Jim Van Gelderen: James chapter number one, we're going to read verses two and three, and I'd like to begin the revival meeting a little bit differently than perhaps sometimes we think. But I'm convinced that we have an enemy who is absolutely set on destroying and undermining our faith. Really, when I, years ago, God kind of distilled it all down, and it hit me, I know this may sound extremely obvious,

but I remember when the Lord just bowled me over as a college student studying for the ministry, that the whole key to the Christian life was faith. It's believe in God. And the Bible tells us about the man Stephen, he was full of faith and, guess what?

Power. That really the whole key to being a Christian who is walking in God's power is to be a man or a woman of faith. And yet Satan is constantly trying to undermine and destroy our faith. And I am convinced in a room this size, not because anyone has told me so, but because if this is a normal cross-section, even of Bible-preaching, Bible-going, believing Christians,

that there are folks in here who have hurt faith. And so this morning, I'd like to address that particular subject matter right in the very outset here of James chapter number 1, in a message I've entitled, What Do You Do When Life Hemms You In? What do you do when life hems you in?

It was the early part of 1997. We had a wonderful service in February honoring my father, 50 years in the ministry. It was a wonderful night.

Several people came in who had been in his ministry. It was one of those nights you probably cried through the entire presentation as we walked through 50 years of a man's ministry. Of course, being my father, it even brought a greater emotion.

Just two weeks to the exact day, God chose in his sovereign will to take my father home to be with the Lord. Well, after the funeral, I remember I was in Sumter, South Carolina, and my heart was extremely heavy. Obviously, I knew it was God's timing.

I knew my father was with the Lord. But anybody who's lost a loved one, you know all that, but there still is a human grieving. And I was grieving, and I was suffering with the loss of my father, who was a great mentor in my life and a great spiritual encouragement, and someone I talked to probably on a weekly basis at that time in my life.

And we were down there in Sumter, South Carolina, and my little daughter was a year and a half year old. my firstborn, and she caught something. I don't know, but evidently part of the illness was throwing up.

Now, I know it's Sunday morning, so I'll try to be discreet here. If this was teenagers, I'd go a little bit longer on that. But anyway, I ought to warn you, and I just say this ahead of time, a large part of my ministry is preaching to young people and teenagers, and probably the larger part of a year is preaching to young people.

So occasionally things flip out, and I think, oh, I forgot it was the wrong place. So I'll try to be appropriate. By the way, I will say this, that I've learned this about preaching to adults.

Really, adults are teenagers. They're just teenagers with wrinkles. And they still have the teenage heart, most of you do.

But same issues. But anyway, my daughter had caught something, and she's just a little girl, and we couldn't get her to stop throwing up. And she began to dehydrate.

I remember she woke us up in the middle of the night with her crying, and she had thrown up. And I remember her eyes were sunken into the sockets of her head, and I was just alarmed. And we rushed through the middle of the night to a hospital.

Here we are in a strange city, you know, the one we didn't grow up in and all of this. And I remember that there they were. They were trying to obviously get an IV in her.

They were concerned about it just being a little thing and becoming dehydrated. And my wife had to leave the room because they couldn't find the vein. They were too small.

And so my little girl's just screaming and my wife leaves the room. Have you ever felt like, Lord, I can't take anymore? I'm still grieving the loss of my father.

And here I am in a strange city in the middle of the night and they can't find her vain. Friends, what do you do when life hems you in? What do you do in those moments in life when you feel like you're completely surrounded with trouble and there's no way out? Well, I'd like to address that from the book of James because I'll tell you, friends, sooner or later, I don't care who you are in this room,

you are going to have moments when life hems you in. I remember as a young preacher, I would preach on things like this, but I knew little of it experientially. But now, obviously, being in the ministry for 26 years, there have been many times in my life when I felt completely overwhelmed with life, completely surrounded by difficulties.

And friends, let's look at this passage of Scripture here this morning, because there's two commands that God gives us when life hems us in. In fact, there's not only two commands. Right after the command, God gives us a reason why we should obey the command.

