Jim Van Gelderen: I want to just preach a simple message. What do you do when life hems you in because that time’s coming? Now, I don’t know what you’re facing this morning, but undoubtedly somebody in this room may seem like you’re completely surrounded by difficulties.

I’m talking to some of you come from some difficult home situations. Perhaps you come from a home where there’s tension in your mom and dad’s marriage. Or maybe you’re in a home where dad’s not there for a variety of reasons.

Maybe you’re in a home where there are other difficulties. Maybe a blended family and there’s some challenges that way. I don’t know what your circumstances are, but some of you come from some pretty difficult ones.

Some of you maybe are schooling situations difficult. You go to school and there’s tensions and problems there. and maybe even some people who seem to have it out for you and challenges there.

Others in this room may come from really dealing with some spiritual issues in your life. There’s spiritual darkness you grapple with and there’s battles in your heart. Maybe you’re struggling with the assurance of your salvation.

But there’s all kinds of struggles that come into the life of teenagers. And do you know God has given us some verses here that tell us what do you do when life ends you in? What do you do when life ends you in?

And I want to see in just a moment as we go through this passage, there’s some remarkable things that God wants to do in your life as a result of being completely surrounded by problems. So we’re going to see in this passage of scripture, there are two commands that God gives us. And each one of these commands is followed by a reason.

Okay, in other words, he’s telling us to do something, then he tells us why. Do you know, my friends, that not all the time does God tell us why? There’s sometimes he just commands us.

And he just, it’s just kind of like parents. When I was growing up, my mom might ask me to do something like, Jim, clean your room or something like that. And you know what I might do?

I say, well, mom, why? Okay. And you know what my mom would always say?

Here’s exactly what she said. She said, because I, anybody know? Oh, your mom must have gotten together with mine.

You know what I’m talking about? You know, that’s not necessarily wrong. The Bible says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is, anybody know?

Yes, right. You know the Bible doesn’t say children obey your parents of the Lord because they’re smarter than you? Because in some cases they’re not.

You know what I’m talking about? Yeah. It doesn’t say because they’re stronger than you because in some cases they’re not.

No, the Bible says you obey your parents. Why? Because it’s right.

So when my mom would say because I said so, that was actually biblical. That’s not a wrong way to look at things. You do it because it’s right.

Okay, so sometimes God just commands us, doesn’t tell us why. We just need to obey. But there’s other times in the Bible God tells us why.

We need to obey that command. And James 1 is part of that. In verses 2 through 4, you’re going to find two commands.

And each command is going to have a reason why. Simple message. I know it’s early.

So we’re going to try to keep it. I already see a couple people with their eyes closed. Meditating, I’m sure.

But nonetheless, so I’m going to try to hang on. I won’t try to call you down. Right now, I’m trying to be a nice guy.

You shall be glad I’m not 30 years ago. Okay. But anyway, one thing I have wanted to do.

I’m telling you one of these days I’m going to do it. Get myself a high-powered super soaker. and put that thing behind the pulpit, and when some kids start nodding off, hit them right between the eyes.

You know what I’m talking about? That’d be fun. My whole mantra has always been, if I put you to sleep, I can wake you up.

That’s the way it goes. Okay. But anyway, hang with me for a few moments, and you’re going to get this thing.

Okay, notice what God says in verse number 2. Let’s start with verse 1, though we’re not going to preach through verse 1. By the way, let me just tell you, you know what the book of James is?

The book of James is the first live stream in the history of the church. Did you know that? Yeah, it is.

It’s the first live stream. Can you prove that? Sure.

Look at verse 1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Yeah, live stream’s not new.

Yeah, James got up on Sunday morning and he preached to his church live stream. It’s called the book of James right here. See, you guys didn’t know that.

There it is. So what is he preaching to his church that day in the morning? He says, my brethren, count it all joy.

Here it is. When you fall into divers temptations. Now what does it mean when you fall into divers temptations?

The name of the message comes out of that phrase. The word fall is a very interesting Greek word. It has the idea right before the verb or a part of the verb is a preposition.

And it’s a word that we actually find in English. A lot of Greek words are found in English, but this is one that is. And it’s spelled P-E-R-I.

It’s used in the words, yeah, the Navy and the submarines. They have something called a periscope. You know what a periscope is, don’t you?

It’s a scope that goes 360 degrees. That’s the word peri. Okay, so the word fall there is also used in the parable of the Good Samaritan when it said that the man on the Jericho Road fell among thieves.

Do you know the picture of that is? that when he fell among thieves 360 degrees, he was absolutely surrounded by thieves. Now, friends, I grew up in Chicago.

I’ve never been mugged. I know we’ve got a few other people from Chicago here. Never been mugged, but I guess every once in a while somebody is.

And I’m telling you, if you’ve ever been mugged, and I doubt many of you in this room have, it would be a bad deal if you were like surrounded. See, that’s the picture of that guy who fell among thieves. He looks one way, man.

He’s got two ugly guys in front of him. Looks behind a man, There’s a guy with a big scar on his face over here. Looks this way, man.

And then there’s a guy over here. And he’s completely surrounded. That’s the picture of the word fall.

So whatever diver’s temptations are, they’re completely surrounding you. So the Bible says when you fall into the midst or fall into diver’s temptations. Now, what does that mean?

Divers is an old English word. It’s not talking about scuba diving. Okay, I just want you to know that.

Divers is the kind of, it’s an old English word. And all you got to do in modern English is put an E on it. You got the idea of it.

