Welcome to the River Mountain Church Preaching Library. It is our prayer and indeed our hope that this message might inspire your life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the preaching of God's Word. Thank you, RMC, for always welcoming my family. You have continued to strengthen your roots in seeing the harvest of the seeds you planted so many years ago. Will you stand and read one of my favorites, Psalm 100 with me? I first learned in the King James Version. Let's read. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God, and is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, and be thankful unto him. and bless his name, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. You may be seated. Three reminders to sustain joyful living. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. We know, Lord, that our roots are in heaven. We remember our roots all the way back to Adam and Eve and why you created them in your image to bring yourself glory. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can sustain our joy even in suffering because we know this world is not our home. We need to see your will here on earth and can't wait for heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. We can find the sustenance for our lives in you. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Knowing our roots, we know why we sin and why others sin. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Keep us rooted deeply. in you to sustain our joy and obedience to be ready to act in your timing. In Jesus name, amen. Let us begin digging into our first reminder. Our first reminder, when I say strengthen, you say my roots. Are you ready? Strengthen. Just as the root systems of a tree perform many vital functions, our roots help us sustain joyful living. There was a critical point in my life as a Christian when I realized my roots were not strong enough to sustain joy. When COVID-19 hit, I came on staff with a pastor who married Mandy and me in Pittsburgh to help with the live streaming. We lost several faithful members to COVID, and there is one funeral that I will never forget. Having arrived early to greet the funeral director and facilitate the family's time to pay respects, from the back of the sanctuary, I heard the glass sanctuary doors open, followed by praise, hallelujahs, and joyful thanksgiving. could have joy on a day like this. I turned to see the husband of the vibrant 50-year-old woman who had died from COVID-19 coming into the sanctuary with his two teenage boys. I watched in awe and disbelief as this man shouted his praise, joy, and thanksgiving to the Lord, walking to the casket. When he got there, he began framing his wife's picture with his hands and thanking the Lord for the time he had allowed him to spend with her. He and his wife were known faithful servants. He worshiped like no other and made a joyful noise to the Lord from the second row every week. even the Sunday directly after his wife's funeral. I knew my roots were not strong enough to sustain joy in this type of suffering. At that moment, that's when I decided to go back to school and get my master's in theological studies to strengthen my roots. to sustain joy in suffering, and to be ready to act in whatever manner God called me. Strengthening your roots, like a tree's roots, is critical to sustaining joy in life. Let's start with the beginning, our roots, our creation. In Bible doctrine, Wayne Grudem reminds us of these key points about creation and our likeness to God. First, remember the root of humanity is that God did not need to create us. He chose to create us for his own glory and joy. In that, we see our purpose. We were made to bring him glory. Isaiah 43 7 illuminated this, quoting God. Will you read this verse with me? Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them. Knowing how we exist and why, provides us with the first deep root. Next, knowing in whose image we were created gives us more strength to that root. God created us in his image. We call this Imago Dei in Latin, Imago for image and Dei for God. We find this in Genesis 1.26. Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. Grudem helps us understand in what ways we are a Mago Dei. Spiritual, relational, mental, moral. In this moral aspect, God gave us the ability to choose whether to obey or to disobey. On the heels of creation, let's review some of the patriarchs Genesis outlines. The purpose of Genesis is to record God's creation of the world and his desire to have a people set apart to worship him. Let's see what lessons we can learn. Adam and Eve, the pinnacles of creation, we learn about how disobedience and sin lead to separation from God and consequences. We also see the relationship God designed us for with him. From Noah, we learn about blessings of faithfulness and obedience. And on the other side, the devastating, consequences of sin. From Abraham, we see obedience and believing in faith of God's promises. In Isaac's life, we see that God's purpose and will not, cannot be, and his will cannot be thwarted. He complied with God's will and followed in Abraham's obedience to God. In Jacob, we see someone who blossomed where he was at. We see that God weaves all human inactions into achieving his ongoing plan. In Joseph's life, we see that it is possible to stay true to God, regardless of circumstances. With God's help, any situation can be turned and used for good, even when it was intended for bad. Moving on from this brushstroke, let's take a look at our personal roots. Here are four ways you can reflect on your personal roots. First, recount God's faithfulness. Moses as he was coming to the end of his life, recounted in the first four chapters of Deuteronomy what God had done for the Israelites. They needed to remember their roots and recount God's faithfulness in his mighty acts on their behalf to strengthen them for what was ahead. Deuteronomy 7, 9 sums it up. Therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God. the faithful God who keeps his covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. Recognize when you are bearing good fruit and bad fruit. Galatians 5, 16 through 26 shows us the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of the flesh. Number three, take the focus off yourself and put it on God and your roots in him. Psalms is a great place to return for this. Curses to covenants. We looked briefly at Joseph earlier. He was betrayed by his brothers, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery and in prison under false accusations. But he remained steadfast in the Lord and trusted God to work it together for his good. Genesis 50, 19, 20 says, but Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish. what is now being done, the saving of many lives. He could see the bigger picture. Can you, can we, can I? As I conclude this first point about strengthening our roots, we will look at a couple of stories. There's a little boy named Richard who grew up poor like some of the children in the surrounding areas of Oneida, Shepton, and Hazleton. Here is a snippet from his story from his perspective. Richard never understood why people said there was a difference from being lonely and alone. They both stunk like the ash on his dad's trousers after each night. They both felt like going to bed hungry. They both looked like untamed grass, slowly wilting away, staying there for everyone to look at. Like a film montage of dusty negatives, the scenery around him shifted as he crossed over streets and blocks to get to his side of town. Well-paved roads and big brownstone houses turned into rickety wooden buildings with broken fences. They housed broken people, families, and broken hearts. Richard's mind raced with questions for which he would only get answers to when he got older. He wished he had someone to explain to him why. Why did people treat others differently based on what they looked like? For things that were not in their control, for the price of the shoes that tied him down to each step he took. Why did some teachers circle back to other kids more than others? Why did some people purse their lips and hold their breath when they met his kind eyes? Why did some people wink at each other, grinning mischievously when they saw him lugging his old backpack to the other side of town? Richard's roots are not being loved at home because of crisis. His roots are being alienated from society because of things outside of his control. He has no idea of his roots as a child of God. He is held down and held back by his earthly roots. How many little boys and girls and even adults do we encounter who are like the little boy named Richard? We'll follow this boy this morning. Before we can share with him about his roots, as a precious creation of God, meant to bring him glory, we must strengthen our own roots. As we do this, we find God's caution throughout the Bible, our lives, and our relationships like a warning sign. Speaking of a warning sign, let me tell you about another warning sign near my house in Texas. Usually, you can make a right turn on red, which is a great traffic rule which helps with the flow of traffic. The golf course we practice on almost daily has a dedicated traffic light that bears this sign. No turn on red. On Thursday mornings, I have a standing prayer and fellowship time with the guys from our church in Texas at a coffee shop near my house. With a change in our schedule to allow for more time in the Bible and account for the Texas heat, the family and I went to golf practice early three Thursdays ago. I planned to leave them at the practice greens to finish while I went to coffee and came back. In my true style, with Mandy reminding me of the time, I wanted to get one more up and down practice in before leaving. I wanted to beat my son. So I was in jeopardy of being late. Exiting the course, I pulled up to the right at the light, which was red, and encountered the no turn on red sign. It was decision time. Obey and be late, or chance it and disobey. Boy, I heard the Holy Spirit say, stop. And that sign burned into my eyes like it never had before. I usually barely acknowledged that it was there. And I had turned on red many times. But this time I didn't. In that instant, a car came flying over the blind hill to my left, speeding through the intersection in front of me. In front of me, and not into me. Strengthening my roots in the Lord with additional Bible time helped me avoid a real collision and suffering that Thursday morning. I was in tune with the Holy Spirit. Have you had any no turn on red moments you heeded? How about the ones you didn't heed? Do not just read, no turn on red sign, do what it says, such as James warns. Let's continue blocking our calendars to spend more time in the Bible, strengthening our roots. Remembering and strengthening your roots also prepares you to sustain joy and suffering and put it into perspective when it does come. And suffering will come. It is inevitable consequence of the very first sin passed down through the human race. Are we ready to review? When I say strengthen, you say my root, strengthen. When I say sustain, you say my joy, sustain. We want to sustain joy in suffering. Suffering has its merit in our lives. It is part of the process of bringing God glory. The book of Romans is a letter wrote to the large Jewish church in Rome ahead of his first visit. In it he lays it out like a skillful lawyer, the case for Christ. In Romans 8.18 he writes, He is speaking from deep suffering to people who are experiencing and will experience deep suffering and persecution. Paul and James provide us with some keys to understand joy, especially in suffering. First, joy comes through the Holy Spirit. It is one of the fruit we bear as evidence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Galatians 5, 22, 23 says, but the fruit of the Spirit is joy, love, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. Grudem writes, the more we grow in likeness to Christ, the more we will personally experience joy and peace that are part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And the more we draw near to the kind of life that we will have in heaven. Pastor Tom teed up the story of Apollos, who is preaching, but does not understand the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot exhibit His fruit of joy. We are meant to have joy in our suffering. James 1, 2-4 says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This is a tough verse. That's a tough verse. Isn't it? Joy in suffering and trials. But James gives us the why. Why? Suffering and trials produce perseverance, which works towards our maturity and completeness and our coming to be more and more like Christ. God is at work. in the trials, he's working on you. Joy is a choice, not a feeling. Christianity.com states, biblical joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with inner commitment and satisfaction because we know that God will use these experiences to accomplish his work in and through our lives. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we choose joy. Paul exhorts to the church in Philippi, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. So now we know what we are aiming for. Let's look more at how our roots help us sustain joy. I could pick any number of biblical references to show how to sustain joint suffering because suffering is inevitable and it is part of the human experience. Suffering can be for your protection, perfection, or correction. It also can be an attack from the evil one. Joseph suffered attacks from close quarters, suffering even when unfair developed strong character and deep wisdom. We do not see him getting bent out of shape, lashing out, or crying that things are unfair. We see him serving faithfully in a foreign land and even in jail. And later, loving and forgiving the brothers who sold him into slavery. Naomi's way of approaching life was so attractive to Ruth that Ruth gave up her family, her gods, and her homeland to follow Naomi back to her homeland. After losing both of their husbands, she said in Ruth 1.16, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following you, for wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Joy came in through their suffering and Ruth entered the story of our Savior, marrying Boaz and being of the lineage of David and Jesus. Job. Job, I saved our paramount example of suffering for last. God said to Satan in Job 2.1, have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil. And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without a cause. Job decided to trust God no matter what happens because only God knows why things happen as they do. And we must submit to him as sovereign. In this book, we see that Satan will attempt to use suffering and to drive a wedge between you and God and you and others. We see his friends criticizing and sowing discord as Satan attacks. And we know that God is good and pride is addressed. By being firmly rooted, you grow and are strengthened. You learn from others like these biblical heroes did. You can sustain joy in the storm of suffering in life. Would you be like the palm trees in the picture, weathering the hurricane? Would you be like the man who praised the Lord at his wife's funeral? Where did he get that kind of sustaining joy that could get him through suffering? He didn't start the day she died. He already established spiritual formation and disciplines in his life that produced joy that could sustain him. My most beloved professor at Regent was Dr. Mara Crabtree, who taught the class on spiritual formation. Her key points of spiritual formation from her book, Christ Born Spirit Formed, Foundations of Our Life in God Are. Call conversion, empowerment. If you have not answered Jesus's call to follow him, please seek out myself, one of the elders, J.R. Rusty, or Pastor Tom after the service. Word, she emphasized the study of the Bible is essential. Sacraments and ordinances. I love having communion every week. Thank you, Pastor. And I love seeing my eldest daughter baptized by Pastor Tom at Elder Rusty's home. Community, being in a local church and fellowship ministry and worship with believers is critical. We need each other. Spiritual disciplines, these are practices that allow us to focus our attention and prioritize our lives in ways that support and sustain our growth in Christ. Like worship and prayer, which are essential to daily spiritual, a spiritual life with Christ. And disciplines relative to reading, study, meditation, on God's word, retreat, service, giving, and numerous others. Ministry is humility and service. Mission is being chosen and sent for a task. Joy and suffering. Are you surprised to see this on Dr. Crabtree's list? It brings us to our second point, doesn't it? We are desirous to experience the joy of our salvation, which is very real, but often we shrink away from the reality of suffering. which is also part of the Christian life. Both joy and suffering are part of formational spirituality in Christ. Both are used by God in ways that mature our faith. 2 Timothy 3.12 says, Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Eternal life is the epitome of our spiritual formation. Thank you, Dr. Crabtree. While we have learned from those who did have joy in their suffering, we can also learn briefly from those who did not have joy in their suffering. The opposite of Job, Joseph, and Ruth is a group that did not strengthen its roots, causing years of heartache and the death of entire generations. The Israelites in the wilderness. Talk about not remembering and strengthening their roots. They did not have to go very far back in history to see God delivering them from Egypt, parting of the Red Sea, seeing the radiance of God on Moses' face, providing daily food from heaven and leading them by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. Even being eyewitnesses to all of this, they still did not have joy in their wandering. They were not deeply rooted and did not strengthen their roots. Their tree of joy fell over in the suffering of the desert. They lost the joy of their deliverance and traded it for their praise of grumbling. They did not obey the no turn on red signs posted all over the wilderness. Ones of self-sufficiency doubt worshiping images and quarreling among others. Back to the no turn on red sign. On the Saturday morning, right after the Thursday, I decided to obey the sign. My son, Nehemiah, and I had sat at the very same light. This time we were on the main road with the blind hill behind us and the golf course to our right. We were poised to make a left, waiting for the left turn signal to illuminate green. I looked to my left and saw the no turn on red sign warning those exiting the golf course. As I was thinking back to Thursday and looking at that sign, I saw movement in my peripheral vision a split second before I heard the crash of bending metal and breaking glass. Confirmation. Confirmation. God knows what's coming over the blind hill and how fast it is coming toward you. Strengthening your roots and being firmly rooted in spiritual formation and the spiritual disciplines help you see the warning signs God posts. Sustain your joy by following his warning signs, even when or especially when you don't see the danger of someone or something coming over the blind hill. The more you spend time on spiritual formation, the more you can see and hear the warning signs from the Holy Spirit as you exhibit his fruit. Let's continue to follow the little boy named Richard. What did he observe of the fruit of the Spirit? Richard's extended family said they were Christians. but he couldn't perceive them as good people. His one relative always compared her kids to Richard and his siblings and was never happy for Richard when he achieved something in school. His grandmother called her the Christian and the hypocrite. He felt suffocated by her jealousy and competitiveness. Her eyes betrayed a lack of joy for others. As Richard grew older, he sensed worse. He could spot his extended family's delight, standing unafraid and loud when his family suffered. It took over their broken home like a dark thundercloud waiting to explode and a light spark where it hurt most. Another family member's fake praise for their sons was brought up at the opportune moment to put Richard down. These became blocks of cheap cement that he carried on his shoulders. He knew that if this was what good Christians were and what good Christians did, he wanted nothing to do with the faith of hypocrisy. The story of the little boy named Richard calls me to action and to my third reminder to stay in joyful living. Let's review again. Strengthen. Sustain. The third reminder for sustaining joy in living is to be ready to act in his time. Paul, on whom Pastor Tom has been focusing, wrote Timothy a similar message in 2 Timothy 4 too. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. So when I say be ready, you say act. Be ready to? Act. Be ready to? Be ready to act in his time. Let's look at these seven words. B means to have an objective existence, have reality and actuality. We're also to be ready with means prepared mentally or physically for some experience or action, likely to do something indicated, immediately available. Two. is used as a function word to indicate purpose, intention, tendency, result, or end. Act means to produce an effect, perform a specified action, conduct oneself. Proverbs 24 says, the sluggard does not plow in the autumn, he will seek at harvest and have nothing. For us, it's not about a harvest from the field, but instead a harvest of people for the kingdom. N is used as a function word to indicate inclusion, location, or position within limits. His means of or relating to him or himself, especially as possessor, agent, or object of an action. Job learned the full awesomeness of God. His response to God in Job 42.3 was, you asked. Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too powerful, things too wonderful for me to know. That is the God we serve. Time means an appointed fix or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin or end. An opportunity or suitable moment. We are to wait on God's timing like a watchman on top of the city wall and be ready. That was a packed little phrase. Let me share a little journey of application. As we get ready, I'm so excited, And as we get ready to act in his time with the sports camp approaching, I am really excited about what this church and Push to Rock are doing for those like Richard. There's an opportunity to meet physical and spiritual needs. Poverty is a global and local crisis requiring everyone's attention. People like Richard, Understand the psychological devastating focus on survival that people living in poverty experience, which reduces their ability to grow and progress. We see relative poverty all around us, where people have incomes below the poverty line. For us as Christians, there is also spiritual poverty we see. those who do not know and accept their roots as children of God. In preparation for the sports camp, I looked up the census data on a few of the surrounding areas. This chart pulls the overall percentage of those living below the poverty line in blue. The orange represents the percentage of children living in poverty. And the green represents the senior adults living in poverty. How many little boys named Richard are represented there? My focus for August is on those orange columns for the sports camp. and getting myself ready to bear good fruit. It is exciting that we may have the opportunity to bring hope to our surrounding areas. Guided by the Holy Spirit, God may be getting you ready for a specific call. Be ready to turn when he turns the light green, but do not act before. Some of you, if you are wired like me, are anxious for the light to turn green. For God to say it's time to act. Others of you hope it doesn't turn green soon. You're not ready. You're preoccupied. You're timid about acting, or you're unsure of what's around the corner. Begin strengthening your roots. Be ready to act in his time. Don't turn on Red. Wait for his time. Two people were ready as we closed to act in Richard's life. Let's take a peek into that part of the story. Fast forward, let's peek into Richard's life as an adult. Richard was in his mid-30s. Nearly 14 years after regular contact with his counselor, he was frustrated with her push towards the church. She gave him an ultimatum, give the Bible and church a chance or I won't see you anymore. That's what she said to him. Richard's perception of hypocrisy within the church hadn't been washed away. but he valued his counselor's opinion and time. In a desperate attempt to salvage their professional relationship, he agreed. He began reading the Bible regularly. Exactly two weeks later, a kind-hearted neighbor knocked on his door. She brought him books and invited him to the local church. He was surprised, but took it upon himself to continue to challenge. Despite his internal resistance, Richard couldn't help but to admit that things had started to change. Within three weeks of going to church, people began embracing him and engage with him differently. Kind things started happening to Richard. Out of the blue, his life smelled fresher. and his eyes adjusted to a brighter light surrounding everything and everywhere he looked. One day in church, the pastor encouraged people to accept Jesus as their Savior for those, and he asked those who are already committed to pray for those. He felt someone needed a nudge to believe. Instantly, Richard felt a warm elderly man's hand on his shoulder. As he heard him, utter whispers of faith and confidence directed at him. God loves you, young man. It was done. Richard had been pulled into a circle of comfort, love, and tears of joy. Everything he had yearned for since he was a young boy walking back from home, from school, was right there on his shoulder. All he needed to do was hold on to it and say yes. He needed to know someone cared, that someone believed in him. Now he was surrounded by it because of the church and his new relationship with God. Are you ready to act in his time? Richard's counselor and neighbor were, and it made all the difference. I am the little boy named Richard. I'm Jason Richard Grant. Psalm 1611 says, You reveal the path of life to me, and your presence is abundant joy. At your right hand are eternal pleasures. Strengthen my roots, sustain my joy, and be ready to act. We were made to bring Him glory. Suffering is part of that process, but we can have joy in it. just like the husband at the funeral. Let's make a joyful noise unto the Lord as he did walking into the sanctuary. Actively bringing God glory to his will and timing as part of the joy. We don't just turn to you when we need a favor. We deepen our roots in you every day by staying in your word. We strengthen ourselves through spiritual formation and the spiritual disciplines, and we heed your no turn on red warnings to sustain our joy as we put suffering into perspective. And we are ready to act in your time because little boy Richards are all around us. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.