We continue today in the book of James, having begun last week, our series for the summer in James. And today we want to deal with verses 13 through 18 of chapter 1. We want to read that. And as always, I'll ask you to stand in honor of the reading of God's word. It's James chapter 1 verses 13 through 18. I urge you to listen and listen carefully and intently because this is the very Word of God. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. This is the word of the Lord. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Please be seated. I've shared with you before my fear, sometimes bordering on terror, as a young child when my parents would tell me that I had to get a penicillin shot. And I remember very clearly the time when my mother just couldn't stand it. I was so afraid. So she said, well, we're not going to get that shot today. And she took me home. And I thought, wow, victory. And we went home. And I had a strep throat. And of course, it didn't get any better. It wasn't going to get better until I got that medicine. And so a couple of days later, my parents took me back into the doctor, and the doctor was kind of, had a smug smile on his face. I knew you'd be back. And he said, OK, you need to get a shot. We're going to give you a shot. And I started to buck up again. And I remember my dad explained to me. He said, son, this isn't going to get any better. And that shot, the pain of that shot is only going to last a little bit of time. But if you don't get this shot, this could affect your heart. This could go into something called rheumatic fever. And you might die from that. You're not going to die if we get this medicine to you. Would you rather die or would you rather have just a little bit of pain right now? When he explained it that way, I said, you know, as I thought about it, I think I'll take the pain right now. But I needed that explanation because what that explanation did was it gave me a perspective on this situation. Before, all I could think about was the pain. But what I needed was a perspective. And that's what James is giving us here in this passage. He's giving us a perspective on what he's talked about before on trials. The translation doesn't really do, in most translations here, don't really do us a favor. I understand why it's translated the way it is, but what we need to understand is that James is talking about, in this passage, the same thing he was talking about in the last passage. The English translations use a different word. It says, when tempted. Let no one say when he's tempted. But the word that when tempted is the same word that is used when you face many various trials. It's exactly the same word in the Greek. And when I was studying this the first time to speak on this, I noticed that and I was thinking, you know, he's not talking about two different things here. He's not changing the subject. He's talking about dynamics that have to do with exactly the same thing. So everything we talked about, about trials, trials being the testing of our faith, And what that means, everything we talked about last week, we bring to bear on understanding this passage today. He's talking about, and I'm going to go ahead and say trials. We could call them temptations, and we're gonna unfold that a little bit more as we talk about the passage. But what he's giving us here in this passage is a perspective on trials that we need. He's giving us an overall view that we need to bring to bear when we face trials. And so the question that I want us to ask today is this, what are the elements of a helpful perspective on trials? What things do we need to understand as we experience trials? What things do we need to have in our minds and filter those experiences that we filter those experiences through as we think about and as we deal with trials? Well, as usual, three things. First, we need to understand the complex source of trials. We need to understand the complex source of trials. And we see that in verses 13 and 14. He says, don't say, let anyone say, I'm being tempted by God. And then he talks about the nature of God. God cannot be tempted by evil and God tempts no one. God is perfectly righteous. And so we could say trials. God is not the factor that makes trials trials. I think that's the best way to say it. I say, okay, and why is that? God is not trying to get us to trip up. He's not trying to get us, when we face trials, remember what it was a trial? It's a testing of your faith. It's a situation that presents a challenge. A challenge to act or to think in a way that's different from what we say we believe as Christians. In a way that's contrary to the truth of God that's been revealed to us in His Word. And so what James is saying is that when we face that trial, the fact that it's a trial is not due to the fact that God is trying to get us to act or to think in a way contrary to the faith. God's not doing that because God is righteous, and God wants us to be righteous, and God never tries to get us to act unrighteously. That's not the factor. That's not what's making a situation a trial. Okay? But we