Seeing Purpose in Your Problems and Pain, Part 4

pain that we're walking through. But when we can get our eyes off of that pain, off of that problem and on to Christ, it's amazing how he's able to comfort us, how very often he's able to give us assurance that he is in control and he is sovereign. And while we may not understand how he's going to work the situation out for our good, we can have a peace and assurance that that's exactly what he's doing.

So if you can open your Bible to James chapter one and join us there as we continue the message seeing purpose in your problems and pain. Here's Pastor Ford.

And so after every time something happened, whether it was positive or negative, he always said, this is good. And so when the King's thumb got blown off, the king said, look at this. He said, well, this is good. King said, no it isn't. My thumb is blown off. And you think it's good? This is good, King. How is it good? I don't know, but it's good. King. And so the king said, well, if it's so good, I'm putting you in jail for a year. And he put his best

friend in jail. Anybody got anybody know any kings? And he put his best friend in jail. Well, he went hunting about a year later, and he went to a place in his kingdom where he knew he shouldn't have because it was inhabited by cannibals. So they caught the king out there by himself. They they strung them up like a Christmas turkey, put him on a spit, and was getting ready to fire him up to cook him and eat him. But somebody noticed that his thumb was missing.

And these cannibals had a superstition. They wouldn't eat anybody if they weren't whole. And so they let the king go. gold. The king thought about it and said, when my thumb was blown off, my friend a year ago said, this is good. I didn't see how it could be good, but now I see that it was good because I didn't have a thumb. They didn't eat me. They let me go. So he went to his friend. He said, I'm releasing you from jail. He said, you got to

forgive me. He told him the story and he said it was bad that I put you in in jail. And his friend said, no, it is good. He said, wait a minute, it's bad. I told you the story. Why do you keep saying it is good? He said, well, see, if I wasn't in jail, then I would have been with you. And I have both of my thumbs. Oh, it's an amazing story because the story emphasizes the fact that there are some things that you and I think are working against us that are actually working for us.

Don't shout me down now. Genesis chapter 42, verse 36, Jacob says this. All these things are against me. Joseph is gone. Benjamin is gone. All these things are against me. And little did he know that those things weren't against him. They were working for him because he didn't know that God had told Joseph. There's going to be seven years of famine. So they would have been starving. They would have died off. And so the nation of Israel would

have died before it got started. But what God did, because he could see ahead, he began to let things happen to Joseph and to Jacob. And he began to show them that your setback is just a setup for your comeback, that what I'm doing is I am working in the midst of things. So there's going to be a famine and Joseph's going to be big baller shot caller. He's going to bring you down. And for seven years, the wealth of the wicked will be stored up for

the righteous. Help me somebody. Yeah. And so he will feed you and think about this, that that that lowly tribe of 75 went down into Egypt, and Egypt became the incubator in which birthed the Hebrew Nation. Because they went in 75 and came out over 2 million. God used Egypt as a womb where they could grow but be protected because Egypt was a world power. God knew how to work some stuff out. And so you look

at this thing. It's amazing to me that when you look at it, and I know some of you came in here with a smile on your face, uh, but you got pain in your heart and and problems in your finances. Amen. And so I came to tell you, don't be like Jacob. You need to understand things that seem to be working against you are actually working for you. I came to deliver some mail. God told me to tell you things you think or against, you may sometimes

work for you. Now James agrees. He teaches us that you must see purpose in your problems and in your pain. Last week we saw there are five ways in verses one through 12. In chapter one that a mature believer sees purpose in their problems and in their pain. Here's what we did. I'll summarize it just very quickly. We only dealt with point number one. Amen. It was verse one. Here it is. How then do we see. Uh, purpose in our problems and pain? We submit to the regal

prerogative of God. That is, we understand that he is sovereign in positive situations and negative situations, good situations and bad situations. Things we like and things we don't like. God is still sovereign. And so he says, James, the servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. Greeting. He wants them to submit to the sovereignty. Remember James as his identification. Uh, servant. That's his dedication. And Lord Jesus Christ, that's his affirmation.

So he talks about the deity of Jesus Christ, Lord, the humanity of Jesus Christ Jesus, and the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Christ anointed one, King of kings and Lord of lords. Let me bottom line it so I can get to at least the next two. You know what he's saying? Say, what's he saying? The larger we make his name, the smaller he makes our problems. Oh, yeah. That was worth your coming to church today. Yeah. You don't even have to pay for that. Amen. Amen. That is.

