that will be given in this passage for those who endure the trials and testings in their life. And the first thing we need to do when we have trials and testings is we need to have an attitude that asks for wisdom. And so that's kind of the focus of the test. And there we go. Okay, James 1, verses 9 through 12. Those of you who are able to stand, let's do that in honor of God's word as we read this passage. Now let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his high position, but the rich person in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of the grass. For the sun rises with its burning heat and dries up the grass and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is lost. So also the rich person in his pursuits will wither away. Blessed is the person who endures testing, because when he is approved, he will receive the crown of life that he has promised to those that love him. And so that's our passage for today, and let's just once again ask God to bless our understanding. Father, would you now just open our hearts and minds to these other things that we need to do when trials and testings come to make sure that we pass the test. to make sure that we honor and glorify you, and that we get the most out of those testing situations that come to us in our lives. Father, thank you again for letting our pastor be here, and Father, we just praise you for that. Would you now help us to focus our attention on you, and may you change our lives through your word. In Christ's name, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. So just again, a quick review where we've been so far. After we did an introduction on the book of James, we talked about how we're to learn to count it all joy when there's trials and testings that we should do that. And so there's supposed to be intentional rejoicing during times of testings and there we go. And then we looked a little bit at some of the results of the testing. We looked at that old African proverb that smooth seas don't make for skillful sailors. So there's a reason that testings are allowed in our life and it's to give us skills that we need for the rest of the life or for certain ministries. And then we learned that doubt is the opposite of faith. And so we're told that we have to ask when we pray, nothing doubting. Because if we doubt, we're not really exercising faith. And if we're not exercising faith, why should God answer our prayers? And so it's important to do that. And Brother Stephen, I'm not quite having the same success you did with it. There we go. I have another clicker that uses radio instead of Bluetooth. Maybe that will work better. All right, let me back up here a little bit. There we go. One more time. Here we go. I wanna get it to the picture of the man out of balance. Okay, so we'll go from here. And that is that we need to first of all have this attitude. We're gonna ask for wisdom, so that's asking in faith. And we're gonna look today at the other two steps for passing this test, which is giving evidence of hope and being infused with love. But again, we learned that doubt was the opposite of faith, so we have to ask in faith. And you remember he gave us an illustration from nature about the high waves. Remember the waves were high, they had high amplitude, but they also kept coming very fast. And it came again and again and again, it came repeatedly because it's like the waves of the sea, the waves never stop. Sometimes the waves are lower, but they never stop. And when they're high, they still come with great frequency. And so it takes our life up and down on a roller coaster sometimes, and we have this constant challenge throughout life. And so he says, though, if we're double-minded in any way, we're gonna be unstable. Things are gonna come crashing down around us at any minute if we're trying to trust the Lord and trying to trust ourselves, too. or we're trying to trust the Lord, and at the same time, we're trying to figure a way out of it. So we need to give evidence of hope. So this is the first thing today. And he starts off by talking about letting the brother of low degree rejoice, and that he's exalted but the rich, and that he is made low. So let's find out exactly what he means by that. And once again, we'll just focus in on these two verses. He says, let the brother of humble circumstances, is the way the Lexham English Bible puts it, boast in his high position, but the rich person in his humiliation, because he'll pass away like a flower of the grass. Now, when I read the first part of that verse, I kind of understand it. that let the brother low degree rejoice and he's exalted. You know, if you're low and you're exalted, who wouldn't rejoice in that? But how in the world do you rejoice if you're the second half of this verse that you're the rich Christian and you, how can you rejoice in that you're humiliated or that you're brought low? So we need to look at those things. Well, first thing to realize is that the rich and poor both have something in common here. And this is what James wants us to see. He says that the wealth, withers like a wildfire. So the wildfire comes up in the morning, the sun comes out in its heat, withers the flower, and the flower just pretty quickly dies. So wealth will wither like that, fame will fade, it's not nearly as glorious to look at a flower after the sun has been out for a while as it is to look at it when it's fresh and new in the morning. So he's saying the brother of low degree can rejoice because in his trials because he has faith in that he already, as Paul would say in Ephesians chapter one, we're seated together with Christ in the heavenly, and that's because we're in Christ, and because Christ is at the right hand of the Father, we are in Christ, we're at the right hand of the Father. We already have every spiritual blessing that we will ever have, and we can appropriate it now. Now, we don't yet live in a constant conscious awareness of the presence of God, That's something we should work toward while we're in this life, but the day will come when we'll see him face to face, and we will know him, and we will understand him like he understands us, and that's gonna be an amazing thing, although I'm quite confident it will take an eternity to learn everything there is about God when we get to heaven, because he himself is infinite. So there'll be no end of learning in heaven, no end of growing in our fellowship with him. and eternity, it's an amazing thing. But right now, the Brother Loke degree can rejoice because he's exalted, he's