Let's give attention to the reading of God's Word. Today's scripture reading comes from the book of James, chapter 1, verses 1 through 27. James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations, greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Parents must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe in not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. The brother and humble circumstance is ought to take pride in his high position, but the one who is rich should take pride in his low position because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant, its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created. My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing to your side and to your side alone. In Jesus name, amen. For the next few weeks, Matt Ryman, our other assistant pastor, myself, and Tim Trouten, who is one of our interns, will be preaching through the book of James, and it's a series titled Wisdom for Living. Now, before I get into the passage that Nick just read to us, I would like to point out something that we receive each week when we walk in these doors. And in the bulletin, we have a thing called the sermon discussion guide. So please look at this, pull out this, and in the sermon discussion guide, there are questions about the sermon. There's a place for you to take notes. There's even a memory verse you can memorize during the week we encourage you to do so. But on the front of the sermon discussion guide, what we're doing now is giving you just a brief background of the chapter that we're preaching on. And just to highlight a few points about what's going on in this book of James. James is the half-brother of Jesus, believe it or not, and he is a pastor. He's riding to fellow Christians who are undergoing trials and tribulations, temptations. They are being persecuted and scattered all throughout Palestine. And they are being persecuted by being dragged into court, being exploited by the rich, and even slandered. But James is somebody who can relate to his audience. He's somebody as a pastor. He's been there as well. He's been through persecution. In fact, James, himself, saw the stoning of Stephen in the book of Acts. He also saw after Stephen's death all the Christians being scattered everywhere. And James experienced that himself. In tradition, and our ancient fathers tell us that James was even martyred for his faith. He was killed for his faith. He was thrown off a temple, and then he was beaten with a club to death. So this is a guy who can relate well to the people that he's talking with because he too was facing trials and tribulations. Now in this book, James is urging his fellow Christians to ask God for wisdom, to persevere through trials, and to not only read the word, but to live the word. To put these words into practice. It's important to note that the book of James begins with prayer and ends with prayer. In fact, James was a guy who really practiced what he preached. Our church historians have written that James, his knees were calloused, and they resembled that of a camel because he prayed so much. For the next five weeks, we will be learning and taking in wisdom and insight from a man of God, this character James. But what I'd like to do now is turn our attention to the text that Nick read to us. James chapter one, the main theme of today's message is that of perseverance. Now when I think of perseverance, there are many people that come to mind who have never given up. But there's one man that really sticks out to me, and that is Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln, as you know, was one of our famous presidents. Lincoln underwent all kinds of defeat and trials, but because of his belief in his faith in God, he persevered, and he was able to reach incredible goals. Look with me at this list of Abraham Lincoln's life. At the age of 22, he failed in business. He ran for state legislature and was defeated at 23. He failed in business again at 24. He was finally elected to the state legislature at 25. His sweetheart died at 26, and that led to a nervous breakdown at 27. He was defeated again for the state house at 29. He was defeated for an electric position at 31. He was defeated for U.S. Congress at 34. And finally, he was elected to Congress at 37, but two years after that, he was defeated once again for Congress at 39. He was defeated for Senate at 46, defeated for Vice President at 47. He defeated for Senate again at 49, and finally at age 51, he became the President of the United States. Incredible. Why do I tell you this? I tell you this, not just to motivate us, but also to encourage us, because Lincoln was a guy just like you and me. He experienced trials. He experienced times where he felt defeated. But instead of giving up, he believed in the Almighty, and he pressed on and he persisted. And because of his perseverance, he reached incredible goals to become our President. A perseverance is defined as a steady persistence and a course of action and a continuance in a state of grace to the end leading to eternal salvation. Perseverance is not compared to resignation. It has nothing to do with it. In fact, where quitting is passive, perseverance is active. Resignation results in defeat while perseverance results in triumph. I bet there are many of you right now who are going through tough times. You may be feeling defeated, overwhelmed, discouraged, but my message to you comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And through James, through the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters in Christ, my mothers and my fathers in Christ, let us persevere with faith, with humility, and with action. Look with me in verses two through seven. Why does James say, consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds? Why is he saying, consider it joy when you face trials? What he's saying here is that we're to experience joy in the midst of trials because of the positive results brought about by suffering. In