In the sermon 'No Shadow of Turning,' Kyle Nickerson explores the role of trials in the life of believers, drawing from the Book of James. He emphasizes that trials are a part of the human condition, intended to produce steadfastness and perfection in individuals. Wisdom, which is generously given by God to those who ask in faith, is crucial for navigating these trials. Nickerson discusses the instability brought about by human desires and sin, contrasting it with the stability found in God, who remains unchanging. He uses the dispersion of the Jewish people and the fall of Adam as examples of how life's unpredictability can destabilize us. The sermon also contrasts the rich and the poor, highlighting that true riches come from God. The concept of 'no shadow of turning' underscores God's unwavering nature, offering believers a stable foundation amidst life's turmoil. Ultimately, the message is one of hope and encouragement, urging believers to seek God's wisdom and remain steadfast, as these trials are meaningful and part of God's plan for growth and sanctification.

James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the story. Greetings. Out at all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testimony of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from reward. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation. Because like a flower in the grass, he will pass away.

But the sun rises with its scorching heat, and withers the grass. Its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of its pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it is given birth, and conceit gives birth to sin. And sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be kind of perspiring to these creatures. This is the word of God.

You may be seated. So, when you are doing someone else's liturgy, it's to not to be cowardly, only to rip apart. I am very passionate when I do liturgy at my home church. And so taking it to another church kind of reduces my ability to be passionate in the game. So I apologize for that.

And next week, Peter's going to do it. So I won't get that same sense of passion that I'll be able to put forth in the game. But today, it is my pleasure, when I was talking to Peter about doing this, I had this thought in my mind that I want to preach this message here at the church at one time in the past. So if I have, I apologize. But it has been a good bit of time.

And so repetition is a good thing. Peter says, let us remind ourselves of these things. Like one of my good friends, Mark Robinette, says, you know why we don't remember? Because we forget. And if anybody knows who Mark Robinette is, he wrote a book, and he put that in it.

So I'm quoting from his book. I also spend a lot of time with him in the church often enough. But I love that quote. And I think I actually got it back as why do we forget? Because we do not remember.

And so the Old Testament guide frequently tells us, repeat, repeat, repeat, remember, when you enter the land, he says in Deuteronomy, do not forget, and he recites the law, and he recites all the great works that God has done and he admits. That's what the whole book of Deuteronomy is. It's the second telling of the law. So today, if that has occurred, I apologize. But then again, I don't, because then we get to remember.

So everyone experiences stress, but many don't know how to manage it. When major life stresses come up, it's important to handle the property before they occur. The top five most stressful life events include death of a loved one, divorce, which will all relate to this one, major illness or injury. Number five, these events destabilize our lives. That's an important word.

Destabilize and bring with them to one degree or another a certain amount of risk and instability that moves us out of our comfort zone. The one thing that this pandemic has demonstrated is our need for stability. When life becomes a tempest, where will we find our peace and where will we find our stability? On what can we build our lives? I say only on the rock of Jesus Christ, who never changes.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. He is the perfect gift that comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation. So we find ourselves in James chapter 1, right out at the beginning in verse 1, that he's speaking to the Jews of the dispersion. Now that means they're not in home anymore. They've been dispersed to foreign lands.

They're not in charge of their lives like they would like to be. Their lives are a little upheaval. They're dispersed, they're among Gentiles. They're not at home running the shots, as it were. So they're in, and so this is who the letter is primarily written to, and James is addressing them right where they live, in Tumult, in Tempest.

Now, to one degree or another, that's true. But when you are now the minority class, you get less opportunity. You're not the people who get front line for jobs, commerce. And if you do, it's probably because you're doing something under the table or something sly. So if you want to be living with Christ and doing it right, then you're going to experience trials of many kinds.

And I couldn't think of a more opportune time for this message in the midst of the term out to all of our culture. Because there's one thing that is clear and obvious that this teaches us, You know, the stock market teaches us. They love predictability. They like it stable. You know, the stock market loves it when it's a bear market because at least it's stable and they know what to do with it.

And they like it when it's a bear market because it's stable. When it's going like this, they don't know what to do. And that causes stress. And for sure, in our nation, we have stress right now. We don't know who's going to have a job.

We don't know how long it's going to take to fix this mess. We don't know how our government is going to react to the circumstances, to the riots, to this pandemic. We don't know how much of it is real and how much of it isn't real. What's the politics and what isn't real? I have my theories, because I'm sure many do in this room but the problem is predictability.

