How to Survive the Trials in Our Life

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

This week is as as I started to prepare what I felt like God had put on my heart.

It was the students and I have just gone through the book of James.

We've gone expositorily through the entire book.

Started in 1-1 and went all the way through chapter 5.

And so it was a good study.

And then last week, Pastor Danny at the end of his sermon told us that he was planning on teaching from the book of James.

So it felt only fitting that I would share with you my favorite part of the book of James.

And y'all know our children are James, Jude, and Joah, and James was our first.

And the reason that we named him James was primarily because of this book.

I'm excited to hear Pastor Danny's insights as he teaches us through James because it's a very zealous book.

It's a very, a very practical book.

The study that we just finished was a study that I titled Faith That Works.

Because the main point of James is saying that it's not that we have one and we have the other, that it's both of them together, that that's how we're known by our faith is by our works.

And that we can't only work because it's faith that saves us.

And so it's both of these things that come together that make us what we are, and that's followers and disciples of Jesus Christ.

And so this very this very first chapter, the first part of this chapter, is what I want to share with you today.

So we'll be in James 1.

So if you want to go ahead and turn to James 1, that's where we're going to spend the predominant amount of our time this morning.

Um but as you're turning there, um, similar to what David said and what I said about patience, that that a lot of times uh trials happen.

Would you agree?

I mean, that things happen in our life that we can't control.

I was really hoping, uh, Miss Georgia, is Jason are Jason and Renee down at Children's Church?

No.

Okay, they're not.

Okay, all right, all right.

That's fine.

I was looking for Jason, though, because as I was preparing the sermon, uh uh it just hit me last night another illustration that I could use.

And Jason's my go-to.

If you don't know Jason, he was a baseball player in college, and I'm I love baseball, and so that's just a connection that we have.

And we usually on Sunday mornings shoot the breeze for at least a couple of minutes about how terrible the Braves are.

And um, even though we're both Braves fans, it's just kind of a you know, we're gluttons for punishment.

But Jason Gorille, who is their closer yesterday, um, ruptured his Achilles tendon.

And so I found that very strange because I did that when I was in the ninth grade.

I did that twice in one football season.

It's a long story.

But I did it twice, and so I was like, ouch, I can't believe that that happened.

That's just stuff that happens.

I mean, things happen.

He's a professional baseball player.

I mean, in the best shape of his life, one of the best closers that the Braves have had.

He's had 24, 25 saves already this year, and we're not even to the All-Star break yet.

Well, I guess technically we are, but after today.

But when we get to he's one of these great players.

And so it's important that we realize that stuff happens even when you're prepared for it.

But even look, even this past week, um, and even before that, Cassie's dad has has had some heart trouble that's come up in the past couple of weeks.

Cassie's dad boxed in the Marine Corps.

Now, I didn't realize that until I was driving to meet her parents for the first time.

You know, we're talking on the phone, I'm going to South Carolina.

Hey, what's going on?

And then tell me a little bit more about your family.

I knew I knew who they were and that her parents were divorced and some things like that.

And then I was like, so tell me a little bit about your dad.

And she was like, Well, yeah, he trained security nuclear power plant, and he's a he's a CWP instructor for the state of South Carolina.

And, you know, he boxed in the Marine Corps, and I'm thinking, should I just turn the car around now?

I mean, don't really see this welcome open arms that's coming when that happens.

But uh, and don't get me wrong, I have a great relationship with her father now, but it's it was a little bit nerve-wracking as I was driving as a as a 21-year-old uh down to meet her family.

But but there he's in the top shape of his life.

He he kayaks all the time and he runs and he bikes and he does all of this stuff, but he was having these heart troubles.

And so they're they're working to figure out what is causing these things.

But the this past week, um, we as I said, me and Matt were working a lot of the week to get some of these things ready, like the the basketball courts and the volleyball courts and these different things.

And and Cassie called me about 3:30, 4 o'clock on Monday and told me that James had just thrown up.

And it's like, oh gosh, geez, that's terrible.

Okay, all right.

Well, call me if he does it again.

And she didn't, but of course, when I got home at about 11, Jude threw up, and then James threw up again at 1, and then again at 3, and then the next day, Joa threw up, and then Cassie threw up later that afternoon, and then she was sick the whole next day with Joah still throwing up, and then by Thursday, I'm throwing up, and so it's like, oh my goodness, so all five of us had the stomach virus, and we're thinking, my gracious.

