In James chapter number 5 this morning we're going to be looking at verses 7 through 12. And it's really appropriate as we have just finished Advent season and remembering the first Advent of Jesus Christ and his being born of a virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, and his coming to this earth, taking upon the form of a man, deity wrapped in humanity. And then as we sojourn through the life of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus in his humanity, he ascends to heaven and he promises us that just as we have seen him go, we will so shall we see him come in like manner. And that reveals the second advent, the second coming as we know it more readily. And that's what we are looking forward to in that time between the first advent and the second advent, that time that we are living right now. That's what we are to look forward to with an expectant hope that the Lord is going to return. And how do we live in light of that in the meantime? That's what James 5, 7 through 12 "'sheds light on this morning. "'Be patient, therefore, brethren, "'until the coming of the Lord. "'Behold, the husbandman, or the farmer, "'waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, "'and hath long patience for it, "'until he receive the early and the latter rain. "'Be ye also, be ye also patient. "'Establish your hearts, For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. And the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. But above all the things, my brethren, Swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath. But let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Father, I pray that you'd bless the reading of your word. Lord, we need to hear from scriptures this morning. And Lord, I stand here once again, not not in my own strength, but in yours. Lord, I pray as I do every single Lord's Day, Lord, that you would forgive me of my sin, of my failing, of my not measuring up. Lord, as I'm constantly reminded of my weakness and my need to be ever dependent upon you, I pray that you would give me clarity of thought and mind and speech this morning to proclaim your word and to be faithful to holy scriptures And I pray for every man, woman, boy, and girl that is here this morning, that their hearts and minds likewise would be open to the truth of your word. And let it minister to them in a powerful way. Help us all to have our minds brought to a place of hope through the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And a hope that you, Lord, are coming again. And though we do not know the day or the hour, and though men and women can debate the timing and the different eschatological positions, Lord, help us all to agree on this, that your coming is our blessed hope. That the blessed hope of our future resurrection and that victory that you give us, Lord, would be would be our focal point, and that would be something that we live in light of. I pray that you'd be with those who are without you today. Help them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, knowing that you are the way, the truth, and the life. No matter their background, no matter their present circumstance, to know that Jesus has his arms open, that his hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. And he promises to save all who call upon his name. I pray for the weary, that you would strengthen us. I pray for those who are in moments or seasons of great blessing and prosperity, that you, Lord, would strengthen them. Continue to help them to walk in humility. And I pray in all this, you would be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. My sermon title this morning is not fancy. It's patient suffering. Now, I know when we come to the scriptures, and on the first of the year, maybe oftentimes in times past, I have tried to give a message that was kind of like, hoorah, rah, let's go, it's a new year, we can do this. And this is that kind of message, but it's not that kind of message in the way that you think that kind of message is supposed to go. This is a message that is, a message about the reality of life. It's a message that speaks truth. It's a message that, from James, reveals to us how we might be a people of hope, living in this generation, living at this time, in this season, under all of these circumstances that are the present circumstances of our life, whatever that circumstance may be. and that we would learn that in all of our lives, there will be times that are both times of prosperity, times of, like Paul says, I know how to abound, and times of difficulties as I know how to be abased, to be brought low. All of us will experience times and seasons of suffering to one degree or another. If it hasn't happened to you, Don't think your life is just the one life that's going to live above the clouds, above the difficulties, above having anything ever affect you, because that's not real life. And patience is a subject that none of us like to talk about. Patience is a hard subject and something, to be quite frank, people just don't have time for in this insta-everything kind of culture that we currently live in. We don't like to think about the long game of our life. We like to think about the here and the now, how this affects me in this moment presently. And it's hard to see how things grow and mature with time and how having patience through different seasons, through the ebb and the flow, having patience when winter comes again, and just knowing that sometimes spring is going to come and new blooms are going to sprout and then summer will be in all of its glory and then followed by fall and I think even if we were to look at the seasons as is referenced in this passage of scripture with relation to the farmer we would see that even the cyclical nature of one year is a descriptor of the fact