You know my father-in-law raised cattle for a show. It was a hobby. It wasn't something he needed to survive And one thing cattle don't like is when you move. When you move cattle from spot A to spot B, and I'm in Texas, so you should all know this. But when you move cattle, they get nervous, they don't behave the same way, and if they're milking, if you have milking cows they produce less milk.

It takes about a week or two to catch up to where they used to be. Your milking production will go down because everybody likes the milk. It's called peace. When Adam sinned in the garden, what he did is he untethered himself from the most stable, peaceful, predictable thing in the universe. And it rocked his world.

You know on our list it says death of a loved one, divorce, moving, major illness or injury, job loss. You know, Adam experienced all those things in the fall. He lost his job. He used to be the viceroy of God to the universe on planet earth and represented well. He lost his job.

God had to say, no, you're moving now, and you can't come back and close the doors of the garden. So he had to move, he lost his job, he introduced illness and injury to mankind, and he had a great divorce from the one he was originally married to, which is a savior or a border. And of course, that brings the death of a loved one, his son, Abraham. So we see right away that the fracturing that occurs in mankind because of sin right away brings stress. It brings all those elements in feature.

And this thing that we're in called a pandemic, a tempest, if you will, is just really an opportunity to highlight what is going on all the time in our lives to one degree or another. COVID didn't bring in job loss, death of a family member, sickness or illness, and it definitely didn't bring in movement. It just made it all very prominent and easy to see. In fact, it made it almost constant. And one of the things I've noticed with people is they're all wondering, when is it going to slow down?

When is it going to get stable again? When are we going to get to a predictable path to where we can actually make plans? We all heard that before, I make plans and God laughs. See, what trials do, what the pandemic does for us as believers is it gives us the opportunity to refocus and say oh I see I made plans and God laughs how would if I tried a different way and ask him what his plans how about if we Make plans knowing that it's only Lord willing James chapter 4 Why do we say I moved here and I moved there? Well if you do that You're not thinking Lord willing then you're just boasting When you're boasting that's a problem That's what we call sin And we don't realize we're doing it.

And so someone has to tell us, and we read it in the book. And then God is through the Holy Spirit telling us, you know, that's a calibration we need to fix. Because testing and trial is there to prove who we are. It's a way of, it's litmus testing us if you will. So in this first section of James, verses two through four, I call this the purpose.

What is the purpose of the trial? God is telling us what the purpose is. Now, we act like God creates these trials, and they just kind of dot the map here and there. But really trials is part of the human condition, because the human condition needs to get straightened out. And so every day at one point or another, there are trials.

You know, I know this because God is faithful. God says he is subjected to frustration. And he brings trouble into our lives as a gift, if you will. You know, we say there's such a thing as Murphy's law, but it really has nothing to do with anybody named Murphy. It has to do with the Lord of the universe in Romans 822.

It says he is subject to creation and frustration. That's God's law, it's not Murphy's law. And so every time Murphy's law strikes, now this is something nobody does, but we have to learn how to do it. We say thank you, boy. We give you an opportunity.

I mean, did Jesus ever complain when something went wrong? Did he ever scuff the speed of a mutter under his breath? I don't think so. That's a long way from where I'm at, and it's a long way from where we humans live. But it is the direction we are.

So what is a trial. It is the act of trying testing, or putting to the proof. It is the state of position of a person or thing being tried or tested, or probation. It is subjecting to suffering or grievous experience, a distressful or painful state. Now, all this is difficult.

It's an affliction or trouble. But I like this last one. There was about 10 different numbers on the definition chart, and I picked out five. So number nine is trying, distressing, or annoying thing or person. That's Trump.

And I'm not sure how many people are in here. That means let's just take a number and say there's 60 people in this room. That means we have 60 potential trials in this room. And the thing is, when you go home every day, you get to experience that. Because every home is its own little mini-crucible where the Lord is using it to make us more like Him, to make us perfect.

I call this little section of the world trials, a crucible or a tempest. That's what I think of being in a storm. You're getting kind of tossed around or you're in a crucible, which is a test spot like in the Marines. The last thing you go through in the Marines is called a crucible. That's where they test you and they prove to see if you've got what it takes to be a Marine.

It is a place of disorientation. By the way, Christ was never disorientated. There's a reason. That's because he was never a sinner. That's because he was never disoriented.

