Why don't we pray and then we'll get into the Word. Lord, we thank you for the freedom to worship you this morning. And we thank you for just allowing us to learn and to hear and receive your Word. We pray, Father, that as we hear, God, you would, by the power of your Spirit, etch the words into the fabric of our hearts so that we will leave here resembling Jesus a little bit more and shining our light a little bit brighter and being a little bit more salty to the world.

So we pray for your help for us to be spiritually alert, awake, and sober as we hear your Word. And would it bear fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name I pray. When I go on a double date with my wife, I'm with a couple who's been married for some time.

One of the questions that I like to ask is, "What are you like when you get into an argument or a fight?" I ask that question because it helps to get to know the people as individuals a little bit better. And usually when the answers come, the answer to the question is just usually lighthearted and yet honest.

And we usually end up having a good chuckle because the stories that are shared are definitely funny and amusing. And if you've been married for any length of time, you are fully aware that it's not about if you fight, but rather how you fight that determines the health of your marriage.

So answers to the question, "What are you like when you get into an argument or a fight?" They vary from person to person. You have your yellers. Like, "Rawr, how dare you?" You have your yellers. You have your passive aggressive powders who say, "Fine." And who kind of, "You're not fine at all." You have those who quietly just seethe and shut down on you.

You have people who storm out of the room. You have people who walk out of the room. You have others who go out for a jog. And I'm sure you and I know people in our workplaces, our schools, and members of our family who deal with conflict in varying other ways.

Some people try and escape, whether it be through entertainment or even shopping sprees. Some people react when they're aroused to profanity-laced tirades. Some slander or gossip whoever has offended them. Some get drunk. Some binge eat. And some even physically attack whoever is angering or upsetting them. I want to pose a question pertaining to the relationship between anger and our circumstances.

So here's the question. Do negative circumstances cause anger or do they simply expose the anger that already resides underneath the surface? Again, do negative circumstances cause anger or do they simply expose the anger that already resides underneath the surface? In other words, are you and I emotionally neutral until something stimulates or arouses that anger?

Or is anger already there, laying dormant in our hearts? And the negative situations simply give our anger an opportunity to expose itself. It may very well be a combination of both, but I do like to use the analogy of a sponge when I think of the human heart. So human beings are like sponges.

You don't really see what's on the inside of the heart until you give it a little squeeze. I want to draw our attention back to the passage, and it would help you to just keep your Bible open to James chapter 1 because we're going to be jumping in and out of the different verses in that passage, but let's read 1.6 to 22 again.

And I'm going to read it for you. It's up on this slide, but I do encourage you guys to follow along in your Bibles. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. This you know, my beloved brethren, that but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. And I'm going to read verse 19 to 20 just one more time.

This you know, my beloved brethren, that but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. How is anger expressed in your life? And we often think that only those who have explosive tempers have anger issues, but the emotion of anger is expressed by different people in differing ways.

And oftentimes when we discuss anger in the church, in our Bible studies, in discussions on like interpersonal conflicts when you're counseling, or we talk to people who have anger problems, James 119 is quoted. I've seen James 119 on a bumper sticker. I've seen it in a frame. In fact, one of the parents of the children at our church just told me that she quoted James 119 to her daughter just a couple days ago.

And I've heard people elaborate on this and say things like, "God gave you two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak." And the book of James is often called the Proverbs of the New Testament, and there definitely are things in this epistle that give us insight into how God would desire for his people to live.

But is James 119 a verse that gives wisdom and speaks into our interpersonal relationships? Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. If you look at the context of the verses surrounding James 119, you'll discover that James is not addressing interpersonal relationships here.

In James 119 to 20, James is addressing the issue of anger that grows in our hearts toward God, especially when we face trials and painful circumstances. He is speaking about the anger that wells up in our hearts when we instinctively or innately feel that God is being unfair, unjust, or unkind, or when we do not agree with or understand the way of God in a particular moment or circumstance.

So in context, the whole book of James, all 108 verses, these are the only two verses that actually discuss the emotion of anger. These are the only two. So contextually, you want to ask the question, what exactly is James advising here when he tells us to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger?

Because if you want to apply James 119 to human relationships, then the conclusion you almost have to draw from verse 20 is, hey, a good handle on your temper can achieve the righteousness of God. Are you guys following that logical conclusion? If you apply this to human relationships, you almost have to conclude a good handle on your temper can achieve the righteousness of God.

That is definitely not the case. So inasmuch as people have differing ways of expressing their anger when they fight with those closest to them, each of us may have a differing way of expressing our anger towards or discontentment with God. So as you guys well know, at the fall, humanity became cursed with an innate hostility and fear towards a creator.

