12: How to Keep Going

This morning we are reading from the letter of James.

And technology is betraying me.

5, 7 through 12.

It says, Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

You also be patient.

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

So quick announcement before we begin.

A week from today, we are going to be leaving after the service, and uh we've got flyers uh that are door hangers, and we're just gonna go hang door hangers all around the neighborhood.

So we've been here for a while now, since March 8th, we've been in the building, and we think this is about time to introduce ourselves.

So uh we want to introduce ourselves to the neighborhood.

They uh we've got flyers that our very own Tim Lawrence made.

Tim, are you here?

Nope, that's okay.

Uh and uh Tim online, hi.

Uh the or not, you know, if you're watching, if you're listening to this on the podcast later, hello Tim.

Um the uh uh and yeah, on them they say um uh a nice little quippy tagline that says uh redemption stories begin at times like this.

And so that's kind of the welcome that we want to make to the neighborhood uh for Redemption Church Denver.

This is a crazy season in just about everyone's life, and we want to invite our neighborhood to be a part of the redemption story that Christ is working, that we believe he will work in the lives of people in this neighborhood.

So we want to reach out and connect.

So if you would like to be a part of that, uh then just uh sign up right where you register for Sunday morning service in the app or online, and you can uh sign up there for uh uh to become a part of Hanging Door Hangers.

So it'll be great.

Uh so I recommend that you do that.

And there'll probably be food and snacks afterwards and stuff too.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're gonna do a picnic lunch in the park across the street.

If you guys like picnics.

Uh so yeah, really uh it would be really huge to get some more hands out there.

And it's just a great way for us to introduce ourselves in the neighborhood, a low-impact way.

Uh so uh hope that you'll join us in that.

Okay, now into our text for today.

We are almost at the end of the letter of James, so let's pray and then we'll move into our text for today.

Holy Father, thank you for your word, and we pray that you would use your word to shape and conform our hearts, that your word would work as a force of preservation that uh binds our hearts to you, uh, as we sang earlier this morning.

Lord, how prone to wander we are.

We pray that by your word that you would create a steadfastness in our hearts uh that uh keeps us in you.

Lord, lift us up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So today we are uh in uh our second to last sermon in the letter of James.

And this is kind of the capstone of the letter.

The end is uh the last section that we're gonna be going over next week is sort of the epilogue.

And it's basically where James says, no matter how you're feeling, pray.

If you're feeling good, pray.

If you're feeling sick, pray.

If you're feeling bad, pray.

So that's next week, little prologue to the epilogue.

This week, uh, we he returns to where he began at the beginning of the letter.

This book kicks off with James saying, consider it all joy when you face trials of many kinds.

And he begins by calling this young church towards steadfastness, that they wouldn't wander away from this new, delicate faith that they had just received.

And here at the end of the letter, he returns to this very same theme, that he might cultivate a sense of steadfastness in us and in our hearts.

Let's go ahead and read that first section.

He says, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds.

And then in James chapter 1, verses 3 through 4, he says, For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:3–4

You know, if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, then you have likely seen close friends that were a part of their Christian faith, that that perhaps were even growing and flourishing in their faith at one point, then you've seen them walk away.

You know, by a show of hands, have you ever seen anybody walk away from Christian faith?

Yeah, absolutely.

Everyone.

And it can be one of the most heartbreaking things to witness.

And I think there's kind of a trend right now, and there's kind of a plot line to the deconversion story, uh, which is yeah, I used to think these things about Christianity, I used to think I had to believe this, but then I was exposed to this sort of thing, and I realized that uh that faith no longer served and no longer held to the things that I thought it did.

And uh it has the same format, in a sense, of a conversion story.

And all of a sudden we deconvert from uh Christianity.

There's a narrative that goes along with it.

Today, James is looking, this is one of the earliest letters that we have that's written to the church, is the letter of James.

And he's writing to a basically exclusively Jewish audience, uh, an audience of Jewish converts to Christianity.

And it's this just spark of a church.

