Perseverance. Because of sleep deprivation many of the trainees drift in and out of consciousness throughout the trip.

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Jared Moore
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1 Perseverance James 1:9-12 Introduction The Navy has an elite regiment of special op s forces known as the Navy Seals [sea / air / land commandos] / Navy Seals were used in the operation to take out Osama Bin Laden. When a person signs up to become a Seal they undergo a grueling series of tests most notorious is something called, Hell Week which emphasizes psychological and physical testings such as sensory overload and sleep deprivation One person described the process: On Sunday night lights flash on as the recruits are awakened by an instructor. Next to one ear, a machine gun with blanks is fired. At the same time - a jet stream from a garden hose is being sprayed into the other ear. An instructor shouts out instructions. We have a mission to perform this evening! I want you to listen to every detail I have for you. The mission turns out to be exercising and lying wet and almost naked on cold steel plates, installed on a nearby pier. On Monday the six man teams are ordered to run races with a 250 lb Zodiac rubber assault boat on their heads. On Tuesday with less than an hour of sleep the night before, they have to row those Zodiac boats to Mexican waters and back a trip of eighteen miles. Because of sleep deprivation many of the trainees drift in and out of consciousness throughout the trip. On Wednesday the men continue the races with boats bounding on their heads their combat boots sinking in the sand. That evening they run again. At midnight they are ordered to lie naked in the cold, pounding surf. Every ten minutes during the night they are made to stand up to get the full effect of the wind. The next day enlistments are given the opportunity to quit or disenroll by ringing a bell three times and saying, I quit By Thursday everyone is hallucinating. By Friday Hell Week is over and the new Seals are lined up to be inspected by a doctor. The average size of a Navy Seal class begins at around 75 recruits. By the end of Hell Week the number averages around 38. Nearly half quit during the period of intense testing which was designed to prepare the men for the rigors of war and combat. While Christians rarely experience something like the training camp of the Navy Seal s Hell Week they do encounter difficult trials in this world that will test their faith and their commitment to Jesus Some do encounter a kind of Hell Week Martin and Gracia Burnham served as New Tribes missionaries in the Philippines were captured by Muslim militants [2001] they were 1

2 held captive and forced to go on the run with their captors who were trying to evade the Philippine army for over a year eventually the Burnham s were rescued but Martin was killed in the gun fight between the Philippine military and the Muslim militants. Gracia was injured but survived the ordeal But during the time of trial Gracia found that the trial was doing something at a very deep level in her faith She later looked back on that period of darkness and found it to be a time of tremendous spiritual growth I realized that when everything is stripped away from you and you have nothing, you find out what you really are down deep inside. What I was starting to see was not pretty. There was a Gracia I barely knew existed: fearful Gracia, selfish Gracia, bitter Gracia, angry-at- God Gracia. That wasn t the only me, but it was a bigger part of me than I wanted to accept. After her rescue she came out with a deeper and more profound faith that reflected her greater awareness of her own sinfulness and God s greater mercy The Apostle James writes to encourage Christians who are facing trials with these tremendous words James 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. I like the story of the man who wanted to be a monk and he joined a monastery where new men took a vow of silence but they were allowed to say two words at the end of the year. At the end of the first year the new guy went to his brother superior and said: hard bed At the end of the 2 nd year he went to his brother superior and said: cold food At the end of the third year he went and said: I quit The brother superior looked at the others and said: well no wonder he quit he s done nothing but complain since he got here! In the Christian life There will be plenty to test our faith and the genuineness of our love for God James reminds us: persevere when you are tried the outcome will be worth it all. I. Rich and Poor in Trial vv James is telling us how to get thru trials and testings of our faith: 1) Consider it all joy knowing trials produce character [vv. 2, 3] 2) Ask God for wisdom [v. 5] 2

