Wednesday, February 22, 2023 PM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church Brian Barsaleau

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Well, good evening, it's good to see y 'all Hi Annie, how you doing?
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Say hi to lefty Let's start with a word of prayer
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Father we thank you that you give us the privilege and the blessing of fellowship Privilege a blessing of being together and may you unite our hearts and our minds and our
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Futures we celebrate that you drew us to you.
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We ask this in Jesus name Tonight we're going to talk about joy and trials and tribulations if you'll turn to James 1 2 through 4.
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I know you've all read this before And he says considered all joy, my brethren
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When you encounter various trials Knowing that the testing of your faith produces
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Endurance and let endurance have its perfect result So that you may be perfect and complete lacking and nothing
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Counter all joy Really All of it
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There's no exception that I can't Whine and complain about I Have to count it all joy when we reach that point where Joy is being sapped
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Out of our lives due to pain and difficulties What do we do?
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How can we possibly call it all joy? Because sometimes we say my joy is all gone and often it's out of desperation
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And we ask because our faith or the lack thereof
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Doesn't agree with the scriptures Scriptures instruct us in a certain way and sometimes our faith or the lack thereof does not agree with the scripture
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John 15 11 on the one hand Jesus says these things I have spoken to you so that my
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Joy may be full in you and that your joy may be full
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So, yeah, he's always teaching us he's always trying to teach us And after all in Galatians 5 22 through 23
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He says the fruit of the Spirit is love kindness goodness faithfulness
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Gentleness a three -letter word keeps showing up And I'm not joyous about Our lack of joy is often related to specific events
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Or situations It might be a strange relationships
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It might be death of a loved one it might be health issues It might be cultural upheaval
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Not that we experienced any of that recently Wars and rumors of wars you you fill in the blank
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What that specific? Event or a situation may be that is causing you to struggle with finding joy
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But whatever it is James includes it
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There is no category But he lost his joy
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When Jesus found out about Lazarus's death Jesus wept
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Some of you know brother Jim white. He did some interim for us prior to Michael's arrival and his favorite two words in the
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Bible are Jesus wept And sometimes he was funny about that, but but he also was reminding us that Christ Was human
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And he felt the weight of the death of a brother
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In Luke 22 44 while in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed in agony but in Hebrews 12
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It tells us that the next day After being abandoned by all Jesus He transformed by the renewing of your mind
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Pain bitterness fear, whatever it is can become Joy there is a conscious process that we must
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Participate in it's easy to hide in the corner and say
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I can't deal with this But God says be transformed the testing of your faith produces endurance a testing indicates a purpose an intent by the one doing the per testing
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I Let me say that again the testing of your faith produces endurance and that testing indicates purpose and intent on The part of the one who is testing and James means
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God is behind it all Any testing or trial or tribulation
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That you experience God is either allowed
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Or he is administrated So know this
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God has orchestrated Various trials and tribulations we can and we must rejoice in That alone if we are to have a right understanding of his character everything in us
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Says no, I have no joy. I don't have I don't want to deal with this God says no,
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I Am all -knowing. I Am all -powerful. I Am good
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God is omniscient He knows every possibility of Every event with its effect upon every other possible
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Action, let me read that again. I want you to put your mind around that for a moment
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He knows every possibility of every event With its effect upon every other possible action.
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You can't trick him. You can't fool him
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Wow God is omnipotent He's able to take all knowledge and act upon it
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His power is limitless But he's asking us to be transformed so that we see joy not as an impossible thing but a possible thing
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Isaiah 46 10 there's several portions of this. He declares the end from the beginning
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Just think about the expanse of time In creation, he declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times
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Things which have not been done yet. You serve an awesome
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God Saying my purpose will be established
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God's purpose will be established his intent for your life will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure
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God doesn't do these things or allow these things to punish us necessarily
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It's like the refining of gold Under the fire where the dross is removed from the surface
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These things refine us even if in the midst of them, they're hurtful and painful and depressing and Overwhelming and we seem not to have any way out
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James reminds us Count it all joy Count it all joy
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Romans 8 28 And we know that God Causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose
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He causes all things if you are seeking him and you are Desirous of his hand in your life and you want to grow and you want to know
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And you want to deepen that faith? He'll work with you
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He'll work with you God is sanctifying us for his glory.
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I I Know this past week You've all experienced some trial some tribulation might be minor might be major But if you're living and walking and talking
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They'll be more Isn't that encouraging? But James says what?
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Count it all joy I'm gonna close with Psalm 30 the first five verses
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Psalm 30 the first five verses I will extol you
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O Lord for you have lifted me up and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
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Oh Lord my God, I cried to you for help and you healed me. Oh Lord you have brought me my soul from Sheol You have kept me alive
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That I would not go down to the pit Sing praise to the
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Lord You his godly ones and give thanks to his holy name
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For his anger is but for a moment his favor, however is for a lifetime
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Weeping may last through the night But a shout of joy
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Comes in the morning. Don't give up. Hope joy will return
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God said it will If we follow his way, we follow his example.
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We follow his instruction count it all joy and again, that's a
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Transforming of your mind that has to practice in and be willing to say Lord, I don't understand what's going on right now
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Due to this fill in the blank But Lord, I want to count it joy.
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I want you to show me the The end from the beginning
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History is an amazing teacher And I hope as you have lived your life and you do live your life
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That you look back and see where God has brought you joy through difficult times
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And he has answered prayer trust him
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Trust him Don't trust this fleshly nature Because this fleshly nature gets angry and depressed and bitter and hopeless we are not a fragrance in God's Nose when we act that way so be encouraged and encourage one another to seek
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Joy, because he loves you. He loves you
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And so whatever a strange relationship whatever's gone on in your life, whatever
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Financial thing is whatever health issue. There is God says it's temporal
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It's temporary and James reminds us again count it all joy
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Thanks we're gonna take prayer requests and We want to give you plenty of time to pray tonight