Finding Joy During Trials

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But we’re going to go to James chapter one this morning. I’m going to share something with you that we studied this past week. And I hope to maybe unpack it a little bit more and share a little bit more insight with it, in from it for you.

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And hopefully we can all glean something from it. And it has to do with going through trials or tests in our lives. It has to do with wisdom needing wisdom, and it has to do with praying and praying in faith, not doubting. When you pray, you say, how do all three of those things go together? Well, it’s perfectly fit together.

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Right here in the scripture. I got to tell you about the book of James before we start. And when you read in the New Testament, there’s 27 books in the New Testament written by a number of different authors. But James was actually the half brother of Jesus. People that go with the half brother. Yeah. Mary and Joseph, you know, they were betrothed.

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And then we celebrate Christmas because Jesus was born of a virgin. In other words, she had never been with a man until after Jesus was born. And then her husband Joseph and her had other children. Some of those children we know about and some we may not know about. But there’s two particular ones we know about. One is James and the other one is Jude.

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Both of those men wrote books of the Bible, and they were his half brothers. Now you say, well, how come we don’t hear much about them in the Gospels? And the reason was, if you grew up with how many of you have brothers or sisters, you have to raise your hand. But you, you know, you got brothers and sisters.

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Imagine your brother or sister going, hey, I’m God’s son. I’m his only begotten son. I’m God in the flesh. I can only imagine my brother doing that. There’s no way out of believe him. No way. Imagine living in in Galilee or Nazareth and and this little virgin girl that is just a little, little young teenage girl going, I’m pregnant.

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But I ain’t never been with a man. That would have been hard to believe, wouldn’t it? Put yourself in their shoes in that moment. And so, James, in June, as far as we know, never believed that Jesus was the Son of God until after his resurrection. Because as a matter of fact, at the cross when he’s being crucified, we see his mother Mary.

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We see John, only one of the 12 apostles that was present or that stayed around. But we never see his brothers. And I think it was after his resurrection that they’re going, oh, he really was the Son of God. He really is the Son of God. He wasn’t lying about that. And it’s so changed and transform their life.

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And James is one of those guys. I like to say that James in the Bible is probably the Solomon. What Solomon was to the Old Testament know the wisest guy that ever lived. I think James, was that way. He had a lot of wisdom. And so when he writes in the book of James or the book of James that we call it, he’s writing to Christians.

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As a matter of fact, if you read the first and second verse, he’s writing to Christians that of the 12 tribes of Israel that are scattered abroad. And the reason they’re scattered abroad is I’m going to give you a little history lesson, for we get in the church on the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter two was beginning to explode.

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I mean, in one day Peter gets up, preaches the day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church. They’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. They begin to speak with tongues, and every man heard what Peter was saying in his own language. And the Bible says, 3000 people that day got saved, were baptized, and added to the church.

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And then from there it just exploded. I mean, it just went into overdrive when the greatest revivals ever in history and the church just boom. Well, the problem with that, if there’s a problem is not really, but there became a problem concerning it, and that was that those Christians that were at Jerusalem, they began to get comfortable. They were reaching all the Jews, which were mostly in Jerusalem.

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And the church was growing. Except I forgot the part that Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, teaching them to observe whatever things come in and baptizing them. Name the father, son, the Holy Spirit. So he gives what we call the Great Commission and they begin to grow. The church in that city is just exploding.

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But the problem is, they’re not going well. And beyond that, they kind of got us foreign. No more syndrome. And when that happened, God said, okay, I’ve got a way of helping you move forward. And that was it. He allowed. When you read the rest of the book of acts, he allowed persecution to come against the church so that that church in Jerusalem began to be scattered out.

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He said, I want you to go into all the world. And from that moment, the other churches that we read about in the Bible began to be founded, informed, and grow. And people beyond that, even Gentiles, which most of us would be, are beginning to hear the gospel be saved. And God’s sovereign plan for his church is being accomplished even through the persecution that came against the church.

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So here’s what I want you to understand. So when you read the book of James, you see all these Christians that were in Jerusalem. Persecution comes, they’re scattered. How many of you know? They were probably going through a lot of emotions at that moment. They’re scared. They’re they’re upset. They’ve already become Christians. So their Jewish families have disowned them.

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Many of them probably already lost a job. Now they’ve lost their home place. They’re being hunted like dogs. And that’s where we we read about Paul before he became Paul, who was Saul was persecuting Christians and having them arrested. So it wasn’t a very popular time to be a Christian, but it sure was a blessed time to be a Christian.

