Good morning. If you got a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to James, chapter five. James, chapter five. We have this week and two more weeks in James. So you guys have endured for 18 weeks up to this point? A little bit longer than that, actually, because we had advent in the middle of there and a couple rhythms sermons at the beginning of the year. But we've. We're going to take 22 weeks through James, and we're almost done with it. All right. So hopefully it's been really encouraging to you. It's been a challenge to my own heart. I often think of James as like, just, oh, this is a really practical book, but it's practical because it hits home, hits you, really in the heart. And so it's been challenging for my own soul. If you are new with us and you haven't kind of been walking with us through James, let me kind of catch you up on where we are. So James writes this letter, and he writes it to a dispersed church. So because of persecution and oppression, this church has actually been spread out. These people have been spread out to a bunch of different places in the region, and it's not an easy time. It's a time of trial for them. And in the midst of this trial, at the beginning of James, he says, I want you to consider this joy when you face different trials. How do you consider trials a joy? Okay, I'm going to just tell you this cough. I got sick Christmas Eve. It went away for a day, then I got the flu, and then cough came back for five and a half weeks until this past Wednesday. And I was like, I think I'm getting over it until Thursday. And another one came. So at this rate, I'm thinking August is when I'll be done with the cough. So I apologize that I'm just hacking in your ear all morning. One day I'll be over all this stuff. Maybe when Jesus comes, counting it all joy. Thanks, Melissa. Yes, you're right. Thanks. Used to get up here. I'm just. It's. I apologize for just the constant coughing. So, in James, I think James is writing to, he has in mind kind of three groups of people in this church that he's writing to. First, primarily, he's writing to believers, those that call themselves christians and live like it. Then he recognizes when they gather, there are also people coming into the gatherings that aren't believers. Now, that's not his primary audience, but he's going to address those at some point. So people that say, like, I'm just intrigued by this Jesus guy, I don't know if I believe this yet, but I want to still participate and just check it out. We do that same thing here. You are welcome here. If you're not a believer, we want you to be here because we want you to be exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This good news and hear about that. So there's believers that James is writing to, but he recognizes that there are unbelievers in there. But there's a second group of unbelievers. They're the ones who call themselves christians but don't act like it. We recognize that those are people in this room as well. And James is addressing them over and over because the whole point of James is trying to make is this, that if you call yourself a Christian, there is a type of lifestyle that proves that you are. Now, you don't do those things to earn your salvation. But James is saying, because you are a believer, because you have this salvation, then it gets worked out. It gets lived out in a lot of different ways. And the way it got lived out last week, James kind of gives this grim warning to the wealthy. They're misusing their wealth. And so James is kind of hit really hard on those people that were misusing their wealth. Now, this week's sermon, this text is much more comforting than last week's warning, but there's still some difficult stuff in it, because, again, he's writing for these people that are just suffering. And when we think of suffering, we immediately think to the things that are going on in our lives that are really hard. And they are hard. They're difficult, whether it's a physical ailment, whether it's an issue with a family member. Maybe it's someone that has sinned against you, or you're the victim of somebody else's sin. There's pain caused there. Maybe you're experiencing suffering because of you're being ridiculed at your job or by a family member because of your faith. There's all different types of suffering. That's like a universal thing. We live in a broken world. It's part of our broken world. It's part of life. It's also part of God's plan. Now, when we live in this kind of world and we think of suffering, what we want to do in the world that we live in is fast track our suffering. We just want to get out of it and escape from it. But what does James say right off the bat? James, chapter five, verse seven, he says, be patient. Therefore, brothers, be patient. So in these difficult circumstances, what is his solution? Be patient. Be patient. How many of you would like to have more patience? Okay. Most of us want more patience. Many people lack patience, but our world runs on impatience. Our world wants food fast. We want service quick. We want to get rich quick. If we don't have the body we want, we want to figure out a shortcut to get that. And we live in this world where we want to drive fast so we can get to our destination quicker. That is all of life. Fast. Fast. And what is James saying here in the midst of your trials? The things that we would all love to get out of quickly. He says, be patient, brothers. Be patient. Now, I'm sorry. Let's try this. It's just that awkward moment where you're just watching me drink when you think of patience and suffering. Guys, how is it that a believer is supposed to patiently endure suffering? How does a believer patiently endure suffering? And I'm not talking about just waiting in line. I'm not talking about just driving behind somebody that's driving slow. I'm talking about when life is incredibly difficult and it is painful, how do we patiently endure those kind of trials? That's what James is going to answer this morning. So back to verse seven. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. So he says, be patient. I want you to be patient in the midst of these trials. Now, this is opposed to these oppressed people because, remember, there's these wealthy landowners, and they're wanting to continue to make as much profit as they can in this context. So what they are doing is they are holding the wages back from the christian day laborers. Not just christians, but in this church, there were many of them who were day laborers, and that's how them and their family survived, by getting wages from these wealthy landowners when they would do their day's work. But the guys were holding back that wealth, and it was creating significant issues. They were oppressing them. So in the midst of that, what James could have said, hey, instead of being patient in trials, what you should do is you should take vengeance and justice into your own hands. Is that what he said? No, he doesn't say that. Because remember, if you go back to verse four, it's not going to be on screen. But if you went back to verse four, it says that their cries, the cries of those who have been robbed and been cheated, those cries were being heard by the lord of hosts. The lord of armies, the powerful one, God, was hearing their cries in the midst of their suffering, in the midst of their oppression. God wasn't unaware. He was listening. He knew it. He knew what was going on. And when they're crying out, it's saying, hey, vengeance is coming from the Lord. You don't have to take vengeance into your own hand as an oppressed one. He said, what I'm not telling you to do is start a rebellion, start a revolution, start this coup. Don't take justice into your own hands. Be patient and trust that the Lord is going to do that because that's his job. He said, don't turn to government. He's not saying that. Like, you don't need to turn to the roman government to fix your justice issues, to fix your oppression. God's going to take care of it. So he says, I want you to be patient. I want you to persevere. I don't want you to lose heart. And in essence, what he's saying is you're in the midst of a marathon, not a sprint, but some of you just want to sprint and get out of it. But God has a plan for your suffering, and it might take a long time, and I'm encouraging you to be patient. So what keeps us being patient? He says, be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. You hear that phrase coming of the Lord here and in verse eight later, because it's emphasizing the physical arrival of a ruler of a king. Jesus is coming back. He's saying, what I want you to do, I want you to attach your hope, not to a government system that's going to fix your injustice. I don't want you to take things into your own hands. What I want you to do is I want you to put your attention and your hope in the return of Jesus the ruler, the king, the literal physical presence of Jesus alongside of us. That's the coming of the Lord that we have here. Guys, this is hard, though. I know it, because we've recognized Jesus'promises. We've seen them like, oh, he came to this earth. He lived a perfect life. He died a death that we deserve to die on the cross. He rises from the dead to give us new life. That is amazing news. And then he ascends to wait, like, we have great promises and what are you doing, God? You're just going to leave us here in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the suffering. He goes, I'm leaving you for a little while, but I'm coming back, and I'm going to bring salvation to the oppressed. I'm going to bring salvation to the believer, and I'm going to bring my judgment to the oppressor. You can put your hope in that. You can trust in that. This hopeful return is a confidence builder. We can take great comfort in it when we know the end game. Patience is a little bit easier, right? Some of you may have been following along in a book called James for you as we've walked through this sermon series. And if you have, you already recognize this illustration I'm going to use because I took it from there. But in that book, he says, imagine that you just had a sudden significant illness come over you, and it was really painful and it was really hard. And you went to the doctor, and the doctor goes, yeah, it's probably going to get a little harder, too. But the doctor goes, I want you to know that I am 100% confident that this can be cured. There's no issue. It's always been cured. This is not going to last forever. Does that make patients a little bit easier in that time? Like, oh, yes, it's going to hurt, but I can make it because I know the end game, it's not going to be that way forever. That's what James is trying to say when you are suffering, and he's saying, be patient. How in the world do you continue to be patient and wait when it's so difficult? Because Jesus is coming back and he's going to right all the wrongs. He's going to make all things new, and it is a great thing. And then he gives a really practical example of somebody that does this. He says, hey, look to the farmers, right? See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. See