The Testing of Your Faith Part 1 (Pastor Josiah Shipley)

Whitten Baptist Church

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April 7, 2024

The Testing of Your Faith Part 2 (Pastor Josiah Shipley)

00:00: Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.
00:05: It wasn't the type of people. Praise God. Would you please turn with me to James chapter 1.
00:14: That's the book of James chapter 1. This book means a lot to some of us, yeah?
00:30: How many of you, and Jesus does not do half hands. So either you do or you don't. So would you raise your hand and tell me how many of you actually believe, not just because your grandmammy told you, actually believe that this is the sovereign word of the almighty
00:43: God? Okay, hands down. How many of you have any desire at all to submit to it as such?
00:54: Now, and I'm here to tell you today, and this will hurt some of your feelings. If you have no desire at all to submit to it as such, then you actually don't believe it's the word of God.
01:06: You can't believe it's the sovereign word of the almighty God. And yet have no inkling of a desire to obey it as such.
01:15: Have you ever met someone who told you they loved you, but their actions showed different? They didn't love you, did they?
01:22: It works the same way in your life towards Jesus. Yes or no? Let's say amens on that one.
01:27: Did you notice that? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not here to offend, but the
01:33: Bible can do that for us. It does it to me every time I open it. Soften your heart to that mindset right now.
01:41: This is God's word. If you hear no words I say except what
01:46: I read from this book, you did not waste this morning. You did not waste today. How many of you are experiencing trials today?
01:58: How many of you are considering those reasons for joy? Let's change that mindset today, yeah?
02:06: Or let's let the Spirit change that mindset today. Read with me, if you will, James chapter one.
02:12: And I do have to read a good portion of this chapter, so stay with me, okay?
02:19: Starting in verse two. Count in all joy my brothers who meet trials of various kinds.
02:29: For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. But let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
02:43: Please skip down to verse twelve. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
02:49: When he stood the test, he will see the crown of life which God has promised to all who love him. As we read this morning during announcements, verse thirteen.
02:58: Let no one say when he's tempted a man tempted by God. God can't be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
03:04: But each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desires. Desire when conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death.
03:16: Don't be deceived, my brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above. Coming down from the
03:22: Father of lights where there's no variation or shadow of change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits among his creatures.
03:33: Verse nineteen. Know this, my beloved brothers.
03:41: Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
03:52: For the anger of man will never produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, verse twenty -one, put away all filthiness and trampant wickedness and receive the meekly implanted word which is able to save your souls.
04:08: Now here's what I was talking about, verse twenty -two and twenty -three. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
04:22: Man, be doers of the word, actually obey it, not just hearers, deceiving yourselves.
04:34: For anyone who is a hearer of the word and not a doer is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
04:41: When he looks at himself and goes away, he forgets immediately what he looks like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, endures.
04:53: Being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
05:00: Amen. Why should we consider trials to be a reason not just for joy, but what did it say in verse two?
05:09: All joy. Why should we consider that a reason to be joyful?
05:16: Because it produces something. The testing of your faith is not meaningless, it has a purpose, it produces something.
05:23: What's it say it produces? It produces steadfastness, endurance, patience, the ability to keep going, grit.
05:34: It produces that if you let it have its full effect.
05:40: And that's what we're talking about today. You see, God tests us,
05:46: Satan tempts us. God tests us, Satan tempts us.
05:52: This is what happened to Christ in the wilderness. You can read about it in Matthew 4 or Luke chapter 4.
05:59: The Spirit, God the Father tests Jesus the Son in the incarnation, in the flesh.
06:07: While He could have had a moment of weakness, yes? Jesus, the eternal Son of God, becoming man.
06:13: The Father tests Him in the wilderness. He was led out there by the Spirit, but Satan tempted Him. What's temptation?
06:19: It's an enticement to disobey God. Temptation is an enticement to disobey
06:26: God. Whereas testing is an opportunity given to you by God to grow your faith in the midst of adversity.
06:34: His purpose is to grow you, even in difficulties. Satan is to lure you away from faithfulness to Jesus.
06:43: And what did Jesus, what was His ultimate answer? Matthew chapter 4, verse 4. It's written on your paper here.
06:49: Go ahead and circle that and memorize that this week. Matthew chapter 4, verse 4. It is a bit ironic if you don't already have this verse memorized, because it says,
06:59: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
07:05: Man won't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
07:11: You see, there is a purpose It worked, Mike. Look at that. There's a purpose to our trials.
