Growing a Resilient Faith
Sid Koop · Tidal Church Moncton · November 23, 2025
Sid Koop teaches from James 1 on facing trials with steadfast hope. Trials are expected, God redeems them, and we keep asking Him for wisdom. Choosing to treasure Jesus, and helping our kids do the same, builds a resilient faith.
Topics: Faith, Suffering, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] My wife and I, I shouldn't even tell the story. We bought our first bed that we've ever bought since we got married. Isn't that wild? And so we had to buy a new comforter for it, 'cause it's a king bed. And if you moved to a king bed before, that is unbelievable. I'm just saying that right now. Anyways, we got that and my dog decided it would become his bed and his comforter, and he immediately chewed it and tore it up. Apparently he would rather be in the queen bed. I would rather him be outside with no beds. But we're in that conversation as a family right now. There it is. There's a little window into our world. Okay. Hey, it is great to be with you this morning. This is such a privilege and a pleasure to be in this space. As Jeremy said, we have the opportunity to work with youth workers and do ministry in a whole bunch of different environments, which I'm so thankful for.
[0:49] I'm so thankful for Jeremy. By the way, Jeremy's our director of operations. We would accomplish nothing without Jeremy. We might have a little more fun every now and then, but we would accomplish nothing without him. And so thankful for you, Jer, and your work with us. Hey, you know, over the last few years when I've had the opportunity to be in churches, a lot of what we're talking about is, you know, some of the challenges of what it means for young people to follow Jesus in a culture where the cultural values seem to be more and more positioned against the values of following after Christ. And so we've spoken a lot about what it is, even in our country, to be faithful in this public sphere when it feels like followers of Christ are publicly being moved to the margins.
[1:34] Over the last year and a half, though, there seems to be kind of this unique window or shift that's taking place right now. And I have no idea how long it's going to last, but it seems like we have these moments of these signs of life that are happening in our country. And let me be really clear, this is not an indicator that God is working more now than He's ever been working. God has always been working. He is working. He will always be working. It just seems like there's a few moments every now and then when we can see it a little bit more clearly. And this seems to be one of those, you know, a couple things that are happening, you know, across our country right now. Number one, and it's happened here in Moncton, we're seeing more and more student-led Bible studies and Alpha programs in public high schools, more than we've seen before.
[2:26] I was talking to the people from Alpha, we partner with them in our conferences, and I was talking with Tim Teel, who is the National Director of Youth Alpha. Last year, between January and June, they had almost as many student-led Youth Alphas in high schools across our country as they had the whole year before. And those numbers are continuing to grow. It's pretty cool. It's really, really cool. Right now in our country, we get an opportunity to work with a number of different organizations running student conferences, conferences for students, especially for those who haven't heard of Jesus before, to come and experience and hear the truth of Jesus Christ. And we don't know of a single student conference, a conference for students that hasn't grown this year over last year.
[3:13] Isn't that amazing that more and more kids are wanting to come and hear about this Jesus and understand what a radical difference He can make in their lives? And they are coming and they're gathering collectively, and it is growing. Barna just put out research this September that said, for the first time that they know of, we are in a moment when church attendance is going up. So recorded or reported church attendance is going up. But here's what's most surprising, is that for the first time Gen Zs and millennials outnumber the older generations in church attendance. How wild is that? I know, let's go. And the other thing that's kind of fascinating is that young men, dudes, are coming to church actually more than young women.
[4:00] And in many churches, they sit in the front row, look at that. It's like, there you all are. It's pretty awesome. I just think this is incredible. I just, it is so exciting. And then, according to Bible Scan, one of the digital recording companies in terms of Bible sales, this past September Bible sales in North America were up about 36% over last year. And we're seeing a consistent growth in that area. Yeah, it's amazing, you guys. It really is amazing. And so one of the great joys, you know, one of the things I get to do as a part of my job is I actually get to work for my wife at the camp that she's the director of in Kelowna, Green Bay Bible Camp. And oh, by the way, we've been doing it for four years, still married. That's amazing. So we're excited about that. And anyways, one of the great gifts is, or one of the things that brings us so much joy is the number of Bibles that we're able to give to students.