It’s the idea of diverse. Diverse. It’s initially a Greek word because it’s used in the Old Testament when they translated the Bible into Greek.

They called it the Septuagint. It’s the word used to describe Joseph’s coat of, anybody know? Many.

Or divers. Or diverse colors. So the idea of divers is the idea, whatever these temptations are, they come in all kinds of shapes, all kinds of sizes, all kinds of different colors, all kinds of different wrapping paper.

They’re diverse. okay so what’s a temptation a temptation here is the idea not just what we think of as a temptation it’s the idea of a trial and every trial in your life is a temptation did you know that uh you’re not probably old enough to uh say have your own vehicle well how many do how many own their own vehicle okay got a few of you so some of you do okay have your own vehicle

and you’re driving down the road you get a flat tire yeah flat tire you know what a flat tire is it’s a trial but you know what a flat tire also is? It’s a temptation. It’s a temptation to get out of the car and kick the tire.

You know what I’m talking about? And like the tire, it’s not his fault. You know what I’m talking about?

You bought a cheap Chinese import. You know what I’m talking about? It’s your fault.

Okay, but anyway, if you got a Michelin, you’d have been okay. But the point is, you get a flat tire or something else happens in life. You know what happens?

It’s a trial, but it’s also a temptation. It’s a temptation to react in unbelief. It’s a temptation to react in a way that is not biblical, not godly.

And we all know we’ve been through trials in life. So many times a trial becomes a temptation. Many times we succumb to the temptations.

Now, a temptation can, a trial can take many different forms. I kind of alluded to this at the beginning. Sometimes a trial can be what we just heard testimony of.

A relationship that was once close that deteriorates. Well, that’s tough. Maybe a former friend, nice in the back, and you get kind of boxed out of a friend group and that’s a trial, but it’s also temptation.

Sometimes a trial can be a home. There’s a tension perhaps in the home and maybe a husband and wife that are struggling or maybe tension between the children and the parents and maybe you come from a situation like that. It might be your problem, might be somebody else in your family, but it brings tension into the home.

That’s a trial. It can be some of you perhaps that maybe in a situation where your mom and dad sat you down and said, we’re getting a divorce. Wow, that’s a tough trial.

I’m talking to some of you, one day your dad wasn’t there. He left. I’m telling you, that’s a huge trial.

I work with teenagers all the time. A lot of young people come from dysfunctional homes. Homes where something happened, just choices were made, sinful choices were made, and it brought difficulty in the home.

Sometimes there can be physical setbacks. Maybe someone in your family gets ill and it brings a lot of tension into home. I remember years ago, talking to a young man who was literally sobbing in his particular home.

He had a younger brother who had severe sickness and illness. As a result, his parents were all their time and attention was that younger brother, and this kid was just kind of left. And he didn’t want to feel selfish about it, but he felt like, man, I’m just out here and struggling.

And that’s a trial. Maybe it’s a situation where somebody you dearly love passes away. And it’s hard.

I don’t know how many young people many times come bitter because a grandfather or grandmother passed away that they were particularly close to, having a hard time reconciling this. You’re young, young people, and I know for most of you, you haven’t buried a lot of people you love, but the older you go, you will bury people you love. I buried my mother, I buried my father.

I will say that very difficult to do so, but you’re supposed to bury your parents. Parents aren’t supposed to bury their children. It happens, but much more children bury their parents.

But I will say one of the things that I never really was anticipating was burying my sister. I never thought about that. I never thought about the fact that one day I might have to go to the funeral of a sibling.

I just didn’t think about that. An untimely death at 54. A godly Christian.

It didn’t make sense to me. There are times, friends, where there are difficulties. Somebody passes, it doesn’t make sense to you, or it’s too hard to say goodbye.

There’s trials. As I mentioned, sometimes spiritual trials. Inner darkness.

Wow, one of the biggest trials I’ve worked with people on is the assurance of salvation. I remember years ago a pastor said, Jim we’ve got a lady in our church. She just gave birth and she’s struggling with this.

She struggled with this before she gave birth. She still struggles with it. Obviously the postpartum blues contributed to this but she was struggling with the assurance of salvation.

She’s the most chronic doubter of her salvation that I have ever encountered in my entire ministry. I remember sitting down with her and trying to work through some things and I think some bad preaching had not helped her and we talked for a while.

And I remember later on I was driving down the road she called me up my wife was next to me so it was appropriate and and she just poured out her heart I talked to her two hours trying to help her with her salvation just doubted just darkness I am glad to report a couple years after

that I came back to her church she came up to me she said I’m the one you talk to about downing your salvation she said since I got that thing nailed down shortly after our call she said I’ve not seriously doubted my salvation now for several years and boy that was a thrill but you know some people struggle with that sometimes it’s other darkness spiritually. Oswald Chambers who wrote that classic My Utmost for His Highest.

I think it’s the devotional book that’s been read more than any devotional book in the history of the human race. He and his biographer David McCaslin when he wrote the biography of Oswald Chambers. One of the chapters is a very stunning chapter and it’s called The Dark Night of the Soul.

Talks for five years Oswald Chambers was in spiritual darkness. Even contemplated suicide. It’s a very interesting chapter.

And God broke into the light and Him into the light. But nonetheless, spiritual darkness. Sometimes people go through great darkness, spiritually great battle in their soul.

And I will tell you, friend, if you’re ever going through that, I guarantee you that God not only wants to bring you through that, but He wants to use that for you to help you help others. But yeah, darkness. So all kinds of trials.