You know, when you make a fire in the woods, or when you see someone on TV do it, and they get the little the little just ember from rubbing the stick together in front of their volleyball.

And the little the the little ember is just so delicate, and it could, there's potential there for it to spread until into this is a poor analogy for right now, but into a fire that could that could cover you know uh so much.

That's why it's so smoky in here, because of that type of potential.

But the uh uh at that moment, it's just a spark that's so delicate, it needs to be huddled around and just told, like keep going, breathed on, to just have life come into it.

That's the moment that the church is in right now.

It's this small spark that could become a flame that moves across the whole world, proclaiming the glory of the Lord.

But right now, James is just saying, you you just need to keep going.

This small spark, don't go out.

Okay, stick with it.

I know it's hard right now, but he's calling them towards this steadfastness.

So how do we keep going?

You know, when our faith feels like a tiny spark, how do we keep it going?

Uh that's what uh this section of the letter is about today how to keep going.

And James gives us four uh directions for how to keep going.

We are to be patient, be together, be inspired, and be clear.

These are ways that we can keep going so that our steadfastness actually materializes in the world.

We don't walk away.

All right, so let's begin with be patient.

James 5, verse 7, he writes, Be patient, therefore, brothers.

James 5:7

See, I told you, until the coming of the Lord.

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, be patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.

All right, let's put some context to this.

Last week, James spoke directly to this sort of group of rich landowning oppressors that were taking advantage of the authority and power that they had to uh to oppress and manipulate this group of Jewish Christians.

They were the ones that worked the land, they had no bargaining power, and they uh were taken advantage of by this group of rich oppressors.

And the danger there is they might look and see, you know, God's not really on our side.

He must be on the side of these wealthy people who are have lives of ease, they have all the power, and when they seem to take advantage of us, there's no justice paid.

But James reminds them that justice will be paid, that there will be a that that his justice will be demonstrated in the world.

And so here, in light of that, in light of knowing that justice will be made right, he's not trying to rile up uh this young church.

He's not trying to say, like, look at your oppressors, all right, now we're all keyed up, let's go get them.

The justice of the Lord is coming, and we are the act of that justice.

We are the long arm of the Lord to accomplish that justice.

No, he's doing the exact opposite.

He's calling them towards patience because he's saying justice will happen, but it's not for you to take that justice into your hands.

Because you know and can take confidence in that in the fact that Jesus will accomplish his justice, you, the role you can play is to be patient, to keep your eye on the ball, to do the very things that Christ embodied and called you to, which was to love your neighbor, to love God, which is to pray for your enemies.

All of those things they still hold.

And you're able to steadfastly move in them because you know that justice will be accomplished, but it will be accomplished by the Lord.

That's what the little therefore is there for.

Be patient, therefore.

That's calling back to this idea of justice will be paid.

That means you can be patient.

And he gives us this image of what that patience looks like.

And he's like, look at the way a farmer is patient.

Now, where they are uh geographically, there's an early rain and a late rain.

And in order for a crop to flourish, it needed to receive both of those.

So if you put this in the context of the metaphor, he's saying, be like the farmer, don't harvest before the late rain comes.

If you harvest before the late rain comes, your crop is not going to be ripe.

It's not gonna be useful, it's not going to get you through the next season, it won't accomplish what you need it to accomplish.

The same is true if we try and take justice out of God's hands and place it into our hands.

Vengeance belongs to the Lord.

Vengeance is not ours to accomplish.

So if we try and take vengeance into our hands, then it's like we're going into the field and we're harvesting before the late rain comes.

We won't accomplish it.

Have you ever tried to get revenge by a show of hands?

And how did how did it go?

Did it, did you, did you leave and it was like, oh, I'm glad I did that.

That wasn't a waste of energy or time, and I feel vindicated.

No, it's always a harvesting before the fruit is actually there.

It's always taking something, trying to take something into your hands.

You know what?

I don't feel like justice was accomplished.

Now I just feel like I I've dirtied myself in the process.

It can be hard for if you're in situations where you have a clear enemy, and those times come in life, then it this may feel particularly relevant.

