He Is With Us

Go to James chapter five.

I appreciate Ethan preaching for us.

And we were at the um Lemon Bay High School preaching last week.

I appreciate um his help and your faithfulness.

And I know the study was an encouragement to you.

If you have 40 minutes this week, uh Ben Sass.

Sass was a senator from Nebraska.

Most recently he was the president of the University of Florida.

And uh in I think late October was diagnosed with uh stage four pancreatic cancer.

He's 50 six.

He's in his 50s and he's dying.

Um according to doctors, he really should have passed already.

But he did 40 minutes on 60 Minutes, an interview that aired over the weekend.

It is profound.

I would encourage you to watch it.

And uh, did you see that?

It's amazing.

He talks about America, he talks about politics, but he really talks about faith and um the sovereignty of God.

I would have liked to have incorporated some of that into the lesson today, and I didn't have it, uh just didn't have a means of of incorporating that, but I would encourage you to watch that.

And it kind of leads us into our text this morning.

James has been talking about the coming of the Lord.

Two weeks ago we discovered that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

Lift up your heads.

Redemption draweth nigh.

Jesus Christ is soon to return.

But Christ is not only near to return, he is near until he returns.

He is with us.

And that's really what James has been talking about.

And we must not forget that these believers to whom he's writing have been heavily persecuted.

In chapter 1, verse 1, he speaks to those twelve tribes scattered abroad, these 12 tribes of Israel that had been spread abroad based upon the persecution that really had begun in Jerusalem.

These are the Christian, the Jewish Christian epistles.

These are converted Jews who have placed their faith in Christ.

They're suffering for their testimony in Christ, and as they spread abroad, they're persecuted and they're afflicted.

And he's asking them and encouraging them to be patient, verse 7, unto the coming of the Lord.

And he says again, this emphasis, verse 8, be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

He says in verse 9, the judge standeth at the door.

Christ is returning, he says.

But let your moderation be known unto all men.

The Lord is at hand, he is near.

That's where he begins in verse 10.

Take my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience.

Now James is going to appeal to a Jewish audience.

He speaks of his brethren, who were their prophets, who had spoken in the name of the Lord.

They spoke in his name, and as they spoke, they were persecuted, and as they were persecuted, they established their hearts, and they rejoiced.

They were counted worthy to suffer for his namesake.

Later on in verse 17, he writes about the prophet, Elijah.

But he introduces us to a new prophet.

We may not think of this man as a prophet, more as a father and a husband and a friend, but he mentions the prophet in verse number 11, whose name is Job.

Behold, he says.

Now again, the Lord is at hand.

Behold, we count them happy which endure.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord.

That the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

Now that's our verse today, verse 11.

What do we learn?

Well, there's something to consider, there's something to hear, and there's something that we that we ought to know.

Now you might circle the word in verse 11.

Count them happy which endured.

You've heard of the patience.

There's our word, patience, the patience of Job.

And then in chapter 1, verse 4, we see this word again, but let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Now clearly, God is up to something in everything in our lives.

Sass talks about that.

God is at work in everything in our lives.

That which is characterized by the show host as Calvinism or Reform theology, an emphasis on the sovereignty of God.

I want you to know long before John Calvin ever made a shadow on the planet, God is sovereign.

Sovereignty doesn't belong to a religious system.

Sovereignty is an attribute of God.

He's in charge.

Everything in our lives is explainable by the plan of God.

So we might say when we enter into trials in our lives, we ought not to waste any trial because God is at work in every trial in our lives to conform us to the image of Christ.

I used to hear Pastor Sexton quote Dr.

Lee Robertson, who used to often say, Trouble born in the Spirit of Christ produces greatness in the life of the believer.

Not just trouble born.

One of my favorite little expressions in the Bible is when the three Hebrew children escaped the ravages of the fiery furnace, because the fourth man walked in the midst of them.

And as they were delivered from the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar said, Well, they got emancipated.

They were walking about, there were no cords about them, and you couldn't even smell the smoke, the smell of the smoke upon them.

And they would tell you about the smoke, and they'd tell you how hot it was and how awful it was.

But the Bible puts in that little passage that they didn't wear the smell of their trial, but they rejoiced in what God had done in spite of it.