And at this point, I'm thinking, all right, God, I'll teach on something else.

Please quit the trials.

Um, but then we even go into the this weekend that we, because you know, I'm leaving for camp with the students tomorrow that we had planned this whole week that Cassie was going to be able to do with both my parents uh through the week, going to the zoo and all that stuff to just keep them busy while I'm gone from Monday to Saturday.

And my mom calls on Thursday night and says that they're taking my grandmother, who has Alzheimer's, to the emergency room.

And so they're taking her there, and we're learning more in bits and pieces.

But in Saturday morning, yesterday morning, we learned that it's it's not good, that she's progressed to the final stages and and they're they're trying to see if there's something that they can do, but there's not.

And and so so as we're we're still progressing through this week, and as I'm doing my final preparations last night, I just I can't help but think how David said, What, God?

Of that question of why, God?

Why?

And unfortunately, that's not a question that we always get an answer to.

Sometimes we do.

Sometimes we do.

But it's not always that way.

Um, I I've just every now and then I see on Instagram or something a quote.

I really like quotes.

Um the students know that.

Um, I've shared some of those with y'all before when I've had the opportunity to uh to speak before you.

But I saw a quote by John Piper this past week before this crazy week, that said, at any given point, God is doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.

And it was John Piper that said that.

And I read that and I was like, oh, that's such a good quote.

So I screen captured and I put it on my phone, and then this week happened.

And so I've been looking at this wallpaper all week thinking.

I think I'm a little bit more aware of three right now, but you know, that there's always stuff that's happening.

And so my question for you today is what is God doing in those trials in your life?

Because they're there for a reason.

We've learned that they're there for a specific purpose.

We just have to recognize what that purpose is.

More times than not, it is a trial that causes us to fall.

This past week, I learned of a story of a very well-known pastor, he's an author as well, that he ended up in a trial.

That um his wife um cheated on him and and had an affair.

And in the midst of him trying to be comforted in that, he took um comfort in another female, and then he ended up having an affair.

It's trials more times than not that cause us to fall.

But how do we persevere in those trials?

You see, God does not put anything in our way that we can't handle.

He will always provide a way out, but it's a matter of us to persevere.

And that's mostly what James is talking about here.

A lot of times that we we tend to dread trials because they cause us to fall.

That we start to look at trials, oh man.

Gosh, I can't believe that.

I gotta be another trial.

But it's because of that negative connotation, but that's not what James says.

That's not what James is looking at, that we have to change our attitude on the way that we're looking at these things.

Because, I mean, look, look at what James says.

Let's just go ahead.

James, uh, chapter um chapter one, verse two.

We're gonna start in verse two.

Look at that verse with me.

And and and I apologize in advance.

We've got some of the ESV up there.

Um, some we won't, but some we do.

So um, but that's where I'll be reading from today.

But look at what it says in verse two.

It says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face various 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 become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Students, what does all mean?

Y'all remember what I've told you?

What does all mean?

All means all, and that's all all means.

All right, all means all, and that's all all means.

Count it all joy.

Now, these we want to separate these words a little bit because this this is this is one of my favorite verses, especially in James.

Count it all joy.

Don't count part of it joy.

Don't count just the good times joy.

Don't count just some of the times joy.

Don't count uh the times when you're happy or excited, or when you see that there's good coming out of it.

Count it all joy.

We should count everything joy.

The bad times, when we get the bad phone calls, when we have the bad conversations, when something ends up not going the way that we expected, when somebody gets hurt, when somebody's in the hospital, when somebody's sick, when somebody passes away.

Count it all joy.

When you face trials of various kinds, we have to change our attitude on the way that we're looking at these trials.

Because if we don't change our attitude, then we're gonna miss it.

That's the main part of this, that's what we're gonna get into.

If you don't change your attitude and if you don't look at this with a great mindset of excitement, that yes, yes, it's gonna be hard, yes, it's gonna be difficult, but we have to look at it and persevere through it, because if we don't, we're gonna miss the main point of what the final task of what this trial is for, or any trial is for.

Why do we count it all joy?

Because trials drive us to be like Christ.

