James 1

All right, good morning. Good to see everybody. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with me, we'll pray and we'll get started.

If you haven't done so, go ahead and turn yourself on. Okay. Father, God, thank you for the day. God, thank you for this opportunity to be here, Lord, just to praise you, to lift praise to your holy name and just to spend some time in your word this morning, Father. God, I pray that you prepare our hearts just to receive from you, Lord, and just help us just to lift a joyful noise to you, Father.

We love you. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Praise God. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like, and we'll continue on here.

Lord God, how we long to just stand in your presence, Lord. God, and lift praise to your name. God, better is one day in your courts than a thousand days elsewhere. A soul is found within your presence. I've seen the shadows of thousands elsewhere. Oh, better is one day in your house, better is a thousand elsewhere. A thousand elsewhere to see in your house.

Better is a thousand elsewhere to get to me or two.

A thousand elsewhere, a thousand elsewhere. A thousand elsewhere, a thousand elsewhere. Yes, Lord God, better is one day in your courts than a thousand anywhere else, Lord God.

Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is a thousand elsewhere. one day in your courts thousands elsewhere thousands elsewhere mercy never fails me my days I've been held in your hands format that away until I leave my I will see the goodness been so so every breath of the goodness you're the five darkest night you are close you as a father as a friend I have in the goodness I have been faithful and so so I will see the goodness this is running after it's right now it's right now hey down surrender now the key this is running after it's right now to me I've been faithful yes you have or

have been so so you prefer and I'm yes look at we will sing it here you're I'm I'm you're you're you're you're you're I'm you're you're you're you're you're in the heavens Fling wide the gates Flood every heart with mercy Pour out your presence and have it our praise Send revival Lord send it now A move of your spirit Let heaven break out Come now in power Cover this land Like you've done it before Would you do it again Lord send revival Lord send it now Send revival Lord send it now A move of your spirit Let heaven break Cover this land Like you've done it before Would you do it again Lord send revival Lord send it now Send revival Lord send it now A move of your spirit Let heaven break Cover this land Like you've done it before Lord God

Lord send your Holy Spirit this morning We welcome you Holy Spirit And wash through our lives Just clean everything out Lord We come and we invite you Lord To come and do your mighty work in our hearts this morning Do a work that only you can do Lord Lord send revival Lord send it now A move of your spirit Let heaven break out Come now in power Cover this land Like you've done it before Would you do it again Would you guys stand with me for this last song?

Cast my mind To Calvary Where Jesus bled I see his hands, his feet My Savior on Cursed tree His body bound And drenched in tears They laid him down In Joseph's tomb Entrance sealed By heavy stone Messiah still And all his name On the third At break of dawn The Son of God He rose again O trampled death O sea of sea He shall return In robes of white The blazing sun Shall pierce the night And I will For the Lord Will sing your praise Father God we just want to lift praise to you this morning We lift praise to your holy name It is the name above all names And you are king of all kings And Lord of all lords God help us just to trust in you each and every day And help us just to lift praise to you Each and every day

Because you are worthy of all of our praise Lord God This morning I pray that as Zach comes To give your word I just pray that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit Give him the words to speak Lord God and just to speak directly to our hearts And let your word do its mighty work in us In our lives We love you We praise you and we thank you In Jesus name Amen Let's have some fellowship Good morning Y'all mind finding your seats We'll get started here I guess I get elected to give announcements today So I'm not used to that I guess the bottom of the barrel now So everybody's gone Sorry if Ryan's not going to be here today We'll have Zach Fry And hopefully it doesn't really matter God's word is God's word So I'd like for y'all to

Take a look at your bulletin Over on the left side here Is all our weekly studies I'd encourage you all to find one of these And get plugged in Need a small fellowship Is so much different than meeting out as a big group So get plugged in to one of those Get to know people Join in Over here in the middle section of your bulletin Some upcoming events we have happening July 26th to 28th Is our Vacation Bible School We have a sign up sheet in the back of the bulletin Back on that table there August 13th Going to be having a baptism At Prairie View Christian Camp If you'd like to be baptized Or haven't been Get with Ryan And get that set up Back in the back We have our youth Doing their fundraiser It's the Blessed Beans

