Struggles & Trials (James 1:1-16) - Pastor Daniel Fusco

[Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so we all need amen does anyone just want to go drive now after you see that that is a little intro video we all need perspective in life if you think about what perspective is it's actually the way that you it's the lens through which you see the world that word perspective if you've traced it all the way back to its latin root it literally means something that you look through and we all need perspective in life because how we move through the world the decisions we make why we make those decisions they're all driven by our perspective you know i was just thinking about this that you know before i was called into ministry my passion was uh music playing the bass and when i was in college i picked up the upright bass at the time i just wanted one because i figured the guy with the big bass is the coolest guy in any room and i needed all the help i could get you know as i got older i realized i should have just played the flute because that big bass is hard on the back when you get older but but what was funny is i started studying with this amazing musician this bass player named ken philliano and i remember we would play this gig when i started playing jazz and and uh we were playing at this venue and my teacher ken showed up one day which automatically like made me feel very self-conscious i mean this is a phenomenal uh musician someone who i looked up to and he was like literally sitting there just watching and so i'm in my head and then at the break for uh the first set of music he was like i went over and said hi to him and he's like man you sound really good and i was like oh man no man it was like i was trying to do this and i messed this up and he's like stop and he's like nobody knows what you were trying to do they just know what you did he's like all that stuff like what you're thinking about and what you're trying to do that's like all in your head all we know is what you did and what you did was beautiful and i remember that moment i kind of like grabbed my coffee and kind of you know just got scolded by my teacher after he complimented me you know so just check drag my coffee and i remember going home and i wrote it into my journal that that idea like nobody knows what you're trying to do they just know what you've done and what i realized was that's not only a good perspective for playing music it's also a great perspective for life isn't it because nobody really knows what you're trying to do they just know what you did right and sometimes we have to help clarify hey this is what i was trying to do it didn't come out right but this is what i was trying to do but again that's one of those moments in my life when i got an instantaneous perspective that i was able to bring into the future i got another one just yesterday because you know my as my kids are growing up i i work out with my son obadiah who's almost 17 right and and very quickly i'm realizing that when you're 17 you're strong and when you're 45 you're not all that strong so so you know and i work out and when we first started working out you know it was it things went pretty good i was i had been spent more time in there but now it's it's kind of he runs faster than me he can lift more than me he can recover faster than me and and so we were we were running yesterday actually um he was jogging and i was sprinting you know uh and and i remember i had a point where i'm like okay so this is foolishness to try and keep up with this guy and it was a good perspective like it was like a reminder that like yeah there was a time when i could outrun him and i can't anymore so let's let's not let's not hurt ourselves you know and even though i backed off a little bit i still it took me a little bit to get out of bed this morning because i'm like i couldn't really move my leg but again it's a persp it's a perspective shift now i bring this up because here's the deal we need to get a perspective on what it looks like to believe in jesus and walk through this world at street level where the rubber meets the road where we live and i realize that here at crossroads not everyone here is a follower of jesus and if you feel like hey i'm not yet following jesus listen this is a great place for you to learn about what does the bible teach who is jesus and we want you to follow jesus but we realize that's a choice that you're gonna make but here's what i i think is so important is that people say that the world is getting more complicated i don't believe that i believe the world has always been complicated and i believe that in every generation depending on what the circumstances of that culture and that generation is what does it look like to be a person who has faith in jesus in the workplace with other people in a political world in the issues of finances and family and health concerns what does it look like to be a person who believes in jesus at street level where the rubber meets the road and we need that perspective and here's what i want to tell you the only place to get that perspective is in the scriptures in the bible there's our culture has a perspective that it wants to share with us god has a perspective he wants to share with us i've always told people that it's almost impossible for any church to see people's lives transformed when when we get maybe an hour or an hour 90 minutes of their time in 168 hour week but you and i know that our job is not just to go to church it's to be the church and our faith in jesus is not driven by a sunday gathering as much as we love our sunday gatherings our faith is driven by a relationship that we get to have with god through jesus and we need the bible to be able to give us the right lens through which to see everything that's going on in the world and that's why i'm so excited today to begin our brand new series called where the rubber meets the road in the book of james so everyone open up your bibles james chapter one we're going to take verses 1 to 16 together james 1 1 to 16. so if you didn't bring a bible with you to church there's bible on the seats in front of you it's easy to find the book of james it's almost at the end of your bible it's you know james sits between the book of hebrews and then uh first peter so just to you know if