But only if we persevere.

We have to persevere for that trial to take its effect.

Look at what the verse says again, right there in uh verse 3.

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, not lacking in anything.

So let me ask you this.

How do we persevere through the trials?

How do we persevere through those times, through those hardships, through those difficulties?

How do we do it?

Well, James lays it out for us.

He tells us exactly how we do it.

First, let's look in verse 5 through 8.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask a 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 the one who doubts 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 double-minded and unstable in all of his ways.

The first way that we persevere through the trials, so we've got to ask God for help.

Asking God for help.

It's such a simple, a simple thought, a simple truth, but we just gotta ask for help.

Just like what God is our Abba, He is our Father, He's our dad, He He wants to take care of us just in the same way that I want to take care of James and Jude and Joah, the same way that I was hurting when we were seeing them gagging and throwing up, you know, you you just think, God, just please let me do it.

Gosh, I could use a little way.

I probably couldn't go to the I and B either, so don't worry about it, David.

But but just when when you start to think about that, you're like, come on, please don't let them, don't let them have to go through this.

Especially with a little two-month-old Joah, as he's just gagging and he didn't even know what's happening.

At least Jude could tell us, throw up, you know, throw up.

He felt bad.

But Joah doesn't know what's going on.

And you're just hurting for him and you're thinking, why?

Why?

And when James is asking, help, help.

If we delight and count it all joy, God has already promised us to give us what we need.

If we're truly delighting in the Lord, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

He's going to give us the direction to go.

He's going to take us down the path that we need to go, and he's going to take care of us in that.

He's our Jehovah Jireh.

He provided a ram for Abraham on top of Mount Sinai for Isaac.

He is going to give us what we need to persevere.

But you see, as I as I've studied that story of Abraham and Isaac, Abraham had already drawn back that knife.

Isaac was already dead when Abraham drew back that knife.

But it was God that stayed his hand.

You see, Abraham persevered through that trial because he was ready to sacrifice his son.

It didn't make sense.

He didn't know why.

He didn't understand why.

Yes, it was going to be painful.

Yes, it was going to hurt.

But he knew that he had to do it.

He knew that he had to persevere.

He knew it was a trial.

That he had to understand what was happening and what was going on so that he could drive his relationship closer to God.

When uh right now we're it's a different world, right?

Would you agree?

Um I'm as David said, I'm actually preaching from notes on my iPad.

So um so it's a it's just a different world.

And one thing that's that's kind of fun that we we have a lot of fun with sometimes when we're just shooting the breeze at the house and just having a good time is that James likes to talk to Siri.

And so he'll he'll hold down the button and he'll talk to Siri, and most of the time she doesn't understand him, and she says something just ridiculous.

And Cassie asked the other day, what are you doing, Siri?

And she said some Sesame Street answer about how the cookie monster had crumbs everywhere and the count was counting, and it was just, I mean, it's just fun to talk to Siri.

And so James just loves to do that.

But this past week, what we actually taught him to do was that if there was ever an emergency, if there was ever something that was going on, because you know, we we have passcodes on our iPhone because you know, Angry Birds is gonna be the death of us all.

But with angry, we try to keep control of how much that he can play anything with the iPad, the phones, or anything, so that if he just picks it up, he can't just start playing.

So we all have passcodes on that.

But we thought that if something ever happens to him or to Cassie or that she can't get to the phone or something like that, and he needs to get help.

That we told him all you got to do is press the button and say, Siri, text.

Well, he has to say my husband, so because that's what Cassie has me.

He can't say text daddy, um, but text my husband.

And so he he started texting me stuff this week and even sent my mom some text and my dad some text and saying, oh, you know, la da-da-da, you know.

And I think when he said he said, Nana, I love you, love James, it came out, man, I love you, love Jane, or something like that.

And my mom sent back a question mark, and I had to translate, you know.

So it doesn't always come back through perfectly, but we're trying to teach him that if you need help, this is how you can ask for help.

If mama's not available, this is how you can ask for help.

She just got to do it.

She's got to take the phone, you've got to hold down the button, you've got to ask for help.

That's all you've got to do.

And it'll send it.

It'll send it out.

So it's so simple that even a child, even a five-year-old who can't even yet read, to be able to say something, to text something, and all he has to do is ask.

