Your grace and mercy, we thank you for this church. We thank you for the opportunity to come and open your word and help our hearts be open and allow the Holy Spirit to get fed and teach us what we need to learn in Christ's name. Amen. So, as we're at James 1.12, let's read our verse of the month. Verse 12, Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." Yes, thank you. So, the first word we have here is blessed. It's a Greek word, makarios, and it's an adjective and describes it in the long form here. I'm going to kind of break this down. In a nutshell here, what it's saying is that if we read the bold there, it's a satisfaction from experiencing the fullness of something. It's satisfaction from experiencing the fullness of something. What it is not, as it breaks down, is happiness. Being happy, as we see in the middle of what I've written here, is actually not found in the New Testament. And the word happy comes from hap, which means luck or favorable circumstance. And I thought it was interesting. It's kind of like thinking about the Vikings. Luck or favorable circumstance. And we know we're going to be disappointed one day. There's only one team that wins it all and wins every game. So we need to prepare our minds in that way. So in a sense here, at the bottom, the bottom bold letters say, the believer in Christ is what blessed means, who is satisfied and secure in the midst of life's hardships because of the indwelling fullness of the Spirit. Secure in life's hardships because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Meditate on that. And that's what blessed is. Blessed is not happiness, it's being, the attitude of accepting what we already have through the Holy Spirit here. Okay, so the next word is endures. Endure. Hupon meneo. Remain behind, endure. Definition here, stand by, slow endurance, endure. Bear up against, persevere. So, as it says, my brethren, blessed is a man who endures temptation, stands up against temptation, and perseveres. Temptation is our next word right away. Let's go through that. Temptation. Pirasmas, an experiment, a trial. A temptation, it's a calamity and affliction. A desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise. Synonyms? Desire, an impulse, inclination. Example, Mary resisted the urge to go with him. That would have been a temptation she's resisting. A thing, a course of action that attracts or tempts someone. It's a lull. And I thought again, that calamity or affliction, it's not a good thing. And as we'll see later, that God doesn't tempt us with evil. In fact, we'll say it now, temptation is used in two senses. In verse 12 here, temptation is testings under trial. The next verse, which we'll read right now, it's about being tempted, soliciting to do evil. So let's read 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor has He Himself tempted anyone. And that's important to know. So have you ever heard anyone say, you know, the Lord tempted me. Or I was tempted as if God was doing it. As it says here, God cannot be tempted and He will not tempt you with evil. So back in verse 12, the temptation is testings under trial to refine us, which we'll see later. So, people want to blame God for our own filth, and this has been true since the beginning. It's a blame game. Genesis 3, 12 and 13 says, Then the man said, The woman who gave to be with me, he gave me the tree, and I ate. Talk about passing the buck. The woman did the same thing here as we see in verse 13 of Genesis 3. And the Lord said to the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. So, in a sense here, we want to pass the buck. Trials come on. Getting through trials is one way God allows us to develop in our Christian faith. And this may be the way He may want us to grow. and develop patience in our lives down here. But he has something else in mind for us, as we'll see later, the crown of life. So sometimes trials are of severe tragedy. I think of Bernice Cain. nurse practitioner, PA, orthopedic nurse practitioner from Essentia Health, Duluth Clinic. She was in Deer River for many years. She was a Geland from that area. Went through the ice, drowned, unfortunately. Mike Gibbons, who was with her, is an orthopedic surgeon in Duluth. I went to school with her in Grand Rapids and graduated with him. A great guy. The trial, can you imagine the trial that they're both going through right now? We have to take what's bad and make good out of it, knowing that God didn't necessarily cause that to happen at all, but He will take bad things and make good out of them. So, we need to have that confidence that God is allowing that trial, a trial, to linger long. Maybe He's going to have it linger long in your life in order to see you grow. A non-believer will sink under the waves of adversity, Life even is at its best. People are pessimistic. How many pessimistic people are in here? A glass, half full. One honest one. It happens. We get bogged down with our afflictions and things that are going on in our life. We need to keep our mind on God and thankful for the Word of God and the principles that we're being taught here at Itasca Bible Church. So we want to think and ask yourself, do you think That's the first thing that comes along. We have to think about the weight of temptation even. What does God want us to do? That's why it's so important to have our sins confessed and be in right fellowship. We are not to be moved by them. What God wants us is to abide and be quiet and still. Abide in Him. Bear the trial constantly. and patiently, I thought of that when Steve said he just sat back with his granddaughter, patiently waiting on God. So trials and things like that are designed to bring you closer to God. And there's many useful lessons to experience during trial. There's faith, there's patience, humility, and resignation to the will of God. Experience God's holiness, His love that He has for us. The Jews have a saying much like this, blessed is the man who stands in his temptation. Where is that found in the Bible? It's the verse we have tonight. Let's read that again. Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them who love him." So, for when we are tried by the fire of afflictions as gold is tried in the fire, when God hereby has tried what's in your heart, you can grow in faith, you can grow in love, you can grow in patience, you can grow in humility, As a child purges our way our sin and filth and has refined and purified you, as gold and silver are refined and purified in the furnace, and when being tried and proved and found genuine, good things are there to come. So, do you fold when faith is tested? Maybe you're surrounded in darkness right now. Maybe you're all going through a trial. A trial that no one else knows. Everything in your life isn't working out the way you thought. It may be gloom and doom, but guess what? There's glory ahead. Psalm 35 says, For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Romans 8.18, one of my favorites. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. A man, when approved, shall receive the crown of life. On your handout, letter is B. The man, when approved, shall receive the crown of life. Question, what does approved mean? It's the Greek word dakimos, akin to to receive, always signifies approved. In our verse here tonight, the word speaks of like used coins and metals going through that furnace. Cast them into a furnace and you will see what is good ahead. How do we do this? Life is bad. How do we do this? Again, we need to be in fellowship with God. We need to have the right attitude, a soft heart, yielding to the Holy Spirit. Very, very important. Testing will either drive you closer to the Lord or it's going to drive you away from the Lord. It's your choice. Trials can make you either bitter or either trials can make you better. You may say, but God, how can I do this? Life's a mess. Meditate on what is good. Philippians 4.8, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. We can daydream and think about our problems, I'm guilty more than anybody, but thank God we have the Word of God and verses like this. So again, change your thoughts, you can change your world. Philippians 4.8, a good one to memorize. During the trial, beginning to reflect and think about your faith, think where you're at with the Lord, your relationship with God. Our faith is like a muscle, they say. It's to be exercised, to develop, and become stronger. The equation faith plus trials gives us what? Patience. Faith plus trials will give you patience if your mind is in the right place. As they say too, Christians are like tea bags. We don't get better until we get into hot water. So receive, the word receive here also is to be given, presented with or paid something. Like an example, most businesses will receive a tax cut. In other words, it's to be given, be presented with, be awarded, collect. So receive. And what are we to receive? A crown. You might ask, well, what's a crown? So there are five crowns mentioned in Scripture who are given as rewards to believers. A crown, remember, is not salvation. It's a reward. We read in Scripture that there's many different levels of punishment for the lost. Well, there might be different rewards for believers. And these crowns will likely and very may be thrown back at Christ's feet when we receive them. Letter C in your handout, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him, the last part, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." The word promise is a declaration of assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. That's what a promise is. It's an assurance, a pledge, a vow, a guarantee, oath, bond, agreement, commitment, covenant. That's what a promise is. And God doesn't go back on His promises, does He? What He says in His Word is true. Believers, someday you and I will be at the Judgment Seat of Christ. If we know Christ is our Savior from sin, if we have genuinely seen ourselves as a sinner unworthy of heaven, and accepted His free gift that He did on the cross, no works attached, accepted by faith, God says His promise and His Word is that we will have eternal life in heaven one day. It's beyond our comprehension. Of all the trials and temptations in life, we need to meditate on that. Meditate on Philippians 4, 8. Non-believers will be at the great white throne of judgment. Everyone standing in that line will be judged for the worst, and we know works can't save, and they will be thrown in the lake of fire. But all believers will go before Him at the bema seat, of Christ to see whether or not you will receive a crown of life offered to those who, after they have endured the testings of life, will love Him. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, we thank You so much for Your love. We thank You for Your promises and Your Word. We thank you that we can meditate not only on your word, but with Christian fellowship and constant prayer and since confessed that we can be who you want us to be. You have a great plan for each and every one of us that you allowed us to spend time here on earth and we just pray. We can be an inkling of what you have planned for us. And again, thank you for tonight. Thank you for the message you provided here tonight. We just pray we can leave and apply it to our lives. And thank you for that in Christ's name. Amen.