So they have some fancy coffees back there The regular coffee is still free for anybody Just go back and get a cup Women's Breakfast Saturday, July 8th Men's Breakfast To be Saturday, July 22nd And I believe that's all I know about So pray and get started here Dear Heavenly Father We thank you for this day God, we thank you for the people that are here We pray that you would just open our hearts To receive the word from Zach And be with him as he teaches And your words would flow through him And God, help us to be doers of the word And not hearers only Thank you, Lord In Jesus' name All right, Zach If you want to come up It's all yours Thank you for having me here this morning Ryan called me a while back And asked if I would come

And one thing he asked Before I dive into the message He asked if I would share about A ministry that my wife and I are connected to And that it's a real It's a ministry that's very close to our hearts So I'm going to share a little bit about that first Is this too loud? It feels really loud to me Okay, we're good Okay My wife and my three children My wife and I, about 13 years ago We did a ministry called YWAM Youth of the Mission And we did a discipleship training school And if you're not familiar It's split up into two phases A three-month lecture phase And then a three-month outreach phase And for all of us Our outreach phase We went to the country of India And spent three months there Ministering to the people there

We were involved in various ministries We were involved in leprosy ministry Children's orphanage ministries Beggar ministries Just a variety of things there But the one thing that my wife and I Really loved was the children And any opportunity we got We loved to go into the orphanages And just be with the children there And we fell in love with the people In that culture While we were there We met a pastor and his wife And if you want to put up the first slide Pastor Caleb and his wife Ruby They were a pastor couple that we met And we really enjoyed Fellowshiping with them And getting to know them And while we were talking to them We found that their dream was to start A children's home And they had the desire just to Bring children into their home

And be able to provide for them And during conversation one day It just kind of came to me Well what would it actually take To actually get started with that dream To make that a reality And the next day the pastor came back And he gave me a typed up budget Of what they would need to get started And the total came to a thousand dollars So after we finished our outreach in India We came back home To our church, Calvary Chapel I didn't mention we're from Elk Falls So we go to Calvary Chapel in Elk Falls So we came back to our church We shared our stories Our love for the people And we shared our stories with the people We shared about Caleb and Ruby And that Sunday a check was written It was wired And that's when the ministry was started

And I'm going to be a little bit vague When I mention the names of the ministry Or where the location is Since this is being live streamed To protect their safety and their privacy There's some issues with that being public in India So the name of the ministry is on one of the slides you'll see But I won't actually speak it out So it won't be public in India And it won't be online So that was in 2011 or 2010 I'm not sure when they actually got started And they started just by bringing two children into their home And so it started off simple They just opened up their home Invited two kids in And then it quickly grew to 11 kids And I think if you go to the next slide There's some of the children we went to visit And that is the name of their ministry

And then if you go on to the next slide You'll see this is their home They actually only live in the top portion of the home The bottom home was someone else's home They lived in the upper story It was a small one bedroom home With a small kitchen And another small little living area And that's where when we went And spent some time with them later They had the 11 kids plus their own three So 14 children and the two adults Living in this small area But they renovated it And it was very... Adequate for what they needed By our standards it felt... Insufficient But it was adequate for what their needs were And they were able to pour out on these children Things that they never had before Love, meals, education Able to teach them Christian disciplines

And just raise these children And this isn't an orphanage The way that you and I might think about it This is a children's home Meaning that some of these... Children still have parents They still have a mother or a father But there are for many, many reasons Why they're unable to be with their families One family that Laura and I were particularly got close to They had three children Three siblings that were all there Their father had died And their mother worked very, very long hours In a shoe factory Barely able to provide Well, she really wasn't able to provide for her kids And she was very ill And so she just was unable to care for them So they were there for many, many years But then eventually later they were able to return home

To be with their mom So it's not... It's kind of a revolving door Children come, children go As the families are able to provide for them Another thing I didn't mention When I first started talking Your church is also one of the supporters of this ministry You may or may not know I don't know how much that is shared When Ryan goes over that stuff But you guys I think have been supporters About from the beginning Since this started So that's one of the reasons why Ryan wanted me to share with you So you guys get a glimpse of this ministry That you guys are helping support I do want to show a real brief clip I didn't want to go too much onto this But I wanted to show a little video And this is an older video I made when we were back there

I think in 2013 So most of these kids are older now and grown But I wanted to show a quick little video clip Just to get you an idea of the environment And the family life of these kids So here will be a little video Blessed are Blessed are the children Innocent and full Blessed are the Yeah this project is not a start and stop It's not like a VBS vacation Boys in the home So I'm going to show you their pictures And I'll show you Yeah there's some more Another photo from inside the current home Okay so this is Okay so this is Asraf Ali He's in seventh grade His older brother was there But he has now moved on and has a job And is working He wants to become His older brother wants to become a policeman Next we have Soundar He's in eighth grade