lifted up spiritually and now, and he's lifted up eternally in Christ. But the rich believer, can rejoice in faith in his trials that he's made low. He's learned that he can suffer loss. He's learned he can't trust his riches. He's learned that no matter how much money you have in the bank or your 401k or your IRA, the reality is, is that you are poor, you're in poverty without Jesus Christ. You just simply don't have anything without Christ. and that the nature of riches are that they're transitory. I don't know, if any of you have problems believing that, just think about this for a moment. How many of you, you don't have to raise your hands, But how many of you have got a bunch of your payments automated and it seems like your paycheck is gone pretty much the day or two after it hits the bank, you know? My payments, my check hits the bank account on the first and 15th of the month, and I have payments set to come out on the first and the 15th of the month. And like clockwork, you say, oh, wow, I got my paycheck. You look at it the next day and you say, where did all that go? Because payments have been made. It just, it evaporates very quickly. you know, a rich person has to learn that riches don't last, that riches don't give you security, that riches don't buy you a place in eternity. And by the way, this is a little bit of a problem for Jews to comprehend. Remember, James is writing, to Jewish Christians. The reason this problem was is that Jews typically looked at that if you were successful in business, you got a good paycheck, you made good money, it was a sign that God had blessed you. And it's so much so that they said that Abraham set outside the door to hell to make sure no good successful Jew ever went in there. Because if that was a sign that they shouldn't be there, they were blessed, and that's the idea that they taught. But the reality is, is that both the rich person and the low person have this in common, they can rejoice that in Christ they have an inheritance that doesn't fade away, that thieves can't steal, that can't be confiscated from them by taxation, that the reality is that they possessed exactly the same thing. And that's why both the brother of low degree and the rich Christian can rejoice together. Now, when it says let him boast, it doesn't mean that he's being arrogant. Every time we hear the word boast, we think it's a symptom of arrogance. It means that he's to rejoice, or it's a word that really means when you compare reality to appearance, you know you've got something. See, you can have very little money in the bank, but because you have Jesus Christ, and because you're joyful with the money that you have, you're still able to give to honor the Lord because of what he's given you, and you give proportionately out of that. Maybe you're checking as big as the others, but maybe you put in a big proportion like the widow put in her two mites, and she's still famous to this day for having done that because the Lord knew that was all that she had. Or maybe you're just giving a tithe of a very small check, or maybe you're giving me half of a tithe because you've made decisions that keep you from tithing, and you're trying to work your way back to that. But the reality is that you can rejoice if you have the money to cover your bills and to honor the Lord with it, but more importantly, you can just rejoice because you have Jesus. And that's the thing that he says, he says, You know, people are going to look at you, and they're going to see you don't live in a really nice house, or maybe in a really great neighborhood, or, you know, you may, they might find out you bought your clothes at Goodwill. My goodness, my girls can find bargains at resale and thrift stores like you wouldn't believe. I'm just amazed. I remember Grace used to go down to Goodwill. She'd buy three or four outfits. She'd come home, rip the seams out of them, and make something totally new out of it with fabric from two or three different things. It was amazing. But he's saying, you know, appearance may look like one thing, but you know the real truth. Dave Ramsey's commented before that there's a study that they did on millionaires, and they found out that most of us think millionaires live in super nice neighborhoods, and they have fancy houses and drive fancy cars, and the reality is that most people who are millionaires have a car that's seven to 10 years old, and they're still driving it, and they're keeping it maintained, and they're not out buying Ferraris, and they're not out buying Porsches, because the reason they have a million dollars is because they've made wide decisions, and car payments weren't part of those decisions. That's where they might have the reality of being a millionaire, but they don't have the appearance of it. Well, in the same way, it's like we have millions in spiritual blessings in heaven in Christ Jesus, even though somebody looking at us here might not be all that impressed by what they see on the outside. So it's not arrogance. What it is, it's a confident resting in the truth that my standing before God isn't based on my appearance or my bank account or what side of the tracks I live on. My standing before God is just based on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in that He allowed me to prosper by knowing Jesus Christ. He's given me all the riches of heaven. So it's boasting in the sense that we're proud of Christ and what he's done, not in and of ourselves. Now, so again, why can the poor Christian rejoice? Maybe there's three different ways to state this. And a lot of Bible translators that are trying to convey the real meaning of scripture, they get to a passage like this and they have some qualms about, well, what's the interpretation that we need to, what's the translation we need to give it so the interpretation is the most correct? And of course, good Bible translators just translate the words and they leave the interpretation to pastors and teachers. But there's several things it could mean. It could mean that the Christians who are as poor or of low social status can rejoice because God gives him spiritual riches both now and in eternity. And I think that's very true. I think that's part of it. It also mean that Christians that have few possessions can have great satisfaction when God shows them that they're rich in their hearts. That God has given them good qualities and given them good character and God's changed the way they think because they're in Christ. Or they're confident Hope in Christ gives them a treasure that