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Kind of sound familiar? It wasn’t a very popular time to be a Christian, but it sure was a blessed time to be a Christian. In other words, the persecution began to come on them. God scattered him, and now James comes along to write to them and encourage those Christians and say, hey guys, I want you to consider it joy when you have temptation or temptation.

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Trials in test. Look what? Look with me in verse number two, James chapter one, verse two. He says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect were that you may be perfect in complete, lacking nothing. And if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it may be given to him.

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Let me stop right there before I go any further, because that’s not where I want to stop. But we’re going to stop there for a minute. Let me explain this. So he says to them, hey, guys, all of you that are, you’ve had to flee your home. You’ve had to flee from your family. You’re you’re pushed out.

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You’re being persecuted. You’re going through trials, trials. He goes, counted it all joy when you do it. How many of you have ever faced a trial or a test in your life? And you’re like, man, I really am looking forward to this. Not normally. It’s like, oh, man. I don’t know about you, but I have those prayers or I used to.

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The older I get and the more mature I become as a Christian, I used to sit around and whine about the trials and test I go through, but I figured out that whining and crying about the trials and tests I go through doesn’t do me any good. As a matter of fact, I don’t want you to raise your hand, but how many of you have ever repeated the same trial?

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Over and over and over? I’ve gone through that process too, and I’m thinking to myself, I want to learn whatever it is I’ve got to learn through this. So my prayers now and I’ve changed. Lord, prepare me, teach me, train me, help me learn what it is you want me to know through this. So I get it. The first time.

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And maybe you’re not as slow as I am, but I have to pray that way. Like I don’t want to repeat this. I look back in my life at some of the greatest test and trials I’ve ever walked through. And on this side of it, yes, I can say thank God. I am grateful for what I went through and what he taught me.

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That’s how my faith grew in that. But if you ask me, do you want to repeat it again? My answer is no. I got a good t shirt. The first round. Matter of fact, on most testing trials I’ve gone through, I’ve gotten 2 or 3 t shirts from my tour of duty. You understand what I’m saying? I don’t need another.

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When I. I want to learn what it is God wants me to know. And James says to these believers and says, do you and I today do count it all joy? How do you count a trial or a test in your life? All joy. How do you count it? Joy when you may be facing losing your job? How do you count it all joy when the doctors just gave you a really bad report?

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How do you count it all joy when your marriage is falling apart? How in the world do you count it all joy when your kids have bought stupid on sale? And y’all didn’t get that, did you? I had a guy the other day. I was like, man, we were talking. We were talking about a guy that really is kind of, kind of stupid.

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Is it? Okay, you say that you’re not necessarily stupid. And we were talking about it, and I said, you know, I am pretty sure they had a sale on stupid. And he they they had it on discount and he bought a whole bunch of shares. Think about it. Yeah, I, I know that not your kids would do that.

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I understand, but sometimes young people, even us older people, we are stupid. We do some really stupid stuff, don’t we? And that can be really depressing. If it’s your kid or it’s your spouse, or it’s someone you love and you’re watching them do some things, that’s just ridiculous that you can be a trial. Yet the Bible says, count it all joy.

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How do I count something like that in my life as joy? Well, he answers it. Look at verse three is knowing that the testing of your what? Your faith. Because when you go through a trial, here’s what gets tested. It’s your faith. It’s your faith. Whether or not you really believe that God is in control, whether you really believe that God has this it, whether you really believe till you get a bad report from the doctor.

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most of us in here have either gotten a bad report at some point in our life, or we know someone that we love who’s gotten a really bad report. Now, here’s where your faith gets tested. Do you believe that God can heal them? You hear me say this? I say, you hear me say, well, there are the facts.

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The facts of a doctor’s report are not not a lie. But then there’s the truth. And the truth is, is that Jesus still heals. I can hold on to that and believe that there’s there’s the fact that I may be about to lose my job and face economic hardships, but then the truth is that the Bible still tells me that my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory.

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He’s not depending on Washington, DC. He’s not depending on your job. He’s not depending on your ability. He has all the riches you will ever need. Now, which do you believe? See, when you go through one of those test or trials, your faith is what is being tested. Your faith is now in trial. Your faith is something that you can say, I have faith.