There's power in that name. You know. You know what name I'm talking about? The name of the one who spoke the nothing and nothing became something. Uh, the one who spoke and the nothing that wasn't became the everything that is preach, Pastor Ford. I'm doing the best I can. The name of the one who said light, be, and light was the name of the one who made wet water come out of a dry rock. The name of the one who turned a waterway into a freeway. You

ain't going to pray with me? The name of the one who turned two sardines and five rich crackers into a Moby Dick sandwich and fed all of 5000 men and probably 10,000 women and children of the name, of the one who turned a praise team into a conquering army, defeating Jehoshaphat enemies. You know that name? What's that name? Yeah. Bright morning star, Lily of the Valley. Power in that name. Salvation in that name. Deliverance in that name. Thank God

for Jesus. Yeah. Come on. Holler it out. Calling Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Sweetest name, I know. Jesus. Jesus. That name that's above every name. That the sound of that name. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is God according to the Word of God. Fill my TV coming on. Give him praise in the house of the Lord. Mm. Yeah. That name. I told you about it before. Brother said to us. What you going to do for your anniversary? You going to go downtown? He said you want to

go to Puerto Vallarta? Stay. Stay in my condo in Paradise Village. Show you right. Ain't you got a pray? Already did. While you were saying it, God said, go ahead. Amen. Send us down there. Put three $3,000 in our pocket. Went down and went to the desk. And and daughter. I was almost disappointed because I said, We're James and Leslie Ford. And they said, we don't have a reservation for you. I said, I ain't no, I ain't come 8000 miles to be turned around. And I called his name.

I said, well, Mr. So-and-so sent us here. And, uh, the the desk clerk said, why didn't you say so? Oh, you're going to be staying in his condo. Oh, well, let me tell you, you're going to be here for seven days. But here's what you have to do. Mr. Ford, you can't use your name. You have to sign his name. See you. Have you have access to all of the amenities, but you can't sign your name. You have to sign a his name. So I went and went to the spa and got the the whole works with a mudpack.

And I signed his name, and I went to the gym to work out. And I worked out and I signed his name when I went to breakfast and it was free because I signed his name. I went to dinner and guess what? It was free too, because I signed his name. And so the whole time, uh, we just signed his. I came to tell somebody that there is a name that's recognized in heaven. And that name is Jesus. And so Jesus said, if you ask anything of the father, he'll give it to you. If you ask in my name.

can always connect with us on social media. If you've not done so before, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and we'd love to interact with you that way. But let's get back to the message seeing purpose in your problems and pain. Again, here is Pastor Ford.

in your problem. Don't try to control it. Okay? Let me just bottom line, here's what he's saying. If you're not submitted to the regal prerogative of God, then your suffering won't make sense to you. See what usually, to our sense looks like nonsense begin to make sense when we use God's sense. Mm. You say? Say it again. Yeah. What you look at. That doesn't make sense. And it looks like nonsense. Makes sense when you use God. Sense. Is that. Is that alright? Alright, alright. So here now

when you begin to look at it. He wants to know. Here's the second one. Let's get to it. Let's get to it. I got two today and then Imma let you go notice. Secondly, if you're going to see purpose in your problems and pain, he says in verse two, you must have the right perspective of your problems, the right perspective. In other words, you have to change your perspective. See? Come on, help me preach this. Look at your neighbor and say neighbor. How you see the problem often is

the problem. That's right. Yeah, y'all know you say it all the time, but that's what he's saying. Uh, you know, I'm going to tell you about a small time preacher who's struggling, uh, with a small church in Dallas, Texas. Tony Evans, let me tell you what he said. He said when he was in seminary. Uh, what he had to do was, uh, work and go to school. And so he got a job at Trailways. And when he went there, there were about 4 or 5 other guys that worked on the evening shift. He had to work

evening because he went to school in the daytime. He said that when he went in, they informed him, look, this is how we roll, uh, on this night shift. Uh, you could be late. Somebody will punch you in on time. You can leave early. We'll punch you out. Uh, everybody doesn't work all night. A couple of us will work, uh, for a couple hours. And while the others sleep. And then, uh, they wake up, and then we go sleep. And, you know,

and that's the way we roll around here. So we want you to know, uh, that's what you gotta do. And so he began to to ponder and say, okay, now I want to be accepted by these guys, and I want to be socially alienated and ostracized. Uh, but I got to honor God. And and so, you know what, God? I know it's going to cost me, but I'm going to honor you, okay? And so what's his motivation? Honor God. So guess what happened? They did ostracize him. He said that whenever it was time to unload and and load

some of his buses. Uh, nobody was around. They had to go to the bathroom. They had to do something, and they kept doing what they were doing, and he never participated in it. He said three months later, uh, the boss came to him and said, uh, come to the office. And, uh, he's thinking to himself, why are you bringing me to the office? I'm the only one