And they’re diverse. They’re different. They’re, like I said different shapes sizes colors wrapping paper but here’s the thing I want you to see God says when you fall in the middle of you’re completely surrounded with trials right in front of you got racial relationships that are deteriorating over here you might have some financial tension in the home where things there’s not enough means to live and of course with inflation things going on that money’s not prevalent like it was and

so maybe you got that and over here maybe problems in the home tensions relationships that are deteriorating in front of You look behind you, maybe some spiritual darkness in your life. And the Bible says when you’re completely surrounded by these trials, which each trial is a temptation, God says, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to count it all joy.

That’s a little odd to you. One of the reasons we know the Bible was written by God is no human being will ever have written that. God says to count it all joy.

Say, what in the world does that mean? Well, I’m going to tell you right now, friend, the word count is not a word with emotion. The word count is an accounting term.

It’s mathematics. Now, some of the academic disciplines, we could say could have some emotion in it, particularly the fine arts, you know what I’m talking about, literature, et cetera. Those things can move you to anger, to tears, et cetera.

But I’ll tell you, mathematics. Have you ever noticed that 4 plus 4 equals 8 doesn’t do a lot for you emotionally? Have you ever noticed that?

Yeah, just mathematics is one of those. And have you ever noticed that people who are mathematicians are almost joyless, emotionless type people? You know what I’m talking about?

I was talking to the financial director of a large Christian university. You know what he told me? He said, man, I’m telling you.

He said, the fine arts department, no offense if you’re in fine arts, but this is what he told me. He said, the fine arts department, He said their finances are a wreck. He said it’s unbelievable.

And he said we’re constantly having to help them try to work through, keep on balancing their checkbook and making things work, you know, because you know how it is. They’re just kind of right on moods, you know. And he said, but I’m telling you, he said the math department, he said they got bank accounts that are loaded with money.

Unbelievable. Okay, yeah, so different kind of personality. But, you know, the word account here is the idea of mathematics.

Now, accounting really is, well, let me give you an illustration. Now, I know this sounds funny, but I grew up in the era when you did banking at the bank. I know most of you do it off your phones.

Well, you don’t have much money. But anyway, I still like to do banking at the bank. You say, why?

Because they’ve got free coffee and cookies. Why wouldn’t you want to do your banking at the bank, especially at Christmas time? Okay, so let’s imagine in the olden days you’re going to go down and you’re going to deposit a $500 check.

You’re getting ready for college, and you’re going to get a nice big hunk of money. and so you work hard, get your paycheck, $500, you’re going to go down and put it all in your savings account, right? Okay, right, right, like right?

Okay, okay, I’m a little worried about you. Okay, so anyway, you go down to the bank and let’s say it’s 40 degrees and raining. Could we agree on something?

I’d rather have 30 degrees and snowing any day over 40 degrees and raining. You with me on that? Okay, but anyway, so it’s 40 degrees, it’s raining, what I would consider the worst possible weather you can get unless you’re in Florida and facing Ian.

But anyway, so here it is, 40 degrees raining, and you go down to the bank to deposit your $500. You know, I don’t know if you remember the olden way they did it. You can ask your grandpa about it.

But anyway, he’d sign it over. You have a little deposit slip. You’d fill it out, and you hand it over to the cashier, and she’d go ching, ching, ching, and she’d pull out what’s called a deposit slip.

And the deposit slip would say $500. You’d open up your checkbook. You probably don’t even know what that is.

Open up your checkbook. You’d put in the date. You’d write the word deposit, and then you would write $500.

Now, you know what you could do? You could add a zero and you could write $5,000. Do you know what that’s called?

Wishful thinking. That’s what it’s called. But it’s not accounting.

You know what accounting is? You write down $500. Now let’s imagine you’re at the bank.

You’re thinking, oh, I’m depressed today. It’s raining. It’s 40 degrees.

It’s miserable outside. I just flunked a test. Man, I’m just miserable.

I know it says $500, but I just don’t feel like I put $500 in. That’s kind of odd. Wouldn’t it be that?

I’m telling you, most of you do not struggle when you’re writing $500. Why? Because that’s what it is.

That’s accounting. It has nothing to do with your emotion. Nothing at all.

So when God says you to count it all joy, He’s not asking you to whip up emotion. You know what He’s asking you to do? To make a decision of faith.

And here’s the decision of faith He wants you to make. It’s like this. If you knew all the circumstances, And if you knew everything I was doing behind the scenes, and if you could see the big picture, you’d be so excited you couldn’t stand it.

And you would write all joy. Somebody has said the will of God is everything you and I would choose if we knew all the factors. There’s not a teenager in this room who would not set out to God, absolutely follow God and do His will if you could see it from God’s perspective.

If you could look at the choices in your life and which way you would end up 30, 40 years ago, not a one of you in this room, not a one of you, would choose to live in sin and stiff-arm God and walk out and do your own thing. You wouldn’t, because you would see all the factors. And somebody has well said it, when the will of God is basically, it’s exactly what you choose if you knew everything.

Now friends, it’s like this. When you’re going completely surrounded by trials and difficulties and problems, if you know all the factors, you’d have joy in your heart. And I’m telling you, friends, sometimes we don’t know the factors, but sometimes we do.

October 8, 2005, we wrecked an RV. We were in Wyoming, and we were going down a mile marker, 192. We were coming from west to east.

We were just a few, I think, 30 miles west of Rawlings, Wyoming, coming down into a little depression. It was just kind of a slight decline. and we’re going down a 30-some foot travel trailer.