you start from the end of your bible you have revelation then you have jude then you have three two one john third john second john first john second peter first peter then james and so between hebrews and 1st peter james we're going to take the first 16 verses and this book is so practical but here's the deal as practical as it is most people aren't listening to what the book of james says on how we should live our lives and we need to and if we're followers of jesus this gives us the road map for how do we live as people who believe in jesus so look at how it starts james chapter 1 verse 1 says james a bond servant of god and of the lord jesus christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad greetings verse 2 my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing now let me give you the principle these verses and then i'll break it all open really what we learn from the get-go of this letter to james is that trials are purposeful that the the trials that you go through there is a purpose that god has in them that can only come to pass through the things that we're going through now isn't that an important thing if i just stop right there we just said trials are purposeful everyone can take that home with them right so what you're going through right now it's it's not devoid of purpose so it begins and you notice i just kind of skipped over the greeting james now who's james james according to church history is the half-brother of jesus so he was jesus's brother isaiah's half-brother because remember jesus was born of the holy spirit and his mother mary who had never known a man before and so mary and joseph ended up having children later and of which james was jesus's half-brother but what's amazing is is james doesn't say hey i'm james dude i'm the half-brother of jesus he says james i'm a bond servant of god and of the lord jesus christ now if you ever want evidence why you should believe in jesus it's because jesus's half brother james believed in jesus now but what's fascinating if you know your bible james the half-brother of jesus didn't always believe that jesus was the messiah because according to john chapter 7 verse 5 john wrote for even his own brothers did not believe in him but then by the time you get to first corinthians 15 jesus resurrected appeared to his brother james as well as a lot of other people and then james believed in him now you can imagine if your brother's like man i'm the messiah you're like no you're not you might be mom's favorite but uh you're not the messiah right and so and it's not and it's not that jesus was imperfect in james saul like it's like it was a it was a heavy thing but when james saw jesus after his crucifixion resurrected he's like okay and so james does not bank on the fact that he was raised in the same family he calls himself a bond servant which was a biblical way of saying he voluntarily signed up to serve he wasn't he he wasn't compelled to do it he wanted to do it and he saw his life as a service to god and as a service to jesus who he calls the lord jesus christ of course the title christ is the greek word that we get for the hebrew word messiah lord means the one to whom we bow so he sees his brother as the promised messiah and he's writing this letter to the 12 tribes who are scattered abroad so to to the jewish people who believe in jesus who have been scattered off of the land now i think what's important someone said well listen i'm not jewish so is this for me yes because what james is trying to tell the jewish people thousands of years ago is the same thing he's trying to tell us today and the beauty of james writing the book to jewish believers is so much of biblical judaism about how do we live because we believe in the true and living gods and so james is like listen i want to explain you now because you believe in jesus as the messiah the fulfillment of all of god's promises in the law now how do you live and he says of course he says greetings but then he dives right on in i notice what he says he says my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials now i want you to underline that in your neighbor's bible go ahead just reach out over just underline it if your social distance just scoot over and just underline it when was the last time you found yourself in a trial in a struggle in an issue and you're like man this is i'm counting this thing joy said nobody ever like it's a i remember the first time i read this and i was just like what now what i realize of course is he's not saying that we should be joyous for the trials he said we should be joyous counted all joy in the trial now it's a difference so when something bad you shouldn't be like this is awesome i just got diagnosed with cancer no and anybody who has cancer knows that that's just not how you treat people right but what you realize is that when something bad happens there is a joy that could be found within what's going on why verse three knowing that's a settled knowledge knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience now i want you to notice this james equates trials with the testing of your faith now i think that that's very important because i think what happens when we go through trials we go through struggles and we all have them and we have it culturally all these things are going on we have a tendency to isolate the struggle or the trial from my faith in jesus we see it as a problem divorced from god but jade's like no no the struggle in the trial that you're going through this actually is something that is designed to test your faith and what you know is that this trial that is testing your faith it has a purpose in producing patience and then it says and let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing so god wants to produce a patience it can also be translated as endurance or resilience or perseverance so trials are purposeful in making us patient persevering resilient and enduring and then that fruit that is born only through trials has a perfect work that we may and notice these two adjectives that you may be perfect and complete some of your translations say mature and complete that you may lack nothing now how powerful is that the trials that you are going through the trials that we are going through all of the issues right now they're purposeful because god