07:18: There's a purpose to our testing. And it's to produce steadfastness.
07:23: I'd like to read for you this poem. This poem was written by Martha Snell Nicholson.
07:30: It was read at a funeral by Elizabeth Elliot. And by the way, ladies, if you're looking for someone who, a saint who's now gone to be encouraged by,
07:40: I encourage you to listen or read from Elizabeth Elliot. That woman knew what faithfulness was.
07:45: But here's a poem written by someone she quoted. I stood a mendicant, and I didn't know what that word meant.
07:53: Maybe you did. It means beggar. So, anyway, I stood a beggar of God before His royal throne.
07:59: And I begged Him for one priceless gift which I could call my own. I took the gift from out
08:06: His hand, but as I would depart, I cried, Lord, this is a thorn, and it's pierced my heart.
08:15: This is a strange and hurtful gift which you have given me. He, that is
08:22: God, said, My child, I give good gifts, and my best I gave to thee. I took it home and thought at first the cruel thorn hurt sore.
08:33: But as long years passed, I learned to love it more and more. I learned
08:39: He never gives this thorn without this added grace. He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil that hides
08:46: His face. You see, ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of trials is not just to give us thick skin and toughen us up.
08:57: It's to let us see His face a little more clearly. To see
09:02: Him in the purity of which He truly is. To view Him not just as beautiful, but as the most beautiful.
09:11: See, we sing worthy. You know that word? Worthy means worth it.
09:18: Do you see God as the most valuable, the most deserving, the most admirable thing that this universe has to offer?
09:29: That's the purpose of trials. To produce endurance and a reliance on Him as opposed to ourselves.
09:37: Don't you see it yet, Christian? This is the purpose of our trials. Our suffering, now
09:43: I'm not talking about the world, I'll have to get to you in a moment, but for the believer in this room, your suffering is not meaningless.
09:50: It's not meaningless. There's a purpose behind it.
10:00: I don't know of anything more scary than having died wasting your life.
10:09: A wasted life may be the scariest thing to me. To die with no purpose, having lived your entire life focused only on the things of earth and not on the things above.
10:26: But you see, ladies and gentlemen, if we allow it to, Christians in the room, our suffering has a purpose and that purpose is to learn a little bit of steadfastness, to learn a little bit of endurance, to see
10:46: Him as He actually is. Now, note this is compared.
10:52: You see, in verse 14, He says, don't think I'm talking about temptation. That's from the evil one.
11:00: He says in verse 17, including the testing, that every good and perfect gift is from above.
11:09: Josiah, dare you say that our testing is a good and perfect gift from God?
11:15: No. I'm not saying that. God did. Every good and perfect gift is from above because it produces something.
11:26: Now, note the comparison of what does not produce anything. Verse 19, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
11:38: Is that not difficult? Man, is that not difficult? To be quick to hear.
11:44: When you're talking to somebody, are you listening or just thinking about what you're going to say next? Right?
11:50: Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
11:56: Why? What's it say? The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
12:05: The anger of man does not produce. See, your testing produces endurance.
12:12: Your anger produces nothing useful. Nothing. It does not produce the righteousness of God.
12:21: It is at this point that we note, I heard a recently,
12:26: I heard a pastor say that anger is an omnivorous emotion.
12:33: Carnivores only eat meat. Vegetarians only eat plants. The omnivore, like the bear, eats everything, right?
12:41: See, anger is an omnivorous emotion. It eats joy. It eats every happiness, peace.
12:50: It is an omnivorous emotion that eats all in its way. You let it sit there.
12:58: David Abbott in a Bible study last week noted, the Bible says, don't let the sun set on your anger because at that moment it will turn to bitterness and a hardened heart that will take a massive work and pain for God to soften.
13:20: It is at this point that I must distinguish, this is another point where someone won't like me, I must distinguish between trial and consequence.
13:32: Consequence means with sequence. It is the next thing to happen in a sequence of events.
13:39: Trial is not a direct result of your action. It happens from living in a fallen world and serving a sovereign
13:46: God who has a purpose behind it. Consequence is merely the next thing to happen in a sequence of events.
13:53: If my three -year -old is running through the parking lot and Rachel tells her not to and she runs through the parking lot and falls and scrapes up her knee, that's not a punishment.
14:03: That's not a trial. That's just a consequence. That's the next thing that's going to happen. Unathletic child runs through a parking lot, which looks a lot better,
14:10: Marty, by the way, but runs through a parking lot and falls. That's not a punishment.