A burst of wind, if you’ve ever traveled in Wyoming, you have no idea what wind is if you’ve never traveled in Wyoming. When a microburst hit the side of that trailer, if you’re ever RVing, it’s like you’ve got a sail. You’re trying to pull a sail down the road.

It sent that thing and it began to wag like a dog’s tail and make a long story short, pushed us on the median, which was flat, and honestly, for miles in either direction, it’s not flat. It’s about the size of a football field. everywhere else.

It’s a V. It’s a big ditch. And right there, big football field at mile marker 192.

Pushed us onto that thing. Of course, the RV fell over, was completely ripped off the frame, and the tow vehicle never tipped over, which is a remarkable thing. I don’t have time to go into it.

My daughters are here. They could tell you about it, have a different perspective perhaps, because they were in the back as quite a bit younger at the time. But it was really a remarkable thing.

Now at that moment, friends, I was completely shaken up. I mean, I could hardly even think. I mean, I was just literally shaking.

But I will tell you, friends, it didn’t take me long where we began to see miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle. And I could tell you, really spend the rest of the time telling you remarkable stories of what God did, how He took that wreck, and He took us, provided for us, got us a new truck, got a new trailer, and just so many things I could tell you about that were so remarkable of God. It was amazing.

And it started to happen almost immediately. And it wasn’t long before I realized, wow, God’s at work. Now, but that doesn’t always happen that way.

But I can look back and tell you this, if I knew everything, when I’d have stepped out of that vehicle, if I’d have seen it all at that moment, I would have probably been jumping up and down saying, hallelujah, praise the Lord. And here’s what God’s saying. You need to do it ahead of time by faith.

You know what counting in all joy is? If I knew everything, I’d be so pumped up and excited right now. Write down all joy.

Hey, the next time you’ve got a flat tire, let’s just imagine you have this flat tire and you’re going to be late and it’s causing trouble. And you’re thinking, what in the world am I going to do? Let’s imagine you’re out there fixing your flat tire.

Now this is not going to happen, but just imagine all of a sudden God brings down a video screen right down in front you and says, if you hadn’t had this flat tire, here’s what would happen 10 minutes down the road, and you watch yourself hit a semi, burst into flames, and you’re toast. I mean, literally. You know what you’d probably do after you saw that video?

You’d start jumping up and down and say, praise God. Thank God for this flat tire. Here’s the point.

God says you don’t need the video screen. Trust me. Counting it all joy, friends, you say, Richard, I got some tough things.

I’m going home to some difficult circumstances. I mean, I’m in a home where I can’t please my dad, or I’m in a home where I’m constantly getting yelled at. I’m in a home where I’ve got this difficulty or this difficulty, and my dad’s nowhere to be seen.

I’m telling you, friends, those are difficult things. I don’t diminish it. I’m certainly trying to encourage and help young people on this.

But here’s the thing I would encourage you to do. Other people have made sinful choices. God didn’t have anything to do with those sinful choices, but I’ll tell you what God does.

He takes other people’s sinful choices that ill-affect our life, and He says, I’m going to take those things. I’m so great, so big, so sovereign, so in control, so wise. He said, I’m going to take all those bad things and I’m going to weave them into your life to accomplish the will of God without having anything to do with those sinful choices.

And I will tell you, friend, if you could see what God is doing, you would count it all joy. Count it all joy. I will remember several times my mother coming to me.

My mother did not have an easy life. I can’t tell her full story here, but I am telling you, nine years old, her mother went out to milk the cows. Down in downstate Illinois, they had a farm.

I’m told that my grandfather was cutting edge when it comes to hybrid corn. He had Gerber baby jars all across his living room with little corn stalks in them of hybrid corn. He was ahead of his time.

As a result, his crops were like the best in the area. For farmers, they were very well off for farmers. And so my mother had every nicety of life and had a huge bank account that was there.

But nonetheless, nine years old, her mother went out to milk the cow, fell over with a brain aneurysm. A neighbor, a young man, just a teenager or young 20s, picked my grandmother up, who I’ve never met, took her into the house. She lingered for three days and died.

If that had happened today, she’d have gone to the hospital, they would have treated her, she’d have been completely rescued, and she would have lived a normal life with no effect. But at nine years old, my mother was orphaned, at least one of her parents. and then when she was 14 years old, her father died.

Now her father was 29 years older than her mother. My grandfather, I’m not talking great-grandfather, my grandfather was born in 1865. When Civil War bullets were flying, my grandfather was born.

He was 59 when my mother was born. So at 14 years old, her father died and she was all alone. She had an older brother and she had plenty of money because they left plenty of money.

She never had much for money because she saw all the relatives tried to get the money. They were like vultures circling trying to get the money. And so she and her older brother literally raised themselves.

There was a maid that was hired by her guardian that cooked meals and cleaned the house. But she had no one tell her to come in at night. She had no one to tell her what to do.

She had no one to tell her to do homework. None of that. She could do anything she wanted.

It was remarkable how God protected her and her older brother. And both of them served the Lord their entire lives. It’s a remarkable story.

But I remember, say, why are you going into this? Because I remember my mother saying to me several times, she said, you know, Jim, she said, if my parents had lived, she said, I never would have gone to Christian college. When she came time for college, she went and enrolled in McMurray College, which is the teacher’s college in Jacksonville, Illinois.