God's up to something, and we want to see what God was up to in the story of Job here in this 11th verse.

So, first of all, what we have considered, and that's the first expression here in verse 11, behold, we count them happy which endure.

We count them happy which endure.

We consider them that endure blessed.

Now, when we see that word happy in our English Bible, uh, in a modern sense, we think of things that are joyful based on circumstances or happenings.

Someone said happiness is based on happenings.

The word here is blessed.

We count them, we consider them like these prophets that endure this fiery trial, we consider them blessed.

Richard Wernbrand was a Romanian Lutheran pastor who, after World War II, lived under the communist rule in Romania.

When the regime demanded that churches submit to state control and to stop preaching Christ freely, many pastors complied, and Richard Wormbrand refused.

1948, he was abducted by the secret police and imprisoned for a total of 14 years, many in solitary confinement.

We might say he is a prophet endured.

Repeated torture, long isolation, attempts at re-education camps through which they wanted him to renounce Christ.

Yet, in all of those, he continued to preach.

I read that he preached to other prisoners through Morse code on prison walls.

He memorized and recited scripture.

He led worship silently and in whispers.

He loved his captors and prayed for them, went on to establish the voice of the martyrs.

He famously said, I have found truly jubilant Christians only in the Bible, in the underground church, and in prison.

Now to be blessed, to be blessed is not the same as being happy.

Happiness is a feeling that rises and falls with circumstances.

But blessing is something deeper.

It is the settled, objective approval of God that does not change despite our circumstances.

And that's why Job is the perfect illustration for this verse.

Job endured a lot of trials in his life, but the undercurrent of Christian endurance and patience and joy is the reason Job's story lasts millennia after he lived through that painful circumstance.

It might seem strange that Job is included here.

As you read the book of Job, it doesn't always read like a calm exercise of endurance.

Job wrestled.

He questioned.

He poured out his frustration.

And I'm glad he did.

Aren't you glad the Bible tells us of people who respond to trials just like we do?

As a matter of fact, it says in verse 17, Elias was a man subject to like passions.

Homopathos, same feelings, passions.

He felt the same things that we feel.

And Job did too.

This isn't the patience that we often imagine, and that's the point of his inclusion.

Job's greatness wasn't that he suffered silently, it's that he endured faithfully.

He doesn't walk away.

Every commentary I read on Job's inclusion as the illustration of endurance says Job did a number of things in protest, but the one thing he never does, he doesn't walk away.

I've talked recently about the difference between faith, doubt, and unbelief.

Faith says, I believe.

Doubt says, I'm having a hard time believing.

Unbelief says, I will not believe.

Job says, he doesn't say I will not believe.

In that moment, I'm having a hard time believing, but he set his anchor in something that endures.

He drew his anchor not from the circumstantial.

He cast an anchor into heaven.

I think it's Hebrews 6.19, which hope we have is an anchor of the soul.

Our anchor is not thrown to the ground.

Our anchor is thrown to the throne of God.

We anchor ourselves to the person of God.

And that's why verse 11 is so powerful, because we don't just learn of Job's problems.

In other words, Job doesn't relitigate all the problems Job faced.

He reinstates and reaffirms the nature of God.

Because when we're going through a hard time, we don't as much need to just reimagine all of our difficulty as much as we need to reimagine and renew our knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly, truly is.

Job could say, the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.

But yet I know that my Redeemer liveth.

William Barclay put it this way: Job's faith is no groveling, passive, unquestioning submission to God.

Job struggled and questioned and sometimes even defied, but the flame of faith was never extinguished in his heart.

This is so powerful.

Job's story is not the absence of struggle, but his refusal to let go of God in the struggle.

Someone said, let go and let God.

How about grab a hold of God?

Let go of your problem and grab a hold of God.

Job 16, verse 19.

Job 16:19

Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven.

My record is on high.

My friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

Oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbor.

So there's something we consider.

Behold, we count them happy, which endure.

There's a second thing here.

Notice what we have heard.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job.

How many of you have heard of the patience of Job?

I think there's a lot of Christian expressions that Christians say.

Have you ever heard a Christian say?