other words, we should find joy in our trials because it produces our character, and it helps us mature in our faith. We all face trials in our life, whether it be going through a rocky time in our marriage, being unemployed, our finances are struggling, our jobs aren't fun, our children are being disrespectful, whatever it is, God is calling us this morning, today, to rest on him and on him alone, and to ask him for wisdom. And he tells us that when we ask for help in this passage, we must do so without doubt, we don't need to be the double-minded man. And if we ask with faith, without doubt, he will give us knowledge and understanding to help us through our trials. I love verse 12. Look with me in verse 12. He says, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he is to the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. God may be putting us through a season in our life that is a trial. But we are called to persevere with faith, and perseverance is something that we just can't rush. It's something that takes time. It takes time to build character. But God tells us that in the end, if we continue to persevere, he will bless us with the crown of life. Now what exactly is this crown of life? Well, the crown of life resembles an emblem of gladness and joy, of glory and immortality. It represents the fullness of life that God gives to those who endure the test of faith. God has promised us eternal life if we believe in Jesus Christ. And we are called to persevere with faith and with strength until that day, until he comes again or until our day is up. We are called to persevere during trials, but also during temptations. Now there's a big difference between a trial and a temptation. Look with me in verse 13. When tempted, no one should say God is tempting me for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But I want you to understand here is that God tests his people to expose their inner qualities. He tests a man's faith to learn whether or not it's genuine and true, but God never tempts anyone or entices them to sin. Because that would be evil. Now as I was preparing this message this week, I thought, what's a good example of a test in it? And I thought of my own life. About three weeks ago, I went to get a tuberculosis shot. I got one. The results came back positive. In fact, the doctor told me you might have tuberculosis. I thought, what in the world? And so I feel healthy. I didn't have any symptoms. I wasn't sweating profusely or anything. I felt good. Well, sure enough, I went and got chest X-ray. It was a portable X-ray machine, and the test came back where there were some densities shown up around my chest area. But they didn't know if it was tuberculosis or not. So for about two and a half weeks, I wondered what in the world is in my body, and have I infected half this church? Because the problem with tuberculosis is it's something that you can get in the air. I'm thinking half this church, if not more than half, are infected because of me. And so I thought, what is the Lord teaching me through this? And this past week, I had to work from home and you know me, I'm a social butterfly, I love people. And being confined in my home, I felt, man, I'm confined here, I've got to be out there with people. So it really wasn't a test for me. Well, finally, I went back to my doctor and he told me, he said, let's do another chest X-ray to get a second opinion and see if this really is tuberculosis or not. So sure enough, I got a second opinion and the test came out clear. I do not have tuberculosis. So you're okay. And then so finally after hearing through all this, I thought, wow, this really tested me. In the sense of I didn't know what I had, my wife was freaking out because she thought, what in the world is my husband have? It could be a number of things. But the Lord really just said, hey, the pastor cares on me and I'm going to care for you. This is a test. I want you to be patient and endure through this. Well, also this past week, I experienced temptation. I had someone tell me a deep secret that they wanted me to keep confidential. And it was a secret that wasn't that I didn't need a report to the law or anything. So I sure enough needed to keep it a secret. Well, right after the person left my office, I wanted to go and tell a few people because I just wanted to get it off my chest. But the problem was is if I really went through with it and told somebody, I would have been gossiping and that is a sin. To see how temptation, I wanted to go and I wanted to go and tell somebody their secret. But I shouldn't have and praise Lord, I didn't. But the idea here is that there's a difference between a test and a temptation. I'll make this clear that God is not the author of sin and he will never tempt you into doing something evil. It's Satan who is the author of sin and he is the ultimate accuser. And Satan is going to look pretty good. He's going to look pleasing to the eye. He's going to want you to give in to his desires. The more we talk about temptation, I've said this before in a sermon, I believe, we have to understand that there is a difference between a desire and an over desire. When you desire something, it's not necessarily a bad thing. For instance, I desire to make a good amount of money so that I could provide for my family and my future generations. The Bible tells me to do that. But the problem lies when you over desire something. So if all I want to do is make money so that I could have the newest car and the nicest clothes and just to build my own repertoire and build my own status in the community, that's when it's wrong. And it entices you into sin. Look with me in verse 14. It said each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he has dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death. So when you over desire something, that's what enticing you into sin and you end up sinning. Another example would be food. Food is pleasing to the eye. It's a good thing. You can desire food. I'm sure many