She was there for a year and had godly cousins who were more like aunt and uncle age-wise. And they really urged her, you need to transfer to Christian college. And she did.

There in that college, she became good friends with some sisters who had the last name of Rice. Their father was an evangelist, a young evangelist at the time, a middle-aged evangelist. And he had these daughters, and they were in college, the same Christian college.

And she became very good friends with them and actually was in the John Rice home many, many times. And so she there, and that was a college at that time that was known for revival. They say every seven years there was a move of the Spirit across that campus that affected the student body in remarkable ways.

And Jim Elliott was a classmate of hers. Elizabeth Elliott, also known as Betty Howard at that time, was also a classmate of my mother’s. And she went to a Christian college where there was remarkable things happening.

And I remember her telling me, and of course as a result of that she went to work in the Sword of the Lord, which John R. Rice the Evangelist ran. She was the secretary for Viola Walden, who was the top secretary at the time.

And as a result of being there at the Sword of the Lord, there was another preacher on staff there who saw my 26-year-old mother, knew of a 26-year-old bachelor pastor down in Miami, Florida. He thought, you know what, I think these two would work together. And he decided to play Cupid.

So he calls up my dad, who was a single pastor in Miami, Florida, 26 years old, said, Wayne, I need you in Chicago immediately. And my dad got in his car. He respected this man.

He drove to Chicago. He was going to meet at a certain restaurant a certain time. And so he walks in the restaurant.

There’s this preacher, his wife, and there’s this girl, 26 years old, which was my mother. He still hadn’t figured out what was going on. And so they sit together.

He didn’t realize he was being set up. And so they sit together. Halfway through the meal, this preacher and his wife said, we’ll see you two later.

And he walked straight out the door. Six months later, they were married. Okay, here’s the point.

Do you know my mother would say to me, as I’ve mentioned several occasions, And she said, Jimmy, if my parents had lived, I’d never gone to that college. I’d never met John R. Rice.

I’d never worked at the Sword of the Lord. And I would never have met your father. And you know what she’s saying?

And you wouldn’t be here. You know, my friends, that little downstate Illinois girl, farmer girl, had no idea that her decision to trust God in the middle of difficulty was so critical. But you know what she was saying?

I can look back and see everything what God is doing and I’m so glad God did it all. You know what she was basically saying? If I’d have known that back when I was a kid, I’d been excited about it even though it was difficult.

So what God is simply saying, friends, at this life, He’s simply saying, even though you can’t see it at this point, make a decision, I’m going to count it all joy. I’m going to count it all joy. I’m going to open up the ledger of life and write down all joy.

Have you ever done that? You say, preacher, this is tough. It’s hard.

But if you could see everything, you would write it down. Wow. All joy.

Now, I know this isn’t a perfect illustration. I hesitate to give it to you, but I’m going to do it because I found it helps people remember the truth. But this had to be 30 years ago.

I was driving from Knoxville. I got to say this right, Knoxville, if you’re from that area. Knoxville, Tennessee, down to Gainesville, Georgia.

Okay, it’s not Gainesville. It’s Gainesville. I think I said it right.

Okay, but anyway. And so I’m going from Knoxville, Tennessee down to Gainesville, Georgia. Does anybody know what the terrain looks like in between those two places?

Anybody at all? Okay, yes. Just a few people do.

It’s beautiful mountains. Well, if you’re from the west, they’re hills. But if you’re from the east, they’re mountains.

Beautiful mountains. They’re green. There’s mountain streams.

And I’m driving down through these mountains and on a four-lane highway, which was pretty deserted. And I’m going down this four-lane highway in a borrowed pickup truck.

Somebody there in Gainesville had let me borrow their pickup truck because our team was down there doing the war and they were getting ready for the war and I was going to drive down from this conference I’d been at down in Knoxville and I was going to drive down to Gainesville to preach that night and so they loaned me the pickup truck

and I’m driving this borrowed pickup truck down the road through these beautiful mountains just over just the beauty of them and I’m going down a four-lane highway and all of a sudden my alternator went out and all of a sudden I realized I don’t have any power on this thing and so you know I’m trying to wrestle this pickup truck you know when you lose power steering and wrestle this big huge beast over It goes over to the side of the road and stops.

You know, you hit the ignition, nothing happens. Turn on the radio, nothing there. I mean, you don’t have electricity.

Now, I hate to admit this to you, but I’m not a mechanic. I’ve learned some stuff over the years by traveling, but my dad was not a mechanical person. He really wasn’t.

He was theological, but not mechanical. You know what I’m talking about? So I did what everybody does.

You know, I opened up the hood. I opened up the, put up the hood of the car. I looked at the engine and said, it looks good to me.

And now what do I do? Now what do I do? Well, I just passed a little gas station.

This is back in the days. I know you’re going to be shocked by this, but gas stations used to have garages attached to them where you get your car fixed, okay? And so I just passed one of those.

And so I’m thinking, well, that’s the only hope I got. And I’m looking at my watch thinking, man, back when I, you remember you used to have watches. You guys don’t remember watches.

But anyway, now, of course, you’ve got these computers on your hand. I don’t call those watches. But anyway, so I started running back to that gas station.

I’m in a hurry. I’m thinking, I’m not going to make it, man. I am not going to make I’ve got to figure out what it’s going to happen.

So I’m running back to this gas station. I cross two lanes of traffic, go down the median, cross two lanes of traffic, come into this gas station. And there was kind of a little country store there, and then there was the garage next to it, a couple gas pumps out front.