It is a crucible and a tempest. It is the drip, drip, drip of an annoying circumstance. Like a grain of sand in your shoe. That's a trial, too. Now, we call it first world problems.

We have a lot of first world problem kind of trials in this life, but you know those are just as important as third world problem I mean, they're a lot less severe, but you understand they reveal they prove they show our lack of perfection It used to work at a wholesale bakery, croissants. They have what's called a proofing box. This is a wholesale, so it was a big, it was the size of this room, just about, racks and racks of croissant. When you proof the croissant, what you're doing is you're waiting for it to rise. Croissants rise before you cook them, not after you cook them.

And so it's called a proofing box because we want to make sure we're going to get a croissant before we cook it. So that's what test in the trial is. It's a proofing box to show you what you are and what you aren't. Because none of us are yet. Most of us aren't.

We're much of who we are. There is a process called sanctification. So why? What is the point? What is the point of a trial?

It says, kindred, I'll join my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds because they and let steadfastness have its full effect. So steadfastness is the key word there. That's that stability thing. That's that thing we all crave. We all admire people who are good on the pressure, who are steadfast, steady, stable.

That's the guy you want to follow, right? So steadfastness, it's a fixed in a direction, steadily directed. It's firm in purpose, unwavering, firmly established as an institution or state of affairs, firmly fixed in the state of affairs. Wouldn't it be nice if our government was firmly fixed in the state of affairs in the right direction of course? It feels firmly fixed in the wrong direction.

That you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Amen? I want to be complete and perfect and lacking nothing. I realize that that is a long way from where I am and in this life I may not reach that goal. But that is the point.

Trials are not here to make your life miserable. Trials are not meaningless events. Trials are not just, I can't, you know, I work in the trades, and we have a saying in the trades, it's always something. And it is always something. And the more I get used to the fact that it's always something the easier it's gonna get Something I always say it only takes a lifetime Short little jump away But the Lord will get you there one way or the other.

So, verses 5 through 8, if any of you lacks wisdom and for point counters, this is point 2. This is God's provision in trials. So trials have a purpose. You're in this box being bounced around, and it's because of your own sin. It's because of your own imperfection.

Nobody's beating you up over that. It's just your state. It's just who we are. And so when we're in this tempest, being moved around, what do we need? What do we need to get through this course?

What do we need if we're in the ocean being bounced around by the waves? What do we need? What if we're in a foreign city and we don't know where we're going? And it's causing us stress, if you will, if we can call it out of the crowd. What do we need?

Verses 5 to 8, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man. And they will know his ways.

I know that there are times in my life where I've read this section of scripture, and I really focused on the double-minded man who would not receive anything from God. But as I'm reading James, I think the most important verse of this section in the text is, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach. So to read the book of James well, I've learned as I'm going through it in my home church, going through the whole book, that This is considered like one of the wisdom books, if you will, of the New Testament, kind of like Proverbs. And so the way it's structured is in parallelograms, aphorisms, wise sayings, and it will jostle between ideas of justice, supposedly, so you can get the nugget of rain in the middle. So he says, so I was kind of dumbfounded by that.

He says, as I'm reading about trials, the first thing out of the gate, he doesn't say it's for God's provision. And this is the process, by the way. This is how we process a trial. What he doesn't do is say, pray for grace, pray for rest, pray for escape. I can just picture my heavenly father saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, the idea is not that you're getting out of it.

The idea is to go through it. The question is how. And so instead of asking for grace, he says ask for wisdom. And so how do we get wisdom? Where does wisdom come from?

Does it come from the New York Times? Does it come from your buddy Nick store? Does it come from the Congress? Does it come from does it come from mr. Poachy?

This world believes it comes from most of those sources. Does it come from the Dalai Lama? It is the wisdom of God that we need to navigate difficulty in our confusion and that is about as broad as it gets. If I were to say the biggest nugget out of this whole section of scripture, where it is, I think it lies right here. I think it's our source.

I think it is our body, and that's the Word of God, that's in the scriptures. James 3.17 says, wisdom comes from heaven, but the wisdom of heaven is first of all pure and peaceable, gentle and potent, reasoned, full of mercy and good fruits and partial and sincere. So the first thing we need to make it through a trial is wisdom. Well, let's think about that. You're at home.