how the farmer waits, because they would plant their crops and then they would wait. And late into the fall, one early rain would come, and then there would be a dry season, and then kind of April, may, another rain would come. And what he's saying is, hey, see how the farmer waits? He's not in control of when the rains come. And because he's not in control of when the rains come, he's not in control of the harvest. So what does the farmer do? Does he just sit down idly? No. If I went up to a farmer and like, hey, I know you got a hard job at harvest, but do you do anything the rest of the year? No, farmer. The farmers aren't going to be a fan of me, right. If I say you don't do anything the rest of the year just at harvest time, right? No, because the idea of waiting here is eager expectation, not just passivity. Sometimes when we think of patience, it's just, we're just sitting back, just waiting. Does the farmer just sit back and wait? No. He's got weeding to do. He's got fertilizing to do. He's got a lot of work that he has to do as he waits for the rain to come that he can't force, he can't speed up the process. He just has to be patient and wait. He can't control when the harvest comes or how it comes or how much comes. The work of the farmer is in the waiting. I'm going to do my job. I'm going to work hard, but then I'm going to have to wait and trust the process that God has before me. Church in the waiting. Let's not be passive, people. Keep gathering with believers when it's hard. Don't isolate yourself, keep abiding in the word of God. Keep going to the Lord. Don't ignore him. Don't isolate yourself. Don't ignore what he's trying to do. Now. Why would we submit to a process like that that we can't control? Why did the farmer do it? See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. Why would he be patient and wait for the rains, for the harvest? Because the harvest was precious. What he was going to get was precious. Some of us struggle with patience and suffering because the return of the Lord is just something we talk about, and it's not precious. We don't really treasure the Lord. We treasure and put our hope in a lot of things that aren't satisfying and aren't fulfilling. That's not what the farmer does. He waits patiently. Why does he wait patiently? Because what he's going to get is precious. Why do we endure trials? Because the return of the Lord is precious, better than anything this life has to offer. So patience trusts wholeheartedly when the timetable is hidden and works wholeheartedly in the meantime. Patience trust wholeheartedly when the timetable is hidden and works wholeheartedly in the meantime. That's what patience does. But he doesn't stop there. Verse eight, you also be patient. So he just repeats this again as a result of, like, hearing, this is the example of the farmer. He's saying, like, okay, again, you need to be patient like that. Establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Now, when we think of patience oftentimes. I've been in ministry long enough to hear enough prayer requests throughout the years. Please, can you just pray that I would be patient? Please, that I would be a more patient person? I've lived long enough to know that a lot of people want to pray for patience, but they don't care about doing anything about it. I want you to pray that I would be patient, but I don't really care to actually be patient because oftentimes the defenses will be like, well, I'm just not a patient person. Don't raise your hand if you've said that before. I'm just not a patient person. I don't really have patience in me. Yes and no. In your flesh. Apart from Jesus, none of us are patient people. But let's go back to the fruit of the spirit that maybe you memorized as a kid. Fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience. A fruit of the spirit is patience. So for any of us as believers who have the indwelling Holy Spirit to say, I just don't have patience, I think you're saying, I'm not yielding to the Holy Spirit. We can't stand up here as believers who have the Holy Spirit and say, like, I'm just not a patient person. We're not patient people because we're not yielding to the Holy Spirit, and we're operating in our flesh over and over and over. So he says, be patient. You have access to patience through the Holy Spirit. He says, you gotta establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Establish to make stable, to gain physical strength for the journey. When Eric and I first got married, I decided, Erica's a runner. She loves to run. She's run a marathon before. And I decided, you know what? I'm going to be a loving husband. I'm going to sign up for a half marathon. I don't run. I play golf. That's what I do. Okay. Don't run at all. So that's the worst decision of my life. So I decided to sign up for this half marathon. I'm going to do this, try to be a good husband and do this. She literally gave me for Christmas that year a pig flying ornament. Because you never thought I would ever do that, right? And so I start the journey of training for this half marathon, and as I'm going through it, I think I got up to, like, five, six, 7 miles, and then all of a sudden, I started getting all these injuries because not only do I not run, I don't lift weights, either. All right? But when you're running a marathon, not only do you need endurance to be able, like, your lungs have to be able to help you run that far, but you need strength in your muscles to actually pull this thing off. But I didn't do that either. So there's nothing in me that's working