Speaker 1: So what is the crown that lasts forever, very simply, in the Christian life? It's eternal life. It is life with God forever. That is the crown of life. The crown of life is knowing Jesus.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.
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Speaker 3: I'd like to ask, how many is enjoying the the series in James so far? Has it been great? Pastor Dallas is doing a phenomenal job. So I'm not gonna recap everything, but so far, what we've learned is that we need to reconsider, reframe our understanding of our trials and circumstances, the wisdom of God and how he gives it, what we may be lacking there, and even our wealth or the lack thereof. And so it's it's been a pretty heavy hitter so far, and it's just gonna continue.
And and keep in mind, there's still another four and a half chapters to go. The book of James is just so rich and, I'm excited to continue to to learn. So today, our text is James chapter one verses 12 through 18. Blessed is the one who endures trials because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. No one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God.
Since God is not tempted by evil and he himself doesn't tempt anyone, But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. But don't be deceived my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights who does not change like shifting shadows.
By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Lord, I pray that you will bless this word today. Give our pastor the words of life to nourish our souls, to encourage us, to convict us. May your spirit be present in the service today as we proceed. Lord, and just have your way.
Do do mighty things. Lord, we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 1: Amen? Amen. Look at your neighbor and say, god is good. God is good. Look at your other neighbor you don't like as much and say, All the time.
All Honored to be with you this morning. It is a very sweet presence of God in this place today. This morning we've had prophecy. We've had the gift of tongues, the interpretation of tongues. We've lift up worship that joins in with heaven.
And so if we didn't do anything else today and this was the worst sermon you've ever heard it would still be a very good Sunday. And so I'm thankful to be in God's house where the air condition feels good and because this hot weather y'all. I mean this is hot but hell's hotter I guess but I'm ready for this hot weather to be gone so pleasure to be with you this morning. I wanna ask a question, does any of you all like winning a prize? You ever like, you know, put your name in a raffle or something or you know, you go to Chuck E.
Cheese, well, probably don't go to Chuck E. Cheese anymore, most of you all. But if you do, no no judgment, right? And you do all the games so that you can win the prize. I think we all love a prize.
The number one prize in my daughter's life is a popsicle. I mean, they will do anything for a popsicle just about, other than eat their dinner sometimes. Right? We all love prizes. And prizes are important.
Just wanna tell you a quick story. I remember a time in my life where there was a certain prize that I wanted. There was a certain prize that I desired and I was willing to do anything to get it. And I remember being in high school ten years ago now already, and and I was going into my, I was halfway through my junior year of high school and my football team and I had lost its state championship to the Lake Taylor Titans in December 2014. And I remember walking into the field house that January and our football coach Steve Magenbauer had written the score of the game on the dry erase board.
I think it was 41 to 17. And that was the first thing we saw when we got in the field house for conditioning for the next season. And I remember Coach Mag just simply saying, y'all remember that, right? And we're all like, yeah, I mean we got embarrassed. I mean it's no fun lending, losing any games, no one likes to lose but losing the most important game of the season, that is the worst, really.
You'd rather just come in last than make it all the way and lose and be the runner-up. And I remember though, he basically said if you don't wanna see that, if that wants to change, you need to fix your eyes on it and set a new goal in mind. There's a new prize in mind. So basically, for the next nine months of our life, we worked out, we lifted weights that were way too heavy, we did sprints in weather like this that was just way too hot, we did so much work together for months, day in and day out, And and finally, towards the end of the next football season, we had remained focused enough where we got back to the state championship game. And we had our eyes fixed on the prize, the goal, the the crown of high school football, which is winning a state championship.
And we had the privilege to go back to the same place to play the same team, and we were able to defeat that team in double overtime. It was it was like a Cinderella, like you couldn't make it up any better, you know. If someone called me from Hollywood and said they wanna make a movie out of it, it'd be a good movie. Right? And so the point of that story is very simple.
We fixed our eyes upon a goal and we did not lose focus. We said, this is what we're gonna set out to do. I'm not going to be persuaded or derailed by anything else. We are just going to keep our eyes as a team on the goal in mind. It wasn't just for me though.
It would be great to be a state championship, but it was for my teammates and my city and all these other things. So we were able to fix our eyes on an external goal. And we were able to persevere through every trial and test. But with all that said, and you've know that story, and I've told it more than once, the thing that had me thinking about it this week was simply this, what if we didn't? What if we hadn't fixed our eyes on the goal?