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And my question would be to you is you have faith in what you have faith in. What I hear people on all the time, and I know they’re well-meaning and I know it’s just a play of words, but sometimes I hear people say, well, my faith got me through with your faith and what your faith in yourself, your faith in your abilities, your faith in your family, your faith in your doctor or your faith in God.

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You see, our faith is something that’s got to be tested. A faith that has not been tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. Someone says, man pastor, how, how, how can you have such strong faith in the Lord in things you do? I can tell you how, because he’s allowed that to be tested in my life. He’s allowed positions in my life to where I did not have the answer.

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Nobody else had the answer, and nobody else could help me. I was in such a place in my life had God not showed up and showed up. Big matter of fact, one of my prayers is God, I need you to show up and show out. I pray that all the time in my life. Show up Lord and show out in my life.

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Holy spirit, I need you to come and step into this deal because if you don’t, I’m about to lose a real, real big. And so when your faith gets tested, your faith is put out there. Look what the Bible says happens, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Patience means endurance. Some of your Bibles in the translation may say endurance, but you’re.

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When your faith gets tested, it produces endurance. How many of you have ever gone to the gym and you worked out and you you may have remembered the time when you started, first started going, and you’re trying to lift some weights. You’re trying to do some exercises. At first you can’t do very many, right? But the more you do it, the more you work at it, the better you get.

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Your endurance builds up. In other words, I could never walk into the gym and just start running. I would have to build up my endurance to that. someone says, man, do you run at all now? I mean, like, you go to the gym and I do go gym. Do you go do you run? Miles of marathons or nothing?

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Absolutely not. Don’t think that’s my calling. Matter of fact, I tell people, if you see me running, you should start running too. Because that means something’s chasing me. I have more wisdom than I do endurance right now. Like you see Jeff Tackett running. My advice, strong advice is start running. Do. All you got to do is outrun me because there’s something I’m running.

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I promise you, something’s chasing me and it’s big. But think about what I’m saying. He says it produces patience or endurance. But let patience have it’s perfect work that you may be perfect in complete, lacking nothing. In other words, how does my faith get stronger? It’s through trials. It’s through test. And in that I learn not to trust in my own abilities, but to trust in God’s abilities.

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And so look, when made verse number, verse number five, he says, if any of you lack wisdom, let me stop right there and say what wisdom is. Wisdom is from God. There’s a difference in knowledge and wisdom. I know a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things, but they have no wisdom.

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I’m mom. I remember we used to have conversations and she she would try to teach my brother and I that true wisdom only comes from God’s Word. You can go to a university today. You can go to an Ivy League university. You can spend $100,000 for a four year degree, and you can get a lot of knowledge and still be dumb as a box of rocks.

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If you don’t believe me, just watch some of our college campuses. And I’m not against education. I’m not against college. But you understand, I know a lot of educated people that have no wisdom. Wisdom is only something you get from God. So he says, if you lack wisdom, if any of you, you say any of you, that means any of you lack wisdom.

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Who do you ask? Ask God. And what does it say that he will do? He who will give to all liberally without reproach? In other words, he won’t hold anything back. I love the story of Solomon, and I mentioned him in the first in the sermon. Solomon was a young man, and you may have heard me say this before, he’s a young man.

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His dad, David, dies. David Solomon becomes king of Israel. Solomon has gone down in history as one of the wisest men or the wisest man apart from Jesus Christ, that ever lived. And what’s so interesting is when he becomes king, he’s in his early 20s, maybe his late teens. He’s just a young man. And and God says to me, he says, Solomon, you can ask me for anything you want.

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Most 20 year olds I know, and when I was 20, I would have said, how about $1 million? Or, you know, how about a new car? How about I would have asked for something materially? Probably most people would. But you know what Solomon asked for? He says, God, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. And he did. And so when we, the Bible tells us if we lack wisdom, we should ask of the Lord, especially in those times that we’re going to attest or, Lord, give me wisdom, supernatural knowledge here.

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Give me Bible knowledge. Give me Holy Spirit knowledge. Give me heavenly wisdom so that I know how to get through this. And then look at verse six, and this is where I want to camp for just a minute now. I’ll be done, he says, but let him ask in faith. Let who ask in faith. The person asking for wisdom.

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Lord, I’m asking for your guidance. I’m asking for your help. I’m asking for your wisdom, he says. But let him ask in faith. With what? No doubting, no doubting. For he who doubts is like the waves of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

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He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways or her ways. Think about what the Bible just said, but let him ask in faith, not doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, for he is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.

