Bring it On! The Three Reasons for Trials, Troubles, and Tribulations - Bring it On

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

Liz shared a dream.

I'm not going to share it here because you heard it on Sunday night.

I'm going to call it the Black Wave Dream about what's going to happen this year.

And I'm not into too many visions and dreams out there.

Matter of fact, we know from 2020 and the election how many of those quote-unquote prophetic people were completely wrong.

Liz actually had a dream that the country would move left before the election.

And so I trust my wife's dreams, I've trust my dreams, and we don't have them that much.

Maybe once a year we'll have a significant dream.

So I shared that.

I remember Liz shared that on Sunday night.

But if you were here, you heard that about this black wave that's coming and what God's calling us to on the higher ground.

But here's the deal hard times are a coming.

Difficulties that we've never seen before that will be unprecedented will happen in 2024.

You're going to be shocked if you're not prepared.

And we at the road are going to be prepared just like we were during COVID.

When COVID came, we were ready.

Took us about two weeks to figure a few things out, maybe three weeks, but we figured it out.

And you're at the right church if you want to be on the crest of the wave of what I think the Holy Spirit's saying to us.

And so today I want to talk about this bring it on attitude, and I'm going to talk about it this week and next week.

And then after that, we're going to pick up the cosmic war a few more weeks, and then we're going to finish up that, and then we're going to move into a book study that we're going to do.

But listen to what I say next because I think it's important.

Master your thoughts, mold your character, make your destiny.

Let me say it again.

If you master your thinking, you will mold your character, and you will make your destiny.

So how does God master our thinking?

Mold our character that we might fulfill our destiny.

Actually, it's rarely through good times.

It's rarely through easy times.

As much as we like easy times, as much as we like good times, everybody here does.

That's not really where one's thoughts and thinking begins to be shaped that actually mold your character and create the road that God has for you and the calling and the destiny on your life.

It's actually many times through very, very difficult times.

Michael Phelps is the most decorated athlete in history.

He's a five-time Olympian.

He's won 27 Olympic medals, 22 of them gold.

He has set 34 career world records in swimming and was seven times the world swimmer of the year.

Michael Phelps' training regimen is amazing.

In his day, he swam over eight miles a day, six or seven times a week.

That's almost 50 miles per week, no breaks.

When asked if he took off Christmas Day or birthdays, his answer was nope.

Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman, didn't take a day off for five years.

Phelps usually split his training into two sessions, spending five to six hours in the pool every day, but that's not it.

Phelps also did functional training with weights at least three times a week.

But he did have recovery time.

You know what he did on his recovery time?

He took ice baths.

For most of us, a pool is for pleasure.

But for a champion swimmer, a pool is a training place for perfection to win.

And men and women, I think life is a lot like that.

I think life is like a pool.

That either it's a place where we relax and it becomes kind of like a spa, or it actually can be a training ground.

It's a place where God is using difficulties, strategies, even of the enemy, to take you out, to benefit you by letting him build into you the kind of person that he wants you to be.

And James, the brother of Jesus, would have known that.

James was a part of the early church.

Tradition tells us that James probably was not even a believer in his brother being the Son of God, being the Messiah, while his brother Jesus was alive.

But we don't know, but maybe it was the resurrection.

Maybe it was the relationship of what happened to these fearful Christians that came alive with courage that caused James to give his heart to Christ.

But immediately, probably partly because of the reputation, oh, this is the brother of Jesus, but also the leadership that James exhibited, he became quickly the leader in Jerusalem.

Now, if you know the story of James, he was the first Christian martyr.

So he was slain for his faith early on.

But before that, he wrote a letter.

And in that letter, he wrote it out to the early church there on the Mediterranean around Israel, probably up into a little bit of Asia Minor.

Church planting hadn't happened yet to the greater extent that would come later.

But he begins to share from his perspective what the purpose of trials are.

So turn in your Bibles to James chapter 1 in the New Testament.

James 1 · chapter mention

James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

I like to call James Dr.

James because so much of his advice is almost like he's giving us a prescription for living.

The book of James is a prescription for living.

I love James because it's so appropriate to where many of us live, and it's very practical.

It's interesting that during the Protestant Reformation, when Luther was finding himself in the midst of a movement that was a movement built on a doctrinal perspective of the just shall live by faith.

He wanted, for a while, he said, we should get James kicked out of the New Testament.

And the reason was is because James is so practical on righteous living, on righteous living.

So he's not, James is not talking about salvation, he is talking about sanctification.

So how we get sanctified is important in what we're going to read.