What if we hadn't, in another way to say it, have kept our eyes on the prize? Look at your neighbor and say, eyes on the prize. If we would have given in to the temptation of taking it easy, taking the easy route, skipping conditioning, skipping lifting, not eating well, staying out too late, not watching film, being persuaded and tempted to just do the easy stuff, be a little lazy, it'll be alright. I can guarantee we would have not reached our goal. We were a good team, but we had to put in hard work every single day in order to meet our goal in mind.
And that story is a secular story, if you will. It's a worldly story of winning a state championship, which the Lord cares, but that doesn't matter as much as something else in life. And in this passage that Lewis just read for us a few moments ago, the writer James is telling us to keep our eyes on the prize of something. And he wants us to be able to receive this reward, to receive the prize. And he's trying to help us to do that.
And there is obviously brothers and sisters in Christ and people around him who are having a hard time maintaining focus on the goal. So for the next few moments, we're gonna work back through this text, and we're going to try to simply keep our eyes on the prize. Look at your neighbor one more time and say, eyes on the prize. Go back to verse 12 with me if you can. Verse 12, I'll read it again for you in the CSB.
The word of God says, blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. So here we go again. We've been in this book or this series over the book of James. And one of the main topics that we've encountered so far is the topic of trials. Right?
Remember, towards the beginning of the book, James told us something crazy. Consider it pure joy when you face trials or very trials of various kinds. He tells us and exhorts us to have a joyful perspective when we go through trials. And then a few verses go by, he's been kind of alluding to trials still, he brings it back up again with what he says here. He says, blessed is the one who endures trials because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised him.
He has not let go of this idea of trials, but he brings something else into this. Can you look at your neighbor and say, crown? So this is not my crown, okay, as you can tell, alright? This is one of my, this is my daughter's crown. This is Semi's crown.
And James is telling us that we are going to be blessed if we endure through this trial, if we stand the test, if we're able to do that, are going to receive the crown of life. The crown of life. Here's the simple idea. He's saying, you will be blessed. Look at your neighbor and say, blessed?
Blessed. I mean, don't you wanna be blessed? I love I love when people, oh, you're blessed. I say, I know I am. Right?
I know I'm blessed. They look at my four kids and like, you're blessed and you got your hands full, but you're blessed. No. Nonetheless. Right?
This idea of blessing or and more specific blessing and curses is all throughout the scriptures. He opens up verse 12 and says, blessed is the one. And this simple idea of blessing runs all throughout the Bible. And blessing sometimes we think blessing's tied to someone just being super special or someone being just so, like, in love with God that God just blesses them more than others. But the really the idea that we get from scripture is that if we want to be blessed, then we just need to love and listen to God.
If you wanna be blessed in your life, love him and obey his word. Right? If you want to be cursed, if you don't want to be blessed, don't love God and don't listen to his word. We find this all throughout the scriptures, and there's no need to complicate it. We don't need to twist God's arm into blessing.
If you want God to bless your finances, would you just bless him with your finances? Right? Very simple idea. You bless him, and he will take care of you. It was a simple idea for Israel in the Old Testament.
If they followed faithfully after God and what he said, they would incur blessing. But if they didn't listen to God, they would receive judgment. It's a very simple idea that runs all throughout the scriptures. Jesus brings us back up in the famous beatitudes in the gospel of Matthew. Remember the beatitudes blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of God is theirs.
He brings all these different blessings, pronouncements of blessings upon people. And this principle or idea of blessing simply comes from obedience. And that's why the famous scripture says, obedience is better than sacrifice. And so I don't know about you, but I wanna be blessed. I don't wanna be cursed.
I I don't want to incur God's judgment upon my life. I've already been blessed that I know the precious lamb of God, so I'm good. But I want to receive all the extra benefits that come along with knowing Christ in this life. Right? And I wanna be blessed.
And so the thing though that he's promising, the blessing that he's promising is very specifically is the crown of life. If I had any hair, this would probably stick on here. Right? And so he says, if you wanna be blessed, you're gonna be blessed. If you're able to persevere and endure, you're going to receive the crown of life.
Look at your neighbor and say, crown of life. I've heard it said many, many times growing up that the you know, every time you do something good for God, you get another gem, you know, in your crown. Right? And I love that potential idea, because that would be really awesome, but then we would be prideful comparing our crowns later on. More than likely though, what James is communicating is not a crown like this, but it's actually more of like a a first century Roman Olympic crown.