Now, let me just stop for a moment and simply say, God always doesn't always give us a reason for what he commands us to do. Sometimes he does, but sometimes he doesn't. I don't know if you were like this when I was growing up.

Sometimes my mother, this particularly my mother, she would ask me to do something. And then I would ask the famous question, why? And my mother said what probably your mother said, because, help me out now, I said so.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, biblically, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that answer.

But sometimes, now my dad might be the kind that would be more analytical and, you know, give a reason why. But my point is that God doesn't always have to give us a reason. But in this case, he does.

He does. So I want us to see this by first of all looking at the scenario in which these commands are given. It says in verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy.

And here it is. when ye fall into diverse temptations. Now let's start with the word fall. The word fall is the same word that is used in the parable of the Good Samaritans

when that man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves. It literally, in the original language, has the idea that he not only fell in the midst of thieves, he was completely surrounded by them. Now I have never been mugged, nor have I been robbed, and I know of anyway, But the idea would be being robbed, and you look in front of you, there's a big, huge thief.

You look over here, there's an ugly guy over here. And you look over here, and there's a pretty mean-looking guy there. You look behind you, and you've got a couple behind you.

That's the idea. So, friends, what we're talking about is when you and I fall into the midst of these divers temptations, and we feel like we're completely surrounded by them. Now, the word divers, let's go to the next word.

The word divers is an old English word. If you put an E on the word divers, you have an idea, obviously, in our thinking. What it is, it's diverse.

Okay, that's what it means, diverse. Okay? And so, in fact, this Greek word was used in the translation of the Old Testament when they translated from Hebrew to Greek.

This particular word was used when describing, don't miss this, Joseph's coat of, help me out, many colors. Okay? Same word was used to translate the Hebrew into the Greek in what they call the Septuagint.

It was used the same word. So it's the idea of diverse or many different kind of temptations. Now the word temptation here is a temptation.

Really, it's the idea of a trial, a difficulty that comes into your life. And friends, whenever trials and difficulties and duress and hardship come into our lives, it is also a temptation. Every time things go haywire, every time things go reverse what you think they ought to go, Every time you go through a difficulty, you are being tempted to react incorrectly.

Now, God's called me to be an evangelist, and I have different gifts as you do. As to me, the body of Christ is wonderful. God gives us gifts.

Sometimes I joke that I have the gift of impatience. Now, there is a good side to that. I want you to get saved if you're lost this morning.

I want you to get saved this morning. Okay? So there's a good side to it, but there's obviously a negative side.

I, uh, I've never met my grandfather. I was alive. He was alive when I was born, but he died before I remember him.

But I'm told my grandfather was a good man, but he had real struggle with frustration. In fact, my uncle told me that one day he remembered his father, my grandfather, trying to put a screen door on the house. He said the next thing he saw, the screen door was on the ground.

And he said his father, my grandfather, was jumping up and down on the screen door. Now, friends, I'm going to do that with you. I can relate with the guy.

I got his deeds, okay? And maybe you can relate that as well. But, so we all recognize that even the little small trials, the flat tires, you know, and 40 degrees and raining, which I know maybe doesn't happen down here, but, you know, those trials, even those are temptations to react in unbelief.

So every trial we go through is also a temptation. That's the focus of this word temptation. It's not a temptation in the sense of going down the road and seeing a dirty billboard and being tempted to lust.

That's not primarily in focus here. What focusing is here is hardships and drasts and difficult circumstances that come into your life and tempt you to doubt God. That's the focus of this particular word. So what God is talking about, those moments in life when we fall right into the midst of all kinds of different kind of difficulties that are coming, all kinds of shapes and sizes

that tempt us to doubt God. That's the picture. And in the midst of those moments, God commands us to count it all joy.

Does that strike you as strange? Now friends, let me back up just a moment and say these temptations can sometimes be outward. It could be a deteriorating relationship.

It could be a family problem. It could be tension in a marriage. It could be problems with kids.

It could be kids who don't get along with their parents. It could be relationship issues. It could be financial reversals.

It could be financial pressures. It could be inner turmoil. Probably some of the greatest spiritual difficulty you have ever gone through and I've ever gone through have been inward.

