The Necessity of Trials

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God, there's a lot of people in this room that are singing those verses loud, if not in volume in our hearts, because we've leaned on things that were temporary.

We leaned on things that fell apart.

And God, what you did was you revealed yourself.

You were patient enough to say, lean on me.

And God, because of that, we are secured in your love for us.

We are secured in the life that you've called us to.

God, don't ever let us move away from the secure arms that hold us.

And so, God, what we say this morning is enter in.

Let your spirit be active in this place.

Speak to and through us individually and collectively in ways that would change our minds and our hearts so that it changes our lives, so that we're able to demonstrate to others.

Leaning on the everlasting arms is the only arms we'll ever need.

We thank you for that.

We ask these things in your son's name.

Amen.

Well, good morning.

My name is Wade Burgess, and I'm the executive pastor here.

And uh, if you're visiting with us, then we've taken a little bit of a break from preaching through the book of Acts.

We've set aside the month of July to talk about a sermon series entitled Simple Truths, Big Difference.

And the reason we've done that is that there are certain things, if we can get our hearts around, these simple truths of the Bible, if we can get our hearts attached to those, then it makes a big difference in our minds and in our lives.

Now, our teaching pastor, Leo Almeida, has been walking us through that series thus far.

Leo preached on the Word of God.

He talked about how God is the greatest.

And last week he gave us this idea that our new identity is glorious based on what Jesus has done for us.

Now, this week, and I'm not sure who assigns these preaching assignments, but I get trials.

Usually what happens with me in a trial is I learn about three new curse words, and then I move on, and maybe that's exactly why I've got trials today.

So we're gonna look at the uh first chapter of James.

If you've got your Bibles with you, go ahead and start turning there to that New Testament book just after Hebrews.

We'll be in James chapter one.

If you don't have your Bibles, it'll come up on the screen behind me.

And let's see about this simple truth.

I will tell you right up front.

James, I don't know.

This seems a little bit more complicated than simple to me, but let's see if we can get our hearts around this so we can affect our minds with this.

James chapter 1, verse 1.

James 1:1

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion.

Greetings.

Count at all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let that steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for those who doubt is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with its scorching Texas heat and weathers the grass, its flower falls and its beauty perishes.

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.

For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Well, there's a lot in those twelve verses, and I'm hoping you will indulge me in a section of this this morning.

We're gonna do a little teaching, we're gonna talk about some definitions, and then I'm gonna attempt to do a little bit of preaching.

Now, what I did was I went out and I got me one of them key word Bibles.

This key word Bible, what it does is it gives you a bridge from the English and the original words of the Bible.

So it kind of helps us better understand the definition.

What was James writing?

What was he meaning by using these certain words?

And so if you'll bear with me, I want to walk through some of those definitions.

And I think it's important for us to do so because if we have the right understanding what James was really trying to tell us, then we'll better understand what he's telling us and therefore be able to live that out.

So let's take a look.

We're gonna go through a few of these words here.

Notice verses two through four.

Let me read those again.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The first word I want us to look at, uh, this translation, the ESV calls it jo all, but some translations call it pure.

Count it all or count it pure.

The idea there is it's solid, it's through and through.

Think about the uh chocolate Easter bunny that when you bite off his ears, it's chocolate.

You keep eating, it's always chocolate until you're done.

That's what this word pure, James, was trying to give us a picture of.

It is solid, through and through.

The second word there is joy.

It's just a gladness of heart.

It's in deep down places you don't talk about at parties where you understand this has nothing to do with circumstance or consequence.

We're gonna get to more about what it has to do in just a minute.

And then this idea of meet, some translations have face.

This, it's not going in the other way.

It's not avoidance, but instead it's a path toward each other.

Me and trial.

We're also gonna unpack that idea in just a moment.

What about this word trials?

I mean, isn't that the whole thing James is hinging this on?

So let's understand that definition, trial.

It's for the purpose of testing.

Now, don't get this confused.

James writes a little bit later that God does not tempt us in order to cause us to stumble.

God tests us not to make us fall, but instead to build us up, to make us stronger.

So when you think about this idea of testing, that is not temptation.

Think about this.

It's the Olympic trials.

Think about those athletes that are getting ready to compete and they compete in this Olympic trial.

They are not trying to be stumbled, they're not suffering, they're not going through temptation.

They are being tested.

Why?

Because if they do well at that level, oh then that next one's coming, right?