You've probably seen it before. It's just a simple like silver band with some leaves on it, and they kinda go up like this. And and if you were an Olympian and you were to win your sport or your event, they might put a victor's crown on you. It's a very simple crown, not like a Caesar crown, not like something like this. This is really bougie.
Nothing like that. And he's not literally saying you're going to receive the crown of life either. We're not. Oh my goodness. I cannot wait to get to heaven.
Mine's gonna be gold. Mine's gonna be pink. That's not what he's talking about. This term crown of life is used elsewhere in the scriptures. In first Corinthians nine twenty five, this is what Paul says about the crown of life.
He says, everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. So what is the crown that lasts forever very simply in the Christian life? It's eternal life. It is life with God forever.
That is the crown of life. The crown of life is knowing Jesus, having your sins forgiven, being set free, filled with the Holy Ghost, empowered to be his witnesses in order. That is the crown of life already. And when you come to know Jesus, according to John chapter three, you get born again. You get radically saved, and on that day, you receive eternal life.
You don't just have to wait until you die to receive eternal life. You start living it right now. That is the crown of life. Now I hope we get something cool in heaven just to go along. But but more than likely what James and Paul is saying throughout the scriptures, the crown of life is eternal life with God.
And and here's the interesting thing. The crown of life, because we're receiving that now. Right? We know Jesus. We've had our sins forgiven.
But there's another eschatological reality. In other words, there's another future reality of what he means. We know Christ now, but when he comes and we get to be with him forever, and he makes all things new, new heavens, new earth, and we get to live with him forever, that's the crown of life that we're all waiting on. Right? We are singing it this morning.
I love that song, come, Lord Jesus, come. The spirit and the bride say come. Why? Because we want to receive the lamb of God who is our crown. That's what we want.
But here's the interesting thing. The crown of life in this sense is an external reward. I don't know about you. If I'm just honest, sometimes I really struggle with the idea of receiving external blessings for my life and love with God. Sometimes I feel like my whole life with God and my whole devotion to God should be simply out of this pure devotion.
That God, I don't need anything else from you. I just love you so much. And and that's what should drive me to always be devoted to you. And sometimes though, we don't always feel that way. Right?
You wake up on a Tuesday and you're having a bad day, and you probably don't feel like you're pursuing the crown of life that day internally, and there's just this pure, you know, undefiled motivation in your heart. So this is something I've struggled with. I don't need a reward. I don't need a reward just to love Jesus. But sometimes we do.
Because sometimes we need an external reward in order for us to fix our eyes and remind ourselves of what's most important in life. And so what James is suggesting here is that this is not a bad thing, this is not a sinful thing, this is not a worldly thing, but keeping our eyes on the prize, if you will, eternal life with God can help us stay motivated, help us keep intact with spiritual integrity when we're faced with temptations and sufferings on earth. Very simply, you're going through a hard time here on the earth. You've lost a loved one. You've lost your job.
Someone called you ugly. I don't know what it is. Right? Someone cut you off in traffic. You're you're experiencing a genuine trial in your life.
And there's something about being able to fix your eyes back on Jesus And what's coming in the future reality of Jesus is going to make all things new. You can say, you know what? I'm having a hard time now, but I can I can fix my eyes on the crown of life? And I can hope for that, and I can desire for that. And that can bring you some sort of peace, if you will, while you're going through a trial here.
Something outside of our self. And this is doesn't mean for us to be passive about our lives where we just like get saved and then we don't like love or do anything for God and we just wait and you know, I just can't wait to go to heaven. That's not what it means. Like there's supposed to be an like an active waiting for him, kind of what we've discussed in the past few weeks. You know, those who wait upon the Lord.
This isn't just you waiting around. You wait on him. You serve him. You love on him while you're waiting on him to move. There's an activity you were supposed to participate in, and what James is trying to show us is that if we're going through trials in life, if we just remember what's coming, if we remember what he's promised, we're going to be able to persevere and endure a little bit more.
But here's the thing that that's really like blows me away about this passage. Look at the end of verse 12. Why do we receive this crown of life? He says, that God has promised to those who love him. We get the what, and then now we get the why.
Why do we receive this crown of life? Because he loves us. With a tremendous amount of love. I don't know if you've ever asked yourself, God, why me? God, why did you save me?