And at birth, every single person enters a world broken, corrupted, and flawed. And there is in your hearts and there is in mine a natural distrust and fear of God. There is a rebellion towards God. And our perception of right/wrong, just/unjust, is definitely skewed. And in our fallen and corrupted states, we cannot but see through sin-tainted, sin-colored, and self-absorbed lenses.

Would you guys agree with that? We're messed up, okay? And we feel anxious. So you ever think about Isaiah 55, 9? Our children's ministry, actually, they memorize this verse. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts," says God.

That's super offensive. Because God is saying that His wisdom and His ways are not just superior a little bit, or just maybe at a little bit of a different level than ours. What He is saying is, "My ways and my thoughts are infinitely different from yours, and they're much better." So that is actually very offensive if you meditate on that in your natural self.

So though it isn't necessarily unbiblical to say that we need to be quick to listen to one another, slow to speak when others are expressing themselves, and slow to anger when we feel that rise. That is not James' point here in this passage. So what is James' point? James 1:19-20, these two verses are addressing how we as the people of God are to be one, quick to hear from God.

Two, just be slow to speak foolish things in times of weakness about God, such as, "God is tempting me. He's at fault. He put that guy in front of me. He put me in that situation. He allowed for this circumstance to happen because His will is perfect. It's His fault." That kind of foolish speak, be careful.

And third, be slow to anger towards God, is what James says. So yes, be quick to hear, but if you just look down two verses later, he says, "Don't just hear, do the Word of God." It doesn't have to do with people. "Don't just hear the Word of God and be quick to listen to what God has to say, do it," is what it just says in context of this passage.

So let's explore James 1:19-20 together. Some of you guys are like, "Okay, that's not the sermon that I've heard before." So just let's go through this passage together. Verse 19 starts with, "This you know, my beloved brethren." So I want to look at what is the "this" that these brethren know.

Where no word is wasted in Scripture. What is the "this" that these brothers know? And I've made a list for you on this next slide. One, trials come in all shapes and sizes. They produce endurance. They perfect us as we respond in wisdom, verses 2-8. And then, trials level the playing field for all people, verses 1, or chapter 1, 9-11.

Whether you're rich or poor, if your child is struck with a disease, you are in complete dependence on a higher being. If your child has an issue you can't solve, you cannot throw any amount of money at it. Trials hurt and level everybody. Third, trials though, when we persevere through them, result in blessing, verse 12.

Verses 13-17, God the Father of Lights is both the ordainer of trials and paradoxically, and the source of all good things. Shoe on that one. And fifth, God the Father of Lights created us, and his desire for us is to reflect his glory as first fruits. This, you know, my beloved brethren.

So these are truths that you and I also know. But often in our weakness and in our taintedness, these truths leave us feeling perhaps a little anxious and maybe even a little offended by God. So we don't quite understand how to reconcile the fact that God is both love and he allows for painful trials and suffering.

So theologically we trust that God's will is perfect, that he makes no mistakes. We theologically trust that God is good, but then when something comes out of nowhere to ruin our world, we ask how can he in his goodness and perfection allow us to suffer such heartache and trial.

So he ordains circumstances in our lives that apply a very hard squeeze. And it sometimes is only natural that we respond in a degree of anger. Let me ask you guys this, is anger a sin? You can either shake your heads or not. Is anger a sin? Some of you guys are like, no.

Job responded with a degree of anger when he suffered. He just didn't sin in what he said, and he didn't blame God, Job 122. Jonah the prophet went as far to say twice in Jonah chapter 4, I am angry enough to die, he says to God. And if you actually don't know the context, it's almost comical because I am so mad.

Isn't this why I fled? Because you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love. So I'm mad. It's almost comical, but he is mad at the fact that God is extending an invitation to repentance to a wicked people, and his skewed sense of justice has been offended.

We see that Jesus shows anger. So anger is not a sin. Ephesians 4.26 says, "Be angry and yet do not sin." NIV, I actually, I like it better. It says, "In your anger, do not sin." Because that, so it's out of Psalms chapter 4. "In your anger, don't sin." So what is it that we know, brethren?

Trials come, they're from God, and God is good. Profound truths. Trials come, and they're from God, and God is good. What purpose do these trials serve in our lives? We also see the answers to this question in both the immediate context of chapter 1, and then the broader context of James' epistle, and I've listed them for you here.