So James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that's really important right there because James is saying, look, I am not, I'm not calling myself an apostle.

I'm not calling myself even a leader of the church.

I'm a bondservant.

And the word bondservant here was the idea that in ancient times you had people who were slaves, who at some point had earned their freedom.

They could walk away from their master, but because of their love for their master, they decided to continue to be slaves to that master, and that's called a bond servant.

So this is one who's saying he's using a term to describe the kind of person he's become.

I want to be a servant.

I want to be a slave of Jesus.

To the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad.

Greetings.

So this is during the dispersion.

So the Jews are getting persecuted.

I mean, the Jews are persecuting these Jews who are this sect called the Way.

They're not even called Christian yet.

The Way.

They've been dispersed all over the Asia Minor area around the Mediterranean.

Now listen to what he says next, because it's going to frame the whole book, and we're not going through the whole book.

But for our purposes today, as we talk about bring it on, I can't think of a better passage in Scripture than this one.

Verse 2.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

So I don't hear any of us saying, oh, I count it all joy when I'm going through difficult circumstances.

But what we're going to learn to do at the road is we're going to learn to say, bring it on.

So, my brethren, bring it on when you fall into various trials.

So let's all say it.

Say, bring it on.

When hardships come, when you get a flat tire, when you've got a bad diagnosis from the doctor, I mean, there's an attitude there.

I kind of want you to have a little bit of an attitude this year.

I want you to have an attitude that God's in control.

I want you to have an attitude that God's got my best in mind and that all things work together for good.

I want you to have an attitude that you can count it all, joy, because of what you're going to hear today about the reasons and the purpose of bad tidings, difficult times.

Folks, you're going to get stabbed in the back this year.

We're going to see stuff in the economy we didn't expect.

Do you think we might see something unexpected in an election year?

Bring it on.

We've got to have that attitude.

So listen to what Dr.

James says is a prescription for going through difficulties in our life.

My brethren, count it all joy or bring it on when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience or endurance.

But let patience or endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

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

For let not that man suppose that he'll receive anything from the Lord, because he's double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

Now, how many of you have ever been on a deep sea fishing trip?

Not one of the really big boats, but say 15 people or less, and you've been in the waves?

Anybody like that?

Okay, a lot of you.

I hate that.

I went two times and I'm never gonna do it again.

And I got sick as a dog.

And so the picture I hear that I think those in that culture at that time would have understood is he's saying that if you're not gonna learn from the obstacles and the struggles that you're going through in your life, if you don't learn from that, if you don't gain wisdom from that, you're gonna be like in that small boat with big waves coming and you're heaving over the side and you're just tossed to and fro and you are unstable in all your ways.

That's a drag.

Think about that.

And some of you in this room have lived your life that way.

Unfortunately, you've struggled.

When bad things come, when foreboding uh rumors come, um, when you've been through hard times, you find yourself so anxious and so worried, right?

All of us have done that, some to a greater or lesser extent.

I was having panic attacks uh 20 years ago.

And praise God, I figured out how to navigate that.

But I know what a panic attack.

Anybody here struggle with panic attacks?

I mean, or anxiety?

I mean, it's just like it's rough, man.

It's scary stuff.

And I remember thinking, man, the guys in the white suits are coming.

And I and I got into a fetal position one time in Southern California because of a situation that I was in.

That's unstable.

And yet he's giving us a prescription here that I think we can learn from in an attitude of bringing it on mindset that this life is not a spa.

This life is more like a training center that we go through.

So I want to talk about three reasons.

Three reasons God allows trials, troubles, and tribulations.

And why we can confidently say, bring it on, and I think it can actually produce joy.

So I've been predact, this is kind of new for me, probably the last nine months.

I just, I don't know what it was, but I woke up one morning and I said, bring it on about something, and I thought, I'm gonna start saying that.

Everything that happens, it's negative.

And now when I forget, Liz remembers, and that really bugs me.

Um but it's been amazing how when we when we have a bring it on attitude, how quickly you start thinking about solutions rather than the problem.

I tell you, it works.

So you're going through difficult times in your marriage.

You're going through difficult times in being single.

You're having struggles with your health.

You don't know how to change a tower, and you got a flat tower and you're up in the mountains.

I mean, bring it on, man.

And so here are what I think Dr.

James teaches us that we can learn from.

My brethren, look at verse 2.

Count it all joy or bring it on when you fall into various trials.

Verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

So, reason number one that God allows trials and tribulations and troubles in our life is to build endurance, church.