can't be lost or confiscated. So several reasons there that a poor Christian could rejoice. But why can the rich Christian rejoice? I think the most obvious explanation is that for a Christian to, for a rich person to become a Christian is in itself something of a miracle. Because he had to learn to stop trusting in his riches and that's hard to do. If you don't believe it's hard to do, Matthew 19, 24 says, this is Jesus. Again, I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Now, there's a lot of theories on what the eye of the needle is, and some people said it was a kind of a low gate entering into Jerusalem, and for a camel to go through it had to get down on its knees and go through. I don't know that a camel would actually walk on its knees, so I'm not sure that's a correct interpretation. I remember hearing one time that, yeah, you can get a camel through the eye of a needle, but you have to put it through a Vitamix first, and to get it through that little hole. Whatever it is, it wasn't easy. So much was it not easy that the disciples said to Jesus, well, who can be saved then? Who of these rich, well, successful people How can they ever be saved? Because they understood whatever Jesus was saying to be saying something that was really, really hard, really difficult. And by the way, that same thing's repeated in Mark 10 and in Luke 18, word for word. So at least three of the gospel writers saw fit to include those words. Jesus also, remember I said earlier in the very first sermon on James, you're gonna hear a whole lot of the sermon on the mount inside the book of James. What did Jesus say during the Sermon on the Mount? Basically, the first beatitude he gave us, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You have to realize that you're bankrupt spiritually until you receive Christ. There is nothing you have to offer God that impresses him before Jesus Christ. So the rich Christian had to understand that they couldn't place confidence in a wealth that could fade in a moment, in riches that could disappear at the snap of a finger, and that the only thing that they could boast in, the only thing they could count on, the only thing they could base their eternal hope on, was that Christ had offered himself as a sacrifice for them, and by receiving Christ into their hearts, they would have eternal life with God. This is what John 1 12 says. It doesn't say, but as many as believe, Jesus says, but as many as received him, to them gave him power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. We have to receive Christ, and that's crucial for us to do. So again, it was a tough concept for Jews because they equated material wealth with God's blessings very often. Now, also mentioned in the introductory sermon to the book of James, that James loves to use illustrations from nature. And so here he uses another one. He talks about how the sun rises and the heat withers and destroys the wildflowers. Now, some Bible scholars thought that he might have been talking about what was called a Sirocco. This happens about in the Middle East about at the very start of summer and at the very end of summer. So we've got transitioning from spring into summer. By the way, happy spring, y'all. I'm glad it's here. But transitioning from spring to summer and then from summer into fall, they'll get this harsh east wind that blows across the desert and brings a scorching heat and it basically just kills every plant that's not well watered or well irrigated. because he just won't stand up. In fact, as the book of Hosea refers to this phenomena as a metaphor for the judgment of God. But the reality is, he says, when the sun rises, so I think that what he's talking about is more of an everyday thing in the Middle East, and that is that You know, when the sun comes up and you're living in that part of the world, it gets really hot. It gets hot, and it gets hot quickly, and the flowers that might have bloomed early that morning when maybe they had a little dew, maybe things were cool, by midday, they're usually faded. They're usually gone. And he's saying that that is the same kind of thing that happens to our worldly wealth and riches. So he says, for the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower thereof falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes. So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. By the way, I don't know if you've noticed, a lot of rich people, and it's not a, a bad thing to do, but they try to make sure that their money leaves a legacy for them. Now sometimes they do it because they genuinely want their lives to live on and have an impact. Other people build themselves monuments and put their name on the building because that way they know at least their name will go on, but maybe they're doing it to glorify themselves. I know that every time I go over to Baylor Hospital in Dallas, that there's outside the elevators on one of the floors is some pictures of some of the benefactors of the hospital. One of them was George Truitt, who, I don't know that George Truitt was a wealthy man, but he was the pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas when they decided to build Baylor Hospital. He was the pastor before W.A. Criswell, if you all remember that. And George Truitt, Pastor Truitt, was a great and godly man. And he had a vision for doing something beyond And so they started building this little hospital as a way to minister to the people of Dallas. But there's also a picture of another person there for whom many of the buildings in that complex are named, that it was a man and his wife that were wealthy and did give a lot of the money to build the initial phase of the hospital. So they certainly have a legacy that has lived on beyond themselves. And so there is a sense in which a rich Christian may have an opportunity to build a legacy. But the rich Christian needs to rejoice in that knowing his real legacy isn't in a building with his name on it or a foundation that exists to have his name or a scholarship fund that goes on for 100 years after him. Because the reality is most of us don't remember people that lived 100 years ago. Unless your memory goes back that far, in which case you're older than I am. We don't remember those people, and 100 years from now, people won't remember who I was. But the reality is, is that I can still rejoice in that I have a lasting legacy. That legacy is the people I've led to Jesus Christ. It's my kids too. Judy and I have led to Jesus Christ, and it's the impact that they'll have on the