that In our lives, there will oftentimes be many seasons that seem like summer, and many seasons that seem like winter, and many springs and many falls in the story, as it were, of our life. Does that make sense to you? That like the cycle of the seasons, that we can know it is now winter. We are in the middle of winter. The winter solstice happened on December 21st or 2nd, something like that. And we are now in winter. And until March, when spring comes again, we're going to have a certain kind of expectation of the season. Sometimes it's different, sometimes it's cut short, sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's harsher, sometimes it's less harsh, however you would say that. There are different times, even in seasons, when we go through in what might be a winter. There are different kinds of summers. I'm talking about in the actual physical world that we live in. But we know this, that those times and seasons are going to come again. And as we live our lives, I think the farther along I have lived, and now at the ripe old age of 43, and having been married to this beautiful woman over here walking on the right, if you would, oh, your left. Taking our child out. Because that season has been going on for some time of training. There are seasons. We have been married this year. We'll celebrate 25 years in this summer. There is, in that time, been different seasons. We have been blessed with a wonderful marriage. That doesn't mean that every day of marriage, my wife says, this is like summer. Or maybe I should say, in her case, her love of fall, this is like fall. There are times where there are seasons of winter. But when you have a long perspective, when you have a knowledge that we go through these things, we go through these difficulties because that's part of life, that's part of human relationship and interaction, that we have confidence, we have patience that there's going to be changes that come and that's gonna require adjustments in our life, that's gonna require course corrections, maybe that will require in a practical way repentance and that will require reconciliation, and all of that is a part of the seasons that change, that happen in our lives. Raising children requires patience. And all God's parents said, amen. All right, now raising parents also requires patience. And all the children said, amen. Hey, that was too loud. Isn't it interesting how God's plan works? I mean, he gives to young people who are newly married, who have very little experience in life, babies. And says, ha, another opportunity to watch somebody grow together. That's life. Is it not? And that life, the life that we live, all facets of it require patience. There is times where you might be able to look back in your career and think, I was manager of the year, I had the world by the tail, and now they just got rid of me. Now I'm back to ground zero, I'm starting over. and we can get to the place where we despair and we think, is it gonna change? I just wanna tell you to keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep looking to him as we're going to see from the passage this morning and understand that though there may be long times of difficulty, God ultimately has already given you the victory. God ultimately has already given you the hope that all of eternity you will be in his presence. And that likely, in a practical way, likely if you keep following after God and you keep walking in obedience, though everything may not be the same as it was before, there will be a new season that will come. A new opportunity for you to flourish in some occupation, maybe even totally different than what you have pursued. There will be areas and seasons of life that you will face that will be hard, that will be times of suffering, and you're to face them with patience. Over this Christmas holiday, I was privileged to visit the hospital many times with different people who were in the hospital, going through difficulties, things that weren't in their timing. Those things you don't plan on Christmas, on vacation. Brother Ron just finished his fourth cancer treatment. Those are things you don't put on the calendar. So yeah, I think I'll go through cancer here, frame it in there. No, they come upon you and in that moment, in that season, you need to remember that the same God who was with you when you didn't have the cancer is with you when you do. and he's gonna walk with you through that time, even at that time of suffering, ultimately has even an end of your life on this earth, you have that hope that you will be victorious. There are all kinds of ways in which we need to patiently suffer. We're all part of a church family made up of imperfect people with imperfect pastors, who I might add, also go through times of hardship and difficulty. And that's grueling for everyone to endure. But we need patience at times and seasons of winter, just like you do. We don't want to stop caring for one another. This year is a new year. Last year, I began the year teaching on the one and others of the New Testament. It's amazing how probing and convicting the one and others were to me as a pastor. I've read them, studied them before, taught them before, and how I believe it was needful and healthy for our church. And then coming into the book of James, the book that I could never finish back a few years ago, and starting over. and I'm thankful that this is where the Lord has had us, even though it's brought probing, testing, conviction, and self-examination to my own life over and over again. We are called, though, to be patient in suffering. In our text this morning, verse number seven begins with, Be patient, therefore. Be patient. You might think, well, I have been patient. And I wanna ask the question, how patient are we supposed to be? How long, oh Lord, do you