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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Scary Stuff

Well, why don't we start with the word of prayer?

I know that God is going to compress it all before 1215 at the same time.

But we need to pray for the Spirit of God.

Father, I'm just reminded what it says in Joel chapter 2.

Father, we need the Holy Spirit right now.

These are very unusual times that we're living in.

And God, we need a message that will search our hearts...

And will try us in the fire of the Spirit.

God, we pray You would bring the heavenly surgical knife right to our very hearts, Lord, and You would cut away the evil that's there, that we may reflect your character more and more to this dying world.

Jesus, we thank you for every person who's here today, because we know there's something special you want to communicate.

We pray that as we come into contact with your Holy Spirit that we'd walk away changed.

The name of the sermon is called Scary Stuff.

There was 1 thing I forgot to tell you, and that was that when we were passing out that glow to that pastor, he did lay us a very special rebuke I think I needed to hear.

He said this, if you guys believe in health, why are you getting candy?

It was a rebuke that I took, and I internalized very well.

Alright, well, the name of the sermon is called Scary Stuff.

Now, this week I actually got into a fight.

You guys may notice the black eye as well.

And The individual I lost the fight to his name was James Unfortunately James wants to talk to you today as well Everybody take your Bible.

Let's go to the book of James James has something very interesting to share with each and every 1 of us today.

Something that's going to really, really challenge you, that's going to step all over you, but that's okay.

Because we want to become the very best people that we can become.

So we're going to the book of James today the book of James today book of James All right, and if you're there go ahead and say amen that's page 1158 The book of James starting with verse 1.

The very first word of the book of James is what?

What a very interesting way to start the book.

James, the bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus what?

Something very interesting to understand about James the word James is actually a derivative of the word or the name Jacob There was actually a lot of variations on the name Jacob James was the first part or the root of Jacob very interesting a lot of Israelite parents named their children after biblical patriarchs so that that individual would always be reminded of the story of that patriarch as a lesson or reminder to them.

So James writes the letter of James, And he's writing it to a church that's going through a lot of various challenges and trials and issues.

This James is actually not the brother of John.

The brother of John, James, actually died early on in the book of Acts.

But this James is actually the brother of Jesus in other words this was 1 of the sons of Joseph from scripture you can tell that Joseph had about 4 different sons Josie James Jude and Simon not Simon Peter but a different Simon and James was actually 1 of the brothers of Jesus probably not 1 of the the sons of Mary but rather 1 of the sons of Joseph prior to the marriage to Mary Now James is very interesting because James was actually called a pillar of the church by Paul himself.

When you go to the book of Acts you discover that James also kind of held the position of a general conference president.

So when there was this great dispute in the Jerusalem council, it wasn't Peter who stood up.

It was actually James who stood up and made the final decision about what to do.

So James was somebody who was a great pillar in the early church.

He was somebody who dealt with a lot of troubles, a lot of challenges, a lot of administration issues.

I don't know about you, but how many people here feel like the greatest challenges in life come because of other people?

Raise your hand Amen now how many people here also believe that the greatest joys come from other people raise your hand Amen, so interesting The thing that causes the greatest amount of joy and happiness is relationships, healthy relationships with other people.

The things that causes the most amount of pain and sorrow is unhealthy relationships with people.

And so what James does, James has a very interesting task before him.

The church is going through a lot of issues, a lot of troubles, a lot of different things.

And he has to try to rally them together to continue the work of God.

So we're going to James chapter 1, starting with verse 1 again.

James, a bond servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes that are scattered abroad, Greetings.

Watch what he says in his veritable grocery list of lessons.

Notice this, the very first thing he could tell the church is this, something they needed to hear.

Now something to pay attention to is the word count the word count in Greek is actually a mathematical Term in other words that if you're looking at say a budget and you're placing things in your category And you're hoping to see what the the final accounting is you're looking to see what the conclusion of the budget is and So when he is saying this what James is saying is like when you're looking at trials And you're trying to add it up trying to make sense He says look go right down to it mathematically come to the the right conclusion and it is this count it all what?

Various trials Now how many people here fall into various trials raise your hand?

Okay, if you have a car that's before the year 2000, I'm sure you're going to have car troubles, right?

Probably with some of today's cars, it's probably a little bit later on as well, right?

So there are trials of cars, transportation.

We deal with trials at our job with our families.

Everywhere around us we're dealing with trials.

It's interesting, he says, when you fall into various kinds, this is in King James, diverse kinds of trials.

Not just 1 kind of trial, but different kinds.

And he says something so incredible, he says, look, count it all joy, add it all up, and he says, look, count it all joy when you fall into various trials He didn't say when you cause various trials He said when you fall into various trials Now let me ask you a question.

When you think of the trials that surround your life right now, are you thinking, oh this is just a joyful experience for me right now.

Are you thinking, wow I'm just really excited about the way my car broke down on the way to church I'm just so excited about that.

You know, what's very intrinsic to trials is pain and sorrow I mean if it doesn't cause you pain, it's probably not a trial, right?

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Scary Stuff

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