world. And it's the people that we've blessed and counseled. Maybe they go out and win people for Jesus Christ, or maybe it's the missions we helped financially, and they've brought people to the Lord. And I don't think any of us will really know what our actual legacy in the world is until we get to that place before the judgment throne, and we see what the people we brought to the Lord or the people that we influenced or the people we helped or counseled to see what they accomplished for Christ because of the ministry that God had to them through our lives. It's like the ripples on a pond that just keep spreading out. So the rich Christian has to learn that their legacy is Jesus Christ. It's not their bank account, it's not their name. So the first thing is we've got to, we have to have this proper perspective and we need to rejoice in our position in Christ. But then here's another thing. We need to learn how to love sometimes till it hurts. Or as I said earlier, it's being infused with love. But I kinda like this idea because he mentions here a crown of life. So let's talk about that. Blessed is the person who endures testing Because when he's approved, and that again is that Greek word, dechimeion, which it was a word for sterling coinage. And remember, the way you get sterling silver or the way you get pure gold is you have to heat it up until it's very hot. You have to dip a dipper in the top, scoop the dross off, and what's left is the pure metal. And so when you buy silver coins, if you're buying them for investment, most of them will say that they're 0.999 pure, or they'll say 99.99% pure, meaning that they have worked to get rid of all the dross off. And I think the reason they don't put 100% pure is they're might still be one atom of dross somewhere in there that didn't show up, you know? And so they don't wanna make that claim, but they get it as pure as possible. And this is this word that's approved. It means that the testings have burned off some of the dross or some of the problems with life. And he says, when he's approved, he'll receive, and here's a crown. Now there's four of these crowns in the New Testament. When he's approved, he'll receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. So here's a promise that God has some kind of reward called a crown of life, and we have to love the Lord in order to endure testing to get through it. Think about it this way. Why would you go through suffering or persecution or trials for somebody you didn't care anything about? There's a lot of people that I don't know, without knowing them better, I don't know if I would inconvenience myself to do a whole lot for them except for the fact that I'm a Christian and I want to share Christ with them. But there's some people I don't know that I would go out and die for. I think I'd jump in front of a bullet for any of you. I know I would for my family, but I don't know that I would for some guy I'd never met at the gas station, would I? I don't know until I'm in that situation. I don't know if I'll be brave or be a coward. I will be armed, but that's about all I can promise you. But I don't know when that situation, that time comes. But if we're to endure trials, we have to love the one that we're enduring for. We have to be It's so crazy about him that we're willing to go through whatever it takes in order to honor him. And you know where our treasure is, there is our heart also. I have noticed that as we serve the Lord, and as we go through tests, and as we live for his glory, and we go through trials, we go through persecutions, that it deepens our walk with the Lord, and it makes us feel closer to him, because why? We've invested our treasure there. I've always noticed, by the way, start coming to a church, you can tell if maybe God is moving on their hearts to join the church because suddenly they start giving. And it's funny that when we start giving it means that our heart is there and our heart sometimes follows what we do and then we find ourselves falling in love with that place and being a part of the family. feeling like, hey, this is where I belong, because where our treasure is, Jesus said, there will our heart be also. Well, when we suffer testings for the Lord, and we go through them, and we're still faithful, I think it deepens our love for the Lord, because we have more treasure invested in our relationship with Jesus Christ. So what is this thing of a crown? What is a crown? Now, I wanna focus on this for just a few minutes, and we're actually gonna finish a lot earlier than normal, I was hoping to have an entire extra hour to preach, but then Marcy reminded me we hadn't changed the clock yet, so otherwise I'd have a lot longer to preach. But a crown is something God gives us as a reward for faithful service. And our salvation, we gotta be careful about this, our salvation is not based on our service for Christ. There is nothing you can do for this church, nothing you can do for Jesus, Nothing you can do for your neighbor or your parents or your children or your spouse that's gonna impress God so much that he's gonna let you into heaven. There is but one reason that you can be led into heaven. And what is that? Well, it's because you recognize that you were a sinner, you recognize your sins separate you from God, and at some point in your life, you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You repented. A lot of people don't think repentance is necessary. The Greek Orthodox Church, for example, If someone is baptized in that church, they never need to repent because simply by going through that baptism, they are given the sacrament of salvation. So if you have a baby, you bring the baby in and that baby's baptized, that baby can grow up, never need to repent. They never need to accept Christ because why? They already had the sacrament of salvation. What did Jesus say about that? Luke chapter 13, verse three, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Luke chapter 13, verse five, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Now, when Jesus repeats the same truth about two verses apart, you ought to stand up and listen, okay? You have to repent, but you know you're a sinner, you're repenting, and you're asking God, will you forgive me, let me receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior into my life. Now, that's the only reason God'll ever let you into heaven. Let's be clear about that. But the Bible does say, and it repeats it frequently throughout the New Testament, that God will judge our works. Now, our works