James 1:9-12

Hello, I am Anthony Garcia.

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God's word, it gives us a proper perspective on all things in life.

We need the word of God in our lives to understand how things work, how this life is meant to be.

And one of the things that God gives us within His Word is He gives us a proper perspective of difficulties, a proper perspective of trials, a proper perspective of suffering.

It's only by God's grace that we can endure difficult trials, the sudden loss of a loved one, the physical ailments, pains, diagnoses that we get, that plague our bodies, the lack of resources, the daily grind, a broken relationship, all these things that we carry, that are real, that we face in this life.

Without the word of God, we will be lost in these storms.

We will be tossed about.

And let's look to the word of God today.

What does the scripture teach?

And for sake of context, as we finish this section, let's go all the way back to verse number two, and we're gonna read verse number two down through verse number 12.

Here's what James writes.

He says, My brethren, fellow Christians, fellow believers, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, various trials.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect or mature and entire, lacking or wanting nothing.

We looked at these verses last week.

If any of you lack wisdom, or what James is saying here in a nice way, since you so obviously lack wisdom in this situation, we need to let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and it shall be given him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.

Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

A double-minded man, he's unstable, he doesn't have peace, he's unstable in all his ways.

This is our text for this morning now, verse number nine.

Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low, because is the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

For the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

Verse number twelve.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.

For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer this morning.

As I pray out loud, would you pray in your heart today and ask the Lord to speak to you through his word?

And let's have our hearts set on him and focus on what he desires to give us today.

Lord, I thank you again for your goodness to us.

What an opportunity to gather together in your name under your word.

And Lord, I come before you this morning as a sinner, as a as a weak individual, as a weak pastor, as a weak preacher, Lord, and I need your help today, as I always do, Lord, as I teach your word this morning, God, I need you to supernaturally empower it.

Lord, to speak to the flock today.

Lord, to feed us with your word so that our hearts might be changed, so that we might live this life the way you intended.

And God, we are helpless unless you help us, Lord.

We need you to help us this morning to change, to grow, to be touched by your word today.

I pray that we would not leave this gathering unchanged.

I pray that we would not leave this gathering unaffected by your word, but that God, this morning, you would take these scriptures and you would pierce our hearts.

Oh God, I pray, Lord, for anyone that's here this morning that's not saved, that God, today they would know your love.

Today they would know the truth.

Today they would know salvation, God.

Lord, I pray for the saints that you would grow us in your grace, that you would help us to be more and more like you and look forward more and more to that day where we will see you face to face, Jesus.

Thank you for your grace on our lives.

Thank you for the trials in our lives that mature us, that grow us.

We need your help today.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Thank you so much for standing.

You might be familiar with this name.

This hymn writer, Horatio G.

Spafford.

He faced a tragedy, a trial that I could not begin to comprehend.

For on December 2nd, 1873, his wife Anna Spafford sent him a telegram with just two words.

Saved alone.

His wife Anna had taken their four little girls on a trip, on a ship, and they were out to sea, and this ship crashed into another ship to where this mother had lost her four little girls.

She was able to just telegram these two words, saved alone.

Can you imagine the weight, the suffering, the grief that she carried on that day?

You imagine how it hit Horatio Spafford as he considered his four little girls following the tragedy.

Anna Spafford said this.

She said, as she was relaying what took place in the shipwreck.

She said, I had no vision during the struggle in the water at the time of the shipwreck.

Only the conviction that any earnest soul brought face to face with its maker must have.

I realized that my Christianity must be real.

There was no room here for self-pity or for the practice of that Christianity that always favors and condones itself and its own.

Nothing but a robust Christianity can save me then and now.

There was nothing that could help her in this desperate situation other than the fact that she knew Christ.

She needed him in this moment.

She needed to know him for herself, and she needed to know him for comfort in this time of grief.

Christ is the only one who can make sense of the trial.

Mr.

Horatio Spafford, it was in the light of this horrific tragedy that he wrote the hymn, It is well with my soul.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, whatever comes to me in life, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

The second verse, though Satan should buff it, though trial should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood from my soul.

It is well with my soul.

It is well, it is well with my soul.

It is only through Christ that we can endure the trials that this life inflicts.

And what we see today in the text is that every trial it has a blessing when we endure it by God's grace.

Every trial, though we may not see it on this side of life, every trial it has a blessing when we endure it by God's grace, and we can only endure it by God's grace.

We can only endure it as Christ is walking alongside with us.

