favorite places and Michelangelo is buried there Galileo is buried there Machiavelli is buried there in the same little chapel you're like yeah we got one of those in Atlanta and so when you go to the Academy you go there to see what what do you go to see when you go to the Academy anybody the David you go to see the sculpture David and we have a photograph of it just because we all need to see it and everyone goes to the Academy to see this phenomenal work of art but in the Academy are also many other works of David's of Michelangelo's and one of them I brought a photo of today's called the awakening and this would be one of the unfinished works of Michelangelo and this particular one is called The Awakening obviously because you can see the person is kind of coming out of the marble striving straining to get out of the marble and about David most of us have read or learned at some point in our journey that his approach and concept to carving to sculpting was this Michelangelo believed the sculptor was a tool of God not creating it but simply revealing the powerful figures already contained in the marble Michelangelo's task was only to chip away the excess to reveal that's brilliance that's different then I've got a piece of marble and I'm gonna try to carve something Michelangelo is looking at the marble and says I see David in there and I'm gonna let him out and so in God who we sang today here at Cumberland is my author and my Maker it means that he sees me today in my marble and he's trying to let me out and what he wants to let out of the marble is a mature and complete version of me and so how is he gonna do that he's gonna clap his hands snap his fingers cuz he's a miracle worker and voila I'm going to appear no no he is the Michelangelo with it a mallet in one hand and a chisel in the other and he's like I see you in there and I'm letting you out because you are beautiful and stunning it and powerful in the kingdom gifted and amazing and you have a destiny beyond your wildest dreams I'm gonna let you out of the marble that is currently you and we all see the David and say that's what I want to be but a lot of us are walking around in this moment looking more like The Awakening going yeah you can see that I have an arm but it's not like an arm with a hand and you can see I have legs but it doesn't look like I could walk or run and you can't really see my head yet because it hasn't fully emerged and yes I believe in Jesus but somehow I got stagnated in the process of maturity and completion and what James is saying is when God is looking at you today he's looking at the mature complete version of you and he's trying to let you out of the marble encasement that you are in today but here's how he's gonna let you out he's gonna let you out with a hammer and a chisel the two things in our lives that on our prayer list are at the top of the list day by day by day God please take away the hammer and please take away the chisel please get rid of the hammer and please get rid of the chisel oh and bless our neighbor and please get rid of the hammer and please get rid of the chisel and please let this plane take off one time please get rid of the hammer because if the plane doesn't take off that's a hammer and if we're if I'm late getting this meeting that's a chisel and I need you to get rid of the hammer and get rid of the chisel and James says hey I want you to consider it all joy when you face these various kinds of trials now if you want to do a little Bible study take down a little bit there's some beautiful things in this text number one James says he's not saying hey if you were to face a trial I want you to be joyful about it he's not saying if at some point in your life difficulty comes then you should be joyful about that he just flat-out telling us today when the trial come I want you to be joyful that means you're either in it or it's on the way right now and there is no theology that you can cook up that can stop that process and if you do cook up one you're gonna have to cut James one two three and four out of your Bible because why would you need to consider it pure joy when you face various trials if there's a way in life with God to not have any trials in your life the chisel and the hammer are the tools of a loving God to get us out of halfway and into the full version of ourselves and he says when you face them and the word here when you encounter them and when you face them is an interesting word it only appears a few times in the Bible and they're all they're both negative connotations that the word is when you fall into the midst of a trial when you're like fall into the storm when you fall into the darkness when you fall into the challenge when we win your it's not like oh here I go sailing rowing you know swimming out into the challenge I don't like you're in now boom and whenever that happens I want you to be joyful he talks about various trials the word in Greek is multicolored so it's like you know when you just go through all the various hues of aggravation all the various shades of difficulty an absolute rainbow of disappointment that's when I want you to consider it all joy so James is saying hey it's not that you're you know your boyfriend broke up with you and man the world came to an end and that's terrible so I want you to count it all joy is like no oh so you're you backed over a nail and your tire was flat as you were on the way to the biggest presentation you've had at work in the last few months and therefore you had to get an uber but your uber driver went to the wrong apartment building and not to your apartment building and by the time they found you you had already got another uber but then you got confused about the uber and then you got late to the meeting and when you got to the meeting you walked straight in and knocked a coffee over onto your boss's lap that's a good day to start rejoicing when you leave the meeting and say man at this they could not get any worse I backed over a nail the uber guy couldn't find my apartment building I came in in a huff I knocked my boss's coffee into her lap and then at the end of the meeting I walked out I got a text and it was Elroy telling me that we need to talk and James says oh man what a day you got problems coming in all the great colors count it all joy you like who I don't know if I need the Greek or not I think the English has given me enough trouble and I'm just being facetious obviously unless you did knock your coffee and your boss's lap and it probably was a bigger deal then we