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.
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr. Senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us today. As we continue our look at James chapter one and a message called Seeing Purpose in Your Problems and Pain. You know, this idea of God using the painful situations in our lives to get us ready for something else was something that I kind of struggled to understand at a certain time
in my life. And then I heard a pastor at one time say, hey, if you're a parent, you might want to look at it this way is your kid when they're little, ready for everything you want to give them. And the answer is obviously no. I mean, you can't toss your keys to a four year old. You're just asking for major trouble if you do something like that. They go through a process of growing, of maturing. Comprehension
gets more. They begin to take on more responsibility. If all goes well, and then eventually you're able to give them what you truly want to give them long to give them. But you couldn't in their immaturity. And you know, the same holds true for God and for us. There may be things that God wants to give us, but he's like, I need you to mature a little bit first. And so I'm going to walk with you through this difficult season so that I can give you what I
want to give you. Well, that's what we're looking at in today's broadcast. So if you can join us in James chapter one, here's Pastor Ford.
You know, I'm going to tell you about a small time preacher who's struggling with a small church in Dallas, Texas. Tony Evans, let me tell you what he said. He said when he was in seminary, Arie, 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 of 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 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, come to the office. And 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. He called him in the office and said, for the last month, we've had 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, 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.
No, no, boy, don't go with a stranger. Oh, no. Stranger danger.
This is just an illustration, okay? That's that's all it is. Okay. So don't get excited. You know, don't call DCFS. Alright. So, so so he says, come on up. So he goes up to this man's penthouse. He looks down. He sees the beginning of the parade. He sees the ending of
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 like everybody else. I'll 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. Verse two Is God seen? In verse three Is God shaping? Verse four, It's God supplying. In other words, look at how you get 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. Who 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 are 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 noticed, 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 13 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 how 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 so he says, count it all joy. That's a mathematical term. Notice first of all, it's a command. It's imperative. It's not dusty or old country buffet. He says. You better rejoice when you get into diverse temptation. And here's how he softens it up. Because notice he started
with compassion. That is, my brethren, 15 times in James, my brother and my brethren. What's he trying to do? It's a hard situation, so I'm going to soften it up a little bit, but I'm still letting you know that even though I'm going to calm down the situation and let you know, hey, I'm being compassionate, you need to know it's still a command and I like how he does it. More of us need to learn that he's sensitive to their feelings, but he is astute in
the scriptures. So what he does is he speaks the truth in love. He focused on the product, not on the pain.
You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. A message called Seeing Purpose in Your Problems and Pain. We're going to get back to this message in just one moment. If you ever want to find out more about Pastor Ford, or maybe about Christ Bible Church, where he serves as senior pastor, you can always come to our website. It's Treasure Truth radio.org. Go ahead and click on the about link and you'll find more information there. Again, you can
start at our website. Treasure truth radio.org. Back to the message. Here's Pastor Ford.
And so that's what Paul did, didn't he? They said, Paul, we'll kill you. He said, that's okay. Uh, if you kill me, I'll be with Christ, because the die is gain. They said, well, we'll let you live. Well, that's cool too, because the live is Christ. Well, we'll make you suffer. He says, well, okay, let's bring it on. Because, uh, I know that this, uh, present suffering is nothing in comparison to the glory that's going to be revealed in us. So here's what he was saying. He's saying, look, if
you kill me, I'm going to be with Christ. Yeah. And if you let me live, I'm going to live for Christ. And if you make me suffer, I'm going to get a reward for Christ. So bring it on. It's all about Christ. I'm going to be like Christ. I'm going to look like Christ. I'm going to be with Christ. And so over and over again he tells us, now notice something because he says something about these things.