That's all we have to do is ask for help.

But look at this second part there in uh in five and six.

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

But look at this part, verse six, this is very important.

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.

We have to ask in faith.

Let me use James for another illustration.

James, a lot of times, James loves Legos right now.

That's just the stage that he's in.

James loves Legos.

And a lot of times he wants me to build the whatever it is with the Legos because he's a little bit impatient, and I'm a nerd too, so I get in trouble a lot for just building it for him and not letting him learn how to build it and read the instructions.

But when when we're doing that, he sometimes he wants me to do it, but he he just can't get his hands off of it.

And I'm trying to build it, and he just can't.

He's got to pick up the pieces and he's got to, oh, put this here, and it's like, buddy, that doesn't go there.

That sometimes I've said to him, James, if if you want me to build it, if you want me to help you, then you gotta trust that daddy can do it.

And you see, a lot of times I think that that's what we do in our lives, kind of similar to what David said again, and I'm so guilty of that.

I do that all the time that I think, God, oh, I so desperately need your help.

I've got to have your help do this.

But if we could do it this way, that'd be great.

And I could probably kind of facilitate and wind it in there and we can we can make it happen.

Yeah, you do it, God, but I'll do it this way.

And you see, that that that's not asking in faith.

We have to be confident and stable, trusting in God.

We have to be confident and stable, trusting in God.

See, that see, to be in order for us to truly experience who He is and what He has for us, if we still keep holding on to it, we still gotta have that control.

We've still got to have that tight grip that this is mine.

This I can't let it go.

This is mine.

I gotta I gotta I'm gonna I gotta make sure this is going okay.

And for type A personalities, it's very much like that.

That we we can't I'll I I'm very guilty a lot of times.

I would just rather do it myself because I I know I can do it right, and I'm I'm that way with some of the some of the different tendencies that I have of different things and some projects that I would just rather do it to make sure it's done the way that I think it needs to be done.

And you know, I'm guilty of that because that a lot of times I'm failing to be able to minister and shepherd in a way that it's not my job to do it, it's my job to equip the saints.

We all work together for that.

And so so that's something that when when we don't relinquish that control, when we don't let go of it and let God, then we're not truly exercising our faith.

See, it's Matthew 21 and 22, verse 22, that says, Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive.

Now, I've tried to express that to our students that when you see something like that in Scripture, pay attention, because that's a promise.

That's considered promise.

Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive.

You will receive.

That means you're going to receive it.

It doesn't mean that you might, it doesn't mean it didn't say you might receive, or if you wear the right color socks, you will receive.

It says that you will receive.

But look at the last part of that verse.

If you have faith.

Oh, yay.

I want a new car.

God, please give me a new car.

But you see, when you have that true, that undying, that that unquenchable faith inside of you, the things that you pray are gonna line up with the things that what God wants.

And yes, you will receive those things even in the midst of that trial.

Let's move on.

Verse nine, uh verse nine in chapter one.

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 flower falls, and its beauty perishes.

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

I know that you've heard this before.

The last shall be first.

And this is so important.

When we were going through this part with the students, it was so important that I that I got them to just understand, or at least attempted to get them to understand that these things that you pursue in life, these things that you feel right now are so important, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but there's one thing that stands true, and that's the word of the Lord.

That it's Jesus that will stand forever.

So everything else is going to fade away except those things that are eternal.

See, that's what we should be striving towards.

And that's what it says here in chapter, uh, in verse 9 through 11, that he's saying that our trials drive us to be like Christ, but unless we're humble, unless we're recognizing that it's Christ that we're striving towards, then we're failing in that.

Because you see, our our ultimate goal, our ultimate, our ultimate thing that we're striving towards is to be like Christ.

And if we've got something in our way, whether it be uh a material possession, whether it be whether it be money or cars or or or or or drugs or sex or alcohol to come back to our students, what I was trying to emphasize to them, that these things that are so so constantly pressed on you in your lives, in your school, with your friends, with your peer, the things that are that are totally just swamping that generation right now.

That if that's your focus, then let the rich man in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the grass.

Its flowers fall, and its beauty perishes.

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

That the only thing that we should be pursuing is Christ.

So how do we how do we uh uh how do we persevere through the trials?

