So have you ever been trapped? Ever, ever been trapped a few weeks ago? Uh the elevator here at the church had had a little little case of the hiccups and we, we called the repair guys to to come look at it. Um Ricky who takes care of our facilities, He looked at it and he was thinking, I think it's just a temporary glitch, you know, just just a little something didn't reset, so he put a chair in the elevator and push the up button and then went upstairs to see if it made it up there and I thought that's pretty ingenious. So I heard about it. Came down asked Ricky what was going on? What's happened in the elevator? We called the guys, blah blah blah. And and I, I step on in the elevator and he told me what he did with the chair and he was like, hey, why don't you ride it up, give it a try. I was like, alright, so I pushed the button and as soon as the doors closed I went, wait a minute, why did he tell me to give it a try? And by halfway up? I thought well, I know where Ricky did that Ricky knows I'm the kind of guy that likes taking things to the next level. I tell you the other thing that was going through my mind as I was going up though, I was like, I have so much work to do today, I cannot get stuck in this Vader, please, no, no, no, no, no, no. Too much work. Too much effort, so many things happening. So many things going on. But I will report that I was able to get back to my work. Um, I did not get stuck in the elevator. It worked fine. We still have the guys come out. So it's it's all good. But you know, sometimes in life we we might get stuck, might get trapped in an elevator, we might get trapped in traffic somewhere on the interstate. We might get stuck in line at the DMV. We might get trapped with our great Aunt Griselda at the family reunion and she's telling us for the 47th time that she met Wayne Newton at the steak and shake in kokomo indiana. And you have to hear that story over and over and over again. Sometimes we get stuck sometimes in life we we get trapped and sometimes it's it's not peripheral things like that. It's it's deeper than that. Sometimes it's it's something in our our heart and our mind, it's pain, it's sadness, it's stress, it's anxiety. Sometimes we're trapped with wealth. Sometimes we're trapped with poverty. Sometimes we're trapped with anger or frustration or apathy or fear or worry or depression discouragement. And on and on the list can go, so is there anything we can do is is there any help when we get trapped like that. Well, we continue our series today called doors where we are looking at some of the most defining doors that you and I face in life. And as you can imagine today's message is trapdoors, trapdoors. We'll be looking at James James chapter five We'll be beginning in verse seven and and we'll be looking at James because here's what James is going to do for us. James is going to give us help for all of the trapdoors in life that we face James. Chapter five, beginning with verse seven, James writes therefore be patient brothers and sisters. I really like eating good food. I really don't like waiting in line for any kind of food, good or bad. When my daughter was younger we took her on her birthday one year to the restaurant of a famous tv chef and from the time we put our name on the waiting list to the moment that we sat down to eat was two hours, hadn't even ordered a lick of food and it was two hours. At some point in this process I turned to bailey and I said bailey, I want you to know the sheer fact that I am waiting to eat here is proof of my love for you. James is talking about something a little deeper than just being patient and waiting on food. The picture here is a christian that's under deep stress. James is writing to a group of people who understood what it meant to be persecuted for their faith. Let me be clear about this. We are rarely ever persecuted for our faith watching fox news and hearing that we're losing religious liberty. That's not persecution, persecution is when you are physically and brutally, sometimes tortured because you say you are a christian. These folks understood what it meant to truly be persecuted for their faith. These were people that understood mental distress, spiritual distress, emotional distress, and even physical distress. Anybody had any of those in your life this week. Spiritual, mental, emotional or physical distress. Well, these folks knew all about it. He's addressing people that understood what it meant to be oppressed. And what is the advice that he gives them? Does he tell him, Hey, fight for your rights. You you stand up for yourself. No, he tells him to to be patient. Ah, patience. Come on, there's gotta be something better than that. Nice is be patient. He says, don't fret, don't worry, don't be hasty. Don't be stressed. Be patient. Someone described patients as long obedience in the same direction. Long obedience in the same direction, hanging in there, obeying over and over again, patience. And the word that James uses here for patients means that you take a long time to get mad. It means you're not quick to get angry. You're not quick to get upset. Not not perfect because none of us are perfect. Right? We all have our moments. But when you look at the general pattern of your life, you do not see that the general pattern of your life is that most consistently you get mad and angry and frustrated and lose it in most situations in life that don't go your way? He says, be patient and that's easier said than done right? So so how can we be patient like this? one day Jesus was teaching his disciples and he was talking to them about worrying and he simply said, look, do not worry. But the Bible paraphrase, the message expands and comments a little more on that. It describes it this way. Matthew chapter six give your attention to what God is doing right now and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Well La Dee dah, right, I mean, come on, that sounds beautiful and flowery. But here's the thing, these are the words of jesus that are being described. So just listen to them quickly again. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things when they come up and when the time comes, that's a pretty good picture of being patient. Don't don't get worked over over what what may happen, but give your attention to what God is doing. And then jesus gives this promise. When the hard moment comes, When the hard stuff comes, God will give you what you need, he'll provide for you in that moment. But here's the hard question for us, will we take what he gives in the moment when the hard things come, will will we receive it or will we reject it? Because here's the thing, if we really kind of peel away the layers of our heart and mind, the reality is sometimes it's the difficult thing that we kind of get addicted to, We put more attention on the addicted thing, we put more attention on the difficult moment to put it another way, whether we want to admit it or not, every single one of us, sometimes we love being the drama queen, we do, we can act like it's not true. There's some macho guys want drama queen where you don't know about, let me ask you a question, Have you ever been playing golf, and you get behind a foursome? That is crazy, slow on the third hole, and they don't let you pass and you spend the rest of the day going, God these guys are so slow, I can't even get around, why won't they let us through? I'm just going to hit my ball into them. You do that for the next three hours, Guess what? You're a drama queen, Okay, we all have this proclivity to be a drama queen, and here's why the hard thing, sometimes it becomes so familiar, it's just easier, it is, it's just easier to be stressed, it's easier to be depressed. It's easier to be angry. It's just easier than it is to shift to change to to look at God. See to turn to God it requires that you turn okay. It requires that you turn the tv off when you're watching the news that's making you angry. You know it means that you turn your phone off at the dinner table in the restaurant instead of scrolling through all the stuff that people just bought that you can't buy okay U turn U turn U turn. But that takes effort to read the bible to pray to to seek christian council. It takes effort. So we like being the drama queen because it's just easier it's easier for us to be angry. It's easier for us to be stressed. We we seem to get more attention right? If we make a big deal, if we're the drama queen then people will pay attention to us. If for no other reason than sometimes just to get us to shut up so they can move on. But turning to God it takes effort. It takes energy and we can all fall into the trap of the drama queen. But James helps us. He's going to help us kind of get out of that trap. Look at the next part of verse seven therefore be patient brothers and sisters until the coming of the lord. Here's the true key to patients. The return of Jesus Christ If you're looking for the key to being patient in this life. The key to patients is the return of jesus. Somebody did the math and from Matthew to revelation the whole of the new testament. The return of Jesus Christ is mentioned one time for every 13 verses. That's a lot of mentions of the return of christ. I'm thinking with that much. The return of jesus, it must be a big deal. So James is saying, look, be patient when you are oppressed, be patient when you are distressed, be patient when you are stressed. Be patient when things don't go your way. Why? Because jesus is coming again. It's not random patients. It's not foolish patients, it's patients with direction. It's patients with purpose more often than not. If we will let the return of Jesus Christ fade away from our minds and our hearts and our attitudes. How we think, how we pray, how we sing. Then, more than likely we will move toward discouragement. We will move toward frustration. We will move towards selfishness. We will move toward worldliness because we'll just forget that jesus is coming again. Jesus was teaching one day and he gave a warning. He was teaching about his return And the warning that he gave went like this and Luke 21, but be on your guard so that your hearts will not be weighed down with the worries of life. You don't have to raise your hand, anybody been weighed down with the worries of life, you know, let's don't even say this week, anybody been weighed down with the worries of life this morning. On the way to church, jesus said, don't be let your heart be weighed down with the worries of life and that this day the return of jesus, his return and that this day will not come on you suddenly like a trap, you don't want to be trapped with the return of jesus Christianity is just this, you know, so so religion to you or let those christians do their thing. Listen, Jesus was very clear with him, eternal life without him, eternal death with him. Union relationship, joy, happiness, peace with God without him, separation from all that is good and holy forever and ever and ever, Jesus did not give us the option to say Christianity is a nice religion, so do not let the return of jesus suddenly come upon you like a trap. Turn to him today, repent, receive his salvation. But the picture for christians is this the ultimate finish line is not what we think it is, the ultimate finish line is not a college degree, it's not a dream job or a dream house or a dream car, it's not marriage and kids and grandkids and a relaxing retirement, all those things are fine, but the finish line, the ultimate true lasting finish line is Jesus Christ, jesus is the finish line. All of life for a believer is to be lived under this umbrella of the return of Jesus Christ is supposed to be a part of everything that we are and when it is everything else in life has a different flavor. There's a little something