There's disruptions in the home. I know nobody here really goes through that, but you've got children, you and your wife who are always in one accord and everything is peaceful and unity is wonderful, never fuss and fight, The kids are always obedient and wife is great. It's like we're back in the 80s and 80s. Nope. And you know what happens when things don't go according to script?

Well, I'm homeschooling my children, doing well, we're doing family worship, why is it everything? Where's the result? And when you say why and where, you know what those are? Those are questions that need wisdom. Those are questions that you're not saying I need grace.

You're almost like yeah that's a given but since you're not taking me out of this circumstance I'm not going to divorce my wife and kill my children or vice versa. Right? There's no going backwards So how do I go forward and manage this opportunity? What's the wisest thing I can do at this moment? You probably don't phrase it that way.

That, indeed, is what you're looking for. We say it this way And god knows this god knows you're in the tempest you know You're going to suffer in christ or you're going to suffer outside of christ. Do You know that the world goes through trials of various kinds. And so do we. But what God is telling his children is so you need wisdom, you need road maps, you need a sign, you need direction, You need wisdom from heaven above to make it through this trial.

2 Timothy 3, 14 to 17, but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, Knowing from whom you learned it And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise Through faith in Jesus Christ on salvation Psalms 19105 By the way that last text ends with the scripture that we all know. All scripture is breathed out by God and offered him the teaching for reproof and correction, training, and righteousness, that a man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Maybe that's what's going on in Trump. He will be equipped. That was a rhetorical statement.

Psalm 119, 105, I promise all of you to quote it to your children. Your word is a lamp to my feet and the light to my path. When you are in a trial, whether you know it or not, if you're Confused about where the next step is. You need light, you need a lamp. You need to know, where do I step without stepping on that rock that shoots the arrow right through my neck.

All right. Proverbs 1 and 5, let the wise hear in increase in learning and the one who understands obtain guidance. I need guidance. As a young man I had very little good guidance. I became a believer by God's grace.

Then I needed a lot more guidance. Because I really didn't know. All I knew was Jesus Christ was it. He was great. He was the truth, the way, and the life.

But I didn't know what that looked like to walk it out. And I needed a lot of wisdom over the years because I've made a lot of mistakes. Proverbs 13, 14, the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. When you're in the tempest, and I'm picking home as the ideal tempest in this room today because children and homeschooling and Marriage I would say marriage is the crucible of life It is where you are joined to another human being. There's no saying this is uncomfortable, I don't want it, I gotta go.

Now you can do that, but you're just inviting more trials. And in the midst of that storm you realize it you go and I'm not saying you make this decision easily and I'm not saying there aren't times where you go you really weigh your thoughts for some more than others but loving one another you know loving one another is not the easiest thing to do. Loving one another closely is even harder. I always say it's like two porcupines living in the same room. You give each other a hug.

So we've got to learn and develop to become patient and loving at the same time. Do you know for sinners, that's one of the hardest things to do? I'm sorry, it's probably the hardest thing to do, to learn to be loving, patient, kind. And so God says, well, why don't we just snuggle up real close to a spouse? No better place to learn than right there.

And I'm gonna give you children too. That's gonna make it even easier. Now what I'm not saying, by the way, I don't wanna give the impression that I'm saying that marriage, family is a special and horrible place to be. I've been married 28 years and I've loved my wife And it hasn't always been easy. It's just tough.

You can be a godly man and a godly woman who loved Christ and want to do it right and find yourself in the middle of the tempest saying, this wasn't what I thought it was going to be. This is not how I want it to go. And you have to literally work hard and fight for your home sometimes. I'm just speaking for me. I hope I'm not painting too black a picture, but I think most sinners go through those times in their lives.

Most sinners. And so My encouragement in using the home and children today is not to be negative about the home and children, but to just park this scripture where we live. Because I don't see too many NFL players in here today, don't see too many people going to the moon anytime soon. I don't think there's any New York traders here that do Wall Street. I'm dealing with where you live.

You have a job that you go to every day, a trial, because you're tired, and you want to go, and 8 o'clock in the morning, and you wish you were rather sitting on your patio having a coffee because your body's tired, your boss is difficult and life is stressful, and now this COVID thing, I don't even know if I have a job, and that's where we live. And you need wisdom. And wisdom isn't something that comes from you, and it's not something that comes this way. It's something that comes from heaven above. So it's the Word of God that brings us the wisdom that we need.

