What To Do When There's Nothing You Can Do

hey everybody welcome to your move where we help you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets i'm andy stanley and i'll be your guide so what do you do when there's nothing you can do uh when it is what it is and you don't like what it is like maybe right now stick around and we'll talk about it right here on your move [Music] so um as you know it is human nature to avoid the things that we don't like right i mean this starts from childhood right it's human nature to avoid things that we don't like vegetables exercise people who only eat vegetables people who exercise all the time people who dress like they eat vegetables and exercise all the time whatever it is and you know sometimes avoiding things we don't like won't hurt us and then sometimes avoiding things we don't like can hurt us in the category of avoiding things um that we don't like that won't hurt us i was talking to sandra last night and one of the things that we avoid that won't hurt us is scary movies and i don't know why but neither of us like scary movies in fact we decided last night the last kind of scary movie that we saw and some of you won't even think this was a scary movie just to tell you where we are was um the sixth sense remember that movie back in 19 yes 99 and i remember we watched that movie and we were so freaked out by it we muted so much of the movie and fast forwarded through so much of the movie when we got to the end we had no idea what had actually happened seriously now again there's lots of things that if you know if you don't like them you can avoid them and it won't hurt you but there are some things that you don't like that if you avoid them they have the potential to hurt you now this is going to come as a surprise to some of you and please don't judge me harshly but there are actually statements in the bible that i don't particularly like and today i need to talk about one i would say i want to talk about one but actually i just need to talk about one and the reason i need to talk about one is this particular statement answers a very important question and it's a question that's relevant to all of us the problem is i don't like the answer and if you don't like the answer to this question either just remember this over the next few minutes this is not my answer this is not me speaking this is somebody else i am just the messenger you know don't shoot the piano player i'm just delivering the message now the question that the author is going to answer for us is actually a question we're all asking again it's just the answer that's disturbing but the question is this what do we do when there's nothing we can do what do we do when there's nothing we can do when it is what it is and we don't particularly like what is which is like now right because for some of you you're not going to be able to graduate publicly uh for some of you you've lost your income uh you've lost your job you've been furloughed from your job for some of you you've lost opportunity that's not coming back you were planning to retire and you're going to have to put that off in fact you're not sure you'll ever retire you don't like what's going on right now because you're alone and then you go on facebook or instagram and it looks like everybody else in the world has somebody but you don't have somebody or maybe maybe you wish you were more alone but isn't it true that in the past few weeks for all of us in the past few weeks we've all been confronted with our with our more sinister selves that stuff in us that we was we weren't sure was there that stuff in this that we're kind of embarrassed about but we've been confronted with it and we can't wait for things to get back to normal or well we can't wait for things to get back to more normal i mean you love your kids right but homeschooling really and sandra and i can you know we can sympathize we homeschooled for 10 years and i'll tell you who else can sympathize with you ben ben is being homeschooled for the very first time and um during a break in the homeschooling process ben wrote a little note and i'd like to share ben's note with you here's what ben writes ben he's being home school 3 16 2020. here's what he says it is not going good my mom's getting stressed out my mom is really getting confused then he says this we took a break so my mom can figure this stuff out and i'm telling you it is not going good you can relate to that maybe not specifically to homeschooling but it's just not going good maybe it went good for the first few days or for the first couple of weeks but you're kind of tired of this and then along comes james the brother of jesus with advice or instruction that honestly it just strikes me as too passive and it strikes me as insensitive and the reason it strikes me as insensitive is james doesn't know what's going on in my life and james doesn't know what's going on in your life that james is going to give us advice without hearing our stories and that's always a bad idea it's a bit like when you read in the new testament where jesus says don't worry about tomorrow don't worry about tomorrow and you want to raise your hand and say hey hold on a minute let me tell you about what's coming up tomorrow in my life and then you tell me don't worry about tomorrow it just seems so insensitive to just give these big blanket overarching statements don't worry about tomorrow and what james is about to tell us well it falls into that same category but regardless of how much i don't like what james says and regardless of how much maybe you won't like what james says we would be fools not to take his instruction seriously and here's why because this is james the brother of jesus and more specifically this is james who was the leader in the church in jerusalem during the first century this is james who believed his brother was his lord because he saw his brother crucified and then he saw his brother after he rose from the dead and this is james the brother of jesus who led the church in jerusalem get this for about 30 years his street cred for me is related to what happened during those 30 years during those 30 years remember the church in jerusalem was primarily jewish these jews that had choose chosen to follow jesus were considered blasphemers we would say heretics they didn't use that terminology back then they were considered blasphemers they were ostracized from society they were ostracized from the temple their poor were not supported by the temple and things were very difficult for this group of people and this was the group of people that james was responsible for leading so for 30 years james carries this weight and he um sees the difficulty and the trials that these jesus followers are are you know facing every single day that essentially james and this is what gives him credibility james was surrounded by and he was actually responsible for a