Well, don't pray for patience.

Because tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.

And we have by that confession, if I don't ask for it, God won't give it to me.

Can I just tell you something?

If you need it by means of Christian formation and sanctification, God's going to give you what you need.

He's going to work in our lives the things that we so desperately need.

That's what we need.

We have heard of the patience of Job.

Endurance, what we learned last time we were together, is that which makes constancy seem worthwhile.

It's what makes constancy seem worthwhile.

We used to sing that song in the old Country Western and Gospel Songs, I think was the name of that little hymn book.

My heavenly home is bright and fair.

Russ, you remember that song?

I feel like traveling on.

And James tells us here that Job did not lose his faith, and that's why we look to him in this passage.

I want you to think of Job the prophet.

The prophet.

Take my brethren, verse 10, the prophets.

Now, again, I never thought about Job as a prophet, and Job is never specifically called a prophet in Scripture, but let's just think of him that way for just a moment.

Now, Scripture provides Job as a picture of a husband and a father and a friend, and we might say in modern language that Job was a faithful Christian if I can take him into the New Testament.

But Job has attributes which ought to maybe number him among the prophets.

First of all, he interceded.

In Job 42, the Bible says in verse 7, and it was so that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends, for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

Therefore, take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you.

For him will I accept.

Years ago I can tell you exactly where I was and exactly what was in my heart.

I was on US 1.

Brother Ron, I did not want to pray for that person.

But I did.

I prayed until I wanted to pray for him.

Job's captivity was turned when he prayed for his friends.

He intercedes.

Number two, he spoke the word of the Lord.

You've not spoken the word of the Lord as Job has spoken it.

I also think, number three, Job is a picture of a prophet in that he spoke of the future.

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

It says of these Old Testament prophets in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify.

1 Peter 1:9

Now, the interesting thing about Job making that confession about a redeemer standing on the earth is that Job is the first of the Bible books to ever be placed on paper.

He has no Bible to read.

Somewhere in ancient history has been revealed to Job that there is a Redeemer in heaven who shall stand at the latter day upon the earth to resurrect the saved.

Now, where did he get that?

Well, he got it from God, but he searched diligently into these truths.

Matter of fact, we might say the last thing is he's mentioned among the prophets.

That's kind of the context of chapter 5 here.

Take my brethren, the prophets, and then he mentions to us Elijah.

What we have heard, you have heard of the patience of Job.

I want to think a few moments about the patience of Job.

I'll give you a few things.

I think they're in your notes here.

First of all, Job's patience worshiped in a time of loss.

That's chapter 1, verse 20.

Job arose and rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground, and worshiped.

And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.

The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

In one fell swoop, Job on one day seemingly lost everything.

And what does he do?

He falls down and worships.

The same God who gives is the same God who takes away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Patience begins when worship isn't tied to our circumstances.

My favorite word in Genesis 21 Abraham is taking Isaac to the top of Mount Moriah to offer him for a burnt offering.

I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.

Job's patients worshiped in loss.

I said in our study, I think it was in our men's group last week, there's a tendency for new Christians to become addicted to Jesus.

I've had people use that term before.

Had a guy who had just accepted Christ and he said, Oh, he said, Pastor says, I'm addicted to Jesus, and I know what he means by that.

There's a euphoria in new birth, but there's a caution at new birth too.

Because when trouble comes and difficulty comes in one's life, can you worship not just on the mountain, but learning to worship in the valleys?

That's where God lives too.

Those that worship Baal said, well, there's a Baal on that mountain, and there's a Ba in that garden, and there's a Baal of fertility, and a Bale of the Sun, and a Bale of the Under, and there's a Ba of the valleys, and they said of Jehovah, He's the God who lives on the hills, but not in the valleys.

Oh, I want you to know.

He's the lily of the valley.

We can worship in time of loss.

Now, the second thing here we might notice of Job is that Job's patience did not fail under pressure.

His patience did not fail under pressure.

And then you have the voice of the one in his life that matters the most.

Not just the soul survivor, but the one that matters most.

Yeah, there's the servants and the children, and there's the wife.

And she does not see things the way Job sees them.

Curse God and die, she says.

Hurt people.

Say hurtful things.