14:17: That's not a trial. That's just the next thing to happen in a sequence of events. Gentlemen, now look, if you have five different kids by four different women and you don't have a job and you're calling the financial burden of the court cases a trial, listen to me.
14:39: Yeah, I see your face. That's disrespectful to call that a trial. That's just a consequence, man.
14:46: That's just a consequence of your actions. You hear the lack of amens there. That's just a consequence of actions, ladies and gentlemen.
14:52: That's just a consequence of actions. If you want to know what a trial is, go talk to Debbie Smith.
14:59: How many of you all know Debbie? Raise your hand. Debbie, are you in here right now? Where's Debbie?
15:05: Right there. Hey, let me tell you something. You want to know what trials is, go ask her about her life.
15:12: That's a trial. That's a series of trials that puts whatever you're going to complain about today to shame.
15:22: I'm serious. I've told this story before, but I can't help but tell it again.
15:28: I'm preaching so I can say what I want. I guess it was last year.
15:36: Forgive me for not remembering the date, Debbie. I guess it was last year when Scott died, when her husband died. He died, and we did this service in here on a
15:44: Thursday, I think. Jake and Michelle and their master schedule thing for Sunday school teachers, don't ever look at their binder.
15:53: It will make you feel unorganized in every part of your life. Obviously, it was her
15:59: Sunday to teach, so obviously Jake, without asking her, got a substitute. Right?
16:05: I mean, her husband just died. Okay? Well, if I remember correctly, it was
16:12: Lowell who was the substitute, and Lowell was in my Sunday school class. He gets up to go start, and he comes back 30 seconds later.
16:21: I'm like, why did you come back? He goes, Debbie's in there. I'm like, no she's not. Her husband died three days ago. She's not in there.
16:27: I walked to the door, and I can't remember the passage, but Debbie was reading.
16:36: If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me daily.
16:43: Y 'all didn't know Jesus was from Horn Lake, did you? And I said,
16:49: Debbie, what are you doing? She said, well, I'm teaching the kids about Jesus. By the way, maybe you weren't in Sunday school this morning because you woke up late or had a headache.
17:03: Debbie Smith, what is the difference? Because many people have faced trials just like her and haven't grown from them.
17:13: How do you let endurance have its full effect? How do you let endurance have its full effect?
17:19: By maintaining a trust and an obedience to a sovereign God that He has a plan even if you don't see it.
17:25: By staying faithful. Get a little bit thicker skin. Get a little bit of endurance.
17:34: A little bit of steadfastness. So that you can handle more.
17:41: So you can handle more. That's the difference. That's how you let endurance have its full effect.
17:52: It's a mindset. I had a coach. He was our weight room coach when
17:59: I was in high school. We called him Coach Hammer. Coach Hammer was one of those coaches that every day was a great day even if it was 30 degrees outside and it was time to do sprints.
18:14: He always had an attitude of it's a great day to work. Even in two days when it's 105 degrees outside.
18:22: He's excited. He's playing the music and singing. He's excited. He would set it up to where we would do squats leg day in the gym and then go outside to run sprints on the back end.
18:38: He would say things like, Shipley, your attitude should be gratitude. If you want to be a winner, you better eat a good dinner.
18:50: He had all these corny little sayings. Yes. But you know what?
19:01: Coaching MMA now, if we start working out and two people can be doing the exact same exercise but one can be trying to get through it.
19:15: Just trying to get through it. The other can be engaged in it. Saying, yeah, this stinks but I'm getting stronger.
19:24: One of them will get stronger from that workout. The other won't. Even though they're passively doing the same thing.
19:32: Even though they're passively doing the same thing, one is engaged. One's just trying to pass on by and get through it.
19:39: You see, Mike Burkett has been lifting weights at the gym with the guys for like six months now.
19:45: You tell me I'm lying. If you embrace the pain and just go on and accept, yeah, this is going to stink but in the midst of that I'm going to have a mindset that I'm going to get stronger.
19:59: You'll see an increase in your maxes. Go. It hurts so good, says
20:06: Burkett. But someone can go and just exist like the waves and the wind just being pushed around and technically do the same thing and not get any stronger because the mindset you're submitting your body to your mind.
20:25: Ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of trials, and I mean actual trials, the mindset behind it is what we need.
20:35: That's what we need. We need the mindset behind it of there's a purpose behind this and I'm going to accept my place in it.
20:43: That's the idea behind it. The idea behind it is this is producing something.