community in crisis and with all that going on here's what he told his first century jesus follower friends to do and here's what he tells you to do and here's what he tells me to do james chapter 1 here's what he says james a servant of god and of the lord jesus christ this is amazing that all these years later james considered his brother his lord now what he says next if you grew up in church is pretty familiar and i've taken this verse and i've reversed the order so that us english readers can get a better sense of what james is communicating here's what he says next and here's the part well it's just not my favorite part of the bible here's what he says he says whenever you face trials whenever you face trials not if ever whenever you can't pray them away you can't obey them away you can't faith them away trials are going to come and the little greek word translated face is a really interesting word it carries the idea of being taken by surprise in fact it's used in the context of being robbed in other greek literature so he says whenever you are surprised by trials whenever you are surprised by trials whenever you wake up one day and oh no you get that call oh no you get that information your son or your daughter calls or perhaps the doctor calls oh no your face you're surprised by trial he says whenever you face trials of many kinds here's what we're to do and again remember this isn't me talking this is james he says whenever you're faced with many kinds of trials consider it that is adjust your perspective adjust your thinking i want you to rethink it james says i want you to reframe your trial as pure joy my brothers and sisters reframe or rethink your trial in such a way that you can begin to see it as a this isn't me talking as a source of joy and how can he say this without knowing the circumstances of our lives he hasn't even heard our story no matter what you're going through no matter what your trial is i want you to step back and i want you to reframe it to the point where you can find joy in the midst of your trial now how can he say that he tells us he says because he says because you know he says there's something you know that you've lost sight of because you're in the midst of a trial of course you've lost sight of it he says because you know that when you stop to think about it when you pause long enough to catch your breath when you're able to see beyond your immediate circumstances he says here's what you're going to remember here's what you're going to discover because you know that the testing of your faith the testing of your faith and what is the test testing means i'm going to do something to ensure that whatever it is i'm testing is authentic and real testing is the process used to determine the authenticity of something and he says this trial that you're facing the trials that we're facing are testing the authenticity of our faith that trials this is his point that trials expose the authenticity of our faith and the term faith in this particular context actually is referring to our confidence in god so it could be restated this way trials expose the authenticity of our confidence in god don't they right i mean this just happens this isn't a decision you make this is a decision i make when i'm surprised by a trial immediately i discover something about my faith when you're facing a trial of any kind using james terminology immediately you discover something about your faith you discover in that moment what you believe what you really believe what you were pretending to believe what you were taught as a child but you're you never really embraced as an adult in that moment without doing anything your faith the authenticity the genuineness of your faith is being tested it just happens to put it another way when circumstances begin to deteriorate when circumstances deteriorate artificial counterfeit and what's in it for me faith deteriorates right along with it you've seen this happen to other people perhaps this is your story and james is telling us whether we like it or not james says there is joy in discovering how real our faith really is there is joy into discovering that even though i wouldn't sign up for what's happening in the midst of my trial i'm discovering something about myself i could not discover any other way you're discovering something about yourself you could not discover any other way you're discovering something about your children or your husband or your wife or your brother or your sister that you wouldn't discover and they wouldn't discover any other way and this perspective of faith stands in stark contrast to some of the silly things that are taught sometimes by people who do what i do some of the silly perspectives on faith specifically faith and this is so important faith is not how we get god to do stuff that's not the point of faith faith isn't a superpower faith is simply confidence that god already did something faith is simply confidence that god is who god reveals himself to be in the new testament and that he will do everything he's promised that faith is ultimately a response to god it's not a way to leverage god or to get god to do something he wasn't originally intending to do that's not faith that's not new testament faith so james says if you will step back for a moment if you'll catch your breath if you'll regain your perspective there is joy in that discovery so here's what he says whenever not if ever you face trials of many kinds consider that whole process that whole encounter as joyful or pure joy my brothers and sisters because he says here's what you know you just have lost sight of it i'm reminding you because you know that your faith is being tested and you know that the testing of your faith does two things it demonstrates something and it produces something it demonstrates something and it produces something it demonstrates whether or not your faith is real and he says but there's another benefit it also produces something and here's what it produces he says over time the trials that you're facing will produce perseverance perseverance you know what that is it's the ability to hold up it's the ability to hold up under pressure or under stress in other words he says that trials even though we don't sign up for them trials make our faith stronger and trials make our faith stronger because trials automatically exercise our faith trials exercise our faith because trials exercise our faith muscle and you know this the only way to make a muscle stronger is to exercise it but here's some good news this is not an exercise you choose this is an exercise that chooses you i don't choose it you don't choose it it chooses us and then james says the most interesting thing he says don't leave the gym early well that's not exactly what he says but that's what he means look what he wrote next he says this and allow perseverance to finish its work in other words don't