Though Caleb just told me this last week He's actually gone home To help take care of his older grandpa So I'm not sure the whole situation there But he is no longer living with them But I don't know if he'll come back later But for now he is taking care of his grandfather This is Prabhudas He's in eighth grade We met him the last time we were there He was a lot younger then He's a sweet boy And I don't remember the full details of his family Next we have Karti He's in third grade And next we have He's in fourth grade I don't know the details Of his family either And then we have Prakash On the left there He's in eighth grade And that's Ruby there on the right And Naranjan He's in eighth grade He's the one on the left Next to Paul So that is

I believe that's all that they have Currently there But they have a lot of extra space There in their building You'll see in this next picture This is the third floor There's kind of a big open empty hall And their goal was to be able to use this For various ministries And actually currently they're able to Host Biblical study schools Out of their building as well So they'll It's a school through YWAM It's a nine month course Where young adult Indians come And they do a very intensive Bible course Where they study the Bible They're taught the inductive method Of studying the Bible So they actually in nine months Will read through the Bible five times The first time through They read each book out loud in one sitting

And then subsequent readings through They're highlighting and marking stuff Or just looking at different things To pull out on each read And the final time They're basically essentially writing A commentary of the Bible They're pulling out the main points Who wrote it when All just getting it from the text itself Not using any commentaries of their own So it's a pretty intensive course It's really a need that they're able to Join with that ministry And host them there Their oldest daughter Is actually going to be going through the course This summer She just graduated high school So she's going to go through I think at least the first three months of it While she's waiting to get admitted into college Ruby would like to do the course

But currently they don't have enough staff And her writing isn't Caleb had concerned it wasn't quite where it should be To be able to do all the writing That would be required For the course Two of the boys That had been at Joy Kids From almost the very beginning Are brothers It's Anand and Vicky Anand's on the left Vicky's on the right These two come from a very broken home Very broken situation Their father's not in the picture And their mother Wasn't able to provide for them When Caleb met them Vicky was making the food for the family And all he knew how to do was make rice So he would make rice And just pour water over the rice to serve Because he didn't know how to make any curries Or anything So that was how they were living

Before they came to live with Caleb and Ruby And they've been there From the very beginning And now Go to the next slide I believe Okay there's kind of the home where they grew up The street they grew up on Okay so this is Vicky So now Vicky he's on the right there Down in the bottom with the hat on He has just graduated biomedical school And so he's looking for a job currently He's actually also going to be going through that school of biblical studies For three months while he's looking for a job And this is Anand The younger brother He just finished his diploma course in optometry And he is going to get an internship this summer And then he's hoping to get his full degree in optometry Soon So it's been really neat just to watch

These children grow up And to see that they are now going on getting an education And you know I don't know what their lives would have been like Had Caleb and Ruby not invited them to their homes We can only speculate But it's really neat to be able to see Where they are now And how God has used Caleb and Ruby And how he's been able to use our small congregation Milk Falls and your congregation here To make all this possible So I just want to thank you all as a church For joining with our congregation And supporting this ministry Alright So now let's get into the word And if you would turn in your Bibles To the book of James chapter 1 I was actually planning on Sharing something different But then yesterday I kind of felt like I wanted to

Go through chapter 1 This is something I shared at our church It's been a while ago But I just Hopefully it was the Holy Spirit Directing me to share it this morning And not just my own indecisiveness Of what should be shared But So a brief introduction to the book of James The general consensus is That James was the brother of Jesus Or I guess the half brother of Jesus And that he was writing this book To the early Jewish believers That had been scattered abroad That were no longer living in Jerusalem It's one of the first letters to be written And James is this great book That shows us What it looks like to follow Christ It's a very practical book And James is always giving Very practical Things of what to do What not to do

He steps all over our toes But he says that you know If we believe in Jesus then Our faith Our lives should look different Than the rest of the world Our faith should drive us to be different The way we act The way we talk The motivations for what we do Should be different from the world But the problem in today's culture At least here in America Is so often Maybe I shouldn't say often Sometimes The church doesn't look all that different From the world And if the world doesn't see a difference In the way the church lives Then what's going to attract them? Why would someone want to come and join The church To be the church If the church looks just like the world During the week? And James helps gives us A guide of what it looks like