[4:53] You know, we had a cabin this summer at camp. It was awful. Okay? Like literally, I think that was where evil reigned this summer, was in that cabin. And I'm gonna talk about that in a minute. But one of the amazing things was at the end of that week, two of the kids that were so challenging to work with, I remember when I came, I had to talk to their dad about some of their behaviors that they'd expressed that week, which were not good. But as I'm doing that, they come up to their dad and they say, "Dad, you gotta come over here." And they take him to their bags and they reach into their bags and they're like, "Dad, look what we got. We got Bibles, first Bibles." And it was so amazing when their leaders came in front of their dad. And it was pretty clear to me that dad didn't quite know what he was experiencing. And they opened up the Scriptures said, "Don't forget what we studied. Don't forget what we read. Remember these verses."
[5:40] And I just thought, oh, the Spirit of God is at work. I mean, the Scriptures say that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and the Spirit is working in those kids' lives. And it is so exciting. And so God is doing really good things. We're so thankful for it. I think we're in a time where we don't have to convince people that they should be interested in truth. There seems to be a renewed hunger for truth. We just need to clearly and lovingly express it and live it and point to the truth of Jesus Christ and see what God will do in changing and transforming lives. Okay? In light of that, let me pray, then we're gonna dive into the Word. Father, we love You. Thank You so much for today. Thanks for this time. Thanks for Your Scriptures. Father, since before time began, You have always been, and You have always been working, and You are working, and for eternity, You will continue to work.
[6:40] But there's some moments when it seems Your Spirit opens our eyes to the reality of Your work a little bit more clearly than others. And we say thank You. And I pray that this morning again, Jesus, You would help us see You more clearly, understand Your way more clearly as we dive into Your Scriptures. We pray this for Your glory, for our joy, for the good of the people we serve in Your name. Amen. You know, one of the things that I love about working at camp is how it shapes us. Anyone of you who have worked at camp, you know, camp shapes you. In fact, one of the things that we always say is that camp is such an environment. It's this unique pressurized environment where the responsibilities are real, significant things are happening.
[7:26] You find yourself tired. So you know, your resources sometimes become your personal resources become a little bit limited and whatever is in you comes out. So you see it. But then we get to work with it. And I think, you know, one of the reasons why I think camp is so powerful in shaping the lives of young leaders, not primarily campers, but staff, is because it creates an environment where real spiritual resilience can be formed and shaped. And boy, we need resilience, don't we? You know, 'cause we need, we know that life is going to be hard even in the good seasons. We know that life is going to be hard. One of the common realities, one of the most common realities of being a human being is that we experience trials. And this is just true.
[8:12] And the question becomes like, how do we live? Well in the midst of trials, this is one of the most important questions we can answer, is how can we live strong, resilient, loving lives? Courageous lives in the midst of trials? You know, it's funny, we had a, we had a young staff member at camp this summer. His name is Cruz. Cruz was a great dude. He was a grade 11 student. He'd come up through some of our leadership programs and I just appreciated him. But I'll be honest with you, that first week of camp almost killed him. We realized things were hard for Cruz when we started checking out the number of incident reports that were coming from his cabin. You know, like halfway through we were like, this is uncommon. So we needed to start meeting with him and seeing what was going on. And then we began to like kind of do some checks and background checks to figure out who was in his cabin and why this was becoming difficult.
[9:01] We were calling parents. We discovered that every single child in his cabin was on behavioral meds that week. So, and by the end of the week, Cruz was on behavioral meds. So that was a, you know, it was just one of those really difficult weeks. And we kind of got him through and then he made it through the end of the summer. And I remember we were at the end of the summer and we had all of our staff, we'd just finished a time of worship around our campfire and we were just sharing, "Hey, where did you see God at work this summer?" And so the different staff were standing up and I remember Cruz gets up and he goes, "Man, I saw God at work this summer in my life." And he just kind of goes, "You guys know that, like that first week of camp, it was hard," and everyone's kind of chuckling a bit 'cause they knew it was hard. And then Cruz just goes, "You know, I would get up every day and I'd get up before my guys would get up, I'd get outside the cabin, I'd go spend some time praying and stuff.
[9:53] And then I would just go, 'Lord, today's gonna be a better day.' You just go, 'Lord, today's gonna be a better day.'" And then he just looks at us and he goes, "And you know what, it wasn't," he said, "there wasn't a single day that week that was a better day. It was just hard." But God shaped him through that, grew him through that. I remember talking with one of our staff and just saying, you know what? Cruz won't be the same. Because in the midst of that difficulty, he experienced God showing up, shaping him, giving him a disposition that was strong and firm, even in the midst of hardship. And not just strong and firm, but hopeful in the midst of the difficulty that he was experiencing, God gave him a resilience.
