Hope Church LV Sermons
ALL JOY :: James 1:2
Wednesday morning of this week, I woke up with a plan. My plan was to do some study for the message today, and then I was going to the airport to get on an airplane to travel to Dallas, Texas, and Thursday morning, I was supposed to be speaking at a college in Dallas, Texas. This day, I got up and began to study and prepare for a message that you are not going to hear this morning. And I got in the car to go to the airport, Christian and I were driving down to Eastern Avenue, headed towards the 215 to jump on to go to the airport, and I got a text message from Travis Ogle. Our lead pastor here, Travis sent me that text, and in that text, he said, "Wow, this is crazy, and there was a picture of our church campus underwater." I said, "Christie, turn around." She was driving the car, and we turned around, and I called him and said, "Travis, what's going on?" He said, "Man, the church has been flooded, the fire and rescue are here, they're carrying the secretaries out of the building, literally, literally. They picked them up, had to carry them out, the water was rushing in so fast, they couldn't get out of the building to their cars. We had to move vehicles that were beginning to be flooded." Travis said, "Man, it's crazy." So I immediately called the school in Dallas and said, "I will not be there tomorrow morning, we've got things going on here." And I came to the church campus, and I got to be honest, when I pulled up on the campus, what I saw in front of me wasn't the plan that I had woken up with Wednesday morning. It wasn't my plan, it wasn't our plan, but it was his plan. And listen to me, church, his plan is always better than my plan or your plan. Even when sometimes it doesn't appear to be, his plan is always better than our plan. And it's one thing for us to preach that and teach that when everything is great. There's something else to say that in the middle of the week that we have just walked through, but I want you to hear me say today, his plan is better than our plan. We have learned things this week about the goodness of God and the greatness of God and the faithfulness of God and the grace of God that we would have never learned without the circumstances that we were in the middle of. So Thursday afternoon, after a 24-hour period that seemed like two or three weeks, Travis and I sat down again together and said, "Okay, now we've realized we're going to be able to have a service this weekend. Lord, what do you want us to say?" You know, the tough thing about being a pastor is you live with this reality that every week people are going to show up and expect you to say something. Doesn't matter what you've been through, they want the sermon, right? Lord, what do we say? Because we knew we weren't going to have our regular schedule to study and spend the hours before the Lord to really dig out of the text description. So we began talking through different things and Travis, I guess it was about an hour, hour and a half or so, we sat in there just bouncing stuff all, "Lord, what do you want us to say?" And then God directed us to a text of Scripture. And I want you to look at these verses with me out of James chapter 1, verse 2 through 4. Listen what it says, "Consider it all joy." Say that with me, "Consider it all joy." There's an important word in that sentence. It's got three letters in it. What's that word, "all." He didn't say, "Consider the joy joy." Consider the good joy. Consider the blessing joy. He said, "Consider it all joy." When you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result, what a great statement, perfect. So that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So out of those simple verses, I want to just, in a few moments here, share with you three life lessons we learned as a family this week. Here's the first one. There are things in life totally beyond our control. I know we know that and we even say that. I mean, it's one of those churchy kind of things we say to each other to make us feel better sometimes, but this week we came face-to-face with the reality that there will be, there are things in our lives that are totally outside of our control. I love the wording that James used here. Consider it all joy, my brethren, and that my brethren is important because he's talking to us as the family of faith, followers of Jesus Christ. He says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren," but look at the next word. What's the next word? Win. Not if. Consider it all joy, my brethren, win. You see, James knew something. He knew it wasn't an if. He knew that as Christians, it was just a win. When's it going to happen? There are things that will come into our lives that we didn't plan, we didn't prepare for, we didn't expect, we can't control circumstances, difficulties, challenges. He says here, "When you encounter," the word "encounter" is an interesting Greek word. It literally means to fall into the middle of something, again showing how unexpected these things are. He says, "Consider it joy when out of nowhere you fall into the middle of something and find it all around you." Then he says what he's talking about are various trials. The word "various" here is a Greek word that literally means multicolored. It's the idea of holding a prism up to the light and seeing the spectrum, the ray of colors. Here's what he's saying here. There will be times you unexpectedly find yourself surrounded by difficulties and challenges of every sort and every kind. I don't know about you, but I saw that this week. Adrian Rogers said, "You're either in a storm, headed for a storm, or coming out of a storm." I don't know which of those three phases you find yourself in this morning, some of you may be in a storm. I mean, it's a family of faith. We're in a storm, but in light of the storms that some people experience, one of the reporters asked me this week, "Pastor, how do you feel about this tragedy?" I said, "Well, to be honest with you, what we've experienced really in the tragedy, there's a family in our town that experienced a tragedy this week. We've had some minor discomfort. There's a family in our town that's experienced real tragedy that we want to come round and love and serve and do anything we can to pray for. But these difficulties, these circumstances, I don't know where you are personally, it's a family of faith we're walking through. I don't know what you're going through. You're either in one, you're headed out of one, or you're headed into one. You say, "Well, that's encouraging this morning preacher." Well, I'm just telling you what James said, all right? That's when it's good as a preacher to not be the editor, you're just the delivery boy, right? Let me tell you a couple of things we know about storms out of this text description. Number one, they're unavoidable. I want everybody in the room to look me in