don't get us into heaven, but God's still gonna judge our works. Why? Because there are crowns that he offers, there's heavenly rewards that he offers, and you're gonna be in heaven if you receive Jesus Christ, but you might have something in heaven with which to worship the Lord if you receive his rewards. The fact is, there are rewards for people who live the life of a Christian. So our salvation's not based on our service, but our works will be judged and will be rewarded accordingly, both on the quantity of what we do and the quality of what we can do. Now, I don't want you to believe that just because I said it, repeat the words that Brother Stephen read to us from 1 Corinthians chapter three this morning during his lesson. And by the way, there's a whole book of the Bible devoted to this subject about how we can lose rewards. And a lot of people mistakenly look at Hebrews, and they look at the five warning passages in that book, and they say, right here, we can lose our salvation, especially you get in Hebrews six, and they don't understand what they're reading there, and they think, oh, this tells me you can lose your salvation. There's nothing in Hebrews that says you can lose your salvation. In fact, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 14, it says, for he, talking about Jesus, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. How long he's perfected? How long? Forever. Forever means for all time. So the writer of Hebrews would say, hey, once you really are born again, you're sanctified to God and you're that way forever. But then there's these warning passages that indicate that there is something that's lost, and if it's not our salvation, what is it? Well, you know what, whoever wrote Hebrews, I think was probably familiar with the Apostle Paul. So let me read these words that Brother Stephen had in his lesson this morning. He says, for no man is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So think about this foundation. Paul's gonna use the picture of a building. We gotta build walls and roof and stuff on the foundation. If anyone builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, straw, the work of each one will become evident, for the day will reveal it because it'll be revealed with fire. Now think for just a moment. What happens to gold, silver, and precious stones when exposed to fire? Nothing, they survive. Hot enough fire, they might melt, but the material will still be there, and you can reshape it, you can do stuff with it, but it's not destroyed. What happens to wood, grass, and straw when it's exposed to fire? It turns to ash. It goes up in smoke. It's destroyed. And so Paul says, if anyone's work that he has built upon it remains, he'll receive a reward. So he's saying, if your work is of the gold, silver, and precious stone category, you will have a reward. However, he says, if anyone's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire. So what's he saying? He's saying you can lose your rewards, but you'll still be saved. You'll still be in heaven for an eternity, and you'll still be there, but you might not have as many rewards as you would have. Now, what makes the difference between gold, silver, and precious stones, and wood, hay, and grass? What's the difference? Well, I think it has to do with a lot of things. One is, what was our motivation for doing that act of service? Were we doing it because we love Jesus? That's gold, silver, and precious stones. Were we doing something so somebody else would come along, pat us on the back, and say, man, that's a good job, and you're doing it because you want people to recognize you and puff you up, you don't really care that the Lord's getting the glory, you wanna make sure you get some. Well, that's wood, hay, grass, stubble. What about The things that we do for the Lord with a heart that's right with him. 2 Chronicles 16, nine says, for the eyes of the Lord search to and fro throughout the whole earth for God to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is right or perfect toward him. But you know, you can get up and you can teach a Sunday school lesson or you can do the dishes after the lunch at church or you can work on a building or you can preach a sermon without your heart being right You can, you know, a lot of people get up and rolls in the church and they kind of live by the fake it until you make it philosophy. I'll fake it and nobody will know. But God knows. And those sermons and acts of service that you did with a dirty, filthy heart where you didn't really have any fellowship going on between you and God, I think that's wood, hay, and stubble. That's why I try to make sure before I get up here that God and I have done the accounting and find out if there's some things I need to confess and make right with him, because I want my heart to be right. So right there is the principle that James is reinforcing for us, and Paul and the writer Hebrews wrote a whole book on this subject, And he's just saying that, hey, we can't lose our salvation, but we might lose some eternal reward. What is a crown? Well, a crown, again, is something God gives us as reward, and we will use it to worship Christ. Now I'm gonna show you where the second half of that statement comes from momentarily. But let's look at this crown of life for just a minute. So this crown of life, he says, blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he is tried and he's faithful, he shall receive The crown of life, verse 12. So into this verse, he's kind of going back to verses two and three where it says, count it all joy when you'll fall into different kinds of testings. He's gone back to that. And then he tells us that we need, because he says the trying of our faith work is patience and patience produces steadfastness or endurance. And that's, again, he's saying we need to endure, we need to be steadfast, we need to be faithful. And so the Christian who endures, that's hypomene, trials, which are parosmon, remember that's the Greek word for a baby bird flapping its wings to develop muscles. It's the same word we'd use to describe a guy lifting weights so he could lift up something heavier. And he stood the test. In other words, he's become sterling silver. That's what documus gnominus means. He'll receive the crown of life. And that crown consists of life. In other words, the crown really is life itself. Now, let's look at this word she used in Revelation. Do not be afraid of the things you're about to suffer. In other words, here's some people about to have some trials and testings. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, so you may be tested. You will experience affliction 10 days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you what? The crown of life. Wow, that's kind of interesting, isn't it? What is he gonna give them? If they're faithful unto death, it means they died, right? Or at least they brought it right up to the moment of death. So if they died, how can it be a crown of life? Well, I think maybe it's talking about eternal life. In which case, all of us who are Christians have the crown of life. You got at least one crown, isn't that awesome? Because he's giving you eternal life. But what's the deal here? Why does he make it sound like something that's a reward for testing? It's because he wants us to know that if we really have that saving kind of faith, that we will want to be faithful in all circumstances. And a lot of, in the past, when Christian persecution came to some people, there were many who recanted their faith rather than suffer. And then you have to wonder, was that real faith, if they recanted? So what is this crown of life? Curtis Vaughn says, the life which is promised is probably life here and now, life in its fullness, life in its completeness. I don't have any problems with what he said there. I think it means this, though, that if I, Endure testings and trials as unpleasant as they are. I'm going to have a fuller life than I would have had had I not had those testings and trials. You think, well, why that? I don't like having testings and trials. And yet, when I have a testing or trial, it helps me be better equipped to serve others who are going through that same testing or that same trial. You don't know what it's like to lose a parent until you've lost one. You don't know what it's like to lose a spouse until you've lost one. You don't know what it's like to raise an autistic child until you've done that and then you can be a blessing to others that are gonna go through the same thing. You don't know what it's like for someone to hurt all the time until you've been there and you know what it means and you know how hard it is for them. And so there's a sense in which our life is fuller because we can meet the purpose that God created us for. But the key thought here is that our love for God enables believers who undergo testings and trials to confidently rest in him, to hold confidently to him. Their steadfastness reveals their love. There's other scholars, though, that say this crown of life is not just life in great completeness now, but is eternal life, and certainly that's true, too. I think it's both. I think enduring trials gives us a life with more impact now. I tell you what, the Christians who have been the greatest influence to me during my life have been those Christians that kept on being a Christian when it was tough to do so. and they remained faithful against the greatest obstacles in life, and those people impacted me. The people that I know that, you know, they're nice people, they're very pleasant, and they show up and warm a pew on Sundays, I like them too, but the people that impact me are the people who are Christians even when it's not easy to be a Christian. I think about Brother Philemon on Kakalala. He's been here before. He's our missionary in the Philippines. Our church supports him directly, and it was so interesting that when he and his wife first got to the Philippines, that a lot of parents wouldn't let their kids come around them because of a nasty rumor that someone had spread about Brother Filomeno. And it was kind of like they were child abductors. They were gonna carry your children away and you'd never see your children again. And you know, your kids would be in slavery. So they wouldn't let their little kids came around. And yet he kept showing kindness to people and helping them. And eventually that person who spread those rumors himself became a Christian. What an amazing thing. So this crown of life is amazing. By the way, Jesus said, or John said in 1 John 4, he says, the one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. And so we already know that if you do have the kind of love that would help you endure, that's good evidence of the fact you're a Christian. Here's the, I mentioned a while ago that crowns are a reward that God gives us. We've already gotten that from this verse that shows us that God's gonna give a crown of life to those who endure temptations, or that's King James' word, who endure trials, okay? More accurate term. But let's get the second half of what I said, is that is we will use these crowns, these rewards we've been given to worship Christ with. Look at this, Revelation 4. we are given a glimpse into the heavenly throne room. And it says this, and whenever the living creatures, now living creatures, the Bible describes for us, I think they represent four phases of the life of Jesus Christ. You remember, Matthew shows that Jesus was a king, Mark shows that he was a servant, Luke shows that he was the son of man, John shows that he was the son of God. And so on the cherubim, in the Old Testament, there were four phases. the face of a lion being the king, there's a face of an ox being the servant, there was a face of a man in the son of man, and then there was the face of an eagle representing the fact that he was the son of God. And so we see those faces on the cherubim. As the living creatures are these seraphim, these angelic beings that that have these, or cherubim actually, that have these four different faces. And it says, the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to whom? The one who is seated upon the throne. So who's that? That's God, that's God the Father, God the Son. And it says, the one who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders, now who are they? Well, in the Old Testament, there were 24 courses of priest. And so I believe that 24 elders represent the priesthood of the believers. We're all made kings and priests unto our God, it tells us in the New Testament. So I believe that those who are part of the priesthood of believers, people who are ministering in the name of Christ. And he says, they fall down before the one who's seated on the throne, and they worship the one who lives forever and ever. Now, how do they worship? They put down their crowns, before the throne. They cast the crowns down. There's even a modern day Christian music group called Casting Crowns, named after this phenomena. It says, saying, and then we have that beautiful song, thou art worthy. You are