wants to produce endurance and resilience instead fastness and perseverance in your life and when that happens that will now mature you and complete you in such a way that your endurance to be able to deal with struggles and trials you will find yourself without any lack and it reminds me of course of psalm 23 that begins the lord is my shepherd i shall not what i'm not trying to minimize what you're going through right now at all but you want some perspective on what you're going through it's purposeful and the reason we can count it joy in the trials is we know that god wants to birth fruitfulness in our lives christ's likeness in our lives of course the apostle paul said it this way romans chapter 5 verses 3 to 5. and not only that but we also glory and tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope now hope does not disappoint because the love of god has been poured out on our hearts by the holy spirit who was given to us see same idea we glory and tribulations why tribulations produces perseverance this grit this resilience right this perseverance makes us gives us character we're becoming the person god created us to be and as we're birthing this god-given character that produces hope and hope is not something that we just that we're disappointed with hope is here because hope has a name and his name is jesus because god's love has been poured on our heart by the holy spirit isn't that a much needed perspective today it's all purposeful in god's kingdom is it hard yes does it break our hearts yes is there a reason to hope yes can we find a broken-hearted joy in it absolutely because god's got a purpose in it now but when we're in the middle of it what do we do well look what happens next verse five if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of god who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him verse six but let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the lord he is a double-minded man unstable in his all of his ways so my friends listen you want some perspective you need to ask for wisdom see the problem for us is that in the midst of the struggles and trials we lose perspective and he's like look if any of us lack wisdom let him ask of god who gives wisdom to all liberally and without reproach so he's saying that when you're in the trial you got to ask god for wisdom now i love this idea that god gives wisdom when we ask and he gives it liberally and without reproach i love that it's kind of like just the other day i took my kids it was the end of summer so i'm like hey listen let's go on out so let's go get some ice cream because i'm that dad you understand let's go get some ice cream so we went on out to the ice cream shop right and i went to order and i'm trying to you know i'm older now so i can't eat the whole thing and hope it's gonna burn off by the morning you know like if i eat it it's going to last with me for the rest of time right so i'm like i'll take the small size and then he's like oh the medium size like the small size she's like the medium size like she was like she was like inside my head she knew i wanted the medium size but i'm asking for the small size so sure enough once it all comes out you know what she gave me the medium size but she charged me for the small size which for me was just like god's blessing upon me and it's just the way god gives wisdom because i'm like god i just want a little wisdom he's like you want medium-sized wisdom no i just want a little no here's the whole thing see god gives it liberally he's not skimping on the wisdom he's pouring it out now for those of you every time you hear the word liberal you always think of politics that means you're too polarized and you need to read your bible more can i get amen just wanted to say that right up front it's amazing the words in the bible people are like he's talking politics no it's the word of god i just love my bible thank you jesus anyway you gotta ask for wisdom and god wants to give you wisdom but listen if you want the wisdom of god there are some prerequisites here because look at what happens he says verse 6 let that person who needs wisdom let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind for let that man let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the lord he is a double-minded man unstable in all of his ways now here's the deal this is huge remember earlier trials are the testing of our faith so when you ask for wisdom you need to ask trusting god's wisdom and ways and not with doubting so what happens is we sometimes we ask for wisdom but we really don't want it we ask for god what do you want me to do but you really don't want the answer you just want what you want and when you're that kind of person you ask for wisdom but you don't want god's wisdom and then when god gives you his wisdom it makes you more uncomfortable so the key is is life in jesus is a life of faith and we need to ask with faith saying god your ways are higher than mine your purposes are better than mine your will is what i want not my own so god no matter what the answer is i want your wisdom and i'm going to trust your wisdom how often have we asked for wisdom from the lord gotten it and then chosen not to do it don't raise your hand we've all done it like we're all in that like we're like this is what god's will is and we're like no i don't want to do that and he's saying the problem when we want wisdom but we really don't want wisdom is that we're just like waves in a tempestuous ocean slammed all over the place and that's why there's so much instability in our lives because god wants to give us his wisdom but we need to ask and we need to trust him and i'll be honest know what i love so much about who the lord is the lord gives wisdom and the lord simply asks us to put feet on it and when you feel uncomfortable taking the wise steps of god it's uncomfortable until you realize that god this was the smartest thing i could have done i should have done this so long ago but you only realize the wisdom of god after the fact normally because it's god's heavenly wisdom and not our earthly kind of the stuff we understand it feels crazy to do this kind of stuff and of course the book of proverbs chapter 2 verses 1 to 7 talks about god's desire to give us wisdom listen to what it says my son if you receive my words