20:50: It's producing steadfastness, endurance. Now this is an analogy I've used before.
20:56: By the way, Pastor Jeff, you and I need to get on building a new one of these. This one is too small. We talked about it before.
21:03: We just haven't done it yet. We're building stuff for the mission trip right now. Okay, now let's see if I can do this to where this makes sense.
21:12: Okay, so here we have here a little Puerto Rico travel things. Y 'all remember when Omar gave us this?
21:18: He's talking about coming back this summer. That would be amazing. I would love that. All right, now
21:25: I know I spilled some, so all the perfectionists just get over it. Yeah, there is roughly the same amount of water in each vessel.
21:38: Does everyone agree with that? Roughly the same amount of water. Now, this little one right here is so overwhelmed one more drop would just spill over.
21:48: It can take no more. It can take no more. It's overwhelmed.
21:55: This one, it's got a little in it, like that little part at the bottom of the Coke can you can never finish, but it's fine.
22:02: It can handle it. This one, when I'm looking down on it, if I didn't know I just poured water in it,
22:07: I would think it was dry. It looks like there's nothing in there. I mean, I know I just did it, but it looks like there's nothing in there.
22:15: Now, this water represents the trials of life. All three cups are experiencing the same amount of trials, aren't they?
22:24: But one is overwhelmed. One is fine. The other can barely tell it's there.
22:30: Ladies and gentlemen, the mark of Christian maturity is not how fast you can remove the water.
22:37: All that's going to do is get you till tomorrow when there's another thing that hits you, and you're going to be filled back up, overwhelmed again, and not able to contribute to anybody.
22:46: But, if you focus on increasing the size of the vessel, letting the trial have its full effect, and increasing the size of the vessel, what used to overwhelm you will soon be a drop in the bucket.
23:01: That's the mark of Christian maturity, and we spend some of our whole lives trying to empty the water out of the vessel, not recognizing it's there for a purpose.
23:14: That's a wasted life. That's a wasted life. I want to be a better vessel for God.
23:22: I want to let the trial have its full effect to increase the vessel so I can be a more useful tool in the hand of an almighty
23:31: God. That's not meaningless. That has purpose.
23:41: It's like the one who is rowing in a boat, and there's a hole in the boat, and instead of fixing the boat, they just keep taking the bucket and pouring water out, which will last about five seconds until more water is in the boat.
23:54: But if you repair the boat and make it a more useful vessel, make it a more useful vessel, then you can serve a purpose beyond the only purpose you're serving is trying to get rid of the water in the boat.
24:09: That's a wasted life. I want to be more than that.
24:15: I want to be more than that. I want to be used by God for a better purpose than that. The result of gaining endurance.
24:27: I wrote this on your paper under number three. I'm just going to read from 1
24:33: Peter. This is 1 Peter chapter one. Verse six.
24:40: In this you rejoice. There's that word again. In this you rejoice. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.
24:50: Not consequences. Trials. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it's tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and the honor and the glory of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
25:11: Though you have not seen him, though you have not seen him, you love him.
25:16: Though you don't see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with a joy that's inexpressible and filled with glory.
25:26: That's a joy the world will never be able to understand. That's a joy certain people in this room who don't actually know
25:33: Jesus. You have a mental idea of him, but you don't actually know
25:38: Jesus. That doesn't make sense to you. And I get it. You see, ladies and gentlemen, some of us, everyone in this room has a view of Jesus.
25:54: The problem with our world is that some of us have a view of Jesus different than the
26:01: Jesus of the Bible. You're actually believing or supposedly following someone who doesn't exist.
26:10: It's a Jesus you've made up in your mind. Maybe some of us only ever listen to people who only tell you part of the
26:19: Bible. So then, your view of Jesus is skewed. And you're actually believing in a
26:26: Jesus that doesn't exist because you're not believing in the way he revealed himself in the Bible. Friends, that's a waste.
26:33: I want to know what Jesus says about himself and follow the real, true
26:40: Jesus, not one that's made up in a fairy tale. In 2
26:45: Corinthians, Paul puts it this way. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7.
26:51: But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
26:59: We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.
27:07: Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies.
27:15: For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
27:24: So death is at work in us but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what's been written,
27:31: I believe that I spoke. We also believe and so we speak. Knowing that he who raised the
27:37: Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
27:43: For it's for your sake so that his grace extends to more and more people and may increase in thanksgiving to the glory of God.
27:51: Verse 16. So we don't lose heart.