need to understand, having said that, that behind this passage is what we've already seen. and that is that there is a purpose in our trials. Now, James doesn't explicitly say it anywhere here in the passage, but you remember we're to count it all joy when we face this challenge. That living a life of faith is difficult, we face challenges to do that, we should count it all joy. Why? Because that makes us stronger, that produces endurance when we face those trials faithfully. Now, then does that catch God by surprise that we're facing these situations? No. Even though James doesn't say it explicitly, God has a purpose in trials. God has ordained that we are going to face trials for that good purpose. That's implicit here in the passage. And so we need to see that James is saying the fact that you have trials, the fact that you're tempted to do evil in the midst of that trial, that it's a challenge to your faith, That's not due to God. That's not God's fault. The fact that you're tempted in the midst of a trial, if we want to use both words. But God does have a role in those trials. And so, here's the thing. I want to deal with that first. God has a role. And we see this in scripture. And we see it explicitly in some places. For instance, think about Job. Did Job experience trials? Absolutely he did. Did Satan have a purpose in creating a situation for Job in bringing all these things, these bad things upon him? Did Satan have a purpose to get Job to do evil? To get Job to curse God to his face? Yes, Satan had predicted, that's what will happen if you do this. He was trying to get Job to do that. To prove a point about the nature of God. Whether God was worthy to be worshipped if God didn't bribe you. But also, you notice in the story of Job, who brings up Job to Satan in the first place? It's God. And God was the one who instigated this whole thing for his own glory. And so God had a purpose. God was not taken by surprise by what Satan did. God's the one who mentions Job to Satan, and God has a purpose not only for his own glory, but for Job's good, for Job to go through that experience. Now we see this explicitly also in the New Testament. And we've read about Jesus being tempted today. and how Jesus as our High Priest knows what it means to be tempted. And theologically, there's the question among theologians about the impeccability of Jesus. That is, could Jesus sin? Jesus being God, could He sin? Well, the Bible here says God can't be tempted by evil. He doesn't do evil. He can't do evil. He's righteous by definition. And Jesus being God, could He have done evil? Well, in one sense, we say no. And that's referred to as the impeccability of Jesus. Jesus could not sin. But if He couldn't sin, then the logical question is, well, how could He be tempted then? Could He really be tempted? Well, there is an answer to that. And I'm tempted to give you the answer and to go into it, but we've talked about it before. Maybe you'll remember that. I'm not going to go into it now just for sake of time. But if you want to know the answer to that question, ask me and I'll give it to you. Because there is, I think, a pretty easy answer to understand. But we know that Jesus could be tempted because the Bible says He was tempted. And we read that too out of Hebrews. He was tempted in every way like as we are, yet without sin. That yet without sin is very important because Jesus didn't have a sinful nature. And so what we need to see in terms of what we're about to talk about, about man's role in temptation, that's not true for Jesus because Jesus didn't have a sin nature. But we know that he was tempted. I'll give you a partial part of the answer. Hebrews says he was tempted, but so does Matthew chapter 4 and other accounts of this in the gospel. It says that Jesus was led into the wilderness just before, right after he was baptized, just before his public ministry, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted by, or by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. Now there you see you have both of them. Who led him into the wilderness? The Holy Spirit. Why? To be tempted by the devil. Who's tempting him? The devil. The Holy Spirit's not tempting him. The devil's tempting him. But God had a purpose in that. And we're not preaching on Matthew 4, so I'm not going to get into that. What was God's purpose in that? But He had a purpose. And God had a role. And so you see, both are involved here. God has, and here's the thing we need to see. God has a good purpose in trials. God has a good purpose in the testing of your faith. We've seen that, okay? But then secondly, we need to see that man has a role too. Man has a role too. And again, it's this complex source, okay? Some things are more complex. I talk about this as a proximate cause and an ultimate cause. Some illustrations of this are better than others, but when I think about this, sometimes I think about the movie Hoosiers. And if you remember in the movie Hoosiers, there's a coach who's coming in. He's a failed, well, he's a successful college coach, but he's been fired because of his