Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the importance of seeking wisdom from God during trials, encouraging believers to reflect on their own pride and argumentative nature rather than justifying themselves. He highlights the necessity of humility and the power of acknowledging one's faults, particularly in relationships, and stresses that true wisdom comes from understanding our need for God amidst difficulties. The sermon calls for a transformation through the Holy Spirit, urging listeners to be doers of the Word and to embrace the healing that comes from admitting their shortcomings. Ultimately, it is a message of hope, reminding us that God desires to help us grow through our trials.

Take the attention off the possible problem that's being addressed in your life and sort of Reflect it on to someone else or something else Does anybody hear this? huh, the Lord wants to help us today to be conquered and Overcome so that we can walk in brokenness and humility before him be slow to speak Don't seek to justify yourself Don't seek to always argue. Oh my argumentative spirits Huh, you say well, I'm not an argumentative person. Well, let someone corner you You know, sometimes we hide really well But the God has a way of cornering us and Our nice little Christian outward character turns into a roaring lion, doesn't it? And oh, there we are found out Don't don't always argue Argue argue argue What about saying you're right? I'm guilty Forgive me Profound huh, but so true. I've had the privilege over the years of Performing many many many marriage ceremonies And I have found that the greatest advice that I've able been able to give young married couples when they start out is I Tell them the most Important sentence to remember and don't forget it in regards to their getting along with one another is This I'm sorry. I Was wrong Please forgive me Now, let's all say that together I'm sorry, I Was wrong Please forgive me Now is it that hard not here? It's not but when you're in the heat of the battle it is isn't it? What is it that gets in the way? Thank you. Oh my we have Certainly been taught. Well, haven't we what is it that stumbles when you know, you have to say you're sorry pride Pride Turn your Bibles to James James chapter 1 Now all I want to ask is that you listen to the Word of God today as we read and let God speak to you by his word James chapter 1 I'm reading from the Amplified Bible. So it's going to be different if you have another version You may care to just listen so you don't get confused although you can follow along with yours if you like Now father, we do. Thank you for the Holy Spirit And we thank you for the power of the Word of God working together with the Holy Spirit in our lives Lord, and I pray that your word will address our lives now and That we will hear you speak to us through your word Encouragement and that you will give us hope in what we're going through and help us Lord help us Lord to Acknowledge our pride our argumentativeness our wanting to Be right when we need to be wrong sometimes Help us to see that there's a healing here today for the wounds that have been brought about because of pride There's a healing because you are the healer here and you will touch our hearts as we'll just acknowledge our sin and our need and Ask for help Lord. We pray Lord. You'll do this by the power of the Holy Spirit chapter 1 Beginning in verse 2 or the latter part of verse 1 greetings Consider it. Holy Joyful my brethren whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience but let endurance and steadfastness and Patience have full play and do a thorough work So that you may be people perfectly and fully developed with no defects lacking in nothing if Any of you is deficient in wisdom Now, let me just say this here It is not coincidental That the Holy Spirit is now leading James to talk about Deficient in wisdom. What's he what's the context here? Going through trials going through tribulations going through difficulties Going through hard times and then all of a sudden James comes out and says if any of you lack wisdom or if any of you are deficient in wisdom Let him ask of God. So what is he saying? He's saying this brothers and sisters while you're going through the furnace of affliction and difficulty and struggle and and and and hard time and you are lacking wisdom from God as To what it is that he's trying to do in your life through this trial through this difficulty Ask him the Lord doesn't want us to be in the dark over why? We're going through things He'll whisper in our ear. He'll tell us if we draw near and listen and so rather than Understand this if any man lack wisdom as a general Invitation from God to ask for wisdom Which is valid Let's ask the Holy Spirit right now To begin to plant the faith in our heart to ask God the wisdom as to why we're going through What we're in now now right now What are you after Lord What are you doing? If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God God is a giving God. He wants to give wisdom Who gives to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly without reproaching or fault-finding and It will be given him. It will be given him Only it must be in faith That he asks with no wavering no hesitating no doubting Now listen brothers and sisters This does not mean that if we come to God with doubts and questions that he won't hear us. It does not mean that Paul himself said he was filled with fears within filled with fears without he