(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

All right.

Whoo!

For our online family, glad you're joining us from the nice, warm, comfy coziness of your houses.

There's no jealousy in that, but we're glad that everyone here is joining with us.

Anybody out there wearing their Thanksgiving stretchy pants still?

All right.

We're good.

Safe place.

Glad that you're here.

My wife was at the first service, and I said, how did I do?

And she goes, it was all right.

She said you talked a little fast at the beginning.

I said, because I was cold.

I'm freezing.

This is...

I had three layers on when I got here at about six this morning, and people said, why didn't you wear it up on stage?

I said, because I would have looked like that kid from a Christmas story.

Hey, guys.

Welcome to church.

Today you guys, we are going to continue in our Christmas theme of Be the One.

We are 29 days away from Christmas.

I know.

It's coming.

But today, as we continue in this topic of being the one, I'll admit, when I first heard that, the first thing I thought was the Matrix.

Being the one.

Neo was the one.

If you haven't seen the Matrix, it's a story about this guy, Neo, who is the one.

And he's played by Keanu Reeves.

Whoa.

If you don't know who Keanu Reeves is, you really need to watch some movies.

But what his character was all about was stepping into this make-believe world and revealing the truth to people.

He was there to open people's eyes to the reality of what was going on around them.

And today, as we continue in this series, this is something that I'm hoping all of us become and see ourselves as, because that's what we have been called to do.

It's the same thing that Jesus did.

He came into this world to open the eyes of everybody that they were separated from God and that they needed a savior.

And we have been called to carry on that good news, carry on that message, to be the one, to let people know that, hey, this world isn't the end-all, be-all.

There is more.

There is a truth out there.

There is a life out there.

There is hope out there.

And that hope is in Jesus Christ.

And as the church, this is something that our lives are called to represent and shout out to this world.

And so today, what I want to talk about is being the one to persevere, right?

Being the one to persevere, to be able to carry a burden in the midst of struggle, right?

To carry on, to remain standing when others are falling, to persevere, and to start out.

I want to read this passage from James.

And James chapter 1, starting in verse 2, it says this, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces or develops perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

And I think this is a great time to be talking about this, because what we know is that for so many of us, the holidays are times of cheer and joy and of gathering around with family.

But there's that flip side of it, that the holidays can also be, if we've lost somebody recently, the holidays are a time of sorrow and of grieving.

And they're difficult sometimes.

And we have several people in this church who they're dealing with their first holiday after losing a loved one.

And it's a difficult time.

And we have been called yet by the word of God to persevere.

And this is one of those passages that we read and that we hear, and it sounds great until we're going through difficult times.

And maybe some of you have been there where maybe you've lost someone, maybe life is just is kicking you in the teeth right now.

And somebody comes up to you and says, hey, brother, consider it pure joy.

My first response is, blah.

I just want to kick them in the teeth and walk away.

And yet what we see is that in the word of God, right, this is God's word.

Here it is.

Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

And this is a sentiment we don't just see in the book of James.

We find it throughout the scripture.

And here's what it kind of boils down to.

If God is going to use a life in any significant way, there will be trials.

Or to put it another way, if someone is going to live a life of faith with any significant impact, you're going to face difficulty.

You're going to face trials.

If I want my life to matter, if I want my faith to change this world, I have to understand I'm going to face trials.

It's going to be hard.

And so we have to believe as God's people that this is something important that God needs us to understand.

We need to persevere.

We need to develop perseverance that in order to be all that God has called me to be, in order for us to be all that God has called us to be, I need to persevere.

I need to develop perseverance.

Or another phrase for that is patient endurance or long suffering.

I have to get stronger so that I will be able to face whatever comes my way.

No matter what the world throws at me, I have to be ready.

That word that James uses there to produce or develop perseverance, that word develop means that it's something that I am not very good at, but I need to work at.

It's something that I'm not naturally born gifted with, but it's something I can get better at.

It's not something that I do well automatically.

And when I started thinking about this, the first thing I thought about was my wife.

And for those of you that don't know my wife, she is super strong, into fitness and everything.

And her favorite thing to do is to deadlift.

And I hate deadlifting, you guys.

And it's a horrible exercise, but she loves it.

And there was one time we were in California, and there was a night, and she goes, hey, at the gym, they're doing a deadlifting class.

Do you want to go with me?

And I looked at her like, no.

Miss Kim's in the audience.

Heck no.