and you treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding if you cry out for discernment and you lift up your voice for understanding if you seek her as silver and search for her as for head and treasures then you will understand the fear of the lord and you'll find the knowledge of god for the lord gives wisdom from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding he stores up sound wisdom for the upright he has a shield to those who walk uprightly so brothers and sisters listen you and i need to ask for wisdom and we need to ask in faith without doubting we need to say god i need your biblical heavenly spirit-filled wisdom on how to move through this world and when we do that we trust him he will invite us to move through this world differently we need god's wisdom everyone else's ideas are fine i always like to say people are entitled to their opinions right but the only opinion that truly matters is gods and we need to stop living for the approval of people based on the opinions of people because god truly knows what's going on and if you don't believe me listen to what happens next in james chapter one because this is so powerful look at verse 9 of james 1 it says let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation but the rich in his humiliation because as the flower of the field he will pass away for no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat that it withers the grass its flower falls and its beautiful appearance perishes so the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits everyone's like what really what we learn here is that you and i we need to keep things in perspective we need to keep things in perspective see james is talking about the differences in social or economic positions that people find themselves in the idea here is you have the difference between a lowly brother which was someone who would be with less resources and then somebody who has more resources someone who has is is more enriched now what's beautiful about this is james does not say anything about how the rich person should use their money how the poor person should use their money he's literally reminding them hey listen in light of eternity the enrichment or the impoverishment is temporary and in a lot of ways in life you and i need the perspective that this life is not all there is now the bible says all sorts of other things about how we should deal with our resources but it's not here james's goal is to say listen if you find yourself empower if you find yourself impoverished don't forget you're exalted in christ so you're saying if you have nothing and you have jesus you are the richest and he's saying and guess what those of you who are rich guess what you're going to die it's it's the perspective of eternity being played into the present and then of course what what james does here is he reminds them of something simple the flowers of the field was going to pass away he's saying listen i mean you guys know it as i'm preaching this message right now it's the beginning of september so what that means if you stop if you didn't water your lawn what's your lawn right now is dead if you don't water your plants what are they dead and guess what he's saying he's like look just like the flowers and the grass life is short on this side of eternity and these details are temporary of course the prophet isaiah said it this way isaiah chapter 40 verses 6 8 which james is quoting he says the voice said cry out and he said what shall i cry he says all flesh is grass and all of its loveliness is like the flower of the field the grass withers the flower fades because the breath of the lord blows upon it surely the people are grass the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our god stands forever so what this is saying is that when we look at social economic distinctions between people we have to put it in the light of eternity and we have to remember that there is more to life than just the size of someone's bank account on this side of eternity and that perspective is important you see this kicked around sometimes people say things that are like hey if it's not going to matter in five years then don't worry about it for five minutes you guys ever see that one some of you need to hear that if it's not going to matter in five years and why are you worrying about it for five minutes it's a perspective it's called the it's the argument from the greater to the lesser and really what he's saying is in light of eternity some sort of exalting in your achievements on this side of eternity is foolishness because ultimately all this stuff is temporary and some sort of being a victim or living in a world where everything is wrong because i'm not doing well again we need to keep the light of eternity you know as i've gotten older the reality of eternity has become much more profound to me i mean i think about like my mother got sick when she was 47 and passed away when she was 49 which puts me in like the last five year category of my mom's life so i started thinking about like okay so if this is my last five years i don't believe that it is but if it is how do i like what's important what's important and as i get older the idea of this life is but a vapor i became that dad someone has a baby i'm like oh it goes so fast i don't know how i became that dad but there was a time when people were saying that to me and that seemed like yesterday but it was 20 years ago or 17 years ago i'll go so fast i was just talking like wait do you have grandkids i'm like i can wait because i know someone's thinking that like oh wait till going that's great i'm like i can wait i'm not i'm not quite there yet although i can't wait to be at gramps that's gonna be so fun i told my kids they're like are you gonna be a good grandpa i'm like i'm gonna be the best i'm gonna sugar them up and send them home i'm gonna keep them up all night and then when you pick them up in the morning then i'm gonna give them the sugar and then i'm gonna i'm gonna send them home hungry sugared and tired my kids are like oh gosh we're never gonna let you see our kids i'm like ha ha they're migrants anyway my friends we need to keep eternity in perspective and here's the deal if you're here today and you're not yet a follower of jesus you need to keep eternity in perspective