And so James gives us this mini sermon on trials from verse number two through verse number 12, and as we established the Christians that he is writing to were familiar with trials, they were familiar with affliction, they were familiar with difficulties in this life.

So we're gonna note just a few thoughts concerning trials this morning.

Number one, trials, they burden our hearts with real cares.

The fact is that trials are some that trials are something that we must endure, teaches us that the trial is real, the pain is real, the hurt is real.

It's not something that we can just be numb to and say, well, you know, just get over it, but it is something that when we feel it, when we endure it, when we go through it, it is something that is very real.

And if you've gone through a particular storm, you know that burden, you know that it brings real care into your life.

But the but the the important thing that we must realize this morning is that we can approach the trial, we can efface the trial that's very real.

I'm not diminishing the pain, we can approach it in an unbiblical way, and we can approach it in a biblical way, one or the other.

We're not diminishing the pain because it is something that you have to endure.

The very definition of having to endure means that it is difficult.

In John 11, the Bible tells us that Jesus, the shortest verse in the Bible, it says, Jesus wept.

Why was Jesus weeping?

There is his friend, a dear friend, Lazarus, who had died, and he was about to raise him from the dead, but Jesus wept, and uh the very real pain of what death brings, what loss brings, what grief brings, that it is a very real pain, and it's not something that we could just avoid and hide from, but it's something that we go through, and we have to go through it with Jesus.

Jesus wept with Mary and Martha, his sisters.

Jesus wept with the people that were there who you consider Christ at the Garden of Gethsemane when he's getting ready to endure the greatest trial of all time, when he's getting ready to go to the cross of Calvary, he's praying and he's saying, Father, if it if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.

But but not my will, your will be done.

And he's under intense pressure, intense stress, intense difficulty there.

Romans 12, 15 tells us as believers, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.

We have seasons of rejoicing and excitement, and we have seasons where we feel the pains of this world, the real trials that this life brings.

The real grief and confrontation with loss.

There are appropriate times to grieve with those who grieve loss, to weep with those who are facing a particularly difficult trial because trials are real, the pain is real, the hurt is real.

But we're called to respond to it in a proper way.

Job may be one of the great examples in all the scripture.

For when Job lost his family, his wealth, when he lost everything in a moment's notice, Job went as one that mourned.

He rent his mantle, the Bible says.

He shaved his head, he fell down on the ground.

He is in a position of one that was grieving, that was suffering loss.

And yet, in the same verse, it tells us that he worships.

He takes the grief, he takes the pain, he takes the trial to God's throne, and he worships the Lord.

And he identifies and he says, I've gotten all these good gifts from the Lord, and the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, but I'm gonna continue to worship my Lord.

And in this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

He grieved the loss of his children, he grieved the loss of his wealth, he grieved the loss of his life as he knew it, and yet he worshiped.

First Peter tells us in chapter number five, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

Verse number seven, casting all your care upon him because he cares for you.

He actually is concerned about you.

He cares for you, he wants to be there with you through the trial.

And so as we speak concerning the trials of life, we're not dismissing the fact that they can cause real pain, real difficulty, real sorrow.

But what Pastor James commends us to do here in James 1 is to allow the trials of life to produce something better.

In us, through us, and in the next life to come.

Because here is the reality of trials.

What trials do, number two, is trials build up our hearts to the eternal.

Or trials point our hearts to that which is eternal.

Because in the text here, in verse number uh nine and 10 and 11, James is addressing two groups of people.

The brother of low degree, he says in verse number nine, let the brother of low degree.

This is one who lives in a humble estate.

They don't have much monetarily, they don't have much uh uh in terms of materials, they they they don't have much in this life.

And then he addresses those that are rich as well in verse number 10.

So the brother of low degree, those that are in poverty, those that are poor, and then verse number 10, but the rich.

Now we must be careful as we uh uh um not to assign godliness to one group or the other.

We have to be careful because sometimes people make this equation that because you have little in this life, you must be living ungodly, otherwise God would bless you with wealth.

Okay, so sometimes that's not, and that's not necessarily true.

That's not necessarily what the Bible teaches.

Sometimes people make this equation that, so because you're poor, you must be ungodly, or sometimes people make this equation on the other side.

Because you have much, because you're rich, you must be crooked and you must be ungodly.

A godly person, one who knows the Lord, one who walks with Christ, could be in this life rich or poor.

Sometimes we find uh in this life there's someone that's godly that knows the Lord and they don't have much in this life.

