Changing Faces Ministries Podcast
Proper Perspective
[ Music ] >> So if you got your Bible, I want you to turn with me to James, the book of James, beginning with that first verse and we're going to read the first four verses. The book of James, beginning with the first verse, James chapter 1 and verse 1. And it reads, "James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. My brethren, count at all joy when ye fall into diver's temptation, knowing this that the trying of your faith work of patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." I want to attach to this scripture this morning. And we want to just give a subject this morning, the proper perspective. The proper perspective. And we all know we also define perspective as a particular attitude towards or a way regarding something. So it's an attitude about something. And it's a having. So what we want to talk about this morning is having the proper perspective about something. Whatever it is, we want to make sure we have the proper perspective. And I can kind of, you know, for myself speak on this thing of perspective because we've all had those issues and things that happened to us in life where we don't want to count at joy but when we go through stuff. We don't think it's joyful. We don't believe it's joyful. But we're going to look at things and how James want to say we should count all things joyful. And for some of us and for a few of us to count it joyful in the midst of trying times may be a stroke. Let me just explain, let me just share this story with you. Back in 2017, just a few years ago, 2017. You know how you going through life. Everything seems and appears to be all well and good. You wake up in the morning and life is good and great. And before the day is over with you, you receive some information about things that you never in your wildest dreams talked about or thought about. And you get the call that something you've invested in in the last 14, 15 years of your life have decided to make a change. And you've invested time energy efforts to make a company great and all of a sudden at the very unopportuned time. They make an announcement that they're going to be selling and the company would no longer be in existence. Now that puts you at a point in time to where you wondering what will happen. Then not shortly after that, you get we got information that my mother-in-law took sick earlier, you know, in that year. And things are really going on, not long before that, not long before that we had lost our grandmother and things just going all this stuff going on back to back to back issues, life circumstances coming your way. And I'm reading this and looking at James and James is telling you to count all situations of joy. I don't know about you and I just want to be real with you today. It's kind of hard to count something joy when you don't know what the circumstances are going to be. It's kind of hard to look at life and to look at situations and circumstances into counting joy when life is knocking you upside your head. It's kind of hard to say count it all joy when you just don't know what tomorrow is going to hold. And that was just the beginning of 17. So when I look at that, you know, I don't know about you, but if anybody have ever heard that knock on your door and you go and look through, you go and look through the peephole when you ain't expecting no company. And when you look through the blinds and you see trouble out there, a lot of us don't want to open the door to trouble. It's one thing to know trouble knocking on your door is something else when you look out there and you see trouble at your door with a suitcase. That means you know he coming to stay for a while. When trouble comes, we don't learn the day that James says count it all joy when trouble comes knocking at your door. See, because one thing I've learned in life, one thing that I've taken and as I get older in life and I've learned things that when trouble comes as a child of God, the only way that trouble gets to you and impact you, it had to go through God first and God had to either bring it or allow it. So the mere fact that God has brought it and allowed it or allowed it or whatever the case may be, it had to go through God hands before it got to me. And the mere fact, it made it to me trouble. We need to learn how to count it all joy. And the day we're going to teach, we're going to talk about how can we count it all joy in the midst of trouble. 2017 was when trouble started knocking on my door early that year and he brought his suitcase and I knew he was going to be there for a while. 2017 was a year that I, if I could, wife away, I wouldn't take it away. I just want to remember it because through that trouble, it has grown me to be the person I am today. I don't know what you know, if anybody know what it's like to grow up in a household where you had a parent that was then spared a rod that put it on you to correct you. And to correct you and to get you straight. And I used to always want to have a child when mama was putting it on me. And, and, and whooping me, I used to wonder, I didn't, because I didn't understand how the child, what she was doing. She was putting it on me in a, in a way for to correct me to get me straight because she never whooped me on something that I didn't deserve. But every woman came through her and she did it because she wanted me to grow up to be a person I am. But as a child, I didn't understand the weapons. But now I've grown older, I can understand why she did