fiery temperament. And all he can get is this job in this obscure high school in the country in Indiana. And he takes this small country school basketball team, and they win the Indiana State Championship. But on the way, one of the players has an alcoholic father. who was really knowledgeable about basketball, a really good high school basketball player himself. But he's down and out, and he's an alcoholic, he's drunk. And so this coach tries to help him out. tries to give him a chance to do something productive. And he said, you've got to clean yourself up, but I want you to be an assistant coach for us. And so he does it. He cleans himself up, but he's wrestling with his alcoholism. And he's there. And the coach is saying, how do I help him out? I'm going to make it so that he has to stand on his own two feet. and I'm not going to be there. So that will bring out his ability to help and to coach and to teach these boys. And so the way he does it is he's gotten kicked out of games because he's so fiery. And the officials know it. And the officials have gotten where they're on a hair trigger and kicking him out of basketball games. And they're not always fair. about it. And he knows that. And so in the course of one of the basketball games, he intentionally starts arguing a call. And under his breath, he says to the official, kick me out of the game. And he knows that he's on a hair trigger to do it. So he says, OK. And he kicks him out right away. And the assistant coach, he's just scared to death. He said, what am I going to do? The coach is out. I'm in charge now. And he ends up leading them to victory with a little bit of a nudge and showing that he has the ability to do this. And he proves himself to himself. And the coach knows that he's going to do this. Now, it's a great story. It's inspirational. But you look at that situation and you ask, OK, what was it that led to that man's being able to prove himself? And really, you can say, what was it? Well, it was the kicking the coach out of the game. What was it that led to the kicking out the coach out of the game? Was it the fact that the officials knew that he's fiery, and they're on a hair trigger, and they want to kick him out? Was that it, that the officials aren't fair? Well, yeah, it was that. But more than that, it was he had a purpose behind it. It was both. It wasn't just the officials, that was the proximate cause, but the ultimate cause was his purpose in wanting to get kicked out of the game. And so they're both working together. See, it's kind of complex. That's how our trials work. And so what James describes here is man's role in the trials. Why is it that, what is really happening when we experience trials. Well James says, each one is tempted, verse 14, when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Here's what I want you to see before we move on to the next point. You have an evil desire within you. And we could speculate and I think we could stand on some solid ground from the revelation of scripture asking why has God, when he saves us, why does he leave a sin nature in us? Why doesn't he just purify us like that? And I think part of the answer to that is this whole dynamic of trials, that we experience these trials. God means for us to experience them. Because if we didn't experience them, there are a lot of things we wouldn't understand at a deep level that we come to understand by having our faith tested. And when we come to the place where we're increasingly overcoming in those tests. And so, however we answer that question, we need to understand God has left in us a sin nature. And that should have an effect on us. For one thing, it should make us very, very skeptical of our own judgments, apart from the Word of God. Today, you see, it's very popular, almost now, especially in Christian circles, for people to say, this feels right. This is right. Follow your heart. And the assumption is whatever my heart is telling me, whatever my feelings are telling me, whatever my sensibilities are telling me, that must be right and that must be God. We have people telling us who are Christians, professing Christians, that I just feel, I know I'm in a man's body, but I just feel like I'm a woman, or I know I'm in a woman's body, but I just feel like I'm a man. If I feel that, it can't be wrong. Listen, let me tell you something. People have forgotten the sin nature. We've forgotten that we have a sin nature. And even if you're a Christian, you still have a sin nature. And what that should do is it should make you utterly skeptical of your own judgments and your own feelings apart from what God's Word says. But we all need to hear that because we all tend to go by our feelings. We think our feelings are infallible. And what Christians, what the world needs to hear today is again that old doctrine of sin. We're sinners. And we need to come to grips. Living a life of faith means coming to grips with the evil desire that is still there in our hearts. So that's one. That's part of the perspective. We need to understand God has a role in trials. We have a role in trials. We