different to all that we do at home, at work, at school, at steak and shake wherever you are. There is this hope that you are seeing things through different eyes now. What does that look like in real life? What what James tells us? Just straight here in the text verse seven, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets the early and late rains. Now the audience would have got this not so much today as as in this time because most of the people that heard this letter the first time were either farmers or they had family who were farmers. My guess is I'd say probably less than than 10 families in our church have a farmer right now, and and maybe have had a farmer, but they understood this language and it's been noted that that back in the day, what they would do is they waited for the rains in october because the rains in october would soften up that hard middle eastern soil so that they could plant the seeds, but but then they had to wait until the rains of May before they saw any fruit from the seed. In other words, the farmer had to wait, had to work and wait. Work and wait. Work and wait. And why did he do that? Well he did that because he knew that as time went on working and waiting became more important, not less important. Let's don't miss the christian principal there too. If you're looking for a christian retirement plan as we all grow older, that's it right there. As time goes by, you don't work less for the Lord. You work more for the Lord. As time goes by, you, you don't wait less for the Lord. You wait more for the Lord as we grow old in age, as we grow old in christ the longer the time goes, the more important working and waiting becomes we work and we wait and we work and we wait because there is something happening in the working and the waiting. And what is that? What do we need to learn from farmer ted here verse eight. You too be patient. Patience is not just for the farmer, it's for me and it's for you. We have been called to be patient. Let me tell you something that you may not know about me. I am a selfish, arrogant, difficult center. And so are you. We all are. We do not want to admit it. We'll fight it tooth and nail. But we all are. And the picture we have here is a reminder. God is so amazingly patient with us. And and it just, it feels like such a a rude slanderous insult to our creator who is so patient with us, that we are so impatient with one another. We're so unwilling to wait. We're so unwilling to give grace and mercy. We want it all and we want it now right. Whether its results from the test at the doctor or whether it's our our chicken and waffles when we're going through the drive through at the fast food place, we we want it now. We don't want to wait, come on. I want it now. We have no sense of patience. Now that doesn't mean we should be foolishly patient. Right? I mean if something's happening and there needs to be action or we need to defend or help. We're not talking about that. What James is saying is this don't let the actions of other people or the lack of action from other people intimidate you, control you and create this sense of impatience in your life that dominates your attitude. Rather, James says, be like the farmer and work and wait and believe and be patient. Be patient in other words. Don't expect waves of comfort all the time. Don't expect waves of enjoyment all the time. Don't expect waves of everything going your way all the time, don't expect those things because life is hard and life is difficult and we will struggle and we should not be surprised at sin and evil in the world, right? We shouldn't be surprised that that everything is the way it is right now in our country and our world, we shouldn't be surprised. It's always been this way. It was this way in the garden, It was this way in Egypt, it was this way in every ancient civilization, the romans, the Greeks, it was this way with Hitler and Stalin and it's always been this way and it's this way now because this is what sin does. It's the curse of sin and the curse of sin is own the world. And that curse, it creates pride. It creates rebellion, it creates selfishness, the curse of sin and it distracts us. It divides us, it destroys us and devours us. It's what sin does. It's what sin is and that's why we need a savior. That's why James is writing this, he's writing this to people who were severely oppressed who are persecuted for their faith. And he's reminding them, oh look at the salvation that we have in jesus, look at this savior that has come to us. This is why the news about jesus is the greatest news in the world profit to bach was writing about this great hope and he said this back at 2 14 for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. I never looked out at the ocean and just it's just water and water and water as far as the eye can see? The glory of God is coming to feel the earth like we see the water on the sea, evil will disappear and the glory of God will fully appear. This is the promise of the gospel, This is the promise that jesus made and it's why we work and we wait and we believe and we work and we wait and we believe we are patient because we know the day of evil is going to disappear. Some people hear the word patience and they go, I ain't waiting man action, woman action. Come on, I ain't waiting. Let's do it, let's do it. Look, I'm a person of action to I'm crawling up on the back of the pew back there to make sure the lights don't fall on Ashley's head. Alright? So I'm an action person. Alright? But patience again is long obedience in the same direction, patience is working and waiting and believing and trusting it's an action verb. So we work, we wait, we believe and what do we do while we're working and waiting, believing. James says this first day, strengthen your hearts. Well how do you do that? You need to add some some cardio to your routine. You need to start eating