[10:41] We need resilience. There's not a human being that doesn't need greater resilience. But here's what's interesting. We live at a time culturally where perhaps more than ever before, the culture gives us less resources to develop resilience than what we've ever experienced. Isn't that true? I mean, we live in this interesting time where kind of the cultural ethos of the day is this, that you are your own god. You can do whatever you want. And the whole goal of life is to simply feel good and be happy, and you have the ability to create that. And the problem is with this next generation, with all of us, is we think this is the goal.
[11:28] This is what we should have. But then we realize it's actually not how life works. So we look inside ourselves to try to pull our bootstraps off and we realize we can't do it because the resources aren't present. We actually can't do whatever we want. We can't be whoever we want to be. And when we allow our emotions to simply control us, we become fragile and unstable and we lose resilience. It's one of the reasons why we are facing perhaps one of the greatest mental health crises that we've ever recorded in the Western world. Culture doesn't give us the resources to be the kind of people that God is calling us to be. That God has created us to be in the midst of a world that's often difficult and challenging to live in.
[12:16] But while culture hasn't given us those resources, Christ has. As followers of Christ, God has given us the greatest resources for us to live well and with hope, even when the tears are real, even when the reality is difficult, that we can still be a people that can stand strong, firm, and steadfast because of the resilience He enables us to have in the midst of the challenges that we live in. I wanna take a minute this morning and look in James chapter 1. So if you have your Bibles, you can open up to James chapter 1. James is the book of the Bible, by the way, that we spent this summer in with our staff. Every summer we work our way through a book of the Bible. And so we spent time in James. It says in James 1:1, it says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion."
[13:08] And it's interesting that who the author of the book is, the author is James. And history tells us that James was the brother of Jesus, and James was one of the very first church leaders in Jerusalem. The very beginning of the movement of the church, James was at the forefront. Now what's so fascinating about this is that James wasn't always so excited about Jesus and who God, who, you know, who He was, as he seems to be here in this moment, right? In fact, it's funny, we find in John chapter 7 that when Jesus is with His disciples, His mother and His brothers come to Him, and they kind of want to get Him because they're like, we don't, you know, what You're preaching and what You're doing, they're not, it's not really aligning with how they see Jesus or who they think He should be, as, you know, kind of the oldest child in their family.
[13:55] And Jesus turns to His disciples when they tell Him that your mother and your brothers are here. He turns to His disciples and He says, "Hey, my family, my mother, my brothers are those who hear the word of God and then they go and do it." That's what He says. And so it says that kind of His family just kind of moves away in the midst of that moment. And then what's fascinating now is we see something has happened. James has had a new revelation of who Jesus is, because what's fascinating to me is when he references himself, he doesn't even reference himself as like family with Jesus. He references himself as a servant of Jesus. Did you notice that? James, a servant, or a better word would even be slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[14:41] He says, "I've seen You. You are so much more than a brother. You are the King, You are God." And he's like, "I'm in. Whatever You want, I'm in." The other thing that's fascinating is when Jesus kind of chastises His family, right? The point He says is my family are those who hear the word of God and do it. And here is James now writing maybe the most practical book of what it means to hear God's word and do it in all of the New Testament. I mean, this is kind of the foundation and thesis of what James is saying. He's saying, "Hey, real faith is seen by our works, by what we do." Our works don't earn faith. Our works are the result. Or they are the proof of real faith in this, just this incredibly practical book that James has put together for followers to read.
[15:34] And so they can know how God would have them live in the context that He's placed them in. And one of the themes that James deals with is how should we live in the midst of trials and struggles? So he goes on and he says this: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers (or a good translation would be my brothers and sisters), when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
[16:21] But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Okay, so how do we move from being people who are double-minded, unstable, to people who are steadfast and resilient in the midst of trials? First thing James tells us is this. He says, "Hey, don't be surprised by your trials." That's the first thing he says. We see in verse 2, he says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. The question isn't will you meet trials?
[17:06] The question is when. On this side of eternity, in a culture that's been broken by sin, we face trials. Paul says that all creation is groaning, longing for redemption. And then he says, we too, as a mother in the midst of childbirth pains, we groan, longing for redemption, longing for something new. The reality is we live in a broken world. We will experience difficulty, we will experience trials. Christianity does not shelter people from trials. You know, for a long time I would hear people say, and I would use this language, "Hey, Jesus loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life."