Right?

Heck no, I don't want to go.

That sounds terrible.

And so she went, and she got all the tips and all the tools and everything like that.

And so my wife, she loves to work out.

And what I was noticing is that I was just born with a really bad back.

Most of us probably are.

I blame it on being born like that, but it's probably because I was too fat and I never worked out.

And so I realized, man, I've got to do something to strengthen my back.

And my wife's like, well, you should deadlift.

And I was like, I don't want to.

And then as I started looking into it, deadlifting is the perfect exercise.

It hits every single major muscle group.

And so if you're trying to get in shape at all, you need to do deadlifting.

And my wife's going to be proud of me for saying that.

But anyway, so I realized, okay, I'm going to start doing this.

And so when I start and I get going, and I can't even lift the bar, you guys.

I'm worried about hurting my back, and I'm going really gingerly.

And then I put the tens on.

And little by little, what I start to notice is I'm able to do more as I learn more.

Are there times where it's difficult?

Yes, all of the time it's difficult.

But I start using and learning these little tips about where to place my feet and how to stand and where to push through from and what muscles have to fire up before I even lift it up, where I have to have my hands and how I have to have my back angled.

And there's all these little intricate details that go into doing this right.

And some of you maybe have seen this up here and you thought like, wow, this is church post Thanksgiving workout session.

But on this bar right now, I mean, this is 325 pounds.

And if you came up never having deadlifted and you tried to do this, you would tear yourself in half.

And this is what I need you to understand.

When I started, it wasn't this.

When I started, it was nothing.

When I started, all there was was fear and uncertainty and me saying, I don't want to do this at all.

But little by little, you start building strength, you start building endurance, you start persevering a little bit more.

And sooner or later, you start to notice that, wow, that wasn't as heavy as it was the last time.

And maybe I can handle a little bit more.

Until you get to the point that you are feeling like, man, I am learning so much and I'm getting so much stronger from this that even though I hate it, right, there's never come a day where I love deadlifting.

But even though I hate it, I know it's good.

And I know it's going to create something good in my life.

And so I learned from my wife the joy of deadlifting.

And just because I did this the last service, you guys are wondering if I can even do this.

But we do, right, we do this.

And I know this is physical, but what we're talking about is spiritual, right?

But it's the same exact thing.

Every time I would put more weight on, every time I would have to persevere a little bit more, would I get hurt?

Yes.

Would I learn something new?

Yes.

Oh, okay, I can't do that this time or I have to do it this way.

And we begin to see that we become stronger and stronger.

But why, right?

Why do I have to persevere?

Why do I have to develop this?

Why can't I just run away?

Why can't I take the easy road and just sit here in church on Sunday, sing a few songs, and then go back to my life?

Because what we see throughout Scripture are passages like this in Philippians chapter 2, where Paul says, therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, which I have, if you have any comfort from his love, which I have gotten, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness, compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

And this is what he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others.

See here's the thing, my life and my faith are not just about me, right?

It's not just about me.

I don't deadlift so that I can look like Love God, right?

Or Al.

I've tried, but I like food too much, right?

I do this not because I want to see how much I can lift.

I do this because when my kids say, dad, let's go surfing at the beach, I can go with them.

I do this so that on Thanksgiving day when my oldest son says, dad, I bet I can beat you in badminton, I say, yeah, right, and I thrash him.

I do this so when my neighbor needs help in lifting a couch, I can say, yeah, for sure, I got it.

I'm not doing this for me.

I'm doing this so that I can impact other people.

And when it comes to perseverance, when it comes to living a life for God, when it comes to facing trials, I'm not doing this so that people look at me and go, wow, what an incredible Christian.

I'm doing this because I want to be able to help other people.

I want to be able to stand tall when they're falling.

I want to be able to be the one that picks them up and holds them up while we walk together through this trial.

I want to be that one.

This is what we have been called to do.

And so it's like Paul says, don't look to your own needs.

This isn't about you.

Your life and your faith aren't about you.

It's about other people.

And what I find is that the more I develop perseverance, the greater and the more I can stand, the more I am able to help people and the closer I get to God.

And that's where that pure joy comes from.

Right?

I will never in my life understand the struggles of breaking from an addiction of drugs or alcohol because I never went through that.

But I know what it's like to be abandoned by your father.

And while that's terrible to have to go through, what I've been through and what I've seen is that when that's people's stories, I can step into that.