some raw beets. Hey have at it whatever, but that's not what James is talking about. James is talking about your spiritual heart, he's talking about that part of you that actually defines who you are? Listen, it's the part of you that people will talk about at your funeral. So what are people going to say about your heart at your funeral? What is that thing that defines who you are? James says strengthen your heart spiritually. If you're a christian here, here's just some basic ways to strengthen your heart. It all comes back to remembering in the moment of the difficult circumstance or when everything's going great. You're remembering, remembering, remembering, remembering, what are you remembering? Here's what you're remembering. You're remembering that you once were lost. That you weren't always a christian, but you didn't always you know, go to church maybe. And if you did always go to church like me, you still weren't a christian. You lost. You remember that when you were lost, you were separated from God, you were far off from God. You had no hope in this world and no hope in the world to come. You were lost separated from God. But then do you remember? But you've been found, you remember what jesus did for you on the cross and you remember that in him, your chains are gone. And if your chains are gone, then you also remember that God did not save you to be a selfish jerk or to be a selfish jerk yet. No, God saved us for what paul said for good works? We've been saved and redeemed for good works to make much of the name of jesus. And part of the way that we do that. Part of the way that we do the good works that we do much for the name of christ is we remember this one thing first and most and that is this jesus is returning. That's how you strengthen your heart. I mean really that is how you strengthen your heart. I was at my daughter's college graduation yesterday and and former Vice President Mike Pence was the speaker and he made a very powerful comment about when he was in college. He started hanging around with christians and it seemed like a cool fun thing to do. And and one of the guys that he liked the most had a cross like a you know a necklace with a cross on it. He thought it was pretty cool. So he said all right, well I'm I'm going to I'm going to get me one of those. So he was like yeah tell me where you got that, I'm going to get one of those. And the guy looked back at him and said you know what you have to wear it around your heart before you wear it around your neck. It's true. See you can't strengthen your heart with social media, sorry you can't strengthen your heart, watching the news, sorry you can't strengthen your heart playing golf or going shopping, sorry you can't strengthen your heart doing doing yard work again. I'm not talking about your physical, I'm talking about your spiritual heart. The only way you can strengthen your heart for all of the trap doors that we're facing in life is to remember that jesus is coming again. It's it's not a fairy tale, it is the whole that we are hanging onto moment by moment and minute by minute. And why does that make us strong? Look at Verse eight, strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near. I love tammy's opening prayer. Just about being trapped about feeling trapped. Do you feel trapped? Is there something that's making you feel trapped today? Is it pain? Is it sadness? Is it anger or frustration? Is it depression? Is it wealth? Is it poverty? Do you feel oppressed or or distressed or stressed? Is there something happening to your life you're saying it's just not going my way and you feel trapped with all of that. Well, James says, hey, the way to get untracked is to remember that the Lord is near Charles Spurgeon just has a way of saying things. He said this soon. You will hear the silver trumpets which announced the coming of your king. Be not in the least afraid, hold the fort for he is coming. Yay, he may appear this very day. I share this with you a few months ago. I'll share it with you again. I don't care what age you are, how old you are. The nicest, most loving thing you can do for your family before the end of the day today is to plan your funeral, I'm serious. It's a stressful thing on your family to think of what you want to sing and who you want to preach and what you want, prayed and read. It's a beautiful thing to look and start thinking through those things and to remind ourselves won't be here forever and that's okay if I'm in christ and it's terrifying if I'm not. But there's this picture of holding the forts holding the line not being afraid in the least bit, he says not being thrown off in the in the least bit. And look we're human, we're going to be afraid, okay, it's going to happen, we're going to get thrown off, it's it's going to happen but the challenge is fantastic. Don't let it define you. Don't let all of the negative emotions of life define who you are, hold the fort, hold the line, jesus is coming be patient, work and wait and believe jesus is coming be patient. The Lord is near, the Lord is near, the Lord is near now. The atheist, the agnostic, the easter and christmas only sunday christian might say maybe, I mean it's been 2000 years so it sounds like jesus doesn't understand the concept of being near, you know the definition of trapdoor is very interesting, Miriam Webster puts it this way a lifting or sliding door covering an opening as in a roof ceiling or floor. I have never thought of a trapdoor being in the roof or the ceiling. Right? I mean I'm just always in the middle of Scooby doo right you know the gang's all in the same room and and everybody's together and then suddenly Daphne disappears you know and shaggy and Scooby get super scared and and they start quivering and Scooby jumps up in shaggy's arms and and you know fred and velma cool as cucumber. They just start looking around you know and within a