all made it to be but I'm talking about cancer and family strife I'm talking about hardship disappointment and I was just thinking back it's just a little rolodex of the last few years and our nuclear families life Shelley's family and my family and I made a short list and on that list in our life so I don't know about your lives you you're probably not going through all that kind of stuff maybe but just so you know the preacher today we we've been through addiction death we've been through marital separation disability brain disease we've been personally attacked publicly attacked we've been all over the news and then the media being attacked we've had real storms like the kind where lightning strikes people and they have to go to the hospital we've been through divorce we've been through several bouts with cancer one that we're through and one that we're in we've been through depression we've been through Parkinson's disease and that's just the top of the list and James is saying if you were to face a multicolored front of all kind of trials you should take great joy in that and I ask in us why should I take great joy in a smorgasbord of pain and difficulty and James says because you know something that's why he says down in the next line because looking at verse three because you know that's a key a key promise you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance you know all those people that we look up to the heroes in our lives isn't it true that almost every one of their stories is a story of perseverance I was watching a sporting event this weekend and they were telling the story of the mom of one of the people involved in this event and how as a single mom she had three jobs to provide for her family to make sure that they got to go to this certain school to make sure they had this certain path toward opportunity to teach them about character to teach them about what it means to be men and women of substance in the world and the person was just talking about how my mom is my hero and the story was a story of total perseverance and we know in many many ways in life that the perseverance has an extraordinary pea and it makes it worth it in the process and James is saying and you know that right you know that's a testing of your walk with God of your faith in God it produces something it develops something in your life in the something that develops is worth the process in other words the process has a promise and the pain has a purpose and the promise in the in the payoff the purpose is perseverance now the word perseverance here in the Greek means the ability to stay up under something and so what's being developed in you and me is a strengthening component that allows us to stay under whatever comes our way in life and the picture is we get stronger and stronger and stronger some of you are out you know training to run a 10k or or maybe even train to run a marathon or maybe you're nuts and you're training for a triathlon right now and maybe there was a day in your life where he thought I don't know if I can run a mile anybody been there where you think I'm gonna start running and then you get out there here like who a mile is a lot further on foot than it is in a car anybody been there and you're like I am a a wimp I cannot run one mile and then you finally ran the mile and roll a whoo okay I walked a little bit but I ran a mile and then you kept at it you kept at it and you kept at it you kept at it and now you're running about four and a half miles and you're laughing at yourself after the one-mile mark going I remember like about three months ago I could barely run a mile but you stayed at it and the testing the process the chiseling cuz you didn't love it all but you stayed at it and you embrace the pain and you embrace the process and the promise and now once you're into the third mile on the fourth mile you're starting to go Kali there was the day I couldn't really even think about hardly like going out there and running a mile without being completely exhausted and out of breath but you persevere and when you persevered you develop the ability to stay up under that pressure and now you can take the pressure for miles you can take the pressure some of you of six miles some of you can take the pressure of eight miles some of you can take the pressure of 15 miles some of you can take marathon pressure but you didn't walk out on day one with the kind of perseverance you need to take marathon pressure you had to develop that step by step by step by step by step and you embrace the promise and you embrace the pain and now you're living with disability it's kind of like these these guys in CrossFit lifting these enormous weight you know and you think man if I did that the first thing that would happen would be I couldn't get it off the ground and that would be humiliating it if I did I would snap my back into if my back didn't get snapped into and I got it right here both my thighs would break and if those that didn't happen when I put it up there like that both my shoulders would break and it would follow my head and I would die that is the process that would happen but these guys didn't start with all that weight they started by building up the process of that word being able to stay under the pressure so now when they put that weight over their heads they're able to be complete and mature and they don't lack anything necessary in that moment to be under that weight and this is the process that God is doing a new we always talk about the external benefits of suffering it it's for the glory of God people can see Jesus and me people can see how God is at work in my life when I'm going through a hard time but it's not about the external only it's also about the internal it's how God's gonna make you the person he wants you to be and it's worth it that's talking to this guy a few days ago who has a half sleeve on his arm tattoo and you can tell that it's not finished yet because the second half just has like the sketching of what it's going to be so it looks really fantastic right now beautiful up here got some multicolored stuff going on and then all this down here is just kind of like this is what we're gonna fill in later and I said man that's amazing and can you explain all that to me and why did you get that and what is this and what does it mean and why are you doing this down here person was very happy to tell me the whole story and to tell me that so far they'd invested 15 hours and getting this done and they thought they had about six to ten more