need to understand how those work, how they fit together, and that both are in play whenever we're facing trials. And then secondly, we must understand the potential danger in trials. The potential danger in trials. That's what James gets into next in verse 15. He says, this desire, when desire, when it has conceived, and here it's like giving birth. You have this desire, it's latent there in your heart, but when it gives birth, it begins to produce something. It's when you coddle it, when you go along with it, when you decide, I'm gonna nurture this desire, I'm gonna follow this desire, then when it conceives, when it is conceived, when it gives birth to something, and what is that? It gives birth to sin. That's when we sin. This evil desire is expressed. We give in to it. it gives birth to sin. Now that would be bad enough if we took sin as seriously as God does. If we took that word and that concept, sin, and we kept in our minds what sin really is. Sin is, and let's pause for a second and let's clarify that for ourselves. What is sin? Maybe you've heard the word so much that it doesn't mean much to you anymore. But let me tell you, sin is shaking your fist in the face of the Creator. I'll never forget being in a class with R.C. Sproul and he said it this way, you have to realize sin is cosmic treason. You are rebelling against the Lord of the Universe. You are rebelling against the One who made you and owns you, who formed you in the womb. You have the impertinence to say, I'm not going to go your way to the only one to whom we have absolute obligation to obey in the slightest detail of what He wants for us. That is cosmic impertinence. So it should be enough that James says, this desire when it is conceived brings forth sin. If we understood what that really meant in its fullness, we would recoil in horror. But that's not all. He says, sin when it is fully grown, and this is what God was saying to Cain, sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Death. And friends, death is not a laughing matter. We do everything we can in our culture not to think about death, to sanitize it, to insulate ourselves from its reality. But death is ugly. And death being ultimately separation from God, alienation from God and from each other. You know what death is in its essence? Sin is, I think one way of describing sin is self-centeredness. We only think about ourselves. Everything is, I've got to gratify myself. I've got to gratify my desires. Everything is about me, me, me, me. You know what death is? Death is when God gives you that. Death is when you have nothing but yourself. You're utterly alone. It is outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that's, you may think, that living for yourself and orienting everything around yourself is paradise. No, it's ultimate terror. Because God didn't make us for ourselves. He made us for Him and for each other. in contrast to death is relationships. And so there's a process here. That evil desire, here's the perspective, that evil desire, if you give into it, if you follow it, and you follow that process, it leads to something utterly horrible. That's the perspective we need. I remember when I was a child, my mother was very afraid that we as children would somehow get into the draino underneath the sink and drink it and die. We'd get into some kind of poison somewhere. And she was practically paranoid about it. And it really wasn't paranoia, because such things happen, and that is a real danger. But what she didn't realize was that wasn't a danger for me, because I had seen something on television where somebody had ingested some poison. And I saw them die of poison. I can't remember if it was a commercial or a TV show or something like a public service announcement or what. But it showed somebody actually dying of having ingested poison. And they were in agony, you know. Esophagus was burning up. And I watched that and I was just terrified from that moment on of getting poison. You know, I was scared that maybe some poison would get into a glass that my parents were giving me to drink, you know, with a meal. Did you clean that out? What was in that glass first? I mean, I'm asking, she had no idea. From that moment on that I saw that commercial, I was never ever again going to be in any danger of drinking anything that I didn't know exactly what it was. And you see, That's the perspective that God wants us to have. That's why James is saying this. He's saying, look, you need to be that terrified. You need to be more terrified than that of where your evil desire will lead you. It leads to death. See, that's what Jesus was saying. Jesus is trying to get this into people's minds. And by the way, have you noticed already? If you read through James, It's almost like James has the Sermon on the Mount before him, and he's just kind of amplifying it. Because virtually everything James says, there's something in the Sermon on the Mount that corresponds to it. And do you remember where Jesus says about sin, and he's talking about sin, and he's saying, look, it's like getting rid of sin is like