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If you brought your Bibles, and I hope you did, I want you to turn over to mark chapter 11 for just a second. I want to show you a couple passages of Scripture. Mark 11 Jesus was teaching, and he tells his disciples, as he’s giving this this sermon or parable, whatever you want to call it. And he’s telling them, Mark 11, we’re going to begin verse 22.

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He’s telling them as he’s actually looking at a fig tree, and he’s relaying to his disciples this message about faith, like, how do you, how do you how do you exercise faith and how do you pray? So Mark 11 verse 22, he says, So Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God. For surely I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart.

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Now would you underline that if you underline your Bible does not doubt in his heart? What does it say, Hart? I’ll come back to that in a second, but underline it. But believe that those things he says will be done. He will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them.

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Now I could go on some more verses, but I’m going to stop right there and just explain that for a second. So Jesus is saying that whenever you and I pray that we should pray without doubting. Is that not what James just said in James chapter one? When you pray, pray without doubting. In other words, pray in full confidence and faith in who Jesus is when he begins to have faith in who God.

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Not your abilities, not your talents, not not what you know or even understand. Have faith in God in his wisdom. And he says, and so when you pray, pray without doubting. What if I’m doubting something? I like to say this. I like to say doubting is means you’ve got a plan B. you may not understand that very well, but let me let me give you some analogies.

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I know some bull riders in here, man not understand it. Plan B is if plan A don’t work out. I got something else over here that might work. But when you pray believing God, you can’t have a plan B. Matter of fact, if you’ve got a plan B, it’s not faith at all. It’s not real. True faith is gone either.

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You got to do this. Either you’ve got to bring me through this or I’m about to drown. I think I think about Moses and leading the children of Israel out of bondage of Egypt. They get to the Red sea. He’s standing there. There’s this vast Red sea in front of him. Behind him, he sees the cloud of dust coming.

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It’s Pharaoh and all his chariots. And they’re coming not to, you know, congratulate them, for they’re about to cross the Red sea. They’re coming to kill him. And he’s got a million people women, men, women and children. Some are babies that are going, Moses, you should have left us in Egypt. You brought us out here. Now we’re going to die.

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Can you. Can you imagine the pressure on Moses in that moment? Everybody he just convinced to come and go with them. God said, I’m going to deliver you. They’re all going, yeah, I shouldn’t have done this bad decision. We should have never listened to you. And then and then in his own mind, he’s looking and going, man, there is no, we don’t even have a boat.

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We don’t even have a rat. We don’t even have an innertube. How are we going to get across this big, vast body of water? And he looks back, and by that time, I think Pharaoh is getting close enough. He can see Pharaoh’s eyes and Pharaoh’s mad. He going to kill them, and he just begins to pray that no, Lord, what do I do now?

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What the Lord told him to do probably sounded pretty silly. And by the way, let me say it this way too. Most of the time when you find yourself in that position, what God’s going to say to you probably is not going to make much sense. Here’s what he tells you to do. He says, take that stick you got in your hand, your rod, and just hold it up over that seat and wait.

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You knew I’d be like, Lord, now’s not the time. Joked around like, we got some real big stuff about to go down here and you want me to hold a stick out over the water? But see, it wasn’t about. It wasn’t about the stick. It was about the posture of Moses heart. Because what did Jesus say? Pray without doubting.

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What? In one’s heart. In your heart? In other words, the heart posture in that moment of Moses was, yes, Lord, I’ll just simply obey your word. I’ll obey what you say, no matter how foolish it sounds. And he sticks out that that stick. And the Bible says that the sea parted the Red sea part. A matter of fact, it didn’t just part.

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Whenever they walked across, they walked across. And the Bible says when they got on no side, their shoes weren’t even muddy, no mud on their shoes. And then when Pharaoh’s armies come in, there, God just shows up to drown them all my way. To historical fact, they found a place where they have crossed the where the children of Israel have crossed their going from Egypt, over the Red sea to to where they were headed.

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And then you’ll find that they’ve even found coral reefs there, where they found remnants of what they believe are chariots, wheels in the bottom of the ocean today. So it’s not just a fable or some story. It was something that really happened. And the guy that was standing there, who is Moses, who could have doubted he had no plan B, by the way, there was no other option but God.