And other times you find that there are those that are godly and they know the Lord and they have much in this life.

It's a different stewardship.

The Bible is filled with both those who knew the Lord though they had nothing, and those who knew the Lord though they had amazing wealth.

Think about Abraham in the Old Testament.

Abraham, David, Solomon, some of the richest men in the Old Testament.

Think about Joseph, who served as second in command.

Think about Daniel, who was risen up to third in the kingdom.

Think about uh Zacchaeus, who he would have had a lot of money as a tax collector and he would have had great wealth.

Think about Lydia over in the New Testament in the book of Acts, who she was a businesswoman and she was a seller of purple.

And so you have examples of those that had great wealth and they knew the Lord.

And yet, at the same time, you have examples of the latter.

Think about Jesus, who had no place to lay his head, who wandered from village to village, from city to city, preaching the good news.

Think about Paul, who suffered greatly, who there were times where he was fasting not by choice, but because he didn't have any food.

And there were times where he was placed in prison, and there were times where you look at him and he didn't have much.

Think about Luke, where it talks about Lazarus, the beggar who was placed at the rich man's gate.

And though he longed to just have some of the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and he didn't have much, but he was comforted in the next life.

And so you have even Peter and John, disciples of Christ, who, as they were walking towards the temple, there was a man that was there, and he asked for some silver, and they said, With silver and gold have we none, but such as we have, give I you.

And they didn't have any wealth, they didn't have any money with them to give to this man.

And so all of these individuals, you have both wealthy and unwealthy.

And so we have to be careful not to assign godliness or not to assign God's favor based off of monetary standing.

But a part of trials, what they do for both groups, for those that find themselves that they lack, they don't have a lot in this life, and for those that find that they have a lot in this life.

For both groups, what trials do is they're meant to focus our hearts, to build up our hearts to that which is eternal.

The brother of low degree, James says, He can rejoice in that he is exalted.

He can rejoice in that he is lifted up, that he has an eternal placement if he knows the Lord, that cannot be taken away from him.

He may not have much in this life, he may not have the extravagant wealth that he sees other people have, but he has something that cannot be taken away from him, that is true, eternal riches that are forever and ever.

And so the one that is poor, that doesn't have much in this life, they can, yes, that we might struggle, we might have these trials, but our poverty is meant to point us to something that is eternal, to something that is better.

These Christians, we're living right there in James chapter number one.

Because if you remember, these are brothers that are scattered abroad, they've been kicked out of their homes, they've been kicked out of their home city, they've had to make a new life, they've had to start all over.

Now, I don't remember much of it because I was so little, but when we had the house fire when I was around maybe Anderson's age, and uh the the fire was so bad that it either burnt up our possessions or the water damaged it from putting Out the fire or the smoke damaged it with some of the stuff that was preserved, but the smoke had damaged it so greatly that we couldn't keep it.

There's a season there of great trial in my family's life where you essentially had to start all over.

That's where these Christians are at.

They don't have much materially, they don't have much in the sense of great riches and great wealth here.

And what James writes to these believers is not just complain about the empire.

Man, if these Romans would just get the right emperor on board, then all our problems would be taken care of.

Man, if this economy would just fix itself, if this would just happen, then our lives would be better.

Then we'd actually be able to make it.

No, no, James doesn't write to them and say, complain about your situation, your lot in life.

And often we complain about so much that the rest of the world would never dream of enjoying.

I've taken trips to Honduras, I've taken trips to Nicaragua, where you see the living conditions are far less than what we have here in the United States.

And so we did not tell them to complain about the empire, nor did Pastor James write to these Christians abroad and say, send me some money, and I'll send you a prayer cloth that I've prayed over, and I'm going to bless you fourfold.

And this is what's going to happen.

You're going to have wealth and success and prosperity.

Just send me a little bit of a fund on your next visit.

That is not what Pastor James says as well.

No, no.

James writes to them, and he doesn't even tell them that their life is going to get better in this world.

He doesn't even tell them that, yeah, yeah, yeah, your poverty's here for now, but it's gonna get better later on.

You just gotta rebuild, and it'll take, you know, two, three, five years, but you're gonna be okay.

No, Pastor James didn't even write that.

You see, the reality of the first century existence was that if you were poor, you were poor for life.

If you were in poverty, that was your life.

That was how it was.

That was how it was gonna be.

Now we live in a very blessed nation economically.

And while it's not perfect, no one's saying it's perfect.