3 Now he calls us to boast or glory in eternal realities He calls us to boast in what God has done for us thru the gospel [our position as redeemed] *** This is key to all of what James says about enduring trials The believer is to rejoice not because of earthly circumstances but in light of spiritual realities his position in Christ He is a child of God / on His way to His eternal inheritance James says, you occupy a high position Much of what we make such a big deal out of in this life will be ultimately meaningless in the afterlife Some of what we think very little about will be everything particularly our position in Christ Jeremiah 9:23-24 What does our world boast or glory in? [wisdom / power / wealth] read the magazines who are the stars? / who are the celebrities? Jeremiah says that we ought to glory in the fact that we know God that is vastly more important James here emphasizes the poor have nothing on earth to boast in by way of earthly possessions but because of Calvary because of what Jesus did they have much to boast in Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. He has blessed us by adopting us into the family of God We are blessed with a spiritual inheritance We are blessed with the blessings of forgiveness / fellowship with God / redemption We are blessed to share in the holiness of Jesus We are blessed with eternal life We are going to gain back everything which Adam lost thru sin Tree of life Fellowship with God No more death No more curse 3

4 R.W. Dale: [to the poor Christian] Let him remember that he is a prince, and glory in it. He is a prince on his way to his kingdom, traveling by rough roads, enduring many hardships, suffering from hunger, cold, and weariness, and the people among whom he is traveling do not know anything about his greatness; but he knows; let him glory in his high estate! On the other hand James reminds the rich of what trials reveal about riches Trials remind the wealthy that their riches are of a temporary nature are of no use in the face of severe trial Some of the wealthiest of American society perished when the Titanic sunk they died right along with those who were in third class John Jacob Astor was a millionaire businessman / founder of Waldorf Astoria hotel in NY [was among the top ten wealthiest in the world at the time] Isidor Strauss was the co-owner of Macy s department store his wife refused to leave him for a lifeboat and died with him Rich and the poor alike perished under the same conditions No matter how much money we have there are many things money cannot buy or fix Both the rich and the poor have a place where they can place their hope during trials in God and eternal glory to come Because of that - the rich person is not to boast in his wealth or status but in his position in Christ as the most meaningful / significant reality about him Glory in his humiliation glory in the fact that his riches are worthless for eternity I Tim. 6:17-19 don t trust in riches / rather use them to send treasure on ahead of you A High School student named Toby wrote an essay on world hunger and thru some kind of contest won a 2 week study tour in Africa through World Vision. One day during his trip he was in Ethiopia and was struck by the rampant poverty. He was at a World Vision distribution camp handing out food and supplies playing with some of the local kids. As Toby and the other World Vision people were getting ready to leave an eleven year old boy tapped him on the shoulder. The young boy looked at Toby s T-shirt then looked at his own which was thin, dirty and full of holes. The young boy then said: Can I have your T-shirt? Toby was not expecting this. His luggage was a long ways away and he would not get back to it until the evening. If he gave his shirt away he would have to go thru the rest of the day 4

5 in the African sun without a shirt. With very little time to think about the question Toby backed away and stepped onto the bus that would take him to another location. Almost immediately - He had a sense that he had done the wrong thing As they drove away the request of that young boy sort of haunted Toby. He thought about it the rest of the day. He thought about it that night. He thought about the words of Jesus Whatever you do for the least of these you have done unto Me. Even after he returned home to Michigan he still thought about that young boy s face who just wanted a T-shirt. But what could he do now? It was too late or was it? Toby got an idea decided to organize a T-shirt drive called Give the shirt off your back. He started by collecting t-shirts door to door. He persuaded some 7-11 stores to set out bins for collecting the shirts. Local media heard of the story and gave him some airtime on the local news. The next thing Toby knew it seemed everyone knew about his clothing drive and he had collected over 10,000 T-shirts. He eventually found a mission organization that was headed to Ethiopia and would distribute the shirts there. Perhaps one made it to the eleven year old boy. Either way Toby took a regret / rebounded took another shot to lay up treasure in heaven We all have blown opportunities to share with someone in need or to give to a worthy Christian cause I encourage you to take the next opportunity this week do something to show that you glory in your heavenly treasure not your earthly treasure Show that you recognize someday you will leave all this behind and move on to what are your eternal riches 50 years from now a lot of us will no longer be here on this earth 100 years nearly all of us When we stand before God at the end of our days what will be the issues that matter? How much money we had? What our standing in society was? Or how faithful we were in seeking to obey the Word of God and to love Jesus? Will we be glad we stayed home when the missionary came to speak or rather that we chose to support them with our prayers and our resources? 5