God wants you to grow in endurance.

And I loved this illustration that Vince Daccioli has used, and I love that.

And he he talks about this idea that we look at our certain circumstances, and I don't believe that James is saying here, oh, count it all joy because you've got a flat tire, count it all joy because you just got diagnosed with cancer, or count it all joy because you're going through a divorce.

He doesn't mean that.

He means, and this is the way Vince did it, I thought it was so good, was here's the circumstance that we're looking at, and when we continually focus just on that, we're blind.

We're blinded by that, right?

We become overwhelmed by that, we become anxious about that, we become depressed by that, we become down about that.

But what Vince said is we've got to learn and move that out of the way and see that God's got a greater purpose in mind.

That God's got something really good that he's building into your character.

God's got something called endurance that he's building in you.

And at first it's like this, and it's all we've ever known, it's all we've ever experienced, it's what everybody talks about, right?

But when we say count it all joy, we say bring it on, we're saying bring it on.

Bring it on.

In other words, take your mind and heart by saying that, by verbalizing that, which sends healing, solution, cells into your mental, emotional, and physical bloodstream, instead of worrying with toxins being released, you're saying bring it on, because I'm gonna look at what God's doing.

That's good news, right?

That's good.

And so when we say bring it on, we're saying I'm counting it all joy.

Not because of the circumstances.

Don't hear me say that.

I'm not saying we're supposed to be happy about death or happy about ill health or happy about cancer.

I'm saying that we are concerned about that, but pretty quickly we can turn it and say, you know what?

I'm gonna bring it on because I may not know yet what's going on here, but God causes all things to work together for good.

God, he says right here, is building endurance in my life.

And I have what it takes because the scriptures say, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

I have the capacity through the power of the Spirit living within me to say no to that and yes to that.

I couldn't before, because all I did was focus on this, and I was blinded by this.

And when you're blinded by this, you can't see this.

But you have to make that choice.

Church, you have to make that choice.

Nobody can make that choice about what you're gonna do with trials, troubles, and tribulation but you.

And I can tell you, we can preach it to our kids till the cows come home.

We can preach it here at church at the road till the cows come home.

But the reality is, you have to make that choice.

You have to decide, I'm gonna start learning and growing.

And by the way, it's probably two steps forward and one step back, but as we grow in those things, it's that ability to start saying, I'm not gonna be blinded by my circumstances, I'm not gonna be blinded by bad stuff, I am gonna say, take, I'm gonna say, take it on, bring it on.

God, I'm prepared.

I've got the Holy Spirit living within me, and He's greater than any of my circumstances, I'm gonna change it by my attitude.

Because if you stay here with unforgiveness, if you stay here with bitterness, if you stay here with anxiety, man, you are just blinded to all that God wants to do in your life.

And so James is telling us something here that's I think very, very significant.

And that is we can count it all joy because God's producing patience.

He produces, he's a patience producer, he's an endurance producer.

You don't have it.

He has it and he lives in you.

Now, if you're here today and you don't have Jesus Christ in your life, then you ain't got it.

You got you, which is okay.

I mean, you're creating the image of God, and it's amazing what many people who are non-Christians, who don't have a relationship with God, what they do.

It's it's phenomenal, actually.

But think about what you naturally can do with supernatural power and help, where you could go with your destiny.

Be amazing.

Those who learn the art of endurance are people who have had tremendous difficulties in their lives.

It even seems that the greater the obstacles, the stronger the individual.

Angela Lee Duckworth, a leading writer and speaker, as a math teacher in San Francisco, discovered through her extensive research on what makes inner city students succeed.

Here's what she says.

One characteristic emerged as the best predictor of success.

It wasn't social intelligence, it wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ.

It was grit.

Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.

Grit is having stamina.

Grit is sticking with your future day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years.

And working hard to make that future a reality.

Grit is living your life like a marathon and not a sprint.

Church, life is hard.

Life is difficult.

Every one of us in this room has been through betrayal.

Every one of us in this room has had bad news come our way.

God's building grit in you.

God is building endurance in you, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, you can overcome.

You have what it takes through the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome any obstacle, to remove any mountain, through the power of the Spirit, but I think it begins with a bring it on mindset, a bring it on heart, because tough times will come our way for sure.

William Barclay said, Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but turn it into glory.

Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.

Look at verse 4.

But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Reason number two trials, troubles, and tribulations build character.

Paul said it this way in Romans.

Or endurance, character.

Do you want to be a man or a woman of high character?

That's a real legitimate question.