We live in a nation where where we can make a better life.

Though it might be becoming increasingly difficult, it's not impossible.

And yet James doesn't write as we sometimes think in our American way of thinking, in our American dream of thinking.

He does not write to them that their poverty is temporarily and that eventually they're gonna have these riches here on earth.

No, he writes to them to rejoice, to look to eternal things.

Rejoice in that you are going to be exalted in the resurrection, in the eternity, in heaven.

You may not have much in this life, but there are circumstances that are gonna change, and one day in heaven, you will have great wealth.

Perhaps our life in this life will never be one of extravagance, one of wealth.

Perhaps we are like these brothers who are facing poverty, but they could rejoice in their exaltation in Christ.

Their exaltation may not be in this life but the next.

And that is only because they were brothers and sisters in Christ.

That was only because they were poor, yes, materially, but all of us are poor spiritually.

The fact of the matter is that there is no one that can work their way to heaven.

There is no one that can earn a spot with God.

It is by grace that we are saved through Jesus Christ.

Jesus was willing to become poor for our sakes, to take on the suffering of the cross so that we might be saved.

Their salvation was not because they were born wealthy, their salvation was not because of anything that they could give to the Lord or add value to the Lord, but it was because Jesus was willing to leave the riches of heaven in order to die on the cruel cross of Calvary for you and for me.

Salvation is found in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone.

It is not found in our own good works or what we can give to God as though we can merit salvation.

Even if we don't have much in this life, we actually have much when we know Jesus Christ.

We have enough.

But what Jesus, what James says in this trial is to rejoice in your exaltation, to rejoice in your position in Christ.

You and I, we can rejoice in our position in Christ.

Do you know Jesus?

Then the Bible says that you are seated in the heavenlies.

The Bible says that you are a chosen individual.

There's a chosen priesthood, that you are set apart, that you are a saint, that you are his child, that you have been adopted into the richest family of all the earth because it is in Christ Jesus who holds all things together, who owns everything, who lacks for nothing.

And if you know Jesus Christ, then you can rejoice today, maybe not in your circumstances of life.

And can I say this isn't just dealing, we can apply this further because your circumstances in life, they might be fine financially, but they might be difficult in your health.

Okay, and so if you have great poverty in your health, or you have a great poverty in this other area of life that you're dealing with, you can rejoice, maybe not in the circumstances that you find yourself in, but in the position that you have through Jesus.

Rejoice in your position in Christ.

Rejoice in your possession in the next life.

We get all excited about our possessions here in this life, right?

We get all excited about the new gadget and the new thing and this, that, and the other, right?

And we get excited about it, and my kiddos get excited about it on Christmas, right?

And we we do the gifts and everything like that, and they get so excited about opening up those new presents or getting a new toy, right?

And then what happens one hour later?

One day later, not as excited anymore about that new toy, right?

One week later, maybe one month, they pull it back out again and they get it.

We get excited about those things.

They're so temporary, and they provide a little dopamine hit for us in the in the immediate, but ultimately none of those possessions that we have are going with us, are they?

Can't bring them along.

Can't bring them with us, they're all gonna burn up.

So rejoice in the possessions in the next life.

Because the fact of the matter is that the house in this world, it can burn burn down.

The money that you have in this world, it can be stolen.

Hey, your car, it can break down, your stuff, it can be destroyed.

So don't live your life for the things of this world that will not last, but rather set your heart, set your affection on the possessions of heaven that will never rust, that will never be stolen, that will last forever and ever.

John 14, Jesus says, Let not your heart be troubled.

Ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my father's house, in heaven, in eternity, there are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.

And whither I go, ye know, and the way you know.

How do we get there?

How do we know that we have eternal treasure, eternal possession by having faith in Jesus Christ alone?

And if you know Jesus, your possessions in this life might be taken away.

Your health in this life might be taken away.

We will lose loved ones, we will grieve the loss that this life brings.

But in the next, that Jesus is preparing, that Jesus is making a home for us.

It will not be taken away.

We will live there forever and ever with Jesus Christ.

So, where's your affection today?

What are you rejoicing in today?

Rejoice in your possessions in the next life.

Rejoice in your position in Jesus.

Trials, they build our hearts to the eternal.

Can I say this as well?

Rejoice that this life is temporary.

That seems kind of backwards, right?

A lot of time we want to live as long as I'm not saying I want I'm not saying you don't want to live a long life, right?