Perhaps there's a dear saint out here struggling with your salvation assurance. There may be someone struggling with a certain sin issue in your life. And you're sitting here with great inner turmoil and great battles that no one sees.

And what God is simply saying, there are times in our lives, we look in front of us, we've got relationship problems. We look over here, we've got problems at work. We look over here, we've got problems with the finances.

Look behind us and there are all kinds of inward struggles going on. And God says in the midst of those moments, count it all joy. Now, count it all joy, obviously, humanly, seems to be extremely strange. but obviously if you're going to count it all joy friends that is a response don't miss this that is a response of faith because the only way you and I can count it all joy is to realize that there's somebody bigger than our circumstances

and his name is God and folks may I tell you that God loves to do what he does best and that is be God and friends maybe put it this way you and I will never see Jordan Rivers crossed If there are not Jordan rivers. We will never see Jericho walls fall. If there are not Jericho walls.

Now I know that's profound. Maybe profoundly simple. But it's true.

So every difficulty. And every trial. And every hardship in our life.

Is an opportunity for God to do what he loves to do. And that is be God. And though we don't always understand it.

We can count it all joy. Now there's more to be said here. But obviously we're counting it all joy.

It is a decision of faith. believing that even in the most dire of circumstances, God is still on the throne, and He wants to, and will, if we'll trust Him, work everything together for good. You know, many times, well, we'll get to this in a moment, but many times, the circumstances we're going through, God allows them to be so difficult and so hard, that we can't even figure out how He can work it together for good.

And we'll deal with that in just a moment, but He says to count it all joy. Now, count, as you probably know this, is an accounting term. It's the idea of taking out your checkbook and putting in a deposit of $500 and you write down $500.

So what God is simply saying is take out the ledger of life and put down all joy. Folks, it's a decision of faith. It's not trying to work up joy.

It's just simply saying this is an occasion for all joy because everything I'm going through is an opportunity for God. To miraculously work things together for good. Friends, I don't know about you, but I know in my life, one of my desires is to see the fingerprints of God.

And if we don't have difficulties, we'll never see God miraculously work. Okay, so it says, count it all joy. Now maybe this illustration will help.

It's not a perfect illustration, but my hope is that you walk out and you'll put your hands around this, counting it all joy. Okay, so maybe this will help. It was quite a few years ago, at least a decade ago. I was traveling from Knoxville, Tennessee down to Gainesville, Georgia and I was going through of course that little piece of North Carolina those that know geography know what I'm talking about you have to go down through North Carolina

then into North Georgia and I was going down through the mountains there in North Carolina well let me just say this they're mountains if you're from North Carolina they'd be hills if you're from Colorado you understand okay so I'm going down these beautiful green mountains well hills I guess whatever and so I'm traveling down through this and of course it's very rural and I'm going to have to get to Gainesville, Georgia

That night I had to preach at one of our youth rallies, the war. And so I was under a time constraint. I'm watching my clock.

And I was in a borrowed pickup truck. Somebody there in Gainesville had let me borrow their pickup truck. And so I'm, which, by the way, in Gainesville, Georgia, that's all they have is pickup trucks.

There's no cars. It's just pickup trucks. And so, and those parts, that's all you saw anyway.

So I'm driving down the road. And all of a sudden, that pickup truck, the alternator, started to go out. So I'm losing my electrical power.

Pretty soon the thing just conks out on me. And some of you know what I'm talking about, lost power steering. So I'm wrestling the thing over to the side of the road.

And I finally come to a complete stop on the side of the road, on the shoulder. I'm thinking, what am I going to do? I'm looking at my clock.

I'm thinking, oh, this is terrible. I got a preach tonight. And I'm jumping out.

I'm all, you know, wired up. And I noticed that I passed just a few yards back an old country store, kind of maybe a gas pump or two out front. You get the picture, an old-fashioned country store.

And so I figured, well, I better run back there. That's the only hope I got. And so I didn't, of course, this was before cell phones.