We say Job lost his servants and his cattle and his children and his house.

Yeah, she did too.

Curse God and die.

You speak as one of the foolish women speak.

What?

Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall not receive evil?

And all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Physical suffering added to his personal loss.

Pressure from his wife to abandon their God.

Patience refuses a conditional faith.

Again, he struggles, he labors, he contends with God, but he doesn't walk away.

Number three, Job's patience wrestled without walking away.

Why do I always say what I'm going to say before I have a chance to say it?

He wrestled.

Job 3 1, after this opened at Job his mouth and cursed his day.

Job 7.11, therefore I will not refrain my mouth.

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit.

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

My soul is weary of my life.

Chapter 10, verse 1.

I will leave my complaint upon myself.

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

He's walking through the dark night of the soul.

He curses the day of his birth.

It'd be better if I had not graced the face of this planet.

He now is speaking out of the depth of his anguish.

And might we say, might we say she got to grief speech quicker than he did?

But everyone goes through a grieving process in their life at their own pace and time.

Now, Job is contending in his soul.

But like Jacob of old, there's transformation.

There's transformation in the moment of struggle.

I won't let you leave me until you bless me.

And God blesses him through what?

Through a touch.

The hollow of Jacob's thigh.

Patience stays engaged with God in the struggle.

It's so.

Patch the pirate.

Now I can see.

Testing comes from above.

Now I can see.

One of my friends in ministry was standing with a preacher on some lake in Greenville.

I've never seen Patch the Pirate's house, Ron Hamilton's house, but they're standing on a lake, and across the lake you can see Patch's house.

And the friend said to my friend, What do you think about a preacher having a big house like that?

And my friend said, It cost him an eye.

He had cancer.

Went into surgery.

He's either going to be treated for the brain tumor, I believe it was, or they'd remove his eye.

He put a patch on his eye.

He was an adult choir director, music director.

He put a patch on his eye.

Came into church.

He's walking down the aisle.

A little boy sees him.

He says, Hey, you're a patch.

Patch the pirate.

Majesty Music was born that day.

Now I can see.

Testing comes from above.

God strengthens his children and scourges in love.

Last notice, Job's patience clung to his latter hope in darkness.

What do you cling to in the moment of struggle?

Chapter 13, verse 15.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him?

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.

Why does it concern me when people become addicted to the euphoria of Jesus?

It concerns me for this reason.

Jesus is not a refuge from troubles in life.

Jesus is a refuge in the troubles of life.

If we preach the gospel that said, if you'll trust Christ, all of your problems will go away.

All of your difficulties will go away.

By his stripes you're healed.

All of your diseases will go away.

Health and wealth, prosperity, name it and claim it, blab it and grab it.

It was Oral Roberts, whose wife died of cancer.

Did you know that?

Oral Roberts' wife died of cancer, and they said to him, Why did you not pray for her healing?

As he had claimed he had healed many others.

And he said, The Holy Spirit told me not to.

Well, you're as low as a snake's belly if you said something like that.

And if you had the power to call down healing, you ought to be in every children's hospital, in St.

Jude's Hospital, at Moffat Cancer Center, walking up and down the aisles tirelessly.

But nobody has that power.

But Jesus is not a refuge from trouble, he's a refuge in the time of trouble.

And trouble comes to all of us.

It rains on the just and on the unjust.

And many of us are praying for some rain on the just and unjust this weekend.

That's what we hear.

But number three, notice what we have learned.

And this is the emphasis of our verse.

You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.

Every trial contains something we can learn about God.

When I was in college and continuing some education, I used to think, I need to learn about this subject or that subject or this thing or that thing.

I grew up in a prophecy heavy church.

And somebody says, Man, I need to learn prophecy.

Maybe you do.

I need to learn, I mentioned Calvinism, Reform theology.

I need to sharpen my reading on different forms of teaching regarding salvation and sovereignty.

And that's what I need to learn.

I need to learn about the local church.

Fine.

But the older I get, there's one thing I increasingly want to know.

I need to know about God.

And that's what he says to us here.

The Lord.

What gets Job out of all of this?

The Lord.

Now you know what you discover?

When you come to know the Lord, you know what you learn?