require us to exhibit patience? How long do we endure with a difficult marriage? How long do we endure with hardships with children? Or how long do we endure with hardships in our occupation? How long, you might ask those things, what kind of patience are we supposed to exhibit? The long kind. Patience, as is used to describe here, like a farmer. I have never been a farmer in a grand way, in a large capacity way. As a young man, I did raise pigs and worked on a small farm, but it wasn't a farm planting crops. The closest thing to crop harvesting that I had was bucking hay over and over again for several summers. But I know this about a farmer. It's a patient work. It is not an expedient practice. The text says, be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Until the Lord returns is the when the patience is no longer needed, right? That is a time and a season that we do not yet know. But we know that until that time comes, he says, as an illustration, behold the husbandman, we would say in our modern language, the farmer, that waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and have long patience for it. Long patience for it until it received the early and the latter rain. in the suffering of our life, even if I just said in the life that we live, whether it's times of suffering or times of joy or times of, you should have joy in suffering, so let me rephrase that, in times where you're not suffering or it feels like things are going well, that you don't have any present kind of difficulty that you're facing, We need to be reminded to be patient in all of those circumstances like a farmer who plants. And when he plants, it is after the fields have laid fallow through the winter and they have just brought in the nutrients as the soil has likely been turned over from the previous year's harvest and the soil does its thing. and the natural mulching process of the last year's crop remnants being tilled under, and then prepared to plant in the late winter or early spring, depending on the crop, and that seed being put into the ground, and then putting dirt over the top of it, and then just walking away. Planting another seed, and another seed, and another seed, and another seed, and another seed. or the vineyard and pruning the vines, thinking, look at all these lush branches, what should we do with it? Cut them off. Well, that's where the fruit came from last year. Yes, but how God's plan is that you cut that off and it'll regrow new growth and then it will produce new fruit. But it takes time and a lot of patient waiting for that to take place. You plant a seed, you don't do what a modern day person would do. Like, I downloaded that seed a while ago, why isn't it popping up yet? We must be on dial-up or something. Dial-up for you young people is, sorry. We want expedience. We want things to happen now. We want change to occur now in our life. We want the financial situation to be changed now. We don't wanna wait, we don't wanna make adjustments that would help us to be in the long term in a healthier way. We have so much desire for that which is expedient that we have lost all ability to wait like a farmer. Ever come into a rough patch with a friend? Yes, we all do. Today, you just unfriend them. Seriously. They've offended you, you don't like them anymore, no longer friends. That's not what the scripture talks about friendship. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for when the good times roll. No, a brother is born for what? Adversity, difficulty, trial, tribulation. When you need a brother to stand by you is when you're hurting, when you're going through the difficulties, or when you've stumbled and fallen. You need somebody to help you back up. winter, and spring, and summer, and then finally the harvest of fall. It will come, but it will require patience. What's the harvest for us? The harvest for us ultimately is eternity with the Lord. The harvest for us is a time where there will be no more tears, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more difficulty of any kind as Revelation reveals in chapter 21. But the righteous are to wait. and to wait patiently until when? Until the coming of the Lord. We're supposed to stay in the game, as it were. We're supposed to continue to labor with faith, with hope, with patience, knowing that one day God will right all wrongs. Verse seven speaks of the early and the latter rains. This is referring to the farming. Though there would be rain in the land of Palestine throughout December, January, and February, there were two rains that were the most important. There was the rain that came early. just after the planting that would give the initial need or soak of water that would help that to flourish. And then there would be a late rain that would come just before the harvest, but it would give it that last final boost before time to harvest. And I think that that is true with the relation to the crops. And God is revealing to us that it's true. in our lives as well. We need early rain and we need the hope of a latter rain. We need to have the promise that there is going to be the Lord's provision. The prophet Jeremiah said, neither say they in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth rain, both the former and the latter rain in his season. He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. "'Be patient, therefore, in suffering, beloved.' "'Joel,' the prophet says, "'be glad then, ye children of Zion, "'and rejoice in the Lord your God, "'for he hath given you the former rain moderately, "'and he will cause to come down for you the rain, "'the former rain and the latter rain in the first month.'" Again, a reference to this former and the latter rain, that which was necessary in the time of harvest. And he says, to be patient. The psalmist, in speaking