And I know some of you teenagers cannot believe there was a day before cell phones. But this is back before cell phones. It was about the time dinosaurs were becoming extinct.

Somewhere back there when there were no cell phones. And so I jumped out of the car and I go running back there full speed. And I walked into that gas station country store.

And I'm telling you folks the honest truth. It was like walking through a time warp. I mean, Andy was there.

Barney was there. Floyd was there. Gomer was there.

They were all there. I would say they were chewing the fat, but this is North Carolina folks. They were chewing something else of which we'll not go into this morning.

And so we're sitting there. I will tell you, I grew up in the North, and so I'm all wired up, you know. And I'll tell you, these boys were not.

Now, they were good old boys. I mean, they wanted to help me out, but they were in low gear. You know what I'm talking about?

So I'm saying, you know, I'm going to preach tonight and pick up truck, you know, alternated without. I need your help. I'll be honest with you, for two or three minutes, I'm not even sure they were going to help me.

Got a few grunts out of them. They spoke a language I didn't understand. And you understand, those of you who have been in the eastern, there, Carolina, or western Carolina.

And so finally one of them gets up and looks like he's going to help me. And he gets some tools and he's going as slow as they come. And I mean, I am wired.

So we get out there and he sees it's the alternator. And he gets this wrench set out. And, of course, the bolts were rusted.

Some of you mechanics know what I'm talking about. You really identify with this. And he's getting on that bolt and he's going like this.

And finally, you know, it breaks loose and like this. And he takes the skin right off his foreknuckles. And he looks, I'm telling you the truth.

He looks at me and he smiles real big and he goes, happy. I'll tell you something, folks, they weren't my knuckles and I wasn't happy. Well, he keeps working, you know, and of course he's going.

He's going about five miles an hour. And of course, there's nothing I can do. You know, I don't know.

I don't know this mechanic stuff. And so, you know, he's putting on a little nut, you know, and all of a sudden the nut drops off the end of the screw and it goes ding, ding, you know, ding, all the way down to the bottom edge. You mechanics can relate.

You know what I'm talking about. And he looks at me and he smiles real big and he goes, happy. You know, about three or four things went wrong and every single time they went wrong, he looked at me and he said happy.

And I'm going to tell you something, folks. I'm telling you the truth. He had it a whole lot closer than I did. Because, my friend, the only way you can say happy when some of that stuff is going on

is to believe that God's bigger than the little irritants of life. Now, obviously, none of that was earth-shattering, none of it was big, but the principle is the same. No matter how big the trial, God is simply saying when it happens, we need to say happy.

God all joy, and it is absolutely many times a raw step of faith. I'm going to believe God, even though everything seems to be going haywire. So God says to count it all joy.

Now, why? Why? It seems to be strange.

We've given a few who are our simple perspective, but let's look at what God's reason is. Look what it says. It says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

So what God is simply saying, the reason we should stay happy, the reason we should count it all joy, is simply because, God says, don't you know this? That the trying of your faith works patience. Now, what does it mean when your faith is tried?

Now, this is simple. The best I can tell, you and I, our faith is tried when God does the opposite of what we think He should do. Have you ever been in circumstances and difficulties and God seemed to do the exact opposite of what you thought he should do?

That ever happen to you? I'm going to tell you something, friends. Life sometimes throws some things at, and I'll be honest with you, I'm thinking, God, if I was God, I wouldn't have done that. And I'm not just talking about the little things of life, the flat tires when you're in a hurry,

and the flat tires even when you're trying to serve the Lord. I'm not just talking about those, even talking about the big things. In February, I lost my 53-year-old sister to cancer.

Well, I didn't lose her. I know where she is, but eight years of battling cancer, and three times she should have died, God miraculously delivered her. Her lungs were filling a year or two after she got diagnosed.

It was pretty much a death sentence, and God, I believe, touched her. She had lesions on her brain. God turned those around.