getting this done and I said this it hurt they said oh it hurts like heck you have any tattoos I said well not any recently no now you're like do you have any tattoos yes I have Chris Tomlin Matt Redman and David Crowder on my back across my back it's amazing but I I said you got ten more hours to go of pain he's like well it's not that bad I mean you get used to it I was like how long has it take to get used to it well you never get really used to it but but I said what you would say but it's worth it he said oh yeah 100% I'm gonna go sit for 20 hours plus in pain so that I can have a story of my life on display I was like you know what's so amazing that you're willing to do that and you are paying someone to do that when myself and the average Christian says to God don't don't do anything painful to me number one into prayer no pain please take the pain please stop the pain please don't not to chisel please not not to hammer please please no more chiseling no more pain no more difficulty when the guy sitting next to me who is not thinking about eternal thing said oh absolutely I am subjecting myself to a lot of pain because this thing is absolutely gonna be worth it and I was like man come on James keep talking to me keep talking to me keep helping me understand that the pain is worth it that the process is worth it that the promise is worth it that I might actually get to be where I'm kind of going counterflow where I'm right-side up in an upside-down world where I'm talking crazy talk like God it's okay if you need to use the chisel in the hammer today because I want out of this marble and I want to be the full version of me the version that looks the most like you in this world I want to be mature that that word kind of connotes my full potential and complete connotes and having learned everything and added everything possible to my full potential to be even my greatest potential I want to see what you see God and I want to be able to count it all joy no matter what I'm going through in my life so let me just give us a few practical things how can we then adjust because notice at the end of James in verse 22 it says do not merely listen to the word we've done that so far and so deceive yourselves do what it says anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says it's like a man or woman who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at his face in the mirror and then going away immediately forgets what he looks like but the man or woman who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this not forgetting what he has heard but doing it he she will be blessed in what he does in other words today I cannot get by with walking out today and going man we heard a big word on rejoicing in trials this is normal church life it's that Beth Moore thing again I saw it on Twitter I know no one's on Twitter anymore except all the crazy people which is why no one's on Twitter anymore so if you're on Twitter I'm not oh I tweet occasionally but Twitter used to be a big thing especially before Instagram came along and you would see something that someone tweeted something like this quote which is mostly attributed to Charles Spurgeon but I don't think Charles Spurgeon ever said it but don't let that ruin your devotional life I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages that's a tweet and then what I would do is go I won't retweet that how many retweets did I get on my retweet and I remember Beth Moore saying friends we need to eat it before we tweet it I'm gonna go with you I'm gonna go with you I'm not gonna stop you we need to eat it and then maybe next month tweet it in other words don't just hear this message today count it all joy whenever an array of hardship comes your way he's saying actually count it all joy when an array of hardship comes your way actually let's start doing that today so a few practical things number one get ready so that when the hardship comes you won't fall prey to the most common trap in Christianity which is saying why is this happening to me just get ready today so that when the various trials come your girl I knew they were coming I knew this was coming I knew this was gonna be a part of the process I knew this was gonna be in the story I didn't know what I didn't know when I didn't I saw a self-fulfilling prophecy I didn't default to well it's all gonna be bad cuz we live in a broken world I just knew that God told me hard times were coming in fact Jesus said in the world you'll have tribulation but be of good cheer I've overcome the world and I believe Jesus when he said that so here comes some of the tribulation I already knew this was coming so I can jump over the why is this happening question and then I can just go God what do you want to do what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing God because I'm here for you get ready Church I want to talk about that in just one second number two practically thank God for the hardship that you're in right now that's what vegan do or the word nada here you're like I'm not gonna do that that sounds like a lack of faith and I believe God's a miracle worker and God's gonna change the situation look James never says anywhere in this letter and in this book hey just let it be what it is and don't ask God to change any situations in hardship but that's not the same thing as thank God I'm in a hardship right now and instead of despising it I'm actually gonna do what you asked me to do and I'm gonna count it all joy because I know something and what I know is you're making me mature and complete through this process this is the way you make me mature and complete and so I'm going to thank you for this hardship thank you that my uber driver is clueless thank you God I know I'm gonna find a solution real fast but thank you for this little moment cuz man I just cussed and I'm thinking if I cuss over that I am not growing up fast enough to be like Jesus I just yelled at a pregnant woman I am not growing up as fast as I need to be to be like Jesus I just fell into a fit on the floor like my four-year-old does because they were out of my particular brand of skin lotion at the CVS and I have to go to Target hallelujah I am NOT growing up fast enough boy someone at work criticized me and you would have thought World War four had started I am NOT growing up as fast as I need to be growing thank you God and when we thank God for the hardship we take control of the story and instead of being a victim floating down a current in a process and pain we now are actually writing