And I can’t prove this. There’s no way I can prove this. But I’m absolutely certain that when I walked in that country store, I walked into a time warp.

Andy was there, Barney was there, Floyd was there, Goober was there, Gomer, they’re all there. Now I would say they’re chewing the fat, but this is North Carolina. There was something else they were chewing, which we will not go into.

But anyway, so they’re chewing something. And I come in there and I am worked up. I say, listen, I got my pickup truck down here.

It won’t work and I got to preach tonight in Gainesville. And I’m all worked up. Now if you’ve never been to that part of the country, I want you to understand something.

Those people operate in one gear, in one gear only. I have a truck parked over the queue. It’s five on the floor and it’s a stick.

And it’s one gear I hardly ever use unless I’m towing uphill, and that’s called the granny gear. I guess it’s first gear, but the granny gear. Anyone know what I’m talking about?

Okay, yeah, the granny gear. So I’m telling you, friends, that’s what gear they were in. So about five minutes, you know, and about five minutes later, I’m thinking, I think one of them is going to help me.

Now, it was the kind of thing, they talk to you, and they add syllables into the words. So you almost need an interpreter to figure out what they’re saying. Okay, if you’re not from down south, you know what I’m talking about.

And so one good old boy gets up, and he kind of lumbers down to the garage, and he picks up some tools, and he kind of lumbers out to the, and all the time I’m over there, man, I’m trying to motivate this guy. Brother, he was stuck in the granny gear. We finally get out there.

He figures out it’s the alternator. Now he’s going to take it out. He’s got another one, of course.

Doesn’t matter if you’ve got a pickup truck. They’ve got every part in there, I mean, for pickup trucks. You know how it is.

That’s what the mode of transportation is. Of course, they had the rebel flag and the gun rack and that down there in the south. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you just culturally don’t know what’s going on.

But anyway, and so I noticed that he was trying to take this off and he got a rusty, you know, one of the rusty bolts there or nuts, you know, and he’s trying to take it off without a, you know, just a mechanical thing. And all of a sudden the thing broke and like this, he took the skin off all four knuckles. Now, if a mechanic takes skin off all four knuckles, you want to put your fingers in your ears.

But I was shocked. He looked at me. He didn’t get angry.

And he smiled real big. And he goes, happy. And I thought to myself, they ain’t my knuckles and I’m not happy.

So he took motor oil and he poured them out. I don’t know what motor oil has to do with wounds. But he put motor oil on those four knuckles.

And so finally he gets the thing out. And of course he’s taking it back to the thing. and he puts it away and gets to the new one and comes back out.

All the while I’m trying to motivate him, it’s not working. So he gets that thing in there, you know, he’s got the little nut there on the bolt, you know, and then it goes ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. How many know what I’m talking about?

You know what I’m talking about? Yeah. And he looks at me and he smiles very big.

He goes, happy. Several things went wrong that afternoon, but I’m going to tell you one thing. Every single time he’d smile at me, he’d go, happy.

And I’m going to tell you something. the friends. I learned something that afternoon.

That good old boy had it a whole lot better than I had it. He understood, counted all joy. In other words, friends, I think obviously he had somewhere along the line learned this simple truth, and I wouldn’t be surprised it was a message he heard on James chapter number one.

Happy. You know what you’re saying, God? I don’t see everything, but if I could see it from your perspective, I would be happy.

So I’m going to choose to make a decision to count it all joy. Have you ever done that, friend? When you’re completely surrounded with tough stuff?

Happy. Now, I know this is going to surprise you, but in a moment you’re going to see, God’s up to something. God doesn’t waste anything in life.

He’s up to something big. And the moment you’re going to see, He wants you to be perfect and entire wanting nothing. And He recognizes that a lot of these things happening, He’s trying to teach you something.

And I will tell you, there’s a lot of things I could say God’s trying to teach you, but there’s one thing I do want you to get, and don’t miss this, because I think it’s very important, is that you realize that difficulties are always, as we mentioned, as Brother Basler mentioned, impossibilities are as an opportunity for God. Now don’t miss this. You will never cross a Jordan River miraculously without a Jordan River.

You will never see Jericho Walls fall without Jericho Walls. See friends, the very obstacles and the very trials and difficulties that are temptations, God says, these are opportunities for me, but I need you to do something. I need you to believe it.

And if you knew everything, you’d be excited. So just believe it because I’m telling you to. All joy.

Have you ever done that about your tensions at home? Have you ever done that about the problems? Have you ever done it?

It’s not that you’re saying, I’m glad that my dad walked out. He made a sinful choice. He shouldn’t have done it.

But what you’re saying is, I’m glad that God can take my dad’s sinful choice that he had nothing to do with, and he can work it together for good in my life. I’m believing it. I’m writing all joy.

All joy. If I could see it from God’s perspective, I’d be pumped up, so I choose to believe it. It’s not an emotional decision.

It’s a decision of faith. You count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Now, notice what God says is the reason why we should count it all joy.

He gives us a reason. And again the first part of the message, the second part just flows from it. So we’re really getting close to the end.

It says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. You know what the trial of your faith is? The trial of your faith is when you can’t figure it out.

It’s like when we wrecked that trailer for the first few seconds I couldn’t figure this out. God why? And like I said it didn’t take long because miracles started happening almost instantly when I began to realize wow God is at work.

This is amazing. But a trial of faith is when what you’re going through does not seem to reconcile with clear statements of Scripture. A trial of your faith is when what you’re going through does not seem to reconcile with all things work together for good.