The Olympics.

That's my goal.

I get to then show what I'm made of, what I've been training for, and what I'm competing for.

That's the word picture we should think about related to this idea of trials.

And then this testing.

Why would it test us?

If it's not temptation, what does it do?

It's a purification process.

It's refinement.

It's like this, it's proof of genuineness.

And then faith.

Faith, it's a belief in truth or the true reality.

Get this now, it's not based on feeling.

Feelings are a very powerful thing, but they're temporary.

We know that just from today.

How did I feel this morning when I got up versus how do I feel now after 40 cups of coffee?

It's the difference between feeling versus believing in truth, the true reality, the thing that I can hang on to, the thing that I can anchor to.

And then this idea of steadfastness.

Some will have perseverance in their text, but perseverance, steadfastness, it's the idea of bearing up under endurance.

I I like this uh word phrase here.

It says the quality of character that does not allow one to surrender to circumstance.

The quality of character that does not allow one to surrender to circumstance.

Just a little footnote here.

You should be able to put up with more, suffer more, testing more, the longer you're a Christian.

If you're still finding yourself in those same places with the same reactions over and over, and you've been a Christian a while, maybe that idea of perseverance is something you ought to look into more.

We should be improving the longer we're a Christian.

Now think of perseverance, something like this.

In order to get muscles as big as mine, what you yeah, let me get you a picture over there.

What you have to do is you've got to put that muscle under tension for a while.

It's what personal trainers call time under tension.

This idea of endurance is I'm gonna make those muscles work for a longer period of time.

And as I do so, they're gonna grow, they're gonna get stronger.

That's the word picture of this perseverance, this steadfastness, this endurance that I'm going through.

Now, if you'll let me and it not get me kicked out of any kind of preacher's club, I want to read these verses again based on the way we've just defined them.

Stay with me and listen to this.

Count it solid gladness of heart, my brothers, when you meet tests of various kinds, for you know that the purification process that you are going through is to be true, producing endurance in circumstances, and let endurance have its full effect, that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.

Now, some of you right now are thinking, Wade, definitions are great.

I really appreciate that.

That's so good that you can read the keyword Bible.

That's awesome.

What in the world is that gonna do for me when I might, my car breaks down and I'm stranding on the side of the road?

What in the world are these definitions gonna do for me when at the end of my month and my money's all gone, I still got bills looking at me?

What is it that I'm supposed to do when maybe I go to school and I failed the test that I studied so hard for?

What are these definitions gonna do?

I promise you, these aren't gonna be on your English test.

Well, let's take a look.

What was James trying to tell us we're supposed to do?

If we're clear about what he was saying, let's be clear about what we do.

The what, consider it pure joy, but how is the tough part.

When trials come, well, first we have to meet them head on.

I told you we'd unpack that a little bit more.

And here's the idea.

Uh, when we're introduced to someone, I I used to do this, I don't do this anymore, but I used to do this because of the business I was in.

It was uh somewhat in sales.

And so every time I met someone, I had this thought go through my mind, what can you do for me?

I know, none of you do that.

But for those that might, somewhere else, that attend other churches, this idea of when we meet trials, think of this.

Let's just pretend for just a second that we're all in sales and this room is full of customers, okay?

We are not going to shy away from them.

What are we gonna do?

We're gonna walk over to them and say, hey, nice to meet you.

And you're asking yourself, at least in your mind, what can this person do for me?

And how can I help them?

Because if I help them, they're gonna help me.

That's the idea here, but by this meeting.

We're gonna walk up to trials and go, nice to meet you.

By the way, if you've lived longer than about five minutes, you know, uh, that's a lot easier said than done.

But that's the challenge that James gives us.

He says, let's not go the other way, let's meet them head on.

Because we'll know the benefits that those trials will produce.

If I know the benefit of it, I might be a little bit more eager to extend my hand toward those trials.

Now, let's dig just a little bit deeper and see if we can mine what else James is telling us to do.

And I think in order to mine a little deeper, we've got to look at verses five and eight and then nine and eleven.

Now, if you're not careful, when you first read or first heard that, you might be thinking, well, man, James has gone off on some kind of tangent.

He's chased a rabbit over here.

He's talking about this and that.

What in the world does this have to do with trials?

I think he's on something.

Let's take a look.

Look at verse five with me.

It says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

Lacks wisdom.

Well, that seems to indicate that wisdom is necessary.

