James 1: Okay. Amen. Friends, you may have a seat. So for those of you who joined us this summer, you know that we went through the book of Revelation, 'cause why not? And if you were here even for one week or listen to the podcast, you know that the big word was context. Like you have to understand that the language isn't always literal, that you have to put yourself in the seat of those who are in the first century. They would have understood what these symbols meant, they would have understood what these numbers meant, and we have to look at it through the lens of their eyes to understand this book. It's it's heady, it's deep theology. There's a lot of metaphors and context, context, context, and there's symbols and there's everything. And it's an amazing book. For this fall, we're gonna read a book that's like the exact opposite. Yay! I heard some applause over there. You see, the book of James, which is what we'll be studying from now until December, the Book of James is not very metaphorical. You you need to know some context, but the book of James is written in such a way that they're like, hey, you don't really need to understand the first century very well to understand what this guy is writing. What his wisdom is, is words of truth that can be applied to anyone, anytime, anywhere. It doesn't matter your background. you erase if you read these words you're like yeah yeah that's probably really true now of course there's still some unpacking but what what james is is i i don't this is kind of the metaphor in my head i don't know if it quite landed in the first service but this is how i think of james james is like the old sage farmer Who's like whittling or like whittling like on his porch, and if you ask him a question, he's just gonna give you some really deep life advice. And you're like, that's so good. Because this guy's seen a thing or two about a thing or two. That's James, just like this beautiful, ancient, wise man. And everything that he has to say is so practical because what he is trying to do is show people, like, okay, you believe in Jesus. That's great. Now here's how you Should live. If you believe in Jesus, this is how you can live. This is how your faith will grow. This is how you should approach it. So that's what this book is all about. James is very gritty, he's very practical. He'll honestly come up and just like punch you in the mouth in the opening line. You'll see in a moment. But he does not really give you much room to breathe. He's just like, This is what you gotta do. If not, it's not gonna work. So you know, he's just great. I love him. Might have scared about half the congregation off in the first service, so we'll see how we do with this one. Anyways, who was James? Let's talk about who this guy is. So James is the half brother of Jesus. Same mom, you know, different dad. So He he shows up in the Gospels a few times, which are the biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those are biographies of Jesus' life. James pops up a few times. the first time he pops up is when Jesus starts preaching in his region, like in kind of close to his hometown, and someone in the crowd's like, Why are we listening to this guy? Is isn't this the carpenter's son? And isn't his mom, Mary, and his brothers or James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude, like, why why should we listen to him? We know who this guy is. He's he's just like one of us. How who is he to be claiming that he's the son of God? And then in Mark chapter three, James shows up again, but it's it doesn't look good at all for him. You see, Jesus has started his ministry, he started miracles and some healings, and he started saying some crazy things like, I'm God. I'm the savior, I'm the Messiah, no one comes to the Father except through me. You know, like if your brother was saying that, you know what I mean? Like you'd be like, like you're a pretty good guy, but you're not that good. And so James gets his other brothers together to find Jesus and take him away. Like they essentially want to take him to an asylum. I mean, again, if your brother was claiming to be God, you'd be like, okay, we're gonna take a good long nap and we're gonna think about this and process this. And if you keep doubling down, we're gonna take you to the doctor. That's what James is trying to do. So, not a believer, not a follower of Jesus at all. John chapter 7, that's actually leveraged against Jesus by some of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, where they say, Why should we believe this guy? Even his own brothers don't believe in him. Like even his hometown, his own family. family don't believe in him. So all of that, like it doesn't go well for James as far as following Jesus, because he's not following Jesus. James has no interest in following his older brother. He he doesn't pop up anywhere as saying like, I'll be one of your leaders, give me some fame, I'll sit at your right hand in heaven. Like none of that. He he he basically like disappears from the story. There's no proof That during the life of Jesus, James ever believed that his brother was the Messiah, let alone the Son of God. There's no proof that he was ever a Jesus follower when Jesus was alive. The only way that James becomes a believer in his older brother, that he's more than his older brother, that he's the Messiah and the Son of God, is he sees him after he's killed. If