First, we ask God for help, but secondly, we make sure that we are humble enough to realize that none of this matters.

None of what God has blessed us with matters except for Christ.

Let's look at verses twelve through fifteen.

Twelve through fifteen.

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.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

How we respond in this life how we respond in this life determines how many crowns we're gonna be able to throw at the feet of Jesus.

You see, it's persevering through these trials, it's persevering through these difficulties, these things.

They're what we're gonna be judged for.

That's part of what we're going to be judged for when we're standing at his throne, the judgment seat.

That when he says, Well done, my good and faithful servant, and hands us these crowns that we can in turn turn back around and place at the feet of Jesus as an ultimate act of worship and adoration to the one who gave his all for us.

That's what the trial is for.

That's what we have to focus on and remember.

We have to remember what the trial is for.

Because unless we remember what the trial is for, it's all it doesn't matter.

Because if it's if we just get to the end of the trial and we go, oh, I'm glad that's over.

Instead of learning from that and growing from that, it was all wasted.

I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to waste the trials.

Or live it again, ain't that right?

Sorry, I said ain't Cussie.

It isn't that God is doing this to us.

It's that we're doing it for him.

So you see, when we when we have that change of attitude, when we realize that that's how our when our brain is morphed that way, and we realize that, oh, this isn't something that's being done to me.

It's something I'm doing for him, it makes it a lot easier to endure.

When you realize that persevering through this and surviving this trial and doing this, that I can uh uphold Christ and reflect him truly and draw others closer to him in that process, then you're able to sit back and say, Man, thank you, God, for putting me through that trial.

God makes us more like Christ in our trials, but only if we persevere.

You see Cassie and I, before we were here, we we went through quite a few years of trials, and and quite honestly, I believe that we went through those because we failed the first time around.

That we went through some different situations in our life where uh we had been in some different places and and we had faced trials and we didn't handle them in the way that we were supposed to, and and I didn't handle them in the way that I was supposed to.

And so as we as we were going through these difficult times, it was hard, and and and there were arguments and there were disappointments and there were there were struggles.

But I remember very, very clearly on Veterans Day in 2013 sitting in my office at Ezel's catfish cabin in Kalera, and them walking in and through a conversation telling me that I was being laid off, and that another general manager was gonna take my store that had his store closed, and walking out the back door and getting in the car and calling Cassie.

And yeah, for about an hour, you know, we she cried, I cried, and then I got real angry and yelled a lot, and had all of those normal emotions that you would go through.

But then I remember sitting in the floor of James's and Jude's room at our house in Clara.

It was about an hour, hour and a half later.

Laughing.

Laughing.

We didn't have any money saved.

We had just we'd actually just written a check, well, paid the card for our first family vacation basically ever to Disney World.

We were like, we finally, we've we've saved the money, we're gonna do this, we've gotten the off time approved by my employer, and so we we didn't have anything saved.

We had just drained what we did have there, and and and uh we we didn't know what we were gonna do.

I mean, I didn't have to go to work the next day.

That was a weird feeling.

That was the first time in my life that not by my choice, I didn't have to go to work.

But we were laughing.

And it was that point, it was that point that we looked at each other and we said, we're gonna be okay.

We're gonna be okay.

And from that time, yes, there have been trials, yes, there's been hardships, yes, there's been things that are going on, but I feel like that was so much different because we were able to look at each other and say, we passed this trial.

We passed this test.

We did it right this time.

And what got us there can be found in James 1.17.

Jeremy, do you have that verse, James 1.17?

Every good and perfect gift is from above.

Coming down from the Father of lights.

Don't miss this part.

With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

In other words, God does not change.

The same God that got you through the last trial is gonna get you through the next one.

The same God that was there for Abraham up on Mount Sinai when he was about to sacrifice Isaac is the same God that is here for you right now and whatever's going on in your life, whether it be a sickness, whether it be a trial, whether it be a family issue, whether it be finances, whatever it is, God will get you through it because God does not change.

But the only way that we can experience that if we trust that he does not change, and we persevere through that trial.

So count it all joys, my brothers, whenever you face any trial of any kind, because we know that the testing of your faith, the testing that you're going through right now, will develop steadfastness.

And if you persevere, that steadfastness will have its full work, making you perfect and complete, not lacking in anything.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.