Let's create a little quote in my head. I think that will look. Not only is your affliction momentary, and not only is your affliction light in comparison to eternity, the glory there, but all of it is totally meaningful. Every millisecond of your pain from the fallen nature of fallen man, every millisecond of your misery in the path of obedience is producing peculiar core that you will get because of that. I don't care if it was cancer or criticism.

I love that, that John Piper goes, cancer and criticism. One is very hard, and one seems very easy. Don't tell that to the person who committed suicide because they couldn't handle Christ. I don't care if it was slander or sickness, it wasn't meaningless. It is doing something.

It's not meaningless. Of course, you can't see what it's doing. Don't look to what is seeing. It's working an eternal way of glory. And this is what I love about this quote from John Piper.

I was putting all this together some months ago. Therefore, do not lose heart, but take these truths. What truths? That it's not meaningless. Where did you get that from?

The Bible, the scripture. We all remember the Chronicles of Narnia, That part where Aslan tells the children, just repeat these four phrases over and over again. Don't forget them. That's the Word of God. That's what we're supposed to be doing.

Do not let this put the law of God in our mouths. Right? It says, therefore, do not lose heart, but take these truths and day by day focus on them. Preach them to yourself every morning. Get along with God and preach his word and keep his mind until your heart sings with confidence that you are new.

So it's only through the scriptures. And it's not complex stuff, it's little stuff. I remember when I first moved back from Honduras years ago, I moved there for two years, my little girl was born there. I had gone to Bible college and thought I was going to be doing X, instead I was doing Y, and it was very disusing me and very disheartening. And it was not where I thought I was supposed to be in life.

It was a very difficult time for me. Now remember one day sitting on my patio, and this was the 5th of June, and I believe the Holy Spirit was not there to be. And he said, Kyle, don't worry about the big things. Just get the little things. And then there were two things.

That was the one thing. The other thing he said was, Kyle, do you want a happy life? Do you want a happy wife? He said, well, then be happy. What the Lord was teaching me was a model of happiness in my home with my wife based on the Word of God.

Not the big, I was all worried about getting into ministry and doing this and doing that. No, just focus on the little nuggets I put in your heart. That would be the Word of God. Just be slow to speak and quick to listen. Just be patient.

Be a model to your life. Don't worry about who or what she is. Be what you want. Now, the lesson today is not about those things. I'm using that example to say it was the simple little day-to-day things that God wanted me to learn to practice.

Because I was in the middle of the temple and did no kind of guidance. And I needed wisdom to tell me about it. And it wasn't the big things. It wasn't the big stuff. It was the little stuff.

It's the little foxes that spoiled the money. Amen. So, verse 6 says, But let him ask in faith with no doubting, For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and talked by the wind. Verse 7. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

Verse 8. He is a double-minded man and unstable in all his ways. So why does James do this? Incidentally, it's not just James doing this, right? It's the Holy Spirit.

This text, the Book of James, is considered a sermon. So I always tell people, if you'd like to hear a sermon from your favorite preacher, go to the Book of James. It's the Holy Spirit that's giving us a sermon. So why does he flip from wisdom to don't doubt? Now, I used to read that text.

It says this this text and feel very like I'm in big trouble inside. I used to feel like God would say, you're unstable in all your ways, you're a double-minded man if you doubt. It was almost like, I don't know, there was a threat there. I was scared. I was doubting, oh, I'm a double-minded man, Am I a Christian?

Am I going to be a Catholic? I don't think that's the idea. Remember, this is a form of wisdom literature. This is James saying, ask for wisdom and believe it and stand on it. Now the reason why he says, he says, for the one who delts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind, what he's saying, he's coaching his children, saying, listen, you can't move forward, faithfully, if you're always going forward and reverse, forward and reverse, you can't get anywhere in that way.

He's teaching us how to incorporate wisdom and how to actually make it work. I don't mean mechanistically, but he's saying because a double-minded man, he's unstable in all his ways. If you want the home to become stable, take the word of God in and actually act upon it, like you trust it and believe it. If you don't, guess what? And they keep going, then you're going to be tossed back and forth.

I really don't think that the Lord, and he loves it, who later on in James, one of the Macee's James, from the Pushes of the Golden Rule, I really think the Lord is condescending to his little ones here, saying, now listen, if you don't do what I say, you're not going anywhere. You'll be double-minded, And you'll be stuck in trials of many kinds, in a long time. And I just wanted to add that as a caveat to that, that I used to take it in a very difficult way. I was in trouble because I guarantee you, everybody in this room does. I guarantee you.