But usually we're like, man, as much as I can maximize in this life, man, I want to live too this many years old, right?

And there's even different people who, man, they're doing studies and they're trying to do everything they can to prolong their life in this world, in this earth.

Can I say, as Christians, you know Jesus Christ is your Savior?

Rejoice that this life is temporary.

We're not gonna live here forever.

We're not gonna face the trials, the tribulations, the difficulties, the suffering forever.

It is for a moment and it is a small moment because later James says that your life is like a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.

It is here and then it's gone.

And so we can rejoice that this life is temporary because we're not going to always suffer.

We're not gonna always deal with the pains and the difficulties that this world brings.

But if you don't know Jesus, this doesn't make sense at all.

If you don't know Jesus, then life is all about the here and now.

Life is all about what you can get in here and now, the experiences that you can have, the wealth that you can build, the things that you can do, the prolonging of your life, the prolonging of your health.

Life is all about the here and now if you don't know Christ.

But if you know Jesus, then we rejoice, Jesus, that this life is temporary and this life isn't all there is.

Then one day I'm gonna see you face to face, and you're gonna take all the pain away.

Rejoice.

We look forward to Jesus' return.

The one who is rich.

But the rich in that he is made low.

Because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away.

The brother of low degree can rejoice in his exaltation.

Though he's poor, Christ has made him rich.

The one who is rich should rejoice in his humiliation.

That your wealth, your status, it may have brought you success in this life, but the only way to be prepared for the next life is by being brought low.

That Jesus, I have nothing to offer you.

Jesus, I can't earn my way to heaven.

Jesus, I can't buy my way into heaven.

Jesus, I'm rejoicing because I've been brought low.

Zacchaeus, he had to rejoice in him being brought low.

He had status, he had wealth, he had everything in that day and age that money could buy, right?

But when Jesus passed through, he rejoiced that Jesus took him home and said, Zacchaeus, I'm down, I'm going to your house today.

He said, Well, Lord, I repent of all that I've ever done.

Lord, I'm believing on you, I'm following after you.

That had to be a place of humility.

That actually I can't solve all my problems, especially this issue of eternity, that actually I need you, Jesus.

So the rich rejoice in their humility and being brought low, because as the flower of the grass, he shall pass away.

And the word of God alludes to this in a couple different places in Isaiah and in Psalms.

But the picture, the metaphor that James gives us is that for the sun is no sooner risen with the burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth.

So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

This life is here and it's gone.

Doesn't matter where we find ourselves at economically.

Humiliation is bringing us low.

If you're rich and you don't know Jesus as a savior, the only hope you have is been being brought low.

If you're rich and you know Jesus as your Savior, the rejoicing that you must set your heart on this morning is on Christ and the next life.

Rejoice in the humiliation.

Rejoice in the lowliness that brought you to the Savior.

Don't just rejoice in the things of this world.

Don't just rejoice in what money can buy now.

Rejoice rather in that which is everlasting.

Here's the fact of life: if you're rich or poor, we are like the grass that withers and the flower that fades.

We are finite.

It's short, it will end, we will be here, and we will be gone.

You can build up this life and neglect or forget God.

In Proverbs, I believe there's a wise prayer here.

Proverbs chapter number 30 and verse number 7: two things have I required of thee.

Deny me them not before I die.

Remove far from me vanity and lies.

Give me neither poverty nor riches.

Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be fool and deny thee.

So the Lord keep me from great riches so much that I'm fool and I deny thee, and I say, Who is the Lord?

I don't need God.

Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain.

The temptation to deny God is real for everyone.

If you have great wealth, the temptation is there to think, I don't really need God in my life.

Everything's going smooth, everything's going good, things are fine.

If you have little, the temptation is to deny God and take matters into your own hands.

Well, since God isn't really good and God isn't really providing, then I'm gonna figure this out my own way, even if it breaks his law.

And so the prayer that this man in Proverbs gives is, Lord, keep me.

Really, what he's asking for is for the Lord to keep his heart from denying the Lord in either capacity.

The temptation to deny God is real for everyone.

The trial that you're facing, the trials in life that you're facing can be used for great good in your life when you recognize this necessity of living life for the next one.

Not for this one.

This life is temporary, it is short.

Last thought this morning will be short on this last point.

Trials bless the life of those who endure.

Trials, they bless the life of those who endure.

Because this is what he says in verse number 12.

It's like a beatitude here.

He says, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.

Happy is the man.