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So when you pray, the Bible is telling us you gotta pray without a plan B. In other words, there’s no other way. Lord, you’ve got to do this. And I believe that you can. And when you get to that part in that place, in that heart posture, that I trust you, God, I trust you, that no matter what happens, it’s going to be right and it’s going to be good.

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How many of you know God always is right and he’s always good when and so when you trust him in that. That’s why we have trials. That’s why we have tests. Because God does he allow those to happen in your life. And he just wants to see if you’re going to trust him completely without reservation. And so look where to go back to James for a second James chapter one.

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And I want you to read that verse again with me. The last part he says, but let him ask in faith with no doubt. And for he who doubts, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. Quite an hour in a lake yesterday. Lake Murray in Oklahoma. And for a short time that morning there was a north wind in the way.

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I knew the north wind, breeze, because we were trying to go north on the lake on a paddle board. How many have ever ridden a paddle board? I think I’m in favor of a motorized board. After doing that. The hard part wasn’t even that. It’s one of those era paddle boards. So we were pumping air and I’m like, this is not doing.

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That was too much work. Like, we call this fun. by the way, my cousin Duane’s here, and I told him a John boat not long ago, last year before I sold it to him. Or maybe, Quint and I decided to go over here to this lake one day. Or this pond. I’m chasing rabbit trails. Is hanging, and, we got over there and I told her.

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I said I saw some people. Fishing is always people fishing. Like, man, it’s really great. We got to go over there and fish. We come over here to get a fish pulls loaded up that John boat. I did what I grew up doing and I just threw some things in there that we paid with. We got over there and I’m pushing her out in the John boat.

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And she in that moment, it just dawns on her like I’m on the shore, she’s in the boat. And she goes, wait a minute, where’s the paddles? I said, they’re in the boat. She’s looking around and she’s there’s no paddles in here. You’re pushing me out of the pond. There’s no paddles. I’m like, yes, there are. There’s two shovels laying right there beside you.

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Those are our redneck paddles and they really work. And she did a great job rowing in that because those those shovels, she was pretty sore the next day, but she did a really good job paddling with my shovels. And she’s like, she did a video of it. Like, you might be married to a redneck if he puts shovels in the boat to paddle with.

00:28:14:19 – 00:28:41:18
Now, I have no idea what that had to do with my message, except we roamed the lake yesterday and the north wind was blowing. So we’re paddling against those. The north wind and it was like more. But somewhere during the day the wind shifted and you could see the waves going the other way. In other words, if you’re if you doubt doubting God is like whichever wind shifts, you’re going to be like that wave tossed you and you’re going to go whichever way the wind’s blowing.

00:28:41:18 – 00:29:08:11
And by the way, the wind will blow a different direction. In other words, it’s not stability. And so he says, let that man, let not that man suppose that he will receive anything of the Lord. In other words, when we pray, we’ve got to pray without doubting. We have to pray believing. Hebrews 11 verse six. The Bible says, for without faith it is impossible.

00:29:08:13 – 00:29:37:11
Say that word with me, impossible to please God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. But when you have faith in him with no reserve, no just just total faith in Christ, total faith in God’s Word, total faith in the Holy Spirit. When you have that, then that moves heaven on your behalf. God sees faith in you and he’s moved by that for you.

00:29:37:13 – 00:30:13:10
I will end this this way, he says, for let not that man suppose that he would receive anything for the Lord, for he’s a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. I think. Of people I meet today that tell me, well, I believe in God, but they don’t trust in his Lord. Me explain what I’m talking about.

00:30:13:13 – 00:30:34:20
If Jesus isn’t Lord of everything in your life, then he’s not Lord at all in your life. What do you mean by that? I mean, until you totally surrender your will to him completely.

00:30:34:22 – 00:31:04:24
When you pray and you’re praying in faith, yet the Bible says you’re like a double minded man, unstable in all your ways. Let me show you what stability looks like. Jesus was standing with his disciples one day, and he asked them because there was a lot of conversation about Jesus. Like everywhere he went, people were talking about him, talking about his ministry, talking about his miracles.

00:31:04:24 – 00:31:27:22
And they they are kind of moved by that. And and he asked his disciples one day he goes, hey, guys, who do people say I am? Who, who what’s the word on the street? Like, you guys are in the marketplace. You guys got family. You know, you guys got some friends who are people saying, I am? And one of them says, well,

00:31:27:25 – 00:31:51:13
Jesus, you. Some say you’re Jeremiah or Elijah. another one says some even say John the Baptist. And I’m pretty sure one of them goes, that’s probably not true, because John the Baptist just got beheaded. And, Jesus says, but who do you say I am? Another way that that’s the most important question in all the Bible. And matter of fact, that’s the most important question that you’ll ever answer.