I don't know if you know if you identify it as a doubt. But when you ever get to that place where you learn something and then you go back to the Bible and it says what you just learned and you have this moment you go, oh it really doesn't mean that. You ever had that moment? I think that's what James is talking about. The word of God really does mean that.

Don't doubt it. Even if you can't comprehend, act as if it's real. Because it is real. And that's what James is telling us. And then to further the point, he gives us a circumstance on planet Earth that we're all used to.

He says, verse 9 to 11, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation. Because like the flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower fails and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of pursuits.

Now why does James, who's telling us about trials, ask for wisdom, just kind of deviate, start telling us about rich and poor people? Before I really started studying James well enough to teach it, I used to look at the book of James and it felt like he was just throwing random subjects to a throwing minion. I didn't understand this well and I didn't understand this was a wisdom literature type of book. James tells us to get wisdom that comes from heaven above, God's word. Don't doubt it.

And then he says, so for instance, that's what this little section is about. He says, like, for instance, have you ever looked at the rich guy and the poor guy, and you think the rich guy's on top and the poor guy's on bottom? James is saying it's not really that way. Now what do we call that when we actually understand what that means? What do we call that?

It's called wisdom. Wisdom tells us that the rich man is not on top and the poor man is not on the bottom. The rich man boasts in his exaltation, he's actually boasting in his humiliation. He should be humbled and understand that only true riches come from the Lord above. See, James is saying application.

In other words, the world isn't as it seems. And when you try to approach trials and circumstances and apply worldly wisdom to your circumstance, It would be very difficult. So James highlights a point, an opportunity to see where godly wisdom gives us answers in a trial we wouldn't normally find. That's not how people normally look at it. Psalm 73, 3 says, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

But when I thought, verses 16 and 17, how to understand this, it seemed to me a very syntactic, difficult. You've got so many kids, you've got this and you've lost your job and the dishwasher's broken, the car needs a this and your house is falling apart. How come we have it so hard when we're following the Lord? Why is this so difficult when the guy across the street has got a maid. Now, I know you all.

In fact, I just think there's some sinners in this room that live once in a while. But do you like the little lottery? Probably are. I've thought about it a few times. Y'all like, but I sure would like to see what it would be like.

Now, do you think that has anything to do with how we live in trials? Do you think James is saying, in the midst of your trial, when you need wisdom, it don't doubt. Don't look at circumstances the way the world was at the rich and the poor. Because remember, he's speaking to people that are in dispersion, probably experiencing a lot of poverty. In fact, James deals with that subject a lot through the rest of the book of James.

He'll talk about that's a recurring subject with James. Rich, poor, weak, strong. How are we going to love one another? And so We are going to have to approach life in our trials the God way, not the human way. Like it says in 1 Corinthians, don't approach life like mere humans, like mere men.

It says, it was a wearisome task trying to figure out why did the wicked prosperous until it went to the sanctuary of God and then I decided therein. Now I'm just telling you that's a puzzle piece that doesn't happen in normal life. You're not going to watch Shark Tank or some entrepreneurial show where they're all going to highlight that. We need wisdom from heaven if we're going to traverse this life and we're going to traverse trials. I know for a fact every family struggles with money at one time or another.

And it's difficult. That is provision. There's the point. What's the point? What's the purpose of a tribe?

It's to jostle you up. It's to get you looking so you'll ask for wisdom. And then God gives us provision. He gives us a process. He says it's the Word of God.

That's your provision. That's the only thing you have left to stand on. If you're going to fight this in political realms, if you're going to fight it according to cultural realms, you're going to find yourself wanting. Our battle stands and falls on the word of God. With soul, script, and kind of hope, right?

Point three, God's promise. So God is not leaving us out to hang. He has a point and a process and a goal in mind. Now remember when we started this, I said stability, predictability, that's important. I'm going to get ahead and then drop back.

But it says that The father of heaven will have a little lights with whom there is no variation or shatter You know that tells me right away The goal post is right there and it never changes. I want that. I need that. I want you to like that. I want my wife to know she's going to get the same husband both consistently.

She's not going to get the husband that flips out one day and he's a nice guy who makes them. I know nobody who can relate to that. But that's what I want for me. Not that I flip out, you know what I'm saying? Why, you didn't flip out.