it. See, when we're in the midst of trouble, we might not understand the trouble. But as you get older, you can understand what God was taking you through and what God was dealing with you through the trouble because through the trouble, he was a building you up for the day that he was going to get you to this point because he knew what he was going to go through. He knew what he was going to deal with. So he allowed certain things. He wants you to start growing to have the proper perspective. Now I'll be honest with you, when you start dealing with trouble, you might not have the proper perspective at trouble when you initially start going through life and dealing with stuff. But through time, it's a learned process. He wants you to grow to get to the point to have the proper perspective about trouble as you mature in the faith. And we're going to see that today because we're talking about James, the author of this book, Jesus's brother, half brother. We're talking about a man that had a relationship, a physical relationship with Jesus by being his half brother. He was writing this letter to the Christians, if you would notice, the Jewish Christians that had been through circumstances have been scattered abroad. And he knew that they was going to be dealing with some issues and circumstances. So he wrote this book as being a leader of the early churches. He knew that they was going to go through things. So he wrote this book to encourage them to have the proper perspective, the proper characteristics when they start going through trouble and situation and circumstances. And that's why we today have experiences in life because through the experience in life, we're going to be able to prepare other people and encourage other people to make it through what they're going through because of what we've gone through. And when we go through things with a proper perspective, and that's what this is all about, by having the proper perspective about things and when you have the proper perspective about things, you'll start seeing things differently. And when you start seeing things differently, you're going to have a different attitude about what it is that you see and what you go through because understand something that you are. He says, the scripture says, when God says, when I have you on my hand, nobody can pluck you out of my hand. Well, if you're in the hands of God, that means he's protecting you. He's guarding you. He's guiding you. We just need to have the right attitude about where we're going. And in the midst of this whole pandemic that we're going through, the things that we've lost, the loved ones that we lost, things that we have faced, God knew that we was going to be coming to this time. So all the things that we're experiencing up to now is he's telling us to have, he's getting us to the point so we can have the proper perspective. So there's three things I want to touch on when we're talking about this, and we'll deal with these three things and then we'll hop off and then a lot of us can eat some of that leftover chicken and, and potato salad we had from yesterday. So we'll go through it. We'll touch on these three points. And when we touch on these three points, I hope you have a pen and piece of paper to take some notes. And when you start taking these notes, you're going to be able to go back and look at these notes and remember that no matter what you go through is building you up to have the proper perspective. So the three things we're going to touch on the first thing we want to look at is, one is trouble will come. That's the first thing we want to look at. Trouble will come. How do I know trouble will come. One of the greatest men of the Bible that we all talk about when he was dealing with stuff, he made this statement about that thing known as trouble. If you look at Job 14 and one, Job said, a man who is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. Job said that. Job says we're born of any man that's born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. And as I can look at all the ones that are on this call unless you got here by osmosis, we're all born of a woman. And we only got a few days left on here because Bible says life is like a vapor. It's only for a short period of time. So we're born of a woman and we're only a few days. That means our life is going to be full of trouble. And there's no better person to teach us about trouble than that man known as Job. You think about this, Job says, Job woke up one morning and was going through his regular routines. Praying for his kids, living a life, Job was the man of his land of odds. Job lived a life that was pleasing in God's side. Job lived one day. That didn't mean he was perfect. That didn't mean he didn't make no mistakes. But Job was one of those kind of men that when the church doors opened on Sunday, Job was probably the first one there and the last one to leave. Job did what he had to do. Job was blessed by God. Job had what he needed to survive. Job lived a life that says he was upright. And a man of odds, Job was one of those kind of man's. When he showed up around the tree, everybody didn't use their bad language because they respected Job well enough that Job was the man. And Job, they understood something about Job. Job was a man. Job was the one that said a man born of a woman and a few days his life is full of trouble. You wouldn't think somebody like Job who had plenty of livestock, who had kids, who had a lifestyle would be the one that would be talking about this