Blessed Is The Man--- Pastor Al Watkins

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[Music]

Today's scripture, James chapter 1 verse

12. It's all about the blessed man. The

blessed is the man that endureth

temptation.

For when he is tried, he shall receive

the crown of life that comes to us from

James chapter 1 verse 12. Now, my name

is Al Watkins and I'm mighty glad to be

here with you today and I hope that you

will listen and learn from the scripture

itself. Now, as we move forward in

today's Bible study, I want to let you

know I come from Wilmington, North

Carolina. I've been a pastor for nearly

35 years now. Uh, and I've really

enjoyed serving the Lord along the way

in many ways. Uh, I have, uh, done some

preaching. I've done some teaching. I've

done some singing. I've even done some

witnessing and a few other things along

the way hopefully to bring glory to my

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But today,

I want to talk about the enduring

Christian. Uh, we go through things. We

have trials. We have tribulations just

like everybody else. Uh we don't live in

a perfect world. We do have the perfect

Lord, the perfect God, the perfect

Savior, but we don't live in a perfect

world. And we're not perfect beings, and

we will be one day, but we haven't quite

gotten there yet. So, as we move

forward, keep in mind exactly what the

Bible study is going to be about. Today

is about the blessed man that endureth

the trials and the temptations and the

things that will come to him or her in

this life today. The blessed endurance

that we read about in the Bible, we like

to think that everything is happy

golucky. It's uh easy and everything is

just hunky dory all the time. But that's

not it. God says he would walk with us

through our trials and through our

temptations. He will walk with us

through our downfalls and he will walk

with us through the glorious days too.

The word blessed that we read about in

the Bible simply means this being deeply

happy by being favored by God.

not in the sense of a worldly sense of

ease and comfort but rather in the

comfort of the spirituality of the

stability of being a good solid

Christian like God calls us to be. So

James speaks about life's hardships a

lot in his writings. He also talks about

persecutions, but he also speaks about

those inward struggles when we struggle

with ourselves as we try to walk with

perfect faith in following Christ. The

endurance is not a passive thing. The

endurance, the word in the Bible, is not

a passive thing, but rather it's an

active thing. In other words, a powerful

thing. Persevering in faith without

giving up on God. Think about that. A

lot of times we just say, "Well, you

know, whatever." Well, that's not so.

God is with us always and forever. And

so, think about this. To be with God is

also dependent upon God and his strength

to carry us through the life in which we

live. A good cross reference to this

passage of scripture we find in James is

another passage of scripture we find in

Matthew 5:e 10.

This may actively be something sometimes

that we find ourselves uh in trouble

about as far as our strength and our

faith and our strength in our walk and

our strength in our believing and God

being with us. We find in Matthew 5

verse 10, blessed are they which are

persecuted for righteousness sake.

Blessed are they which are persecuted

for righteousness sake. Now, this is a

good thing to remember. A lot of times

when we're doing godly things and we're

doing the right godly things, God

understands that. And a lot of times the

things against God in this world will

persecute us. In other words, they'll

say, "Well, you know, you're a fuddy

dud." That's a simple way of doing it.

And the other one is, I just simply

don't believe and just because you

believe, I don't want to hang around

with you. Well, that's a form of

persecution. Are people that do us wrong

simply because we are Christians. That's

not right either. Blessed are they which

are persecuted for righteousness sake.

If you're going to be persecuted and

you're going through trials and

tribulations, that's a good way to be

because God is the one that handles the

revenge work on that end. Uh revenge is

that of the Lord, not of mine. We're

supposed to go through our trials and

tribulations as if we're emulating the

Lord as he went through his. Uh the

purpose of trials is my next subject I

want to talk about. And we find that in

1 Peter chapter 6.

I meant to say we find that in 1 Peter

chapter 1 verse 6. Wherein you greatly

rejoice though now for a season. If need

be, you are in heaviness through

manifold temptations. Now, let me read

that again slowly. Wherein you greatly

rejoice, though now for a season, if

need be, you are in heaviness through

manifold temptations.

That's an interesting thought. A very

interesting thought. we find ourselves

in a season that God talks about

something for when we're tried. In other

words, there's a time and a season for

everything. And we read about in

Ecclesiastes and even the old song that

the bird sang back in the 60s. Uh every

season, there's a reason. Turn, turn,

turn. Uh we find out that trials are not

random. We'll go through good times.

We'll go through bad times. And

sometimes it'll be in the mediocre

session where we're in a transition.

They prove to purify us. In other words,

we're constantly growing in Christ.

We're constantly growing in our faith.

We're constantly growing in our strength

and our faith. Just like gold is tested

by fire. First Peter tells us that that

believers are going to be really tested

in this world. uh enduring those trials

with the love of God in your heart. It

strengthens your character. It produces

your patience. Now, patience is

something that I personally have to work

on on occasion because I come to learn

very quickly once I got into the

ministry field that when I read the

Bible and I take it literally and I take

it to myself and I put it to myself and

my actions, I find out that patience is

something the only way you're going to

get any deeper in patience is to go

through a trial. So, I've learned to be

content the best I can, but on occasion,

not being perfect, I still fall through.