[17:54] And that's true. But rarely is it wonderful in the way that we think of wonderful, correct? I mean, when we think of wonderful, we think of financially secure. We think physically healthy, we think relationally rich. We think of all of these beautiful gifts that God gives us, and they are real. But it isn't that this is the reality we always have. The wonderful element or reality of being a follower of Christ is that we get Jesus, not just as gifts. And there's plenty of seasons when we don't get to experience those types of gifts, when things are really hard, when things are really challenging. In fact, when Jesus called people to follow Him, the thing that He said more than anything else was, "If you want to be my follower, you need to deny yourself, take up your cross, and come follow me." On this side of eternity, this is not going to be easy.
[18:51] The first thing we need to realize is that, hey, trials are real. Struggles are real. And just because you're facing trials and struggles, it doesn't mean that God is not present. He didn't promise us on this side of eternity that we wouldn't feel difficulty. In fact, He modeled how we should function in the midst of the trial and in the midst of the difficulty. This is what He's calling us into. So the first thing he says is, "Hey, don't be surprised by this reality." But he also says that we shouldn't pursue them. Nowhere does he say that we should pursue the trials. The trials are simply going to come. There's going to be plenty of trials coming our way. We don't have to go looking for them. We can just simply be faithful in whatever situation God has placed us in. He also doesn't say that we should pretend that the trials are good.
[19:39] Nowhere does he say that. He says that God is good in the midst of trials. He says that God will bring good out of trials. In Romans chapter 8, Paul says that we can be more than conquerors through our trials, that God can redeem trials. Isn't that amazing, that God redeems trials, more than conquerors? I always think that's fascinating. I wonder what, what is more than a conqueror? A conqueror is someone, when the enemy comes against you, has the ability to keep the enemy from being able to achieve their plans. So then what's more than a conqueror? More than a conqueror is when the enemy comes in, it would have been better for the enemy to never come against you, because God takes what the enemy wants for our destruction and He turns it and brings about an even greater good.
[20:31] And that's actually what James is speaking about here, that God can take our trials and bring something even greater from them than what the enemy wanted to have happen in our lives through them. And then finally, we shouldn't pretend that our trials don't hurt. Of course they hurt. And we should grieve. When trials happen, when pain is present, we don't pretend it doesn't exist. We're not emotionally disengaged. Jesus didn't model that when He was at the grave with Lazarus, His friend, knowing that He would raise him from the dead. In mere moments, He wept at the reality of the pain of death because death is the enemy. The trials aren't good. We don't pretend the trials are good, but we know in the midst of the tears and in the midst of the hardship that God is good and He's bringing good.
[21:19] So first we shouldn't be surprised. Second, we need to know that God is redeeming our trials. So listen to what He says. "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness," by the way, you should circle that word, steadfastness. Steadfastness has this idea of a militant perseverance. It's this ability to be rooted and strong, even in the midst of great difficulty, that continues to press in. He says, "Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." There's two commands here. The first command He says is, He says, "I want you to count it all joy."
[22:05] Man, that word count is important, right? Because the reality is when we're in the midst of struggle, when pain first hits, we don't naturally move towards, like, joy and happiness. Our natural emotional response or reaction isn't like, "Oh, things are great. This is amazing." That's actually not where we go, and that's not where we should go. But here's what I think James is saying. I think what he's saying is he's saying, "Hey, our emotions move there. And that's understandable. And they signal to us something that's significant, something that's going on." But what I think he's saying is that while your emotions will be good messengers in terms of what's happening, you don't need to let them be your master. They actually don't need to own you. You know, this is something that we talk about with our students a lot at camp.
[22:51] We just say, "Hey, you guys, our emotions are real. They're without a shadow of a doubt. God's given us emotions. But emotions are really great messengers. They don't have to be masters. They don't need to own you." He says, and what James says is he says, "I want you to count it as joy. I want you to use your minds as you enter into trials to begin to speak truth to your souls." So even in the midst of difficulty, there can be a type of joy, a type of settledness, a type of contentment, knowing the resources that are at work for you in the midst of the struggle. It's this ability to kind of pause, step back, and take stock of what's happening and go, "Hey, these are my emotions.
[23:43] Here's where they're rooted. This is true, this is real. It's not good. We should stand against that. But even in the midst of this, here's what I know: this is my God, and He's got me, and He's working, and I'm seeing who He is because I'm in the Scripture, so I know the truth. And now the truth is beginning to speak to my soul and is starting to shape me. And even though the tears are real, I can still have a type of joy in this moment." Secular psychologists would call this cognitive behavioral therapy. This idea that when our emotions begin to rise and our situations around us start to come, that we're able to step back and we're able to, like, be kind of aware of what's happening, acknowledge the truth, and then respond differently. What the Scriptures would tell us is this is loving God with our mind.
[24:32] What the Scriptures would say is this is what it means to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's what David modeled in Psalm 42 when he said, "Oh, my soul, why so downcast? Why so downcast within me? Put your hope in God," "yet will I trust Him." Instead of allowing our souls and our emotions to own our thinking, what David says and what the Scriptures say is we allow our thinking, our truth, to begin to preach to our soul, even in the midst of the struggle. And it reminds us of this reality, and it shapes us and gives us a type of joy that sustains us in the midst of the struggle. So first He says, "Count it all joy." Rest in God, know who He is, know that He's at work.
[25:20] And then the second command He gives is "Let steadfastness have its full effect." Did you hear that? Let it continue to let it, it's in the present tense. Continue to let steadfastness have its full effect. That's an interesting statement. What's he trying to say here? Do you know what I mean? Like he's saying, "Hey, don't run away from this moment." I think what James is saying is he's saying, "Don't run away. Let God do His full work that He wants to do in the midst of this difficulty you're in." This is so uncommon for our natural human instincts. I mean, we're wired to pursue pleasure over pain, and when challenges come and when difficulty comes, we begin to expend so much energy to try to escape that pain, don't we?
[26:07] And we'll find almost any way we can to get out of it as quick as possible. But I think what James is saying is he's saying, "Hey, just be patient. Settle. Understand that God is with you in this moment, and He's using this moment, and He's good, and He actually has a very good work He wants to do with you in this moment." And when we begin to realize that, instead of fighting against, we can fight to cling to God. And when we become those people who go, "Okay, God, I know that You are present. I know You're here. You wanna do something. Instead of fighting to escape, I'm gonna fight to rest in You. And I'm gonna trust that when You're finished the work You want to do in my life through this moment, You'll release me, and You'll allow me to move on to what's next.
[27:00] But until then, I will allow You to do Your pruning work so that You can bear even more fruit in my life. I trust You." And there is this powerful space when in the midst of this difficulty, we can rest in God, that we can become a people that are a non-anxious presence in the midst of difficult seasons. And my friends, that is a powerful witness to the culture around you. When our culture looks at us as followers of Christ and we begin to lose all the things that culture values and holds very dear, and we hold very dear, and we value, and we lose those, and the tears are real, but still we can be a non-anxious presence with a hope in God, counting it as joy.
[27:51] Our culture looks at us and says, "I need to know who your God is, because I can't imagine what that's like. How does this happen?" And they see something powerful and different in that space. So first, don't be surprised. Second, know that God is redeeming our trials. And then third and finally, seek the Lord. Fight to seek the Lord. Don't seek yourself. Seek the Lord. And again, this is so counterculture, because culture says, "Hey, look within yourself. Find strength within, you know, grip it, white knuckle it. You can pull yourself through. You have what it takes." But the reality is we don't. But God does. And listen to what James says in verse 5. He says, "If any of you lacks wisdom," the ability to know how to live well in the midst of this difficulty, the ability to know how to respond well in the midst of this difficulty, the ability to trust Jesus in the midst.
[28:53] That's actually the very core of biblical wisdom, is trusting God and responding well as God would have us. So it's not just collective knowledge or the gathering of information, it's living out what one believes. Well, flourishing, even in the midst of the incredible difficulties. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." Isn't that beautiful? Do you hear what He says? He says, "Let him ask God." And again, that word "ask" is in the present tense, which means we need to keep asking. We don't pretend that this trial is easy. We don't pretend that it's simple, and we don't pretend it doesn't hurt. No. In the midst of the trial, we keep coming back to God over and over again, going, "God, show me how to live.
[29:40] God, show me how to respond. God, sustain me. God, carry me. God, could You carry me through this?" We keep coming to Him over and over again, and listen to what it says. First of all, it says, He gives generously. Such a good God. He gives. He doesn't mock our stupidity when we get ourselves in bad situations. He doesn't mock us when we're the ones that contribute to the hardship that we find ourselves in. He doesn't mock us when we're overwhelmed by things that seem so small compared to others. No, it's just our various trials. He doesn't mock us over these. What does He do? He gives generously. He promises that He will keep giving us whatever we need to be the people He's calling us to be.
[30:27] In the midst of this, He says He gives generously, and He says He gives to all without reproach, whether we deserve it or not. He says He comes to give us what we need to faithfully follow Him and live for Him in the midst of our trials. He is so good. He is so good. But then in verse 6 He says, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting." It doesn't mean that we don't have questions. It doesn't mean that we don't have seasons where we wonder, "Why is this happening? What are You wanting to do? God, how am I going to make it through this? How is this fair?" It doesn't mean we don't ask those questions. That's not the doubting He's talking about. It's talking about the doubting of the character of God in the midst of the trials. That's what He's speaking of. He says, "Don't doubt, trust that I'm with you.
[31:16] Trust that God is good. Trust that He has you. Trust that He understands that, because He came as a human being and walked the earth and experienced our weaknesses as we have, and was tempted in every way as we are, but was without sin. Trust that, because He went to the cross. He took the sins of all people upon Himself on the cross, and the punishment that we deserve. But He made it through that. He didn't sin. And three days later, He rose again. Trust that we have that God. Don't doubt that. Know that He is the one who's got you. Trust there, then you will be strong, firm and steadfast." And He says that your steadfastness will grow in a love for Christ. And this is what it takes, that we see the beauty of Jesus.
[32:04] And we so love Him because He is so amazing, that He is, that nothing compares to who He is. By God's grace, He can open our eyes to a place that we so see the beauty of Jesus, that even though we lose so much and the tears are real and the mourning and grieving is real still, we say we worship God because we can't lose Him. We can't lose Him. This is the beauty of Job, right? Like maybe the greatest kind of writing that we have in history on how to deal with pain and suffering and the complexity of pain and suffering with the human psyche. And in Job chapter 1, after Job has realized that he's lost almost everything, family, wealth, a future, house, is leaving, because the evil one, by the way, is against him and doing this work.
[32:58] Listen to how Job responds in Job chapter 1, verse 20. He says this, "Then Job arose, tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped." He wasn't emotionally disengaged, he didn't pretend everything was okay. He was grieving deeply. But in the midst of the grief and in the midst of the tears still, he was able to worship. And it wasn't easy. He had to fight to worship. And when you read through Job, there were many seasons of darkness that were so hard in the midst of that journey. But he still comes to the place where he worships. And then in verse 21, he says, because we go, "How could it be possible?" He says this, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be the name of the Lord God."
[33:47] "You've got me." This is what he's saying. We know Satan's at work here, but somehow, God, You're still sovereign over this. Somehow, God, this is not out of Your hands. Somehow Your providence is still at work, even in this very evil moment, even in the midst of the evil against me, still, You are sovereignly, providentially at work. You've got me, so I can say, "Naked, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." Amen. And this is who God calls us to be. This is what He offers us, what He calls us into. These are the resources He gives us to be a people who are strong, firm and steadfast, even in the midst of the challenge.
[34:36] Oh man, okay, so then, how should we respond? Well, let me give you a few thoughts. And I'm not just thinking about, like, how do we individually respond. I'm thinking parents, how do we respond with our kids? You know, as we're trying to raise them up to be men and women who will be resilient, stable, secure, you know, how do we do that? Well, let me give a couple of thoughts. First of all, don't avoid trials. You know, I mean, hey, there's lots of evils we should avoid. We shouldn't pursue them. We don't go after them. And there's lots of trials and evil that we should stand against. But at the very core, just know that the trials are gonna come and don't spend most of your energy trying to avoid them. Spend energy preparing for them, spend energy fighting to see Jesus in the midst of them so that God can shape us through the trials.
[35:29] Don't remove trials too quickly. You know, as a parent, whenever my kids were in difficulties, I just wanted to get them out of the trials fast. You know, because when our kids have trials, that's inconvenient and hard for us as parents, isn't it? I remember when one of my mentors said to me, they said, Sid, you're generally as happy as your least happy child. And I thought, oh, there's some wisdom there, man, that's hard for all of us. I remember when PK, my oldest son, got cut from his basketball team in high school. And it wasn't just a removal from basketball, it was a removal from community. For him it was hard and he was angry. He felt like it was something that was really unjust that the coach had done to him. And my first impulse was like, yes, I'm going to that coach. We're dealing with this issue of justice.
[36:15] And I remember just, God was kinda like, "Hey, you need to pause." You know, like, just pause. And I remember we, Jen and I, we processed and worked it through. And after a couple of weeks of our son being pretty broken, I finally went to him and I just said, "Hey, Peyton." I said, "Buddy, you might not want to hear this, but I think you got a couple of options here. You can remain bitter if you want. That's your choice. You can do it. Or you might come to a point where you go to God and say, 'God, is there something that You wanted to do in me through this?' And I'll bump it to that. So what would You like to do?" And I said, "Part of that journey might actually be going and sitting down with your coach and just asking him, 'Where do I need to grow and change in order to have an opportunity, you know, to be part of this team down the road?'" I said, "That'd be huge. It'd be really, really hard, but that'd be huge, you know?" And I remember he walked away and I didn't know what he was gonna do with it until about four years later when he applied to work at camp underneath me.
[37:08] And I got to read his testimony. And I heard how God shaped his life through that incredibly difficult moment to change his identity and his understanding of who God was calling him to be. And maybe for the first time I was just like, "Thank You, Lord, for the trial. I didn't see it, but You were so faithful." How good. Don't move through them too quickly and then fight to be a non-anxious presence in the midst of the trials, model what it is to fight, to trust Jesus even when it's hard. And then finally, and maybe most importantly, help our kids treasure Jesus and treasure Him early. Help our kids see the beauty of Jesus and fight to love Jesus for who He is and surrender to Jesus.
[37:56] I remember when our boys were about, I don't know, four and seven and we would do our evening devos. And I was, we've been working kind of through Philippians as we would. And in Philippians, Paul says that he counts everything as rubbish compared to knowing Jesus. And I was just trying to help the boys understand like rubbish is like this really horrible garbage, was the best language I could give them at that time. And I said, "Compared to Jesus, you guys, everything is garbage." And they're just like, "Yeah, okay." And as I'm sitting there, I kind of turned to the boys and I said, "Hey boys, you know hockey?" And they're like, "Oh, we like hockey." "Yeah, hockey's big deal." I said, "I like hockey." I said, "It's true. But, I said, compared to Jesus." And they're like, "Yeah, hockey's just rubbish, son.
[38:42] Like what? Go, yeah, go. Seriously. It's just rubbish. Especially if you cheer for the Calgary Flames, it's seriously rubbish." And then we started talking about skateboarding and the boys loved skateboarding. We'd stop at skate parks all the time. And I said, "Boy, skateboarding's cool, huh?" They're like, "Yeah, Dad." I said, "But you know what? Compared to Jesus," they're like, "Yeah, rubbish. Like really, compared to Jesus, like Jesus is so good." And then I could see Cole just sitting there and his brain was working, he was working. And then ultimately he stops and he looks at me, he goes, "Hey, Dad." I go, "Yeah, son." He goes, "You." I said, "Pardon me?" He goes like, "Like you." I go, "Compared to Jesus." He's like, "Yeah, that rubbish for the whole week."
[39:30] All I hear is Dad is rubbish. Dad is. We had to work that one out. Hey, the best way we can help our kids treasure Jesus is if we treasure Jesus and we show it and we acknowledge when it's hard, but we show what it is to fight, to see the beauty of Jesus, especially through His work on the cross and what He's accomplished for us through His death and resurrection. And we talk about Jesus and how He shapes the way we respond to all the situations that come our way. And when our kids see that, when we fight to see that, when we fight to see Jesus like that, we become a people who are strong, firm and steadfast. Father, we love You. Thank You so much for who You are. I ask, Lord, that You would continue to shape us into the people You would have us to be, our Lord.
[40:24] That Your Spirit would lead us to know how to fight well, to see the beauty of Your Son Jesus Christ, so that we could consider it all joy whenever we face trials of various kinds. And that we would know that in the midst of the trials, You have not abandoned us. You are with us and You are shaping us, that You would make us steadfast, perfect, and complete by Your grace. And we say thank You, You so good, Lord, we pray this for Your glory, for our joy, and for the good of the people You've called us to serve. In Your name, amen.