Give me a bottle of water, too. It is hot up here, yes, but it's it's still relatively cool. So let's pray. Father, we just want to thank you for your grace. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you for this church that you have given to us and for the word. As Dave said, what an incredible gift this is. Outside lies chaos. Inside your word is perfect order and reason. And we're grateful and thankful for that. And Lord, as we open up your word this morning, we pray for the presence of your Holy Spirit. Guide and direct us, we pray, as we, again, seek to make this a permanent part of our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, 12 years ago, I started a series on James, which opens with these words. This is James 1, 1 through 4, thank you. James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. You know, there's more than a few people who would like to quibble with God about his choice of words in that passage. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. A young homeschooling mom with three young children and a husband suffers from a throat injury that after 39 surgeries still will not heal. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. A young couple has their first baby. She's born with multiple birth defects and a prognosis of a short and difficult life. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. An older couple loses two adult sons to cancer within six months of each other. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. You know, these are not theoretical constructs of some people from another space and time. Most of you know these are real people with real trials who have lived here among us. I mean, we know that trials and tribulation are often just a part of living, but putting the idea of trials and joy, that seems on the surface to be almost cruel. R. Kent Hughes, commenting on James' opening lines, imagines James' words being received with the following response, quote, how nice, a letter of encouragement from Pastor Wacko. Don't worry. Be happy. And he goes on to point out that it's only by looking at the very surface of James' words that we arrive at so shallow an understanding. You know, James opens his letter by addressing the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, and there's a reason why they're scattered. There's a reason why they are abroad. And the reason is because trials and tribulations are flying fast and furious. Believers are under siege. Ever since the stoning of Stephen, the church has been under an extended period of persecution. Trusting Jesus publicly could cost you your reputation, your possessions, and quite possibly your life. So James is writing to a church suffering under this kind of trial and tribulation, and he tells them to consider that all joy. Two thousand years later, we're still trying to grapple with what he meant. So who was this man? Who was this man named James? I mean, there were, after all, there were five different people named James in the New Testament. And most scholars are convinced that this James was the half-brother of Jesus himself. And just imagine that. Imagine living in a household where your brother was flawless, perfect. He grew up with a perfect brother, but it wasn't enough. I mean, based on scripture, we can assume that James didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah until he rose from the dead. John 7, 5 says, for even not his brothers believed in him. First Corinthians 15, speaking of the risen Christ, says, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. This is the James who wrote this book. And it's noteworthy that many commentators point out that James' introduction contains none of the name-dropping that you might have expected. I mean, if you were the physical half-brother of Jesus Christ, wouldn't you want to point that out in a letter? I mean, wouldn't you want to just open your letter by saying, this is James, the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ? Wouldn't that kind of give you instant authority? Well, James, writing under the authority of the Holy Spirit, had no such need to claim that kind of authority. Instead, he simply called himself James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to say to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And it's amazing. It takes only one sentence for James to get into dangerous territory. I mean, there's a reason why people might want to consider James as Pastor Wacko. It's because he puts two words together that have almost never been put together before, and those two words are joy and trial. And there's a reason why God puts joy and trials together, and there's a reason why it confronts our sensibilities, and the reason is because of our understanding of the word joy. I mean, the Merriam-Webster definition of the word joy says this, the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. Now that's not a definition of joy that God would agree with. I mean, if you take that definition of joy and you substitute the word happiness, you get the exact same definition. Happiness is the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. You see, happiness and joy, they often can share the same definition because they're closely related. You might say they're first cousins because they both have to do with how we relate to circumstances, but there's one huge difference. You see, happiness and joy, they march together through good times, but as soon as things begin to go south, happiness collapses and falls, and joy just keeps on marching. It marches right through the surgical failures of a young homeschooling mom, or a baby born to a life of struggle, or a couple mourning the loss of their sons. It continues marching because when it comes down to it, happiness and joy are two very different things. Again, just to remind you, happiness is the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires. Joy has a very different definition. Joy is a settled sense of contentment, knowing that God is a good God and that He's in control. This is how Peter puts it in 1 Peter 1.8. It says, though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. You see, unlike happiness, joy is not diminished by circumstance at all, and it's deeply related to faith. Again, though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy. I mean, happiness depends on what's happening right now. Joy depends on my understanding of God's goodness and sovereignty regardless what's happening. It's rooted in the determination to choose to see things from God's perspective in all circumstances. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. And it's easy to get stuck on those two words that don't seem to go together, but there's actually a more important word here than joy and trials. It's that word count. In the Greek, it's the word hegeomai. And it has to do with leading or commanding. In this case, it involves leading or commanding your mind to make a choice, to count its options, to choose to believe that God is still good and still in charge. Many of the translations of James 1-2 translate the word hegeomai with the English word consider. The NIV says, consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. And consider or count means to mentally make a choice between two options, because the choice is really yours to make. Paul used the same word when he chose to count his good works as worthless compared to Christ. In Philippians 3.8, he says, Indeed, I count or consider everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count or consider them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." See, Paul made a choice. He made it inside his head. He made the choice to value his good works as rubbish. He considered his options either to value his good works as good in themselves or to consider them rubbish and he chose to count them as rubbish. So count it or consider it all joy when you fall into various trials. That involves leading your mind in a direction it might not want to go. It involves evaluating two different responses and considering which option I'm going to choose. It's a decision you make when bad things happen. And when bad things happen, we are always presented with a choice. We can choose grace or we can choose bitterness. Hebrews 12 says, Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. You see, trials inevitably make us make a choice. And nobody summed up that choice better than Job's wife. You all know the story. I mean, after Job has lost everything, he's lost his wealth, his family, his reputation, he's lost his health, he's sitting down scraping the boils that have covered his body with a broken piece of pottery. And his wife says, do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. Now, she was at least honest enough to address the temptation that all of us feel when we're in the middle of a trial, and it's a temptation to shake our fist at God and just give up. To say to God, if you are all-powerful, then you're certainly not a loving God, or if you're a loving God, you're certainly not all-powerful. I mean, those were the only choices she could conceive of, but in her pain, she missed a crucial third choice. And that third choice is that God is all good and all powerful, and altogether beyond understanding with our puny human minds. This is what God told the prophet Isaiah. He said, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. And so instead of rejecting the possibility that God is all-loving and all-powerful, we consider it. And because we simply can't fathom what He's doing, we decide to trust Him. That's how Job responded to his wife. Job 2.10, it says, Job said, it says, he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speak. Shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? And all this Job did not sin with his lips. So how do you and I get to the place where we can make that kind of right choice? I mean, how do we get to the place where we consider all the options and still count it all joy when we encounter various trials? Well, you know, they say seeing is believing. And when we look in Scripture, God gives us lots of examples to see. There we find multiple examples of people maintaining their joy in the midst of trials. And God places those folks in His Word so that we can see and be encouraged that there are others who have gone ahead of us, who have gone through exactly what we're going through and have come out the other side. And Job is certainly one example. Joseph is another and so is Lazarus. This is the poor man in Luke 16. So is Paul. All of them counted it joy when they encountered various trials. I mean, they all went through their trials, maintaining their joy that God was still good and that he was still in charge, in spite of the bewildering and painful circumstances that they were under. And God has stuck them in his word, and he put them in his word as examples so that we could see, so that we could understand that far more was going on in each of those trials than met the eye. Now, Job had no idea that his trial was actually part of a war in heaven that was leaking onto earth. And through the pages of scripture, we get the privilege of seeing the curtain peeled back so we can literally see two different worlds at once. We see the world of flesh that Job inherited with all of his pain and misery and we also see the world of the spirit where Job stood representing the faith of all true believers. I mean, we get to see in Scripture a proud Satan parading his arrogance before the front, just literally before the face of God. We see him demanding a showdown that's going to prove Job's faith is nothing more than empty pandering to a God who's keeping him fat and happy. I mean, in Scripture we get to see what Job saw and what God saw simultaneously. I mean, Job saw only distress and ruin. And yet in spite of that he believed Satan's kingdom and he delivered an ultimate blow to it in a triumphant display of genuine joy. And again it's a joy that insists in spite of circumstances that God is still good and he's still in control. Job said to his tormentors in Job 13, though he slay me, yet I will still trust him. And when Job uttered those words, do you think he ever imagined that thousands and thousands of years later they'd be repeated over and over again as examples of the triumph of genuine faith? That he'd be seen for all time as an example of what joy really is. You see, God put him in his word because God knows that seeing is believing. And so we get to see the hand of God on Job and it helps us to believe when we can't see his hand on us. Job counted it joy when he encountered various trials. I think it goes without saying there was nothing giddy about this kind of joy, but it was joy nonetheless. I mean, Job made a conscious choice to believe that his God was a good God and that he was in charge in spite of circumstances that screamed that the opposite was true. Job 19, he says, I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. Job had the joy that James was referring to. And that's why he's in scripture. Think of Joseph. I mean, when Joseph sat rotting in an Egyptian cell for a crime he never committed, you think he ever imagined that God had a master plan to save not only Egypt, but the nation of Israel through him? I mean, do you think he understood that part of that plan involves some very dark days when he's going to feel as if God has completely abandoned him? All you need to see that whole process is the Bible opened up to the book of Genesis chapter 37. You see Joseph being thrown into a well by his brothers. You see his abandonment, his enslavement, his imprisonment, as well as his release and his ascent into power. You see, in scripture, we get to see the big picture, the whole story. We get a heaven side view of Joseph's trial, as well as the earth side view. I just consider his false imprisonment for rape. I mean, from an earthly view, Joseph has every right to feel that God's completely abandoned him. I mean, he did everything the right way, the God honoring way. And for that, he gets thrown into prison. And scripture lets you see that there's a heavenly view as well as an earthly view of his circumstances. Scripture tells us in Genesis 39, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. See, here's what's unique about this. We get the information, but Joseph, while he was going through it, he never did. Instead, he had to rely on his faith to make the right choices. And many of us remember a triumphant Joseph's words of encouragement to his terrified brothers in Genesis 50, where he says, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is to this day to save many people alive. I mean, Joseph identifies the source of his joy. And what do you think it is? God is good and God is in charge. I mean, he had a count it all joy when his world collapsed multiple times. And in Joseph, we see a life filled with trials and disappointment on one level, that's the earthly level. And then on another level, on the spiritual level, we see God superintending the evil done to Joseph for his good and the good of all of Israel. You see, in his word, God makes visible to us his invisible hand that was always on his servant Joseph. We get to see what Joseph couldn't. God placed Joseph in his book for our sakes. So that we can look on lives of those who have gone on before us and draw strength from their joy when our joy seems to elude us. What about Lazarus? What about Lazarus in the New Testament? Now, I'm not talking about the Lazarus who was raised from the dead by Jesus. I'm talking about the Lazarus who was part of the parable that he told to the Pharisees in Luke 16. This is what Jesus said. He said, there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell where he was in torment, he looked up and he saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I'm in agony in this fire. But Abraham replied, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are in agony. What do you see when you look at this man, Lazarus? I mean, I see a man who's living at the very bottom of the barrel. I mean, he's poor, he's diseased, he's despised, he's hungry. God finishes out the portrait by telling us that even the dogs came and licked his sores. He's contrasted with a man who's dressed in the finest, living in luxury. Both men die. Lazarus doesn't even rate a burial. In those days the body of Lazarus would have received the same respect as the body of a donkey or an ox. But here in scripture we get to see what no one else on earth gets to see. Verse 22 says, the time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried in hell where he was in torment. He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. I mean everything this life on earth could have told us about Lazarus screamed that he was utterly outside the care and concern of his God. I mean had we only gone by earthly appearances we would have had things completely backwards. I mean, it's only because Scripture gives us a split-screen vision of what took place right after each man died that we get to see that it was Lazarus who was given this angelic escort directly to heaven, and it's Lazarus who's directed to stand in the place of honor by Abraham while the rich man goes off to eternal torment in hell. What was God saying? Well, He's making it stunningly obvious that sometimes His choices, servants, live lives of great pain, struggle, and indignity, in spite of the fact that they are beloved of God. You know, happiness certainly eluded Lazarus during his lifetime, but he still had joy. And God never offers us mere happiness, because happiness disappears when life gets bad. And Jesus knew that if you're truly going to seek him and serve him, life is going to get bad. This is what Jesus said in John 16. He said, These things I have spoken to you that me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He also said, If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full." Jesus is offering us joy. He's not offering us happiness. And he offers us joy because joy is still joy whether you're a king or a beggar, if you're in laughter or in tears of sickness or in health, till death makes God's grand intentions as plain as day. I mean, Job, Joseph, and Lazarus, they all knew that real joy was simply a steadfast belief that their God was a good God who was sovereign over circumstances that seemed to shout otherwise. And we know from God's Word, He tells us they're not alone. They're not atypical. This is what he warns us in 1st Peter 4. He says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake in Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding what? Joy. Oh, there's that word joy again. And notice it's not coming from happy circumstances, instead it's coming from a certain knowledge that all circumstance is in His hand. I mean over and over again God makes it clear in His Word that many a precious saint is going to experience trials and tribulations that will directly challenge the joy that He wants them to experience. And again, he shows us that. He made it explicit in Hebrews 11, 36. This is what he said. Speaking of believers, he says, Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. See, on the one hand, God is clearly letting us see firsthand some of the trials that his beloved saints were involved in. They read like a horror story. They were stoned. They were sought in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. But then God makes an astounding statement. It's a statement that goes a long way towards understanding why James would tell us to count it all joy when we encounter various trials. In the midst of this catalog of ours that God's saints are subject to, God makes an editorial comment about those very saints. He says, almost as an aside, the world was not worthy of them. And we need to let the weight of that statement settle in on us. The world was not worthy of them. I mean, what does that tell us? It tells us that God is willing to watch his saints undergo tremendous sufferings, and all the while it is God who is telling us that this very world that is tormenting them is not worthy of them. Well, the least we should get out of this is that it's a fool's errand trying to figure out why God does what he does. But you've got to understand, God never asks us to understand him. Instead, he asks us to trust him. And he doesn't ask us to do anything that he hasn't done first. You know, when James commands us to count it all joy when we encounter various trials, consider the greatest trial a human being has ever faced. We consider the spotless son of God having lived a flawless life, walking directly into his own execution, knowing that the frenzied crowds who are cheering him would soon be howling for his blood, knowing that his most desperate time of need, he would be absolutely, completely alone, having been abandoned by his closest friends and having lost the sense of his presence with his own heavenly father. He too would face jeers and flogging He'd be stripped naked, hoisted up and nailed to a cross, put on display like a trophy. And then he'd get put into the ground like any other dead man. Only to rise three days later, his perfect sacrifice having been accepted, his payment in full, now ready to be credited to my account by faith. Hebrews tells us what the driving force was that brought him to the cross. And amazingly it's the very same force that James wants us to consider whenever we encounter those trials. You see the very force that brought Jesus to the cross was what? It was joy. James tells us to count it all joy when we encounter various trials because that's exactly what Jesus did. Hebrews 12 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now if you have a hard time putting the concept of joy together with trials, you just need to see Jesus putting together the concept of joy and the cross. I mean, at the end of his life, as Jesus was facing a cross, he said this. He said, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. I mean, the cross was by far the most hideous event in the history of humankind. And yet Jesus, he's able to find joy in it, knowing through it all his father was absolutely good and completely in charge. God wants that ability for all of us. I mean God has scattered his saints in their trials all over scripture so that we might see them and take heart because God knows that seeing is believing. And when we consider these trials we see the very top of that mountaintop of trials is the trial that Jesus went through and we see the joy that he experienced in that trial. God instructs us to see these things in order to deepen our faith. He wants us to know there's still joy in trusting him, even when everything around us is collapsing. It's the joy of knowing that no matter what, my God is still good and he's still in charge. I mean, that's what Job and Joseph and Lazarus knew. That's the example that Jesus left for us. I mean, God tells us in Hebrews 12 that seeing is believing by commanding us to, quote, look unto Jesus. And when we fix our eyes on his joy, we see that the most hideous of circumstances, in those circumstances, we too can be encouraged in ours. And we saw this worked out again. This is some 12 years ago. I spoke about an extreme trial. There was a news story at that time about a beautiful 24-year-old model named Lauren Scruggs. She was taking an excursion in a small plane to view the Christmas tree lights in Dallas, Texas. The group landed and she went back to the pilot to thank him and unknowingly walked right into the spinning propeller. The news report said, quote, it struck her left side, severing her left hand, fracturing her skull, causing a brain injury and breaking her left collarbone. She also suffered extensive damage to her left eye, which she could still possibly lose, which she actually did lose. The news reports, they showed her tearful parents describing what happened immediately after the accident. And I was watching that, and I instantly knew these were no ordinary parents. This was no ordinary victim. Her mom said through her tears, we just started praying for her right then and there because she knows the Lord. But then she said, and we know that God promises that all things work together for good. Even this. This is precisely what counter all joy when you encounter various trials means. I mean, it was Paul who uttered the famous words of Romans 8 28. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and were called according to his purpose. That's the way. Okay. What possible good could come out of walking into an airplane propeller? Well, my answer to that question would be a question. And the question would be, what is your definition of good? I think it's pretty important to understand that because different folks have different understandings of what's good. I mean, to some, good means health and wealth and success and happiness. I mean, if we search the scriptures, we're going to see that God isn't going after that for us at all. I think he would give it to us if it didn't get in the way, but oftentimes it just does. God promises that all things work together for good, but then he very clearly defines for us what that good is. He says this, he says, for those he foreknew he also be destined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be firstborn among many brothers. You see how God defines good here? He defines the ultimate good as being conformed into the image of his son. And I don't know how he does it, but that's the good that he promises us. And what he's telling us is that everything in our lives, good and bad, lovely or horrific, is designed to shape and mold us into the image of Jesus Christ. And that includes the trials that come into our lives. Lawrence Scruggs' mom understood that. You've got to understand what this mom was doing. In the midst of horrendous circumstances, she's doing exactly what James is speaking about in James 1 and 2. Again, my brother encountered all joy when you fall into various trials. What was she doing? She was considering. She was choosing. She was leading her mind in a direction it probably did not want to go. She was counting it all joy when she was encountering this horrific trial. And some 10 years later, we encounter Laura Scruggs herself being interviewed on the Today Show. This is what she said. Quote, I think the hardest thing was just losing my hand because it just changes your life and you have to learn things in new ways. But it's also a good thing and a positive thing because you appreciate life a lot more. I feel like my joy in life has intensified and my compassion for people has just strengthened. I have compassion that I wouldn't have had before. You see, clearly she gets it. She says, my joy in life has intensified. I mean, seeing her and her mom demonstrating their trust in God's goodness and sovereignty made me think back to the others who we know struggle successfully to do the same thing. You know, that couple that was struggling with grief of losing two sons, that was Horace and Betty. You know, Horace has already gone on to heaven, but I just spoke to Betty last week. You know, she and Debbie are still out in Wyoming and they're actually wishing they could be back here in New York. But they're doing just fine and they're trusting God in all things. And the couple struggling to find count it all joy when their daughter was facing such a difficult life is Eric and Bethany, trusting in God's goodness still after the third anniversary of Livia's home going. And you all know there's Gary and Debbie, there's Darcy and her family. They could all tell you how God could give them his joy in the midst of terrible circumstances. Again, I thought of Doug and Christy, this is the gal with the terrible throat issues who I spoke, I just spoke about her a month ago. Now I spoke about them fighting their way to count of joy when 39 successive surgeries all failed. And I thought of the scripture that Paul wrote to a suffering church that we'd studied before that summed this all up. This is Paul's words in Colossians 1.9. He says, for this reason, we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, that is to say that he's all good. in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with, what do you know, joy." Seeing is believing. And we've seen God's goodness and power in all of these trials. And if we see it and believe it, we ask ourselves, okay, how do we do this? How do we live it? And again, we look to scripture. We look at a master at carving joy out of trials. We look at the Apostle Paul. I mean, this is a guy whose life was one constant trial. He even cataloged them once in 1 Corinthians. This is what he said. He said, from the Jews five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in the deep and journeys often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils of the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness often. in hunger and thirst and fastings, often in cold and nakedness. Imagine the stress that this guy was under. I mean, when it comes to experiencing joy in trials, Paul saw it as living out an understanding that God is a good God, and in spite of all that stuff, he is still sovereign. And Paul saw it, and he believed it, and he lived it, and he lived it by seeing all of his life in this split-screen vision that had one eye on earth and the other eye on heaven itself. And everything that happened in his life was seen through a grid that placed everything within the context of God's purpose, not just for today, but for eternity. And it enabled him to place every single trial he experienced within that context, and it made even the worst of trials seem doable. Again, this is what Paul said about trials. He said, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal way to glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." That was his key. The things that are seen are transient, the things that are unseen are eternal. I mean Paul was able to handle anything because he saw everything in relation to eternity. Just imagine living your life with that perspective. I mean there's nothing that you and I would ever face that doesn't pale in the face of eternity. I mean everything relatively speaking would seem light and momentary compared to the weight of eternal glory. And this is the promise I made 12 years ago. I said, if you doubt that, I'll make a deal with you. Let's promise to have a conversation about this very sermon. And let's promise to have it 10 centuries from now in the year 3024. I guarantee you all of those things that loom large today, they're not going to loom large then. In fact, the worst things that you're facing are going to seem absolutely inconsequential. We'll see that Paul was right when he said the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. We'll see that one of the most transient of the seen things that we seek after so constantly is happiness. And one of the unseen eternal things that we often overlook is joy. And Jesus wants that joy for each of us. Again, he says, I've spoken these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy making me complete. And again, those words bring us right back to Pastor Wacko. Remember, I opened up this message with Ken Hughes' observation that many think James Challenge and James 1-2 is absolute nonsense. Here's the challenge, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. My brethren, consider every time you fall into various trials, leading your mind, making a choice leading you to the joy of truly knowing that even in this our God is a good God and he is still in control. To me that makes perfect sense. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are a good God, a sovereign God, a God who is in control. You're also a God who warns us not to try to think your thoughts after you. that your ways and your thoughts are so much higher than ours. Lord, you don't ask us to figure you out. You ask us instead to trust you. And so I pray you would give us the ability to do just that, to trust you when we are experiencing happiness, but to trust you in joy. When life seems uncertain or difficult or filled with trials, give us the ability to know you are a good God and a God who is in control. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.