of this kind of need for patience, in Psalm 37, Psalm 37 is a psalm that begins with, when the wicked prosper, what should we do? We look at the world and we see the world prospering. We see their seemingly advantage and we can become disheartened, can't we? We can become discouraged and we can think, well, look what they have. Look at their prosperity. And yet the scripture says in Psalm 37, fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Believers, hear my voice. Understand that they're all around us, the wicked prosper, but the Lord will avenge unrighteousness. The Lord will bring judgment on the unrighteous. You need to continue to trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. And verse seven says this, rest in the Lord. You're in the midst of a trial, you're in the midst of suffering, you're in the midst of prosperity, you're in the midst of your greatest season of blessing, trust in the Lord. Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Rest in the Lord. Be patient. Number two, establish your heart. Establish your heart. Verse eight and nine of our text. Establish your heart. It says be also patient. Establish, or in the modern English it would be establish your hearts. for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. We are told in verse number eight of our text this morning to establish our hearts. When we establish something, we're strengthening something, we're building it up, we're exercising it. And this admonition of establishing your heart has two realities to it. It has both a positive and a negative one. It has both something we are to do and something we are not to do. This is very frequent in the admonitions that we found in the book of James. This is very frequent in the admonitions we find throughout the word. So two things we need to establish our hearts. Let me use this as an illustration. I wanted to not let Peter have all the glory with regards to the first of the year without talking about fitness. If we think about in terms of heart fitness or the spiritual fitness and we contrast that with physical fitness, there are things we both need to do and things we need to stop doing. Would you understand, would you agree with that? If you are in a desire in this new year to get fit, like to have a whole new you, or maybe a whole less of you, there is not just one thing you need to do. You don't just start exercising like a madman or a madwoman. You don't say, you know what, I'm going to just start going to the gym every single day, and I'm gonna just lift weights, I'm gonna exercise continuously, and then keep everything else you do the same, because it will have limited effect. Right, there is something you need to do, which is to exercise, to begin to do something, to walk, to start an exercise routine that helps you to get physically some endurance that you need in your physical body, but then you also have to stop eating all the things that have made you look like I look. Now, watch how you interpret that. Right, isn't that so true? You can start exercising and the scale does nothing. And I know there are people that, I don't look at the scale. Good for you, I look at the scale. And the scale doesn't do anything. It's like, I've gotten 10,000 steps on this thing all week long and the scale hasn't moved. Why is that? Because there's a two-fold thing. There's a positive you need to do, exercise, and there's a negative you need to do, which is stop intaking so many calories of the wrong kinds of foods. Right now, I'm not gonna give you a diet plan. I'm just gonna tell you the reality is when you eat under the calories, under 2000 calories, you'll start to lose weight. And you can do that on lots of different kinds of diets. And there are better ones and worse ones. And I understand all that. I'm not trying to get into the weeds with that today. As you can see, when you get advice like that, don't get it from somebody like me. but there's a positive and a negative. There's a need to exercise something and there's a need to withhold something. We have to establish our hearts and there's a spiritual way in which we grow and strengthen our spiritual lives as well. And this is something very important because it's not just something else someone does for you, it's something that you do in your own life. To establish your heart in the time of suffering, to be able to wait patiently, you need to establish your heart first in a positive way by exercising hope. Establish your heart on the reality that the Lord is going to come back. Says, be also patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Don't be discouraged about what the wicked do. They will face a judge one day, and they will get what they deserve. All the people who have done anything to you, and you will also face that judge, but you have a savior, you have a redeemer, you have one who has clothed you in his righteousness. You establish your heart under the coming of the Lord. 1 Thessalonians says this in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 15. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words. These are words of hope. These are words of comfort for us who have believed. This is the positive of establishing your heart. This is the exercise of your faith and producing hope in you. And it's something we're to edify each other with. when we're going through those seasons. Wherefore, comfort yourself, 1 Thessalonians 5 says, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another. Build one another up. You have that obligation, you have that responsibility, and that requires your communication to one another. 