the eye. If you think because you follow Jesus, that you are somehow immune to the challenges, the difficulties, the struggles, and the heartaches of life. If you think you are immune to that because you follow Jesus, if you think everything's always going to be rosy and sunshine, listen to me, you are deceiving yourself. You've bought into a lie, that's not true. And no preacher with an ounce of biblical integrity can teach that no matter how many books it sells. You're not immune from it. I mean, when you study the Bible, the Bible is full. This is a book full of the stories of men and women who walk through unbelievable difficulty. Have you read this book lately? Noah had a flood, right? I mean, there was one point this week, we were thinking about lining up animals and looking for go for wood, I mean... Noah had a flood, Moses and the children of Israel received a promise from God of a land where they would be blessed and they're not three days out of slavery and they got the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them with blood in their eyes. You know, a lion's den. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and a fiery furnace, have you read the book of Job? Most of the Psalms are the psalmist crying out in desperation in the midst of suffering. When you get into the New Testament, you find Jesus, the Son of God, with nowhere to lay His head. You see Jesus in the midst of suffering as He's rejected by society and crucified. We see the disciples that follow Him, every one of them but Judas murdered for their faith. The Apostle Paul was beaten and shipwrecked and persecuted and then locked in prison multiple times and this wasn't the kind of prison with TV and three square meals a day. Who are we to think that our forefathers in the faith walk through challenge after challenge in difficulty after difficulty? Who are we to think that somehow today because we live in America the land of prosperity that now the gospel has somehow changed and the gospel now means health and wealth and prosperity. That's not what it means. No wonder James said win, win. These storms are unavoidable, James is describing something that we fall into, we don't have the ability to avoid it. This week when the water covered the property, one of the things that happened that comes with that is mud. When the water was gone, there was two to three, in some places six, seven inches of mud caked up. You couldn't tell when you walked on this property Wednesday afternoon, some of you were here, when you walked on the property, you didn't know what was sidewalk and what was flower bed, it all looked like a river bed, it was just mud everywhere. And early on in the day I was trying to, we were all trying to walk around and kind of assess things and I took a step into what I thought was firm ground and the next thing I knew I was up to here in mud, just sunk down in it. That's the picture of what he's describing here. You're just walking along, you're doing life, everything's just rolling and before you know it, bam, you're in the middle of something you didn't see coming. Storms are unavoidable. The other thing he says here is storms are unpredictable. It's that prism word, that multicolored, I got to be honest with you. When God called my family to Las Vegas, we from Alabama. We're moving to the desert. We knew that we're going to be challenges. I never dreamed it'd be a flood. Some of my friends and family thought I was kidding when I started texting them this week. Don't you live in a desert, that's what I thought. You see some of you right now are in some things that you never thought would be in your life. There's some challenges that we go through that we kind of thought, you know, that may be out there for us. Some of you are in the middle of a financial or a health or a relationship or a family situation that you never saw coming. It is totally unexpected. Hey, there are things in our lives that are sometimes totally out of our control. But in the midst of that, listen to what James says, consider it all joy. Say that with me again, consider it all joy. The word consider is an interesting word. It's a word that literally means to lead. And it's used in the way that James uses it. It's a metaphorical usage of the word. And it literally means to lead out in the mind or let this govern or direct your mind. And James uses it here in an imperative, meaning it's a command as followers of Jesus Christ. When we're in difficult circumstances that are beyond our control, that we're unavoidable and unexpected and unpredictable, instead of sorrow or pity or questioning or complaining, our first response is to be joy. Albert Barnes said it this way, "You are not to consider it. It is whatever you're going through. You're not to consider it as punishment, a curse or a calamity. But as a fit subject for celebration." Now you say, Pastor, how's that possible? I mean, don't you see the storm? Pastor, what I'm walking through right now, the difficulty that I'm in, the situation, Pastor, weren't you here on Wednesday? Didn't you see the mess? How can you say we are to consider that joy? I'm so glad you asked that this morning. Because if all he gave us was verse two, we wouldn't have the full answer, but look at it again. If you can put it back up on the screen, put these verses back up on the screen for me, Micah. James 1, verses 2 through 4, look what he says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials." What's the next word? Oh, that's a good word. You know what he says? You can consider it joy. Listen, because you know something. You know something even more than you know the situation. You know something even more than you know the circumstances. You know something even more than you know the storm. He says you can consider it joy because you know something and the word no here. It's a word that implies experience or fellowship. It's a word that refers to knowledge gained through a relationship. You know what he's saying here? We can consider it joy not just because we know something. We consider it joy because we know someone. Listen, here's the second thing we learned this week. Second thing we learned this week, we worship a God who is always in control. There are things in your life. There are things in my life that are out of our control. But we worship a God who is always in control. We know him. You and I may be surprised. Wednesday morning, I was surprised. Our pastoral team was surprised. Our church family, we were surprised. Let me tell you who wasn't surprised. God wasn't surprised. He didn't say uh oh, there was no heavenly gasp. It was right on time. And this isn't just a New Testament principle. The Old Testament believers understood this too. Listen to the way the prophet Habakkuk wrote about it in the Old Testament in Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 17. Listen what he said, though the fig tree should not blossom. And there be no fruit on the vines. Though the yield of the olive tree should fail and the fields produce no food. Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls. Yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and he has made my feet like Heinz feet and makes me walk on the high places here when he says there, listen, when everything around you is falling apart, the writer of the book of Habakkuk said, I'll rejoice anyway because I know the one who's in control. We cannot listen to me. You may want to write this one down, it's not on the screen. We cannot let our circumstances shape our perspective towards God. We must let what we know about God shape our perspective towards our circumstances. I'm going to say it again. We cannot let our circumstances shape our perspective towards God. We must let what we know about God shape our perspective towards our circumstances. You say, what do you mean by that? Here's what I mean by that. This week, we saw it happen on Wednesday, the floods came, our buildings, we just opened in March. The last thing I ever wanted to see was a piece of heavy equipment on our campus again this soon. We prayed for weeks and weeks, God, let us finish. Get this equipment off of here now, it's all everywhere again. We looked at those circumstances, the circumstances weren't good. And we can look at those circumstances and say, God's not good. Or we could look at our God who we know to be good and say, Lord, I don't understand it yet, but I recognize this circumstance is an act of your goodness towards me. I don't know how yet, but God, this is you being good to me. Because the Bible says every, everything he gives us is good. We can look at our circumstances and say, God doesn't love me. Look at the situation, look at the, the circumstances that God doesn't love me. Or we can look at the God that is love and who we know loves us. And in light of that, look at the circumstances. You know what Wednesday was? Wednesday was God saying, hey, Hope Church, I love you this much. You know what the flood waters were? They were a river of the love of God, demonstrating His grace and goodness towards us in ways we don't even understand yet. We can consider it all joy because we know Him. Let me tell you the last thing we learned and this is what we know for sure. This God that we know is always at work for our good and for His glory. This God that we know is always at work for our good and His glory. Do you hear the way James closed it knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that that's an interesting, it's that that great Hennon means this purpose, this reason, so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. You see what God allowed this week, He didn't allow to take something away from us, what God allowed this week, He allowed to give something to us so that we'd be lacking in nothing. You see there's something in us. God couldn't do in us without this circumstance that He's allowed around us so that He can accomplish everything through us, that He wants to accomplish. It's always for our good. In the midst of the difficult situations and circumstances of life, we can know that God, the God we serve has a plan and listen to me. It's not plan B, it's not an alternate plan, it's the best plan. It's the best thing that could have happened to hope church this week, let me tell you what the best thing that could have happened to us this week is, a flood. Say how you know that because I know Him. And He says that I'm allowing these things in your life so that you'll be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. The best thing that could have happened to us this week is exactly what happened because the God that we know who loves us and who desires to use us for His glory has allowed it. When Wednesday began I had a plan but His plan was better. By the end of the day we'd seen the people of God rally together. We'd seen people who did not even go to our church here serving us as we're trying to get ready to serve them. One of the news reporters stopped me this week and she said, "Vance, it is such a blessing to cover this story." She said, "Vance so often in our city we cover bad news." She said, "This is good news." She was here most of the week. TV crews asked if they could come, they've already been here this morning interviewing before the service even started. And here's what they said to us. They said, "We want to see a church that in the middle of this kind of tragedy and devastation is working so hard and so passionately just to get back together and worship." What we learned from the book of James is the same thing Paul said. Paul said, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Now, a lot of times we stop there with verse 28 and Romans 8. But if you read on down in verse 31, listen to what he said, "What then shall we say to these things?" Looked around him, looked at all the stuff going on. What are we going to say to these things? Here's what he says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Amen? [Applause] Yesterday morning, I sat down to spend some time with the Lord before just heading into the day and thinking about today and thinking about the opportunity to share with you. I opened my Bible to the book of Psalms and just started reading in Psalms. I don't know about you, but when I'm in one of those times that you're going through in life, I call it Psalm therapy. I just go to Psalms and I just read until God changes my heart. I just keep reading. Sometimes I'll read two or three, sometimes I'll read 20 or 30, but I'll just keep reading until God grabs my heart. Yesterday in Psalm 40, I read this, "Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which you have done, and your thoughts toward us, there is none to compare with you. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count." And it was as if God just changed my heart towards the whole week. This wasn't what happened to us. This is what God did for us. And I don't know everything yet. I want to read you what I wrote, and I'll close with this. Three days ago, this is in my journal, three days ago our new permanent campus had hope flooded. When I drove up and saw it underwater, I couldn't believe the tragedy before my eyes. In that moment, I had no idea the expression of love and faithfulness, that moment was for my Heavenly Father. You have been so faithful in the storm. Your wonders and thoughts toward us are truly too numerous to count. You are so good and so great. Forgive me for so often thinking that you have forgotten about me. Forgive me for letting my circumstances shape my attitude towards you, instead of you shaping my attitude towards my circumstances. Then I closed it with this. I don't know the rest of the story yet, but I know the one who's writing it. And he loves me. And I love you. [applause] [end] You