00:31:51:13 – 00:32:24:15
All our answer in our lives. It’s not how much money you got is not what the most important question that those guys ever were to be asked and answer. And the most important question every human being will ever answer in their life is this one. Who do you say Jesus is? Do you realize that most of the world that is logical, most of the world will agree that a man named Jesus from Nazareth lived most of the world?

00:32:24:17 – 00:32:53:12
If they’re logical, they will. They will agree that in history there was a man named Jesus crucified in Jerusalem by the Roman government. They do. But can I just tell you that’s not enough? Who do you say I am? And here’s what Peter said. He said, thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one of God. Thou art the son of the living God.

00:32:53:14 – 00:33:16:16
That answer meant everything. Do you think? Who do you think Jesus was? Was he just a good teacher? Because I can tell you about a man he met. We call him the rich young ruler. He says, good master, good teacher. what must I do to inherit eternal life? And, you know, he says, go sell all you have and give to the poor after the guy just tells him, I’ve kept all the commandments from my youth.

00:33:16:16 – 00:33:40:18
I’ve never broken 110 commandment. Jesus says, go sell everything you have and follow me. And the Bible says, he walked away. That man walked away very greedy, for he had great riches. In other words, Jesus was a a good teacher, but he wasn’t God to that man. And I gotta ask you before I close, who do you say that?

00:33:40:18 – 00:34:07:27
Jesus. Because that matters everything and how you pray, and that certainly matters. And how much faith and in whom you have faith in. Who do you say Jesus was? And I can tell you who he was. He was and is the Messiah, the chosen One of God. He is the living God in the flesh. He is the Son of God, and he is my Savior.

00:34:07:27 – 00:34:32:08
You say, how do you know that? And how can you believe that? I can give you a number of reasons, but let me give you the best one. I know that because the moment I believed that his death on the cross was for my sin, the moment I believe that, and the moment I confessed him, Jesus as my Lord, and believed with my heart that God raised him from the dead.

00:34:32:10 – 00:35:13:20
At that moment he changed my life. At that moment, he forever changed who I was. And here’s what I know about me. I never could even change myself and I still can’t. And here’s the truth you can’t even change yourself. Just try. You can’t. And a certainty can’t change anybody else. Only Jesus could change me. And the Bible tells me in second Corinthians 517, therefore if any man, any person, any woman, boy or girl, any person, be in Christ, they are a new creation.

00:35:13:22 – 00:35:41:24
All things have passed away and all things have become new. I know that I believe that that’s who my faith is. And because let me tell you, when the greatest trials or test you’ll ever go through. And I pray, I pray that everybody under the sound of my voice lives to be older than Joe Biden. Just put it in, I really do.

00:35:41:27 – 00:36:14:23
I hope you live a long, long, healthy and blessed life. But here’s one thing you’ll never escape. We’re. None of us will ever escape death without one of the things that happens in life is that we’re only granted so many days, so many hours, so much time. For each of us. It’s different. But the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die.

00:36:14:26 – 00:36:42:14
And after this the judgment is we’re all going to, we’re all going to die. We’re all going to stand before God one day. The differences will you stand there condemned in your sin because you did not believe in who Jesus was? Or will you stand there redeemed, saved because you put your faith in who Jesus was and what he did?

00:36:42:16 – 00:36:52:04
Would you bow your heads with me for a moment? Dennis. Melissa, we’ll come back up for a minute.

00:36:52:06 – 00:36:57:01
Just play something.

00:36:57:03 – 00:37:02:05
That.

00:37:02:08 – 00:37:07:23
Before we go.

00:37:07:25 – 00:37:45:12
For some of you here and some of you listening online. Maybe you’re going through a trial right now. I might have mentioned one of those trials when I was preaching. Maybe I didn’t, but nevertheless, to you and in your life, it is a real test. It is a real trial. And honestly, it probably hurts right now. Honestly, right now you’re probably wondering with with anxiety and a little fear, how am I going to get through this?

00:37:45:15 – 00:37:54:04
And the answer is Jesus. The answer.

00:37:54:07 – 00:38:26:17
Is that you need to pray. In your heart, posture needs to be like this. God, I know have a plan B, I have no other options but you. That’s real faith. That’s trusting him. That’s saying, God, I, I don’t know what else to do but to turn to you, but can I tell you, when you do that, you gain the attention of heaven.