the narrative of the story and the process in the pain the third practical thing just two more really fast we need to reshape our view of hardship in God's sovereign timing and grace this week I had the most interesting encounter with a homeless woman and James got all up in my grill and I met Andrew Brunson I had dinner with him on Tuesday night and you may not know that name but here we are sitting at dinner we're taping a TV show he's taping a show and I'm taping a show back to back we're having dinner together before the shows are taped I'm taping a show I'm not forsaken I feel great about it like what are you taping your show on well I just released my book it's called God's hostage I was in prison in Turkey for 735 days a pawn of the president of Turkey facing three life sentences with no parole on all trumped up charges [Music] and what what was my first thought anybody consider it pure joy my brother's when you face trials of many kinds that's more about what James had in mind and the fact that I backed over a nail in my driveway in the church right now in America we are napping and where the old trials I'm glad we're having a message on trials because I ordered this that this sweater from made well and and then when it came it was a large but I'd have ordered a medium and so I went back online to send it back because I'd ordered the medium and they sent me the large and they were out of the medium when I went back to send it back they had already sold out of the medium ones well they had it in brown but I wanted it in black and the brown one was a crewneck and I'd ordered the v-neck and so I called him and said look I ordered the medium crewneck oh wait a minute consider it all joy when you encounter various trials of different kinds because this testing of my faith it is it's produced in perseverance and me made well is working for me today I I'm gonna like hi Andrew I'm Louie I'm an idiot I'm a wimp I am a nearsighted short-sighted Atlanta living Western thinking misunderstanding still growing follower of Jesus because I lost sight of the fact that this letter was written in the shadow of the cross of Christ and in the wake of his resurrection when the church exploded out of the death of Stephen and was scattered into the known world to tell people Jesus was alive because this was the most important news that could be shared on planet Earth to a human being and on the way it ain't gonna be easy but don't you worry God's gonna use the whole process even seven hundred and thirty five days in a Turkish prison to make you mature and complete so that you won't lack anything in your life you will be able to do and be the full version of who God created you to be so I'm just preaching to me and I'm preaching you to you today we need to redefine our idea of what trials and suffering and hardship and difficulty are because getting your latte order wrong at Starbucks does not qualify Amen so god help us because we're going into challenging days church we're going into difficult times and God is promising us don't you worry about those trials in fact you should expect them but more than that you should be happy about him cuz they're gonna bust you out of that marble and make you everything you were created to be and then lastly I'll close with this practically for me I've been trying to get my head around this phrase let the pain and let the trial and let the hardship cause me to lean on Jesus not blame on Jesus let let the hardship cause me to lean on Jesus not blame on Jesus instead of going God why are you doing this go cut men I need you more than ever right now I'm just gonna lean in like I never have and then you might go oh maybe that's why you put me through this hard time because this is right where you wanted me to be you know there's a lot of weird theology in church that isn't in the Bible like God will never put you in a situation you can't handle wrong God loves to put you in situations you can't handle but he will never put you in a situation that he can't handle they'll never put you under trial but he can't handle he'll never put you under persecution that he can't handle he'll never put you in a crucible or a fire or a furnace or a trial that he can't handle and that's the whole point of us maturing and becoming complete it's coming to that full wisdom revelation and understanding that Jesus is enough in me to do anything and everything that I'm ever gonna be called on to do and to be in this world therefore I'm just gonna I'm just gonna be glad about this hardship right now and I'm gonna let the hardship cause me to lean on Jesus I am NOT gonna let the enemy use the hardship to make me blame it on Jesus my Jesus man you talk about considering all joy he said for the joy set before him he endured the cross despising its shame and is now sat down at the right hand of God count it all joy Church not if he getting any multicolored web of trials and difficulty but when they come this starts thanking God for him and maybe that'll speed up the work I don't know God's timetable is always weird but maybe he chisels a little faster when we cheer on the chiseler then when we're squirming like crazy you're like son I need you to be still I'm just trying to get this splinter out of your foot and yeah I'm poking on you with a needle but it's just gonna last another second or two and then daddy's gonna pull that out but as long as you're squirming and kicking me in the face with both feet we're gonna be here a minute because I'm getting the splinter out and I wonder sometimes if I if I might be better off just going I don't like this hammering and chiseling business but I do want to be the full version of me so give me the grace today just to not squirm and let you work but kiss the negativity needs to go and the faith needs to arise that critical spirit that needs to be chiseled out and a more faithful spirit needs to be in play that shortsightedness I need to lose that and I need a bigger view of what you're doing in the world [Music]

Channel: Passion City Church

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Keywords: louie giglio, passion city church, passion church, passion city church worship, louie giglio sermons, passion city, giglio louie, louie giglio 2019, city church, passion, giglio, passion city church sermons, Cumberland, Atlanta, This changes everything, james, book of james, pain, trials, tests, hardships, heartache, finding joy, Worship Matters, W2O2R2S2H2I2P

Id: -Fl7Uk6lIvI

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 04 2019