Wisdom, an understanding beyond our current position.

An understanding beyond our current position is needed in order to not only comprehend, perhaps, but also to get through the what.

And then asking in faith.

Take a look at verse six.

He says, But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

And then he goes on to say this for the person must not suppose that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So it's an interesting sequence to me.

We are asking in faith.

This idea of, James says, hey, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to meet trials, and I want you to meet them with joy, with this gladness of heart.

I want you to be ready for them.

And if you need to, ask God for wisdom.

That's what's going to happen.

That's what's going to help you, and it's going to make you stronger.

This idea of that muscled up faith is going to grow.

You notice the connection?

We've got trials coming that are good for us, but if we lack wisdom, then we should ask for it.

And we should do what?

Or by?

We should do it with that muscled up faith that we have because of what the trials did.

Do you see the connection there?

James is not off on a tangent.

No, he's actually kind of digging down deeper here to what we're supposed to do.

So when trials come, we meet them head on, but we also ask for wisdom.

Doubt is introduced as something not just to avoid, he says it's like a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

That's some pretty strong language, James.

You're kind of getting on us a little bit.

Yeah, James means to.

He says, if you doubt, you should not respect to receive anything from God.

There's a linkage between trials in this section because if you've not fully made up your mind about who God is and who you are in the context of who God is, then there is absolutely gonna be some doubt.

And if that doubt exists, guess what's happened?

Those trials are gonna eat you alive.

And when they do, that faith muscle is gonna atrophy.

It's not gonna be what it ought to be.

If you don't make up your mind that God is God, period.

You know, we've heard the, well, my God is a God of love.

He wouldn't hurt anybody, would he?

Yes, he would.

He's the same God from Genesis 1.

He didn't send Jesus because he's like, Whew, Jesus, I got a headache.

These kids are driving me crazy.

You got to go right down there and do something.

And Jesus came down as the nice guy.

No, no, Jesus was just a different facet of God's characters.

He's the same one.

My point is, we'd better understand God is God, period.

And then if we understand who we are in the context of that, well, that's why there's a linkage between you better not doubt.

And if you're not doubting, guess what you get?

Ooh, you get God's full attention.

It says it gives it without any kind of reproach.

Not only that, I think our faith will permeate everything we experience.

So you've got strong faith, it permeates.

You've got weak faith, oh, it absolutely permeates.

My car breaks down, and I'm cussing and fussing, and I don't know why.

Instead, maybe the mechanic was praying for a little bit more business.

Just maybe.

And look, our minds and hearts should be thinking, they should be forming up in us, not with fake sincerity.

Our minds and hearts should be forming up in us that I've made up my mind about who God is.

Therefore, He's trustworthy.

So when I go to the hospital for that thing that I so dread, I'm I can have that gladness of heart.

When I'm retaking that test that I failed, and I'm like, man, they ought to get me.

These teachers made this test.

Maybe, God, you're trying to teach me a little bit more.

When trials come, we should understand that testing is meant to form and affirm.

Now, uh, a couple of weeks ago, we're leaving church and I'm walking out and I notice that there's a broken sprinkler head.

And I don't like broken sprinkler heads because every one of them is a trial.

But I knew this was coming, and so you know what I said to that sprinkler head?

Nice to meet you.

And so I go home.

I'm not gonna change it in the middle of the day, I'm not an idiot.

And so on Sunday evening, I come back about 7:30 and I told my wife, I said, Hey, you want to ride down to church with me?

I've got a real quick sprinkler head fix.

Those of you that are laughing know that those are famous last words.

Her experience has been anytime he fixes the sprinkler, it ends up with mud and an excavator.

But for this one, it was very simple.

I mean, I could see it.

It was right there.

It was easy.

I had the parts.

It's no problem at all.

And so we drive up here and I run over to it, and as I'm about to fix it, I noticed, oh man, there's a bunch of debris and mud down in the supply line.

And so you've got to flush that out.

Oh, yeah, there's no off on this genius switch.

What I do is I take a five-gallon bucket and I put it over the sprinkler head that I'm next to.

You know why I do that?

So when she turns it on, I don't get wet.

Okay.

So I got my five-gallon bucket, I put it over the sprinkler head, and I'm I'm at the back of the building, the sprinkler controls at the front, and I'm on the phone, and I said, Amy, turn on zone two, let's get this thing done.