But then after eight years, God took her home just a few months ago. And I'll be honest with you, people I know on planet Earth, my sister was a channel of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will tell you something friends there aren't many of those people around there are some thank the Lord but anyway I'll be honest with you I mean if I were to God I think she'd have been a whole lot more valuable

here on planet earth I don't understand that I can't figure that out folks that's when our faith is tried when it doesn't seem like God's doing what he should do it seems like God's doing something different than what he ought to do that's the trial of faith Friends, you ever been in that? When you're surrounded by difficulties and saying, Lord, I wouldn't have done this if I was God?

You see, friends, it's those moments that are paradoxical. Those moments when it seems like that God's doing something that seems opposite of what He should do. Why? Because we cannot see how He could ever take what we're going through

and work it together for good. It doesn't seem good in any way. Now, God is saying that knowing this, that the trial of your faith works patience.

Many years ago, there was a man who was a carpenter in the suburbs of Chicago. One day, and this was back in the Depression, he volunteered to build some crates that would send some gifts over to an orphanage in China. So he volunteered, and one day he got his tools out, he got the wood out, he built the crates, he put the stuff in. He nailed them shut, took them to the post office, and he sent them off to China,

satisfied with his service to the Lord. Well, he was driving home in his pickup truck when all of a sudden he reached for his glasses. You ever done that?

You know, my glasses, where are my glasses? And then it hit him that evidently as he was nailing the thing shut, that the glasses had fallen into the crate and they were on their way to China. And he cried out to the Lord, Lord, I'm trying to serve you.

And now this. Now, before we be too hard on him, I think all of us have at least thought that. Now, of course, that was the depression when he could have certainly been a little bit difficult to replace those glasses.

And so, anyway, months passed. It was a year or so later. The director of that orphanage came to his little church there in Chicago area.

And he, of course, wanted to hear. And it had been months, of course, since then. He'd sent those glasses off inadvertently.

And he was sitting in the very back row. And the director of the orphanage got up and said, folks, he said, before I preach the message, I've just got to say thank you for sending those care packages over to our orphans. But he said, most of all, I've got to thank you for the glasses.

Well, there was a carpenter in the back of the church whose ears perked up. He said, yes. He said, when we received those, he said, a few months before the communists had come through, they had ransacked the orphanage, and in what they had done, they had destroyed my glasses.

He said, even in peacetime in China, it would have been very difficult to replace them. He said, in wartime, it was impossible. He said, as a result of my glasses being broken, he said, I was having daily headaches, and our staff was praying fervently that God would miraculously provide. He said, when we opened up those carts, or those crates, he said that my workers noticed

that there was a pair of glasses on top. They immediately brought them to me. I put them on and they were the exact same prescription that I needed. He said, I've just got to thank you

for the glasses. And everybody out there except for one old carpenter was saying, glasses? What glasses?

We didn't put any glasses in there. There was a carpenter in the very back of the church, tears streaming down his face, who knew that the master carpenter knew what he was doing. Folks, that's a trial of faith. At that moment, when those glasses were being shipped to China, it seemed like the worst thing

that could possibly happen. But 12 months later, that man realized God knew what he was doing. See, friends, that's the trial of faith.

God's saying these trials of faith work patience. Now, patience many times, Let me just say this about patience. Patience always takes longer than you want it to take.

You know what I'm talking about? Now, this word patience obviously has the idea of patience, but it is one of those words that has a really tremendous meaning. It comes from two Greek words, and the first word is the word hupo, which means under, and the next word is the word meno, which is the great sanctification verb of the New Testament that is often translated abide.

So the idea of this patience is abiding with Christ, walking by faith, depending upon God, under pressure. Can we put it this way? It is walking by faith, it is walking with God in the furnace.

In the frying pan. What God is simply saying is this, folks. That you cannot learn to walk by faith in the furnace if there is no furnace.

That the only way you can learn to trust God and believe God under pressure is to be under pressure. And what God is saying is, when things go opposite the way you think they should go, and when you're in that frying pan or that furnace of difficulty and trial, God is saying that is the only place where you can learn to walk by faith in a furnace, is to actually be there.

And so what God is saying is, the trying of your faith, when you can't figure out what God is doing, when Satan is assaulting your faith with assaults of doubt against the character of God and slander toward the character of God, it is at that moment that you can learn to believe God. Under pressure. It works.