And I can say, hey, you're not alone.

That I get it.

I know what you're going through.

And I can help you deal with that.

And we walk together through that.

And I get to see God working in their lives.

And I get to see God transform my hurt and my struggle into a way to help somebody else.

And that's where the pure joy comes from.

And so the more I persevere, the more I grow.

And what James says is, perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

And so what does mature and complete look like?

What type of people do we become?

Well, the first thing I think we see is that we become people of faith when we persevere.

Last week, Pastor Michael read a passage about John the Baptist that I think we glance over a lot without really thinking about it.

And this is in John chapter 1, verses 29 and 31.

And it says this, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

This is the one I meant when I said a man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.

I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.

And the thing I wanted us to focus on today is that phrase, I myself did not know.

And see, here's the thing.

So often we think we have to have all the answers.

So often we think I've got to have it all figured out in order to lead myself or anybody towards God.

But the reality here that we see with John the Baptist, right, who Jesus says, among those born of women, there is no one greater than this man, and what does he confess?

I didn't know.

I didn't know what he looked like.

I didn't know who he was.

I didn't know when he was going to show up.

But what I did know was that I was called to do what I was supposed to do.

But the reason I came baptizing, right, John knew.

What John knew was that God had called him.

John knew that God had called him to live a life that called others back to God.

And so every day, right, he'd strap on the camel hair jumper, right, grab some locusts and honey and get to work.

And this is who John was.

And I love this because so often in my life I think I have to have every single answer to make an impact for God or in anybody's life.

And what we read about from the greatest person ever born of a woman, I don't know.

There was one thing I did know that I was supposed to follow God.

And so I did that.

I did that to the best of my ability every single day.

And what happened?

God revealed himself.

God showed up.

The mere fact of John having the faith to just do what he knew he was supposed to do, all of a sudden one day he is face to face with God himself.

What a powerful testimony.

What a powerful life of faith.

And I remember there was a time when my wife and I were, we were dealing with the trial of trying to have children and going through all these miscarriages.

And I remember my wife would get so mad at me because she would ask, why is this happening to us?

And I would say, I don't know.

And that's when she really got mad at me.

Like, you're a pastor, you help everyone else out, but you can't give me any good advice.

That's worthless.

Maybe not the worthless part, but she was pretty mad.

And I remember it was during this time that I came across a passage of scripture that has stayed with me through every single trial since.

And it's in John 16.33.

Some of you know this one, but it's Jesus talking.

And he says, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

Just like John, I didn't know, I didn't know what this trial, where it was taking my wife and I. Right?

I didn't know what this passage meant.

I didn't have all of the answers.

I didn't know what the next step was.

But what I did know is that this was a promise of God.

This was something I found in His Word, and so I was going to stand on it, and I was going to take my next step.

I was going to wake up the next morning.

My wife was going to wake up the next morning, and we were going to continue to trust.

Why?

Because this world is broken.

Right?

All the things that we face, whether it's death or brokenness or sin or the evil that is in this world, all that does, you guys, is it lets us know that this world is broken and it needs something to fix it.

And that's what God is.

That's what God does.

And so what I found is this understanding that I don't understand why all of this is happening to us, but I know what Jesus says is that if I'm going to follow Him, there are going to be difficulties, that there are going to be trials, but that He will overcome.

And so we laid that burden down before God, and we had the faith that He would overcome.

Did I know what that was going to look like?

No.

Did I know that five years later, we would be adopting our first son, that if I had kids of my own, I would have never known this boy?

Did I know that three years later, we would be adopting twins, that if I had my own kids, we would never know them or they wouldn't have a home?

No.

But I look now, right, at how God has revealed Himself, just like He did with John, right?

I didn't know what I was doing.

I just took that next step.

I woke up every day following God.

I woke up every day persevering, stepping that next step.

And what do I know?

Lo and behold, I come face to face with the will of God in my life.

And this is what God does when we persevere.

This is what God does when we have faith.

And so, what it… We know that God does not waste pain, right?

This is a truth all of us need to hear, especially if you're dealing with pain right now.

God doesn't waste pain.

He redeems it, He strengthens us through it, and He bestows wisdom on those who persevere.

And that's my second point, is that in perseverance, we become people of wisdom.

Well, what does that mean?

What you have to understand is the Israelites, God's people, the Jewish people, they were big on wisdom, loved wisdom.