plucking out a right eye, or cutting off a right hand. And he says, and then, you know, this is painful. It's painful. It's hard to deal with sin. I like my hand. I like my eye. But then Jesus talks about the stakes that are involved and he makes it very clear and he says, it's better for you, it would be better for you to enter heaven lame or half blind than for both body and soul to be cast into hell. to be cast into hell with an eye and with that right hand. And there you see He is laying before us the stakes of this battle. It's not, the stakes aren't, you know, it might not, you might suffer some bad consequences. No, sin leads to death. If you coddle sin, if you indulge sin, that's where it's leading. And at the least, it leads to a kind of death that necessitates a process where you confess sin, and I hope this is going on in every one of your lives regularly, where you confess sin, you acknowledge it, and there is a healing, and there is a reconciliation, and a restoration of relationship with God. At the very least, you experience death, and that every time you sin, that relationship, that close relationship with God is injured. and it requires reconciliation. That's why periodic confession of sin has to be a part of your life. And I'm talking about not just sin in general, but specific sin, where you are as a discipline saying, God, I've committed this sin and I did this. I murdered that person in my heart. I was angry in a wrong way. I lusted in my heart. I stole somebody's reputation that belonged to somebody else because I took credit for something that they deserve credit for. You know, where we specifically talk about our sins, we confess them, and we call them what God calls them. We need to do that. And the reason we need to do that is because we need to come to this perspective where we see sin as God sees it. That's the perspective that James is trying to give us. Sin is serious. Sin is serious because it's serious to God. It leads to death. But then finally we need to see this, that we must understand the divine purpose in trials. And we see that in verses 16 through 18. There is a divine purpose as we've seen before. And here's where we could run into trouble. And James anticipates that trouble. Because look what he says in verse 16, he says, Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Now when you see that in Scripture, that is a sit up and take notice moment. Because there's a potential for deception that he's pointing out. What's the deception? Well, the rest of the next two verses really flesh that out. The way we could be deceived though, basically it has to do with the good purpose of God and the goodness of God. When we face trials, very often, listen, we can think a couple of different things. I think at least this is what James is talking about. He may be talking about some other things, but here at least, given what he says in the succeeding verses, this is what he's saying. First, we could say that we could be tempted to think God's purpose in this isn't good. And there are plenty of people who will say that today. They'll say they will attack the nature of God. They will say, you know, if there is a God, His purpose isn't always good. God's kind of a cosmic sadist, and He just loves to sit there. He's watching the drama like somebody watching a movie, and He enjoys watching us struggle, and He enjoys our pain, and He's kind of a sadist. He doesn't care, in other words. He doesn't care what's good for us. You know, the old dichotomy, the old dilemma that unbelievers always like to point out. God can't be all powerful and all good at the same time. If He's all powerful, He's not all good. What about evil? Why is there evil? And there's an answer to that. We're not going to go into the depths of the answer, but there's a partial answer. We've already seen part of the answer. But if God is all-powerful and God is God, He's not all good. And this is what Satan told Eve. Look, God doesn't want... He's keeping the fruit of the tree from you because He knows it's good. It's the best. It's the best thing there is. If you eat it, you'll be like God. God's keeping Godness all to Himself. He's hoarding it. He doesn't want you to have it. So he's not really good. That's what Satan said. And you may think, well, I wouldn't believe something that absurd. But let me ask you something. Do you ever envy what other people have? Do you ever wish that your life were like somebody else's? Do you ever look at the gifts or the endowments that somebody else has and think it's just not fair that they should have that and I don't? I'm comparatively inferior. What we're really saying when we think things like that is we're thinking, God, your purpose really isn't good. I have a better plan. And I wish you'd given me what that person had, because the food always looks better on the other person's plate. Listen, we all think that way sometimes. And the cure for that is the perspective that James has given us here. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived in that way. Now, what he said, we're getting to it, OK? But the other thing we might think is that trials aren't good. We can be deceived in thinking trials aren't good. I'm going through this difficulty, and listen, this is a big one for me. I don't know if I'll ever, ever get this straight in my life. I don't know if I ever will in this life. But I'm just like the Israelites. I complain. I complain at this or that situation. And whether I'm consciously doing it or not, because of what I believe about God, what I'm really saying is, God, do you know what you're doing? You have a good person. You're doing me good. All things work together for good. Are you kidding? This, this illness, this disability, this difficulty with my children, This difficulty with finances? You mean this for my good? Are you kidding? And we doubt it? We're doubting God. And James says to us, when we think those types of things, he says, don't be deceived. And then what does he talk about? He talks about the nature of God. he goes into the nature of God. And the first thing he talks about in verse 17 is the goodness of God. We've already sung about that today. What does he say? Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Now why does he talk about change and shadow? Like the heavenly lights He's talking about like a sundial. Why does a sundial work? Because the sun goes and it shifts and it changes and it produces different shadows and the light's different. Sometimes it goes down beyond the horizon and it's dark. That's how the heavenly lights are. That's how the created lights are. But the one who is the source of the created lights, the one who is light, who dwells in inapproachable light, that light doesn't change. He doesn't change. He doesn't shift. In other words, what that means is God is always good. We've proclaimed it today. His steadfast love endures forever. Let those words sink into your heart. That is who God is. God delights to do us good. And that doesn't change. God doesn't say, hmm, today, you know, I think I'm gonna create some problems in such and such's life so I can just kind of enjoy it, see what happens, see how he deals. No, God doesn't do that. God's not like that. God is always good. And everything good that comes from him, everything good in your life comes from him. If there's something good in your life, it comes from God. But let me say this, a lot of things that you don't think are good, really are good. A lot of things that you just think, you know, I could do without that, in the providence of God, they're in your life. The truth is, if they weren't in your life, you wouldn't have something exceedingly good that God is giving you through that. That's the truth. Every good and perfect gift comes from God who is always good. I have an illustration of that, but I'm going to close with it for sake of time. But then James closes with this. He talks about the purpose of God. And this is really important because this leads into the next section. Okay? So this is a bridge. But look at what he says here in verse 18. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. And when He says brought us forth, some translations say He gave us birth. We were born again. That's what He's talking about. He's talking about the new birth. He said, He gave us birth through the Word of Truth. Now listen, we get into the whole sovereignty of God here and I'm going to say this, God, listen, how many of you decided to be born? One day you were sort of in limbo or something, I think I'll be born. Nobody did that. Your parents made a decision, and before that even God made a decision. Same thing with a new birth. Nobody decides to be born again. You're not born again because you decide to believe and then you're born again. No, you're born again in order so that you might believe. If you weren't born again, you couldn't believe. You couldn't do anything good. And God, of His own will, decided that you would be born again. He gave us birth. Of His own will, not our will, of His own will, He brought us forth, He gave us birth. How? By the Word of Truth. When you hear the Word of Truth, when you hear the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit's work in that internal call of God to you intersects with the external call of the Word of God, you're born again. God did that. God did that of His own will. Why? that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all His creation. What does that mean? The firstfruits were the part of the harvest or the part of a person's possessions that was offered to God. It was the first part and the best. It was offered to God because it belongs to Him as a token of the fact that everything belongs to Him. And we recognize that. We present it to Him. And so the redeemed of the world are intended to be a firstfruits to God that honor Him. And that's His purpose for us. And do you realize that purpose doesn't ever change? When did God decide He was going to regenerate you, if you have a new heart? When did He decide that? From before the foundation of the world. And He decided, this person's going to be for My glory. And He's going to come to a place where He reaches