struggled this simply is telling us that When we come to God, we must believe that he is we don't have to fully understand everything that's going on We're gonna have valid doubts and questions about life this means when you come to God believe that he is if you don't believe that God loves you and That he cares for you and that he's willing as a father To help you then you won't receive from him because you most likely won't even go to him But you can come to him trusting him with a hundred doubts and fears trusting him with a hundred questions The idea here is not you have to be free from all doubt before you come to God mind Lord If that was the case which one of us could approach God right now. Tell me Is anyone here free from all doubts and questions? No, so it doesn't mean that It means amidst your doubts and amidst your questions and amidst all your troubles believe God That he loves you that he cares for you and that he's willing To come and embrace you in his love and help you understand Let him come in faith with no wavering for he who? wavers hesitates and doubts the faithfulness of God the love of God he who doubts these things he's like a The billowing surge out of sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind for truly Let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything. He asked for from the Lord For being as he is a man of two minds hesitating dubious He is unstable and Unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks feels and decides now verse 9 Let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his elevation as a Christian called to the true riches and to be an heir of God James is now beginning to show us the wisdom that God will give us if we ask Why are we going through this why am I going through this? Number one God is bringing us through what we're going through so that we can be humbled we can be lowered God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble The face of the Lord is against the proud But his eye is toward his grace is toward the meek and the humble Whatever it is that you're going through now One of the reasons one of the intentions of God Which is the wisdom of God? If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God if you ask God why am I going through this he's going to show you Some area in your life where he's humbling you He's humbling you he's lowering you He's revealing pride He's revealing Argumentativeness he's revealing a feisty spirit a haughty spirit he's revealing a spirit that's unwilling to acknowledge need and fault a Spirit that doesn't like to acknowledge. I'm out of control I'm out of control Do you know one of the greatest gifts that God can give us as his children is the gift of coming face to face? With our horrible Tendency to have to be in control of everything. It's a gift from God See when we're in control, we have we're full of ourself. We're full of opinions We manipulate people don't we when we have to be in control We're full of opinions. We're full of judging You know because when we're in control we sit as God don't we we sit as God here We sit as God in our throne and we make all kinds of judgments about what we see Like a peacock right Remember with the member of the peacock with his wings all spread out That that's a sign of being in control being high being mighty not being broken You know broken people are taught by God not to make judgments of after the flesh Not to have high and mighty opinions about everything It's not that we should be milquetoast and walk around. Oh, I don't know really much about anything I can't really say I'm not sure about what no. No, it's not that we're milquetoast and passive It's just that we don't have an arrogance about us when we give our opinion you ever meet someone who is so opinionated and there's such an arrogance and haughtiness about it as If that opinion is God himself speaking part of the wisdom of God in allowing us to go through what we're going through right now is a little bit more humbling a little bit more lowering and let the brother in humble circumstances glory if You're being humbled by God glory rejoice. Be thankful shout for joy dance skip hop jump hallelujah You're being set up by God To be in close proximity to himself because he draws close to the humble and the broken It's a good thing. It's a good thing your world falling apart. It's a good thing So I sure don't see it like that well, then pray and ask God to help you and The rich verse 10 person ought to glory in being humbled By being shown his human frailty Because like the flower of the grass he will pass away the rich When a person lives a life without a conscious almost hurting awareness of their need for God when a person lives a life without without a Conscious almost hurting awareness of their need for God They have forgotten their frailty. They have forgotten their sins have been forgiven They have forgotten that as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine So likewise they cannot they have forgotten that their fruitfulness and their ability to do anything of eternal significance hangs upon a Continual utter dependence upon God alone And so therefore the rich person ought to glory in being humbled By being shown his human frailty because like the flower of the grass he will pass away Your name will pass away Everything of earth will pass away for the Sun verse 11 comes upon with a scorching heat and parches the grass Its flower falls off and its beauty fades away Even so