worthy, our Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power because you've created all things and because of your will they existed and were created. I really like the King James better there. It says, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. God created us to please him, that's why we're here. If you ever wonder, why am I still on the earth? Just one reason, you're here to please God. That's real easy. You remember that, you don't have to think about anything else. But I love that passage, but think about this. We're gonna earn these rewards by our faithful service, and what are we gonna do when we get to heaven? It's something we have there, we're not taking our 401K with us. There will be no Bank of America Visa Master Charge in heaven. Okay, what are we gonna have that we can give as an offering to the Lord? It's gonna be the praises of our mouth and the rewards we earned while we're here. And they're gonna cast them down before the throne. And I don't think this is a one-time deal. I somehow envision that there's some way that we're gonna be constantly in the process of worshiping Christ and we're gonna be constantly in the process of serving him with the rewards that we have here. I can already tell you Judy's gonna have a bigger reward than me, because she's got some special crown just for putting up with me. And she does it so beautifully and so patiently. She's got a really big crown up there. But she'll be using that crown to worship Jesus with. So, this crown of rejoicings for who is our hope or creator. Let's talk, this is another crown, so let me tell you what the other three crowns are in case you're interested. There's a crown of rejoicing. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2, 19, for who is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus that is coming? And then he said in Philippians 4, when he's addressing them directly, he says, so then, my beloved and greatly desired brother, my joy and my crown stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Or as this translation says, dear friends. what is the crown of rejoicing? It is the people we've won to the Lord, the people we've brought to Christ. It's the people that we discipled, and we got them closer to Christ. It's when we have an eternal impact on the lives of others, those people become our crown of rejoicing, and certainly Paul, writing the Philippians, he helped go there, he helped establish that church, he helped preach because God gave him a vision and called him to Macedon, and in Macedon was the city of Philippi, and this is where the church started. That church got their start because Paul went and won people to the Lord. And he says, you're my crown of rejoicing. The souls that we win to the Lord. Here's another crown for you. The crown of righteousness. He says in 2 Timothy, finally the crown of righteousness is reserved for me that the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day, judgment day that is, and not only to me but all who have loved his appearing. Now how do you love the appearing of Christ? I find myself as I get older thinking more and more about Jesus coming back, and I can more easily say now than I could 20 years ago, even so now, come quickly. You know, that's my prayer. I remember when I didn't used to want the Lord to come, because I wanted to get married, and I wanted to have kids, and I wanted to reach a certain degree of success in life, and you know, the things, and I kept thinking, I need to do this, that, and that. I don't have that list anymore. It's just like, Jesus, whenever you're ready to come, I'm ready for you. I am really, really ready for you. But I think it's more than that. Have y'all ever experienced this thing? Any time in your life, you don't have to raise your hands, but at any time in your life, have you ever been doing something you shouldn't have been doing and somebody you knew caught you at it? Or they pointed out your hypocrisy. Or they saw you give in to a habit and it bothered them. Or if you never had that experience, if you ever had the experience that if you knew mom and dad were about to open the door at any moment, would you change your behavior? Years ago, this is just one of my hall of shame stories. I hate to share these, but I think it's valuable too. When I went off to college, I didn't really live like much of a Christian. I went to church on Sundays, but you couldn't have told it the rest of the week. And I drank quite a bit, and I used to go out, you know, I'd come home from class and drink enough beer that I'd have to go out in the front yard and throw it up, come back in, and I'd start drinking again. Didn't do that every night, but, you know, once or twice a week, you'd probably find me doing that. And I remember one time, right after the Lord had gotten hold of my life and I decided I was gonna surrender to preach, that I was in someone's home and they offered me a drink. And I said, sure. And I did it because it was a knee-jerk reaction. I'd never turned down drinks before. A knee-jerk reaction. And this guy handed me a scotch and water. I still remember it. And then he looked at me for a moment after he handed it to me, he says, I thought I heard you became a preacher. Well, that was like a stab in my heart because I realized that my sinful habits had initiated a knee-jerk reaction that I should have never given into because I did something without thinking about it. I did something without realizing how it would be perceived. And that was, you know, I never said no to, I never said yes to another offer of that. because it was a painful lesson to learn. I had been doing something and got caught doing it. Well, I certainly would not want to be doing something like ordering a drink at a restaurant or being in a lascivious party or at the theater watching a movie that promoted a lustfulness. I wouldn't want to be doing any of those things when Gabriel blew his trumpet and Jesus came back. It's kinda hard to love the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ if you're worried about, or in the back of your mind, you're thinking, I don't wanna get caught doing this when Jesus returns. There's an old Negro spiritual song, it's pretty interesting, and this is not meant to be racist in any way, I don't even know why I have to make those comments anymore, but there was an old Negro spiritual song that ended with the words, And when the master, talking about Jesus, when the master comes, may you find me picking cotton. If you had heard the whole song, you would find out that the