6 We need to live with that perspective Thomas Manton: what pains do men take for things that perish! Do but observe their incessant care, earnest labor, and unwearied industry, and say, how well would this suit with the heavenly treasure! II. Blessed Are the Persevering v. 12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial... James teaching goes counter to the way we would naturally view things When we experience a trial we are more likely to see ourselves as being not blessed Great this is no good I am not blessed at all James points out to the believer in trial: If you persevere in trial you are blessed The world says, you are blessed if you own a vacation home in Switzerland / a high rise apartment in Manhattan you run with the high and mighty you have political power / etc. If we believe God s word we will believe that it is better to be holy than to run with the high and mighty We will believe that it is better to have an enduring faith than to own a resort in the Bahamas Blessed refers to the idea of enjoying God s favor God has abundant blessings in store for those who love, trust and obey Him Believers are called to persevere in the faith thru their trials and recognize by faith that God will more than reward them in what they have come through It will be worth it all when we see Jesus Mike Vlach wrote these words on the eternal state: The coming eternal state should thrill our hearts... No matter what we go through now, no matter what sorrow, tears, or tragedies we face, when we are on that new earth, it will all have been worth it. We are going to be so focused on God and what He has prepared for us that everything negative that ever happened in this life is going to be forgotten. We will fellowship with our God and Savior and all those who love Him. Trials are a kind of test which we should have as our aim to pass the test A trial might be a period of testing in which we are tempted to give up on God or sin in some way 6

7 Job s wife gave perhaps the most infamous counsel a suffering Christian could ever hear she said to Job: Why don t you just curse God and die [Job 2:9] Daniel Doriani gives this simple definition of perseverance: To persevere is to continue in the right path when continuation is difficult. Kurt Richardson: God wishes to produce believers who stand their ground through a devout life shaped by the Word of God. The testing is finished when this present life is over. Approval does not entail a faultless endurance, as if sinlessness were expected. Rather, it acknowledges a faith that perseveres in the love of God, who promises life. James says we should view trials as an opportunity to gain eternal reward by trusting God thru even this To one degree or another our heavenly reward will be personalized reflecting our faithful service unto God There will be reward for those who endure trial well Conclusion If you are a Christian you did not sign up to become a Navy Seal you will not experience Hell Week with the other recruits But you did sign on as a follower of Jesus Christ Maybe the road has become a little difficult lately the Bible says, don t be surprised at such things. I Peter 4:12 Maybe your faith is being tested in ways you never thought it would be maybe your faith is about to be tested in the next 12 months God s Word has this to say to you this morning: James 1:12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. God is molding and shaping you doing things in your life you may not completely understand but He calls you to trust in Him I Peter 5:10 after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 7

8 When Billy Graham s wife Ruth passed away in 2007 she had previously chosen what words she would like to have written on her tombstone. She had been driving one day along a stretch of road with all kinds of road construction / detours things which make travel difficult. Then the last sign popped up: End of construction thank you for your patience. That is what is written over her grave: End of construction thank you for your patience. Someday God will be finished working on us until then persevere in His love Trust Him for your salvation [trust in the shed blood of Christ for your sins] continue on in that faith thru the trials and storms you encounter in this life 8

BILL ZECHMANN. The Perseverance of LOVE

BILL ZECHMANN. The Perseverance of LOVE BILL ZECHMANN The Perseverance of LOVE The Perseverance of Love by Bill Zechmann www.principlesforliving.org The Perseverance of Love Do you have the tendency to begin things, but rarely finish them? Do