And I'm down here like this because I got my finger in that hole, right?

Because that's not gonna spray on me.

She turns on zone two, and guess what?

I promise you this a proctologist does not have better aim.

And so I'm telling her, it's not zone two.

Turn it off.

Turn it off.

She turns off zone two.

Now, what I didn't tell you was before we left home, that little voice inside of me said, You sure you want to wear white shorts?

And I said to the voice, Yes, I do.

On the way here, that voice came back to me and said, Are you sure you want to wear white shorts?

And I'm like, Yes, I do.

It's an easy repair, and I could launder these shorts.

This is no problem.

So I'm soaking wet, and I said, I think it's zone three.

She turns on zone three.

Now I've got my finger over the hole.

I need to move my finger just enough to let the debris out.

I move it just to the right amount.

This thing shoots out about 20 feet.

There is mud coming all over.

I thought I was at spindletop.

This thing has gotten in my hair, in my beard.

I am covered in mud, and I'm no longer wearing white shorts.

Now look, here's what I wish I could tell you.

I wish I could tell you that.

I came out of there going, Amy, isn't this awesome?

This is great.

Let's laugh at ourselves.

Instead, I kicked a bucket and I'm like, carchar, mushroom, mushroom, fussing, crossing, mushroom, gossip.

All because I think I'm supposed to be so competent that none of that should happen.

All because I'm concerned, is she gonna judge me that I didn't know what I was doing?

This is the woman I've lived with for 29 years, the one that loves me the most.

You think I should be worried about that?

You think I should be listening to James when he says, let's have a gladness of heart when trials come.

Now look, I recognize it's a silly story about a silly trial.

92% of us would probably say, Wade, that's not a trial.

A trial, maybe, is when the calendar ticks away another day and it marks two years since I've talked to my adult child.

Maybe a trial is when I got that call from the doctor and he said, You're all clear, and then they call back and go, hold on.

I'm not making light of those trials at all, big or small.

They come in various kinds and sizes.

Here's my point about that little silly story.

I can't even get through something as simple as that.

When Amy says to me, Why don't you laugh at yourself?

And I'm like, I'll tell you what you ought to be laughing at.

You're gonna be laughing at walking.

Here's what I believe, and you could argue with me afterwards, and that's this that those big trials, I think we stand up on those pretty good.

I think we do pretty well to rally around those.

I think it's the little things.

Like in about three weeks when you go buy school supplies and everybody else has the same idea, or you've got that repair on the car, or you've got the, you know, a hundred other things you could look at, and you're thinking, yeah, am I gonna bear up under these little ones, those everydays?

And by the way, if you don't believe me, if you're a parent, go home and ask your kids today, hey, when do mom and dad best show that we have gladness of heart when the trials come?

I'd bet$100 in Neil's money that they're gonna say, it's it's in the little things.

They're gonna say, Yeah, mom and dad, you know, when that big thing happened, when so-and-so died, or this or whatever, yeah, you did fine, but boy, isn't that little things?

Mom and dad, I watch you every day, and I get how you feel about gladness of heart.

My point is, no matter the trial, no matter the size, we've got to bear up under them.

We get to show the quality of our Christian character, not based on circumstance.

Now, if we don't think James has also hit a little bit of a tangent here, a little bit of a rabbit trail, I want us to look at verses 9 through 11 as well.

Why is it that he's off on this subject related to trials?

Listen to this.

This is verse 9.

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flowers fall, and its beauty perishes.

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuit.

Now, what in the world does humble and rich have to do with anything related to trials?

I mean, it does sound like James is borrowing a little bit from Ecclesiastes, that Old Testament book, you know, that gives us some of that juxtaposition, or maybe a proverb or something like that.

These flowers will be humble.

Clearly, James is against the rich and he wants them all to die.

That's the point.

No, that's not it at all.

Consider the context of trials in these opposite ends of the spectrum that I think the gospel is so famous for.

These things that don't make sense to us.

Here's the thing.

He's talking about let the lowly man, the poor, rejoice in his exaltation.

And when you hear that, you're like, James, I don't think you've been poor.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Rejoice.

See, it's that kind of attitude that James is trying to get us to subscribe to that the world doesn't understand.

The world absolutely would go along with us, right?

When we win the lottery in Ohio and man, we're ready.

Or when we're poor, the world's like, yeah, man, it stinks.

I'd be mad too.