your brother claimed to be God and then was crucified, And then came back to have a meal with you, that might rethink how you see him. The apostle Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 15, talking about the importance of our faith is based on eyewitnesses, is based on facts. It's not one person saw or experienced something, that there were many people who didn't want to believe in Jesus, but they saw something, they experienced something they knew to be true, and it changed their lives. So Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, Jesus, after being raised from the dead, he appeared to James, that's his brother, then to all The apostles and last he appeared to me also as one a normally born. Like he appeared to Paul later, and Paul's like, the only reason I'm a Jesus follower is because I saw him after he was dead. Supposed to be dead. So James flips from being someone who's, I think my brother's crazy, my brother dies, he's the son of God. What flipped him when it was not popular to be a Jesus follower at all? He must have seen something he knew was true. So much so that he built his whole life on following Jesus and building his church. That in the early church, they talk about the three pillars of the church. As three of the key leaders were Peter, which obviously we know like Jesus, like right-hand man, Paul, who wrote half the New Testament, and James, Jesus' brother. He's running in that same crew. James actually died for his faith in believing his brother was Jesus. His brother was the son of God. They stoned him to death. That's like a public thing. They gathered a crowd and everyone grabbed stones and they said, If you keep saying that your brother is God, we'll kill you. And he's like, kill me. It's true. Imagine if you were lying and someone threw that first stone. If you were lying, you'd be like, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Like, I'm done. No, not a single Recant from James or any of the other followers of Jesus. They all were like, I saw him alive. So this is someone who has seen a thing or two about a thing or two. And we have this book, which are his book of wisdom. It's almost like his greatest hits. If you're familiar with other letters of the New Testament, you'll know that the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are like biographies. They're the life of Jesus. The letters of Paul are letters written to specific churches with specific issues. And we still take wisdom from them because they're scripture. But you know, it was written for the Corinthians. It was written for the Romans. James is just written, honestly, for anyone to pick it up and say, Yeah, I could apply that to my life. And it would be very straightforward. So James has been called the Proverbs of the New Testament. Anyone ever read Proverbs? A few of us? Where sometimes the it's just like little chunks of wisdom, sometimes just like two verses. And sometimes it flows to the next one or the next one, or sometimes just like good, like that's just, hey, that's just good advice. You know, that's how James is. So what we're gonna do is go slowly through the book of James, and we're gonna take our time, read through it. I invite you to open up your Bible or your Bible on your phone and follow along, take notes. were handed a journal on the way and you can take notes on that. You can take notes in your Bible, you can take notes on the passage or on the piece of paper in front of you. But I'll have our scripture reader come forward. Let's stand for the reading of God's word and then we'll get into it. This is James chapter 1 verses 1 through 8. James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations, greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. The person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. Friends, you may be seated. So after James says hi, everybody, he punches you in the mouth with his opening sentence, doesn't he? Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds. If you're reading that, you're like, I think I'm gonna find something else to read. Pure, pure, pure joy. When you face trials, when you face suffering, when you face hardship, you should smile and be happy about it. This guy is delusional, or he knows something I don't. Because it is so the opposite of everything we're told in the world, isn't it? Pure joy. Where do you expect pure joy? You expect pure joy on a months-long vacation. Pure joy. Pure joy at a wedding, right? Pure joy at a job promotion. Pure joy when you buy a new toy. Maybe if you're a little kid or you're a big kid. You get a new toy, that's supposed to be pure joy. Maybe when you accomplish a life goal, pure joy. And James isn't knocking any of those things. But what he's saying is pure joy. When you're suffering? Okay. Okay. What does that mean? Now we have to understand what he is saying. Notice that he says, consider. Consider. Consider is a thinking word. Consider is not a feeling word. You're gonna figure out from James. Like he cares about your feelings, kind of, but not really. He wants you to think. He wants you to take truth and like salt into meat to preserve you, rub it in. Think about it like this. And the where he's beginning is with suffering. You could think of it like this. He says, reconsider. How you see trials and suffering. Have you thought of it like this? We often focus so much on the emotional side of suffering, which is normal, because it again, it like punches us in the face. When you go through difficult times or you get a horrible surprise, you know, your emotions get kicked up pretty quick. But James is saying, pause. Begin with thinking about it before you get too carried away. Think. Use your mind. Use both, okay? This is how he goes on. He says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Okay? So he's not saying you get an exception if the trial's that bad. If it's really bad suffering, this doesn't apply. Any kind of trial or suffering, this truth holds. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may. Be mature and complete, not lacking anything. What James is saying is in order to grow up, you need to suffer. In order to move from someone who's kind of shallow or immature, or their faith is maybe fragile, or maybe as a person they're kind of like that. Don't show hands. We all might know someone like that. And if you don't know anyone like that, It might be you. So but he's saying, do you know how you move from someone who's shallow, easily tossed around by the waves, you don't seem to have a footing, you don't seem to have a grip on reality, and you're just like chaos all the time. How you move from that to someone who's mature, steadfast, and strong is you suffer well. You suffer well. Let me put it bluntly. If you are immature in your faith, it's because you don't understand suffering. You do not understand suffering. The American church gets suffering so wrong. So backwards. We are so backwards with suffering, you guys. It's here here let me let me give an example. Okay. If I were to put on a televangelist clip and says, All right, I if you write a check to me and my ministry, not only like I'll be able to buy a $40 million jet, but You're gonna have millions of dollars put in your bank account and you'll never get sick again and all of your kids will be safe and no one will ever suffer and die. Most of us, please God tell me, all of us, would be like, no, no, like that's prosperity gospel. We don't do that. Please tell me that that would be your reaction. If it's not your reaction, we're gonna change to a whole different sermon series, because that's dangerous. So that's called The prosperity gospel. When you think God only exists, like a genie in the bottle, to give you a mansion, riches, a fast car, or an easy life. That's called the prosperity gospel. And it's a false gospel, it's not true. But most of us would say, okay, God's not gonna give me a mansion. But an all loving God would never let me suffer. No. He'll never let me hurt, not even a little bit. Like, I know I'm not gonna get a model physique by praying and wishing upon a star, but there's no way God will ever allow me to get cancer. Which is honestly just prosperity gospel light. Like he's not gonna give me the good life, the great life, but he'll never give me a hard life. And that's not true. I I'm here to like unfortunately, you'll see why about half the congregation like, they might not come back. We'll see. But take it up with James. Don't take it up with me. This is him. So when you run from suffering and assume it's a punishment or something unnatural, or that you did something wrong, what you're doing is robbing yourself of the opportunity to grow up. You are robbing yourself of the opportunity to grow. Do you know why so many Christians still act like they're in youth group? Because they don't know how to suffer. They don't. They don't, they never learn self-control. They never learn to take it to the Lord. They never had to endure something and depend on God, so they stay at a youth level. To be mature, according to James, is to take suffering. And to do it a certain way. There's a certain way that suffering is a gift and it grows you up and it makes you who you were always made to be. But when you run from it, yes, you're running from pain, but you're also running from the opportunity to experience growing pains. So let me dispel some rumors you may have heard. You may have heard God won't give you more than you can handle. Ball. If you could handle it, why do you need him? If you could handle it, why do you need him? You don't need him if you can handle it. He will let you break. He will break you. He will let you break. He will. Don't like to hear that. But he will. He will let you go through hard times. He will allow painful things into your life. That's a hard one for people to put together in a theology where they're like, well, God's all-knowing, all-powerful, and in control of everything. And you're like, so he is allowing those things in your life. He is. You have to reconcile that in your image of God. If we want to truly dig in, this is what it is. God Never promise you an easy or pain free life. If he did promise that, then David should have had a pretty good life. But he suffered. Moses, Elijah, Samuel, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus' life makes no sense if you don't suffer for being good. And yet, Jesus suffered all the time. God let Jesus be hungry. God let Jesus experience rejection. God let Jesus experience the answer no to his prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane. If it was only based on goodness, and then if I'm good, God's good back. If it was only based on that, wouldn't that be nice? Then you just get the formula right. But that's not it. Never promised you an easier pain-free life. He never did. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. You going through something hard does not mean you did something wrong. That's probably the biggest one I hear the most. What did I do wrong? I mean, sometimes, yeah, you did something wrong. Like if you got in your car and drove 160 miles past Klein Elementary School, yeah, there's gonna be consequences. That's not God punishing you, that's just you being dumb. Like, you have consequences. But Just because you are going through something hard does not mean God abandoned you or he's mad at you. It does not. That's not what it means at all. Friends, we live in a fallen and broken world. Suffering comes for everyone. It even came for Jesus, the Son of God. Everyone will experience suffering of some sort. Do you know how life works? Well, life works like this: it's in three stages. You're either about to go into a difficult season, you're in a difficult season, or you just came out of a difficult season. Until you die. Welcome to planet Earth. That's how it works. Everyone goes through difficult times, but what we do with it matters. It can either do nothing for you and make you bitter and break you, or it can make you whole and complete and a person full of joy and peace. All of it is about how you approach it, what you do with it, what you do with suffering matters. Here is a list of about four things that honestly covers about 87% of like how people react to suffering. About 87. I don't need a hand raise. You might know someone on these lists. All right. When you experience hardship, you can throw a pity party. That's your f you could do that. You could totally do that. Some people in this room know someone who's been having a pity party for 15 years. You could throw a pity party. If you want pity, come to the church. No one is better at giving pity than church people because we care. It's not bad to give pity, because we pray for people when they hurt. We love them. We surround them. We bring them food. We do these things. That's what we're called to do. But pity alone will not change you. It will not change you. If all you want is pity, you will become pitiful. If that's all you want. I don't want to change. I don't want to grow. I just want you to feel bad for me. Okay. That's all you'll get. Second. You can scream into the void. that's just my way of saying get angry at everything. Again, not show of hands, but driving to church this morning, anyone? Road rage? We have a special prayer team off to the side. You could you experience a difficult time? You blow up. Your reaction is anger. Maybe you maybe you blow up on the road. You you cut me off and cut you off. You know what I mean? And then you're just you're slamming the steering wheel, everything like that. Maybe your spouse says something they thought was kind of funny, like a joke, and then you react like, I don't need it right now. That was me. Two weeks ago. That was my reaction, and Mel's like, my. Or you can be one of these people that I I'm just always like these people fascinate me. You go onto a social media page and you just blow up the comments section. Have you ever seen those like on the community pages? You're like, what? Who hurt you? You are so angry. And all we're trying to do is make the pool like six inches deeper. What are we doing here? This is like ridiculous. You could just yell at a total stranger, and people will understand why you're angry. I'd be angry too. But if all you want is to be angry, all you'll become is an angry person. But it will not change you, and guess what? Soon people will avoid you because they don't want to be your next victim. It won't change you. It won't mature you. It won't grow you up. Third thing, you can wallow in it. Just stay stuck. Make it your identity. Just make it every conversation you have for years. That's all you talk about. It's not fair. It's not fair what happened to me. Just wallow in it. And again, people who love you will wallow with you for a little while. Have you read the book of Job? That's what his friends do. He loses everything. Family, friends, he loses everything. His friends show up and they it says they just sit with him for like a week. And then eventually they speak. Because when you wallow in it, people will wallow with you, but only for so long. And they won't say it to you at first, but their head and their heart will check out long before their body does. Put some distance because I just can't with you anymore. I feel like I'm hanging my head against a wall. And then if you want to wallow, you can wallow, but soon you'll be left alone. Stuck as you are. It won't change you. It won't grow you up. Fourth one, this does not apply to anyone in here. but you can distract yourself if you choose to. I mean, I think this is this is my go to. Anyone of the four this is my go to. I'm just it's not happening. I'm fine. What's your screen time? Twenty three and a half hours a day. You sure you're good? Yeah, I'm great. Doing great. There's a book that came out a few years ago ago called Amusing Ourselves to Death. Basically an honest take on, you know, American society. Like We have every opportunity to avoid silence, solitude, any reason to ever be quiet and process what's actually going on in our lives. And you just pick, you pick. You you can scroll your phone endlessly. You can go on every social media platform and compare, compare, compare. You can use