thing on his trouble. But let me just give you a few days in the life of Job. Job woke up one morning praying as he always did. And Job got their knock on the door and trouble came to visit old Job. Matter of fact, when trouble came to visit old Job, he had this luggage. And Job, Job, Job, trouble came in and in a single day, Job lost all of his, all of his possessions. He lost his possessions. He lost his kids. He lost a lot of things and eventually Job got bad. And Job even lost it. It seemed like he lost his support of his life because his wife told him, "You all just curse your God and die." Job said a man born of a woman is but a few days and his life is full of trouble. I just want to warn you, when trouble come to visit your house, we're talking about building yourself up to get to the point to have the proper perspective. Job, when trouble came, what I want, I want us to kind of look at this thing. And we say, it's hard to have the proper perspective when everything that you've built. And see if you were with us last week, you know that everything that you have don't belong to you anyway. You just stood over all of this stuff. You wouldn't get yourself so tied in the stuff. And it's easy to have a proper perspective with things when you understand that your position over the stuff that you have. See, when you understand that you don't own it, so when it comes and goes and you can learn to get praises to God because God, give it and God can take it away, we don't own up. We don't own ourselves. We don't own the people. We don't own the stuff. We don't own this thing. And because we don't own it, we shouldn't take ownership of it. And we should understand that we are just only stewards over it. It's easier. Notice I said, I didn't say it was easy. It's easier to know that when stuff come and goes, that you don't belong to it, that don't belong to you anyway, you just stood over it. So if God allowed you to lose some things, it was God that give us and it's God that take it away. It's one thing for trouble to come. It's another thing when it comes with intent on staying for a while. Trouble came to visit Joe in a short period of time. He lost everything. Kids land as well as health and God allowed it. I want you to put a star by that. I said, God allowed it because if you go back and look at all this stuff before it happened to Joe, it says Satan was roaming around seeking to whom may he destroyed. And it was God who said, have you considered my servant Joe. It was God who allowed the trouble to come. You remember what I said. If as a child of God, because you look at this text, it says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes, which are scattered abroad, greeny, my brother. And when it refers to my brother, and these are believers, these are the ones who have accepted, these are believers of the faith. They have the foundation. So they are believers. So they know about what they know about God. They have believed they are believers. But it says God allowed it. So as a believer, and if you are a believer, don't think it's strange when trouble come visit you. Joe was living a life and God allowed trouble in his life. When trouble come, we need to stop asking the question. First point that you should write down. When trouble comes in your life, we're talking about how to get to a point of dealing with trouble. First point you need to do is you need to stop asking the question, why me, Lord? That's the first thing we need to understand. Stop asking, why me, Lord? Why not you? Who else would you want it to happen to? Why not this come in your life? Why not you? Why not now? Why not here? Because we only know what we see. We can only deal with the things that we see. God is already operating into our future. God is preparing us for where we're going. So when trouble comes in your life, don't ask, stop asking the question. Why me, Lord? Stop asking the question. First thing, even though Joe lost it all, he didn't lose his ability to think and reason. This is why you stopped asking the question. God, it was God who gave it. It was God who took it away. So when you do this thing, God told the enemy that he could not touch his soul. So if he could not touch his soul, Joe still had what all of them entirely said, you have to think about this. I want us to think about this. This is a teaching moment for me. I want us to think about this. It was God who gave us the ability to get the things that we have. It was God who blessed us with the mindset to build the businesses that we have. It was God who gave us the strength to do the things that it's God that gives us the will to wake us up in the morning to keep walking out on to stepping out there. We have to have the faith to step out there, but it's God who gives us the health and strength. So if God gives us all of that, and if we lose everything and we still have our minds, our health and our ability, if God gave it to us before, he would give it to us again. So why do we lose heart and we lose faith when we lose stuff and things God gave it once he'll give it to you again so we should not lose heart and faith when we do those things. We're talking about developing the proper perspective. Give you an example. And I know he would testify to this. My brother, he owns a successful glass company. 