But what the world doesn't comprehend is when we are glad, even though we're poor.

When we've got more dogs than bones, and we're like, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

But they're looking at you going, oh, that's a little different.

You see how that can be attractional?

You see why James would have said that?

No matter your circumstance, there's a particular way you've got to make your mind and your heart understand who's in charge.

Now, I also think, though, that he says this about this rich and humiliation.

We might get the poor in exultation, like, okay, yeah, I kind of get that.

I get why the world would do it, but man, this is just another example.

The Bible railing against the rich.

It's always talking about not having money.

What in the world is it doing?

No, the Bible has never railed against having money.

It warns what you do with it, it warns how you count on it.

James is saying to those that rely on their money for security or to insulate them from the world, whether it be presidential elections or a woman's right to choose or whatever else is going on, don't we all, if we have it, kind of say, baby, we're gonna be all right as long as this money holds out.

That world's crazy.

James is saying, I'm giving you a warning because it's not gonna last.

He's saying when it all goes wrong and it will, you're gonna find yourself in that position that says, I'd pay everything I have to not make that happen, to not let that go through.

James is talking about, I think, this continued theme that the Bible has always had, when he says, the man in his pursuits.

James is asking us in some sense, what are you pursuing?

Are you pursuing God?

Those everlasting arms that you can lean on, or are you pursuing things that are so temporary, the sun will burn them up?

He's challenging us to put all this into context to say, how can I be glad in trials?

Because I can't count on the things I thought I could count on, and I can count on the things that are pure, that are true, that are true reality based on God.

Let's look at verse 12 as James wraps up this section.

He said, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.

For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Now notice there's no timeline for persevering.

Trials have various links.

We must maintain an obedience, which is really just a long walk in the same direction.

We've got to endure.

There was a study done in the 1950s.

This uh guy had some, you know, grant money and he's trying to figure out what to do with it.

And he says, you know what we ought to study?

We ought to study what happens to rats when you put them in water.

And they're like, what?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We're gonna take this five-gallon bucket, we're gonna put water in it, and then we're gonna put a rat in it, we're gonna see what happens.

He said they go through the test and they look at several rats.

Every one of them lasts on average about 15 minutes before they got so tired they drowned.

Then he changed the test just a little bit.

He let the rat go for about 14 minutes, pulls it out, dries it off.

Only waits about two to three minutes, puts the rat back in the five-gallon bucket full of water.

You know how long that rat lasted?

40 hours.

The difference was that rat said, Hey, I've been rescued, and I know it might come again.

I'm gonna hang on as long as I can.

I think that's us in trials.

I think that's us with James's direction to us.

Hey, you better hang on as long as you can and make sure that you're walking in obedience.

It's a long walk in the same direction.

And some of us ask, God, how long?

But we also ask, is it worth it?

Man, I gotta wait till the end.

Are you kidding me?

I gotta die to get the reward.

Sometimes.

Sometimes we do.

And when you compare this temporary life with that eternity of heaven, I promise you it'll be worth it.

We have to be continually and consistently faithful.

So when trials come, faith will be the bedrock.

Our faith in God, who he is, and who we are in him.

And our consistency will be rewarded.

Now, what are we supposed to do in the waiting?

Life is long.

It's too long for us to wait maybe till the end.

So, what am I supposed to do in the meantime?

Well, the first thing we do is we do not remove ourselves from society, we be ourselves in society.

The preparation for the trial is the key.

Here in this writing, notice James does not really give a further action or prescription as to what to do.

Did you notice that?

He doesn't say, okay, now here's the five P's to prosperity and making sure that we're going to be.

He doesn't do that.

Now, I didn't read any commentaries about why not because I'm hard-headed, but I wanted to stay with my own uh, maybe my own theory on this.

My own theory is James at this point in his writing did not need to give us a prescription because he was assuming the Christians in his day were already doing the no does of faith.

They were already praying consistently.

They were already reading the Bible as they had it consistently.

They were already fasting consistently, they were already worshiping consistently, they were already doing the no does of faith.

James didn't need to tell them that.

I think there's one more thing that we could do, and we've been learning about it, and we will learn more about it as we go through Acts, and that is in times of trial, it's the church.

We should share our struggles with each other.

We should sometimes put our shoulder to shoulder with each other and say, Hey, I'm in this with you.

And every now and then that shoulder is gonna have to get up underneath mine, and it's gonna have to raise me up.

