Do you guys remember the egg drop experiment in school? Do you guys do that? Where you had, you were given a little egg and, and that you had to engineer a contraption that would keep it from Uh, breaking if dropped from a certain height. Uh, some people, not saying myself per se, hypothetically speaking, would try to swap the egg with a hard boiled egg. Um, not, you wouldn't do that, but, um, and I, of course, I wouldn't do that, but, um, OK, maybe I tried to do that, but, um, you had to come up with this contraption. Maybe it was with straws or with like a parachute and like a You know, a grocery bag or something, or, or he had to build this thing that would keep an egg from breaking. There was a former NASA engineer, uh, turned YouTuber, which is weird that we're in a culture where that can happen these days, but Mark Rober actually creates these incredible, uh, experiments and actually created the, the tallest egg drop in the world and actually safely dropped an egg from space and, and created it to where it didn't break. Uh, which is really cool. But why do I share this? Is that I think some of us view Christianity as the egg drop. You've been through hard times. You've been through hard situations, and you recognize you, you come into this relationship with God or this place in your life where you're like, wow, Jesus saved me. My sins can be forgiven, right? And, and it feels great. And so What we try to do then, in response to what we've seen and done in the past, is we create this egg drop bubble wrap scenario where we spend our life trying to wrap ourselves in this little Christian bubble. The problem with that is that the Christian life is not an egg drop experiment. It's not an experiment meant to create you, to make you feel safe. It's an experience to make you come alive. I remember about 10 years ago, we're having a baptism service and a kid named JD, a little rough around the edges, uh, decided to get baptized. He's a, he's a student of very few words, and, uh, but his response after he got baptized still sticks in my mind to this day. He came out of the water, you know, we say buried with Christ and baptism, raised to walk and newness of life. And, and I remember saying to him, like, JD, how do you feel? And he goes, I feel awake. See, that's the heartbeat of Christianity. Is that life with Christ gives you a faith that works in a world that doesn't. And so we're gonna study this Book of James in a new series entitled Call of the Wild, because life can feel a lot like the wilderness, uncertain, right? Complex, easy to get lost in. You feel attacked by the elements, by animals, by people, like, it's, it's a journey. Right. But what does life look like on this journey? Well, if you're taking notes, I encourage you to write this down, that real faith doesn't sugarcoat the wilderness. Real faith doesn't sugarcoat the wilderness. I, I don't know where we came across. Maybe it's after the World War II, come home, Leave It to Beaver feel like everything's great and dandy, like Brady Bunch, like, hey, like, like I, trust me, I love all the shows and the feelings and the nostalgia to everything. But that doesn't really match up with like Monday through Saturday, does it? Like we come in the church and we're like, how are you doing? Highly favored and blessed. How are you? Like, you don't say that anywhere else, right? You don't go, like you don't open your business meeting that way, right? I mean, great if you do, but you might get some looks at, right? Like, uh, people looking at you, right? Like you don't go through and be like, hey, Tommy, uh, you got that corporate report. Well, I was praying a hedge of protection. Um, around this business plan, and I was gonna like, like we have some phrases in in Christian Christianity and spirituality where it does feel a little bit bubble wrapped for just being real. The problem is, if you're, if you're like me as a kid, it's fun to pop the bubble wrap, right? And pretty soon you're not protected. And so then what do you do when you are exposed to the reality of life? What do you do when your life, your belief system, your practices are challenged in a phone call or a moment? Where do you go? See, we're gonna study a book that's actually, uh, one of the ear, potentially the earliest book in the New Testament. It was written by a wild guy to a wild audience about a wild faith. We're gonna study the book of James. And see, the book of James is what I love about it is that it's, it's not. It's not the spiritual snuggie. Right, I remember one time, uh, my wife gets cold and so I thought like the romantic gift. Oh, she, she wants a blanket. I'll get her a blanket. This was an infomercial that just got released. I was like, I'll be, I'll get a romantic gift, a Snuggie. It's not a romantic gift, by the way, but I do feel validated a little bit cause I looked it up, uh, this morning because I was curious, and actually over 30 million people have bought Snuggies, just FYI, um, you know, the little blankets you can wear, right? The challenge for us as believers is that we have snuggy faith. We're like, oh, I'll just swear, right, sing my little song of gratitude, pra, and then someone cuts you off, the Lord, right? And then you start acting out, living a certain way, right? Like it's, it's it's one thing to have like a church experience. And then you go through life, and sometimes there's this disconnect. Right. But what I love about the book of James is that it's not a spiritual snuggie. It is a battle plan. It is, you are getting bombarded with spiritual bombs left and right, attacked from all sides. And in the middle of the battle, in the bottom of a trench, he's gonna come in and say, here's what you do. It's a wild man with a wild message to a wild group of people. You see, first, the author of the book of James is James, the half brother of Jesus. Now, don't get him confused with James. He was another James in the Bible called James, the son of Zebedee, brother of John, the apostle, who we know it's not him, because this book was written in and around the council in Jerusalem of Acts 15, so around 40 AD-ish. Um, but the other James, James, the son of Zebedee, was killed in Acts chapter 12. And so let's just pause for a second and think about how wild it is that James even wrote this book. You see, James was the half brother of Jesus. OK, the half brother of Jesus. Do you know how crazy it would be for you to believe that your sibling is God? Like you might be able to convince somebody in public that you're better than you are. But could you honestly think that your brother or your sister is God? Like that would take a lot. Not to mention, can you imagine growing up, the younger sibling of Jesus? Do you know how tough that would be? Every time something is broken in the house, the parents walk in. Whose fault is it? Not Jesus, right? Can you imagine if any wedding that James would go to? Right? And they run out of alcohol or wine, right? Hey, hey, James, last time Jesus was at a wedding, he turned water into wine. Can you help us out? No. Can you imagine just enjoying a nice relaxing time by the sea, and you can barely swim or like, cool. Jesus walked on water, James, right? Or you run out of food, we're like, ah, I saw Jesus feed thousands with a lunchable, some bread and some fish. James, can you help us out? Like he is always having to live up to the expectation of Jesus. And then people all of a sudden claim that he is God. And so what happens? What happens is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 7, when Paul recounts the resurrection of Jesus, it says that Jesus appeared to James. And he and he realized in that moment, That Jesus was in fact the Son of God. And that through him and him alone comes the way of salvation. And that while man could not reach up to God, God reached down to man. And when Jesus lived the perfect life, the reason he did that was to give his life as a ransom for many and to seek and save the lost. And that when he rose again, he not only conquered sin, but he actually defeated death itself and then provided a way of salvation, where how every person in the world up to that point was trying to earn their way to God and to this day we see so many people trying to earn their way to God. And God says, no, you can't make it. It's OK cause I did. My death. Paid for your sin. In my life, and the resurrection of my life now offers you forgiveness. And you can have eternal life tomorrow and abundant life today if you place your faith in me. And it's with that realization that James, who did not believe Becomes not only a believer but a leader of the early church. In fact, leading the church in Jerusalem, leading the council in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. And then in church tradition has it that he was actually martyred for his faith, believing that Jesus was in fact God. And, and the story goes that he was thrown off the temple, survived, and, and before he was stoned by the masses, called out to God, Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do, no matter what Jesus did on the cross. Isn't that wild? So we have this wild man, James, and he's writing to this wild group of believers. They're literally dispersed because of persecution. And so they they are in the middle of spiritual battles. And it's almost like, it's almost like when he's out of time and they're under attack, they, they don't have time for story. Like a good chunk of the Bible is filled with story, which I love that because we can connect to that and we see how people lived. But James in the middle of persecution, writing to people who are hiding and also in persecution says, we don't have time for games. Here's what you need to do. In fact, 108 verses in this short little book are actually imperatives or commands. It's almost like the Sermon on the Mount and the Book of Proverbs had a baby. Probably sounds weird to say, but understand that it is so direct that he comes out of the gate swinging. He's not like, Here, dear church, I'm praying for you. I love you. You're so sweet. Here, let me just comb your hair. He comes out of the gate swinging. He's like, it's hard. But here's what you can do. And so today in chapter one, the opening verses, what we're gonna find are 3 tests of faith. And what I love about this is that a faith that is tested is a faith that can be trusted. A faith that is tested is a faith that can be trusted because that matches with the reality of life. We don't have to worry about walking around #blessed because we have a savior who defeated death itself and the Holy Spirit living inside of us and saying, you're in a battle, whether you know it or not, I'm gonna help you. And so it gives us 3 tests for every believer. The first test we see in this passage is the test of doubt. And that's when you're walking in the wilderness of trials, the test of doubt when you walk in the wilderness of trials. Verse 2, right out of the gate. The first one is, hey, James, a servant of God of the Lord Jesus Christ of the 12 tribes in dispersion, like, hey, James, half brother Jesus to the people who are hiding. And believers. It comes right out, here we go. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Mm, I don't like that. Not if, but when. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, for he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. Count it joy when, not if you face trials of various kinds. It's not saying that the trial is good. But rather you can find good in the midst of the trial. It's not saying that what you're walking through is easy, but rather, his yoke is easy, and you can find joy and blessing through it. I feel like he's vague there because there are trials of various kinds of highs and lows. What are some of the difficult things that you have walked through or maybe loved ones have walked through or that you're currently walking through right now? Some of you are quietly hurting. Struggling. Mental health, physical health, financial health, emotional health. Relational health. You, you know, it's a trial. If you find yourself asking, God, why would you let blank happen? God, how could you fill in the blank? How did we get here? What am I supposed to do? Have you ever been there? One of the difficult times my wife and I walked through. It was after the birth of our first child, uh, we had back to back miscarriages. And those miscarriages we had heard the heartbeat and went through, and I didn't realize till afterwards that how common that is, right? It seemed kind of like a quiet struggle of couples and, and I just had some lovely people, uh, who wanted to, have you ever had somebody offer you encouragement and you wanted to offer back a punch. Hypothetically speaking, right? You know what I'm saying? Uh, I remember we experienced a, a miscarriage. We were heartbroken, we're praying, and I had somebody who said, John, it's OK. It's very common. So is death. But you want me to show up at the funeral of your loved one and go, it's OK, everybody dies. Right? That was a low, low moment for us, right? I wouldn't wish that feeling on anybody. But what we found in that low moment that God was still there, right? That God still heard our prayer. That God brought some people in our lives that did encourage us, that walked through a difficult situation with us. And on the other side of that. Had a child Who we have Carter who has a very special relationship with his mom, which is pretty incredible. And then because of the complications of everything. They said, OK, you probably should be done having kids, but God moved some things around, moved the states, moved us across the country, moved our hearts in a different position into a place at an exact time. In which God led us to then foster and adopt our youngest daughter. I don't wish that feeling on anybody. But God was still present even in the middle of the trial, right? Whatever trial you're walking through, God is using that to shape and build you up. And it says to perfection, which really means this idea of wholeness. And we pursue wholeness because we live in a fractured world. And so cancer is not good, betrayal is not good. Job loss and home loss and bankruptcy is not Good, but they don't remove you from the blessing of a relationship with God. That when you find him in the depths of the valley, you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Why? Because he is with you. The other thing to remember too. is that you will not be past the master, meaning that we have a faith. That was born through suffering. Jesus Christ Himself suffered the cross, took on the full weight of everything, the, the weight of the sin of the world, the wrath, and the justice of God, and in that remained with peace and provides the pathway through us that suffering is part of the process. But what it does is that it, it reminds you of your own mortality. It reminds you that the things of this world do not take the place of God. It reminds you that the place deep in your soul can only be filled by God, that God not only looks down on the life and there's, trust me, I got a whole list of questions for God. I think sometimes we forget the fact that we're gonna be in eternity with him. And I think that's great, because think about how many questions we're gonna have for him, right? But in those unknown, we can take our unknown situations and our questions to a known God. And we can take that to him and say, hey, even in the midst of all of this, I'm just gonna trust you. I can't see the future, but you hold it. Right? I don't know why this melting is going on, but you say in 1 Peter 1:7, for example, that you're, you're being tested for the genuineness of your faith, being purified like gold. So the things of this world get melted away, that all that's left is what's eternal, and I'm telling you that is what's worth it. The amount of believers throughout history who survived suffering like Dietrich Bonhofer or Corey Tenboom or others, uh, or you read about the persecution around the world of people who suffered for, for Jesus understood that they had a deeper connection to Jesus than anyone else, and that connection created that strength and that value, not to experience a life of safety, but a life of meaning, and that they become spiritually alive in him. Because what happens when things go bad, when trials happen, is that we are, we have the space where we can doubt God. And what James is saying, instead of doubting God, doubt your doubts. Life is not necessarily good, but God is always good. And so we may be reminded about how temporary life really is. That's the first test. The second test we see right out of the gate is the test of discontent. And that's the wilderness of treasure. Now this feels weird. But just track with me here. Because the first, if like if I, if I'm Satan, OK, that's a weird phrase to say, OK, but this picture for a second, if someone is Satan, and Satan says, OK, I wanna keep people from following God, what do you do? I think the first thing you throw at them is difficult situations, right? Make them turn from God. OK, well, difficult situations doesn't turn them from God. Instead, I'm gonna give them everything they think they ever wanted. Because who needs God if they have everything they need, right? Jesus Christ himself says it is difficult for the rich man to enter the kingdom of God. But what I love about that story is right after that story, it says, what is impossible for man is possible for God. And so you're gonna be challenged, if not in doubt, you're gonna be challenged in being discontent. And I think these verses, especially here in the Northeast Valley with Scottsdale, Cave Creek, Carefree, is this idea that like we think we can be defined by our stuff and our treasure. He says there in verses 9 to 11. He says, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation. Because like the flower of the grass he will pass away, for the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. I remember when I was early elementary school at recess time, great time of life, right? Uh, my friends and I wanted to collect some cool looking rocks and some cool looking sticks. I don't know if guys ever age out of this, by the way. Uh, you might be walking with an adult grown man, and if he sees a really cool looking stick, he will be excited. I'm just telling you. Like you never grow out of that as a boy. And so like, we're going, I was like, this is fun collecting cool rocks and stuff at recess, but it's like, what if we got other people to collect the rocks for us? And so we got a line and blocked the slide, which is the cool ride of the recess, and we blocked the slide and said that the payment to go on the slide is a cool looking rock or stick. And so, and pretty soon, it worked and all these kids started bringing us sticks and rocks, and we thought we were the smartest entrepreneurs or dictators. I don't know, um, uh, of, of the playground and like, we got done with recess, and we're like, look at all, look at all this treasure. All these rocks and sticks. And then the whistle blew, and we had to go inside. And we get to take him with us, right? And as silly as that sounds, I don't think we ever get past trying to collect sticks and rocks. We live in a culture that defines itself by what you have. And we say what you have is who you are. When in reality, you are not defined by what you have, you were defined by who you are. Cuz no matter what game you play. Right? Monopoly, risk, whatever. At the end of the game, the pieces go back in the box. I've, I've been on a mountainside in like a tribal hut in this random mountain in the middle of nowhere, Ecuador. And I saw kids with absolutely nothing with more joy than I'd ever had. And I found myself jealous of these kids. But if you realize that Jesus is all you have, you come to believe that Jesus is all you need. And when you have that perspective, you can have joy despite any circumstance. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 11 Timothy chapter 6. It says to fight the good fight of faith, to take hold of the eternal life to which you've been called. I love that, because the eternal life might take hold of you, but I wanna ask you, have you taken a hold of eternal life? Cause a few verses later, he gives a challenge to the rich, and by all sense of of metrics across the world, here in America, we are seen as rich. You are rich. You are. But the Bible challenges the picture of rich and says, no, I want you to be rich in good works, rich in generosity. And see, here's the truth. Money is a tool, not a title. It's not bad to have money. In fact, in the parable of the talents, it says one person was given this amount, one person was given this amount, one person was given this amount. They were given a variety of amounts, but the challenge wasn't how much you were given. The challenge was how much did you do with what God had given you? And so you are not gonna be held accountable for somebody else's wealth, but you will be held accountable. What are you doing with what I placed in your hands? So we don't have to bury it. We don't have to hide it, but we can steward it and and grow it and develop it and give it away. Why? Because money is a tool, not a title, that your identity is not in the treasure that you have, but in the treasure of the cross. We have a God who is a given, has given you abundantly more than anything you can ask, think, or imagine. And what I've experienced in this church journey is that every time we got close to the end, every time we got close to not being able to pay our bills, God out of nowhere would bring something in, like, here you go. Like, who. And I'm just reminded of our prayer, the Lord's prayer, where it talks about, give us this day our daily bread. Now, I wish it was yearly bread, even monthly bread or weekly bread, I'd be cool with. But we have to be dependent on God because he is the giver of gifts. And it's not that money is bad, but if you're defined by your treasure, you're falling so far short of what God's called you to do. Cause either you're gonna be left wanting more, or you're gonna be left feeling dissatisfied by what you have. You're gonna reach the mountaintop and understand that that actually wasn't the goal the whole time. The first test is doubt. When you walk through the wilderness of trials. The second test is discontent when you walk through the wilderness of treasure. The 3rd and final test here for today is the test of desire, the wilderness of temptation. Now this one's tough. This one's tough because what you're gonna see here is that your own worst, your worst enemy, your biggest battle, your biggest critic, your biggest struggle is you. We love to say, oh, I'm being spiritually attacked. No, you're just making poor decisions. Right. Verses 12 to 18, Blessed is a man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God had promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, for He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Hang on to those words for in just a moment. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brother, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will, he brought forth us by the word of truth that we should be kind, kind of first fruits of his creatures. In other words, we should reflect the life that he lived. When I was on family vacation, uh, we were playing with my daughter's kite. And we got bored with the kite and so we're kind of done with that. If your parents, you get that, right? You play it and their kids are just done. All right, you moved on. So now I have this kite string. And then we, we got a hook, we're like, oh, let's go fishing. So we just like try different things and it was like, we, but we didn't have any like bait or anything, so we had like snacks. So like, like literally like a sour gummy worm and some other things. We're trying like a little stick to kind of look at, we were throwing in the water and nothing was happening. And then, uh, my son actually just broke a tree branch and out popped a little worm. We're like, oh, this might actually be something. And so we put it and we're we were literally on a kite string and like a hook like this isn't gonna work. Um, and then we go through and next thing I know, I just hear, if you know my son, he's just very loud and so we're at a public beach and all of a sudden he goes. And I look up and he holds up this fish that he caught with a kite string, um, and with a worm that we had found out of a tree branch. And everyone's like, oh, you can't fish. We're like, OK, calm down. We unhooked it and dropped it back in, but we were so excited that we caught a fish. Uh, when did the fish bite? The, the fish grabbed onto the hook when it was tempted by the bait, right? Sin is never just gonna come at you with a hook. You're never gonna get this. Who is it? It's sin. Right? It's gonna look like something you want. It's gonna appear like love, but it's actually lust. It's gonna appear like ambition, but it's actually greed. It's gonna appear like validation, but actually it's lying and hiding. Right? And so Satan's gonna come in and try to lure you in with something that you actually want, but it's your desire that does so. See, temptation is not the same thing as sin. It's how do you respond to it. Imagine yourself, OK, at home, and then the reality is you have two people that live in the home of the heart. You have the flesh and you have the spirit. Right? Paul himself, one of the most spiritual people you will ever meet, says in Romans, right? I do what I don't wanna do, and what I don't wanna do, I do. Over and over and over again, you see in scripture people falling short, falling short, falling short. So to be tempted is not to say that you're a bad person. To be tempted is to be human. But the question is, what are you gonna do when that temptation comes? When temptation comes knocking on the door. Who's gonna answer the door? Is it the flesh or is it the spirit? Are you gonna respond with your own selfish desires, grab hold of what you think is food, but it's actually a hook? Or when you're tempted, are you gonna remind yourself of God's judgment, of God's goodness, and of your own value of who God created you to be and what God called you to do and say, nope, not today. See, real faith doesn't sugarcoat the wilderness. Real faith strengthens you for the wilderness. And right out of the gate. wild man to a wild audience with a wild message, says, look, life is tough. Life is tough You're gonna be tested. You're gonna be tested with doubt, right? When bad things happen, trials come your way, what are you gonna do? You're gonna be tested with to be discontent, to think that you need more things, you need more stuff, that money is a title when in reality, it's not a title, it's a tool. And then you're gonna be tested with desire about settling for lesser things when God created you for so much more. That when temptation comes knocking, Are you gonna answer With the spirit or with the flesh. We have a God who is a good God who gives good gifts and the gift to respond to those, a gift that when you're walking through the trials, when you're walking through the The process of of finding treasure. When you're walking through temptation and things coming your way. Can you turn to him? And ultimately, are you willing to answer the call of God in your life? of what God's calling you to do, and who God is calling you to be. And if James, the half brother of Jesus, under persecution and challenge, writing to a people who are persecuted, who went through things way harder than we could ever imagine, were able to find joy, find peace, find meaning, and, and triumph over that, to have a faith that is tested that then could be a faith that is trusted in real life, be strengthened in who they were. If it's possible for them, it's possible for you and me. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, Help us not to have a bubble wrapped egg drop faith. But God, you did not come. To just keep us safe, but you came to make us alive. Help us to have a life. That chooses you. Strengthen us for the wilderness, strengthen us for the battles. As we go through struggles of doubt and being discontent and desire, may we continually choose you as you have chosen us. We love you. It's in your sons and we pray. Amen.