And you'll realize, you know what, I need to know that justice will be served here because justice is important.

And in knowing that Jesus will accomplish his justice, then you realize that stepping away, being patient in this type of season, is not a denial of justice.

It's a trust that the full fruit of justice will be born.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

So that's the picture of the farmer.

And James, as is typical for him, he's drawing on a metaphor that Jesus had previously used.

So this is the way that Jesus uses that same analogy of the metaphor.

And this is this is where I want us to kind of get a picture of what a patient Christian life looks like.

Uh, what does it look like to be living a Christian life?

And Mark 4, 27 through 29, Jesus gives this parable regarding the kingdom of heaven.

Uh he says uh it's about a farmer who goes out and he sows his seed.

Uh, but it's a different one, perhaps, than the parable of the sower that you're thinking of.

This is what the farmer does after sowing a seed.

He sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows.

He knows not how.

The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

What is the kingdom of heaven like?

What is the work of the kingdom of heaven like?

It's a patient labor.

It's oftentimes just applauding forward.

Every day you receive the work that you need to do, you do that work, and then you know what you do next?

You sleep.

And when you sleep, the kingdom of heaven seems to grow and seems to come.

This is not a faith of violent revolution.

This is oftentimes a faith of just plodding forward trustingly.

We often walk away because we say God must not be a God of justice because I'm not seeing it now.

God must not actually care for me or have my interests in heart because we're not seeing it now.

But what is the response of faith?

It's one that just keeps going, that trusts, look, I don't know how the plant forms.

I don't, I can't articulate how the stalk comes and then the ear and then the corn in the ear.

But I trust that it happens.

And reflectively, we can look back and see, you know what, the the harvest was accomplished.

The kingdom did come.

But it's a patient labor.

When we understand that this requires patience, it prevents us from drawing conclusions like God isn't for us or he's not present based on just our immediate circumstances.

It just calls us to keep moving forward.

So one of my favorite examples of this is Martin Luther, um, the reformer.

He has this great quote uh about, you know, it was in uh, I think it was in the Atlantic.

They were interviewing him after uh the Reformation.

And uh he says this: he says, I simply taught, preached, wrote God's word.

Otherwise, I did nothing.

And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it.

I did nothing.

The word did everything.

Isn't that an awesome quote?

It says, look, I I I woke up, I did my labor, I went and drank Windenberg beer with my friends and relaxed, and the word did the work.

That's what the kingdom is like.

You know, if you're signing up to be a Christian, you're signing up to plod forward, to just keep going, keep showing up, keep doing the labor.

This is what James is calling this young church to.

Just be steadfast, keep moving forward, and be patient.

He's calling us towards the patience like a farmer.

In James 5, 8, he says, You also, like the farmer, be patient.

Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Part of patience is having a heart that is established.

Now, what does that mean?

I think that there's uh I think that it's kind of out of vogue to have a heart that is established in the Lord.

We consider it perhaps even inauthentic to have a heart that's established in the Lord.

In fact, if we were to say, like, is your heart established in the Lord, as if we'd ever talked like that, then uh I think we would consider the most authentic response would be to say something like, I don't know, I would, I would like for it to be, or I'm just not sure.

I I I feel like it has been before, but it's not now.

And to be honest, I just need to share that I'm feeling pretty flaky and waffly and my heart's just not established.

I think that we even if that we would consider that the most authentic and most appropriate answer.

But here's what I'm calling you towards.

Martin Lloyd Jones was a preacher in London in the 60s.

I make this joke every time, which means he preached to Austin Powers.

And the uh it's the only London 60s reference that I really know, um, which is actually a 90s reference.

And the uh uh he would he had the simple test to determine whether or not someone was a Christian or not.

He would ask, uh, do you think you're a Christian?

And he found that oftentimes the response that he would get was, I don't think I've been good enough lately.

And I I don't think I've really been living up to what it means to be a Christian lately, and so right now I just don't know.

I just don't think I am.

And he said, in it, and he said, then I know right away.

You don't get it.