alcohol, you can use drugs, you can use porn, you can be a serial dater, you can be obsessed with money, you can become a workaholic, you can go on as many vacations as your schedule and your budget allows. You name it. Just do anything other than think about and process your suffering. You can do that. You can do that. But it won't change you. You know what it'll make you actually? A shallow person. Because when your friend's going through suffering, all you have is, have you tried Netflix? You know, opening wine? Those aren't evil and wrong, but that's not gonna do a darn thing. That's not gonna give you peace beyond understanding. That's not gonna give you unspeakable joy. It'll just distract you. And then you'll go to the next distraction, the next distraction, like Tarzan jumping from vine to vine, hoping you never fall. All of these will create an unstable person, tossed around like the waves on the shore. But there is only one approach to suffering in a healthy way that James is talking about. And I'm not gonna bury the lead, I'm gonna give it to you right now, and you're gonna be like, that's it. Like it's gonna sound underwhelming, and it is, because it's so obvious. Take it to God. That's it. Take it to God. Take it to God. The opposite of running from suffering isn't running into suffering. Have you all noticed this trend online? It's mostly online where people are like, you know, I'm doing more intermittent fasting or you know, I'm doing like a cold plunge. Just kind of like ways to kind of introduce a little suffering into their world because they're like, we're so out of balance with our pleasure and pain that we're like, well, I'll have to introduce some because my life is just so comfortable. So the opposite isn't being like, now I'm gonna suffer, and that's the alternative. No. Friends, life will take care of the suffering part. Just stay alive long enough. You will suffer. But when it comes to you, go to God with your suffering. That's what Jesus did. That's what he taught his disciples to do. That's what people have been doing for 2,000 years. Jesus said, In this life you will have trouble. So heads up, you're gonna have trouble in this life. This isn't heaven yet. Jesus said, In this life you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world. He doesn't say, take heart because God won't give you more than you can handle. He didn't say, but take heart, because if you're in this tax bracket, you can spend your way out of suffering. He didn't say, take heart. If you have perfect attendance at church, you'll never go through anything hard. He said, Only me, only I have overtaken the world. That's why you should take heart. Take it to me. Now notice what James says after explaining what suffering does, how it grows us up, how it matures us. He tells us what to do. How do you do that? How do you mature like that? Verse 5. If any of you lacks wisdom, so we said it's a thinking word, consider. Then he uses another thinking word, wisdom. If you lack how to think about this, you need wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. So when you're suffering, take it to God and ask him for wisdom. What should my prayer look like? You could ask something like this: How should I think about suffering? How should I think about suffering, God? Like, what should I do with this? What are you doing in this situation? Am I missing something? How should I approach this? He gives generously, wisdom. Proper way to think about it, a proper way to approach it. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a game plan for your suffering? Wouldn't it be nice if you were like, I'm just not waiting blindly, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for it to be over? But I know what it's doing. And it's doing such a good thing in me that when I look back on it, I'll be like, Well, I wouldn't have picked it, but thank God I went through it because now on the other side. I'm more mature. I'm more complete. I'm not tossed around as much. I'm a deeper person. I've seen some things. I've done some things. I've seen a thing or two about a thing or two. Now notice that he also says, God who gives generously to all without finding fault, which means if you go to God with your suffering, he's not gonna fault you for suffering. He's not gonna be like, what? What are you bringing that to me for? He's not. He's not gonna find fault with you if at first, before you went to him, you threw a pity party. He's not gonna find fault with you if at first you were angry and you blew up on your spouse and that was your wake-up call that you needed. Ugh. This is a bigger problem than I realized. The first thing out of his mouth is not gonna be, hey, let's talk about that. He's gonna be like, okay, let's triage the situation. What's the thing behind the thing? What's causing you to act this way? Let's process this together. He's not gonna find fault with you if you've been stuck for a long time. Some of you maybe know someone like this. Maybe you are someone like this. You've been stuck for a month or ten years. And you're finally ready to be unstuck, but you don't have an alternative. So you're going to God. God, I don't know what to do, and I can't do this anymore. Well let me put you on solid footing. That's what the scriptures say. He's not gonna find fault with you if at first you were distracting yourself and it led you into bad places. Don't worry. He'll