because eternity awaits all of us but here's what i tell you i don't want you to believe in jesus just for eternity's sake jesus wants you to give you the abundant life now too so it's not only about later it's not like fire insurance that'll end later this is about a spirit-filled life now is that what does it mean to live the life like people talk about your best life it's really god's best in your life and i'm here to tell you that only in jesus can your life be what god created it to be because god knows who he created you to be and why he wants you to do the things he's asking you to do and until a person puts their faith in trust in jesus you are walking through life not knowing the very reasons you were created and i can say that with certainty because i lived it didn't grow up believing in jesus you've got to keep eternity in perspective now one of the great places to get perspective and i don't want to miss this opportunity is when you're in a group of other believers and that's why we're so excited this week to have our launches of all of our groups-based ministries so you ladies listen come out on tuesday morning if you can make it 9 30 or wednesday evening at 7 o'clock we have women's right you guys men's ministry we have it wednesday nights at seven celebrate recovery wednesday at seven on campus we have on-campus groups we have student ministry kids ministry keeping perspective it takes a community of people around you i have a buddy of mine who always says daniel the people who speak into your life at the most important decisions have tremendous power and what i have learned is that i want people with great biblical wisdom to speak into my life at the biggest decisions too many of us we make this i call it the mistake of solomon oh sorry the mistake of rehab solomon's son do you remember after he took over for his dad solomon instead of listening to the wise counselors he listened to his buddies and the whole kingdom split in pieces 10 tribes with another guy and the two sheldon tribes the biggest mistake you can make when you have a major life decision is go on tick tock or facebook and ask people for advice straight up anytime it happens i'm like oh no here we go you need godly biblical people speaking into your life and that's not a matter of just you're young if you're older you need godly biblical people speaking into your life people who know the word who know the lord who can say listen you're going to make your own decisions but this is a perspective from another place in life one that i've been so blessed by of so many older people speaking into my life and i try to get older and younger people to speak in because there's different in the different places in life you have different ideas that are kind of percolating but one thing that i've learned is that when i have older more mature believers speaking into my life they have a perspective i would never have thought that but i needed that wisdom and it's the wisdom of time the wisdom hey i made all these different mistakes this is if i can go back this is what i would have done and the problem becomes is if you crowd source wisdom or ideas when you're making important decisions you're going to be at the mercy of the maturity of the people that you know there's that old saying i forget who said it maybe it was norman vincent peel or one of those you show me your friend and i'll show you your future it's a nasty one or or you are the average of your five closest friends there's all these ones like that it popped around for a while i've heard it from a lot it's been a trip to a lot of different people freaks me out makes me want to get new friends no i'm just kidding i'm kidding i'm kidding gosh i'm kidding so i say all this listen you need to be in groups with people and if you can't be here on tuesday morning wednesday or you young adults we have thursday night we have home-based groups across the church slash groups groups at crossroadschurch.net get in a home-based group so you can get that perspective so i have one more thing i want to share with you today look at what happens next verse 12 james chapter 1 blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the lord has promised to those who love him let no one say when he is tempted i am tempted by god for god cannot be tempted by evil nor does he himself tempt anyone but each one is tempted verse 14 when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed and then when desire has conceived to give birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death do not be deceived my beloved brethren now really what we see here is that you and i we need to understand temptation because where the rubber meets the road temptation is a part of life now temptation is any situation where there is a part of us that wants to do something that is in rebellion against god which will ultimately lead to a god dishonoring action or potential outcome and what's amazing is is james said blessed is the person who endures temptation now if you remember from the beatitudes that word blessed is the word macarios which could be translated as oh how happy or i like to say crazy happy so crazy happy is the person who endures temptation now that's important because the greatest issue is when we give into temptation and we do something and then you're not happy at the end of it and that's why the enemy of our souls the devil is so nasty because he encourages you to do things that you want to do but you shouldn't want to do and then once you do it he shames you for it for the rest of your life which is talk about a definition of a toxic relationship satan cheerleads you to do things that he's going to shame you for for the rest of your life so that's why happy is the person who endures temptation why because once that person makes it through and they're approved they will receive the crown of life which was promised to him to those who love the lord now that idea of the crown of life there's so much in these verses i could talk about this for hours the word crown in the greek there's two words in the bible for crown there's the word diadem which is the sovereign's crown and then there's the word stefanos which is the victor's crown it's kind of like when someone wins the olympic they get a gold medal back and they get a little crown well guess what happy