Prophecy.

Soteriology, pneumatology, ecclesiology.

You can learn about everything in theology, but it doesn't begin by seeking the fruit.

It seeks the root, which is God.

It all comes out of God.

That's what Job, that's what he learns here.

Now, what are these principles Job learns about God?

First of all, he learns of the end of the Lord.

That's the word here.

Ye have seen the end of the Lord.

The word I said last week, this is one of my favorite New Testament words.

Telos.

It means the end, the design.

The design of the Lord.

That's what he learned.

Telos can mean the outcome.

He learned of the outcome of the Lord.

The reference here, the commentator said, might be to the end that the Lord brings about, to the death and resurrection of Christ, the end and still of the Lord's life.

But it makes best sense, he says, to take the phrase as a reference to the end or outcome of Job's situation, which the Lord eventually brought about, the restoration of his family, the restoration of his fortune.

God doubles his blessings.

Well, you say, Pastor, he lost seven, and God gave him seven.

How did he double those?

Well, his that died were with Christ.

He didn't lose them.

Ben Sass says, I know I'm going to die.

And I've reconciled with my wife.

We're just going to be apart for a little while.

Whoa.

Wow.

We're just going to be apart just for a little while.

Aren't you glad in Christ there are no goodbyes?

I'll just, I'll see you in a little while.

Curtis Hudson used to say that we all get to heaven the same day.

Because there's no night there.

I'll see you later on today.

What a great God we have.

The end of the Lord, being confident of this very thing, he which hath begun a good work in you, he will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ.

He finishes what he starts in our lives.

That's what Job learned.

Number two, he learned of the pity of the Lord.

The Lord is very pitiful.

Can you imagine someone talking about Muhammad that way?

Prideful and arrogant Mohammed.

You're not even allowed to draw him in a cartoon.

Pitiful?

Oh yeah.

Pitiful.

The New Testament word here is it has to do with the intestines, the bowels, the seat of deep emotion.

Now we talk about our heart.

At Valentine's Day, there's not a lot of kidney-shaped heart, uh, kidney-shaped cards or liver-shaped cards, intestinal-shaped cards.

Love you with all of my innards.

There's none of that.

It is in the ancient world.

They felt with the heart.

Matter of fact, I've seen Marie asked this question a lot, talking about locating anger.

Where do you feel emotion?

Some will say, I feel it in my head.

I feel it in my stomach.

How many of you feel it in your stomach?

Yeah.

Drink a little wine, Paul says, for your often infirmities.

Timothy was a he was a gut guy.

He felt things in his stomach.

Do you love the world with all of your guts?

Polly.

Many intestines, many emotions.

God is very emotional in his feeling towards us.

He's moved with the feeling of our infirmities.

Aren't you glad?

When we feel it, he feels it too.

Because that's compassion.

Compassion is the hurt of others.

I almost said in our heart, but it would ruin the analogy here.

The hurt of others in our guts.

We feel what they feel.

I was reading in Luke chapter 10, verses 30 through 35, the story of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:30–35

Acts of pity.

He came where that poor man was.

He saw him.

He had compassion on him.

He bound up his wounds.

The word wound there is traumas or trauma.

He poured in oil and wine.

He set him on his own beast.

He brought him to an inn and said to the innkeeper, Take care of him.

I heard a wonderful sermon about that years ago.

He poured in oil.

Oil, of course, is a picture of something that seals and soothes, something that protects oil, a picture of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus, that good Samaritan, found us by the wayside, he poured in the Holy Spirit.

And then he poured in wine, wine disinfected, it cleansed.

Picture of the blood of Christ.

He cleansed us, he washed us from our sins in his own blood.

He set him on his own beast and brought him to an end, said to the innkeeper, Take care of him, and whatever I owe you when I return, I'll repay thee.

Who's the innkeeper and what's the inn?

Well, somebody said, Well, that's the local church.

The local church.

We've heard it said so often, a church is not a hotel for saints, it's a hospital for sinners.

Something occurred to me yesterday as I was thinking about this verse.

There's something I always miss when I read the book of Job.

I miss it every time.

I get so mad at those three friends that show up.

I mean, they make me so mad.

How many of you get so angry at those guys?

I mean, I want to reach through the pages of Scripture and wring their necks.

They make me so mad.

He calls them in chapter 16, verse 2.

I've heard many such things.

Miserable comforters are ye all.

I always see those guys every single time.

That trick gets me every time I read it.

Miserable consolers.

They're just terrible.

But there's someone there before they arrive, and someone who stays long after they're gone.

Job might have criticized those miserable comforters, but the comforter, he never leaves us.

He never forsakes us.

Don't look at the friends.

Look at the friend who sticks closer than any brother.

The pitiful, the pitifulness of God, and then his tender mercy.

Don't miss his tender mercy.

Faith, Richardson said, faith is not confessed when the believer merely states, there is one God, but when we confess the Lord's mercy and compassion.

These two traits identify the Lord Jesus in the scripture, who blessed Job and the prophets even when they complained under their hardships.

Exodus 34, verse 6.

Exodus 34:6

The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.

Psalm 103, verse 8.

Psalms 103:8

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.

There's three qualities I was preaching about God on Sunday, that Satan is not.

God is omnipresent.

He's everywhere at the same time.

He is omniscient.

He knows all things.

He's everywhere at the same time, knowing all things.

He has all power.

He is a God who's everywhere at the same time, knowing all things, and has the power to solve every problem in our lives.

And here's what I discovered.

Everywhere God is, God is all that he is wherever he is, at any time he's there.

In other words, God doesn't send like the third-string comforter.

No.

Wherever God is, all of God is there.

And that's what Job learns.

The infinite, transcendent God came to him with all power.

So James' reference to Job here reminds us as believers that our trials will produce in us virtues to those that correspond to God.

Trouble produces Christlieness in our lives.

No wonder he could say, no wonder he could say, we count them happy, blessed, who consider constancy worthwhile.

How many of you believe today faithfulness is worthwhile?

Because our faithfulness is merely a reflection of God's faithfulness to us.

That's it.

I love him because I have a great capacity to love God.

No.

We love him.

He first loved us.

We're faithful to him because God is always faithful.

He's a covenant God.

And he never leaves us or forsakes us.

Well, it's been great to study one verse today.

And we're about to go into, I think, the greatest verses in all of James.

I'm looking forward to the conclusion of chapter 5.

I asked you two weeks ago if there's a book study that you'd be interested in.

I would pray through it, and nobody said anything about it.

So we're going to study the book of Hezekiah when we're done with James.

And we're really looking, really, really looking forward to that.

Matter of fact, we might even get into the Apocrypha.

I'm not sure.

I'm just kidding.

All right.

If you have something, be welcome to hear it.

So I was talking to Ethan at college today.

He said, What are you preaching on?

And I said, Well, I'm in three book studies right now.

I'm in James on Wednesday morning.

And I'm in Mark on Wednesday night, and I'm in Revelation on Sunday.

Oh, I forgot.

And in Sunday school, we started the book of Ruth.

And he said, Wow.

He goes, Well, how do you find a sermon?

I said, I don't have to find a sermon.

I just go to verse 11 and just say, here's what God's Word says in James 5.11.

And uh anyway, he'll be home in a few weeks.

So I taught him to get a sermon ready.

We'll pull that string and turn him loose.

So uh let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for your loving kindness in our lives.

And we're just overwhelmed sometimes by how good you are.

And Lord, there might be someone here today going through a trial in their lives.

Help them to consider constancy worthwhile.

As the old song says, our heavenly home is bright and fair.

The Lord has been so good to me.

I feel like traveling on.

Help us just, Lord, to keep walking.

Walking the talk, living as a Christian, reflecting your faithfulness to us by living a faithful Christian life.

Guide us and help us as we leave here today.

Help us, Lord, to be an army of compassion and love and generosity and kindness as we reflect your pity and tender mercy for others who so desperately need an extension of that in their lives today.

Help us not to waste a trial, but to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

We praise you and thank you for all that you did for us today.

And as we leave this place today, help us to bear the needs of others in our hearts in prayer.

Thank you for many intercessors that sit here before me today, praying for one another and for souls.

I pray that you'll answer and hear from heaven.

And we thank you for it.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.