When you're weak, yes, Jesus is strong, but also believes that he shows it through others.

If we had a choir, the one time we would have a choir, I'd have them sing, lean on me right now.

This idea that we need to come alongside each other, and you gotta be known, but you also have to know.

Trials.

The testing of our faith will come, absolutely.

And God is saying, Let your faith get stronger, and I'll give you the wisdom you need in order to live the way I've created you for.

Let me pray.

As I pray, Lindsay's gonna come and she's gonna place something over us.

I want you just to ask yourself, better yet, ask God, God, what did you say to me today?

What is it that I should be considering this morning?

And what should I do about it?

Let me pray for us.

God, it's a strange thing that you've warned us what's coming.

If someone were creating a world and they wanted all their people to be happy, they might surprise them with things.

But instead, God, you know everything all the time.

And here's the great thing about you you don't hide, you say, hey, this is coming.

It's because of a fallen world, because sin has entered in.

But there's some good that's gonna come out of that.

I'm gonna give you some tests because I want you to be stronger.

And hey, if you need anything, all you have to do is ask me.

I'm right here.

Don't struggle and strain, just ask me.

God, I pray that we would be willing to ask.

Thank you that you are faithful to answer.

And God, I pray that we would endure the way you call us to.

It's in your name, Jesus, that I ask these things.

Amen.

There's some mental worship questions for you to consider as of our custom.

You're welcome to take pictures, take one or two with you this week.

Think about those as Lindsay plays.

We're ending this morning just a little bit early on purpose, and here's what I want you to do.

I'm gonna give you some instructions in just a minute, and we're gonna ask for your attention to the video announcements.

But I want you to do this for me as you end today.

I want you to find someone here that you don't know, maybe someone that you haven't seen in a while.

Just meet and greet each other.

One of the ways of being the church is to know others and to be known by others.

It's necessary to make it through the trials.

Well, you all are so gracious always with your attention, and I appreciate that.

Thank you for your attendance this morning.

We want you to know what's going on in the life of our church as we all attempt to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

Give your attention to the video announcements.

Here's what's happening at Ground Parkway Baptist Church.

If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.

This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church.

Midweeks are starting earlier this year, so save these dates.

The Women's Tuesday midweek class will commence August 22nd, while classes for all adults, students, and kids will begin the following Wednesday, August 23rd.

Due to a scheduling conflict, our men's breakfast has been moved up to tomorrow, July 24th.

If you're an early riser, you can come at 5 45 a.m.

as the coffee will be ready by then.

Pastor Neil will be speaking, breakfast is free, and you can engage as much or as little as you want.

Finally, our Women's Big Summer Fellowship is next Sunday, July 30th.

Registration closes this Wednesday, July 26th, so sign up soon if you haven't already.

There will be axe throwing, board games, giveaways, and so much more.

You won't want to miss this.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

We now have Bible studies for adults at 9 and 10.30 a.m.

To find a class that's a fit for you, come to the Adult Building and try one out, or contact Blake at Grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

One more announcement that I want you to be aware of.

This morning early, several of our men left for a mission trip in Vermont.

Now I know it sounds like they were escaping the oppressive heat, but this trip has been planned for quite some time.

Uh, it may surprise you that Vermont and kind of that whole Northeast and the New England area is a, I guess I would call it an unreached people group.

As odd as that sounds, it's a very post-Christian area of America.

These men are going to do some construction, and then while they're doing that, they're going to be putting the idea of Jesus with skin on.

They're going to be ministering to those communities that they're building in.

And so there's some prayer cards here at the front of the stage.

As you walk out today, would you grab one of those?

And I think it'll just kind of help shape the way you'll pray for those men this week.

Now, if you're new to Grankway, thank you for checking out a new church.

If you have any questions, as the video announcement said, you're welcome to ask myself or any of our pastors here.

If you have any questions about our church, you can reach us this week at your convenience.

We would appreciate you reaching out to us.

If you're a member, a longtime attender of Grand Park Way, thank you for being here.

Thanks for your faithful support of us.

If today is the day that you worship through giving, you can do that in any of those wooden boxes on your way out.

Speaking of out, let me get you out of here.

Stand to your feet and let me offer a blessing.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, may you fully grasp God's definition of joy so that when the trials come, you not only get to endure, but you get to be the church to each other.

And you get to demonstrate to a dark world what the light of Christ looks like.

Go now and do so in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.