and everything's just getting hurt. I never even ran the half marathon. I didn't even make it to it because I didn't have enough strength. You're like, wait, you said that was the worst decision of your life. It still was all right, even though I didn't make it that far. 7 miles wasn't enough. But there was no strength for the journey to complete what I'd set out to do. Some of us struggle with patience and suffering because we haven't established our hearts, we haven't strengthened our hearts, we haven't stabilized our foundation in the midst of that suffering, guys, we have to do that. In fact, at the end of the sermon on the mount, jesus has been given these great teachings. And at the very end, after all these teachings, he goes, hey, if you hear my words and you do them, you're like a man that built his house on a rock. And when the wind and the waves came, his house was sturdy. It was a firm foundation. He had stabilized his heart. But if you hear these words of mine, you don't do them. You're like a man who built his house on the sand. The wind and the waves came, and it destroyed everything. What James is trying to say, if you're going to patiently endure this suffering, you got to work on your heart. It's a heart issue. It's a heart issue that you got going on. In fact, in James chapter one says this. We've read this many times as we've looked through James. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. So who's the unstable one? The one that's not caring for his heart. He wants the wisdom of God, but he wants to follow the ways of the world. You're not going to establish your heart impatiently endure if that's how you're living your life, because there's a connection to this steadfastness, this patient endurance, if we're single minded in our approach. And then in one Thessalonians three, Paul writes this and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. So what is establishing your hearts connected to being blameless in holiness? So if we're going to patiently suffer, got to be single minded, loyal to the Lord, and also consider our holiness in the process. Because sometimes when we're going through really hard times, we just kind of throw suffering, I mean, holiness out the window. This is hard. I don't have time to deal with this. I'm just going to do whatever I want. And God's going, no, if you're going to establish your heart, strengthen and stabilize this foundation that you have, you got to keep doing this. And there's not much more that can stabilize and strengthen and mature a person than patience and suffering. There's not much more that will help you grow to become more like Jesus than patience and suffering. But there's not much more in this world that will cause unbelievers to run away from Jesus than patience and suffering. The problem is, when it comes to holiness and maturity, we want it to be microwavable. We want it fast. Oh, I want to be mature. I want to be more like Jesus. But I don't want to go through the pain anymore. Oh, I want to be more holy. I want to be more like Jesus. I don't want to suffer anymore though. I just want to microwave my maturity. And James is saying, that's not how it works. It's not how it works. So how do you patiently endure? You still work hard when the results aren't here yet. You keep hoping in Christ's return when there's no end in sight. And you keep trusting God's timing when his timing seems wrong. But what you must realize is that his timing is far different than your timing. In fact, two. Peter. Peter says this, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. Our timing is a little bit different than God's right. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises. Some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. He's saying, the Lord's timing is far different than your timing. So patient suffering is energized in this hope to come, that Christ is coming back. But we got to realize, and what James is going to tell us next is that if we're going to operate not as patient people, but as impatient people in the midst of suffering, there are two significant dangers that you're going to face. Danger number one comes in verse nine. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. There's a judge that's coming, and his return is imminent. Is Jesus that we're talking about again? He goes, what you've done is you've started judging other people. Now, we're not going to go all into this, because if you back up to back in chapter four, we addressed this over and over, all right, so go back and listen to those sermons. So they're judging other people within the church, and he's going, hey, watch out how you're judging other people, because the judge is standing at the door. His return is imminent. But how did this judgment, how is this judgment playing itself out here? They were grumbling against one another. Grumbling against one another. Now, grumbling is one of those things that christians often kind of look past. Like, oh, I'm just venting to somebody. Like, I know this is hard, but can Jesus just come back so I don't have to deal with that person anymore? We're okay? Like, oh, I know I'm not supposed to say those certain words. I'm not supposed to be vulgar or tell dirty jokes, but, like, grumbling. Like, really? Is that big of a deal? James says, don't do it. Don't do. Like, I think what's going on here is there's frustration with these wealthy landowners that are oppressing them. And the issue is with the landowners, but what they're doing is they're blaming everybody in the church. Like, hey, why aren't you