fruition in that life of glorifying Me. He's going to reach perfection. And that's God's purpose for you. And that purpose doesn't change. And so what that means is that everything, all of these trials, the perspective on trials is this. All of these things are contributing to that purpose that doesn't ever change. That's why God's doing everything in your life that He's doing. It's because of His ultimate purpose that began in space and time when you were born again. when you were regenerated, when you were given new life and a new heart by His Spirit. That was the beginning of the working out of this purpose and everything, including all these trials, is part of that purpose. Think about parents. Think about your parents. They're good parents. They have a purpose for you. They want what's good for you. They want you to be a good person, a righteous person. And they want you to be a healthy person so that you can serve God. And they want what's good for you. And you know what? As you grow up in your life, that good purpose is expressed in many different ways. It's expressed by making you do things you don't want to do. It's expressed by bringing pain into your life to discipline you. It's expressed in telling you to do all kinds of things that you don't know the reason why you're doing them. And some of them, why do I have to get up? Why do I have to make up my bed? Why do I have to wear clean clothes? Why do I have to take a bath? Why do I have to eat my green beans, for goodness sake? And on and on and on. But your life is full of those things, and your parents bring those things to bear on you because they want good for you. And there's a big percentage of them that you don't understand as you're growing up, but you understand later. God's the same. He has a purpose. He's working out that purpose in your life, and that includes pain. And that includes challenges. And that includes the fact that you're tempted because you've got a sin nature. But you've got to realize, it's because I have a sin nature and that's wrong. And what God has said in the Word of Truth, that's what guides me. That's what gives me a perspective about the way I must go. So that's the perspective you have to bring to bear. God has a good purpose. Now, I'm going to close. with an Andy Griffith illustration. Surprise, surprise. And I've shared this recently with several people, but not with everybody, so I'm going to share it with everybody now, because it's such a great story. Opie is Andy Taylor, the sheriff's, Opie is Andy's boy, and Opie's being bullied on his way to school. And there's a bully who's extorting his lunch money from him, his nickel for his lunch money from him. And Opie starts asking everybody, can you give me a nickel? And when he's already gotten his nickel for lunch money, and they started saying, hey, wait a minute, didn't you give him a nickel? What's he doing? And so they're wondering what's happening. And so Barney follows, goes out and follows Opie to school one day, and he sees this bully that's extorting the money from him. And he goes back and he tells Andy, he says, let's go to his parents, let's go to this boy's parents and we're going to nip this in the bud. And Andy says, no, no, that's not going to work. Because what happens next time, what happens when he gets older and he faces a situation like this? No, no, I've got to find another way. And so he thinks, and they go fishing, and it comes to Andy. He's going to tell him a story about something that happened. We don't know whether it's really true that it happened, but he tells a story about a fishing hole where they're fishing. They're having a great time, and he's saying, you know, I almost didn't have this fishing hole because there was a bully who told, you know, he talks about this bully who tried to get him to not to use that fishing hole and said it was his fishing hole. And how he was scared of it, he said, and Opie said, what'd you do? He said, well, I'm ashamed to say it, but I ran away. He said, why, why, why didn't you make him run away? He said, well, because I was scared, because he acted tough, and he said he was going to beat me up. And Opie said, oh, because he was experiencing the same thing. But then he says, you know, but I realized, it came to me, that what I was so afraid of really wasn't worth being afraid of at all. The next time I went, and he said that, I just said, no, I'm staying here. And I lit into him like a windmill into a tornado. He said, what'd he do? Well, he did exactly what he said he did. He gave me a play. He said, knuckle sandwiches? Yeah, yeah, knuckles. He said, but you know what? It didn't even hurt. And I lit into him. And you know what? We're fishing at this fishing hole, aren't we? He said, yeah. And I hope he starts to get it. He says, yeah, it's not that bad. And on the way home, he's thinking about it. He's saying, Dad, you sure it really didn't hurt? He said, not a bit. It didn't hurt at all. So the next day, Eddie's getting ready to go to work. He looks in the door, and there's Opie, standing there with a pile of clothes. And he