God, why did you pull me out of that thing? God, why do you love me so much? Why did you choose me, God? Just because he saw you and he loved you. Why did he choose Abraham or Abram at the time.
Right? There's nothing special about him. Some dude in the Middle East, yet God saw him and chose him and loved him. He just chose him. Why did God choose the nation of Israel?
They weren't special. They were the least in everybody's eyes, yet God looked upon them with grace and bestowed his power upon them and just loved them. Because he loves us. Why do you get to receive the crown of life? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
And who shall ever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. God just simply loves you. And that's why he wants to give you a crown. Again, back to the popsicle idea in my in the Herndon household. Do you know why I love giving popsicles to my girls?
Not only does it quiet them when they're not listening sometimes, but simply because I'm a father who loves to give good gifts to my kids. I love to give them popsicles because they love them, and I love them. So, hey, come here. Get a popsicle at noon. Get a popsicle at two.
Right? Then no more after that, because you'd go crazy if it's after 02:00. But I simply give gifts to my children just because I love them. And that's the same thing for us. We gonna we are going to receive the crown of life simply because he loves us.
You don't have to strive for this. He's already done all the work for you. You look upon the cross. You look upon our precious savior. You put your faith in him, and the benefits come to you.
Now, as James is going to explain and he has been explaining, there is an expectation on our part to walk the walk, but he just we simply receive the gift because he's chosen us and he loves us. Now, if I were, you know, if this was it and we just left today, that's good stuff, right? And that would be fine and dandy, know, oh, I'm just, if I persevere, I'll get the crown of life just because he loves me. But there's something else he says that's really actually probably the main thing in this text. I wanna look back to verse 13 with you.
Because verses 13 through 15 provide a potential reason why some of the people he was writing to were not going to receive the crown of life that had been promised to them, and why people don't become the first fruits that they ought to. Look back at James 13 through 15. It says this, no one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God. Since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.
Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. How many times have you been through something in your life and you pray something like this? God, why are you tempting me? Perhaps you said, you know what, I need to lose some weight. And you're, Lord, this Monday I'm starting a new diet.
And you show up to Kroger that day in the Tillamook ice creams buy one get one free. And you're saying God, why are you doing this to me? Why are you tempting me like that, right? It was actually really funny I said that because about a month ago, I was a, I don't know, remember what day it was, but I was fasting that day. And and usually when I fast, I usually just drink water and just black coffee, and that's it.
And I was with my mom, I had bought my mom something, I bought her some bougie latte from somewhere. She wanted a coffee drink. And and so we got there, we were hanging out and she's like, oh, this is so good. This is so delicious, Dallas. Do you want a sip?
And I'm sitting there like, you know, every time I fast, I feel like I get offered food like immediately that day and I said, no, no, no, no, thank you. I'm good today. She's like, are you sure? Like, don't you want some? I'm like, no, not today.
I'm not, you know, I'm not really feeling it, mother. And then because it's my mother and because mothers are nosy, God bless them, right? They're nosy. She's like, why don't you want it? You always want something sweet to drink.
Why don't you wanna try it? I'm like, I don't want it today. And she's like, why? I'm like, I'm fasting. And she's like, I suck.
I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pressed you like that. Now I feel, you know, I feel so bad. I'm sorry, son. And, I mean, that's a playful, you know, analogy, if you will.
But here's the important thing that it portrays. My mom wasn't tempting me. Right? I was in a trial. I was fasting.
That was my trial. And she had this beverage that I have an internal desire for. I have a desire for sweets. Lewis has been in my living in my house for a month and what do I eat almost every night? Ice cream.
Come on somebody. Ice cream. Tillamook mudslide, nothing like it. I have an internal desire for ice cream. And so when she asked me that, that internal evil desire, if you will, for something sweet came up and I began fighting it.
I could feel it trying to drag me out of my fast. It was trying to help me, you know, not accomplish what I wanted to accomplish. And I love that word he uses here. He says, dragged. I wanna show you my fishing pole.
Well, is not my fishing pole, it's my daughter's fishing pole. And so what he says right here in the text, he says, but each person, verse 14, but each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. This is a fishing illustration actually. People would have understand this is a fishing. And so this is the idea that that that that James has just simply put out, God doesn't tempt us.
Okay? God is good, perfect, and holy. There's no sin and evil in him in him. He doesn't tempt you. My mom wasn't tempting me that day, but I was tempted because of something inside myself.