00:38:26:19 – 00:38:58:05
That’s exactly what God wants you to do. Because he loves you. He wants to help you through that. He wants to grow you, and he wants you to come out on the other side stronger, blessed, prospering. But he’s got to get you through that trial first, and you got to be willing to turn to him and say, Lord, I need you, and I trust you, I believe you, I believe your word.

00:38:58:07 – 00:39:25:14
Let me encourage you to do that today before you leave here, before you pull your head tonight, turn again and trust him with all your heart. Lord, help me through this trial. Give me wisdom. Know how to get through it. Because the Bible just told us. And that’s what I shared with you this morning, that God promises if we ask and we ask in faith, he will hear and he will answer that prayer.

00:39:25:16 – 00:39:51:27
He will, and he’ll give wisdom to anyone who ask. If they ask not doubting, but asking in faith. But then before I go, I wonder how many would be here or listening online that would say just. There’s something greater missing in my life. And while you were preaching, it dawned on me what that real something missing is a real relationship with Jesus.

00:39:51:29 – 00:40:16:03
You understand this word. I’m not asking you for your religious, not asking you if you ever been to church. I’m asking you for a member of a church, and I ask you if you’ve been baptized. How many Bibles you got that? Nothing like that. What I’m asking you is, do you have a relationship with Jesus? Do you? And you say, how can I have a relationship with him?

00:40:16:05 – 00:40:39:22
It’s this simple. If you believe with your heart that Jesus really was the Son of God, really is. He went to the cross having never sinned ever in his life because he was God.

00:40:39:25 – 00:41:09:13
And the reason he went to the cross was to die for your sins. To die for my sins. In other words, he took our place. You say, how is that possible? God is holy. God won’t tolerate sin. He can’t by its very nature. The one who created you, me, all of this, the whole universe. That God is holy and without sin.

00:41:09:16 – 00:41:26:06
But yet every one of us have sinned against God. We’ve sinned against the one who created us. And if we got what we deserve for that sin, it would be eternity in hell. Forever.

00:41:26:09 – 00:41:50:20
But here’s the good news God knew that you and I could not remedy that. I don’t know, remember I told you I can’t change myself and I certainly can’t change you. But Jesus came. The Son of God. God in the flesh. Live this life. Never sinned, goes to the cross, dies in our place.

00:41:50:22 – 00:41:59:23
They put him in a grave. And three days later, God resurrected him.

00:41:59:26 – 00:42:31:16
And because of that. He says that if thou shalt confess, the Lord Jesus, would you confess him as Lord today? Would you humble your heart and say, Lord Jesus, would you be the Lord of my life? I believe that you died for me. I believe you were buried, but rose again the third day, and I ask you to do what I can’t do.

00:42:31:16 – 00:43:07:10
Would you change me? God? Change me? Jesus, help me turn from my sinful life and help me live a life that would be pleasing to you. A simple, humble, sincere prayer like that from your heart to God’s heart today. And you could know a couple things. You can know that you can be forgiven if you’re seeing. You can know that you have eternal life, and you can know that you have a relationship with Jesus that will forever change you.

00:43:07:13 – 00:43:13:29
Father, we love you. Today. I thank you for your word.

00:43:14:01 – 00:43:48:17
I pray for anybody here that needs to receive Jesus as their Savior, Lord that they’ll pray for or something like I shared with them a moment ago. From their heart to your heart. Maybe there’s someone going through troubles and trials and Lord, before they leave today, they know that they can come and they can ask for prayer. And there’ll be people here to pray with them, to pray for them in order for those that are here that did pray, maybe the first time ever in their life to ask you, Jesus, to be their Savior, to forgive them, and to come into their life to maybe they confess Jesus.

00:43:48:17 – 00:44:13:29
Lord, Lord, give them the courage to tell somebody else. Lord, I’m reminded what your word says. And if we won’t confess, you before me and you’re not, confess before your father in heaven said, Lord, help us. Give us that boldness to share our relationship with you. Jesus, with others. Help those going through troubles and trials and struggles in your life.

00:44:14:01 – 00:44:46:18
Give them victory. But Lord, letting them with all their heart, not doubting. Trust you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Come on up here, Cody. All right. Hey, I’m going to ask Cody. Come say a final word of prayer and blessing over you. you’ll understand why when he prays, I believe. I believe strongly whenever I dismiss you, on Sundays, that not only do I want you to go having heard the word of God, but I want you to go.