will the rich man wither and die in the midst of his pursuits but blessed and happy to be envied is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation For when he has stood the test and been approved He will receive the victor's crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him Let no man say when he is tempted. I am tempted from God When we're going through trials when we're going through difficulties when we're going through trying times and Our heart is tempted to sin. Our heart is tempted to question God and to curse God Maybe we ought not to say God is tempting me to sin. No God is not tempting us to sin God is allowing the circumstance to come into our life. But this but the sin is coming out from our own Temptation our own sin. It's coming out from our own evil hearts That's all James is saying here When you find yourself in the midst of all kinds of difficulties and troubles and all of a sudden you find yourself being tempted to sin Don't blame God Don't blame God But what's happening is the circumstance in the trial is exposing the the frailty of human nature exposing the frailty of Your tendency in your flesh to curse God to run to sin with your mouth to sin with your thought to sin with your actions and And if the Holy Spirit is living in us and these things are happening at all to result in us wanting to fall before the Lord So when we're tempted Let us not say God is tempting us verse 13 for God is incapable of being Tempted by what is evil and he himself tempts no man with evil, but every person is tempted when he's drawn away enticed and imbated by his own evil desire Then the evil desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully matured brings forth death Do not be miss misled my beloved brethren the whole history of the human race is that God placed man in the world and Man has proven himself to be sinful by virtue of what he has done in response to the circumstances that have come God is not on trial Brothers and sisters God will never be put on trial It is we who are on trial. It is we who are being tested It is we who are being scrutinized and because we trust in a loving God as Carrie said last Sunday we look in the eyes of our judge and we see what a Savior we look in the eyes of our judge who sees our sin who sees our wrong actions who sees our wrong attitudes and Because we trust him as our Savior instead of our judge Giving us what we deserve. He's our Savior and gives us mercy and grace and forgiveness Is he your Savior today? If not then when life comes your way and Presses you out of measure and all that filth comes out of your heart and you curse God and you lie and steal and break all the commandments and cheat and curse God You'll stand before God and he'll be your judge And if he's your judge and not your Savior then he will judge you With justice and justice demands that your sin be punished Justice demands it the Bible says the wages of sin is death and hell and separation from God That's what happens if we stand before God and he's our judge beloved. He's a righteous God. He hates iniquity He has to judge it But thanks be unto God We who have heard the gospel and Turn to God The righteous judge and because of the death of his son our death his son Being punished for what we deserve God takes out listen his righteous judgment on his son So that we can look at him not as our judge Who will condemn us but as our Savior who will forgive us but as our father who will spank us When we need it and he'll chasten us when we need it He'll correct us But I never correct my children as their father having in view being a Judge that wants to kill them as a father. I have to correct them I have to discipline them. I have to spank them. I have to ground them, but it's not as a judge It's just a loving father who's doing what's best for them One thing my children know not to do is come to me and say daddy. I don't deserve this Because they'll know That in response, I'll say I know you deserve far worse Don't ever come to God and say God. I don't deserve this Because he'll say you're right. You deserve far worse You and I deserve what happened to Jesus he became a criminal and He was rejected by God. What did he say on Calvary? My god, my god. Why hast thou forsaken me? Why did God forsake his son? anybody Because he became sin He listen God made Christ's soul a sin offering and at that moment God had to turn his face from him. That's what you and I deserve a Turned face from God for eternity. So let's not go there. I don't deserve this Lord Let's think Soberly father I deserve nothing but judgment but because of your goodness and kindness you have forgiven me and Now even though I'm going through hard times and I'm being bumped in I'm Seeing some things. I don't like and things are happening to me. That might not be what I was hoping Nevertheless Lord, none of it is unjust none of it because you are sovereign God reigning over it and you're my loving father verse 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift Comes from above it comes down from the father of all that gives light in Whom there can be no variation or shadow cast by his turning and It was of his own free will that he gave us birth as sons by his word of truth So that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures Understand this my beloved brethren Verse 19 listen carefully Understand this let every man be quick to what? here a ready listener Now remember don't remove this out of the context it the most difficult time to be a listener and not a blabber is When you're going through the fire Because when you're going through the fire you are most prone to shoot your mouth off and say things that later you'll regret and Wish you never said it's the most difficult thing to zip the lip when you're in fire Because your emotions are boiling Your feelings are boiling You feel like you're you're trapped and your natural instinct kicks in don't get too close to me you're gonna be hurt Don't say that to me. I don't want to go there and you start you start digging your grave Okay, this is what this is why the scripture says in context now see he's talking about the whole context layer now watch Watch what God is saying to us this morning Watch what God's saying to us this morning Be slow be quick to hear slow to speak Slow to take offense How often do you take offense during the day? How often do you take offense? Always wanting to defend yourself Take offense Always wanting to get feisty Always wanting to set that person straight Always wanting to get the last word in Slow to speak slow to take offense slow to get angry ouch anger anger Anger, you know what the root of anger is Listen carefully the root of anger is this God I Don't want To bow To you I want it my way Not your way the root cause to anger is rebellion Rebellion is The natural condition of our natural selves at enmity to God That's what rebellion is Rebellion is I Want it my way? My way I want to be God and so anger Oftentimes festers when we're in the midst of a trial because the trial Causes us to wake up and smell the coffee we realize we're not God we realize we're frail we realize we're not is in control as we would like to believe and So therefore we are in much need of grace and the Holy Spirit And we're in much need of drawing from the resources that come from our Lord and Savior who says come and learn of me I will teach you meekness. I will teach you gentleness. I will teach you brokenness. I will teach you humility verse 20 for man's anger does not promote the righteousness of God We have any anger problems here today Now listen God does not pick on us to leave us wounded and bleeding You know that You know why he deals with us like this and sometimes comes to us with a sword because he longs to show us Himself and how we can escape the horror of our own Tendencies by hiding in him and running to him now We got some anger problems coming out of the trials. How many have a real anger problem here today? Anger Now don't kid yourself. You might be a passive person this morning with that Christian smile but you boil inwardly and you have ways of of of of Being angry that are not boisterous like other people who just let their feelings go You have other ways of being angry you do little spiteful things You punish people emotionally you just quietly walk away, but you're boiling inside At least people who are outward, you know what they are when they get angry. They tell you They tell you You know but the passive quiet Repressing the anger Almost denying it That angers there and you know what anger is when it fully gets developed murder Murder it's it's Anger is what murder is when you when you're angry in your heart against someone you really have murder in your heart Now you see what's happening here. You see what's happening We're in the context of trials difficulties tribulations Unexpected happenings we understand that in the midst of it. God is doing a wonderful work and Then all of a sudden James says now if you lack wisdom ask God and then he starts going through a number of different words of advice Let the proud man rejoice that he's humbled let the humble man rejoice that he's exalted Don't blame God when you sin Don't blame God when things begin to come to you and all kinds of things happen. Don't blame God Now he says be quiet. Don't sin with your mouth Remember these things remember these things Don't take offense Don't get angry now, we're dealing with anger problem Oftentimes we deal with anger the way we were taught to by mom and dad Now we're not going to get into this deeply, but I want to ask a question. There is a Valid time and place To think about these things and let God sort them out. But how many have found in your life that you have seen the sin Behavior that was modeled by your parents now operating in your life the sin behavior When my father didn't know the Lord when my father didn't get his way, you know what he would do He would put his fist through the wall It's what he did Matter of fact the home where my parents live now, they're moving to Pennsylvania There's two places I know of where if you take off the paint there's a patch job What do you call this stuff you patch walls with Norman? Whatever it is, but if you took the paint off there's two there's two holes the size of his fist BAM That's how he dealt with stress That's how he dealt With the frustration of not getting his own way he put his fist through the wall some families Some children watch their mom and dad and when something begins to develop one of them starts mocking the other one calling them names and so what do the children do when they grow up and they end up in the same kind of scenario they They start mocking and calling their spouse names others abuse them physically emotionally some Some adults when they can't cope they go out and get drunk. And so the kids are watching all their life Well, all we have to do is get drunk and everything will be alright How do you deal? With stressful situations, how do you deal with it? Do you lash out? Do you manipulate? Do you belittle? Do you curse you say well, there's no hope I'll never change. I'll never change brother Well, dear friend I Have good news You will never change as long as you or I try and take ourselves by our own strength and try and wrestle ourselves and Try and change ourselves. We'll never change But if we acknowledge our guilt hello Acknowledge our guilt if you're a thief call yourself a thief don't say oh I I tell you today's modern way of communicating sometimes grease me to the core Well, I have a problem from time to time of Taking things that really don't belong to me However, I I do feel bad after I just say I'm a thief Just call it what it is You know, it's funny. Have you ever sit down which I've done many times talk to husbands and wives having problems You ask the husband you have a temper problem. Yeah, I have a little temper problem. The wife starts laughing You look over say what's wrong temper problem. You rule the house like Hitler. What do you mean a temper problem? Well, it's not really that bad sweetheart it is too and then they start fighting But I think probably she's she probably has a better Way of seeing it. I think that we tend to be blinded to our own faults. Don't we? Huh, don't don't ask don't ask yourself Self am I a proud man? Do I have a temper problem See, this is why this is why it's important to stay connected to other people Let them get to know you now. I know that's risky. I know that I know that's risky because it could blow your cover I have blows your cover this community Christianity where you allow Not arbitrarily, but you allow God I'm qualifying this by saying God You allow God to bring people into your life where they can see your dirty laundry Hello It blows your cover This is why we need people in our life Because when we ask ourself self, how bad are you? Most of the time not all the time not all the time But most of the time we're going to evaluate ourself and we're going to have a little bit of blindness on our eyes But you ask the people that know us the best and Ask them the same questions and they might come up with an analysis that Maybe reflects a little more of the truth of the situation, right? But why should we be afraid of that? Why should we be afraid of that? Shouldn't be You know the first step in being healed is what Acknowledging we have a need What was the one cry of the Prophet Jeremiah to the nation of Israel during their years of being backslidden the one cry only Acknowledge your sin. That's what God wanted him to do. He didn't even tell him clean yourself up work on it work No, he just said acknowledge your sin and in acknowledging it and in coming to me in brokenness coming to me in humility coming to me Accepting the full brunt of the guilt I will be merciful to you. I will forgive you I will love you and I'll even teach you how to overcome that sin believe it or not I'll teach you how to overcome it But you can't have help you can't get help from the Almighty if you will not acknowledge What was the problem with the Pharisees the biggest problem with the Pharisees? They wouldn't admit that they needed a Messiah They were so full of themselves That's why they fought Jesus verse 21 so get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness uncleanness rampant outgrowths of wickedness wrath anger defending ourself arrogance pride Argumentativeness being critical being judgmental Modeling the sins that we watched our parents model all of these things is What God is wanting to expose in our lives through the trials and difficulties that we go through Not in order that we would be humiliated and shamed and set aside with no hope But that we might be able to see our need and come to him So that we can be helped in our time of need But don't lie against the truth Don't lie Tell God what's happening in your life tell him he's reaching out with loving arms today He's reaching out with loving arms today He want listen He wants to expose all these things so we can confess him and then he wants to fill us with his own attributes love There's six seven eight pages here of of and I haven't been able to get to it yet Every Sunday I get and and it's like the Lord says not yet. Not yet I why Lord because we haven't seen our need yet What's the sense of talking for eight weeks about love and all the qualities of love when everybody thinks we already have it? So I don't think that well, if we didn't we would be so brokenhearted and And we would be so desperate for God and So we have to we have to let God keep bringing us down lower and lower and lower until we're Some of us are prepared to go for a couple more years a couple more years and God says fine I'll wait But I can't promise you that in those next few years You're gonna be free from sorrow and regrets. I can't promise you Matter of fact, I can almost guarantee that if you hear my call today and you decide that you are going to put it off Then I can guarantee That it's going to work trouble and heartache in your life What is the Hebrew say if today you hear his voice what? Don't harden your hearts Don't harden your hearts So what we're setting what God's setting us up to is a wonderful look into his word into the attributes of love forgiving love forgetting love forbearing love Gentle love and He wants to fill us with these things, but we can't get full of God until we're emptied of self Remember the Prophet Told the widow bring empty vessels empty vessels not a few and as long as there were empty vessels in the widow's home the oil kept coming and the moment the scripture says and There were no more vessels that were empty the oil stopped What profound lessons there Remember months ago, we were teaching on the the the man who had a friend come at midnight and He had no bread and He went to his friend and said friend, you know coming to God on the basis of relationship there's a place for that, but God says there's a time when you have to grow beyond that and The door was closed Even though he came on the basis of relationship the door was closed and the closed door resulted in importunity it resulted in a Desperation a shameless cry I Am desperate. I have no bread God. I have nothing to offer my brother Nothing the best of what I can give my brother is nothing but filth if I give it out of my own life I can't love my wife. I can't love my children Are we there yet? Or are we still trying to in our own self and it was only after the man was desperate and came to his friend in utter desperation that his friend said Wow, I'm gonna open the door and I'm gonna give you all the bread you need Desperation You know the bread that he has to give us himself Just think about it. Just think of this think about the perfections of Jesus Christ Flowing through your mortal body day and night Can you think of anything more lovely than that Think about the perfections Brian of Jesus flowing through that clay vessel When you look at people you see him through his eyes when you look at your wife when you look at your children When you approach your business when you approach your brothers and sisters, it is it is the man in glory living and breathing and thinking and and Manifesting his own perfections through your clay. Do you want that? Brothers and sisters, that's what God gave us came to give us himself But he says if you want that I have to empty you I have to empty you from yourself So don't fear the emptying Because God has an end in view The end is himself himself We're about to close because we're going to spend some time in prayer because the the surgeon Has cut deep this morning hasn't he? But but with the surgeon's knife there's there's a healing bomb a Healing ointment that comes with the cut and that's what that's what the Lord The Lord is standing in our midst right now the sword in his hand applying the word But dripping from the sword is healing ointment Healing ointment and every cut and every wound and every plunge brought with it a healing ointment And that's what we want to focus on in a moment Verse 21 get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness and in a humble gentle modest spirit receive and welcome the word Which implanted and rooted in your hearts contains the power to save your souls Be doers of the word and not merely listeners betraying your own selves into Self-deception by reasoning contrary to the truth. It's time. It's time to cry out God I must be a doer of the word. I must be a doer of the word by the power of the doer It's time Lord. It's time. I sense in my spirit It's time for us to arise not in our own proud and arrogance But to arise in our poverty to arise as having been exposed as being unclean and unfit But because of the blood we can come It's time to arise Be doers of the word and not hearers only if anyone listens to the word without obeying it He is like a man who looks carefully at his own natural face For he thoughtfully observes himself and then goes off and promptly forgets What he was like but he who looks carefully into the thoughtless law the law of Liberty Jesus Christ and is faithful to it and perseveres and looking into it keep looking as painful as it is keep looking to Jesus keep looking in his word as Painful as it is you're gonna see yourself for what you really are, but don't be discouraged stay there stay there Because it's those it's those who persevere and keep seeing Jesus in the brightness of his light That end up becoming doers of the word because they are Empowered by the Holy Spirit to become what they do not have in themselves Hallelujah, that's the transform life. That's the transform life He who looks carefully into the thoughtless law of Liberty and is faithful to and perseveres and looking into it Being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer. He shall be blessed in his doing Hallelujah to God he shall be blessed in his doing okay now All we have to do in the presence of the Lord now bow our hearts before him and Say Lord Here I am Help me to agree with everything That you have spoken to me today by your word help me to simply agree Admit my guilt Admit Anything that has been exposed and Come to you Broken-hearted for grace forgiveness and help Anyone who wants special prayer, please come forward. We'll all stand together here if you feel today that God Has spoken to you through his word and that you want special prayer. You're willing to acknowledge That God loves you But that you you stand guilty before him in one way or another because his word has exposed Something but you know that in coming to him and acknowledging your guilt You are saying God. I look at you as the righteous judge But as my Savior One who will show mercy and grace to me as I acknowledge my sin Anyone who wants to come forward Colette you could play a little bit of the music and let's just let the Holy Spirit do his work in our hearts today Anyone at all who wants to come for special prayer?