27:58: Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
28:07: Is that true for you? Is your inner self being renewed by Jesus every day? Or are you just living life and another day, another month, another year passes and you are no more mature in your knowledge and love for Jesus than you were before?
28:24: This verse 17. Now some of us listen, especially those of us who like to play the victim card, how we have the worst life ever, no one would ever understand, no one has ever experienced what
28:35: I've experienced. I have the greatest amount of trials ever been seen on the planet.
28:42: Read verse 17. For this light momentary affliction.
28:51: Take it up with God. This light momentary affliction is preparing us.
28:59: See, it's doing something again. It's preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
29:08: As we look, here's the key, how do I do that Josiah? As we look, not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
29:20: For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal. Do you understand that by showing the love of Jesus, the sacrifice, the selflessness that your
29:39: Savior calls you to, you are helping prepare someone else for an eternal weight of glory.
29:47: Ain't that something? And preparing yourself at the same time. More and more every day we allow
29:56: Him to make us more holy, more obedient, more pure, more lovely to Him, less selfish, less prideful, less obstinate to His will.
30:07: Our text says back in James, our text says that the result of obtaining this endurance or steadfastness or patience or perseverance will be that we are mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
30:24: You know, a fighter can have all the skill in the world but if he has no endurance, whether from a sense of cardio or from a sense of a no -quit mentality, it's worthless.
30:48: He will be the guy that forever look good at practice, but when it comes time to get on the line, he folds.
30:56: Years ago, we had a fighter just like this. He left our gym because I told him he was not ready to fight.
31:05: And he said, basically, I have all the skill in the world.
31:14: What he didn't understand was that what is needed to be a fighter is not just the ability to perform the movements, not just the ability to train your body to lose body fat, but it's the ability to get hit and keep moving.
31:33: It's the ability to have a little grit about yourself. This guy had none. He looked great on the outside, but the moment he was pressured a bit, he folded and fell on the ground.
31:49: Grit, steadfastness is what is required of us in the
31:54: Christian life. Now, ask yourself, you don't have to raise your hand or anything like that. Do you have that grit?
32:02: You got that? Are you gaining that? See, the
32:08: Bible says faith comes by hearing the word of God. I had somebody in this room, and I'm not making fun of him.
32:17: I'm just showing him. He said, I'm a
32:23: Christian, Josiah, and I said, that's excellent. How do you know you're a Christian? He said, because I trust
32:30: Jesus. I said, okay, you trust Jesus. What percentage of the
32:37: Bible do you know? He said, one percent. I asked him to name the people he trusted the most in this world, and he named five people that he knows very well.
32:50: I said, why do you trust them? He said, because I know them. You trust
32:58: Jesus, and you know one percent of what he has given you to know him by.
33:08: Are we not catching this, or are we just not going to say amen? You know, one percent of what he said to know him by.
33:16: One percent of the evidence of himself he left. And based on that one percent, you can say that you trust
33:22: Jesus, wait for it, with your eternal soul. But on a human standard, you can only trust somebody if you know them, huh?
33:37: You don't know him. You have an idea of him you've heard someone else say, you have an idea of him you've created in your head, and that's okay.
33:44: That's okay. So long as you're aware that you need to get to know him. Not the version of him you've created, the actual
33:53: Jesus. Is this hitting home with anybody? Let all of us, including myself, learn to love the
34:01: Jesus as he revealed himself, not the one you heard on the internet and have never even seen him talk about himself.
34:10: Let's learn to love that Jesus, the one who actually existed, the one who actually came to earth, was born of a virgin, the one who actually lived a sinless life, the one who went and died the death
34:22: I should have died and was resurrected and ascended in the right hand. I want to know that Jesus. I want to know him.
34:29: Because that's the Jesus that's coming back. And that's the Jesus that's coming back to judge.
34:36: And that's the Jesus that will balance every scale. That's that Jesus. And I want to know him.
34:47: But it says in verse 4, that I got a lens steadfast as have its full effect, that I'll be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
34:55: If I could end with this analogy, and it's not a perfect analogy, but just go with it for a minute. Every human being is born spiritually dead.
35:08: Spiritually dead. Every single human being on the planet. It's like dead bodies floating down a river.
35:21: The end is eternal destruction. And they're just going with the flow. Floating down.
35:29: You see, but in some way, maybe like the matrix or however you want to think about it, they're living in a dream state where their conscience in a dream.
35:40: And they think that dream is real. In that dream they have freedom to do whatever they want. In that dream they're living their own life.