of you are hungry right now. It's good. But the problem lies when we over desire food. If we eat all the time it can turn into gluttony. And that in fact is also a sin. You see temptation is always knocking on our door and Satan is trying to entice us to open that door. But we must persevere with faith during our temptations and trust that God will help us through it. James closes a section in verse 17 by saying every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows. You see every good and pleasing gift comes from above. God is not the author of sin. He's the author of goodness and grace and mercy. When we're undergoing these times of trials and temptations, let us persevere with faith and remember that God is there with us. He's going to help us through whatever we're going through. My friends, let me remind you of Philippians 314. Let us press on to win the goal for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. James calls us to persevere with faith, but also to persevere with humility. We are called to persevere with humility in our positions. Look with me in verse 9 through 11. James says the brother and humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position, but the one who is rich should take pride in his low position because he will pass away like a wildflower. James is comparing two different types of people. He first compares that of a person who is not doing well economically. He's very poor. But he's saying remember in your humble position that you are in fact, you have a righteous status before God. Let me describe this. This is a word called grace that many of you have heard before from pastor Mike and myself and Matt. The idea of grace is that there's nothing you can do that can cause God to love you anymore and there's nothing you can do that can cause God to love you any less. All the sins that you have committed in your past, all the sins you've committed now and all the sins you've committed in the future are already forgiven because of the blood of Christ. That's what grace means. So because of grace, because this idea that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, if we really believe that, it should lead us not to go and live the life and whatever we want to do. We can't just go out and just live crazy lives, but instead it should draw us to our knees with humility and it should help us to remember our status is righteous before God's eyes. We are declared righteous. We are declared innocent and not guilty because of what Jesus did for us. So James is reminding the Christians here. Remember even though you're poor, remember you have a heavenly status and a righteous status because of Jesus Christ. But he also goes on to talk about those who are wealthy. He says here the one who is rich should take pride in his low position because he will pass away like a wild flower. What James is saying here is that if you even though you're wealthy and you have a high status in the community, it doesn't mean everything. In fact, you need to remember who's you are. You need to remember that God is in control and you're not. You're not God. In fact, you're like a little dot compared to God. So James is just trying to help them remember and to warn them don't rely on your earthly riches and your earthly status but rely on your status in heaven and your treasures in heaven. As I was thinking of this concept of wealth, we live in a materialistic society where it's all about status, it's all about fame, it's all about money. And I think that's a big idol in our culture that we are to repent of. Instead of storing up treasures on this earth, we are called to store up treasures in heaven and receive the crown of life. I just read a book called The Treasure Principle. It's by a guy named Randy Alcorn and he says this. All of our stuff on earth will eventually end up in a landfill. Christmas and birthday presents, cars, boats and hot tubs, clothes, stereos and barbecues. The treasures that children quarreled about, friendships were lost over, honesty was sacrificed for and marriages broke up over all end up here in a landfill. If you're storing up treasures on this earth, remember it's going to end up in a landfill. If you're poor, rejoice in your heavenly status. If you're rich, be thankful for what God has blessed you with but also rejoice in your heavenly status because of Christ. But remember that God is much greater than you. We are called to not only persevere with humility in our positions but also in our relationships. If you look with me in verse 19, it's one of my favorite passages in the Bible. James says, my dear brothers, take note of this. What he's saying there is he's saying, put it in your head and never forget it. He says, be slow, be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Very practical advice, but very godly advice. Have you ever been around somebody where you were listening to them and all of a sudden you just kind of zoned out? You might be doing that now, but all of a sudden you just zoned out. Or have you ever been listening to somebody and you cut them off and you interrupted them in a sentence or even were thinking about what you're going to say next when they're in the middle of a sentence? I think we all do it. In fact, most people I talk to, they do this. I do it. It's something I need to repent over. Listening is a very difficult thing to do, but to truly listen to someone means to take an intense interest in the person who is talking and intense interest to be there actively. So that means if someone's talking to you, you reflect upon what they're saying and you respond to that and you repeat what they just said. So someone tells you something to say, oh, did you say this? Is this what I'm hearing and if so, how did it make you feel? What are your thoughts? You know, continue the dialogue. Put that person above yourself in conversation. It's really difficult to do. And I haven't seen it done well, but for those people that I know are very good listeners, my sister, she's