You don't get what it means to be a Christian.

Because what it means to be a Christian is not to look to your own life and to your own works as the source of your righteousness.

What it means to be a Christian is to look to the work and the life and death of Christ as the source of your righteousness.

And so because we're looking to the righteousness of Christ and not to your own, that means that our hearts can legitimately be established.

They can, we can have made a legitimate decision and its stick because our hearts are established in Christ, not in ourselves.

It is God who binds our hearts to him, like we sang this morning.

Bind our wandering heart, my wandering heart to thee.

You know, there is a time for Peter, for example, when uh Jesus comes to the disciples and he says, uh, look, the crowds are fleeing.

This is after Jesus was like, Eat my flesh and drink my blood.

And people were like, Okay, we're gonna, I think I've got meetings.

And uh Jesus was like, disciples, are you gonna are you gonna go too?

And Peter had realized he'd reached this moment.

He says, Where else am I going to go?

You have the words of eternal life.

You know, at a certain point, that's an established heart.

That's a picture of an established heart.

Where we just say, you know what, Jesus, where else am I gonna go?

What what other God died for me that I might be reconciled to him?

What other hope do I have in the world of being interceded for before the Father?

What other hope do I have of having my heart itself changed by the Holy Spirit?

Where else am I gonna go?

You have the words of eternal life.

That's an established heart.

And that's a requirement for patience.

When we're established in Christ.

I think maybe one of the main reasons, perhaps the main reason that people don't stick with it is their faith starts to shift from looking at uh Christ as the good news and the source of your salvation to looking at yourself for the source of your salvation.

When we continue having our hearts established in Christ, of that just where else am I gonna go?

Who else is there but Jesus?

Who else could die and then be resurrected that I might be brought to the Father?

What else is there?

There.

Let's have established hearts.

I just like feel free to say, my heart's established in Christ.

That contributes to our patience.

Next, so that's be patient.

We're called to be patient.

Next, we're called to be together.

This is a team sport.

James 5 9, he says, Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.

Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

See, this is a call towards unity.

This is a community that's facing a ton of external pressure.

And they're going to be facing more and more external pressure as the time goes on.

This is the beginning of a very hard season for Christians.

And that type of external pressure, I don't know if you've noticed this, but when a society starts to feel a lot of pressure externally from some sort of external force, then factions and groups and breaks start to take place in that society.

The tensions become heightened.

I'm finding it hard to think of an example of that right now.

But when uh when the pressure is put on a society, then those factions start to form and break.

Now that's true for a church as well.

It's true for your home.

Have you noticed how a hard day often becomes an argument with your roommate or your spouse, even though they had nothing to do with it?

You know, that's that pressure where all of a sudden it turns towards internal grumbling.

And at that space where we most need each other and need to be able to trust each other, we begin to just judge one another.

And the speck in the other person's eye becomes far clearer than the log that is in our own eye, which is what Jesus says right after he said this bit about judge not lest you be judged.

What he's saying is, look, you're considering yourself the judge.

But remember, Jesus is saying, Jesus is the judge.

I'm the judge.

And so when you're considering yourself the judge, what you're gonna do is you're gonna judge according to the wrong metrics.

And you're going to think that you're making appropriate assessments, but you're not.

You're just projecting your preferences.

And your preferences are not the end-all be-all.

Christ's judgment is.

So he's calling the community to not be one that's grumbling and tearing apart and tearing against each other.

Instead, he's calling them to be a community that would be the opposite of that.

That you know, this whole section, if you're curious and want to do some further study, this is like a condensed Hebrews 10 through 12.

If you want to look this up and you can maybe make a note.

Nobody in here is making a note, but if you're online.

And the uh uh so if you read through Hebrews 10 through 12, we're basically seeing this exact same theme speaking to a very similar audience.

And what's being articulated there, sorry, I lost my hand, uh, I lost my uh train of thought because of that joke.

Uh uh, so what's being articulated there is basically this section, but positively.

It says, don't forsake your own assembling together.

Okay, encourage each other, spur one another on toward love and toward good deeds.

