Untitled Sermon

1. EACH PROCESS HAS A PLAN- TRIALS ARE PART OF YOUR CHRISTIAN LIFE

The plan is to look at the desired finished product even as one goes through the process. That is why this phrase is used as an accounting technique. To consider is to account or to place in the formula anticipating a resolution. No one says that trials have joy all that they are pleasant. Nobody in their right mind would welcome trials and tribulations. Normal athlete enjoys shin splints and achy muscles. Yet all athletes know that those achy muscles are a prelude to greatness in the field. So, to consider is to look forward to what the finished product will look like.

2. EACH PLAN HAS A PRODUCT: THE TESTING OF FAITH PRODUCES STEADFASTNESS-

Practice is the system through which we develop and refine predictability. Anybody can practice basketball and occasionally sink a 3 pointer without a problem. It is steadfastness which produces the Michael Jordans and the Steph Curries of NBA fame. When the team needs that 3-pointer to clinch the game, that is when steadfastness becomes a game changer, a lifeline that allows the team to survive the playoffs. If one wants to produce an Olympic athlete, then the training has its product in mind, but the steadfastness of the process is critical if the athlete is to function as desired. Steadfastness is all wild language for predictability and dependability

3. EACH PRODUCT HAS A PURPOSE: STEADFASTNESS PRODUCES A PERFECT OR COMPLETE BELIEVER- To be Perfect and Complete, lacking nothing is repetitive and meant to emphasize design and teleology. This is the end game. All blueprints have a product in mind. That product has a purpose, and its design has to accommodate that purpose. When God created men and women, He said; Let us make man in our image and likeness and let them have Dominion over the earth (Gen 1:27). The Christian life and faith are not meant to give you insurance against hell and help while you are on earth. There's a deeper and eternal design to your life. Sin did not destroy the design but rather derailed it. James reminds us that God still has a design in mind and the product has a purpose which has to be functional if God's creation is to be perfect.

4. WISDOM IS NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS, PLAN, PURPOSE AND PRODUCT THAT GOD DESIRES TO PRODUCE IN YOUR LIFE.

If you don't understand the process, ask for help. Until you have a picture of what the product is, you will struggle with the process. Wisdom is not that complicated. It is the realization of a deficit, and the identity of the source of the solution.

To participate in the process, you must have faith in the system. What God has created, FUNCTIONS because, HE has put in a system based on His superior knowledge. If we fail to understand this, we will become frustrated with the process and give up on the product.