20 years of investing and going through these things. Now, I know if happens with me as a Lord forbid week that something happens and all things fall apart. He would not lose heart because he got 20 years of experience in the 20 years that had took him to get there. Now, if he has to start over and go at it again, I promise you, it wouldn't take 20 years because if he have his health and his strength, he can do it all over again in a short, less, less time than it took him in the beginning. If God allows situations and trouble to come through you and he still still have your health and strength. All those things that have come and gone, you are able to redo it again because now he has left you with the experience. So we need to thank God for the experience that he has given us. If you got the job before, and this job don't want you, I promise you the experience he took away from the last job. You can be able to walk into a situation and circumstances. And because of what he has given you before, you can walk in there and they can give you a job and you don't even have to go through the same processes and procedures that you went through before because it was God who took it and it's God who can bless you with enough. If God closes one door, he is preparing you for something else. So don't think it's strange when trouble come your way. God is preparing you. We're talking about having the proper perspective with the things that you go through. God knows that trouble is coming. He is taking you through these experiences to prepare us for what is on the way. So for James to say, count it all joy, he is referring to your attitude about your situation. What have you learned from what you've been through? So, so what have you, what have you taken away from what God has brought you through? See, he says, my brothering, count it all joy when you fall into diver's temptation. He didn't say if, it didn't say you might. He said, you need to learn how to count it all joy when these things come upon you. So he is preparing you for what he know you're going to deal with. So he is teaching you how to build a character to count it all joy. So then he says, my brothering, believers, counted all joy. What is he talking about? Count it all joy. Count it all joy. So as I told you, as a kid, when mama was swooping me, I didn't understand. But through life situation and circumstance that I understand that she was preparing me for how tough life was going to come at me. So she was giving me something within me to know that even though that stuff comes, I'm preparing you that stuff life is going to happen. So she took some things. So the second point we're going to talk about is we need to take an inventory over our lives. How often do you look back at your life and see what God has brought you through? When you do an inventory, it allows you an opportunity to reflect on God's goodness. And when you see what God has done, it shouldn't be hard to get you excited about where he has you right now. See, during this pandemic, it gives us a lot of time for us to sit back and take an inventory. And when we can sit back and take an inventory of our lives, we can look at where God has us and we can look at where God has brought us. Well, if God has brought us to this pandemic, if we do, if we abide in his word, he is faithful and just to get us through it. So if he's going to, if he brought us to it, he's going to get us through it. So we should not lose heart if we take an inventory, see a good storekeeper taken inventory of the things that he has sold and the things that he has on the shelf. He knows when he needs to buy and buy more stuff because he's taken inventory. If we learn to take an inventory of our lives, because of how the human mind works and how the human mind operates, if we take an inventory of our lives, when we start taking inventory of our lives and we see how good God has been to us, we can't hold two thoughts in our minds at the exact same time. So as you're taking an inventory of what's going on of how good God has been to you, when you're taking an inventory, see some of us right now are thinking back over our lives, as I'm speaking, you're thinking back over our lives. And no matter how bad it may seem right now, you're not letting them worry you because now you're focusing in on what the word of God says. And when you focus in on what the word of God says, it kind of takes you out of where he has you. It kind of takes you out of the bad things and the issue that's going on in his life. When you learn to focus on where God has you, God has you in a place and you start taking an inventory. See, some of us, I remember traveling over the roads during dangerous highways, God has allowed me to go and come through safety. That's taking an inventory because God didn't have to bring me to this point, but he has brought me through these dangerous roads, highways and byways, just that he has brought you, you don't know the danger that God has kept you from. God has kept dangerous accidents away from you because you weren't focusing on the dangers and accidents, you was focused on where you was going. And when you're focusing on where you're going, you can learn to count it all joy. And joy is not based on what's happening. I didn't say count it all happy. I said count it all joy. Count it all happen means your circumstances got to be good for you in order for you to be happy. When you count it all joy, you're joyful. Even when the circumstances are down, you're learning to have joy in your soul. When you can have joy, James is telling us to grow to a point where no matter what's going on in our lives, we have learned to have joy. And when you can learn to have joy, it does not matter about the circumstances. Even