He says, first of all, he says, uh, this aspects of suffering, uh, that show we have the right perspective. He says they are certain. Notice, he says, when you fall into divers temptation. Not if I don't need to say anymore. John 1633 in the world you shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He said, you're going to you're going to be hated on. You're going to be despised and rejected. You're going to be kicked to the curb. You ought to just you. You
better be scared when. When there's nobody hating on you. That generally mean you ain't doing nothing for Christ. Mhm. Yeah. And so first Corinthians chapter ten, verse 13, there's no temptation taken you but that which is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted. Notice secondly, not just are they certain but they're sudden. He says, when you fall and have you ever noticed that your trials, your tests, your temptations don't
consult your daytimer? They don't ask to be put on your schedule. It just comes up and it just overwhelm you. And so he says you have no control over your pain. You just have control in your pain. Now, let me ask you a question. Say ask it. Why is it so important to have the right perspective about our problems in pain, so that we see it from God's perspective? And once we do, what will happen? I'll tell you what will happen. And Scripture affirms it. What happened? Pastor,
for glad you asked. You ask intelligent questions because it'll turn my fear into faith. It'll turn my sighing into singing. It'll turn my pouting into praising. It'll turn my doubting into dancing. It will turn my worrying into worship. It will turn my trying into trusting, uh, the you know what they meant for evil. God said. I mean it for good. Uh, he'll say when I pass through the waters. I will not fear because you're with me. In other words, he said, you're going to get in some water and
you're going to get wet. But don't worry, the only thing you need to worry about is this I ain't going to let you drown. So you may go down once. You may go down twice, but you ain't going down three times. Because I will be with you. And so and so. I'll never forget when we're in another church. We had just got a new carpet. Green carpet. And you know, and I don't know why we got green, I don't know. Uh, somebody said money. No, we didn't have none over there. No, we ain't got much over here.
That's why it's red. Uh, but anyway. So, so so, uh, they had a wedding, and I told them. Don't put anything on our carpet. They put candles down the aisle and let the candles burn, and it seeped into the carpet. And Dennis Sanders, who was our, uh, custodian at the time, I said, man, I'm upset. I'm calling them people. Hey, they going to pay for this? If we got to get a new carpet, they're going to pay because I told them, don't be. And he said, don't worry about it, pastor.
I said, what do you mean, don't worry about it? He said, I got this. Don't worry. He said it won't have any damage. I said, come on, man, look how deep that's in the carpet. You start scraping it, you're going to scrape the piling. It's going to it's going to look bad. He said, pastor, I got this. I said, okay, I want to see how you going to do this? He went and came back. I said, what's that? He said, it's a heat gun. And then he had this piece of paper with him or a
cloth or whatever it was. And so he put the heat to it. And then he said, Now I'm going to blot it. And he put the whatever it was down there. And the wax soaked up in the blotter paper or cloth, whatever it was. And you couldn't tell. I said, wow, I gotta write that down. He said, I knew you was going to use it as a sermon illustration. Yes, I am, because that's what God wants to do with us. Uh, that there's something in my character that just ain't right. And God says, oh, man,
he's stubborn and hard. It's in the warp and the fiber of his soul. And so I need some heat. And he puts the heat of the conviction of the Holy Ghost on me. And then he blots it out with the Scripture, because I'm clean through the word that he's spoken unto me, and it blots out. And I look and I say, wow, I'm new in that area too. And so what you need to be crying out. Say, what do we need to be crying out for? Boom boom boom. Mhm mhm mhm. Five.
I yell.
Boom.
Boom boom!
Oh, when it's hot. And God makes it hot. Because we've got a toxic personality. Give me some heat. We've got a fornication. Adultery. Give me some heat. Gossiping. Backbiting. Jealousy. Lying. Give me some heat. Turn up the heat. Give me some.
Fire.
In other words, it's Romans 828. All. All things work together for good to those who love the Lord. And so we have to have a right perspective. Regal prerogative. Let me finish this real quick. We have to. The third way. A mature believer sees purpose in their problem plan. Is, are y'all tired of the word? Okay, okay. Can I can I do one more? Thank you very much. Amen. Amen. You have to understand the refining process that takes place. He says in verse three, listen to this. Knowing this,
that the trying of your faith works. Patience. Wow. That's powerful. Let's let's now look, some of you won't come to Bible study, so I gotta bring Bible study to you. Okay. There are five kinds of suffering in the Bible that I find. Let me. Let me give you the five. If you take notes, you may want these first kind of suffering is religious suffering. It's religious suffering. You say what?
What what is that? It's. It's when you suffer because your religion puts a stipulation on you that God does not. So every religion is false. Yeah. And and here's what first Corinthians 1022 says. They are not worshiping God. They are worshiping demons. Did you hear what I said? They're worshiping demons. I didn't say that. Don't shoot the mailman. It says it in first Corinthians 1022 that all religion other than Christianity is the worship of demons. They think
they're worshiping God, but they're. Okay, let me give you an example. In India, people are starving, but it's not caused by a food shortage or by overpopulation. It's the result of religious belief. Because they are Hindus and Buddhists and they believe that that roach that you killed this morning was probably your Uncle Willie, who died ten years ago and came back as a roach. And so you're not allowed to kill rats, mice and cows. And so get this now. Why is there a hunger problem? Because
of its religious suffering. Because you can't kill a cow. Every cow is sacred. So then one cow could feed seven people. Which means then, since they have 200 million sacred cows, they could feed. If they just chopped them boys up into Big Macs and Whoppers, they'd be able to feed 1,400,000,000 people. But their religion prohibits it. And the mice and the rats consume 50% of the stored grain in India. See? Religious suffering. Then secondly, and I
gotta hasten on, there's rapacious suffering. Say rapacious. What is rapacious? Rapacious is demonic suffering. Like the man in Mark five. Uh, he was touched not by an angel, but touched by a demon. And there were how many demons in him? How many thousand? 6000 demons. Now, that shouldn't surprise you, because some of y'all got more than that. I done dealt with some of y'all. And here's what I love about it I have to I have to make this comment because it says. And they said, Jesus said, what
is your name? And they said, now get this, they is plural because there's 6000 said is singular because only one spoke for all. Alright. Well I said the church had that kind of unity. What is your name? Everybody would be saying her name. My name, my name, my name, my God. No, we're Christ's Bible church. Anyway. And so, uh, there's rapacious suffering. Then thirdly, there's Is retributive suffering. You say, what is that? That suffering for our sin? John 514.
Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh John 513 through 17 that is some some of us are suffering on our own. It's kind of like I tell you all the time, you say, God, why am I in this financial trouble? Why you let this happen? And God says, my name ain't on. None of them slips on any of them credit cards. Yeah. Amen. Then there's redemptive suffering.
What's redemptive suffering? Write down second Corinthians one three through 11 if you're doing that, uh, because redemptive suffering is when you don't suffer for yourself, that your suffering is so God can connect to somebody else. There was one year my wife was in the hospital five times for two weeks at a time. Three of those two sets of weeks, she led a nurse to Christ. So three people came to Christ while she was in the hospital.
And we rejoiced because we said that suffering wasn't for you, that suffering. So you can go in there and witness. When Pastor Betts was in the hospital. He led people to Christ. And so here God allows us sometimes to suffer so that other people can be blessed. But here it is in this text. Uh, it's called remedial suffering. Let me give you the definition of a very handsome preacher on the south side of Chicago. Uh, Pastor James
Ford junior. Here's what he said. And I quote. Remedial suffering is a special course of study for helping students in the University of the Holy Spirit to overcome deficiencies in specific character, skills, ability, knowledge, or wisdom.
This is treasure truth.
With Pastor James Ford Junior. And today's message is called Seeing Purpose in Your Problems and Pain. And for more teaching and additional resources, come to our website treasure truth. Radio You know, as Christians, we believe that God is the source of all reality and his word. The Bible is absolute truth. But we live in a relativistic age where claims to absolute truth are treated with skepticism and sometimes downright hostility. Perhaps you struggled to explain your beliefs
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I'm Steve Hiller, our producer is Amy Rios. Join us again next time for more Bible teaching from Pastor Ford here on Treasure truth. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.