around here that work. I ain't done nothing wrong. Call him in the office and said, for the last month, we've had, uh, one of our management team scoping out the evening shift, and we know that there's punching in and out of people who aren't even here. Uh, that half will sleep while half work. And, uh, you did not participate. We fired them. We're bringing on a whole new staff. We want to make you the manager of

the night shift. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like when you look at it, the problem was the platform for his promotion to his new position and his higher pay. Amen. See, the problem is with your perspective. Is your theology greater than your theology? Say, what do you mean by that? You know exactly what I mean. Are you more concerned about your pain than God's purpose? Because if you are you, you will not see. See, here's what you need. You

need a new perspective. Little boy was wanting to see the Bud Billiken Parade, so he was standing on the street and he was looking and it would look nice and everything. But all he could see was in front of me. He's short and all these people couldn't see anything, couldn't see good. And he said, parades. I don't like parades. And an old man was standing next to him who lived in the apartment behind him in the penthouse floor. And so the old man said to the little boy,

come on, little boy. Now wait a minute. All you social workers, all you children, workers. Uh, listen, don't.

the parade. He sees everything in between. And that's what God told me to come tell you today that you're down from the ground looking at it, and it looks bleak and it looks bad, and it looks like ain't nothing ever going to come of this, but you just seeing a little part of it. You're being obscured by all the things that are around you. But you got an ancient of days who say, come up to heaven and look down on it rather than looking at it. And when you look down on it, you see it

from a different light. You see the beginning of it and you see it ends, and you see the process that takes place in the middle that God is letting you know. I got this. When you look from the divine perspective, you know there's a beginning. You know there's an end. You know that I'm working and it looks beautiful when you see the whole thing from my perspective. My wife will tell you I'm not like everybody else. I complain, and then I'll put a caveat and I'll say, ooh, girl,

you know what? What? I'm excited. Why are you excited? Because I'm under great persecution. Why are you excited about that? Because there's got to be great provision. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There has to be. Yeah. And so when we look at this, he's saying. View your trials from God's perspective, man. I tell you what it's like. It's like I'm a teacher and I know it. I'm looking at this thing this morning. I said, I see another outline for the book of James. I've got, I bet, you know, less

than 25 outlines. Here's the outline I saw. Uh, Elder Strider. I was looking at it again. I said, wow, looking at it from God's perspective, here's what I saw. Verse one is God sent. Sin. Verse two. Is God seen? Verse three. Is God shaping? Verse four. It's God supplying. In other words, look at how he got this thing set up. He says, verse one, I sent it. Uh. Verse two. You gotta see it from my perspective. Because if you don't see it the way I see it, then you won't respond to it the way I want

you to respond to it. Then I can't shape you the way I want to shape you. And I can't supply for you what I want to supply for you. Because your shape determines your supply, and your seeing determines if you know it was sent. And so they all fall in line together. I'm sending it. I want you to see it the way I see it, because I'm shaping you to make you into something that you currently are not right now. Why? Because I can't give you what I want to give you the way you are

right now. Yeah. Some of you ladies ain't going to never get a husband because you won't get a divorce. He got quiet. It's like you, you you blessing us, then you just stole our blessing. Yeah. You're not going to get a husband. You can't live with yourself. How you going to live with somebody else? Brother, he ain't going to send you that fine woman you waiting on. He said get a job. Yeah. And so here, as you begin to look at this thing, man, it is, it is. Notice, uh, there's a A and a B

under here. Notice the attitude that demonstrates the right perspective. He says count it all joy. What does that mean? What does that mean? Count it all joy. Well, you know, when we talked about this plenty of times, uh, that whenever you look at, uh, the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit, I belong to Christ's body. But the filling of the spirit, where joy is produced, my body belongs

to him. So I belong to Christ's body. First John 1213 for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, having all been made to drink of one spirit. But then once I get filled with the spirit. Galatians 522 and 23. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy. So joy is independent of circumstances. It is not based on what happens. And so David said, the joy of the Lord is my strength. But wait a minute. He

was running for his life. But he said, the joy of the Lord is my strength, because if my joy doesn't come from the circumstances, it comes from the Savior. And so, uh, your sons turn against you. Yeah, but the joy of the Lord is my strength. Yeah, but your people turn to you. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Uh, but they want to kill you. Joy of the Lord is my strength. You're in the wilderness. Don't have food. The joy of the Lord is my strength. But where are you going to eat joy? The Lord

is my strength. Well, what's going to happen? And when are you going to go back? I don't know, but the joy of the Lord is my strength. I don't know anything, but the joy of the Lord is my strength, I trust him.

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