35:48: In that dream they have control of their own destiny. But what they don't realize is that dream is not real.
35:54: And in reality they're a dead body floating down a river. But one day a
36:03: Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, awakens that soul. Through whatever means
36:09: He sees fit. Through the preaching of a word. Through the boldness of a friend to tell someone the truth.
36:15: And that soul is awakened. And that soul is pulled into a boat with other folks that have been awakened.
36:25: And they're rowing upstream. They're going against the grain. They're rowing upstream.
36:31: And they're paddling. And they're paddling. And you see, the guy who just got on the boat is getting tired of paddling.
36:38: He's only been paddling for 20 minutes. He's just learning how to do this. And somebody who's mature, somebody who's learned what it means to be steadfast comes beside him and shows him how to row upstream a little more efficiently.
36:55: A little better. And to call out to those dead bodies floating down that there's a better way.
37:03: And that the end there is destruction. That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, so you can show someone else how to row.
37:15: So that you can show someone else how to paddle more effectively. That's the difference.
37:22: And you see, sometimes we want to get back in that water and though we're alive, we want to flow with the other dead bodies to the other end.
37:33: But it's the mature Christian who comes alongside us and says, my friend, it's a better way.
37:39: And helps us get back in that boat and paddle. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what a mature believer can do that an immature one can never do.
37:51: Show someone else how to paddle. That's the lesson. That's the teaching. And you know what?
37:58: The mature believer, when trials come, is steadfast.
38:04: Been through this one before. God brought me through then. He'll bring me through this one. Instead of the immature believer who sees every day as the end of the world.
38:14: Another thing they can't get through. Another thing when the sky is falling. Another thing that overwhelms them because they've never increased the size of the vessel.
38:21: So everything is drama mama. Ten out of ten. Horrible day. Have no joy.
38:26: Have no purpose. Have no vision beyond today. I don't want to be that way.
38:34: I don't want to be that way. Let this be a place where we have the answer not in ourselves, but from the word of the
38:41: Holy God. As we close, maybe you're one of those mature believers, but you haven't helped someone else paddle in a long time.
38:56: Ladies and gentlemen, look around this room. We could use some help. Maybe you're a genuine believer, but you're sitting on the ledge of that boat thinking about jumping back in the water and just going with the flow.
39:10: Floating with the other dead bodies. My friend, it's a better way.
39:17: Maybe for some of us in this room, you're one of the dead bodies floating in the river and you're living in a dream world.
39:27: You're spiritually dead with no hope without God in this world.
39:33: And you're just floating along. Please hear not my words, but the words of God.
39:41: Two things. One, do you recognize the sovereign creator of the universe?
39:52: We have wronged Him. He's coming back to judge the living and the dead.
39:58: And yet, He Himself came to pay the penalty
40:03: I can never pay. That I can never pay. And that by trusting and believing in Him, He gives me the life,
40:11: His life, that He's earned. And takes on the death that I should have. Ladies and gentlemen, that's the good news.
40:20: But here's the problem. Because some of us are living in the dream world, some of us are in that river floating to death, and you think you're alive.
40:29: You actually think you're living. That's the power of deception. Well, how do
40:34: I know, Josiah? Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
40:45: If you are a hearer of the word only, and not a doer, you're deceiving yourselves.
40:51: In other words, you're not a Christian. You're not a Christian. The Christian, though imperfect, loves to please
40:59: God. And maybe you really are in that boat, but you just need to learn how to paddle a little better, and love
41:05: God a little more. That's what this place is for. Join the club. What I want right now, in just a moment,
41:12: I'm going to ask everyone to stand. Instead of just sitting there on another Easter Sunday, and going home the exact same, coming back here next year, being just like you are.
41:22: No difference. With no difference whatsoever. How about today, we actually change something about it.
41:31: Today, I want you to, if you're a genuine Christian, raise your hand, please. Keep them up. If you're not, go find one of those people with their hand up, right now.
41:40: Once, I'd say stand up, and ask them to pray with you, and to show you from God's word, how to love
41:46: Him a little more. The last call, ladies and gentlemen, to be steadfast in the trial.
41:53: Remember, it produces something useful. And that mindset is infectious to those around us.
42:01: There's nothing more encouraging to me, than when I saw Debbie that day. You know what that made me realize?
42:07: I can get through what I'm going through. No problem. And show someone else how to do it too.
42:13: Would you please stand with me, and right now, go encourage somebody, or get right with the Lord as we speak.