2 Corinthians 13 says this, finally brethren, farewell, be perfect or complete, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. What was the intent of the apostle Paul's words saying? Listen, we have a savior that is going to return for his people. Establish your hearts, that's the positive. Establish your hearts by exercising hope. And then something you need to not do. Establish your heart by resisting grumbling. This is a theme that is carried on from James chapter number one. As he's closing the book, you'll see many kind of shadows of James chapter one as he's concluding this epistle. When people go through times of difficulty, and all of us know this to be true, grumbling can take place. Or as it says, grudging not one against another. It has the connotation of kind of going after each other with grumblings, tearing one another's down rather than building one another up, which is what we need. The two kinds of grumbling that can take place, both are without patience and without hope. The first kind of grumbling that can come from people in the midst of difficult suffering is the kind that we can see when we think about Job's wife, who in a time of despair, devastating loss, that we would say in our culture, everyone would say she was justified. I know what it's like to lose one child. Yesterday was the two year anniversary of our son's drowning. But I know nothing compared to Job and his wife. I still have good health. I'm not scraping off boils from my body. I haven't lost nine more children. I haven't lost all of my wealth. In the sense of the earthly prosperity. He had a lot of wealth to lose. Herds and lands and he lost it all. He also lost friends. I haven't lost all my friends. Thankful for that. So when we think about Job's wife, it's easy to point a finger and be critical, but can we just be honest and say, we grumble for a lot less? Remember her words in Job two, verse nine, then said his wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. From all human accounting, we look at her and say, I get it. I'm with her. If we're honest, isn't that true? And yet in all this, Job's sin not. In fact, corrected his wife lovingly and encouraged her Saying, the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. I came in with nothing, I'm going out with nothing. Except for I have God. That's the kind of grumbling that can take place. The second kind of grumbling that lacks patience for those who are going through the midst of the fire of affliction and suffering can come from the likes of Job's friends. If you've never read the book of Job, the bulk of the book of Job is the friends' communication with him. And I say friends in quotations that were constantly there. They were silent for a while, but then they started to give critique and correction and instruction and telling Job all the things, I'm giving a very brief paraphrase, of all the things that he had done wrong and they were essentially kind of grumbling against him, grudging against him. And this was hard for Job to experience. Now think back with me over the book of James. James three and all the way through chapter four, verse 12, speaks much about this. It says, my brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation, for in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is also a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. And it talks about the use of the tongue. Remember that? The bridle for the horse, the rudder for the ship, all these things like a little fire that kindleth, they're all small things but can do great damage with our tongues. And the kind of grumbling that lacks patience for those who are going through the midst of the fire of affliction is something that lands very, very painfully. Chapter four begins with, from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not, hence, even of your lust that war in your members? We're starting a choir. James reveals throughout the book a need to correct divisive complaining divisive grumbling that was bringing discord in the church. Everyone was bringing their complaints. No one was bringing any resolutions. No one was saying, I am a part of this. I want to bring resolution. And James corrects this. All of chapter three and chapter four through verse number 12 is dealing with this kind of destructive pattern in the life of the church. And it happens in the same, in the life of a family. If you bite and devour one another, be careful, the Bible says, because you will be, what? Consumed one of another. We must not grumble against one another. We must continue to look to the Lord, remembering that he is going to return, remembering that he is gonna help us through. And while we have friends and brothers going through difficulties, we wait patiently with them, not with a short sighted kind of modern day mindset, but with the heart of a farmer that has patience, knowing this winter will pass. Spring is coming. The early rains came and the latter rains are gonna come and things are going to come to full blossom and be harvestable again. And while we wait, while we continue to serve together, fulfilling the one another's, we're called to do so with a spirit of humility, seeking even to restore those who have fallen in the spirit of meekness. As we're gonna have the privilege to do today. May we not, as we wait, loving one another and serving one another, may we not turn to grumbling against one another. Rather, may we step up the passion to pray for one another, to care for one another, to provoke one another, to serve one another. when they are in, when that person is in their time of need, knowing that at some point, we're probably going to be there too. Second Thessalonians says, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. We don't establish our hearts in a strong way when we become self-focused. We don't establish our hearts when we run when times are challenging. This is true in our marriages. This past year, it's been hard, not just in our congregation, some of the struggles, but it