handling this situation the way you should be handling it? It's your fault. Wait, I didn't do anything to you. Like, it's not my fault. And there just becomes this great infighting. And isn't that what trials can often do? Creates just a lot of irritability and frustration and complaining, and you start taking out your issues on other people. You have an issue with your kids, and you're frustrated with your kids, and your spouse gets it because of it, or vice versa. You have an issue with your spouse, and your kids get it because sometimes when life's really hard, you start taking it out on everybody else. And James is saying that's not how the church should operate. That's not how the church operates, because he's saying there is a eager waiting and there's an irritable waiting. And as a church, we want to be the ones that eagerly await the return of the Lord. He said, your speech and your relationships are going to be affected by how patient or impatient you are. In the midst of trials, I can tell you some of the worst arguments that Erica and I have had in our nearly 15 years of marriage is in the middle of the night, after we've had a newborn. Some of you know about this, right? Like, we will wake up. We're tired already because got a newborn. And please don't hear me comparing, like, having a newborn to suffering. That's not at all right. But it's not. It's a blessing from the Lord. But what I want you to hear is this. One of us would wake up in the middle of the night, baby's crying, okay, we got to feed the baby, we got to change the baby's diaper. And then the baby keeps crying and keeps crying. And you've tried, like, so many ways, or she's tried so many ways to get the baby to stop crying. And then all of a sudden, one of us, the other one says, like, hey, have you tried this? And you're like, yeah, 50 times. We've tried to do this over and over, of course. And then we just start getting really irritated and frustrated. Like, I'm just letting you in. Window to our marriage in the middle of the night after a newborn. All right, some of you have been there before, and you just start getting like. And then all of a sudden, you're like, well, why'd you do it this way? Why are we even having a conversation at two in the morning? That's just a bad idea. In general. That's never going to go well. And why are we having this kind of conversation when it's hard, when we're lacking sleep? That's just not wise. But it's how much more? When we're going through incredibly painful circumstances, do we start taking our frustrations out on other people by grumbling, oh, it's your fault. I'm going to project this onto you. I'm going to accuse you. I'm going to blame you. It reminds me of the Israelites after being enslaved for 400 years. God rescues them from slavery, and he does these amazing feats to get them out of slavery. It's awesome. And as they're wandering around, God, why don't you just send this back? Why did you even take us out of that? Like, life was better then you were enslaved for 400 years. Life wasn't better. But all they could see was their circumstance. Oh, this is terrible. And so they start grumbling against each other. They start grumbling against the Lord. We're not going to look at it, but in Exodus chapter 16, it says you're grumbling toward each other is actually grumbling toward the Lord because you don't have a waiting problem, you have a worship problem. The reason you're grumbling is not because you struggle with waiting. It's because you're not putting your attention on the Lord. You're not frustrated with each other. You're frustrated at what you think God should be doing that he's not. That's the grumbling that we need to watch out for. And the opposite of that is rejoicing. Rejoicing in the Lord. So he says, watch out. Watch out for the grumbling. And then verse twelve. But above all, my brothers, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no so that you may not fall under condemnation. He's saying, hey, this is what you need to know. Sometimes in the midst of suffering, sometimes in the midst of trials, not only are you going to start grumbling against each other, but the temptation is for you to lack integrity, and you're going to make commitments in the midst of you suffering that you can't fulfill, and you're not going to be trustworthy, and you should have said no to something, but you said yes to something, and now you're trying to prove that you're trustworthy by calling on the name of God. I swear that this is going to be okay. I hear, like, teenagers, like, on God, don't do that. He's like, don't do that. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Like, have integrity. You don't have to call on the name of God to prove your trustworthiness as christians. Just have integrity. The truth should be, like, held in high regard as a believer. So he's saying in the midst of these trials, when he's saying, be patient. Some of you are grumbling against each other, and some of you are lacking integrity. He's saying, watch out because those are two real temptations that are going on. And, guys, this is hard when you're in the midst of painful circumstances. It's really hard to avoid those things. It's really hard to be patient. And sometimes all that's compounded by the fact that we think we're alone in the midst of our suffering. And what James is going to say next is not only look forward to Christ's return, but I want you to look back. I want you to look back through generations at people that suffered. Let's look at verse ten as an example of suffering and patience. Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord, the prophets, those that were messengers of God. Sometimes in our suffering, we can think that, oh, nobody gets it. Yeah, I know other people have suffered, but they don't get my circumstance. And what James is trying to say is, there are a lot of people who may not understand your exact circumstance, but they absolutely understand suffering and patience. And he says, look to the prophets. Now, I'm not going to go through all the prophets. I'm going to just give you, like, three of them. I just want you to hear what some of the prophets went through. Now, when we think of prophets, we think of, like, minor and major prophets. But we can go back all the way to Moses, right, who spoke on behalf of the Lord. He had a speech insecurity. His followers grumbled against his leadership. He wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. That requires some patience. Right? And he never got to go into the promised land. Ezekiel was confined to his house for a long time and unable to speak because the Lord wouldn't let him speak. At certain times in his life, he had to sleep either on his left side or his right side, and he couldn't sleep on the other one. He wasn't allowed to mourn his wife's death. Jeremiah was forbidden to take a wife. He was persecuted so bad that he wished he had not been born. He was beaten, he was imprisoned. He was thrown into a cistern and left in the mud to die. What James is trying to tell his oppressed believers, his audience was, hey, they may not understand, everybody may not understand your exact circumstances, but there are absolutely people who get suffering, impatience. Look to them. Look back to the prophets. Look back. But not just to the prophets. But then in verse eleven, it says, behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. He says, blessed are those who remain steadfast. Blessed. That idea is like happy, joyful. There's a connection between your steadfastness in trials and your joy, this true satisfaction of your soul. And the idea of steadfastness, there is similar to that. Establishing your heart is to be fixed. In Hebrews chapter six, the writer of Hebrews talks about us having an anchor for our souls. You drop anchor off a boat that keeps you there even when the wind is crazy, right? The waves are crazy because there's something solid. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is, in Jesus, you have anchor for your soul to help you be steadfast, to help you establish your heart, in contrast to being impatient and fickle and impulsive. And earlier, in James, in James chapter one, says this, count it all, joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces what? Steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. And the idea here is these trials that you're to be joyful in, they're going to produce steadfastness, and ultimately they're going to make you perfect and complete. They're going to lead to your maturity. So blessed are the ones who are steadfast, the ones that are mature in trials, the sufferers, the ones suffering. Those are the ones blessed because they remain steadfast. And then he gives the example not just of the prophets, but of job and many of you, even if you didn't grow up in church. You've heard of job, right? The guy who didn't suffer horrifically because of his sin, but he suffered horrifically because he was upright. And Satan goes, the only reason God that he's following, like, is because he's got a good life. And God goes, all right, test him, tempt him. He gives him full access, says, you just can't kill him. You have full access to put him through whatever suffering. And God's fully aware of what's going on. God's not unaware of that. And what happens to job? He loses all his possessions, like all his animals. And that point, many people would say, I'm done. I don't want to live life anymore. I've lost everything. And then after he loses all his possessions, all ten of his children die at the same time. Can you imagine losing all your possessions and then all of your children? And if that's not bad enough, then he gets covered from head to toe in boils, physical ailment and pain. I lost everything. I lost my children. Now I'm hurting all the time. Some of this sound familiar to the sufferers in this room, the ones going through painful trials. And then if that's not bad enough, his wife comes up to him and goes, hey, you just need to curse God and die, because this is awful. Thanks, honey. Appreciate that. Right? And then he has some friends that go, you know what, Job? The only reason all this is happening is because you've been sinful. What have you done? And they accuse him of sin. He's like, I didn't do anything wrong. I love God. And in the midst of all this, what we see is kind of the textbook example of loyal, patient suffering in job, not only prophets, but in job. Now, were the prophets perfect? No. Is job perfect? No. At one point, he challenged God, and it didn't go well for him. Not perfect, but here's some examples to look to. Like, look forward to Christ coming back. There's hope. But look back to God's faithfulness through generations, and remember that he will be faithful to you as well. But there's one other place we got to look to be patient sufferers. Look back at verse twelve again, the end of it, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. You have seen the purpose of the Lord. You have seen that the Lord has meaning to your suffering. You have seen that the Lord is intentional in your suffering. What is he trying to do? What is this