That’s a trial of faith. Years ago there was a carpenter who volunteered his services to the Ladies Missionary Society and his church in Chicago. Now this is back in the Great Depression.

He volunteered his services services to build carts, wooden carts, crates, that they would put the stuff that they had gathered for an orphanage in China. And he was going to build the crates as a carpenter and he was going to send them to China. So they gathered all the stuff they wanted to send to the orphanage.

And so he came over one day and began to build the crates. He put the stuff in and he nailed the crate shut and he took it to the post office and he sent it off. Well, he was driving home and he began to reach for his glasses and thought, where is his, where are my glasses?

Then he retraced his steps in his mind. He realized what probably happened is he had leaned over and the glasses had fallen into the crate and they were on their way to China. And he cried out in frustration, Lord, I’m trying to serve you.

And now this, you have to understand the great depression. It wasn’t easy to go replace those things. A lot of, there wasn’t the means there was, there is today.

And so months passed and his pastor got up and said, oh, the director of the orphanage is back in the United States and on such a night he’s going to visit our church. Boy, the carpenter got interested. Of course, he made sure he was going to be there that Sunday night.

And sure enough, the director of the orphanage was announced and he got up and he was beaming. He said, oh, I’ve been so excited to come to this church. He said, I just got to tell you, I want to thank you for that package that you sent us to the orphanage about a year ago.

He said, but most of all in that package, I got to thank you for the glasses. Oh, the glasses. Ladies, Missionary Society began to look at each other.

He’s got the wrong church. We didn’t send glasses. But there was a carpenter in the very back.

His ears perked up. He said the communists had come through and ransacked the orphanage. And in doing so, they destroyed my glasses.

He said in peacetime in China, it’d be next to impossible to get new glasses, he said, but in wartime it was impossible. He said I was having daily headaches as a result of having no glasses. He said my staff was praying fervently and then your package came.

He said they pulled off the planks of the crate and when they did sitting neatly on top of the crate was a pair of glasses. They immediately brought them to me. I tried them on.

He said you’re not going to believe it. It was exactly the prescription that I needed. He said thank you so much for the glasses.

Congregation by now was in awe. But there was a carpenter sitting in the back of the church, tears rolling down his cheeks as he realized the master carpenter knew what he was doing. See, the trial of your faith, friends.

Some of you are going through some tough things. You know what God’s saying? Trust me.

Trust me. Because God says when you can’t figure things out and you do not know what’s going on and you can’t see everything that God’s doing, even with other people’s poor choices. He said, you can do this, you can count it all joy, because I am working.

And he’s saying, the trial of your faith is going to teach you something. It’s going to work. Patience.

Now, I don’t know about you. Patience is one of the things. It’s hard to pray for it, isn’t it?

The word patience is such an interesting word that God has given us. It comes from two Greek words. One is the word hupo, which is a preposition.

The other was the word meno, which is a verb. It’s the great verb of John 15. In fact, the apostle John used it often in 1 John and the book of John.

It’s the idea of remain, continue, abide. It has the idea, a hupo meno there, has the idea of trusting God or abiding in God or abiding in the vine, trusting God, walking by faith under pressure. And God is simply saying this, you cannot learn to trust me under pressure without pressure.

The idea of hupomeno is trusting God in the frying pan, trusting God in the furnace, trusting God in the midst of trials, and you cannot learn to trust God in the frying pan without the frying pan. And God is simply saying this. You know what happens when you’re surrounded by trials?

You can count it all joy, because I’ll tell you what I’m doing. He said, I’m telling you, I’m teaching you how to trust me. The trial of your faith teaches you how to trust me when you can’t figure it out.

I’m talking to some of you you’re anxious you’re upset you’re angry you’re frustrated you got anger right beneath the surface why did my dad have to leave why did he have to walk out why did that have to happen why did this have to happen you got anger sometimes toward a mother who’s trying to make ends meet because there’s no dad around and all this kind of stuff the anger is right there

and I’m telling you friends the very first step to getting out of that is saying God I can’t figure everything I can’t see I know my dad made a sinful choice when he walked out, but God, you’re big enough to work it together for good. And if I saw everything you’re doing, I’d be excited. So I’m choosing to believe it.

So you’ve got to learn to trust God when you can’t see it. That’s what the Bible says is happening. The trial of your faith is teaching you to trust God under pressure, in the frying pan, in the furnace.

Years ago, there was a Sunday school teacher that had noticed, looked up her Sunday school lesson, and it was going to be out of the book of Malachi. And it talked about the Lord Jesus, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And she thought, wow, I want to be ready for this lesson.

So she said, what I’m going to do is I’m going to go down to a silversmith, and I’m going to talk to a silversmith so I’m ready to be able to teach this lesson. Now, I don’t know today even where you’d find a silversmith. But she found a silversmith and sat down with him and said, sir, I’ve got to ask you some questions.

She said, do you sit when you refine silver? And the man said, absolutely, I said. And he said, I gaze at the silver and the refining fire.

I gaze at it. She said, why? Because she said, I don’t want it to be in there a second longer than it should, because if it’s in there too long, it gets damaged.

So I want to get it out when it’s refined so it’s not damaged. That comforted her, that Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of silver, that when we’re in the frying pan, when we’re in the furnace, he’s gazing, making sure we’re not in it a second longer than we need to be. Well, she asked many other questions.

She was about to walk out the door. When one final question hit her, she said, well, sir, I got one more question for you. How do you know that the silver has been refined and needs to be taken out of the furnace?