is the person who endures temptation because once they're approved they'll receive the victor's crown the crown of the overcomer and it's the crown of life life abundant which god gives those who love but they said but listen and whatever you do don't think you're being tempted by god that's what people say all the time i don't understand why god would tempt me this much he doesn't tempt you god cannot tempt why because god cannot be swayed by evil god doesn't tempt anyone so you say well if god doesn't tempt me why am i tempted well listen but each one of us for verse 14 each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and entice so what you realize is that temptation exists at the soul level where it's it's found in the places of your desires what do you want i heard it said that desire is a covenant that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get the things that you think you want what's funny about that definition of course is that when you're enticed away from jesus by your desires when you get what you want you're even more unhappy when you do it but what happens is our desires draw us away and then you have this james uses the language of biology look what it says then when desire has conceived so so once desire is now pregnant it gives birth to sin so what that means is a wrong desire is not a sin it means a desire is a desire it's what you do with that desire that's where culpability comes in so let me give you an example if you're driving down the street and someone cuts you off and you think i should kill that person now that's not good thinking that's think and thinking if i ever heard it in my life but the thing is is if you go kill that person now you have a big problem or if you plot how you're going to destroy that person that's a big problem but god knows that we're broken so the desire when it's when you're drawn away and you're enticed now that desire begins to produce offspring and that offspring is where sinfulness comes on in and when sin when it is full grown it brings forth what death and of course romans chapter 6 verse 23 for the wages of sin is what death but the gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord this passage ends verse 16 where james says do not be deceived my beloved brethren it's kind of a like it's kind of a nasty way to end the little section isn't it because he's saying listen we live in a world full of temptation but happy is the person who endures that temptation and god's not tempting you but you have these desires and when you let those desires pull you away from the lord those desires now will start to bear fruit bring forth offspring the desire pulled away from jesus brings forth sinfulness sinfulness when it comes to full blossom equals death he says my brothers and sisters who i love with the love of jesus sure you're not deceived and wrong sisters as i bring this message to a close don't be deceived my brothers and sisters who i love with the love of jesus what we do with our desires will either produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness or it will produce a harvest of flesh and judgment and pain don't be deceived if today listen because we live in the real world i realize i talk to pastors about this all the time i realize that on any given sunday at church there are people who are literally literally making decisions that are going to destroy their life they're here at church they're hearing the word they're worshiping jesus they are in the process of making decisions that are literally going to destroy their life because i've been in the ministry for a long time and i've seen it i've watched it who's destroying their marriage who's destroying their character who's destroying their credit who's destroying their children who's going to take the name of jesus drag it through the mud it doesn't only go on with congregates and goes on with pastors [Music] so heartbreaking prone sisters don't be deceived if you are struggling or if you're not struggling and you should be struggling you need to tell somebody you need to ask god for help you need to have people come alongside of you i tell people all the time it's always better to get help and feel bummed that you need help than it is to let it go and ultimately we're having a funeral because it's happened i'm not trying to scare you i just i got stuck i studied this message ready to go this morning i'm reading my bible i'm reading this passage i'm praying through it and i get stuck on the last line do not be deceived and then don't be deceived by beloved brethren it was like it's like the love of an older brother saying do not screw this up because i love you my brother sisters and i believe that right here right now i don't want any of you to screw this up and i don't i'm not like like hey who's he talking about i don't know like don't screw this up god loves you he's for you god has a plan for you but in a world full of temptations we need to move the other way you need to push away from it because if you don't it's going to give birth to stuff that ultimately is death many of us have experienced that kind of stuff i know i have so don't be deceived but here's what i want to tell you god has the plan and he wants to do a work where the rubber meets the road in your life happy is the person who endures temptation let's power heads in our hearts as we pray father i want to thank you for the book of james lord we're only 16 verses in they can already see what you're doing lord we want to be people who walk our faith out and so god i ask in the name of jesus that you would help us to see your purpose in trials and struggles that we wouldn't be ashamed to ask for wisdom but we would ask in faith lord we need that heavenly perspective that eternal perspective and god i ask that you would help us to understand temptation lord we admit we live in a world full of temptation but lord we don't want that temptation to birth sin which ultimately when it's full bloom will lead to death spiritual death physical death so god we ask that you would let us enjoy you at street level right where we're living every day

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 443

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: nwkCPSmWDXM

Length: 45min 11sec (2711 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021