says, Dad. I said, yes, son? He says, if something happened that got my clothes dirty. And he says, could you keep these clothes for me at the office? I said, why? He said, well, something happened that got my clothes dirty, all messy and dirty. I could have them there and I could go change. You know how Aunt Bea gets all mad if you get your clothes messy and dirty? She sure does kick up a fuss, doesn't she? She sure does. Okay, son, I'll keep them here at the office. He knows why he's asking, and he leaves, Opie leaves, and Andy's thinking about it, and he's half thinking, I've got to go talk to him, and he looks up, and Opie's back in the doorway, and he just hears his voice. You sure it didn't even hurt? He knows what he's about to go through, and he looks down at him, and he just reaches and grabs him and holds him in his arms. And they embrace, and then he sets him down. And they look at each other. There's a knowing look. You know what you got to do, son. And he leaves. Now it turns out fine. He has a fight, and he comes in with a black eye at the end of it. And he says, ain't it a butte, Dad? It didn't even hurt. Happy ending. Do you know why I love that story so much? It's such a great picture of how God deals with us, His children. He doesn't save us from all pain. He doesn't say, I'm going to swoop in and I'm going to insulate you from everything that's uncomfortable in your life. He says, no, I'm wise enough to know you've got to go through this, and I'm going to let you go through it. Because you're going to learn something from this. But it doesn't mean I love you any less. It doesn't mean that I don't know that it'll hurt. But I love you. And I love you as a wise father. And I let you go through these things for my purpose. And that brings us to this table. Because you might say, well, you know, that almost seems kind of cruel. That's not cruel. Because listen, you need to see this, and here's the ultimate part of your perspective. What God does for you, what God does with you in your trials, in your pain, and allowing that pain, He did with His own Son. He did with His only begotten Son. He said to His only begotten Son, you gotta go to the cross. Even when His Son was crying out to Him, Lord, if there's any other way, Father, if there's any other way, spare me. He said, no, you gotta go to the cross. For the joy set before Him. For the joy set before Him. And so as you come to this table, As you take this bread and you drink this cup, you are taking to yourself your union with Christ. He did this and He's calling you to walk the same path. He's calling you to deny yourself. He's calling you to endure the trials for the sake of the joy set before you. And so as a covenant renewal, This is what you are expressing when you eat and drink. I believe. I am taking hold of Christ by faith. And all the tests of my faith, by your strength and your strength, part of which is supplied here at this table, I am going to overcome. Sin is not going to overcome me. I am going to overcome. And you know what God promises in Revelation to the one who overcomes. Read the letters to the churches. to Him who overcomes. I will give the right to sit down with Me on My throne even as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." It does not get much better than that. In fact, it does not get any better than that. So as you eat and drink, realize what you are doing and what you are a part of, what you share in. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this table, for this sacrament. Thank you for what it means. Now, Father, we pray, give us grace through it to endure trials, to finish the race, to keep the faith so that we may receive that crown of righteousness. Lord, do this for us by your Spirit, not simply through a carnal eating, but through the work of your spirit in this divinely ordained means. Do this and we give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. All of God's blessings are received through faith. If you are not a believer, you will not receive benefit blessing from this sacrament, but cursing because you will eat and drink in an unworthy way. So I warn you, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, then don't partake of this supper. But if you are a believer, or even if you are saying now, I do believe, I've never believed before, but I now believe, then this table is open for you. And it's a means of grace to you. So what do you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. On the night which Jesus was betrayed, He took bread. When He had given thanks, as we already have in His name, He broke it, and He said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, after supper, He took the cup, and He said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. And He said, All of you, drink of it. I'll ask those who are serving at the table to come forward now. So, as you come, and as you eat, and as you drink, take upon yourself not only fellowship with Jesus Christ, but also His mantle, and His attitude, and His perspective on all of your life, including your trials, and be blessed. Come.