Oh, he said, that’s easy. He said, I see my reflection in the silver. Do you know why God allows you to be in the refining fire?

He said, getting the impurities out, he said, I’m gonna see my reflection in the silver. It works patiently. teaches you how to trust God under pressure.

Now, let’s look at the second command. We honestly have really almost finished the message. Look at verse number four and we’re done.

It says, but let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. You know what it means to have patience have its perfect work? In other words, don’t stop trusting God in the fire.

How many times, friends, we get in the furnace, we get in the frying pan, we don’t like the heat, we don’t like the pressure, we don’t like the uncomfortable circumstances, says we struggle we do everything we can to get out of the furnace and God says trust me don’t stop trusting me in the furnace when I arrived years ago

at the Christian college which God led me at the time to go study a large preacher boy class I came in literally with a couple hundred guys and I’m telling all those preacher boys bless God God’s called me to preach it’s the last thing I do I’m gonna preach I mean they’re all fired up you know how it is but I noticed something in the next two years, I began to watch them drop out. You know what began to happen? Midterm examinations.

You ever heard of those? School bills. You ever heard of that?

Roommates. Yes. And you know, I watched the first two years young men drop out and not come back.

I kind of noticed that if they got their fifth semester, almost all of them seemed to graduate. But in the first two years, man, they were dropping like flies. I’ve traveled for 38 years.

I have never run across one of those guys that dropped out. Not one. Not one.

Not one of those guys that dropped out that is in the ministry. Not one. Some of them I’ve heard have crashed and burned.

And I don’t know, friends, because I don’t know what God was doing, but I wonder. I wonder in some of those cases if they weren’t getting out of the frying pan prematurely. And God’s simply saying this, let patience have its perfect work.

Don’t stop trusting me. If the trial doesn’t end, and the pressure doesn’t end, and you’re surrounded by all these things that are going on in your life, and if there’s no resolution, God says, let patience have the perfect work. Don’t stop trusting me when you can’t figure it out.

You say, Fritcher, why? Well, look at the last part of the verse, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. I hate to tell you this, young people, because it’s not the thing you want to hear, but you need to know it.

The way to Christian maturity is through your faith being tried. The only way you’ll ever be a mature believer is to have to live in the frying pan, trusting God when you can’t figure it out. That’s how you come to Christian maturity, and there are no shortcuts.

Now, your trial may be different than my trial. Some people go through awful spiritual torment and darkness and work through that. Those are trials that nobody sees.

Some other trials are obvious. You come from a dysfunctional home, all kind of messed up. That’s pretty obvious.

There are all kinds of different trials, but God is simply saying when you’re in the midst of a situation where you’ve got to trust God and you can’t figure it out, God says, don’t stop trusting me. Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect in the entire one and nothing. Now I’m going to be honest with you.

When I think of a furnace or I think of fire, a fire, you know what I think of when it comes to a Bible story? you got it. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

You ever thought about the fact as these men were before the king? It’s very interesting. They said to the king, we’re not careful to answer the old king.

In other words, we’re going to be, you see, Nebuchadnezzar was one of those guys that was, he had a temper. In fact, there was a recent president, I can’t think of his name, kind of reminded me of Nebuchadnezzar. He had a temper too.

But anyway, we won’t go into that. But anyway, hey, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, man, he had a temper. You didn’t cross, he was type A, type A.

I mean, that was Nebuchadnezzar. I mean, this guy was just it. And so they come before him and he said, why didn’t you bow down to the image?

And of course, say, we’re not careful to answer thee. And they basically said this, number one, our God is able to deliver us. Is that true?

Was God able to deliver Shadrach, Meshach, and Meshach? Yeah. And then they said, we believe he’s going to deliver you.

I’m paraphrasing. We believe he’s going to deliver us out of your hand. So they said, first of all, he’s able to deliver. number two we believe he’s going to deliver out of your hand and number three they said but if not we’re still not bound down you see what they said number one god’s able to deliver us number two you know we’re pretty convinced he’s going to deliver us and number three if he doesn’t we’re

still not bound down now the king was the bible says in a rage and you know what he did he ordered the guys to be bound and to be carried like footballs toward the furnace which had been heated seven times so hot that when the guys threw them in, they died, the guys that threw them in. So here’s how I envision it. I really believe Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had come to confidence God’s going to deliver us.

Now we could be wrong, but we think He’s going to deliver us. So I imagine as soon as the king exploded and they’re being bound up, I believe their prayer life started to improve. You know what I’m talking about?

This is my sanctified imagination. Okay, Lord, you’re going to deliver us, so this would be a really good time. Nothing.

Now they’ll be carrying toward the furnace. Maybe they’re beginning to feel the heat, and they’re coming right up to that furnace, and now, Lord, you’re running out of time. This would be a really good time to deliver us.

Nothing. Finally, at the very edge, they’re thrown in, and they’re hurtling down into the furnace. They’re saying, Lord, you’re running out of time.

Nothing. Now, don’t miss this, young people. Do not miss this.

God did not deliver them from the furnace. He delivered them in the furnace. And God often delivers us in the furnace.

And you know how He delivered them? With the very presence, I believe, of Jesus Christ. I’ve talked to many people who’ve gone through severe trials, and here’s what they’ve all said.

I never want to go through it again, but I’m so glad I went through it, because when I did, Jesus was with us. let patience have its perfect word trust God in the furnace that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing can I ask every head bowed please and every eye closed heads are bowed and eyes are closed