has been hard to watch outside the congregation, friends and people that I've known whose marriages have just ended. Because people weren't willing to be patient for the long, difficult season. Can't run when times are challenging. We need to give patience to our brothers and sisters that are going through a hard season. We fail to show grace and patience. If we fail to show grace and patience with those who try us, who test us, who annoy us, then we too, I think, we won't flourish like God wants us to when we go through dark waters. We're gonna want people to be there. The last point of this Abit message is be steadfast. Be steadfast. Why? Because the Lord told us to. Because the Lord promises that He is coming back. Because the Lord promises that He is going to avenge all wrong. Be steadfast. Verse 10 and 11 of our text says, take, my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering and affliction and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercies. Be steadfast. How steadfast are we to be? Steadfast until the end. God reveals to us in this passage of scripture, again, in a twofold manner as he does in all of these verses, he reveals to us two different illustrations or two different examples of steadfastness. God reveals to us how we are to be steadfast and how we are to learn to push away from the self-focused culture that we live in, to push away from that expedient, immediate, we want it our way, right away, right now, or else we're done. That kind of heart in our times of suffering, that kind of giving up on God, giving up on one another. is contrasted with the words of the Lord. He says be steadfast and he uses the illustration first of the prophets. I first thought of Jeremiah the weeping prophet. A lifelong of ministry and we could look and say fruitless in many ways if you put today's standards on it. But really what I think is in mind here is when he says, remember the prophets who suffered greatly and died, there's a list of them that's recorded in the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32, it says, and what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets, all of them. who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others had cruel mockings and scourgings. Yea, moreover, bonds and imprisonments, they were stoned. They were sawn asunder. They were tempted. That means they were tested greatly. They were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And just like thinking about Job's wife's life and difficulty, I look at this list and I think, I have faced nothing like these brothers did, like these sisters did. Men and women that are recorded in the book of Hebrews and yet they had heard from the Lord and they had been given a commission to preach in the name of the Lord and to be faithful to the Lord and what they received was horrible as far as this earthly life is concerned. and they remained steadfast in the faith. Be steadfast. Consider, as our text says, my brethren, the prophets, those who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering and affliction of patience. This is not modern day Christianity, Americanized. Is it? And yet, it's what the scripture says, plainly. Behold, we count them happy, or blessed, which endure. It says, and you have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful. That means he's compassionate, and he is merciful. So as we consider the steadfastness of Job, If you look to the pages of Job and you walk through a man's life and the man who eschewed evil, the man who lived righteously, the man who raised up and cared for his family, the man who continued faithfully even when he had suffered great loss, that man's life, we are told here by James, consider the steadfastness of Job. And when we consider the steadfastness of Job, don't look to Job, look and see what sustained Job, and that is that the compassion of the Lord and the mercy of the Lord upheld him. Consider the steadfastness of Job. When you consider your own steadfastness, be steadfast. How steadfast? Like the prophets who suffered greatly and died, for preaching the name of the Lord. Like Job, who we are called to consider, means to examine his life, to think on his life, and to think of his suffering. And then because of that, may we pursue compassion. This is so apropos. When we think of what trials and suffering do to us, because they get us to think a lot about ourselves instead of looking to the Lord. They can grow us, we can grow in bitterness and lose a heart of compassion and love for others. And then we can become harsh and judgmental towards others and lose all mercifulness. Mercy is not giving what people deserve. You know what we all need in this life is mercy. We need the mercy of God and we need the mercy of one another. But what happens when we get consumed with our own suffering? There's a tendency to close up our compassion, be focused on ourselves, and to lose our mercy that we show to others. Because maybe we're not discerning their suffering in a right way. And we can compare ourselves and think, well, what you're going through isn't that bad. And we can lose a heart of mercy because we're comparing against ourself. We must pursue compassion. Don't lose tears. Don't lose a heart of mercy. Beloved, if you feel that hardness of heart creeping in, what you need to do is go start loving on people who are hurting. Loving on people who are broken. Loving on people who are in bondage to sin. Loving on people who are lost. Loving on people who are outcast. Loving on Christians who are discouraged. Showing compassion and mercy. Therefore, my beloved brethren, we are told in 1 Corinthians, because of the promise of the resurrection, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain. And verse 12 could be summed up with simply saying, speak with integrity.