few seconds they see Daphnis footprints on the floor and the outline of a trap door you know trapdoors and on the floor right? But I think it's fascinating that the definition says the trapdoor could be above. You see one of the biggest trap doors is that if it doesn't happen when we think it should happen then it can't be right. Guess what that's how you're going to treat your doctor this week. You know that's how you're going to treat that guy the at the register at Q. T. Although they're pretty fast there you know that's how we treat things in life right? We want it now. So if it doesn't happen on our calendar our time well something's wrong can I just say there's absolutely nothing wrong with the return of christ, it's right on time and today today if you're not a christian, be excited about that. You have the opportunity today to make things right between you and God before christ returns. You don't have to fall into the ultimate most terrifying trap door of all. So when we hear that the Lord is near, it's a reminder for us not to look at the floor. See we have a way of turning that trapdoor frown upside down. So instead of always looking at the trap door of what we don't like of what we want different of what we want back to the way it used to be or the way we want things in the future or whatever it is that's that's frazzled us and makes us mad and scared and afraid and whatever else we take all of those things and so you know what? Those are all trapdoors, they're trapped doors of idolatry there trapdoors of worship and they're going to lead us farther and farther away from christ. If we're obsessed with the future or obsessed with the past, we're going to miss what God is doing right now. Those were the commands of jesus. Pay attention to what God is doing now. So we need to quit looking down at the trap door and we need to start looking up at the trust store. It's just the trust door that needs to have our affection and our attention that looking up and remembering that the Lord is near that jesus is coming again. There's a german pastor and theologian many years ago he was asked, hey, what would you say to jesus when he comes back. This is what he said. I knew you meant it, that's good. I knew you meant it. I knew you were going to come through. Most of us try to be good family members, good friends. The best compliment I've ever gotten is from my best friend's wife when she said one time, well you can always count on tao, you know, you can't by the way. Um but but it's nice, it's nice sentiment. We love to be counted on right. We love to be reliable. We want people to be able to depend on us, but all of us are sinful. We all fail. We cannot perfectly be counted on that. Jesus can, jesus can and we can believe we can say with our hearts today. I knew you meant it, I knew it. J R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings. It's the sixth book in the fourth chapter, I believe it's this moment where Samwise Gamgee, he's he's waking up after being a part of the great final battle and he's kind of woozy and kind of just, you know, kind of getting his wits about him and he sees Gandalf the Wizard and he goes, Gandalf, I thought you were dead. But but then anything, I thought I was dead too. And then someone says this to Gandalf is everything sad going to come untrue. You know, you don't love about that statement. If Sam was acknowledging that there's sadness. He's acknowledging that things are not always good. In other words, he's acknowledging what we all know, there is something terribly wrong with the world, terribly wrong with the world. There is darkness, there is sadness and there is trapdoor after trapdoor after trapdoor in every corner of our life. Why? Because that is how the curse of sin works. The curse of Sin dominates the curse of sin in a sense seems to own the world, is everything sad going to come untrue. Yes. See the reason we put our hope in the return of Jesus Christ is because jesus is coming to remove the curse of sin and to truly and finally and ultimately change the world. Look from family and friends, two Great Medicine too clean drinking water to life saving surgeries, two burgers and shakes man. There's a lot of wonderful people and wonderful things in life, good things in life. But none of those people, none of those things can remove the curse of sin and change the world. Only jesus doesn't mean we shouldn't expect much of ourselves as humans we should, but we are humans and we're going to sin and we're going to fail. You may have seen the quote that's been floating around the last few weeks what has become of things that now when you disagree with someone, you have to hate them, that is our culture and let me just confess for all of us, every single one of us can fall into that trap in a millisecond. The curse of sin is real. And so is the return of christ. There are no politicians and no pastors, parents, grandparents, athletes, gurus burgers or shakes that are going to remove the curse of sin and change the world. But jesus will, Michael Krueger said this. There is no message more relevant to those living in a dark world. Then a message about how that world will one day be changed. There's no greater message than that. No greater message than the message that the dark world will be changed and it won't be changed with the next election and it won't be changed with the next pastor and it won't be changed with the next anniversary, the next birthday or the next degree or the next house or the next you know great lawn. It will be changed by Jesus Christ. Therefore we continue over and over again to give you the message of jesus. It's the only message we will ever have to offer. And it's this jesus is returning. The Lord is near. He's near and only jesus will remove all of the trapdoors. And listen, only jesus will make all the sad things true, Be patient work. Wait belief the Lord is near