a counselor. Incredible listener. She can just listen for hours and be able to respond well to what I'm saying. And I know she's listening because she's responding. And she built a lot of trust in me because I know I can tell her everything. And I think when you become a strong listener, you really build respect among your peers, among your family members because they want to talk to you because they know you genuinely care. Have you ever been in a meeting with somebody who is really quiet and then all of a sudden they speak and it's like all the eyes go to them and they're just this person with full of wisdom. My father told me my father's a county commissioner. He's a politician in Knoxville and he told me some advice when I was in high school. He said, Seth, when you're in a meeting, always listen to people and gather what they're saying and then come out and bring a strong statement. Compile all the information and then speak. And I know my father doesn't. In fact, I've seen him in meetings and he does a very good job and it's really neat because it's when he does speak, people listen. But then there's other people in the room who just talk and talk and talk and you notice those people who keep talking, everybody else shuts them out because they speak so much. There are many introverts in this church and sometimes I'm intimidated by introverts because I'm wondering what in the world are you thinking? Because I'm an extrovert. My wife is an introvert. There's half the time I'm wondering Stephanie, just tell me what you're thinking because I'm desiring to know I want to know what is going on in your head. And I think there's some truth to that. When you're slow to speak, people want to know they want to be quiet so that and they want to hear you what you have to say. Look with me at Proverbs, Proverbs 17, 28, even a fooless thought wise if he keeps silent and Proverbs 10, 19, when words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. If you hold your tongue, you're considered wise. So be slow to speak, quick to listen. And finally, he says, be slow to anger. Now I know a lot of men who struggle with anger. In fact, right now I'm reading through a book called Pastoring Men by Pat Morley. And he says that as many as three million women a year are physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends. Now, men in this room, do you have an angry spirit? Do you always get upset about things and get angry about it? If you're feeling any kind of anger, please take James words to heart and be slow to anger. In fact, Ecclesiastes, chapter 7 verse 9 tells us, do not be quickly provoked in your spirit for anger resides in the lap of fools. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit for anger resides in the lap of fools. Everyone in here, if you have any resolved anger right now and if you're angry with someone, what I want you to do after this service is go and talk to them. As hard as it is and as uncomfortable and awkward as it may be, tell them your feelings and resolve that anger because Jesus tells us to not let the son go down in your anger. We are called to persevere with humility in our positions and our relationships with others and also in our relationships with God. In verse 21, James tells us, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you which can save you. James is telling us, you remember, this word of God can save you. So remember it and plant it in your mind, in your heart, let it soak in. Let it be your treasure because it can ultimately save you. So be humble in our relationships with God because God tells us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift us up and do time. We are called to persevere with faith. We are called to persevere with humility and we're also called to persevere with action. God wants us to not only hear what He has to say but He wants us to live it out, to practice what we preach, to do it. And He wants us to have a balanced life using our head, our heart, and our hands. He wants us to use our heads by listening to the word of God and learning more about Him. Look with me in verse 25. He says here, the man who looks intently into the perfect wall that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it will be blessed in what he does. He's telling us and calling us to look intently into the perfect word of God and remember it, reflect upon it, beat it in your mind. Glorify the Lord with our heads, learn more about Him by learning the Bible, talking to others, learning theology. He also wants us to use our hearts. Look with me in verse 23 and 24. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror. And after looking at himself goes away and immediately forget what he looks like. James is telling us here that anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and then forgets it right off. It's like leaving here today and not remembering anything. It's like reading the Bible and one minute later you forget what you just read. You didn't let it soak into your heart. And God is calling us to let the word of God soak in to our heart where we are delighted in it and we have great desire and hope in Him. When I say hard, I'm talking about emotions and feelings and a lot of men I know we was hard to talk about feelings but God is calling us to feel His presence. He's calling us to take joy and delight in Him, to cry even, to show some emotion and to be still and know that He is God, to really experience God in an emotional way. God calls us to do that using our heart. He also calls us to use our hands and that means to serve others. Look with me in verse 26 and 27. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts is pure and faultless as this to look after orphans and widows and their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James is saying, go out and serve. Go out and serve those who are hopeless right now, who are going through a tough time. Serve those who are widows, who are widowers, who are single parents, who are fatherless and motherless and there's many of you here who are in that category. Those of you who aren't, I encourage you to wrap your loving arms around our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers in Christ and serve them and ask them, how can I help you? What can I do to help you? That's what James is telling us to do here to serve the Lord with our hands. Now what I want you to do for just a moment is reflect upon what I just said. Out of those three things, your head, your heart and your hands, which one of those three things are you neglecting right now? Just think about that for a second. It's amazing. I've had people come to my office and they say, Seth, I don't feel God's presence, I don't know if he's here. I always go through this with them. I say, are you reading the word? Are you using your mind? Are you using your heart? Are you experiencing God? Are you feeling it? Are you serving others? And every single time they tell me, I'm not doing any of those things. And I tell them, well that's your problem. Now God is calling us to be people of his word. God's calling us to serve. He's calling us to be still and know that he is God to experience him. So I challenge you, if you're neglecting any of these three things, to try to have a balanced life by doing all, to try to do that and reflect upon your life weekly or monthly and say, where am I neglecting here? Am I reading the word? Am I learning theology? Am I talking to others and experiencing him in that way? Am I serving? Just constantly reflect upon your own life. I end with this. Look with me in verse 26. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Three weeks ago, I was praying, Lord, please open up the doors for more conversations with non-Christians, people who don't go to church anymore. And sure enough, when you ask God for something, as it says in James, I'll give it to you. The next day, I walked right into something and I went over here to Blanchard Park, and if you're here, I'm glad you're here. But I went in there, my wife and I, and sure enough, we ended up talking to some people at work that one of the guys was playing solitaire, so I know he had some time to kill. And we were talking and sure enough, they asked common questions that a lot of people in church, not in church, ask. Like, why would a good god send loving people to hell? Is Jesus the only way to heaven? They would ask questions like that. And it was just so much fun. Two and a half hours were sitting there talking. And finally, at about the two-hour mark, I just said, hey, I have a question for you. I've been reading this book God's base and it talks about asking them questions. It's a really good idea. But I said, hey, I have a question for you. Can you tell me if you've ever been to church, and if so, what led you away from it? And one answer stood out to me the most. This gentleman said, yeah, I wasn't church. I grew up in it, but the reason I left was because there were so many hypocrites in the church. There were so many people who lived one way on Sunday morning, and then when Monday came around, they lived a completely different life. There were people who did not practice what they preached. And he said, and I was harmed by some of the things they said. I was harmed by the words I was turned off by the hypocrisy in the church. And how I normally, and you wouldn't believe, I've heard this from so many people. And I told them I said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you experienced that. And I went into sin and how, yeah, we all make mistakes. But I also said, I really hope that this doesn't discourage you from ever coming to church and gave them my card and said, please come to UPC, we'd love to have you. We're a church of grace, we're all sinners, and we know we're saved by the blood of Christ. But when I got in my car, I was talking to my wife, and I said, you know, I hear this so often. And I think people, the church doors would be flooding with people if we truly were genuine and sincere. And if we owned up to our mistakes, and we admitted that we were wrong, it just said, look, I'm wrong, please forgive me. I think if we did that more, if the church is a whole, I think UPC, we do a pretty good job at that. But I think as the church is a whole, if we were to be people of sincerity and of authenticity, it draws people in. Love brings people in. Love like crazy. The idea here is if people really felt loved and accepted they'd be wanting to come. So I challenge all of us to love like crazy, to reflect upon the goodness of God and to live good honest lives. And honesty means to own up to our mistakes and say, I'm not perfect, but that's where Christ comes in, because he paid it all for us on the cross. You know, Jesus is our perfect example that we are to follow. He forgave us. He loved his enemies. He always put others above himself. And so let us follow his example of showing love and forgiveness. And my family, let us never tire of doing what is right. Let us persevere with faith, with humility, and with action until that day comes, and seek what is good and pleasing to our Heavenly Father. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I'm reminded of a song I heard this week to love like crazy. It was talking about a couple who had been married for 58 years, and they persevered because they loved one another. And most importantly, they loved you. Lord, I pray that when we face trials and temptations and times of discouragement, where we just feel like we want to throw in the towel, I pray that we will not give up, that we will not let up, that we will persevere with strength, persevere with faith, with humility, with action. I pray that our faith and our humility will lead us to act, and act wisely, and act humbly, and also acts sincerely. And sincerity means that we are to put others before ourselves, to own up to our mistakes, and to listen to others well, so that they know they are being heard. God, go with us now, and may we love like crazy in Jesus' name. Amen.