Patience. Now, let me come to the next verse because we're almost done here. Actually, because most of the truth there in the first part will carry over to verse number 4. It says,

Let patience have her perfect work. In other words, what God is saying is, when you get in the furnace of affliction, when you get into the frying pan, God is saying, don't get out before your time. Let patience have its perfect work.

That she may be perfect in its entire, wanting nothing. In other words, the reason to let patience have its perfect work is because the only way you and I can ever get to Christian maturity is to go through these moments of our faith being tried. Perfect is not talking about sinless.

It's talking about mature, complete. And the only way you and I can ever get to that Christian maturity, that Christian completeness, is to let patience have its perfect work. You know, when I think of a furnace in the Bible, I think of the three Hebrew children, don't you? I remember as somebody was preaching recently, and as they were preaching,

I thought a little bit about it, and it hit me because I saw the verses in a way I'd never seen them before. Do you remember when the three Hebrew children were brought before Nebuchadnezzar? Here's what they said.

They said, I'm paraphrasing here, but they said, number one, they said basically to the king, we believe that God is able to deliver us. Is that true? Do you believe God was able to deliver him?

Sure. Secondly, they said, basically, we believe he's going to deliver us out of your hand. And then they said, but if not, somehow we're mistaken and we've misread this thing, we're still not going to bow down to your idols, is basically what they said.

Let's go over that again. They said, we believe God's able to deliver us. Number two, they said, we believe he is going to deliver us out of your hand.

And number three, they said, but if not, somehow we missed it. We're still not going to bow down. Okay, well, when that happened, the king's visage was changed.

Instead of being a nice guy, he ordered their death. Now, you can imagine, these guys, here's my point. I'm convinced that the three Hebrew children really did believe that God was going to deliver them out of Nebuchadnezzar's hand.

Which means, they believed he was going to deliver them, God that is, from the furnace. So, can you imagine this? These big, huge soldiers come.

They bind the three Hebrew children. They're marching them toward the furnace. And I'm sure as it got hotter, the three Hebrew children were praying silently and said, Okay, Lord, now's the time.

It's getting hot. The furnace is a few feet away. Now's the time, Lord.

Well, guess what happened? No deliverance. They come to the side, if you can imagine there, that furnace.

And so hot that it slays the people throwing them in. Here they are being thrown in the furnace. And I'm sure they're saying, Lord, you don't have much time left.

Here's my point, folks. God did not deliver them from the furnace. He delivered them in the furnace.

And God often does not deliver us from the furnace. He delivers us in the furnace. And He delivers us, don't miss this, with His presence.

Because, friends, when He's present, it doesn't matter what's going on. Because He's present. And God is simply saying, listen, let patience have its perfect work.

So that you can become to completeness. In other words, become a mature man or woman of faith. I remember going to college.

All kinds of freshman preacher boys come in with, bless God, I'm called to preach. All excited about getting trained for the ministry until about nine weeks later. You know what I'm talking about?

Midterm examinations. Report cards. School bills.

Roommates. I can think back right now of several young men who quit after their freshman year. Some quit after their sophomore year.

I have no idea where many of them. In fact, I don't have any idea where any of them are. But none of the ones that dropped out have I ever heard from again.

And I've wondered, did they get out of the furnace before God wanted them out? So knowing this, the triangle of faith works patience. Let patience have its perfect work that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

My mom, at nine years old, her mother went out to milk the cows one morning. And her mother fell over with a brain aneurysm. A neighbor picked up my grandmother, who I never met, took her into the house, and she lingered for days and then died.

If that had happened today, they would have probably been able to bring her back to normal. But they didn't understand back then. She lingered with the stroke and then died.

She was just in her 40s. My mother was 9 years old. Five years later, when my mother was 14 years old, her father died of old age.