So God doesn't tempt you, and so he says, you're being dragged away by your own internal desires simply like this. You go fishing, you know, you get your pole out and wet the line. And you know, the fish, you know, dry you know, drives by. They don't drive. Fish swims by the bait.
And the fish is, oh, that's a pretty bait. But it kinda feels this pull towards it. But it, you know, I shouldn't do that. Then the fish swims again. Maybe I should just nudge it.
Oh, I nudged it. Oh, that that was good. You know, I shouldn't do it again though. And the fish swims back again and takes a big bite. And this is when you know, you know, you're like, oh, I might have something on the line.
And then finally the fish has that evil internal desire and says, I really want whatever that is. I'm just gonna take a big bite. And all of a sudden, bam. Well, this is what's supposed to work. There's a magnet.
There we go. Now the fish is caught and dragged away into my net to be smoked on my smoker. If you got any trout, let me know and this would, this would be a great dinner we could have. And so that's what James is trying to paint for us, that God doesn't tempt anyone. Get that out of your head today.
Now, it's okay to pray, God, why am I going through this? Nothing wrong with that. The Psalms are riddled with why God prayers. Nothing wrong with why God prayers. But what we cannot do is says, God, why are you tempting me?
He's not tempting you. People say, well, why did God put this tree in the middle of the Garden Of Eden? He was tempting them. No, he was not. He was giving them a choice.
It was Satan that brought the temptation and their own internal desire for power, their own entire internal desire to be like God instead of listening to God, even though they were already like God, came up, and they decided to take that fruit because of something within them. And so what James is trying to tell us is that each person can be tempted away and drawn away enticed by their own evil desire, just like this fish. But here's the scary part of what he says. He says, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
We all have these evil desires within us. All these competing, what I call disordered desires. Look at your neighbor and say disordered. And so look, very clear. If you come to know Jesus, you are saved, filled with God's presence, God's spirit.
You're saved. You're covered by the blood. But we all know, even though we're saved, there's some things in us God's still trying to work out. Right? And so I don't want you to, oh, I'm a sinner.
I'm gonna go to hell. No, you're not. If you know Jesus, you're completely saved. There's things in you that he's trying to get out. And for me, as I've already made it known, I love sweets.
This is why ladies at the church when they hey, I'm gonna make you a cake. I really don't need one, because I'll eat it all. And then I'll get fat. And then I won't fit in my suit I wore two weeks ago. Okay?
I don't wanna do that. That's one of my struggles, but all of us have different struggles and different disordered desires within us. It could be money, that you really trust in your money and you wanna lust after money to get more money and you just have this you're being dragged away by the pursuit of riches. Could be sexual temptation that you struggle in this area and it's dragging you away. It wants to devour you.
It could be comfort. Some of us are being persuaded internally just to be comfortable. Almost to be just be lazy, just take it easy. That that the Lord's actually calling you. He's putting there's a trial that you're going through for you to work hard to go through something difficult, and that there's an internal desire in you to just take it easy.
And the Lord wants to get that out because he wants you to be fruitful. Right? It could be laziness. It could be judging others. It could be a desire for glory.
There's so many different things of these different disordered desires that we all have. And when the Lord allows us can you look at your neighbor and say, allows? Okay. This is important concept. Y'all remember back in Old Testament, there's that guy named Job that I thought was Job as a kid, Job?
Job, probably the best story probably in all the Bible on this subject other than Jesus himself. And Job encounters a trial that God allows to happen. Satan comes before him, however that works. Satan comes before God, and Satan's complaining and yapping as he does, and God says, have you considered my servant Job? He's a righteous and upright man.
You can't get him. You you can't get him. And the devil's like, you know, I can't get him because you'd be protecting him. How about we play a little game and see what happens? You could read that story and say, well God's tempting Job.
He is not. But he allows the trial, he allows the test to happen, why? Because he loves us. And he wants to allow us to be conformed into the image of son. The scripture says he chastens though he loves.
Why do I spank my daughter when she's not listening? Because I love her. Because I don't want her to grow up and be a bum. Right? Right?
That's why. We go through trials, we go through tests because God loves us. It's not, and and God allows it to happen and sometimes we bring our own trials on ourselves. Sometimes we just open our mouth too much and the trial comes, right? Some trials are from God.
He allows them to happen in his divine providence, if you will. And sometimes we bring upon themselves. But regardless, this the trial or the temptation is not from God. It comes from our own internal desires, our own sinfulness that God's trying to get out, and the evil one trying to persuade you to give in to that instead of giving in to God. And if we're not careful, if we don't keep our eyes on the prize, then we can find ourselves being dragged away, just like this fish, a little by little by little until sin is given birth.
And when it gives birth, it gives What does it say? What does he see back in the text? He says, I've lost my place. It says, it gives birth to death. And so it's a weird thing to think about that you can have eternal life and be dragged away by your sinful desires and then experience death.
We've all known Christians who love God, who serve God, and for whatever reason, they're not serving them anymore. And many of them, I can guarantee it, they were being slowly dragged away by some disordered desire in them. They felt a little pull. They knew it wasn't right, but they gave into it. They felt it a little bit more, and they kept walking away.
And before you know it, they completely leave the faith. They completely hate God. They don't want anything to do with God and the church, and they're dragged away into sin and potentially death. And so here's the important thing that I want you to listen to from C. S.
Lewis here. Would y'all pull that quote up for me back there? A lot of us think like you just you just like fall into this trap of sin and then you're dead. But it's not the way it works. This idea of being dragged away slowly works like this.
I love how C. S. Lewis put put it in the screw tape letters. He says, indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slope, soft underfoot with sudden turnings, without milestones or without signposts.
The enemy just wants to just persuade you little by little, get dragged away. Don't listen to God. Do what you want. And your internal desire just gives into that over and over and over. And you find yourself dragged away and potentially leading to death and not getting to receive the crown of life that is due you.
So we must be aware of the disordered desires that are in us that the Lord's trying to get out of us. And so, to wrap this passage up, as we go into verse 16, this section, stop giving the devil so much credit for your temptations. The devil's a tempter. The devil's going around like a roaring lion trying to devour those he can. But stop giving him so much credit.
Stop giving God so much credit for the trial. You're probably the problem. You're going through a particular trial over and over again. There's something in you that keeps being attracted to that thing and pulling you away. You have to deal with yourself.
And that's what James wants us to do. He's saying, look, there's a crown of life, but buddy, you gotta look inside. You got some things you gotta work on. My friends, I got thing I got things I gotta work on. I got things I gotta work on for sure.
All of us do. And I don't wanna be dragged away and not receive the thing that is dooming. Now, important though, he doesn't leave it on a nasty note, if you will. He brings it all together in verse 16. Look back at verse 16 with me.
It says, don't be deceived, my brothers, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Unlike God giving something like bad temptations, which again, he doesn't do, rather, God is the author and the source of everything good and perfect, since he himself is good and perfect. And God loves to give incredibly good things in your life.
Raise your hand if God's been good to you. Raise your hand if you've been blessed with more than you deserve. Raise your hand if you can say, I'm not perfect, but God is. Right? Like, I can testify.
And what James is trying to get us to communicate, look, God's not evil. God's not hating on you. God actually loves you. And everything good in your life somehow comes from him. Because that's his nature.
What was his nature? In the beginning, he created all things. He created this good and perfect world and gave it to us. And that's why that's probably why the the scripture says he does not change like shifting shadows has to do with creation, that God's created this good and perfect world. Even though when on this side of sin and on this side of the garden, we see all the bad and all the disordered desires and what is done in the earth, but the world in in in the beginning was good and perfect and holy, and so was God.
And so he's just being reminded, don't be don't be don't be deceived. God's not out to get you. God's actually trying to bless you. He wants to be good to you. He's perfect, good, and holy, and everything good and perfect and holy comes from him.
And then that last verse, which brings us all together. He says, by his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would become of kind of first fruits of his creators. Do you all know what first fruits are? Right. The first fruits that begin to appear on a tree or something that you're growing.
And so, what you are, Kim, what you are, Louis, what you are, sister Patty, we are first fruits of God's redemptive work in the earth. Meaning, we look at this world and it looks like it's gone to hell in a handbasket. Right? This world is bad. There's sin, there's death, there's evil, there's murder, you name it.
Yet through Christ, what he accomplished on the cross, dealing with our sin, shame, and guilt, setting us free to live into the kingdom of God, the life that he has available to us, to have eternal life, he himself is trying to create in us to be the first fruits of new creation. Because there's coming a day when there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. But before that comes and everything that we know it gets made new, he's making you new. He's making you like a new creation. He's transforming you.