You are blessed when you endure temptation, when you endure trials.

For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Again, James focuses us on eternal things.

He focuses us on the eternal.

He said, Blessed, you're blessed.

Now it doesn't seem like it.

If we don't know the word of God and we don't know what the scripture teaches, then we might think there's no way I'm blessed.

I'm going through this trial, I'm going through this difficulty, I have to struggle through this and endure this.

This is the worst.

I'm miserable.

But if you look at the scripture and we allow the word of God to renew our hearts, oh, blessed is the man that endureth temptation.

Because when he's tried, there's a crown of life.

When I endure this trial, I endure this affliction, I endure what God has allowed in my life.

There's a crown of life ahead.

To wrap up this section of trials, Pastor James gives us something to look forward to.

We're blessed when we endure trials because there's a crown of life.

The crown in mind here, it would have been similar to that which the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote 1 Corinthians 9, 24 through 27.

It's the picture of a beam a seat judgment.

They would have different sort of events and games near Corinth.

They would held every two years, kind of similar as we would think of the Olympic Games, right?

Running events, wrestling, boxing, horse and chariot races.

And the winners, what they would receive is they would receive this crown.

Either a pine wreath crown or a celery wreath crown or an olive wreath crown.

And what Paul and James likely drew from in these writings were these kind of games, and they're addressing these Christians and encouraging them towards eternity that if you endure the trial, you endure the trial, you will receive this crown and really be pleasing to your Lord, to whom you love.

This last year in February, I ran a 10K.

I can't call it running, alright?

I jogged and walked a 10K.

And I struggled.

And I struggled and I finally got to the finish line, right?

They give you this is a pretty cool medal, right?

They give you this medal, and and what they give you this medal for, this one was because I got first place.

No, just kidding.

I didn't even get close to first place.

I didn't I don't even know what place I was.

I'd have to go look at the email.

It was way in the back, right?

But they give you this medal when you finish.

You endured that 6.2 miles and you finish.

I endured, I walked it, I jogged it, I thought about walking away from it a few times, right?

And if you look up some of the pictures of me, I look miserable.

I was struggling.

But I endured it and I finished it.

I was presented with this medal.

Sometimes we get competitive or we compare, right?

Well, I'm going through all these difficult trials, and that person over there, they don't have anything that they're facing.

Well, it's not a competition between one another.

God is going to give you the crown of life for enduring and finishing the trial that he's allowed to come into your life.

It says, this is for those that love him.

You see, our love for him, it's only because he first loved us.

And if we know that he first loved us, then we can extend that love back to him and say, Lord, I love you.

Again, it's alluding to, like we talked about last week, that we don't want this double-mindedness.

That I'm kind of living for God, but I'm kind of living and doing things my own way too.

No, it's a it's a single-mindedness, it's a love that says, God, I love you.

And whether the trial is removed, I'm still gonna love you, Lord.

Whether you remove it tomorrow or not, God, I'm still gonna follow you.

I'm still gonna endure, I'm still gonna go to the finish, and I'm gonna limp along, but Lord, I'm gonna trust you in it because I love you.

And to those that love him and you endure those trials, well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Here is the crown of life.

In the Corinthians passage, Paul talked about they are willing to struggle and go through these races in endurance for a crown that's temporary, but we for one that's incorruptible, that will last throughout eternity.

So, Christian, I know in this room, I know, as we said, the old adage you're either in a trial, you're either in a storm, you're getting ready to get into one, or you just came out of one, right?

You're either in a trial this morning, or you're getting prepared for one, or you maybe just came out of one.

Christian, by God's grace, endure that trial.

In order to endure, you have to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

In order to endure, you have to look ahead to heaven.

You have to look ahead.

You have to by faith know that it will be worth it.

Know that the struggle is real, that the pain is real, but God provides grace through it.

And you're willing to endure in love towards him.

You're willing to endure knowing that he is with you, that he will strengthen you, that he will help you.

You might struggle through it, but by God's grace, Christian, endure.

And we look forward to the crown of life that he will present to all those that endured the trying of their faith in love for him.

Let's pray together, church family.

Why don't you take a moment there and I hope this message was a blessing to you.

If you are in the Phoenix area, we would love to have you come in for a visit.

We're located on Indian School and 23rd Avenue.

And if we can be a help to you in any other way, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

I would love to answer any questions that you had about the sermon, or maybe a question that you have about eternal life and a relationship with God.

We're here to serve you and to point you to Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for watching this message.