Do you want to be successful at the expense of your character, or would you rather be successful taking your character with you?

Man, when I look at the political rim and the characters that are out there, not a lot of character.

Not a lot of character.

I would rather be unsuccessful and keep my character intact than be successful and give up my virtue.

Let me give you a definition of character, godly character.

Godly character is the ability to discern God's right way from the wrong way, and to voluntarily surrender one's own will to do what is right in God's sight, and with the promised supernatural help to resist the wrong even under pressure and temptation.

And the last part is the operable phrase, even under pressure and temptation.

So character only becomes visual because of the invisible pressure that we feel in the circumstances that are difficult.

So character can't be learned but through hardship.

That's why when you're around certain people that have had maybe a life of privilege, things have always gone their way.

They're successful at everything that they do.

A lot of times there's not the depth of character as the person who's been through very, very difficult hardships in their life.

Because that's where God builds his character the most.

Now here's what's interesting.

Listen to this really important.

The word character comes from the Greek character.

That means an engraved mark, almost like a branding.

Men and women, every one of us in this room have taken arrows to our heart.

We're going to take arrows to our heart.

We're going to take arrows to our heart in betrayal, brokenness, failures at our job, financial difficulties.

We all take these shots.

We all experience those shots.

What are you going to do with that though?

Because they all make their mark.

They all brand us.

And for some, it's bitterness because of unforgiveness.

It's bitterness because we blame others.

It's bitterness in our lives, and this and this root of bitterness begins to get a foothold because this person didn't treat me right.

Or this person didn't understand what I was saying.

And then they said some things about me and they gossiped about me.

And so then this bitterness starts to grow.

This unforgiveness begins to grow, and you start to have the engraved mark of bitterness.

Or you start learning to say, bring it on, count it all joy.

God's using this to build endurance in my life.

God's using this to build character in my life.

I'm going to choose to trust God.

I'm going to forgive.

You realize that forgiveness 99% of the time is not a feeling.

You ought to write that one down.

That's a good one.

99% of the time, forgiveness is not a feeling.

It's an act of the will.

It's not what you feel, it's what you will.

And so when we begin to say, bring it on, God's doing something here.

I'm not going to let that person own me anymore by me carrying unforgiveness, and they don't even care.

We think that by us having unforgiveness or bitterness or something, sometimes it's going to hurt them, they're not even thinking about you.

They've so moved on to see who else they can trash.

That's what they do.

But when you start to release forgiveness, that means that power and that control that that person has over you is broken, man.

It is broken.

You're set free.

You're set free.

And when you walk that way, God just formed another element of an engraving mark of Jesus in your life, which is the character of the kingdom of God.

That's the character.

That's what we need in this world.

We need characters.

No, we need some characters of the kingdom.

Men and women that have been engraved by the mark and made a choice to choose God's way, choose that all things work together for good, choose that greater is he that is in me than he is in the world.

Choose that I can counter all joy when I go through various trials and the test of my faith produce endurance.

Endurance has a perfect result that I may be perfect and lack in nothing.

That's the kind of character that the world's looking for.

And so rarely do they see it, even among Christians.

But I pray in 2024 that at our church, at the road, we would more and more be characterized by a people who are known for having the character of Christ, especially in hard things.

Especially when people say evil things about us.

Especially when people say, What are you doing?

What are you thinking?

How could you do that?

And you go, well, I'm not thinking about that.

I'm thinking about what God's doing in my life, that I can be a better person.

That I can be someone who's still loving and kind as I grow older.

Instead of growing bitter, I grow better.

As I go through times in my life where I just want to, you know, kick the can, I'm going to develop kindness.

That's what we need.

That's what God wants.

That's what Dr.

James is telling us about.

Harry Fostic, a 20th-century Protestant pastor, once said this.

By the way, I'm no fan of Harry Fostic's theology, but this was a good one that he had.

He who knows no hardships will grow no hardy wood.

He who faces no calamity will need no courage.

Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in the soil of a strong mixture of troubles.

Isn't that true?

So men and women, we're joyful in saying, bring it on because we believe God's building endurance.

We're joyful in going through trials and tribulations because we know God is building patience.

We're joyful in going through trials and tribulations in our life because God's making you perfect and lacking in nothing.

So trials and troubles, build endurance.

Trials and troubles, build character.

Now look at verse 5.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally, I like liberally and without reproach.

That means when he says without reproach, because James, if you studied the book of James, you know this.

If you haven't, I'll inform you of this.