bail out in the middle of the process and this is a really big uncomfortable idea so see if i want to see if i can explain this here here's what he's saying he's saying look what god is doing right now through this trial is at the center of what god is doing in your life and you don't want to shortchange the process or you will miss out or to say it another way the thing that we want removed i mean think about the thing you want removed right now from your life the thing that you want removed is the thing that god has chosen to use the thing that we're trying to pray away or pray out of our life which is completely understandable is the thing that until god chooses to remove it that god is using it or to say it a different way the tension in our lives is at the epicenter of god's activity in our lives the tension in our lives is the epicenter of god's activity in our lives and i can prove it what are you praying about right now exactly isn't it true this trial this difficult time that you're going through this thing that you wish would change it has your undivided attention and that's what you're praying about in fact perhaps you haven't prayed in a long time and suddenly you find yourself praying why because that's what trials do it exercises our faith and it is the epicenter of what god is up to in our lives that's why our trials inform our prayers so james says this look don't shortchange the process don't bail out on the process don't quit the process and don't stop believing because there is an outcome and here's the outcome he continues he says this let perseverance finish its work so that you might be mature and complete not lacking anything and he's using a little play on words here here's what he's saying he's saying let perseverance complete its work so that you will be complete let perseverance let the process play out let perseverance complete its work so that you will be complete so that you will have grown up faith and let's face it the only way to have grown up faith is to face a trial and to experience god's faithfulness in the trial now james knows how challenging this is and he knows that for many of us and for many of the folks in his original audience trying to imagine how something good could come from something so bad how something could good could come from such a trial is almost unimaginable and james says i understand that so here's what i want you to do if any of you lacks wisdom specifically if any of you lacks the perspective you need to see this the way that god sees it if any of you lacks the perspective to see that god is doing something in you and through you he says here's what i want you to do if any of you lacks wisdom you should ask god for what for wisdom and he will give it to you generously without finding fault it will in fact be given to you now here's the problem when i'm going through a tough time i don't want wisdom i want relief right when you're going through a tough time you don't want wisdom you want relief but james says look i understand that but if you want god to choose what you are going through and you're having a hard time seeing that there's anything good that could come from this he says lean in and ask god for wisdom this is a prayer that god will always answer that you say god give me your eyes to see this the way that you see it give me your eyes to see me and and you know my friends and my family and my work situation and my finances the way that you see it give me wisdom to see as you see and you know this we've talked about this before oftentimes when we have the ability to see as god sees we are more inclined to do as god says james says and then you will have the perspective you need to persevere through what you're going through so i want to put it all back together and then i want to tell you a story about a friend of mine here's what james says he says consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds why why can we do this he says because you know this you know that the testing of your faith the testing of your faith demonstrates the authenticity of your faith the testing of your faith also produces perseverance the testing of your faith demonstrates that your faith is real that god is faithful and ultimately you will have stronger faith and he said and don't bail out early let perseverance finish its work don't leave the gym early so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything but if you get to the point where you just can't do it any longer if you get to the point where you're thinking god if you're real you've got to demonstrate your your your love for me i got to hear something i got to know something i've got to see something i can't see he says in those moments don't give up i want you to ask god for wisdom he says if any of you lacks wisdom the perspective you need to get through this you should ask god who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you now let me ask you this have you ever met someone like this have you ever met someone or known somebody maybe you're related to somebody who faced trials of many kinds trials that you know they're facing the trial and you're thinking how would i respond if i were going through that and you watch them walk through the trial with extraordinary faith and confidence of god and i got to tell you and i think you would agree those are the most inspiring hope-giving people i've ever met right i am more inspired or i should say i'm most inspired by people whose faith is tested and endures i'm more inspired by people who get a no from god and their faith endures than i am by people who always seem to get a yes from god and they'd live you know somewhat of a wrinkle-free life i mean isn't it true that you're more inspired by people who get to know and yet remain faithful and the reason you're so inspired by them and the reason i'm so inspired by them is this they leave us with confidence that there is a category of faith and there is a category of confidence in god that can endure just about anything the people whose prayers go unanswered but their confidence in god remains firm i had a friend like that his name was reggie campbell reggie campbell passed away three months ago in january um i've known reggie for over 20 years and i got to tell you i had never seen an individual face and embrace his own more his own mortality with more confidence and more courage and more faith than reggie campbell two days before he passed away i visited him in his home i've been in his home many times and i went into his home office and he was sitting there with his oxygen and there was a white white marker board over in the corner of his office i'd never seen before and across the top of the board were these words my commitment and there was a list of six things he had written out by hand on the marker board now when i looked at the six things i thought these were like maybe life goals that he had