Flip out less now because God's been shoving me through the pimples, right? Look, I can't get up and talk about this stuff if it's never happened to me. I'm talking about it because it's happened to me. It's happened everywhere in this room. So we want to be stable, predictable people.

The more predictable I am, the happier my wife is, And the happier my wife is, the happier my life is. Happy wife, happy life. I know that's a little below us in this room, but I bet you it's true. And we don't ever want to be making happy wives just so we can tell us. That's really not what love is.

Love is making my wife happy no matter what it costs. No matter what it costs. If I never get anything from her, we love one another. Verse 12-18 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. But when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

So what is the promise? The crown of life. Sounds rather abstract. Well, unless anybody can tell me right this second what the crown of life is, you'd probably have to look it up. So which God has promised to those who love him.

Now I'm going to skip ahead a few verses like a wisdom text would do. There's a nugget in the middle. It's like a glorious sandwich here in the middle. So that's verse, that's verse 12. If I bump up to verse 17, it says, every good and perfect gift is from above.

So he says, it's the crown of life. Every good gift is from above. Let's all go home, pack it in. No, but there's this little interlude in between that says, you know, let's just cover some ground here. It's all sounding good.

And then he says, so which God has promised to those who love him. But there's a statement. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. Why does he say that?

I mean, why can't he just tell us the promise is coming, every good, perfect gift from heaven above? The saints are all marching in. No. He says, now listen, because there's a snag in the human heart, that's why. When we're in the middle of trial, what do we do?

Do we all rejoice or do we tend to complain? And when we complain, Who do we blame? Everybody but us. And who did Adam blame? The Lord.

It's this woman you gave. It's the Lord. That's deep in the heart of man. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself can't know it. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desired when it is conceived as birth of sin and sin when it is full from and before death.

Here's a really good proverb, it's Proverb 19 verse 3. This is a really good one. This is one of those little nuggets that I had way back when when God said, you just focus on your will. Listen to this. This is one little verse that is titanic.

A person's own folly leads to their ruin. Yet their heart rages against the will. We cause our own problem and blame God for it. Now, let me ask you, why would James bring that up in the middle of trials? That's the context.

The context of chapter one is you're in trials. This is going to set the stage for the whole book of James. You ever write an essay and your first paragraph sets the stage for the whole thing? That's what this is about. God is saying, I'm addressing people in trial.

I am going to make you perfect. This is how it's done. Now watch. That's what the whole recipe changes. He's going to start showing us areas of how that all comes to pass.

He says, a person's own folly leads to their ruin. This is Proverbs 19 and 3. Yet their heart rages against the Lord because when we're in trial, we've got to blame somebody. It can't be me. It's way easier when it's not me.

In fact, you know what we do? This is even worse, because it feels very noble. It's me and you. See? That's a responsibility to myself.

And you, too. See? We're both centers. And when you get your act together on the line. I've heard that before.

Weird, isn't it? Very humorous. We don't, you know, I said to Ed, I think it was next to Ed, you know, we apologize. We need to do it. No strings attached.

Apologies that look like this. Well, I'm sorry. You know, you did this and that, but I'm sorry. Let me tell you, buddy, that's garbage for the Capitol and Jail. Your wife cares about it.

I'm just speaking as a man who needs to live his own life instead of telling his family he's loving his home. It works like this, gentlemen. Honey, I don't care what anybody's doing to this house. I did wrong. I'm not excused for it.

There you go. I gave you an idea. And you know what? I don't care if everybody does wrong at the end of the day, I'm down. I depended on what I did wrong.

I promise to serve as a humble servant. In time, we need to bring up anybody else's problems. It better be from the heart of love, because you're forced to do it, because It's the best thing they need to hear at the moment. It should never be shared relief so that you can blame someone else for your sin. Or even share.

That's for later. That comes later when God the Holy Spirit is working wisdom in your home. I'm not saying there's never a time to talk about complex issues and what each party is doing. I'm saying the time for repentance is always about you alone. So when you're in that trial and you're tempted to blame the Lord for your problems Just know that the Lord said that all things work together Trials included, you know, I started I believe that Christ is the perfect gift from heaven above.

But he comes with a whole train of gifts for us. You know what some of those gifts are? Trials. You know that trials are gifts from heaven above. That sure keeps you right in the teeth, doesn't it?

That sure stops all the complaining quick. It just is, I mean, I didn't write the book, it just is that way. The more we can receive that, I don't think for a minute when Jesus was receiving opposition complained to the Father. I don't think for a minute he did not. It gets real easy when you compare yourself to Christ.