deal with everything in time. But in the context of relationship, graciousness, kindness, and an invitation. Anyone in here was going through something difficult and then eventually went to God and were like, why didn't I do this sooner? Why didn't I do this sooner? Why did I why do I wait so long to go to God? When He has everything I'm looking for. When you went to God in your brokenness and your mess, were you met with, well, well, Look who came crawlin' back. No, you were met with the love that the prodigal son was met with. A father running to their son when they were still a long way off. And they say, Father, I've sinned against you and many. Don't worry about that right now. We'll deal with that. But right now I'm just so happy you're here. He triages the situation. Let's talk about that wound that's causing you to act this way. Let's talk about this suffering, helping you understand it, make sense of it. I'm glad you're here because now we can talk. Now we can work through this. Now you can learn what it means to depend on me. That's why it's called faith. If we're being invited to rethink our suffering, when we rethink our suffering will do for our faith, then the feelings come. So How can thinking change my feelings? How can thinking honestly change my feelings? Because oftentimes in our culture we get it so backwards. We get it so backwards. I mean, not all of us, but enough that you know what I'm saying. Well, I just didn't I don't feel like it. I'm just not feeling it. Does that mean it's true? Like if I were just to wake up one day and say, you know, I don't think Hannah loves me anymore. Just don't feel it. Does that mean it's true? Does that mean my three-year-old just that's true? Feelings lie to you. Not all the time. But Isaiah says the heart is deceitful and wicked above all else. Who can know its mysteries? So you gotta check your feelings sometimes. Is that really true? Is that based in reality? Because we can be fickle. But you know what often happens, friends, is feelings follow. choices. Feelings follow choices. Anyone been married longer than five minutes? Who in this room is Lubby Dovey every second of every day? And when you fall asleep at night, all you dream about is your spouse. just you it's just me, I guess. No. Marriage, choosing to love someone, is a choice we often have to make, whether or not we feel like it. You may not always feel like saying a compliment. You may not always feel like biting your tongue and not saying the sharp reply. You may not always feel like folding the laundry even when you weren't asked. You may not feel like getting up in the middle of the night to take care of their child so that your spouse can you might not feel like it, but what's amazing is feelings follow choices. The more you choose to serve someone, the more you choose to love them, the more you come to love them when your feelings. Let your choices guide you. Let your thinking guide you more than your feelings when you think you've lost your way. It's a choice. That's why the altar is for vows. Vows are a choice. I'm choosing to lay my life down to serve you. I'm choosing to love you like Christ loved the church. Well, what does that look like? I'm sure Christ didn't feel like laying his life down for the church. We know he didn't, but he did anyways. Feelings can lie to you. Choosing to take your suffering to God and saying, Can you give me wisdom on this? And watch what he does can bring about great joy. You can even choose, you know, I'm not experiencing yet, but I know he's gonna grow me up in this, and I'm excited for it. I'm excited for who I will be on the other side of this. I wouldn't have picked it, but man, I know God's gonna do something with it. Wouldn't that be so refreshing? Could you imagine staying in a Bible study with someone like that? Wouldn't that be nice? What do you know that I don't know? I know nothing you don't know. I'm just choosing to do it a different way. And you can choose that today. You know, you know what? What happened to you or what you're going through is not fair. We live in an unfair, broken world. Amen? It's not fair. But you can choose to spin your wheels, or you can choose to have a pity party, or you can choose to take it to God and say, Will you grow me up with this? You can choose today that anger, it's okay to be angry at a broken situation, at a broken world. But you can also choose to say, you know what, I'm not gonna take my anger out on strangers or loved ones. I'm gonna take my anger to God and wrestle with it like Jacob did. I'm gonna take it all to him the good, the bad, and the ugly. All the parts I thought maybe growing up in Sunday school, I wasn't actually allowed to take to God. You can. He wants all of it. You can choose today that if you're really, really, truly suffering, that you can say, This is how I talk to God when I'm hurting. Hey man, I just I don't keep it formal at all. Hey man, I'm hurting, I'm confused, I'm angry, I'm stuck, I don't know what to do. Where are you? Because I feel like you're not here right now. You can pray that prayer. Some of you need to pray that prayer. Some of you should have prayed that prayer 10 years ago. I need to know you're with me. And I don't know what to do. Get honest with him. Get honest with him. Take it to him. Let this drive you to seek him more earnestly than you ever had before. The amount of people who say, Well, I don't