That's what our community is supposed to look like.

That's the opposite of grumbling, where we're trying to spur one another on towards living good and living well in the world.

Um, I've had uh multiple conversations over the past couple of weeks where people have called and been like, you know what, with the way politics are and with the way COVID is and with the way the world is right now, I find myself becoming increasingly angry.

And I'm living with this terrible anger in all sorts of situations in my family as well.

And as we discussed it, we uh kind of happened upon this analogy.

And I think this will be helpful perhaps in spurring our church on towards love and good deeds, and it's a posture that we want to have in this type of an environment.

I think that oftentimes we talk politics and we talk COVID response, and well, those are the two things.

And uh we talk about those things as though we are the kings and queens who have our hands on the levers that can, if we just find the right idea, we'll be able to implement it.

For most of us, that's not the situation we find ourselves in.

We're much more like an EMT that rushes onto the scene of a car wreck.

And that means that we're encountering someone immediately in front of us who is hurt or who's frustrated.

And as we're encountering that person, we could run up to them and say, this whole car wreck could have been prevented.

If that person stopped over there, then it wouldn't have had to have gone down like this.

And if we put a stop sign here, then we'll have policies that can prevent these sort of car wrecks and things like that.

And the person's there like, I don't care about that right now.

I'm hurting, you know, and so uh the posture that we need to have is like, look, this is a big story that's happening.

What role could we play in it?

There's some there's someone in front of me, and they're hurt, they're frustrated, they're confused, they're angered, whatever it is.

You know, what would Jesus be like to this type of person here?

That's spurring us on towards love and good deeds, that keeps us from just grumbling against each other.

It doesn't mean we're forsaking political opinions or that it's not important to understand who we're gonna vote for and how things pan out.

And that's not what I'm saying.

Because I'm saying one thing doesn't mean I'm not saying another.

But the uh uh when we understand that we're spurred on towards love and good deeds by one another, all of a sudden you'll find, you know, I can be patient and effective in a world that's very crazy in a way that's immediately beneficial to my family, to my roommates, to the people that are around me, my coworkers, not distracted and pulled into a normal sense of anger.

Now, the motivation for this is that the judge is standing at the door.

This is the second time James has said something like this.

He says, uh, the coming of the Lord is at hand earlier.

And he says, the judge is standing at the door.

Now, if someone's standing at the door, you think that means they're very close.

Right?

They're right there.

Uh when my son is in a pushing phase right now, where to solve problems, he pushes other children.

And the uh oh, you know what can change that if they're both like playing in his room, just walking up to the threshold of the door.

And all of a sudden he'll go to push and it's like, well, oh, oh, my parents there.

You know, Jesus is saying, I'm standing right at the threshold of the door of your lives.

When I open the door, what am I gonna find?

Are you bickering over masks or are you loving one another?

You know, i am I gonna open the door and be like, did you guys seriously get taken in by this type of pettiness?

Or did you did you keep your eye on the ball?

Because I've got a big project I'm working on here.

I know it can I know it can seem like nothing's happening because you're just going to sleep and you're waking up and you can't watch the plant grow that is the kingdom of heaven.

But be patient.

Keep your eye on the ball, have a steadfast heart.

Now, this is something that I think is worth worth addressing just from a Bible study perspective.

He's the question, uh perhaps an obvious question that might be coming up in your minds is uh 2,000 years is not really standing at the door.

Uh 2,000 years, I don't care who you are, uh, is not an imminent coming.

Right?

Does that make sense?

Like even even in biblical terms, even in biblical constructs of time, standing at the door is not 2,000 years.

2,000 years is a very long time.

So many commentators say James was wrong.

The early church was mistaken.

They thought and they spoke in such a way that Jesus would be imminently returning, but they didn't understand that he wasn't.

And so James is just writing wrongly here.

Well, that's not true.

Uh James wasn't writing wrongly.

In order to understand this type of language that we see throughout scripture at this time, we've got to understand a couple of things.

The first is, as I've already spoken to, the audience that James is speaking to here.