though we want our circumstances to be good, they're not always going to be good, but you can be have joy in your heart. And when you can have joy in your heart, he's talking about building us to a point. When you count it all joy, you're taking an inventory of your life and the inventory of your life show you that. Even though you don't deserve it, God, grace, and mercy have blessed you anyway. Friends have misused you. People have walked out of your life and you're still here. Love ones and friends have passed on, but God has gotten you through this point. Taking inventory of your life. When you take an inventory of your life and look back over where God has brought you from, where he has you right now, you know he brought you before God hadn't changed. He's the same yesterday and today and forever more. If he hadn't changed, God will get you through whatever it is that you're going through. We need to learn how to count it all joy. How do we do that? I've given you two points. You know that trouble is coming. So if trouble is coming, God is preparing you. And if God is preparing you and you start taking an inventory of what he has brought you through, and he has allowed you the experiences of what you're going through, and we have allowed you to experience it even though circumstances are not what you want him to be, the experiences that he has given you, he has prepared you to be able to move forward. When you're taking an inventory of God's goodness, you don't have time to even deal with where you are because your mind is focused on two things. You can't focus on two things at one time. Look over your lives, James said, count it all joy, not count it all happy. Happy depends on circumstances. Joy is how your attitude about what God has you. Taking inventory of your life. So if we know trouble is coming, and now that you've taken an inventory of what God has brought you. Now, the third point, third and last point we're going to look at today is know that it is a learning process. You notice I said process. We are always in the format of becoming. We have not yet arrived because if we ever arrived, that means we're no longer useful here. We might as well take us on. It's a learning process. How can God bring you out unless he puts you in to go through? How can you know God what God can do if you don't ever go through anything? It's easy to say what God can take you to. Let's look at it like this. It's easy to say that God can take you through the other side when you're on dry lane. It's easy to say that God is going to get me through it when there is no storm and rain. It's easy to say that God is a good God when there is no trouble. But how do you manage it when the storms of life come your way? What do you do when the storms are raging on? You're tossing that book back and forth like those disciples in that boat. Then when they hollen, care not that we perish. It's easy to say what you do when there ain't no trouble. But when trouble comes, when trouble comes, it's as simple as one, two, three. I want to explain this simple process of how we can learn to grow to the point where we can start counting it all joy when trouble comes our way. One is you know that this is part of the plane. I've just told you that trouble is going to come. There's only three kinds of people in the world. One that's in something right now. One that's only way to something right now. And the one that's coming out of something right now. So where are you with trouble right now? Some of us might be in trouble right now. Some of us might be headed towards trouble right now. And some of us is just not coming out of trouble. But where we are, it does not matter. You need to know that this is part of the process. And we're talking about learning. It's a learning process. So if we have learned the fact that trouble is going to come, we know trouble is going to come. The second thing is we need to learn how to take the inventory to know that when trouble comes, that we got inventory that we can look back on to how God has brought us from and brought us through. If we know it's going to come and he's prepared us, we should not throw fame and well do it. It does not see when we learn how to ride a bicycle one time. I don't care however long you've been off of that bicycle. When you pick that bicycle up, you might fall a couple of times until you develop your balance. But once you've got your balance, you're going to ride it just like never before. Faith is one of those things. You can have little faith, but you continue to grow your faith because trouble is always and forever. Job said it's full of trouble. This life is full of trouble. We're going to have trouble until the day we leave. And if we're going to have trouble until the day we leave, we need to learn how that is a process. We need to learn how to get through it. And when we can learn how to get through it, we're going to be able to deal with when trouble keeps coming, we're going to be able to deal with it as we continue to go through the process. It's a learning process and it's as simple as one through three. We know that it's part of it. The second thing is we need to do an inventory. When you take an inventory of your life, then the third part of it is what we're talking about now. What we're showing, what this is showing me, that is a learning lesson. We are forever learning and as we continue to grow in our faith. And even when you start to grow in your faith, you're going to get to a point where you won't be worried. You