00:44:46:24 – 00:45:16:27
Having me or someone like Cody, who’s in the ministry, and he’s come here, but he and his wife for a season to serve with me and to serve you and, I just appreciate this man in his heart. And I appreciate his wife there and how special they are to me. And they will be to you. One thing Cody understands is the spoken blessing of God over people.

00:45:17:00 – 00:45:33:08
And that’s what I want him to do. And just to pray a prayer of blessing over you and your family today. And I want you to walk out of here believing and knowing and trusting that the God who he loves and praise to you is able to bless you and meet your needs. Okay, so that’s how we’re going to end the service.

00:45:33:11 – 00:45:49:22
Thank you for worshiping with us today. If you’re visiting with us, we say this about visitors. Visitors number one, we’re glad you came today. Number two, if you come back, you’re not a visitor anymore. Your family does. Okay, so we hope you’ll come back and worship again. People always ask where you’re going to pass the offering plate. And we don’t do that.

00:45:49:27 – 00:46:04:29
We’ve got a meal kit in the back. If you want to give an offering to the Lord, you can put money in that meal. Came back there or on the back of your, bulletin. There should be a QR code. I have no idea how to do that. But if you do, you can do that and go straight to the church.

00:46:04:29 – 00:46:39:10
Alright. I am not a high tech redneck, but God bless you. Cody, would you just dismiss us in prayer and pray God’s blessing over every person here and those listening online or thank you, Jeff. it all started about 20 years ago. I, oh, God’s. My granddad and Bob was who had lots of chickens, and I would walk through the chicken yard and I would just pray, pray to God.

00:46:39:12 – 00:47:00:26
And I would hear these, these chickens and these roosters start to crow as I would pray. And then this anointing started to hit me. I didn’t know what it was, but it was Jesus Christ speaking into my life. And the more I prayed, the more these roosters would get out of hand. And my granddad and them kind of get on to me, forget him wound up.

00:47:00:28 – 00:47:22:23
But it wasn’t me getting them wound up. It was the spirit with inside of me that was getting these chickens wound up. And that’s when I learned. That’s how I learned to pray. Is praying in front of all these roosters, praying in front of all these chickens. And it brought me to a place where I could pray sincerely to heaven and speak into people’s lives.

00:47:22:25 – 00:47:40:04
So, father, right now I come to you, Lord, just thanking you for everything you do for us. Father God and Father God right now, if there’s a blessing that needs to be dropped upon someone’s lap, Father God, ask right now that you just drop it right down to their laps when they least expect it. Father God. Through the trials and tribulations that they’re going through.

00:47:40:04 – 00:48:05:01
Father God, you be the head of it. You be the shining light of this father God. Father, right now I ask that you this, this place, angels with inside of their most inner beings to lead and guide and direct them. Father God is showing them up when they’re weak, when they’re feel that they have no more life to give, that they have no more room to grow, that they don’t know what else to do.

00:48:05:01 – 00:48:29:22
Father God, give them a reminder that you’re still there. You’ve never left them nor forsaken them. You’ve been there, waiting with your arms spread out like a father to a son. Just come to me, come to me and bask in my presence. Lord, I ask that you just place angels to camp out around their house to protect them, that no enemy can come near them.

00:48:29:24 – 00:48:43:00
And father, that you just pour your many blessings into their lives. And if they don’t have the understanding, may they come forth and ask, what is it?

00:48:43:03 – 00:48:53:25
Lord, I pray for complete healing from the top of her heads, the soles of their feet. Father, in Jesus name I pray. Amen, Amen and amen.

00:48:53:28 – 00:49:06:22
God.

00:49:06:25 – 00:49:30:27
Worthy of every song we can ever see. Worthy of all the praise we can ever bring. Worthy of every breath we can ever be. We live for you and.

00:49:30:29 – 00:50:31:06
Jesus a name above every heavenly. Jesus, the only one who could ever save. Worthy of every breath. We can’t ever be willing for you. We live for you. Holy. There is no one like you. There is none beside you. Open up my sin. Want to show me who you are. And fill me with your hiding. Leave me in your love to those around me.

00:50:31:08 – 00:51:11:21
That will be of my light upon your life. It is a firm foundation. I will put my trust in you. I and I will not be shaky. You.