But I recognize that God does allow

things to happen in our lives. And why

do bad things happen to good people? A

lot of people ask, well, it's very

simple. We're not exempt from anything.

Christ himself was perfect. And Christ

came. He was beaten. He was mocked. He

was scorned. He was lied about. And I

could go through a lot of other things

that happened to him while he was here.

And it was poorly disappointed in some

of his people that really said they were

his children and really were on the edge

a lot a lot of times in their own lives.

But re re realize that God's going to

reveal some bad times in your life. We

endure through these trials that God

allows. It strengthens that character.

It strengthens our patience. And when we

go through with the patience and the

glory of Jesus, we recognize that we're

bringing a smile on God's face for being

like his child and being more like him

because that's what brings glory unto

him. Moving on along in this Bible study

that we have today, I have a few more

things I'd like to share with you. I

want to talk about the blessings part.

I've talked about the trial and the

tribulation and the fact that we're

going to have them. But there are

blessings that are to come. And we find

one right off the bat in Revelation

chapter 2 verse 10. It reads like this.

Like I said, there is a blessing

involved in all of this. And it's

something we receive and we receive it

from Jesus himself. It's not a literal

crown, but listen to what it says. Be

thou faithful unto death, and I will

give you a crown of life. Man, think

about that. Fear none of these things

for which you shall suffer. Behold, the

devil shall cast some of you into prison

that you may be tried. And we recognize

in Revelation 2:10, be thou faithful. No

matter what happens, no matter what

comes your way, just remember God loves

you and God has a plan for you. Fear

none of the things that could happen to

you in this world which you shall

suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast

some of you into prison that you may be

tried. In other words, trials and

tribulations are coming, my friend.

Recognize that in life. It's how you go

through them. It's how we react to them.

It's how we react to how God loves us.

No matter what comes our way, no matter

how bad, we are able to endure whatever

may come against us. Whether it be

sickness, whether it be poorness,

whether it be famine, whether it be

anything that could happen to anybody,

that's common unto anybody. Jesus came

and his heart was broken as a man. But

believe you me, he's looking forward to

that day where he's can bring his

children home. Not a literal crown are

we going to receive, but eternal life

and honor with God himself. The crown,

the Greek word Stephanos, a victor's

crown given to those who overcome. In

other words, those who run the race,

fight the fight, do the deed, live the

life

promised by the Lord himself. this crown

he's speaking of. He promises things

that never fail. He's batten a thousand.

It is for those that love him and call

him Lord. Love for God motivates

endurance through the trials and

tribulations of this life, whether from

the evil one himself or whether God's

just moving us to the next plateau to

walk with him closer to glory. Recognize

this. We hold on. We hold on because we

treasure him above all things. Be

faithful unto death, Revelation 2:10

tells us, and he will give us a crown of

life. Well, I spoke of a lot of things

here. I spoke of a few things about the

endurance. I spoke a few things about

the trials and the tribulations and how

every Christian's going to go through

something. I also talked about what the

prize is at the very end. But God says

something else that's really powerful.

We find it in another passage of

scripture and we recognize that God said

he come to give us the abundant life in

John 10:10. The devil comes to steal, to

kill, and to destroy. But God son Jesus

came to give life to give it more

abundant. Recognize that more in a

moment.

Remember the scripture we started with.

Blessed is the man that endureth

temptation, for when he is tried, he

shall receive the crown of life, which

the Lord promised to them that love him.

It was the Lord that promised that. And

so we can expect it because he keeps his

promises. Practical applications of

today's lesson are like this. I read

like this. That is when you face

hardships, remind yourself this trial is

only temporary. The crown I'm going to

receive for enduring it is eternal.

Endurance is possible through the Holy

Spirit and by focusing on what God said

and what God promises. Demonstrate your

love to God and for God by staying

faithful through trials and temptations

and the good times too. There was a

song, the Mckamees, I believe was the

group that sang it. The God on the

mountain is the God in the valley.

encourage others who are struggling.

Remind them of the great reward that

Jesus promises those that will follow

him and love him. A few questions we may

want to ask ourselves about this lesson

today. One is ask yourself this. What

trial am I facing right now to which I

need to glorify God by coming through

shining on the other side? How can I

endure this

with faith? Think about that. God, I

need you. This is something I need you

for. My faith is strong that you can

help me through this. Do I see hardships

is another question as punishments?

Well, sometimes we do, sometimes we

don't. Simply because some things we

bring them on ourselves. But we can see

everything as an opportunity on how to

grow from what we've learned if we did

wrong or how can we glorify God in

what's going on right now by overcoming

it? And then finally, we may want to ask

oursel this question. Is my love for God

strong enough to keep me steadfast in

following him? If not, call upon him

now. Nobody is beyond his reach. No

circumstance is out of his reach. He can

overcome all. He overcome death for you

and me so that we might have eternal

life. Recognize this. Blessed is the man

that endureth temptation. But even more

so, blessed is the man that knows the

Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

I'm Alton Watkins. I'm glad to be here

with you. Tune in again. We'll have

another one of these very shortly.

Thank you for tuning in to this Bible

study.