How we should act and how we should respond. Trials and winning times. Every perfect gift. So he who remains steadfast will receive a crown of life. Okay.

Don't blame the Lord. The Lord is promising something here. That's why Right after he says all that about temptation and it's really your own sin, that's why it says to not be deceived by the Lord of the Cross. Why? Because every good and perfect gift is from heaven above coming down from the power of lights.

But whom there is no variation of shadow to change. God is always the same. Everything that's going on is from start to finish, all part of the plant, and never changes. Now I love this last verse because it really gives us hope. And I think it's what is predicated by the whole chapter, but it lands right on this spot.

But his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first group. So let's put us in the vernacular on that. He started this whole thing. He knows what he's doing. This is not random.

This isn't something he discovered one day and said, oops, it didn't go to plan. Of his own will, he brought us forth. God, why did you do this? Did you make a mistake? Is this a problem?

What happened? He said, nothing happened. Everything's going right according to plan. This is the hope we have in Christ. This is the hope we have in a sovereign Lord who doesn't have plan B.

It's all plan A. God never does an oopsie and does a redo. Of his own will he brought forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruit of his previous. God is at work doing the work. God is bringing trials on purpose.

He's not bringing trials because he's got nothing better to do. He's doing it because he's our loving father, our doctor. He's healing us. He's straightening the branch one little trial at a time. One of my prayers that I always pray for my daughter is this, Lord, please let her sanctification be gradual and gentle.

I would prefer straightening the bone just a little notch at a time rather than cracking surgery. One thing is a lot more traumatic than the other and sometimes the Lord does traumatic Corrections and I'll be honest with you. I'm not a big brain So I pray for my little girl, for my wife, please be gentle and slow. And I think the Lord can be gentle and slow when we respond properly during trials. It seems that the more stubborn we get, I don't know, maybe not.

Am I to say that Johnny Yartzen was stubborn? No, but look at what the Lord has done in her life. And that's a scary person to look at and say, Lord. And I tremble with fear and say, please not me. But in the midst of that, just know that you might be getting the drip drip form, you might be getting the grain of sand in your shoe form, and you should be thankful for it.

It could be worse. And just be thankful that the Lord is working in our lives with trials of many kinds. I wanna give us perspective here that in trials we have a loving Father who has a loving plan for our lives. And because of that, you can go through trials with it or you can go through trials without it. But you don't know a single human under it that doesn't go through trials.

Everybody does it. This isn't a God issue. This isn't, I'm mad at you God because you keep me in trials. Everybody suffers. This is a thank the Lord that he's in charge of my trials.

This is a thank the Lord moment. This is God approaching people in triumph and saying, listen, I'm with you. I'm aware. I understand you're in triumph. You're not alone.

There's a pathway to perfection and it's me. This is hope. This text is about hope, not about suffering, not about threat. This is about God approaching his children who he really loves and pay for a buck with a price that he might have a bride. This is about God building up his bride and adorning her with peace.

That's what confession is when we do liturgy. It's about you becoming more beautiful. It's about you confessing your sin. It's like putting on perfume or washing. That's a confession.

Anytime we approach the Lord, thank the Lord that he is purging us, that we get the opportunity to confess our sins, that we get the opportunity to come in. Amen. Trials are, I hate this. I feel that coming off my tongue is hard. Trials are a wonderful thing.

Yeah, it's hard. It's only hard because I'm difficult. That's why it's hard, because I'm the pope of time, because I'm the one who's twisted in bent. That's why it's hard. And it's a loving, gracious father who brings us the contents.

Let us pray. I'm not sure where I'm at in the liturgy. It's what I usually do after I finish. By God's grace and the holy. We will be having our mission soon.

Well, let us pray. Thank you, Father, for what you're doing in our lives as much as we kick and scream. I hate getting shots at the doctor when I was young, but Lord it's what kept me from great sickness. I pray Lord that we could come before you humbly, Trusting you. Giving our hearts to you.

Just giving over our lives to rest in you, to trust in you. You know what you're doing for us. Because so often we don't know what you're doing, we don't know what we're doing. We need your word to rest deep in our hearts. Pray that we would hold on to your word as an anchor without doubting, Lord, and that we would slowly but surely learn to be learned to what it is to be like Christ, be Christ-like to others around us.

Christ. Be Christ's light to others around you.