know what to pray for. You don't know what to pray for? Your life's that good? You got no problems? You got no doubts? You got no questions? You've got no suffering? Start there. Don't tidy it up. Bring it to him raw and honest. This is what I'm feeling. This is what I'm thinking. But I want what you think about this situation. And I want that to lead me. Do you see how the church gets this so backwards? We don't know how to do this. But now we have an opportunity to do it differently. So let me end with this. James 1, verses 6 through 8. This is what we're supposed to do when we come and ask for generosity. James says, but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. God does not want to share the altar with Google. He doesn't want you being like, I trust you God, and if it doesn't work, I'll Google it. God is plan A, B, C, D, E. God is the plan. When you experience suffering of many kinds, yes, you can do other things, but your plan A is always, but I gotta take it to God. I have to process this with Him. Counseling is great, it's not gonna be enough. Finances are great, it's not gonna be enough. Everything follows after I take it to Almighty God. So here is the process. Here is how you do it. If you've never done it before, try them. Try them. Like, like honestly, try taking it to him one-on-one. Get in a room where it's quiet. Get a journal. That's why we gave them to you. Write it out. Say it out loud. However, you need to process it, let him have it. And sometimes I mean let him have it. It's not always like, I let him like you can let him have it. He's big. You're not. Take your best shot. Try him. Test him. Took my anger. You still love me. You still stuck around. You're still processing this with me. You're I'm given some peace to replace my anger. Yeah. And the last part is trust him. Okay. You've done this before for me. Why would you let me down now? I I've seen how you've done it for other people who've entered into this process of giving it to you. And I think you can do it for me. Trust him. Many of us get our suffering practices from honestly our friends and family. We do it from how other people we see do it. That's how mom and dad did it. They just stuffed it down, or they distracted, or they blah, they threw pity parties all the time. Anyone? Please don't show hands. We've got a lot of families in here. But what happened when you became a Christian is you were brought into the family of God. And the family of God takes problems to the Father. So he supersedes. You can start a new way of processing pain and suffering in your family. If it hasn't been working up to this point, why is it going to start working now? Trust in him alone. This is that parable. That famous parable of the man who built his house on sand and the other one that built his house on rock. Some of us in the church are trying to build our house half on rock, half on sand. don't know if I trust the rock enough. Well, that way when the storm comes, only half your house is destroyed. That's still not a livable house. Trust in God alone. Build your foundation on him, on someone who will never waver, who is unmovable, who is unshakable. That when you feel unsteady, you trust in him. You give it to him, you process it with him. And watch, this is my last thing. It's gonna sound blasphemous, but hear it out to the end. Bible study will only take you so far. Church attendance will only take you so far. Serving your neighbor will only take you so far. There is no replacement for suffering. Because it requires you to trust God in a way those don't. But watch this. When you suffer and trust God and grow deeper, that Bible study time is so much richer. That generosity of your heart is so much deeper. And loving your neighbor is so much easier because it's flowing from a source outside of yourself. They can only take you so far. There is no replacement for suffering that drives you into the arms of God. So here's how we're gonna end it. I'm gonna invite the band to come forward and we're gonna leave this prompt on the screen for a little bit. I've just unloaded a lot of James for you all. It's a lot to process. But the best way to process it is now and is here and is with God. So if you got one of those journals, take it out. Process this. Don't wait till lunch. Make this a practice of your life when you're enduring hard things to take it to God. Here is our prompt. God, how are you trying to grow me? With whatever it is you're going through. How are you trying to grow me? And where do I need to trust in you alone? Are there areas of our life we're not trusting in Him alone? Take some time. The band's just gonna kind of play some instrumental music in the background, and then after a few minutes, we're gonna stand or close and worship. Let us pray, friends. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth from your servant James. And we thank you, God, that instead of just leaving us to say, Well, none of those things work, figure it out. You say, the only thing that works is coming to the healer. The only thing that works is taking suffering to a suffering God. to take our burdens, to take our suffering and give us joy, to give us peace, to give us healing, to give us wholeness. That only happens when we take it to you for a beautiful exchange. So Lord, we give it to you. It's your name we pray. Amen. Friends, take some time, fill out that prompt before we sing.