And the audience that James is speaking to is a predominantly Jewish audience, almost exclusively Jewish audience, at the very early stages of the church.

And what do they get to grumbling about?

Think through the rest of Scripture, the rest of the epistles, and we see that they're grumbling about what is primary about Jewish culture that needs to be brought into Christianity.

If you're a Christian, some will say, then you must also be circumcised.

If you're a Christian, then you must follow this calendar with these particular holidays in it.

If you're a Christian, then you must apply these dietary restrictions to your lives.

And then in those ways, you will be justified before the Lord, plus with Christ, in the same way that we were justified previously.

But James is writing to a group and he's saying, no, it's Christ alone.

This is the great revelation of what we've seen.

So don't get pulled back into and grumble about these old cultural practices and these old ways of living that you'll be so easily deceived by.

And he's saying, the Lord is at hand.

He's coming, and your grumbling is right there.

What coming is James referring to?

James is referring to Jesus' coming to judge and end this pattern of Jewish practices, which takes place in real time and space in the year AD 70 at the destruction of the temple.

The temple is the heart of the Jewish faith, and it's the heart of these practices where the uh sacrifices were made.

But in the year 70, the temple is sacked by Rome, and it's destroyed and never raised again.

That's what we know this because James is quoting directly here, when he's talking about these at-the-door passages, he's quoting Jesus' uh speech at the Mount of Olives, Matthew 24, verses 33 to 34.

Matthew 24:33–34

James, excuse me, Jesus says, When you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

That's in Greek, it's a direct quote.

They just translate one door, one gate.

At the very gates, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Jesus is describing a moment where he will come and he will say, Look, this old way of doing these practices is done away with, and we are inaugurating the church age.

And so he comes and Jesus does that.

So for this particular context, Jesus, James is saying, look, we trust what Jesus is going to do.

And these things that we're getting pulled back into in our grumbling, they will look like nothing soon.

So just hang in there.

Now, this is a picture of this place that we find ourselves now, which is that Jesus will come again.

The new heavens and the new earth will be established.

Jesus will show his justice in the world.

And all of our grumbling will look like foolishness.

And so we we look at this time and the fulfillment of Jesus' coming, and this should stir our hearts and make us consider you know what?

He promised he'd come again, he will.

And so let's not be caught grumbling with one another, but instead, let's have our hearts stirred towards love and good deeds for one another.

Okay, so we are to be patient, we're to be together.

Next, we're to be inspired.

James 5, verse 10.

James 5:10

As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

This is where we're to be inspired.

James says, look at what the lives of the prophets were like.

They just proclaimed the word, and they were made outcasts because of it.

They were killed because of it.

But we are in that number.

Because of them, we know the words of the Lord.

Because of their faithfulness, we're able to understand the sacrifice that's been made, even for us.

So look to them, be inspired.

Consider that's what a successful Christian life looks like.

Because if we aren't inspired by that, then we will be inspired by something else in the world.

We will start to consider, you know, a successful Christian life, it looks like the prophets, sure, but it also looks a little bit like Jeff Bezos.

And so I'm I'm gonna try and do his morning routine.

I always joke about billionaire morning routines.

Do you guys get those clickbait articles as much as I do?

Yeah.

So uh I'm gonna try and do his morning routine because that's where a really fulfilling life actually lies.

And we try and conjure together some mixture.

He's saying, be inspired by the right people.

Be it look to the prophets of old, be inspired.

They spoke in the name of their Lord.

They suffered and they were patient in the midst of it.

They just plodd forward.

Even when there was so much coming against them, they kept going forward.

He continues on in verse 11.

He says, Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast.

You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purposes of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

I love that he chose Job as the example.

Our hearts should be encouraged by him choosing Job as the example.

Because when you read through the book of Job, you know what Job is doing constantly?

He's wrestling.

Job's established heart looks like a lot of wrestling.

He's constantly wrestling back and forth with his friends.

He's wrestling with why God is doing these things.

He's not getting those answers.

He's desiring to have those answers.