One of the characteristics of James is that he makes this distinction about those who have a lot of money and those who don't, those who are wealthy and those who are poor.

He has a big, he makes a big deal in his letter about partiality.

So what he's saying is it doesn't matter what your background is, doesn't matter whether you come from wealth or you come from poverty, doesn't matter if you've been a meth addict or that you've always lived a good life.

It doesn't matter.

He's not partial.

If you'll ask him for wisdom, he'll give it to you without partiality.

Anybody today, right now, can start having the wisdom of the kingdom of God if you want it.

So he says, Let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting.

For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

For let not that man suppose that he'll receive anything from the Lord, because he's double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

So reason number three for hardships, troubles, trials, tribulations, is God wants you to cry out for, and he wants to build wisdom in your life.

It's in trials and hard times that we cry out for wisdom.

We don't know what to do, you guys.

We go into these situations we've never been there before.

Anybody, let me just ask you this.

How many of you in this room would say that in 2024 you anticipate, just by virtue of common sense, that you're gonna face some things, you're not gonna have a clue what to do.

Okay?

You're gonna have to ask for wisdom.

And that's where God builds wisdom, is putting you in those risk-taking situations that you're allowing God to put you in to build greater wisdom into your life.

And that's why you can count it all joy.

That's why you can say, bring it on, because you're gonna be wiser a year from now.

You're gonna have better endurance a year from now.

You're gonna have stronger, deeper, Jesus-like character a year from now because you're gonna say, bring it on when those problems come your way.

So we learn our deepest lessons through hardship.

We gain our best knowledge through life experience.

Wisdom is applying knowledge to situations where we don't know what to do.

Wisdom is applying discernment where we had none.

Good people are good people because they learn wisdom through bad situations.

Strong leaders are strong because they learn strength through the wisdom gained in shame and failure.

Embrace your shame.

Embrace your failure.

Quit running from it, but turn around and face it and call it what it is.

Quit running from the shame of your childhood, turn around and face it.

Quit running from the sexual abuse, turn around and face it.

Quit running around with the failures of your past, but turn around and face it and say, God, what is it you want me to learn from this?

What is it of the wisdom from the kingdom that I can gain?

That I can be wiser, that I can be more discerning, that I can come into situations where it's very similar to that, and now I know what to do because you showed me.

So, men and women, this is crucial.

And that's why the word of God is crucial.

Because when you're spending time in God's Word every day, you're reading God's Word, God speaks to you, and you most of the time will say, Well, that's cool, that's neat, and you write it in your journal, you have no idea what that was about.

And then three days later, guess what happened?

That's exactly what that word was for.

But if you hadn't been in the word, you wouldn't know what to do.

And then sometimes it's the other way around.

We come into situations in our life and it's just like overwhelming, and we're so depressed, and it's so anxiety-ridden, and it you're not, but then we go to the word and we ask God for wisdom.

He gives it because you went through that.

Because he's pressing in you to seek him in a deeper and more marvelous and more powerful way.

Well, we know that wisdom comes from the fear of God.

Proverbs 9.

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom.

Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.

Proverbs 2.

My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.

Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord.

And what does he say?

Find the knowledge of God, for the Lord gives wisdom.

And here's what's interesting: it would seem that what God's saying is that when you cry out and you seek him for discernment, for knowledge about a situation, you get two things.

You get the fear of God and you get the wisdom of God simultaneously.

But you gotta cry out for it, you gotta want it.

So many years ago, going through a very difficult time in my life, I came across a poem by Rudyard Kipling called If.

And as the years have gone by, there's that and four or five other poems have been the most meaningful in my life.

Now it's a long poem.

I'm gonna read it to you, and I decided not to put it up because I want you to hear the inflection of how I read it to you.

But the but the poem by Rudyard Kipling is about struggle, it's about hardship, it's about difficulties and how we respond.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, but you choose to not deal in lies, or you're being hated, but you don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise, if you can dream and yet not make dreams your master, if you can think and not make thoughts your aim, if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same, if you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by liars to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to broken and stoop and build them up again with worn-out tools, if you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss and then lose, but start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss.

If you can force your harm, your heart, nerve, and sinew to serve your turn long after they're all gone, and so hold on when there's nothing in you except the will which says hold on or bring it on.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or talk and walk with kings and never lose your common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you, but not too much, if you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that's in it.

And which is more, you'll be a man, my son.

So, men and women, you're gonna go through times where your virtue will be challenged.

I challenge you.

Live above that through the kingdom of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to the Born for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit steveholtonline.org.

God bless.