won't be worried about whether Jesus is downstairs sleeping or not. Only thing you're going to be worried about is Jesus on the boat. And if Jesus is on the boat, even though the storm of the life coming, you're going to make it to the other side. You don't have to go down waking up. Jesus said, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you even to the end of the earth." And if you know Jesus is going to be with you and you know trouble is going to come. When that trouble comes, tossing you to and forth, all you got to do is just hold on. He's going to get you to the other side. And I'm telling you today, what we have to learn to do is we got to learn to hold on because God is going to get us to the other side. If Jesus is on the boat and Jesus said we're going to the other side and you know trouble is going to come. He themselves is going to be easy. If the trouble is going to come, the problem, the thing we need to know is do we have Jesus? And this is what James is teaching us. He says, "Count it all joy when you fall into diaphragm temptation." He said, "Know in this." Listen to what he said. He says, "Know in this." So we should know. He said, "Know in this." This is something we should know. That the trying of your faith work of patience. So you say process, when he tries, when he tries you, he's working your faith. He's growing your faith. He says the working. This, we should know. He says the working of this. He's talking about your attitude during your troubles. And when we can learn how to have the right attitude in the midst of trouble. You're not realized. I remember. It used to be times when I was growing up and I may not have gotten the things that I want. Situations and you know, you can have a pity party because you may not got the car you want, the bicycle you want, the clothes you want. You may not got the things you want. And you might pitch a little fit and have an attitude about it. But when you can learn how to be joyful, the next time it comes around for you to get something. Do you not know your parents are more willing to give it to you because you have the right attitude? That's for you kids. You need to learn how to have the right attitude about situations and circumstances because when you have the right attitude, it is a process. It's a process. He said, try not to enjoy when. How do you do this? You must be continually learning and growing in Christ. See, the more time you spend in the Word, the more time you take inventory of your life, that's going to continue to grow who you are as a person. And when you start to learn that God is more than about the stuff that he gives you, it's about God don't need to do anything else. If he don't do anything else, he's already done enough. And when we learn that God, we need to just be praising God just for who he is and not for what he do. When we can learn those processes and procedures, when we can learn that, when we can see that we can learn that thing, when we can learn how to do that and have the right attitude, I promise you, you'll learn how to start counting it all joy when trouble comes. When life is not the way you want it to be, you need to learn and understand that God has you there for a reason, a purpose and a plane. See, God says your thoughts and what I think is as far east is as west. But then in the same note, he says, I have a plan for you and it's for your wellbeing. It's for a future and an expected end. And if God has a plan for us and he's working on us, we can learn to have joy when he has us in a place. And I just, when I even think about that, God's plan as a child of God, he has us in a place. He says, if you acknowledge me in all your ways, he would direct our path. So if God is directing our path and he is directing us and guiding us to go a place, if he is doing all this, he said I would never leave you on the offer to save you. He says, when I have you in my hands, nobody can take you out. He's giving us protection. When he is doing all of this and he hasn't expected in for us, we can learn to have joy because we have taken a inventory because he has brought us all the way up to this present moment. He has brought us this for, he hasn't brought us this for to leave us now. So if he has brought us to this point in moment, we can learn how to have joy in the midst of a trying situation. Hang in there. Hang in there. Hang in there. Hang in there. It does not matter what's going on. He wants us to hang in there and have the right attitude about hanging in there. First Peter 5 and 10 says, "But the God of all grace who have called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect, established, strengthened, settled you to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever." We need to give God glory today for where he has us. He hadn't left us. He hadn't forgotten us. He hadn't forsaken us. He has us here for a moment in time. We don't need to give up. We don't need to lose sight. We just need to make sure that we have accepted Christ and that Christ that we're depending on Him to get us through it. Hang in there. It's not over. So in the midst of your trials, we need to learn how to have joy. This past week, I had a chance. I had to go take care of some business at a gym. It was at an awkward hour of the morning that I had to go to the gym. When I got there, it was a person in the gym. They had on all of the attire to give the impression that they were doing a good workout. We had a fact they had on the tights, they had on the workout shirts, and they