To live out our faith In the day to day To be followers of Christ To actually be the church So starting in verse one It says James, a servant of God Of the Lord Jesus Christ To the twelve tribes scattered Among the nations Greetings I think it's interesting That James introduces himself As a servant Or as some translations say A bond slave A bond slave was simply someone Who would have had a permanent relation Of servitude to someone else And then he calls Jesus Lord Which in the original language Would have meant The master of a bond slave So James is recognizing Jesus as God And this wouldn't be an unusual greeting For most of the apostles But it's kind of interesting Because this is James The half-brother of Jesus He could have said

Which he didn't He didn't write James, the brother of Jesus To the twelve tribes He's setting aside any claim Any right he has And instead he's putting his identity As a lifelong servant Whose sole ambition Is to serve Jesus As Lord or Master And to please him James did not believe That Jesus was the Messiah Until after his death and resurrection And according to John Most of Jesus' brothers didn't believe Or all of them None of them believed So James, he grew up with Jesus Depending on how old he was He spent 20 to 30 years Knowing Jesus But not believing that he was Who he said he was And we don't get the details Of his conversion experience though I wish that was recorded I would love to read that But anyway We can't imagine

What that would have been like But we do know That Jesus appeared to James After the resurrection And presumably That may be When James believed We also know That James was with the disciples At Pentecost And eventually He became a leader Of the early Jerusalem church So it's here From that position Of leadership Where he's writing He says To the twelve tribes Scattered among the nations He says To the twelve tribes Scattered among the nations He says To the twelve tribes Scattered among the nations He's addressing The Jewish Christians That had been scattered abroad After Stephen was martyred The persecution increased In Jerusalem Eventually To the point That many If not most Christians Had to flee For their lives And so They were

They were dispersed everywhere Which Incidentally Is how the gospel spread And the church grew So James is writing To encourage them In their faith During these difficult times So the first thing He's going to talk about Is the trials And everything That's going on And so In verse two He says Consider it pure joy My brothers and sisters Whenever you face trials Of many kinds Because you know That the testing Of your faith Produces perseverance Let perseverance Finish its work So that you may be mature And complete Not lacking anything He says Consider it pure joy My brothers And sisters Whenever you face trials And then While this letter Was written To the Jews That were scattered around It's still Very applicable To the Jewish people And so

It's still very applicable To us today Notice James doesn't say If you face trials He says When you face trials Trials are just A part of life And especially For a Christian They're kind of guaranteed You know We kind of have This subtle belief Oftentimes That as Christians We won't go through As many hard times That you know Life will be better And I'm not even Just talking about The prosperity gospel Or some other distortions Of the gospel But I think Especially for us In the west In America We have this Subtle belief You know That if I'm following God Things will go better My life Will be smoother I think that's A fairly common belief But we We have to remember That we're living In a fallen world And there is An ever present Spiritual battle

When you're A non-believer You're not An enemy Of Satan But once You profess Faith in God And commit To following Him Now you're In the battle Against the rulers Of cosmic powers Over this Present darkness Against the Spiritual forces Of evil In the heavenly Places Jesus said In the world You will have Trouble But take heart I have overcome The world We read In Acts We must Go through Many hardships To enter The kingdom Of God God doesn't Just want To make Us happy He wants To make Us more And more Like Jesus They shape Us into Who He wants Us to be So what are We supposed To do When trials And hard times Come James says We're supposed To consider It joy We always Have a choice How to respond In our Circumstances We can Respond In the flesh Or we

Can choose To walk In the spirit Of fear Anger at God Or any Number of Fleshly Reactions But James says To consider It joy You know We can Fake happiness But we Can only Genuinely Have joy With the Holy Spirit's Work in Our life And why Are we To consider It pure Joy Well According To James Jesus said If we allow Us to Go through Trials Often times Because they Will test Our faith And if We allow It and Turn to God That testing Will produce Perseverance Other Translations Say patience Endurance Or Steadfastness It's Making Us Stronger Paul Echoes Endurance And Endurance Produces Character And character Produces Hope And hope Does not Put us To shame Because God's Love Has been Poured Into Our Hearts Through The Holy Spirit Who He Has Given Us So It's