established a long time ago and he was maybe reviewing his life as he got to the end but they weren't life goals they were actually finish strong goals he had just developed these a few weeks before to make sure this was what he focused on as he spent his last few weeks in this life now the thing that was amazing to me is most people don't have a to-do list about how to live well reggie developed a to-do list to ensure that he died well and i want to share with you what was on that board number one he wrote i will walk with jesus every day i will walk with jesus every day wait a minute wait reggie wait the jesus that didn't answer your prayer the jesus that has allowed you to go through so many trials the jesus that has not healed you i will walk with jesus every day wow number two i will be grateful and live every day to the fullest in other words he says as i leave this life i want to make sure i am leaning in up until the very end i will be grateful and live every day to the fullest number three i will bless my family with words pictures and videos he wanted to make sure that his grandchildren would know him not just know what he'd written but know what he looked like he left the messages he put together song list and playlist number four i will invest in my guys his the small group of men that he had been developing and mentoring for many years i will invest in my guys for their good and god's glory not mine his point being even though i'm dying even though i'm receiving all kinds of letters and sympathy cards and all kinds of things he says this is not going to be about me it's going to be about them and then i want to skip number five and come back to it number six on the list was this i will let people love on me now i asked him about this when i said what is that about he said i decided here at the end if people want to bring us food i'm going to let them bring us food if people want to love on us i'm going to let them love on us if people want to love on my family that's just my pride i just want to allow people to love on us now that was a pretty powerful list but i tell you number five is the one that got to me number five goes right to the heart of what james was saying all those years ago here's what reggie wrote he said i will not give up and run out the clock i will not give up and run out the clock this was his version of to use james words i will let perseverance finish its work to my last breath i'm going to lean in rather than sit it out here's the thing reggie's faith did not reverse the consequences of life in the fallen world and he was wide open to that we all prayed for a miracle you should pray for a miracle but reggie's faith did not reverse the consequences of life in a fallen world and he did not expect it to because he understood what faith is faith is not a superpower faith is not how we get god to do something god doesn't want to do faith is a response to the faithfulness of our heavenly father reggie's faith actually produced his faith produced perseverance and courage in the midst of a fallen world and my friends that's why i'm telling his story and this is kind of the bottom line that god will use whatever he chooses not to remove reggie understood this you know people who understand that and james words james instructions are an invitation for all of us to step into this to say god use this until you choose to remove this use this until you choose to remove this or life chooses to remove this but use this to remind me that you're faithful use this so that i understand my confidence in you is real now here's how james finishes this section of his letter listen to what he writes he says blessed is the one who perseveres under trial that's reggie maybe that's going to be you hopefully that will be me blessed is the one who perseveres under trial not praise it away obeys it away your faith is away blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test and having discovered that their faith is real that person listen to what he promises that person will receive the crown of life that the lord has promised to those who love him and do you know what the crown of life is me neither i have no idea but it sounds good doesn't it the point is simply this that god values god values and uses persevering faith that god values and god uses persevering faith and god has invited you and god has invited me to step into this realm and to begin to see the trials that we're facing every single day in this life because here's what we know with confidence persevering faith leaves its mark on the world and it leaves its mark on the people around us we don't choose the trials the trials choose us we don't choose the trials we simply choose our response to these trials and james this is so powerful james invites us to lean in and to allow god to purify and strengthen our faith in the midst of what we would never choose now here's the thing these current events that we're all experiencing they're they're impacting all of us differently but they present all of us with the same opportunity they present us with the opportunity to allow perseverance to finish its work so that we may be mature and complete not lacking anything so with that in mind i want to give you words to pray perhaps you've never prayed because you're not sure you know how this is a great time to start and this prayer is a great place to start i want to encourage you to begin praying this heavenly father use this until you choose to remove this heavenly father use this until you choose to remove this and if you cannot imagine how god could possibly use what you're facing right now then i want you to do what james tells us to do i want you to ask god for wisdom because james says that is a prayer that god will answer every single time so one more time i want to put it all together and we'll close with james words here's what he said consider it pure joy reframe it in such a way that you can see the joy in it my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds and here's why because you know once you catch your breath you know that it's simply a test of your faith and a test of your faith produces perseverance if you let it so let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete and not lack anything but if you just aren't sure you can get there if any of you lacks wisdom or perspective you should ask god who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you [Music] you

Channel: Your Move with Andy Stanley

Views: 64,459

Rating: 4.8570118 out of 5

Keywords: Andy Stanley, Your Move with Andy Stanley, Your Move, better decisions, fewer regrets, how to, how to be better at life, depression, depressed, self help, how to be happier, how to have a good life, how to make better choices, choices, decisions, regret, motivation, inspiration

Id: r7siXbxBhjs

Length: 28min 47sec (1727 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020