purpose that God is trying to accomplish in the midst of really painful, difficult trials? Peter would say it this way. In one. Peter, one, in this, you rejoice, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result. All right, so there's trials that are coming. You to rejoice in them. Here is the ultimate thing that's going to result from these trials may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. So what is the purpose behind your suffering? The glory of God. The glory of God. Yet we zoom in, and all we can see is me and my suffering on this earth. And he's going, I'm doing something bigger for my glory to the ends of the earth. But it's not just about his glory. In Romans eight, many of you have memorized this. It says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together. For what good? For those who are called according to his purpose. If you're called by God according to his purpose, all things, including suffering, are to work out for good, our good, his glory, our good. And then what is he saying here? And you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. When we go through trials, he's saying, I want you to see my compassion. I'm not frustrated. I'm not angry. I want you to see my mercy. Like suffering gives us this kind of theological grounding in the character of God. We've got to start seeing our patient suffering as something to develop us into the image of God that glorifies him. The prophets were great examples of this. Job was a great example of this. But again, they weren't perfect. Hebrews chapter twelve says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. So here's the patient suffering part. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to who? Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Were the prophets perfect in the way that they suffered and waited? No. Was job? No. Was Jesus absolutely. And we can absolutely look to Jesus, the founder, the author and perfecter of our faith, who, when life got hard, he endured all the way to the cross. He patiently suffered all the way to the cross. That's our good God. That's our loving and compassionate and merciful God. We got to remember his work to get to the cross, and we got to eagerly anticipate his return. The way to patient's suffering is a bigger, broader, eternal perspective. That's what James is trying to show his people. He's saying when we go through trials, we zoom in and we become me centered, earth centered people. This is all about me. How am I going to get out of this? How can I get out of it quickly? And James is saying, be patient. And the way that you are patient is to zoom out and look to eternity in the future when Jesus is coming back. And you look to eternity in the past at how God's been faithful, and you take comfort in that, and you look up and you recognize that God is sovereign over your suffering. He is sovereign over your trial, and he is working his purposes out for his glory and your good. That's how we patiently suffer. We hope in Christ's return. We remember his past faithfulness, and we see his purposes. So, church, we've got to lift our eyes off of our suffering. Now, when I say this, I don't mean we lift our eyes off our suffering because it's easy. No, it's painful. It hurts. And some of you have been walking in that for many, many years, if not decades, and it hurts. So I'm not downplaying that. And your suffering requires significant attention, and your suffering requires significant wisdom. But what James is trying to communicate, I would communicate it like this. An eternal perspective fuels patient suffering. An eternal perspective fuels patient suffering. Your view of God's faithfulness in the past and his future return fuel your ability to suffer well, patiently. And it allows us to say, God, I don't know how long this suffering will last, but I'll eagerly wait, I'll work hard, and I'll remember that I'm not alone. And it allows God to say comforting words to us. Church, your suffering won't last forever. Jesus is coming back. Put your hope in that church. You're not the only one that's ever suffered. Remember how I've been faithful in the past. You can trust me, church. This trial, this suffering wasn't an accident. My mercy and compassion shows you that I had a purpose in this. So trust me. So, church, let's lift our eyes, look forward, look back, and look up to the Lord. And when we do that, I believe that we will become a church that suffers well, that suffers patiently. That doesn't just take justice into our own hands, that doesn't just look passively up into the sky like the disciples when Jesus returned ascends into heaven. They're all looking up like, okay, when's he coming back? And angel comes down like, what are you guys doing? He's going to come back the same way. You don't have to sit there and look because you've still got work to do in the midst of your suffering. You keep making disciples, you keep glorifying God, you keep living as an everyday missionary. That's what patient sufferers do. They wait well, they worship well, and they suffer well. Let's pray. God, you're awesome, and I'm so thankful for your word. I'm so thankful for the truth. Lord, help us to be different than the world. Help us to operate differently than how the world operates in trials. Father, pray for so many people in this room who are going through suffering this morning. You, God, through your spirit, help them lift their eyes off their situations and on to you and your faithfulness, your purposes and your return. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen.