James: The Only Path to Greatness

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Ladies and gentlemen, This is a picture of the greatest of all time. The debate is settled. Amen? This picture was taken after Michael Jordan Michael Jordan won his sixth championship.

Yes, he couldn’t even put them all on one hand. With 37 seconds left, he hit the game winner to seal his greatness. I actually went to Michael Jordan camp. Somebody asked him, point blank, Did you foul the guy? If you guys know the move, he kind of pushed him out, came back, made the… The game winning, uh, shot, and he said what did the ref call?

That’s what I thought. It doesn’t, I don’t think it was a foul. And it capped off an amazing legacy. He retired at the end of this game. Only to come back one more time, but we don’t talk about that one. Uh, we don’t talk about the Wizards. This is when his story ends. And MJ… Air Jordan, his greatness, accomplished a lot during his lifetime in the NBA.

In fact, these shoes right now, if you want to bless your pastor, it’s getting me Air Jordans. I don’t know what it is. I know it’s vanity. I know it’s the worst, but praise God. Somebody, Jubal, he’s not here today. He bought me these. There’s ten of his accomplishments on the bottom of the shoe. Here are some of his accomplishments.

He’s a six time NBA champion. Five time NBA MVP. They would have voted to him every year, but it would have gotten out of hand. Uh, six time Finals MVP. Ten time scoring leader. He was a Defensive Player of the Year, just to prove he can play defense. He was the Rookie of the Year. Fourteen time All Star.

Three time All Star MVP. Two time Slam Dunk Champion. Ten time All NBA First Team. And even three years, he was the Steel’s, uh, leader. But in this photo, has a lot of emotion. Because he knows… Well, you and I don’t know. Behind this fleeting moment, only MJ knows the hours of training, suffering, and practicing.

Only MJ knows the hard work of getting there to practice before everyone else, and staying late after everyone else, sticking to a diet, avoiding sugar, getting humiliated by coaches, losing friends, and more. See, human beings love greatness because we know how impossible it feels to never give up. But you have to wonder, how many other MJ’s were born?

How many other MJ’s were born and yet never made it past the toil of high school basketball? How many MJ’s were born but they called it quits after they were cut from their varsity team? Which is a bit exaggerated, by the way. He just didn’t make varsity his freshman year. He was still on a basketball team, but it doesn’t sound as cool.

So he got cut, and yet he came back and became the greatest. How many, though, stopped chasing greatness after they got their first big paycheck? Now, this is a church, so most importantly, more importantly, how many Mother Teresas called it quits when God called him or her to take a vow of poverty? How many William Carey’s, the famous missionary who brought the gospel to parts of the world that had never heard it before.

How many William Carey’s stayed home, away from the mission field, instead of expecting great things for God and attempting great things for God. How many Billy Graham’s have we missed out on? Because they fell to the wayside when fame distracted them from ministry. My point… It’s what if you were born for more?

What if you were born for greatness? What if your life was made for more than just surviving paycheck to paycheck? What if God called you to stop your generational curse and begin a new family legacy centered on Christ and it begins with you? What if someone in this room is called to greatness because God has called them to an unreached people group on the other side of the planet, who has never heard the name of Jesus, the name above all names, the name by which everyone will be saved?

What if you were called to be great, but what if you called it quits? See, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Similarly, everyone wants a fulfilled life, but few are willing to endure the pain to get there. So the title of today’s message, as we’re getting close to wrapping up the whole book of James, we’ve been in this for three months, is The Only Path to Greatness.

That’s the title of my message today. Let’s, let’s pray before the Lord. Father God, I just ask that today you would stir our hearts. Help us see, God, that you have called each one of us, because we are your image bearers, to greatness. That doesn’t always mean fame, that doesn’t always mean greatness by the terms that we want to define them, however, in the kingdom, you called us to be faithful servants.

And we so desperately want to hear, well done. My good and faithful servant. And so, God, I just pray that we would lean in today. Help us see the formula for greatness, and help us, Lord, as we end, to have a takeaway, to take this home, and to truly become the man and woman of God that you have designed us to always be.

In Jesus name I pray. Everybody says, Amen. Amen. James, he’s the half brother of Jesus. He was a mocker of Jesus. And then when Jesus rose again, he began following him, he eventually becomes a martyr. So after writing this letter, he is killed for his faith. He’s writing to a group of Jewish believers, specifically, who have been scattered abroad because of their belief in Jesus.

They believed in the resurrection, and now they are dispersed, and some of them are running for their life. But while they’re doing that, they are preaching the gospel to those around. We have to remember, though, his audience, let’s not dress this up. They were tired. They were weary. They were trying to find a home away from home, which is so normal to us, right?

There’s not many here that are from Arizona. I am from Arizona, and shout out to Arizona. Everybody stop moving here. But, we are so used to just moving around, but these people, you were meant to stay in one spot for your whole life. What happened with this group of people is they were now living a life they never expected to live.

And they were getting exhausted. They were getting frustrated. And we know this, that they’re really starting to show the ugly side of their character. We’ve been seeing a lot here in James, which is the wisdom literature of the New Testament. We learned in James chapter 1, this group of people, they’re easily angered.

James is saying, slow down, be slow to anger. Also, they play favorites, especially towards the rich. We learned that they can’t seem to hold back their tongue from gossip and slander. And their tongue is like a wildfire, devouring everybody in their way. On top of that, they’re really struggling with selfish ambition and envy, and from that it’s producing all sorts of evil and vile practice.

They’re destroying one another. And on top of that, they’re trying to be friends with the world while still following God. And those things never work out in the end. And so James keeps calling them to humility. Keeps calling them to be doers of the word, not just hearers only. It is a tough word. It is a difficult word.

And we’ve been enduring this word for three months. We’ve been hearing it. And trying to practice it throughout the week, giving each other grace along the way, of course. And so James, he is now starting to land the plane in this wonderful book. And he’s been rebuking and calling them out for their sin.

But as he closes, it’s almost like he becomes this spiritual father who has endured so much. And he wants them to know this one thing. It’s gonna be okay. You just cannot give up. Never give up. If you don’t give up, wonderful things are on the other side. The biblical word for this that we, we, we, we would prefer never give up.

It’s inspiring. But the biblical word is be patient. Be patient. James chapter 5, starting in verse 7. He says, Therefore, brothers and sisters. So he’s now talking to the family. Previously, if you heard last week, he’s talking to rich people who are unregenerate, away from the kingdom of God. Now he’s looking back at the family, encouraging you and me, if you follow the way of Jesus.

He says, Brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer Waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and late rains. More on that in a moment. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts. Other translations say establish your hearts.

Like put, put a, make your, your spine strong, right? Because the Lord is coming, is near. Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another. So that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door. Brothers and sisters, take the prophets. So he goes from the farmer illustration, now he’s going to look at a prophet.

Take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. See, we count as blessed those who have endured. In other words, these are the heroes and sheroes of the faith. We, we look at them and put them on posters and these guys and ladies, they are who we look up to. Notice, it’s because they endured.

Then he says, someone specifically, Job, you have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. There’s a lot here in this passage, there’s actually two different words here littered in this text for patience. The first is greatness comes from being patient with others.

This word patience here in verses seven, eight, and 10 have this implication that the way you are patient is with the people around you. Another translation, old school translation is to be long tempered. It takes a long time for you to develop a temper. Let me give you an example. Maverick. He’s in way too many of my illustrations, but it’s the puppy we have.

You guys know who I’m talking about. Pray for me. Uh, but he just turned one a couple weeks ago. Bravo. He made it to one. And, and so my wife, this is my wife’s dog, not my dog. And so my wife decided to congratulate him for just surviving for a year. Uh, we no longer are going to put him in a cage at night.

Okay? Because, and I have to admit, he’s getting bigger, therefore the cage is getting smaller. I started to feel bad, even though I act like I don’t care about him. And so I was, okay, that’s fine, whatever. And so we let him out, and it took like five minutes for him to realize, I can jump on the bed and sleep on the bed at night.

Meanwhile, my smart dog, Nala, has never even once attempted to do such a thing because she understands the hierarchy of human and dogs. Anyways, and so, Maverick decides to come on to the bed. And so, the first night, went to sleep, I wasn’t too bothered because Maverick was on the bottom, at the feet, the foot of the bed.

And so I said, okay, Lord, help us, you know, long temper, patient with people and with dogs. And so, what was so strange, though, is… I’m weird. I go to sleep on my stomach. Anybody do that? Like I have to fall asleep on my belly. What am I, a baby? And then when I, you know, by the time I wake up, I’m on my back. I don’t know how it happened, but Jordan’s like, no, the moment you fall asleep, you flip over and now you’re on your back.

And now you’re more. It’s a whole thing. Right? And so I go on my back, and so apparently I go like this sometimes, hands behind my head, sleeping. And I totally forget that Maverick was on the bed, right? Having happy dreams. And all of a sudden I feel this head, like, right on my shoulder. And so I think, in my dream too, like, wow, my wife is so sweet.

Like she’s cuddling me. Now, hear me out. When we first got married, you know, we never lived together, pre marriage, all that, right? And so, our honeymoon, we soon discovered, like, we thought, like, the whole romantic, like, let’s hold each other, going up, no. You go on that side of the bed, I’ll be on this side of the bed, see you in the morning.

Anybody else, right? It’s like, no, like, my arm’s gonna go dead if I try to hold you, this is over, right? It’s gonna go to sleep, it’s not that cute, it’s, I sweat, all the things, right? So, all of a sudden, though, I’m, I’m like, oh my gosh, my wife loves me. Her head is on my shoulder. Our marriage is good, you know.

And so I’m just sitting there basking in the glory of that. And eventually I thought, I’m gonna like, just rub the top of her hair. This is like 3. 30 in the morning. And I go to do it, and this large tongue just starts all over my hand. And I wake up, and I’ve been cuddling with this one year old puppy for about 30 minutes.

Long tempered, my friends. I didn’t even wake up my wife. I’m here trying to make myself look good in this story. I didn’t even wake her up, I just yelled at him, threw him down, and then he cuddled with me again later. It’s a whole thing, right? And he did it this morning. He has a cone on his head, because we neutered him this week, and that cone hit me like ten times last night.

Long tempered! What do I mean? You don’t freak out, right? You allow your wife’s dog to cuddle with you. I don’t know where this illustration is going, but you get it. The point is, we need to be long tempered, patient with others, understanding, and not blowing up. And one sign of being long tempered is you don’t complain.

Which, I just complained, so obviously I was not the one being patient. But verse 9, he says, Brothers and sisters, do not complain about one another, so that you will not be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door. Notice the severity here. He’s saying don’t complain. Other translations say don’t grumble because you will be judged for it.

This is It’s hard for us to fathom. What is complaining? Again, the biblical word here is grumbling. It’s to give slight jabs. It’s to speak slander, but just kind of gently about them behind their back. It’s these zingers in front of their face. It’s griping. It’s nitpicking. It’s not seeing all the good.

That they have done, but always pointing out the bad. This is grumbling. We have to remember, grumbling, this is so normal for our culture today. We don’t even call it out. We don’t even, we, we can have a man of God talk to us and grumble about other people, and we don’t even once think like maybe he’s not as mature.

It’s just so normal for us. To be a culture of complaining and yet we forget the Israelites when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt through the Red Sea Like he wants to rescue them and bring them into the promised land Why didn’t they go to the promised land that first generation for 40 years?

They grumbled They complained they didn’t like Moses. They complained. I just want the Egypt food again I just want to go back to our I would just want to go back to slavery complaining is a big deal And James is saying you got to be patient with others. If you want greatness, you got to put in the time, and along the way you cannot complain.

Again, for us it’s a normal part of life, and yet James is saying this is so terrifying, you will be judged for your complaining. And so for us to be patient, for us to be great, we have to be patient. Patient specifically with others. I have learned more and more, you cannot become the type of person God made you to be.

Without people. And not just any people, the people you don’t like. I find it more and more, it just makes less and less sense for me. And there’s grace for people in this room. The fact that you’re here even means you at least slightly agree with me as well. It doesn’t make sense to me that you can be a disciple of Jesus and not committed to a local church.

It just doesn’t. The more I read the text, the more I live my life. Because what we’re called to do is to love people that aren’t lovable. We’re called to dwell with people and be community with people that we wouldn’t pick ourselves. It is in that pressure cooker that we become more like Christ. When I think about our church plant, the last six or seven years, it’s the people that, that, oh man, I just never would have picked.

You know, I, I was so frustrated with, many of them are not in this room, don’t worry. They’re on vacation. No, I’m just kidding. No, they’re gone altogether. But, but they have been such a blessing to my soul because I’ve had to learn. I have to love them, even when they complain about me. I have to care for them, even when they don’t care about me.

I have to give, give, give. And when I do that, I become more like Christ, which has always been my goal. I want to be formed by Jesus. Well, Jesus forms us, not by amazing people, which He does sometimes, but mainly it’s through the people that just rub you the wrong way. Joseph Hellerman, we mention this quote all the time, I just give the little simple version today because I’ve been quoting it so often.

He says, long term relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay grow. You want greatness, James is saying? You stick it out. And you stick it out with people who annoy you. You love them anyways. You take the hits. Now here’s what’s true. This is leadership 101 that I’m still trying to figure out all the time.

Some people in your life are problems to solve, but most people in your life are just tensions to manage. You see the difference there? Some people are that quote toxic, I need to cut them off, they don’t need to be around my family, this is bad. There are some exceptions where that is true and you need the wisdom of God to make sure that it’s those people but you do need to cut them off.

But most people are just tensions to man. They just rub you the wrong way and God is going to use it to glorify himself and to purify you. It’s just as simple as that. If they divide and devour, it’s probably a problem to solve. But if they just have quirks that irk, it’s just a tension to manage. And tension is how we become more like Christ.

Right, in our men’s group today, we’re talking about life being hard, and we’re so bothered by that. But then we realized, if we want to be the kind of men that we want to be, we have to keep having these hard situations. That’s the only way we grow. Okay, so if you want greatness, it comes with patience. Not just any patience, patience with others, as we see verses 7 through 10.

That word patience is long tempered. But secondly, there’s another word for patience, which means this, that greatness comes from being patient with God. And this is typically the one you and I think about when we open our Bibles, God tells us to be patient. We think to be patient with him and his timing and his sovereignty and all those sorts of things.

And that’s true. Another way to say this word, it’s not just patience. Some of your translations in verse 11 may say endurance or perseverance. It means to stand firm and not budge. It means to commit to obedience and not be swayed by circumstance. So what God does, he says, be patient with me. I’m giving you these tests on purpose.

And when you are tested and you endure, you are like silver being refined, like gold being refined. Find into the beautiful thing you were always made to be and a perfect example of God’s testing not as tempting We learned in James when God does not tempt, but he does test which means he gives us opportunities to grow and become more like him But it’s not automatic in verse 11.

We see Job as the perfect example. Look at that again. See we count as blessed Even that word blessed can be happy those who have endured You have heard of Job’s endurance, and I’ve seen the outcome that the Lord brought about. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. So, so Job really knew the Lord and experienced His compassion and mercy, but that did not happen without the suffering.

To quickly summarize the book of Job, God allows Satan to go after Job. Job 1 through 3 is Job’s distress. He has everything, and then it falls apart. He loses one thing. As he’s losing that thing, another person comes. You lost this, and another person announces you lost this. Almost loses everything. Job 4 through 31 is now Job’s defense.

He has friends, terrible friends. Here’s why you’re doing this, because you did this, and this, Job’s constantly saying, OK, I know you’re trying to be a good friend, but this is not good advice. No, I know you’re trying to be a good friend, but what you’re saying is wrong. So that’s what’s so interesting about reading Job, like the advice you see in there is actually not good advice.

So like, the middle of Job, just assume it’s a dumb friend talking, okay? Don’t just say, that’s what Job, Job 27 told me to do this. Okay, I know, but that’s the bad friend. No things in context. Now, Job’s third, Job 38 through 42, now goes to Job’s deliverance. Now what’s helpful about the book of Job, he was not perfect in his response.

He would murmur, he did grieve, which is a good thing. But it’s so helpful to see his hiccups and his failures because God doesn’t expect us to be perfect either, but ultimately, here’s what Job did. He never cursed God, and he kept turning to God. That’s being patient with him. I’m not going to turn away from him, I’m going to keep leaning in.

We have a wonderful brother in Christ. Again, I’m going to mention our men’s group a lot this morning. Last week kind of opened up to our group and said, look, I haven’t been feeling it lately. I don’t, I feel so far from God. I feel so disconnected, but I’m still showing up. I’m like, yes, that’s beautiful.

You are in a hard season of life, but brother you are showing up just like Job. You’re being patient with God. It doesn’t feel great. It doesn’t seem amazing, but you’re still coming and that’s wonderful. And the ultimate story of Job, as every Jewish reader would have known when James was explaining this, was after immense suffering, God was glorified, Job was purified, and his blessings came back tenfold.

He got everything back times ten. And so Job goes through all sorts of suffering to encourage us. We, too, will go through all sorts of suffering. Like illnesses, chronic health challenges. We have a lot of that in this room. Loss of loved ones. I see faces in this room have gone through losing people they lost way too soon.

I also see in this room financial hardship. Not because you’re lazy. No, you’re working as hard as you can, but things never seem to meet. Betrayal. You’ve been betrayed by family members and friends. Unmet expectations, even especially about your career, or maybe you thought you’d be married by now. A lot of career struggles in this room.

There’s a lot of family conflict in this room. There’s persecution in this room. Some of you, and I know your story, you left the former faith and followed Jesus and you have been suffering as a result. James wants to encourage us. We’re all in a storm. We’re either in a storm, or we’re about to go into a storm, or we just got out of a storm.

But guess what? You’re about to go into another one. This is life. M. Scott Peck, he argues, if you think life should be easy, it’ll always be unbearable. But what’s fascinating is if you know life will be hard, it can be very sweet. It can be a joy. James is saying life’s gonna be hard. Because you have to be patient with others, and you have to be patient with God.

But man, is it worth it in the end. Stay strong. Persevere, brothers and sisters. Don’t give up. For at the proper time, Paul says, God will reward you. Look at job. He got a tenfold reward. One of my biggest regrets. I don’t think I’ve ever shared the story because I’m that regretful of it on a public stage.

But my senior year in high school, I went through the whole football. I played football from freshman to senior. And all throughout the summer, I was at all of the drills, all of the camps, I became team captain, and four days before our first game, I had enough. Uh, the head coach, I was a wide receiver, I know I don’t really look like one, but I was.

I just caught it and then fell. Uh, but I could catch. And so, uh, but I remember the coach, like really the last month, kind of like, we’re not going to ever pass the ball, we’re just going to run it up the middle, we’re just going to run it up the middle. And so I remember being really discouraged, thinking there’s, I can do more with my life.

I was really getting a call from God at that time. In fact, I began to preach my senior year in high school. And so I thought, if I stop football, this will open up more opportunities for me. And anyways, long story short, one of the most shameful things I did, uh, senior year, I went to my dad and said, I’m not going to show up to football practice today.

And so, very grateful for him. He, I don’t know why he did this. He called the coach on my behalf. Told him, hey, my son’s not going to show up, you’re not, yada, yada, yada. And so I was done. And I was really regretful of it, but I felt like it was the right decision to make. Long story short though, we had already taken the photos.

Right? I already had my number. All of those things already happened. I had a helmet, which by the way, I had to get a lineman helmet because my head’s too big. No wide receiver has a head this size but me. And so all of those things were done. And so that first night, guess what happened? It was the Friday night game, home.

I didn’t go because I was too ashamed. But, later that night I get phone calls from a ton of people. Trey, you did amazing! Trey, from the West Valley, from everywhere, I’m watching Friday Night Lights right now, and they keep saying your name, and I’m thinking, oh no, what did I do, you know? And apparently, between the four days, my name was in the system, you go to MaxPreps, Trey VanCamp was number nine, well, also the coach decided not to run at that game, and he, I think, through the whole game.

And a junior from that year, Todd, he took my number because apparently I had his favorite number. And so he did amazing. He had four touchdowns, like 300 yards. But on the news, it kept saying Trey Van Camp four touchdown Trey Van Camp 300 yards is amazing, you know? And so, but I kept getting phone calls and the whole night I humiliated myself because I had to say, bro, I appreciate it.

That wasn’t me. I’m at my home on my couch in Twinkies like that was not I, I had to quit. This was not me, and it was a really shameful moment. But I thought it was a really helpful picture for me. I remember declaring since then, Don’t quit. Like, don’t, do not give up. Because that could have been me. I think he would have got a few more yards.

He was a bit faster, but I had better hands. No, that could have been me. And so I had a picture, a really strange moment, where I saw what could have been. I heard my name over and over, and yet I knew I already bowed out. They fixed, sadly, they fixed the record for the next game, so he started getting credit, and it was no longer under my name.

We have to know this, too, in the Christian life, James is trying to encourage us by saying, These saints, these prophets, Job, they did achieve greatness, but it only happened because they never gave up. Here’s the reality. You, too, were made for greatness, but it doesn’t inevitably happen. It comes from being patient with God and patient with others.

Now, of course, we have heaven that is always assured for those who believe in Jesus, but what we do in this life does matter. There is a sense of greatness we can achieve in this life if we don’t give up, if we’re patient with God and others. Let’s look at the two other illustrations that James is offering us to help us see that point with even more clarity.

He gives attention to a farmer and then a prophet. Let’s look at the farmer in verse 7. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth and is patient with it until it receives the early and late rains. You also must be patient.

Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near. The rain would come in February, March, and also in September, October, and they understood that, and they would work accordingly. See, what can we learn from the farmer here? Embrace the season you’re in. No crop appears overnight. The farmer is ultimately at the mercy of the weather, which means he’s at the mercy of God.

And so the farmer does everything he can do and then completely relies on God to do the rest. That is being patient and knowing the season you’re in. The farmer is not panicking in July that it’s not raining. He knows it’s never supposed to rain in July. He understands the season. And so for so many of us, we bail too soon because we forgot the season we were in.

As a pastor, I’ve learned not to panic in November. Typically, when you look at our attendance charts, always, November experiences a little bit of a slump. Why? Well, it’s not because Caleb came up with the bad sermon series in November, right? It’s not that at all. It’s because y’all get sick. Right?

Everybody’s coughing, this, that, the other. And so inevitably, there is always a dip because you guys are kind and you stay home when you’re not feeling well. But if I forgot what season it was, I can freak out and think, Oh no, we’re done. No, no, no. It’s November. Similarly, August is always a bigger month. So we need to capitalize on that momentum.

Understand that school’s coming back. So people feel a need to come back to church, but also I don’t bank my whole budget off of what we got in August. Cause I know November is coming. You guys see what I’m saying? Embrace the season you’re in as a parent. If you have teenagers, hold on, right? They, it is a part of their life to find independence.

You have to taper it, you have to do all those things, I get that. But don’t freak out, they’re being a teenager. My children, they’re in the beautiful window, 5, 6, and 8. They still love me, I’m still the hero. Alright, it’s amazing. Like, we took family photos this week, and my middle one is such a daddy’s girl.

They took photos with Jordan, and then Jordan, she, first of all, was sad, like, I wanted to take pictures with dad. No, he’s next. Take a picture with mom. Finished the photos, St. Lily pushed Jordan and said, come here, dad. I’m like, okay, calm down, right? But it’s beautiful. Uh, I love daddy’s girls. Now, I’m embracing the season I’m in.

I’m actually saying no to opportunities. Why? Because I need to be with my kids, because they want to be with me. I’m embracing the season I’m in. Do not give up. Ask for wisdom. What season of life am I in? And then hold on and know seasons come and seasons go. But additionally, we also see a prophet. I need to hurry.

Verse 10. Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name as an example of suffering and patience. You have prophets in the Old Testament that these readers would have totally known about. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, for example. They are heroes of the faith. They had posters on these kids walls of looking up to Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Hosea.

And I promise you, though, you would not want the ministry they were given. Isaiah has this beautiful throne room moment in Isaiah 6 and the Trinity’s talking to each other and said, who do we send? Remember the story? Isaiah goes, send me, I’ll go, right? And everybody shares that sermon. Will you go to the nation?

Send me, I’ll go. We always forget the rest of the verses. God says, okay, great. I’m going to send you, but hear me out for the next 20 to 30 years. You’re going to preach to a stubborn group of people who will always refuse to hear you. They’ll never hear you. They’ll never see you. They’ll never follow you, but go.

That’s quite the calling. That’s quite difficult. Isaiah needed patience. Jeremiah, he was given a word from the Lord, Jeremiah one, God is saying, I chose you for greatness. I set you apart from the womb to be born, to be a prophet for the nations. And then he says, here’s your job. Tell the people that Nebuchadnezzar is coming and will conquer Israel.

And so they need to hurry and surrender now. Surrender or die. That was Jeremiah’s message. You know how hard that is to communicate? Even his best friends wanted to kill him because Jeremiah kept telling everybody just to give up. Why? Because the Lord told him to. That’s a hard ministry. Not to mention Hosea.

He was given the task to preach the truth by marrying a prostitute. And God tells Hosea, she’ll never be faithful to you. But I’m calling you to marry her because it is a picture that Israel has never been faithful to me. And so you have to do this, too. God is calling us to be patient with him because often, if you really are born for greatness, it’s never the path you would have desired.

And typically, all the outcomes you assumed would happen are the total opposite. Total obscurity, total feels like fruitlessness, feels like your life’s not going where it should, but James is saying, we know the stories of old. Those people were the ones who won in the end. What can we learn from the prophets?

We obey the word of the Lord before we ever see the work of the Lord. That’s what we do. We do whatever he says even when we don’t see the results. And we keep doing it. Because outcomes? None of our business. Obedience? Totally is. I’m going to do whatever the Lord tells me to do. To whoever is going to be in front of me.

I don’t know if it’s going to be a million people or two people, but I’m going to be faithful. That’s hard. But if you want to be great, you embrace the season you’re in, and you obey the word of the Lord before you ever see the work of the Lord. And for most of us, we don’t even see that work until the other side of heaven.

So I want us to think through and process. What have you given up on already? And maybe, can you pick it back up again? What is God calling you to be patient with? In your groups this week, and by the way, it’s the last week of the year to give our hosts a break. We hope that your groups still hang out, but this is the last time you’ll have a together guide.

Um, we’re going to ask you to examine to practice what it looks like to practice perseverance. Mainly, we’re going to encourage you to look at the three practices we’ve learned all year. Sabbath, Scripture, Simplicity. And that’s the hard question. What have we not been patient with? Have we dropped some of these?

And maybe we need to pick them back up again. Because Sabbath, when done over a long period of time, does produce a spirit of rest and a world of hurry. It enables you to slow down. It gives you an understanding of the grace of God. You understand the world doesn’t revolve around you. There’s so many beautiful things that happen in Sabbath.

They don’t happen only because you practice it twice. I know for us, I think it took 3 years for us to finally realize, like, this is so good. Most of us were not patient enough to do it that long. Scripture, when you stick with it, a morning routine, evening routine, whatever it is, it really does produce a spirit of truth in a world of lies.

You really can begin to discern what God’s calling is on your life, discern the evil deceptions around you. But that doesn’t happen from one Bible study. Right? It takes time. Simplicity. When you persevere. And this has been the hardest practice. I know for me, I think for most of us. But if you stick to it, it really does produce a spirit of contentment in a world filled with consumption.

It removes distractions. It makes you see possessions for what they really are. It enables you not to make, brag about yourself, exaggerate. There’s so many blessings. But it takes time to experience those blessings. Pastor Caleb often references how it’s a J curve. In the beginning, it’s really good. You experience Sabbath once.

Man, that was so restful, Trey. That was wonderful. Thanks for that. But then it begins to dip. The rewards are gone. Now it just becomes 24 hours where you’re stressed out about laundry. You’re stressed out about work. Your kids aren’t cooperating. But when you persevere, brothers and sisters, eventually the J comes back up.

And the fruit is tenfold. But how many of us never stuck it out to experience what could become? I don’t say this to shame. You can do your life. But if you want greatness, it comes from a consecrated life that is patient with others and is patient with God. Hebrews 12, 1. I was thinking about it this morning.

Says no discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. This greatness that you and I are called to become requires a whole lot of endurance. And that means you need a whole lot of grace that Jesus is so happy to give on offer.

And you need each other, which this church is, we are for each other and we can persevere brothers and sisters and become heroes and sheroes of the faith like James is pointing out here in this text. Let’s pray.