And they would say things like, to them, wisdom was more valuable than gold or silver, that it was to be pursued at any cost.

And they were very clear that the only source of true wisdom was God.

The only source of true wisdom was God.

At the very beginning of the book of Proverbs, which is all about wisdom, it says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And so, what this tells us is in the eyes of God's people that He led through the wilderness, that He led for centuries into the promised land, is that if you are going to pursue wisdom, but you didn't start by humbling yourself before God, you would not get very far.

You would not get very far in that journey.

And so, what we see is these people throughout Scripture who would humble themselves before God and what happened was, it wasn't that their life became sunshine and daisies.

What happened was, is they humbled themselves and trusted God.

He would often allow them to face trials that would refine and shape their knowledge of who He was.

The biggest example of this that most of the Israelites would turn to is the book of Job, right?

And a little interesting fact, most scholars believe that Job is the oldest book of the Bible.

Genesis goes further back with what it writes about, but Job is the oldest book of the Bible and it is all about persevering and discovering wisdom, right?

Because most of us know the story.

Job was a good man and he humbled himself before God and all of a sudden, all these trials start coming his way.

And then throughout these whole trials, he never questions God and people come and people go but he never questions God.

Does he say, man, God, I don't know what you're doing.

I don't know where I went wrong.

Yes, he does, just like we all do.

But at the end of it, what happens is that Job gets this incredible vision of who God is, right?

He gets this deeper understanding of who God is and what God can do.

And God even warns him, right?

At the end of the book of Job, he says, Job, prepare yourself, right?

Some translations, I think it has the very famous biblical phrase, gird your loins, boy, right?

That's just a fun word phrase to say.

Job get ready because I'm about to show you something.

And Job reveals himself or God reveals himself to Job and he takes stars out of the sky and he's like, Job, can you do this?

And he takes the ocean in his hands and he says, Job, can you do this?

And Job's just like, no, I'm sorry, I'm lame, you're awesome.

But again, it's this idea that as we humble ourselves, as we persevere, we gain a deeper understanding of who God is, this deeper wisdom of who God is.

And we see that this wisdom allows us to see and discern God's will and his movement in this world, no matter how dark things seem to get.

And this is what we need right now as the people of God, to be able to look out at this world and to be able to point and let people know, hey, God's working.

Do you see this?

Do you see what God's doing right now?

And calling a people's attention to it, that's what wisdom allows us to do.

And so as we gain this wisdom, we are the ones who clearly see where and how God is moving in this world.

It allows us to push through and cut through the chaos and the darkness and to let other people know, hey, here's where God is.

Here is what God is doing.

And when I do that, all of a sudden my life takes on a different focus because I'm no longer stumbling around in the darkness.

Those things that used to trip me up, all of a sudden I can see them clearly.

All of a sudden I can call them out in my life, like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize I was doing that.

We can point them out to other people, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, that's not the…don't do that, right?

That's not the road you want to be going on.

That's what wisdom does, is it allows us to see God's truth around us.

And so that's why God sends us trials.

That's why God calls those with faith to persevere.

Why?

Because we learn and we begin to teach other people and we help them persevere.

And then finally, what James tells us is that we become complete.

And so what does it look like to be people of completeness?

Well, this word, it has a little bit of the understanding of the Hebrew word shalom.

And many of us know that word and it's usually translated as peace.

But shalom also has another aspect and that is of wholeness.

And so what James is telling us is that as we gain wisdom, as we grow in faith, as we continue to persevere, all of a sudden, no matter what storms come, we're not shaken.

When other people are falling around us and freaking out around us, we are standing tall saying, hey, we got it.

Most of us in our lives, maybe that was a parent that we had, that just no matter what they, nothing bothered them.

No matter what the situation.

For many of us, it was our grandma, right?

Because let's face it, there's nobody more faithful than grandma.

Grandma's persevered the most.

She's got the strongest faith.

She's got the most wisdom.

And my grandma, as you say, when I would freak out, it's going to be all right, sugar.

And if grandma said it, good Lord, you better believe it.

Grandma knew everything.

And that's what it means.

That's what James is talking about.

When we persevere and when we learn to trust God in the midst of trials, all of a sudden, we become those people of peace.

All of a sudden, we become these people who are whole, meaning that we're not chasing after the things of this world anymore because no matter where we're at, we've got all we need.

No matter what happens out there, I'm good because I've got God on my side.

No matter what trials come, everything's going to be all right, sugar.

And so this is what we find in Paul's writings in Philippians 4 because what we know, Paul persevered more than anybody, right?

And he had faith.

He was wise.

And this is what he writes in Philippians 4.

He says, I'm not saying this because I'm in need.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength.

And so what we see in Paul is a man who was complete.

No matter what came his way, he was at peace.

No matter what he had, he had enough.

And church, today as we close, I pray that this message has given you hope, right?

Hope to understand that the trials that you are facing right now are not there because God is angry with you.

He's not punishing you.

They're there because he's using you.

He's growing you to bring hope into this world.

All trials are hard when we're going through them.

But maybe instead of asking God, what are you doing?

Maybe start asking God, what are you trying to teach me right now?

Because I think that's a mark of us learning how to persevere, is we've gone through enough trials and we've seen that through every one, God has been there.

Through every one, God has taken us through.

And through every one, I have learned something greater about who God is and how he provides.

And so it's not, God, what are you doing in my life?

It's, God, what are you trying to teach me?

Because what we know is that God never brings his people, the people that he loves, into a storm to let them drown.

You see that with Jesus all the time.

And I love it.

Hey, guys, there's a boat right here on the shore.

Why don't we take it across this lake?

Here's the key.

Jesus knows what's going to happen.

And so it's even funnier when you read it.

Hey, guys, a boat.

Let's get in.

Let's go for a trip.

And what we see time and time again, the disciples had to have gotten used to it, like, okay, Jesus, we're going into another storm.

And they go.

And it's not like the storm comes in the middle of the lake and he finally is like, oh, good, now I can get rid of them.

Boop.

You know, and just kicks them off the side.

Right?

What happens is the storm comes, Jesus does something amazing, the disciples make it to the other side, and then they are the ones with the story.

Oh, my gosh, did you see the wind and the waves?

They come.

All he did was raise his hand.

It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen.

Did you see Peter walking on water with Jesus?

That was awesome.

Peter's a chump because he fell in, but man, Jesus is awesome.

What we know through scripture and through our own lives is that it's in the storms where I get the stories of how powerful God is.

It's in the storms that I get the truth of how much God loves me.

It's through the storms that I get to see God in his greatest power, in his greatest love, in his greatest mercy in my life.

And so God's not taking you through a trial and a storm to let you, leave you there.

He's taking you to get you through so that on the other side, you have a story to tell the world about this God who saved you, this God who restored you, this God who equipped you, this God who strengthened you, this God who will never ever let you down.

Because God, people, those are the stories the world needs to hear today.

And church, we have been the ones to be called out to carry that good news to the world.

This is why we persevere, so that we have those stories.

And so church, may we persevere.

May we be a city on a hill.

May we be a light in the darkness.

May we be a strength to those who are failing.

May we be a hope to those who have given up.

But we will only do that if we are able to persevere, if we are able to be complete, if we are able to be mature, if we are only able to allow perseverance to finish its work.

Let's pray.

God, we come before you today, Lord, and I'll be the first to admit I hate it when trials go come in my life, Lord God.

I'll be the first to admit that when things go wrong, my first instinct is to just be upset and think of how I can immediately fix it.

But Lord God, so many times you call us into these storms so that you can reveal your power in our lives.

And so Father, as your church, as your people, Father, we want to continue to persevere.

We want to continue, Lord God, as hard as it may seem, as difficult as it sounds, we want to be able to say we consider it pure joy when trials show up.

Because what it means, God, is that you are in our lives, that you are growing us, that you are making us stronger, so that we might not only be closer to you, but so that we might also bring other people to know how great you are.

And so Father God, I pray for each and every person here.

I pray for the person in this room today, Lord God, in this tent today, that for the first time maybe needs to come to faith in you.

I pray for that person who has been struggling on their own, dealing with trials on their own, and they know now, Father God, that they are not alone.

And may their heart's prayer be this.

Lord God, I have walked by myself for so long, so alone, and in so much pain.

And today I want to come to you as my Lord and Savior.

I want to give my life over to you.

I want to trust you with everything.

Help me to persevere, Lord God.

Help me to follow you no matter what.

May your light shine through my life into those around me.

And Father, for us as the church, may we stand strong.

Father God, may we trust you more and more every single day, no matter what happens, no matter what we face.

And Lord, may we be the people that you have called us to be.

We do this for you, God, because we love you.

And all God's people said, Amen.