Molding Us It's Shaping Us And character Produces Hope Without Hope We Would Just Give Up So James Says Let That Perseverance Finish Its Work So That You May Are In Time To Help Me In The Times This Is Not The Way To Try To End My Life This Is My Life This Is The Way That sometimes we throw our own little tantrums, and we want people to see the pain and the suffering we're going through, and it's easy to have a pity party on ourselves. Sometimes we just silently keep it to ourselves, and we let the bitterness sink in, and we refuse to look to God to make eye contact. Sometimes we just run away in isolation, and we try to escape from dealing with the situation. But God wants us to stop acting like children, to become mature and complete,

not lacking anything. When we're focused on the trial, we will only see the hardship, and we won't see the purpose of the trials. But if we can have a long-range view, an eternal view, and we can consider what the trials are cultivating within us, inside of us, then we may be able to consider the trial joyfully. Joy. It's not that we're joyful for the trial, or that we desire trials, but when they come,

and they will come, then we can consider it joy because we know that if we turn to God and allow Him to work, that it's maturing in us, it's cultivating this patience, this endurance, and we'll learn to be content in Him. God wants to make us Christ-like. These trials are not a waste. There is something that God wants to make us Christ-like, God wants to use in our life to grow us. There is purpose in the trial that can only come to

pass through the things that we are going through. Trials are not a waste. There is purpose. I think that's something that we all need to remember. We all need to understand. And this perspective shift, it truly does have the ability to turn our bitterness into joy. And James is challenging me here. I mean, I'm guilty of having my own little pity parties when

it's hard, when things aren't going my way. And sometimes I just try to endure it on my own strength. And there's no attitude of joy. It's more this attitude of this begrudging endurance because you don't really have a choice. You have to go through it.

Oftentimes, I'm not looking at the situation as an opportunity for growth. But there have been times that I felt very strongly that there was something God wanted me to learn from the hard times, from the trials. And I've prayed and asked God, you know, to show me what it was because I had this nagging feeling that I was missing the point, that there was a point to this, but I was just missing it. And most of my trials, while they may seem big to me at the time, they're nothing compared to, you know, a lot of the trials I know that many of you have gone through. I like to talk

to people and hear their stories. I met a woman recently a while back that her husband of 35 years had just left her. For another man. And then I met a woman whose son had just moved away and he was refusing to talk to her and he wasn't giving her his address of where he lived because she refused to change his name in her phone to match the new gender identity that he was choosing.

I have a friend that passed away from college leaving behind her husband and two little kids. And so there's, all kinds of trials, all kinds of struggles that may be a lot bigger than what I'm going through. But we each have our own. So many people become angry and bitter. And it's not that we should be faking happiness and just pretend that everything's okay. I'm not saying it's not

okay to grieve. Not at all. Jesus grieved. We see that Jesus wept when Lazarus died. But if we're not careful, if we're not diligently seeking the Lord, if we're not rooted in his word, you know, it's easy to listen to, the lies of Satan. He's always ready to strike when he sees a moment of weakness and he'll plant ideas in our mind that God is not good, that it's not fair that we're going

through this and that we're all alone. But these are lies. You know, what does God say? In Isaiah chapter 43, he says, I will be with you in the fire, in the storm. I think I have a slide for this. In the deep waters, they will not overwhelm you. They will not burn you. They will not consume you. If you trust me, I will be with you. And then in Joshua chapter one, verse five, he says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake

you. Continuing on in verse five, James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. Do any of us need wisdom?

If we ask, we're told that God will give it to us. When we're in the middle of a trial or testing or just hard times, that's exactly when we need more wisdom. So many times we're just at a loss and we don't know what to do and we need that wisdom. And oftentimes my first response, my natural response is try to, you know, gain knowledge, to gather information. But more

than knowledge, we need wisdom. I mean, James didn't say, you should ask Google or research your trial. He says, no, you should ask God for wisdom and he will give it to you. God should be our first resource. And thankfully he gives generously to all without finding fault. He won't rebuke us for asking again and again when we need wisdom. So we should ask often. The Bible says Solomon was wiser than anyone else. And Solomon calls

wisdom more precious than rubies, more precious than silver, more gold, more profitable. He said, nothing can compare. Wisdom is extremely valuable. And we can see that in our own lives. We just don't know the best path, the best approach to face the problems, the trials. We can lose perspective on the trial. And that's when we need wisdom. In verse six, James says,

but when you ask, you must believe and not doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave of the storm. Blown and tossed by the Spurgeon said, you know, dear friends, that there is a way of praying in which you can ask for nothing and get it. But that's another opportunity that we're crying out from a deeper place. And we're asking with a genuine faith for God to intervene. Blown

and tossed by the wind. And you picture an ocean and the waves are just rolling and going up and down a specifically like in a, a real big storm. And that's how we will be. If we, um, we lack stability, the man who doubts he's like a storm.