You see, her father was 30 years older than her mother. So here she was at 14 years old, an orphan. well she had some godly cousins who were actually more like an aunt and uncle she went to a secular college for some teaching degree and these cousins urged her to go to a Christian college and she transferred for her sophomore year she transferred to a college I'll not mention the name

simply because it's not at all the school that it was in this day well she went to this college and when she arrived there on campus this was a school that was known for its revivals in fact at that time in its history every seven years there was a Holy Ghost move of God that revival historians marked. It was not because it was planned that way, it's just the way it happened. It was a school that literally was living

in the fires of revival. When she arrived on campus, there was a senior who was on fire for God. Some of you may know his name.

His name was Jim Elliott. There was also a young lady on campus who had a heart for God, was on fire for God. Her name was Betty Howard.

You probably know her by the name of Elizabeth Elliott. My mother was immediately touched. There was an evangelist in town whose ministry was impacting America.

His name was John R. Rice. He had a little newspaper there at the time, a little revival weekly called The Sword of the Lord. When my mother graduated from that college,

got another Bible Institute degree from another school. Shortly after that, she came back to that town to work for John R. Rice and The Sword of the Lord. Well, she began to work for Viola Walden there

in the sectorial pool there, The Sword of the Lord. She was 26 years old, single, no prospects of marriage. And there was a guy by the name of Scotchy McCall who was a pastor there who worked for the soul of the Lord, who one day thought of my mother, 26 years old, single, and thought of my father.

This is the Chicago area. Thought of my father, who was a single pastor in Miami, Florida. And he said, I'm going to get those two together.

He called up my dad. He said, Wayne, that's my dad's name. He said, I need you in Chicago immediately.

My dad hopped in his car. Again, just 26 years old preacher. And he drove all the way up to Chicago to meet in a certain restaurant, Scotchy McCall and his wife.

Well, he sat down with Dr. McColl and his wife, and he said when he did, he noticed that they had this girl there. He thought to himself, what's this girl doing here?

That's probably why my dad was 26 years old and still single. But anyway, he said, what's this girl doing here? And so, literally, they were eating their meal, and halfway through the meal, Dr. McColl and his wife stood up and said,

we'll see you two later, and walked straight out the door. Six months later, my parents were married. I remember my mother telling me on several occasions, Jim, she said, you know, if my parents had lived, I'd never gone to Christian college.

I'd have never met John R. Rice. I'd have never worked for the Lord.

I never would have met your father. And basically she was saying, you wouldn't be here. You know, here's a little country girl, grew up in downstate Illinois, who had no idea that her decision of faith to believe God in the midst of trials was so significant.

But it was. And she believed God even when she couldn't understand it, when I'm sure her faith was tried, when it seemed like everything was life was hemming her in, she decided to trust God. She never got bitter.

She never questioned God in a bitter way. She just simply trusted God. And God marvelously worked.

She absolutely loved being a pastor's wife. She loved the ministry that she had with my father. And I think of now not just children, but grandchildren that are serving the Lord.

And none of that would have happened if she had gotten bitter and angry at God. And friend, what I'm saying is you may be saying, I'm not significant. But you have no idea.

We're not talking about you. We're talking about God. And when you and I are going through and life is hemming us in and we're going through difficulties, it is a decision to face.

Say, okay, God, I'm counting it all joy. Happy. I'm going to trust you.

I'm going to believe you're going to work it together for good even though I can't figure it out. And my mother couldn't figure it out for a long time. It was years down the road where she finally said, I see exactly what God was doing.

I'm telling you, friend, you and I may not know it until we get to heaven. That's not the point. The point is we trust God even when we can't figure it out. what are you doing friend when life ends in it and there's dear some people out here gone through difficulties and you question God and you doubted God and it's hurt your faith and it's hurt your walk with God

and it's hurt your fellowship with the Lord and it's hurt that vibrant relationship and it really does we come to revival meetings you're in need of revival and may I say that this morning your reviving simply starts with an old fashioned aisle walking down the aisle getting your knees okay God I know it was tough I know it was difficult but I'm going to count it all joy because you told me to and that's where it starts

that decision of faith to believe that God is going to work it together for good in His timing in a way that you may not see this side of eternity which you're going to believe in anyway oh my friend what do you do when life hems you in can I ask every head bowed please and every eye closed