definition of picking cotton was bringing people to Jesus Christ. And they're saying when the master comes, may he find me working in his fields, bringing people to Jesus. That's the ultimate way that would be nice to be doing when Jesus came back And I think that if we lived like Jesus was coming back at any moment, what word could describe that life? I don't know, how about righteous? In other words, if I lived like Jesus could come back at any moment, and I would have to live a righteous life to make the most of the time that I have until he takes me home. And the reality is, none of us know when we're going home, we're just all one heartbeat away anyway, right? I should be living a righteous life. I should be living a life that has an impact. And so the crown of righteousness belongs to those who live in a righteous way so that we wouldn't be ashamed by what we're doing when Jesus appears. There's one more crown. This is kind of a big deal to me. It says in 1 Peter chapter five, Therefore, I, your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a share of the glory that is going to be revealed, exhort the elders among you. Now, the word elders here means pastors. Remember, they had elders, which were the ministers of God's word, and we had deacons. We see them in the book of Acts, by the way, that the early church appointed deacons that could take care of ministering to the widows in the early church and of serving the Lord's tables so that the elders could focus on studying and preaching the word of God and praying. We're told exactly what the functions of elders were there. And he says, he says, I exhort the elders among you, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, in other words, being the spiritual authority to a congregation of believers, not by compulsion, not because you have to, but willingly. By the way, I remember when I felt God was calling me to preach. I went and saw my pastor at my church. We had an interim pastor at the time. He's still a dear friend. His name's Brother John Steelman. And I asked Brother John, I said, you know, John, I feel like God's calling me to preach, but I don't know anything about it. I just feel like God really wants me to do that. And he gave me some interesting counsel. And one of the things he said, he says, well, first of all, you need to know there's two kinds of preachers. He said there are those who are genuinely called by the Lord, and then there are others who call themselves usually because they can't do anything else in life and succeed. Well, I have met both categories. I've met people that were genuinely called, and I've also met people that they probably couldn't have held down a job at Walmart, but they made themselves into a pastor of a little country church somewhere. And that's sad. I followed one of those pastors one time to a church, He had been at that church seven or eight years, and those people had not been fed spiritually, and they had gone off into all kinds of doctrinal error because they weren't searching for people who could teach, and they went to the wrong places. Then he also said, he says, if you can do anything else and be happy, don't preach. He says, only if not preaching would make you miserable should you preach. And you know what, I realized that I would be miserable if I weren't preaching, and that's still true today, 40 years later. This is what God wired me for. It's what he called me to do. And I'm miserable and I don't do it. But let's keep reading. He says, not by compulsion, but willingly in accordance with God, not greedily, but eagerly. In other words, you're not doing it for the money. You're doing it because it's a passion that you have from God. And he says, not lording it over those under your care. In other words, you're not up here to dominate people, be dictatorial. You're there to live as an example for them. You're to lead them, you're to be gracious to them. You don't push sheep, you have to lead them. And there's a big difference. And he says, not lording over those on your care, but being examples for the flock, and when the chief shepherd, capital S, meaning Jesus, appears, you'll receive the unfading crown of glory. My interpretation of this is that this is a crown for faithful pastors who serve for the right reasons, with the right motivation, and they do it with the right attitude, and they love the flock that God has given them to tend, rather than just desiring to dictate what everybody does. That's a special crown, and I'd like to think that someday that'll be one of the crowns I'll enjoy that I can lay before the throne of the Savior. So in a nutshell, as before Brother Steve comes and leads us in a song, what have we learned? When we get trials, we need to learn how to ask God for wisdom in faith. We need to have hope that, like the brother of low degree and the brother of rich degree, we have hope of an eternal riches and eternal fellowship with Jesus Christ. and we need to do it in love, which means that we are willing to undergo whatever test life throws at us if it gives us another opportunity to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to lead people to him. So we love him. In other words, faith, hope, and love. Ask for wisdom and faith, hope, and put your confidence in your eternal salvation and your spiritual riches in Christ Jesus, and love. Love God so much that you're willing to do anything to serve him. And to have the right attitude in trials, we have to see the advantage of trials, but it's hard to see the advantages unless you ask for wisdom. And to get wisdom, we have to have the correct attitude of hope and love. So I can rejoice in trials and be blessed and be a blessing to others by enduring those trials. We're gonna have a song. Number 318, this is an interesting song, and normally we have the final song, it's kind of like an invitation where I invite you to the pulpit and we sing a verse or two until I wave at Brother Steve, let him know we're ready. This song's too good to miss any verses, so I'm just gonna ask that rather than have an invitation coming up here and praying, I'd like for this song to be the prayer of our hearts. And so we're gonna sing all the verses, Brother Steve. Jesus Calls Us. Let's stand as we sing those who are able. Jesus calls us worthy to walk all our lives while trespassing. Day by day his sweet voice sounded, saying, Christian, follow me. Jesus calls us from the worship of the vain world's golden store, from each idol that would keep us In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease.