Pressure Points - September 14
Transcript
Pressure Points
Welcome to Coppell Bible today. My name is Michael. I'm one of the pastors. And if you are a guest with us this morning, you got to know there's no better Sunday to be here. And I'll say that every Sunday. It's always a good day to be at church. And so I'm grateful you're all with us. Whether you've been here for a while or you are a guest or a visitor today, today is an important day.
We are kicking off a new message series. In fact, for the next 12 weeks, we're going to be looking at truth from the book of James. Truth from the book of James. Now, I love the book of James for a couple of reasons. But one, let me tell you, is if you are new to church or you are new to faith, this is a great book to get into because in the book of James, there's not a lot of doctrine or theology. But you know what? There is a lot of application and practicality.
James is known as the Proverbs of the New Testament. It seems to me James is concerned more about you living out the truth you already have than just hearing more truth. And so this is why he writes later in the book of James, I don't want you to just be a hearer of the word. It's time for you to be a doer of the word. So if you're with us, this is a great time to start with us because we're going to be in the book of James for the next 12 weeks. Now we've titled this sermon series Pressure Points. Pressure Points.
Responding to Cultural Evil
I don't have to tell you what pressure points are because you've lived them. You have experienced certain pressure points in your life. You know these moments in life that the weight of the world begins to push down on us. Our heart is heavy. Our mind is a little chaotic. Our soul is maybe even vexed. Pressure points.
And this past week, I think we all felt a cultural pressure point. Because this last week, Charlie Kirk, a devout follower of God, a faithful husband, a loving father, a bold voice for truth, was assassinated by a coward who didn't want to have a conversation. And so we call it what it is. It was evil. And evil always wants to shut the voice of truth.
But evil didn't just rear its head with Charlie Kirk. Though we saw evil in Charlie's assassination, we also saw evil last week in the shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado. We saw evil last week in a stabbing death of Ireyna Zerutska in North Carolina. Even last week in Dallas on Wednesday, this is graphic, but I want you to understand the fight we're in. Evil showed its ugly head when an employee didn't like his boss and so he beheaded him in front of his family and kicked his head across the pavement. This happens in our backyard.
Here's what you need to know about evil. Evil isn't hiding anymore. Evil is hunting. And evil is hunting for your family. It's hunting for your faith. And it's hunting for your future.
I hate to say that it took the horrendous murder of Charlie Kirk to make me realize something I didn't like about myself. And I wonder if anyone else is in the same boat. I realized I had been sleeping a little bit in my faith. I realized that the battle we hear about out there is actually right here. And while we know around the world there is persecution that is violent—and while it happened last week to Charlie Kirk and it happens from time to time to other people—in our own nation it's not so much that we're persecuted by violence in America. We're persecuted by our voice being shut down.
But we see what happens when we don't let the silence win. Evil isn't pretending anymore. Evil is parading. And they parade based on truths like you have to abort babies, give the choice up to the mom. They parade and they say things like gender and identity ideology, which is taking the truth of what God says about a matter and distorting it and pushing that on our kids. This persecution in America is vocal, not just violent.
And I believe, if I can just speak plainly for a moment, that what happened with Charlie Kirk was horrendous. But I believe it woke us up. I believe we needed to be woken up. And I believe it tells us that we know that there's an actual battle, an actual war happening. And we got so comfortable with our cultural Christianity that we forgot how serious it is. But now we were woken up.
And as we begin to understand that it is this truth—that we need to be people who are vocal and standing on God's truth—that it actually will create a little bit of division in our world. But it's division between good and evil. It's a division between God's truth and Satan's lies. And what's going to happen when more and more division begins? Well, more and more persecution. That's what the Bible tells us.
We know what's coming and we not need to be naive about it. We are not in a political war or a political battle. We're in a spiritual war that happens to be played out through politics.
The target: your faith, your marriage, your children. And if we think silence is the answer, you need to know silence is not neutrality. Silence now is surrender. A light that won't shine is nothing but darkness.
But we know God's called us to be a city on a hill. We know God says not to put the lamp over the light. Let it out. Let it shine. This is what we're called to do. And it just so happens that now we're woken up to the truth that we need to be stronger in our voice to God's truth no matter the cost.
The evil's strategy is clear. We saw it this week. Silence the truth, shatter the family, scatter the church, and hopefully scare believers into retreat. But I came to declare to you today, evil will not win. It thought it did when it took Jesus to the cross, but the empty tomb says otherwise. They thought it did when it took out Charlie Kirk's voice. But now his voice has grown in a way that I don't think it could have while he was here on this planet. And maybe it could have. We'll never know. But what we do know God has used this to awaken the church because the battle is real.
And as we begin to talk today about pressure points, it's a perfect time because we're living one. But before we get into it, let me actually take a moment just to pastor you as even this week I've been pastored. I don't know if you felt any of these emotions this week. I was hurting. I was angry. I thought some things about the shooter that I shouldn't have thought. I thought some things about the people who are posting videos laughing at the incident. My heart was heavy. I've been confused this week a little bit. I've been weary.
Look, that's real. God never tells us to not come to him with fake feelings. He wants us to come to him with our real feelings. He doesn't say, “It's a fake reality. Live by that.” No. He wants you to come into his presence with what's going on in your heart, in your mind, in the world, and present it to him. Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Jesus himself was weeping at the tomb of his good friend Lazarus when he died. And he knew that the death wasn't final, but he's still weeping because it's sad.
But here's the reality. Grief is actually a crossroads. I started to experience this a little bit this week. You can't let grief harden into bitterness. You can't let pain spiral into outrage though everything in you wants to. You can't let sorrow make you cynical. So the question is, what can you do?
Well, I was wondering the same thing ever since Wednesday. And I was at my daughter's soccer game yesterday morning and my father-in-law, Steve Elkins, the wisest man I know, walks up to me and says, “How you feeling about tomorrow's sermon.” And I go, “Which one? I have like six to preach. I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. Maybe we should just talk about the world and culture. Or maybe we should talk about this. Maybe we should get into James. I don't know.” He goes, “How do you handle all this?” And we began talking and he told me something I've long since forgot. And it was such a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Big Steve.
What do we do with all this pain and angst? Well, we do what Jesus did. In 1 Peter chapter 2:23, Peter writes, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously.” Do you know that all you're called to do is to be faithful to what God's called you to do? And whatever else is happening out there, we're going to trust to the God who judges righteously, that he's going to take care of it in exactly how his nature is made to take care of it. And thank you, Lord, that I don't have to be the judge because I would not be righteous, but he is. He is.
So we can take all of this grief and we can hand it to him. We can hand it over to him because we're not those who are without hope. We have hope. And so we grieve, yes, with tears in our eyes, but we grieve with fire in our spirit. We let this wake us up to what's going on, the reality of the world, and the battle that's being played out that we may be forgot about or at least the seriousness of it because we're comfortable.
Life can be hard. There's pressure point moments, but the persecution—that's for all those out there. But we're finding out it's actually right here. And I believe this is in God's providence why he has us in the book of James. This has been planned for almost two, three months. The title's been planned for a while. In fact, I've known I was preaching this message for about four weeks. And my title was—it's not now, but it was—how to stay faithful to God through the pressure of persecution. But then I got too mad about what was going on and I was like, I'm not living this out. Let me get a different sermon to preach because I was getting mad about what the Lord was telling me. Though there are elements of that in this teaching today as well.
James’s Identity as Servant
See, James is writing to believers who are scattered because of persecution, and they are pressed in on at every side and he's teaching them how to stand firm in the pressure point moments of life. And he knows how to do it because he was doing it. See when persecution began and Stephen becomes the first martyr and the church kind of scatters, James and other apostles stayed in Jerusalem, the epicenter of persecution. They wanted their feet firmly planted on the ground. They wanted to shepherd from this place to show people what's possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so when he's writing to those scattered, he's not just writing some theory. He's writing testimony. So this is a guy that we should pay attention to. He's lived it. He knows it.
So what does he tell them here in the very beginning? Well, look at verse one. He says,
James 1:1, “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. Greetings.”
Now, at first, this sounds just like a normal intro, normal greeting, almost like one of those that if you're going to pick up a book and start reading it, you kind of go past it. You get to the meat. Start in verse two. But I got to tell you, there's some massive things here because James is the brother of Jesus. I should say half-brother of Jesus. Same mom, way different dad. He grew up with Jesus. He watched Jesus. He ate meals with Jesus. He probably played tagged in the carpentry shop. James probably picked up a piece of wood and tried to throw it at Jesus because, you know, that's what brothers do. They fight.
But here's the deal. In John 7, John tells us that even the brothers of Jesus didn't believe in him. James was skeptical. And let's be honest, you would be too if your brother was like, “I'm the Messiah.” You'd be like, “And I'm going to punch you. Tell me you're the Messiah.” He's skeptical. He's a doubter. But then something happened.
See, I believe James was there whenever he saw his brother Jesus hanging on a cross. I believe James was there when he heard Jesus say, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” I believe James was there when he heard Jesus say, “It is finished.” I believe James was there when Jesus let his last last breath leave his lungs, his body went limp, his head went down and they removed him from the cross. I believe James was there when they took him to the tomb and then they rolled the stone over it, sealed shut. And I wonder if on the first dinner after Jesus was in the tomb dead, James was like, “Yeah, I knew it. He wasn't the Messiah. How could this happen?”
But as we know, Jesus didn't stay in the tomb. He went to the grave. He defeated death. Three days later, he came out in his resurrected body. And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus went to appear to James. He went to his brother. Now, imagine James—the one you were rolling eyes at when he said he was the Messiah—and now your eyes are the size of goose eggs, looking at him walking to you because you realize he really is the Messiah and the risen King. And in that moment, James went from being a skeptic to a servant. Look at what he says about himself in this very first verse. He calls himself a bondservant.
He doesn't identify with his family ties. Wouldn't you? You're writing a letter—aren't you going to be like, “Oh, and by the way, Jesus is my brother.” I would have used it. He doesn't. Instead of identifying with family ties, James decides to identify with his faith. Because when pressure comes down on you, it really strips you away from all your identity. You're rung to the core. Who are you? Who do you trust? What do you live for? And James is telling us right here—he doesn't say, “I'm Jesus's brother.” He says, “I belong to Jesus.” That's where my identity lies.
And so the question is, what about you? These pressure point moments of life—even that we've experienced this last week, let alone maybe personally you have something going on that no one else knows about—where is your identity in that? When you begin to get pressed down, where do you turn to? Who do you turn to? What do you turn to? Is it job? Is it reputation? Is it a padded bank account? Look, none of those things actually can sustain you under pressure. Only Jesus can. And this is what James is teaching us here from the very beginning.
Finding Joy in Trials
So James knew how to stay faithful under the pressure, and he's writing to tell scattered believers who are feeling the pressure how to do the same. So what's the very next thing he tells them?
Look at verses 2 through 4:
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”
The first thing I notice in this is he doesn't say if pressure points come, if trials come. He says when. You can't get out of trials. You can't be like, “I'm gonna weave here. I'm gonna weave there. And before you know it, you turn around, you're like, I missed them all. I got a clean record of the trials in my life. I got nothing.” No, no, no. They are inevitable for all people, and you know this. So what do you do in the middle of these trials, of this pressure? Well, he tells us: count it all joy.
Now this is wild. Y'all remember science class? You remember homeostasis? Your body wants whatever is easiest for it because it's a survival mechanism. So the easiest thing when pressure comes is to get out from under it. What James is writing about is how we need to do the opposite of that—which isn't natural, which is because it's supernatural through the power of the Holy Spirit—that you can do this. He says when pressure comes you want to get out, but you need to stay in it, and the way to stay in it is by counting it as joy.
So then you go, “Wait a second. Joy? You're telling me an assassination, I'm supposed to be joyful about that? Persecution, I'm supposed to be joyful about that? Betrayal in my life, I'm supposed to be joyful about that? The cancer call from the doctor, I'm supposed to be joyful about that?”
He's not saying be joyful in the pressure. He's saying joy isn't in the pain. It's in the purpose God is producing through it. It's what God wants to do in you through it.
The joy is not that Charlie Kirk was tragically murdered, even though that happened. The joy is that God is using these moments to strengthen his church, to expose evil, and to wake up the church, embolden believers. We wish it didn't happen, but it did. So God, what are you going to do? And we couldn't have planned it. We couldn't have figured it out. We couldn't have done it ourselves. But look at the unity. Look at the understanding. Look at the wakeup call this has been to believers.
See, joy is knowing that pressure grows a faith that comfort never will. Comfort can never produce this type of person and steadfastness.
Jesus himself did this. Hebrews 12 says, “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning the shame.” So you're telling me the cross was joyful? That that was a joyful experience for you, Jesus? The nails—joyful experience? The crown of thorns on your head—joyful experience? Hanging there—joyful experience? Getting stabbed in the side—joyful experience?
No. It's not at all about the feelings of the pressure. It's about what the pressure forms. And for Jesus, he looked past all of that—past the cross, to the resurrection, to the redemption of humanity, to his kingship, and all to the glory of God the Father. And that joy gave him strength to endure the suffering.
The same is true for us. It's available for us, too. The future joy of what God is producing will give you strength to endure the present pain. But you're going to have to be the one to stay in it when we naturally want to escape.
But if you endure, then here's what he promises us: you mature. You're going to grow into the disciple he's called you to be, he created you to be—and right now, let's all agree—the disciple the world needs. But it doesn't come easy because it's not comfortable.
Asking God for Wisdom
And we can all admit that at times we've not been the disciple he's called us to be. We've not endured under trials. Or maybe even we can admit, “I don't even know what that looks like. What does it mean? How do I do this? I would love to, but how do I do this?”
Well, James speaks to this in the very next verses. Look at verses 5–8:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.”
Right now, let's just be honest. This is probably where a lot of us are at. We don't know where to turn. We don't know what to do. We're feeling the pressure. We see the escape. But we're wondering what God has and is he gonna show up, and can I trust him? But I know I can go over here and I can control my own life, and maybe I can do something that for a moment I feel just a bit of reprieve, and so maybe that's what I need to go do. This is where I think a lot of us are at.
But James’ answer under pressure is never to escape it. It's to encounter God in it. That’s the answer. What do you do with all the pain and the pressure? You encounter God. And he says here to ask God for wisdom.
So let's define that. What's wisdom? Well, wisdom isn't knowledge, but knowledge has a piece to play in wisdom.
So what is wisdom?
That's the difference between wisdom and knowledge. So wisdom is the application of knowledge.
And here's the promise that comes: when you ask, God will give. He doesn't ration it. He doesn't say, “You're coming back again?” No. He doesn’t say, “Look, you've used a lot of what I was going to give you in your lifetime, and you need to keep it because 30 years from now, you don't know what's going to happen, and you're going to need it then. So, are you sure you want to come to me now?”
He doesn’t shame you. He doesn’t say, “You again? You're not learning your lesson? Are you kidding me? Okay, fine, I guess I'll give you wisdom if that's what you're asking for.” That’s not what he does.
When you ask in faith, he opens his hands wide and he gives you what you ask for.
But there's a warning to this. He says, “Ask in faith with no doubting.” And he uses the illustration of the sea that is always moving. It's never steady. It's wherever the current and the wind are going to toss it and take it. And he says, “This is what happens when you ask in faith as a double-minded person.”
He's saying that your faith is split. Meaning one foot is standing where it needs to be with God, but the other foot is over here with self. Or one foot is with Christianity, and the other foot is with culture.
So what am I supposed to do here? And what we realize about split faith is this: split faith makes you unstable. It's not a ground to stand on.
But whole faith will make you unshakable. Which is what James was under the pressure—unshakable.
The Danger of Double-Mindedness
James warns, “Ask in faith with no doubting.” And he uses the illustration of the sea that is always moving. It's never steady. It's wherever the current and the wind are going to toss it and take it. And he says, “This is what happens when you ask in faith as a double-minded person.”
He's saying that your faith is split. Meaning one foot is standing where it needs to be with God, but the other foot is over here with self. Or one foot is with Christianity, and the other foot is with culture.
So what am I supposed to do here? And what we realize about split faith is this: split faith makes you unstable. It's not a ground to stand on. But whole faith will make you unshakable. Which is what James was under the pressure—unshakable. I would even say that's what Charlie Kirk was under the pressure—unshakable. He knew the truth of God and he was standing firmly on it and nothing else.
But here's the warning: don't ask with split faith. What does this mean? Well, let me tell you what I think. Don't pray with one hand lifted in worship and then that night use the other hand to go to the bottle. Double-mindedness.
What about don't ask or cry out to God for your life and for everything you need, but cling to your addictions? Yes, go to him and ask him to heal you. Get medical help to do it. But when we pray, we're trusting that he's going to be the one to help deliver us. So do we think he's going to help us under the pressure if we are saying to him, “Lord, I trust you with everything, but I'm clinging to my pornography addiction.”
Or, “Yeah, Lord, I'm going to give you all of me, but this thing over here…I’m kind of here, so would you bless this side, and maybe this side eventually I’ll move over?” That’s double-mindedness.
What about people declaring truth: “Lord, I'm going to use my finances for you and I pray that you bless my finances,” but later that day, I swipe my card—a little retail therapy—and I'm swiping my card, putting me more in debt. Which one is it? The numbers don’t lie. This is double-mindedness.
Here are some stats about this:
Nearly one in three adults binge drink every single week. And what that means for a man is five drinks or more in one sitting. For a woman, that's four drinks or more in one sitting. That is not the intention when they go into the meal or into grabbing a drink. But that's what happens—because they need the relief. They need to cope with the pressure. They start to feel good a little bit. This feels like it's the answer.
But it's not just drinks. Texas ranks second in the entire nation for credit card debt per household.
Google has come out and said this is horrendous: one in four searches online—25% of all online searches—are porn-related.
We are numbing instead of kneeling. We are escaping instead of enduring. And when you numb pressure, you don't escape it, you multiply it. It feels good for that moment because your mind's off the matter. But that moment's over, and now the matter is doubled and compounded in size—and you didn't actually deal with anything.
But a mature person, someone who wants to be the disciple God's called them to be under the pressure point moments of life, the trials of life—we’re going to choose not to go this way, not to try to cope with things. We're going to kneel before God and we're going to ask him for wisdom to help us in this because we know he's producing something through it.
Let me give you a better stat: 100% of the time, when you ask God for wisdom by faith, he'll give it. 100% of the time. Every time. No exceptions.
So the question is, why are so many of us living with split faith? It might be because it's easier. It might be because I like to be in control of me. It might be because I don't see Jesus as Lord; I just see him as Savior. Which he is—he is your Savior. You place your faith in him. He saved you. You have everlasting life. But now to live as a disciple, you're not the savior of your life. He was, and now he is also Lord. He has say on your life.
Do you know casual Christianity will not carry you through the fire? You'll fold every time. But we've all talked about the beginning—have we been awoken to the war? That we realize it's going on? Maybe we had to rub our eyes ‘cause we were sleeping a little bit and now we're like, it's real. And what part am I supposed to play?
Well, if we're going to be cultural Christians or casual Christians or comfortable Christians—whatever you want to call them—it's not going to sustain you. But God, I believe, is calling us right now to trade the split faith for a whole faith—an all-in-with-him type of faith. Like James says, you already know the truth. Don't be a hearer anymore. Be a doer of the word.
Who You Live For Matters Most
Now, pressure also exposes who or what you're really living for. And in this next part, verses 9 through 11, James talks about two different people. And he's reminding us that who you live for matters infinitely more than what you live with.
James 1:9-11, “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field, he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.”
See, pressure exposes what you're really living for. And what we know here is this: who you live for will matter infinitely more than what you live with. So he's saying—for the poor person, for the one who feels small, for the one who feels overlooked—you get the chance to boast in your exaltation and what being a child of God means. You're raised up in him. You have his righteousness. You're family. You're chosen. You're a son, you're a daughter. These are great things. Let your life resemble them and hold on to them as your identity.
But then he goes on and says, “But if you're wealthy and you're putting any identity into that, be careful. Because the riches, they won't last. When pressure comes, they cannot sustain you.” It's like beautiful bluebonnets. Every year I'm like, I love when the bluebonnets come. They're here one day and the next they're gone. Why can't they be here all the time? That's what James is talking about with your money.
See, pressure exposes who you're really living for. And then he drives this final point home with a promise, a beautiful promise and truth for us to live out.
Verse 12: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
Notice the Bible doesn’t say, “Blessed is the man who avoids the trial.” It doesn’t say, “Blessed is the one who escapes the pressure.” It doesn’t say, “Blessed is the one who takes the easy road.” No—it says, “Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial.” The one who doesn’t rest with comfortability. The one who has the courage to stand strong.
And if you are a believer in Jesus for everlasting life, then it’s for you to do—to be the vocal one, not to be the one who's just going to let silence win, which means surrender. I'm not saying we take to the streets and do something we shouldn't do. I'm saying be smart, trust the Holy Spirit. But when truth is attacked and you have the chance to defend it, defend it.
I believe the crown of life offered here is really two things. I don’t think it’s just about the sweet by-and-by. I think it talks about the here and now. Let me explain. The crown of life is the joy of walking with God right now. Nothing else in this world can give you what God can give you. We've tried it. It lasts for a second. Nothing lasts forever. But with God, the life and the experience he gives you now—nothing else comes close.
See, you can experience his peace when the world is broken and in chaos. You can taste his grace when you've blown it time and time and time again. You can feel his strength like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when the fire is seven times hotter than it's ever been and you don't know what to do. The things of this world will not sustain you in that. Only the strength of Christ will.
And one day, I believe this is also about an eternal reward where you'll stand before Christ at the throne in the most real moment of your life and you'll hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I believe Charlie Kirk stood the test. I believe he lived steadfast. I believe he lived boldly. He lived unashamed. And as you've seen this past week, death didn't defeat him. Death delivered him—because his faith is now sight. He's in a way better place than here. But he wasn't killed because he was reckless or extreme or fringe. He was killed because he loved God and he stood for God's truth.
But let’s not forget—that’s the same reason Christ was crucified. And can I tell you something? It’s the same reason James was martyred.
See, I didn’t tell you this in the beginning, but James didn’t just tell people how to live while being persecuted. He stood strong even when death was at his doorstep. Eventually, people came to him and they said, “It’s time for you to renounce Christ.” They grabbed James. They took him to the top of the temple, the pinnacle of the temple, and they held him over and said, “Renounce Christ.”
You know what James said? “I can’t help but speak about my Savior.” They said, “Well, you made your choice.” And they threw him off the temple, thinking it would kill him. He hit the ground and he did not die. He was broken, but he did not die. They realized, “This was supposed to kill him—it didn’t.” So they went to finish the job.
As they made their way down the temple, they grabbed clubs because they wanted to make him a spectacle. And they heard him whispering something. They thought, “Oh, he's renouncing Christ now. He knows that death was almost here, he escaped this one somehow, so let’s hear what he says.” But as they walked up, they heard him praying, “Lord, would you please accept my life?” And then he prayed the same prayer he heard his brother Jesus pray on the cross: “Lord, forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
He stood on truth and it enraged them so much that they took the clubs and they beat him over the head until he died.
That’s why this isn’t theory. This is testimony. James shows us how to stand strong under the trials and the pressure of life. That would have been a wake-up call to first-century Christians—just like Charlie Kirk, I believe, is a wake-up call to us—that yes, there’s a cost to this. But are you willing to stand strong no matter the cost?
One of my favorite verses in the Bible speaks of these unknown people. It’s in Hebrews chapter 11. And as you know, Hebrews 11 is titled the “Hall of Faith”—these Old Testament believers who really did it. They stayed true under trial. And it goes through a list of all these different people. And then all of a sudden, you get down to this verse, and this phrase describes those who endured pressure and persecution: “And there are those of whom the world was not worthy.”
They didn’t care about the world. They cared about their heavenly home and the call on their life right now. And they lived it in such a way that the Bible says the world wasn’t even worthy of them. What an honor to be able to hear—or have it written about you—that the world wasn’t worthy of you because of your strength and trust in God.
I believe that’s true of James. I believe that’s true of Charlie Kirk. But I wonder—is that going to be true about us? Is that going to be true about you?
Are you living life right now the way Christ intends you to—as someone who will stand strong on truth no matter the cost? Where the world one day will hopefully say, “The world wasn’t worthy of you in your life. Thank you so much for being the strong voice you were.”
As we close this out, remember—pressure always forces a choice. There’s always a line in the sand with pressure. On one side you have compromise, but on the other side you have courage. On one side you have silence, and on the other side you have steadfastness. On one side you could have fear that folds you, or on the other side you could have a faith that sustains you. This is what pressure does. And casual Christianity, I believe, will not survive the fire of this hour.
So where are you standing under the pressure?
Welcome to Coppell Bible today. My name is Michael. I'm one of the pastors. And if you are a guest with us this morning, you got to know there's no better Sunday to be here. And I'll say that every Sunday. It's always a good day to be at church. And so I'm grateful you're all with us. Whether you've been here for a while or you are a guest or a visitor today, today is an important day.
We are kicking off a new message series. In fact, for the next 12 weeks, we're going to be looking at truth from the book of James. Truth from the book of James. Now, I love the book of James for a couple of reasons. But one, let me tell you, is if you are new to church or you are new to faith, this is a great book to get into because in the book of James, there's not a lot of doctrine or theology. But you know what? There is a lot of application and practicality.
James is known as the Proverbs of the New Testament. It seems to me James is concerned more about you living out the truth you already have than just hearing more truth. And so this is why he writes later in the book of James, I don't want you to just be a hearer of the word. It's time for you to be a doer of the word. So if you're with us, this is a great time to start with us because we're going to be in the book of James for the next 12 weeks. Now we've titled this sermon series Pressure Points. Pressure Points.
Responding to Cultural Evil
I don't have to tell you what pressure points are because you've lived them. You have experienced certain pressure points in your life. You know these moments in life that the weight of the world begins to push down on us. Our heart is heavy. Our mind is a little chaotic. Our soul is maybe even vexed. Pressure points.
And this past week, I think we all felt a cultural pressure point. Because this last week, Charlie Kirk, a devout follower of God, a faithful husband, a loving father, a bold voice for truth, was assassinated by a coward who didn't want to have a conversation. And so we call it what it is. It was evil. And evil always wants to shut the voice of truth.
But evil didn't just rear its head with Charlie Kirk. Though we saw evil in Charlie's assassination, we also saw evil last week in the shooting at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado. We saw evil last week in a stabbing death of Ireyna Zerutska in North Carolina. Even last week in Dallas on Wednesday, this is graphic, but I want you to understand the fight we're in. Evil showed its ugly head when an employee didn't like his boss and so he beheaded him in front of his family and kicked his head across the pavement. This happens in our backyard.
Here's what you need to know about evil. Evil isn't hiding anymore. Evil is hunting. And evil is hunting for your family. It's hunting for your faith. And it's hunting for your future.
I hate to say that it took the horrendous murder of Charlie Kirk to make me realize something I didn't like about myself. And I wonder if anyone else is in the same boat. I realized I had been sleeping a little bit in my faith. I realized that the battle we hear about out there is actually right here. And while we know around the world there is persecution that is violent—and while it happened last week to Charlie Kirk and it happens from time to time to other people—in our own nation it's not so much that we're persecuted by violence in America. We're persecuted by our voice being shut down.
But we see what happens when we don't let the silence win. Evil isn't pretending anymore. Evil is parading. And they parade based on truths like you have to abort babies, give the choice up to the mom. They parade and they say things like gender and identity ideology, which is taking the truth of what God says about a matter and distorting it and pushing that on our kids. This persecution in America is vocal, not just violent.
And I believe, if I can just speak plainly for a moment, that what happened with Charlie Kirk was horrendous. But I believe it woke us up. I believe we needed to be woken up. And I believe it tells us that we know that there's an actual battle, an actual war happening. And we got so comfortable with our cultural Christianity that we forgot how serious it is. But now we were woken up.
And as we begin to understand that it is this truth—that we need to be people who are vocal and standing on God's truth—that it actually will create a little bit of division in our world. But it's division between good and evil. It's a division between God's truth and Satan's lies. And what's going to happen when more and more division begins? Well, more and more persecution. That's what the Bible tells us.
We know what's coming and we not need to be naive about it. We are not in a political war or a political battle. We're in a spiritual war that happens to be played out through politics.
The target: your faith, your marriage, your children. And if we think silence is the answer, you need to know silence is not neutrality. Silence now is surrender. A light that won't shine is nothing but darkness.
But we know God's called us to be a city on a hill. We know God says not to put the lamp over the light. Let it out. Let it shine. This is what we're called to do. And it just so happens that now we're woken up to the truth that we need to be stronger in our voice to God's truth no matter the cost.
The evil's strategy is clear. We saw it this week. Silence the truth, shatter the family, scatter the church, and hopefully scare believers into retreat. But I came to declare to you today, evil will not win. It thought it did when it took Jesus to the cross, but the empty tomb says otherwise. They thought it did when it took out Charlie Kirk's voice. But now his voice has grown in a way that I don't think it could have while he was here on this planet. And maybe it could have. We'll never know. But what we do know God has used this to awaken the church because the battle is real.
And as we begin to talk today about pressure points, it's a perfect time because we're living one. But before we get into it, let me actually take a moment just to pastor you as even this week I've been pastored. I don't know if you felt any of these emotions this week. I was hurting. I was angry. I thought some things about the shooter that I shouldn't have thought. I thought some things about the people who are posting videos laughing at the incident. My heart was heavy. I've been confused this week a little bit. I've been weary.
Look, that's real. God never tells us to not come to him with fake feelings. He wants us to come to him with our real feelings. He doesn't say, “It's a fake reality. Live by that.” No. He wants you to come into his presence with what's going on in your heart, in your mind, in the world, and present it to him. Romans 12:15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” Jesus himself was weeping at the tomb of his good friend Lazarus when he died. And he knew that the death wasn't final, but he's still weeping because it's sad.
But here's the reality. Grief is actually a crossroads. I started to experience this a little bit this week. You can't let grief harden into bitterness. You can't let pain spiral into outrage though everything in you wants to. You can't let sorrow make you cynical. So the question is, what can you do?
Well, I was wondering the same thing ever since Wednesday. And I was at my daughter's soccer game yesterday morning and my father-in-law, Steve Elkins, the wisest man I know, walks up to me and says, “How you feeling about tomorrow's sermon.” And I go, “Which one? I have like six to preach. I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. Maybe we should just talk about the world and culture. Or maybe we should talk about this. Maybe we should get into James. I don't know.” He goes, “How do you handle all this?” And we began talking and he told me something I've long since forgot. And it was such a breath of fresh air. Thank you, Big Steve.
What do we do with all this pain and angst? Well, we do what Jesus did. In 1 Peter chapter 2:23, Peter writes, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he committed himself to him who judges righteously.” Do you know that all you're called to do is to be faithful to what God's called you to do? And whatever else is happening out there, we're going to trust to the God who judges righteously, that he's going to take care of it in exactly how his nature is made to take care of it. And thank you, Lord, that I don't have to be the judge because I would not be righteous, but he is. He is.
So we can take all of this grief and we can hand it to him. We can hand it over to him because we're not those who are without hope. We have hope. And so we grieve, yes, with tears in our eyes, but we grieve with fire in our spirit. We let this wake us up to what's going on, the reality of the world, and the battle that's being played out that we may be forgot about or at least the seriousness of it because we're comfortable.
Life can be hard. There's pressure point moments, but the persecution—that's for all those out there. But we're finding out it's actually right here. And I believe this is in God's providence why he has us in the book of James. This has been planned for almost two, three months. The title's been planned for a while. In fact, I've known I was preaching this message for about four weeks. And my title was—it's not now, but it was—how to stay faithful to God through the pressure of persecution. But then I got too mad about what was going on and I was like, I'm not living this out. Let me get a different sermon to preach because I was getting mad about what the Lord was telling me. Though there are elements of that in this teaching today as well.
James’s Identity as Servant
See, James is writing to believers who are scattered because of persecution, and they are pressed in on at every side and he's teaching them how to stand firm in the pressure point moments of life. And he knows how to do it because he was doing it. See when persecution began and Stephen becomes the first martyr and the church kind of scatters, James and other apostles stayed in Jerusalem, the epicenter of persecution. They wanted their feet firmly planted on the ground. They wanted to shepherd from this place to show people what's possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so when he's writing to those scattered, he's not just writing some theory. He's writing testimony. So this is a guy that we should pay attention to. He's lived it. He knows it.
So what does he tell them here in the very beginning? Well, look at verse one. He says,
James 1:1, “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes scattered abroad. Greetings.”
Now, at first, this sounds just like a normal intro, normal greeting, almost like one of those that if you're going to pick up a book and start reading it, you kind of go past it. You get to the meat. Start in verse two. But I got to tell you, there's some massive things here because James is the brother of Jesus. I should say half-brother of Jesus. Same mom, way different dad. He grew up with Jesus. He watched Jesus. He ate meals with Jesus. He probably played tagged in the carpentry shop. James probably picked up a piece of wood and tried to throw it at Jesus because, you know, that's what brothers do. They fight.
But here's the deal. In John 7, John tells us that even the brothers of Jesus didn't believe in him. James was skeptical. And let's be honest, you would be too if your brother was like, “I'm the Messiah.” You'd be like, “And I'm going to punch you. Tell me you're the Messiah.” He's skeptical. He's a doubter. But then something happened.
See, I believe James was there whenever he saw his brother Jesus hanging on a cross. I believe James was there when he heard Jesus say, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” I believe James was there when he heard Jesus say, “It is finished.” I believe James was there when Jesus let his last last breath leave his lungs, his body went limp, his head went down and they removed him from the cross. I believe James was there when they took him to the tomb and then they rolled the stone over it, sealed shut. And I wonder if on the first dinner after Jesus was in the tomb dead, James was like, “Yeah, I knew it. He wasn't the Messiah. How could this happen?”
But as we know, Jesus didn't stay in the tomb. He went to the grave. He defeated death. Three days later, he came out in his resurrected body. And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus went to appear to James. He went to his brother. Now, imagine James—the one you were rolling eyes at when he said he was the Messiah—and now your eyes are the size of goose eggs, looking at him walking to you because you realize he really is the Messiah and the risen King. And in that moment, James went from being a skeptic to a servant. Look at what he says about himself in this very first verse. He calls himself a bondservant.
He doesn't identify with his family ties. Wouldn't you? You're writing a letter—aren't you going to be like, “Oh, and by the way, Jesus is my brother.” I would have used it. He doesn't. Instead of identifying with family ties, James decides to identify with his faith. Because when pressure comes down on you, it really strips you away from all your identity. You're rung to the core. Who are you? Who do you trust? What do you live for? And James is telling us right here—he doesn't say, “I'm Jesus's brother.” He says, “I belong to Jesus.” That's where my identity lies.
And so the question is, what about you? These pressure point moments of life—even that we've experienced this last week, let alone maybe personally you have something going on that no one else knows about—where is your identity in that? When you begin to get pressed down, where do you turn to? Who do you turn to? What do you turn to? Is it job? Is it reputation? Is it a padded bank account? Look, none of those things actually can sustain you under pressure. Only Jesus can. And this is what James is teaching us here from the very beginning.
Finding Joy in Trials
So James knew how to stay faithful under the pressure, and he's writing to tell scattered believers who are feeling the pressure how to do the same. So what's the very next thing he tells them?
Look at verses 2 through 4:
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”
The first thing I notice in this is he doesn't say if pressure points come, if trials come. He says when. You can't get out of trials. You can't be like, “I'm gonna weave here. I'm gonna weave there. And before you know it, you turn around, you're like, I missed them all. I got a clean record of the trials in my life. I got nothing.” No, no, no. They are inevitable for all people, and you know this. So what do you do in the middle of these trials, of this pressure? Well, he tells us: count it all joy.
Now this is wild. Y'all remember science class? You remember homeostasis? Your body wants whatever is easiest for it because it's a survival mechanism. So the easiest thing when pressure comes is to get out from under it. What James is writing about is how we need to do the opposite of that—which isn't natural, which is because it's supernatural through the power of the Holy Spirit—that you can do this. He says when pressure comes you want to get out, but you need to stay in it, and the way to stay in it is by counting it as joy.
So then you go, “Wait a second. Joy? You're telling me an assassination, I'm supposed to be joyful about that? Persecution, I'm supposed to be joyful about that? Betrayal in my life, I'm supposed to be joyful about that? The cancer call from the doctor, I'm supposed to be joyful about that?”
He's not saying be joyful in the pressure. He's saying joy isn't in the pain. It's in the purpose God is producing through it. It's what God wants to do in you through it.
The joy is not that Charlie Kirk was tragically murdered, even though that happened. The joy is that God is using these moments to strengthen his church, to expose evil, and to wake up the church, embolden believers. We wish it didn't happen, but it did. So God, what are you going to do? And we couldn't have planned it. We couldn't have figured it out. We couldn't have done it ourselves. But look at the unity. Look at the understanding. Look at the wakeup call this has been to believers.
See, joy is knowing that pressure grows a faith that comfort never will. Comfort can never produce this type of person and steadfastness.
Jesus himself did this. Hebrews 12 says, “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning the shame.” So you're telling me the cross was joyful? That that was a joyful experience for you, Jesus? The nails—joyful experience? The crown of thorns on your head—joyful experience? Hanging there—joyful experience? Getting stabbed in the side—joyful experience?
No. It's not at all about the feelings of the pressure. It's about what the pressure forms. And for Jesus, he looked past all of that—past the cross, to the resurrection, to the redemption of humanity, to his kingship, and all to the glory of God the Father. And that joy gave him strength to endure the suffering.
The same is true for us. It's available for us, too. The future joy of what God is producing will give you strength to endure the present pain. But you're going to have to be the one to stay in it when we naturally want to escape.
But if you endure, then here's what he promises us: you mature. You're going to grow into the disciple he's called you to be, he created you to be—and right now, let's all agree—the disciple the world needs. But it doesn't come easy because it's not comfortable.
Asking God for Wisdom
And we can all admit that at times we've not been the disciple he's called us to be. We've not endured under trials. Or maybe even we can admit, “I don't even know what that looks like. What does it mean? How do I do this? I would love to, but how do I do this?”
Well, James speaks to this in the very next verses. Look at verses 5–8:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways.”
Right now, let's just be honest. This is probably where a lot of us are at. We don't know where to turn. We don't know what to do. We're feeling the pressure. We see the escape. But we're wondering what God has and is he gonna show up, and can I trust him? But I know I can go over here and I can control my own life, and maybe I can do something that for a moment I feel just a bit of reprieve, and so maybe that's what I need to go do. This is where I think a lot of us are at.
But James’ answer under pressure is never to escape it. It's to encounter God in it. That’s the answer. What do you do with all the pain and the pressure? You encounter God. And he says here to ask God for wisdom.
So let's define that. What's wisdom? Well, wisdom isn't knowledge, but knowledge has a piece to play in wisdom.
So what is wisdom?
- Knowledge is knowing the truth.
- Wisdom is living the truth.
- Knowledge is memorizing Scripture.
- Wisdom is obeying Scripture.
- Knowledge is knowing God is sovereign.
- Wisdom is trusting in his sovereignty even when the pressure is on.
That's the difference between wisdom and knowledge. So wisdom is the application of knowledge.
And here's the promise that comes: when you ask, God will give. He doesn't ration it. He doesn't say, “You're coming back again?” No. He doesn’t say, “Look, you've used a lot of what I was going to give you in your lifetime, and you need to keep it because 30 years from now, you don't know what's going to happen, and you're going to need it then. So, are you sure you want to come to me now?”
He doesn’t shame you. He doesn’t say, “You again? You're not learning your lesson? Are you kidding me? Okay, fine, I guess I'll give you wisdom if that's what you're asking for.” That’s not what he does.
When you ask in faith, he opens his hands wide and he gives you what you ask for.
But there's a warning to this. He says, “Ask in faith with no doubting.” And he uses the illustration of the sea that is always moving. It's never steady. It's wherever the current and the wind are going to toss it and take it. And he says, “This is what happens when you ask in faith as a double-minded person.”
He's saying that your faith is split. Meaning one foot is standing where it needs to be with God, but the other foot is over here with self. Or one foot is with Christianity, and the other foot is with culture.
So what am I supposed to do here? And what we realize about split faith is this: split faith makes you unstable. It's not a ground to stand on.
But whole faith will make you unshakable. Which is what James was under the pressure—unshakable.
The Danger of Double-Mindedness
James warns, “Ask in faith with no doubting.” And he uses the illustration of the sea that is always moving. It's never steady. It's wherever the current and the wind are going to toss it and take it. And he says, “This is what happens when you ask in faith as a double-minded person.”
He's saying that your faith is split. Meaning one foot is standing where it needs to be with God, but the other foot is over here with self. Or one foot is with Christianity, and the other foot is with culture.
So what am I supposed to do here? And what we realize about split faith is this: split faith makes you unstable. It's not a ground to stand on. But whole faith will make you unshakable. Which is what James was under the pressure—unshakable. I would even say that's what Charlie Kirk was under the pressure—unshakable. He knew the truth of God and he was standing firmly on it and nothing else.
But here's the warning: don't ask with split faith. What does this mean? Well, let me tell you what I think. Don't pray with one hand lifted in worship and then that night use the other hand to go to the bottle. Double-mindedness.
What about don't ask or cry out to God for your life and for everything you need, but cling to your addictions? Yes, go to him and ask him to heal you. Get medical help to do it. But when we pray, we're trusting that he's going to be the one to help deliver us. So do we think he's going to help us under the pressure if we are saying to him, “Lord, I trust you with everything, but I'm clinging to my pornography addiction.”
Or, “Yeah, Lord, I'm going to give you all of me, but this thing over here…I’m kind of here, so would you bless this side, and maybe this side eventually I’ll move over?” That’s double-mindedness.
What about people declaring truth: “Lord, I'm going to use my finances for you and I pray that you bless my finances,” but later that day, I swipe my card—a little retail therapy—and I'm swiping my card, putting me more in debt. Which one is it? The numbers don’t lie. This is double-mindedness.
Here are some stats about this:
Nearly one in three adults binge drink every single week. And what that means for a man is five drinks or more in one sitting. For a woman, that's four drinks or more in one sitting. That is not the intention when they go into the meal or into grabbing a drink. But that's what happens—because they need the relief. They need to cope with the pressure. They start to feel good a little bit. This feels like it's the answer.
But it's not just drinks. Texas ranks second in the entire nation for credit card debt per household.
Google has come out and said this is horrendous: one in four searches online—25% of all online searches—are porn-related.
We are numbing instead of kneeling. We are escaping instead of enduring. And when you numb pressure, you don't escape it, you multiply it. It feels good for that moment because your mind's off the matter. But that moment's over, and now the matter is doubled and compounded in size—and you didn't actually deal with anything.
But a mature person, someone who wants to be the disciple God's called them to be under the pressure point moments of life, the trials of life—we’re going to choose not to go this way, not to try to cope with things. We're going to kneel before God and we're going to ask him for wisdom to help us in this because we know he's producing something through it.
Let me give you a better stat: 100% of the time, when you ask God for wisdom by faith, he'll give it. 100% of the time. Every time. No exceptions.
So the question is, why are so many of us living with split faith? It might be because it's easier. It might be because I like to be in control of me. It might be because I don't see Jesus as Lord; I just see him as Savior. Which he is—he is your Savior. You place your faith in him. He saved you. You have everlasting life. But now to live as a disciple, you're not the savior of your life. He was, and now he is also Lord. He has say on your life.
Do you know casual Christianity will not carry you through the fire? You'll fold every time. But we've all talked about the beginning—have we been awoken to the war? That we realize it's going on? Maybe we had to rub our eyes ‘cause we were sleeping a little bit and now we're like, it's real. And what part am I supposed to play?
Well, if we're going to be cultural Christians or casual Christians or comfortable Christians—whatever you want to call them—it's not going to sustain you. But God, I believe, is calling us right now to trade the split faith for a whole faith—an all-in-with-him type of faith. Like James says, you already know the truth. Don't be a hearer anymore. Be a doer of the word.
Who You Live For Matters Most
Now, pressure also exposes who or what you're really living for. And in this next part, verses 9 through 11, James talks about two different people. And he's reminding us that who you live for matters infinitely more than what you live with.
James 1:9-11, “Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field, he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.”
See, pressure exposes what you're really living for. And what we know here is this: who you live for will matter infinitely more than what you live with. So he's saying—for the poor person, for the one who feels small, for the one who feels overlooked—you get the chance to boast in your exaltation and what being a child of God means. You're raised up in him. You have his righteousness. You're family. You're chosen. You're a son, you're a daughter. These are great things. Let your life resemble them and hold on to them as your identity.
But then he goes on and says, “But if you're wealthy and you're putting any identity into that, be careful. Because the riches, they won't last. When pressure comes, they cannot sustain you.” It's like beautiful bluebonnets. Every year I'm like, I love when the bluebonnets come. They're here one day and the next they're gone. Why can't they be here all the time? That's what James is talking about with your money.
See, pressure exposes who you're really living for. And then he drives this final point home with a promise, a beautiful promise and truth for us to live out.
Verse 12: “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
Notice the Bible doesn’t say, “Blessed is the man who avoids the trial.” It doesn’t say, “Blessed is the one who escapes the pressure.” It doesn’t say, “Blessed is the one who takes the easy road.” No—it says, “Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial.” The one who doesn’t rest with comfortability. The one who has the courage to stand strong.
And if you are a believer in Jesus for everlasting life, then it’s for you to do—to be the vocal one, not to be the one who's just going to let silence win, which means surrender. I'm not saying we take to the streets and do something we shouldn't do. I'm saying be smart, trust the Holy Spirit. But when truth is attacked and you have the chance to defend it, defend it.
I believe the crown of life offered here is really two things. I don’t think it’s just about the sweet by-and-by. I think it talks about the here and now. Let me explain. The crown of life is the joy of walking with God right now. Nothing else in this world can give you what God can give you. We've tried it. It lasts for a second. Nothing lasts forever. But with God, the life and the experience he gives you now—nothing else comes close.
See, you can experience his peace when the world is broken and in chaos. You can taste his grace when you've blown it time and time and time again. You can feel his strength like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when the fire is seven times hotter than it's ever been and you don't know what to do. The things of this world will not sustain you in that. Only the strength of Christ will.
And one day, I believe this is also about an eternal reward where you'll stand before Christ at the throne in the most real moment of your life and you'll hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
I believe Charlie Kirk stood the test. I believe he lived steadfast. I believe he lived boldly. He lived unashamed. And as you've seen this past week, death didn't defeat him. Death delivered him—because his faith is now sight. He's in a way better place than here. But he wasn't killed because he was reckless or extreme or fringe. He was killed because he loved God and he stood for God's truth.
But let’s not forget—that’s the same reason Christ was crucified. And can I tell you something? It’s the same reason James was martyred.
See, I didn’t tell you this in the beginning, but James didn’t just tell people how to live while being persecuted. He stood strong even when death was at his doorstep. Eventually, people came to him and they said, “It’s time for you to renounce Christ.” They grabbed James. They took him to the top of the temple, the pinnacle of the temple, and they held him over and said, “Renounce Christ.”
You know what James said? “I can’t help but speak about my Savior.” They said, “Well, you made your choice.” And they threw him off the temple, thinking it would kill him. He hit the ground and he did not die. He was broken, but he did not die. They realized, “This was supposed to kill him—it didn’t.” So they went to finish the job.
As they made their way down the temple, they grabbed clubs because they wanted to make him a spectacle. And they heard him whispering something. They thought, “Oh, he's renouncing Christ now. He knows that death was almost here, he escaped this one somehow, so let’s hear what he says.” But as they walked up, they heard him praying, “Lord, would you please accept my life?” And then he prayed the same prayer he heard his brother Jesus pray on the cross: “Lord, forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
He stood on truth and it enraged them so much that they took the clubs and they beat him over the head until he died.
That’s why this isn’t theory. This is testimony. James shows us how to stand strong under the trials and the pressure of life. That would have been a wake-up call to first-century Christians—just like Charlie Kirk, I believe, is a wake-up call to us—that yes, there’s a cost to this. But are you willing to stand strong no matter the cost?
One of my favorite verses in the Bible speaks of these unknown people. It’s in Hebrews chapter 11. And as you know, Hebrews 11 is titled the “Hall of Faith”—these Old Testament believers who really did it. They stayed true under trial. And it goes through a list of all these different people. And then all of a sudden, you get down to this verse, and this phrase describes those who endured pressure and persecution: “And there are those of whom the world was not worthy.”
They didn’t care about the world. They cared about their heavenly home and the call on their life right now. And they lived it in such a way that the Bible says the world wasn’t even worthy of them. What an honor to be able to hear—or have it written about you—that the world wasn’t worthy of you because of your strength and trust in God.
I believe that’s true of James. I believe that’s true of Charlie Kirk. But I wonder—is that going to be true about us? Is that going to be true about you?
Are you living life right now the way Christ intends you to—as someone who will stand strong on truth no matter the cost? Where the world one day will hopefully say, “The world wasn’t worthy of you in your life. Thank you so much for being the strong voice you were.”
As we close this out, remember—pressure always forces a choice. There’s always a line in the sand with pressure. On one side you have compromise, but on the other side you have courage. On one side you have silence, and on the other side you have steadfastness. On one side you could have fear that folds you, or on the other side you could have a faith that sustains you. This is what pressure does. And casual Christianity, I believe, will not survive the fire of this hour.
So where are you standing under the pressure?
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