He's desiring to speak face to face with the Lord, that his case might be heard, and he's not receiving that ability.

He's wrestling constantly, but what doesn't he do?

He never forsakes the Lord.

He continues to trust in the Lord.

He continues to consider that perhaps Job's view on things is not as high as God's view on things.

And that becomes the final deciding factor.

So be encouraged in your wrestling.

In Job's example, we see that the purposes of the Lord were compassionate and merciful.

But we know that so much more than Job knew it.

In Christ, we see that the purposes of the Lord, where he came and he died on behalf of our sins, and he took on our punishment so that we might be saved in him.

We see that the purpose of the Lord, even in death, is ultimately for his mercy.

It means that we can keep going.

Okay, lastly, be clear.

So be clear.

James 5, 12.

Above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

This feels like such a strange capstone to this section.

Above all, out of all that I've said, be patient, be steadfast, suffer like the prophets, but above all, don't swear to heaven or to earth.

Just don't say stuff like that.

It seems like a weird place for James to end.

But here's what he's speaking to.

There's a common practice for people to say, I'm not swearing to God, uh, but uh I'm s I'm swearing to the temple.

And it's like, well, that feels a little close.

So they'd say, okay, you know what, I'm not swearing to the temple.

I've I swear to the gold on the temple.

And now that I'm swearing to that, you can trust me.

Or they'd say, I'm not swearing to God, I'm swearing to the earth.

I'm not swearing to God, I'm swearing, uh I'm swearing to heaven.

And he's saying, look, don't swear by these other things.

Don't create the type of speaking where you're having to call in these other structures to legitimize the simplicity of your language.

What he's calling us to is have a simple faith.

Have a faith that can be articulated in ways like Christ is the Lord.

That's it.

Christ is the Lord.

So that's where my decision lies.

Are you with Jesus?

Yes or no?

And then here's what we want to say, and here's what I want to say.

Look, what do you mean, what do you mean by Jesus?

Because there's a yeah, like am I with Christ?

Yeah, I am, but there's a lot of other people who say that too, and I don't want you to think of me like you think of them.

And he's saying, look, you can get caught up in playing this game, a game that the prophets they didn't play.

Where we start to think, if if I were saying it right, then no one would reject me for it.

But that's not true.

Oftentimes it is your very saying it right that leads to you being rejected for it.

So he's saying, just let your words be simple.

Let your yes be a yes, and your no be a no.

Otherwise, you'll be playing a game forever and you'll begin adrift in your own heart, away from the simplicity of the gospel that you were called towards.

So, how to keep going.

We keep going by being patient.

Meaning, look, I don't see the fruit of this yet, but I'm going to keep going in faith.

We keep going by being together.

We encourage one another.

We don't grumble.

We tend towards peace.

We try and build one another up.

This is a team sport.

We're inspired.

We look to the ones that have gone before us in scripture.

We remember that it worked out good for them.

If God was faithful to people such as them, he'll be faithful to people such as us.

And we're clear.

We have a simple faith that Christ is Lord.

He saved us.

We're just to be clear.

Okay.

Are there any questions?

Perhaps.

Are there any, Tina?

No.

Oh.

Okay.

Uh so let's uh uh go ahead and uh take communion.

Megan, would you throw me mine?

I left it there.

Connection.

Uh this is from 1 Corinthians 11, 23 to 26.

It says, For I have received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

As we take communion today, we remember that it is Christ's body and blood that holds us together, that holds us in, so that we can be steadfast as we look towards him.

This is our sustenance, it's our food that we gather together around his broken body and his poured out blood.

That is what holds us together.

So if you tear off the top, just like Jesus did it in the upper room, and you have the wafer, and then drink the communion wine.

Holy Father, we pray that you would work in our hearts, that you would bind our wandering hearts to you, that we might continue and move steadfastly for you, Lord.

Father, I pray that you would work in the hearts of the people in our church to finish the race, Lord God.

That we as a young church, that you might hold delicately and fan into flame, Lord God, for the sake of you and your glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.