And so, that's something we should take pride in, if you will, as we looked at last week. He is trying to use us, the church, Christians, as a model of what he's going to be doing for eternity. That's why it's so important for us to lean into the book of James. Because right next week, he's gonna hit us really hard. And that's when we're gonna get to our passage, be doers of the word, not just hearers of the word.
Why do we wanna be doers of the word? Why do we actually wanna obey God? Why do we actually wanna love God? Why do we actually want to do what the word of God says? Because we are becoming first fruits.
He wants you to become a first fruit, Kenny. That everywhere you go, when people see your life, how you talk, how you spend money, how you treat your wife, etcetera, they look at you and say, there's something different about this man. There's a different spirit to him. He's like a first fruit of something that I wish everybody would experience. He's making us first fruits.
And that's why, as we bring it all together, as Keaton comes up, that's why we go back to the beginning and be reminded of this truth. Verse twelve one more time. Blessed is the one who endures trials because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. My friends, God so loves you That he sent his only son to die for you so that you could be born again and live with him forever. That you could become a type of first fruits displaying to the world what happens when God gets ahold of you.
Because some of us here used to be nasty. I don't know about you, I used to be nasty before I, God really got a hold of me. And there's still aspects of me that are still nasty inside. I still got disordered desires, but there's been a clear difference from who I was fifteen years ago, who I was ten years ago, who I was five years ago. Because I'm becoming first fruits.
And so if I'm growing weary, if I'm feeling dragged away, I need to be simply reminded that the Lord wants to make me the first fruits of his creation, and that if I just persevere, that if I just endure, that if I just keep my eyes fixed on the crown of life himself, then I will receive life with him forever. And that's one of the hardest things to take hold of in scripture. Jesus says in Matthew twenty four thirteen, he says, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. It doesn't matter how you start the race. It matters how you finish.
It doesn't matter if you stumble along the way either. Doesn't matter if you have to get up. Righteous man falls seven times, but he gets up eight. It doesn't matter. It's about enduring and persevering to the end.
I love this last verse to bring this all together. In Revelation chapter two verse 10, listen to the words of Jesus himself. He says, do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer or the test or trial that you're going through. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death and I will give you life as your victor's crown.
Amen. We must endure to the end my friends. Some of you all here are, some of you here today are older than me. Just a few of you all. Right?
Even though I have less hair than many of you all. Many of you all in your last stages of life. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but but you're you're you're not a spring chicken anymore. And there's coming a day where you'll get to see Jesus. And so my exhortation to you is finish strong.
Persevere to the end. Don't show up in heaven with a half tank. Show up empty, that you laid it all out there, that you persevered to the end, that you didn't just wait on it to happen, you went after Jesus every single day. Persevere to the end. Don't be persuaded to take it easy.
Go after him as hard as you can. And I know, my friends, your body, some of y'all's bodies don't work like they used to. Them hips hurt, bags hurt, everything hurts. Right? But my encouragement to you is whatever you can do to fix your eyes on Jesus and participate in what he's doing, do it.
If you have a hard time praying, just pray as much as you can. Right? Whatever it is, persevere. And young people in the room, you're young. I'm young.
What's up, people? You're young still, even though y'all keep saying that you're kinda getting old. You're not. Okay? To the young people, we have to not grow weary in what we're doing, and we not have to grow complacent in what we're doing.
We have a long race to run, and hopefully, we get to live a long time. I hope the Lord Jesus comes back sooner. But if I had to live to 100, I want to run the race with endurance all the way to that end. I don't wanna be persuaded or pulled away by the things of the earth. I don't want my disordered desires to derail me from my gift I'm supposed to receive.
So to the old and to the young, to all of us in the room, we are called to persevere to the end. You have a crown waiting on you. He's up there, the crown of glory. He the one who stepped into this room today and touched us. We're gonna get to be with him ever, but we must endure to the end.
We must have stood, having stood the test all the way to the end of the race. Amen? Look at your neighbor and say, keep your eyes on the prize. That's this week, that's what I want you to do. If you're feeling a pull towards something, if you're in a test or a trial, just be reminded, I have a prize.
I'm gonna get a popsicle, heavenly popsicle. Praise God. I have a prize waiting on me, and there's nothing in this life that's gonna take it away from me. So I will crucify my flesh. I would die to how I feel so that I may be with him forever.
Amen? Amen.