gave the look that they were there to get to work it out. So just in me handling business and being observant, I noticed that they went to one thing and jumped on the bicycle and made a couple of turns on the bicycle, and they got off. Then they went over there and laid on the floor and did a couple of sit-ups. Then they got up and went to something else. Then they went over to the little treadmill. They ran a little bit on the treadmill and got off. So even though they gave the impression that they were there to get a good workout in so they could live a good, healthy life, they weren't really committed to what it is that they wanted. So what happens is sometimes situations and circumstances are created to make us not just dressed apart, but live out what it is that we truly want. I guarantee you if that person would go to the doctor and the doctor would tell them that in order for you to live out a good, healthy life, this is what you must do. You must exercise, you must do this, not put on the clothes and show up at the gym to give the impression that you're working out. You must put in the work in order to get the health that you want. So I guarantee you the processes that would change from putting on the clothes and dressing up and looking like you believe, but putting you in a situation where you have no other choice but to get healthy so you're going to do it anyway. What I'm trying to share with us, we no longer have time to put on the clothes and show up on Sunday morning and give the impression of folks that we are holier than I. God is going to put us in situations and circumstances to test what we do, what we're going through to make sure that we really believe that if we really want what we say we want, God is going to put us through situations and circumstances and issues in life. No longer can we dress up and show up on Sunday and be that one-a-day Christian. Now God is calling for his people to stand up and don't give up hope. He's asking us to count it all joy because when we learn how to count it all joy and give God the praises for who he is and what he has done in our lives. Life, as we know it, we're going to be a whole lot easier when we learn how to count it. All joy. Because when you learn how to do those things, it says knowing that this, trying of your faith-work and patience, but let patience have his perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire warning for nothing. Trouble don't come. And he says, have joy during all your trouble because what that does is going to build you up. It's going to make you stronger that when the next time stuff comes, you're going to be able to go through it with fine colors because he has constantly building and working on us and growing us to become what we need to become. And if you're here today, if you're online, you can hear my voice, whether it be by phone, whether I can see your face or whatever it is that you're going through. And I don't know what you're going through, but I do know James says, all trouble. When it comes, he said, count it all joy. And we know that all means all. Well, this is when the money ain't meeting, when the children act in front strange, when the husband or wife don't act right, when everything don't seem like it should seem, or whatever the case may be. He said, we need to learn how to count it all joy because we belong to a different kingdom. We no longer should be dealing with things the way the world deal with them because we have been accepted, because we have been adopted into this family, we need to learn. And James was teaching them that even though your circumstances may not be what you wanted to be, we need to learn to count it all joy. So if you're here today and you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're on that boat and the stories of life have come to start tossing your tooling from. You know that you hadn't accepted, you don't have the protection of Christ. You hadn't accepted Christ as your Savior. Today would be the best opportunity for you to do that. Not next week, not next year, not next month, but we don't know what any of that time holds. The only thing we have is the present moment in time. You need to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior because that's the only way that you can know this. I can first see knowing this. That's the only way you can know that you have eternal life is by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's the only way. Despite what anybody else may have told you, despite what anybody else may have said, the only way that you can know that you have eternal life if you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Romans 10 and I say that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead, you are saved. So that's the only way. And if you know within yourself that you hadn't done that and you don't have no protection, today would be a perfect opportunity. And it's real simple. The God that we serve is so loving and so good. He made it real simple. It's just as simple as saying this prayer. God, I'm a sinner and I can't save myself. I choose Jesus Christ as my Savior. Right now I welcome Him into my life. And when you welcome Him into your life, you allow Him to have His way in your life. And when you have done that and truly have accepted Christ, I want to say welcome to the family. Thanks for tuning in to the Changing Faces Podcast. Be sure to download the podcast as well as like, subscribe and share. [Music] (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]