The first one is to wean us off of this world. To wean us off of this world. And it'll say in James 1.25 and in chapter 2, "So that we have liberty." It frees us. We are slaves to this world, so when trials come, it weans us off it.

We get distaste, we get a little bit offended by it, and we experience a little joy of freedom. It weans us off this world. Second, it's to expose our sin, to discipline, and to humble us. Trials expose our sin, they discipline, and they humble us. Proverbs 3, 11 to 12 reads, "My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe his reproof.

For whom the Lord loves, he reproves, even as a father corrects a son in whom he delights." Hebrews also has something similar, chapter 12, verses 9 through 10. "Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them, but he, God, disciplines for our good, so that we may share in his holiness." And it goes on to say, "Discipline is not pleasant, it's painful. But they come to expose our sin, to train us, and to humiliate us, sorry, humble us." Different words.

Why would you squeeze a sponge? Anybody squoze a sponge? Anybody squeeze? Anybody squeeze a sponge before? Why do you squeeze it? To see if it squeals? You don't do that. Why do you squeeze a sponge? So that you clean it. And the only way to clean a sponge is to squeeze.

Would you guys agree with this? You have to squeeze it, but dry or wet? Wet. To see what's actually on the inside. Charles Spurgeon once wrote, "Trials teach us what we are. They dig up the soil and let us see what we are made of, and usually it's not good." So trials expose the ugliness and hostility that is hidden deeply in our hearts, and they show us that we cannot save ourselves, and that we need saving, because we are utterly self-absorbed, wicked, disgusting.

Say to your neighbor, "You're disgusting." Actually, don't do that. We don't like being exposed in our sins, but sometimes the squeezes come, and they shock us when we see what's inside. Third, trials come to serve as a testimony of God to the world. To serve as a testimony of God to the world.

In James 1.18, we read that God's desire was that His people would be a kind of firstfruits among His creatures. And our innate human anger does not help us to heed the call to be firstfruits. So a little bit of context. What is a firstfruit? It's all over the Old Testament, but to put it simply, a firstfruit is this, the first and very best of offerings to be reserved and presented to God.

The firstfruits are the first and very best of offerings to be reserved for and presented to God. And when Hebrew Jewish men would offer their offerings, a lot of times they had their kids with them, and they would say, "See this? This beautiful, stainless, spotless fruit is devoted to the Lord." And that is what He calls us to be.

That is our purpose, to be set apart to the pleasure of God. Again, which is offensive to us. Why do I exist for someone else's pleasure? That is innately offensive to us. So I said, the third reason is to serve as a testimony of God to the world. You guys know this.

The world watches and observes you as you suffer, as you endure. So when trials come into our lives, we need to be acutely aware that the world is watching to see how real our faith is and how truly real our God is in our lives. When persecution, suffering, and death come into your life, the world is observing you to see if you really believe what you say you believe.

That's a humbling truth to meditate on. Have you or someone you know been diagnosed with a terminal cancer or some major debilitating disease? The world is watching. They're not reading a theology book, they're reading your life. But are you raising a child maybe with special needs? The world is watching.

In the womb, you are told there is a child that might be born with special needs. The world is watching. Are you facing a major crisis and are you tempted to compromise your principles? The world is watching. Are you unfairly treated, persecuted, and hated? Do not fight fire with fire.

It says, again in 1 Peter, don't fight fire with fire because the world is watching. Are you having trouble finding a spouse? And this is near and dear to my heart because I'm a single pastor. Are you having trouble finding a spouse? What is your attitude like about life and about singleness?

The world is listening, observing, and watching. Are you having trouble getting pregnant? Is that all you're thinking about? The world is observing you. Do you work under or work with very difficult people? Again, they may be provoking you, but they're also watching you. You are being watched and God wants them to watch you.

God wants this blind and decaying world to see the brightness of your light and taste the goodness of those he called to be salt. The world around you is watching and listening to everything you have to say because that's their Bible that illustrates what God is like. Verse 19 to 20, this you know my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

So then the question, how then are we to respond when we face these trials? If anger is an innate emotion, how do we respond when God ordains suffering? What is appropriate? What is sin? What is not sin? How do we manage this anger, hence the title, anger management? How do we deal with this?

And then verse 21, we get our very first therefore in the book of James. And if you guys study any language, the word therefore is important. Yes or no? Yeah. You always have to ask, what is this therefore therefore? Why is that there? And usually a therefore is a bridge to show a connection between what has just been said to the appropriate application.

Therefore is a bridge of what has just been said to the expected or appropriate application or conclusion to be drawn. Therefore, you know all this stuff, therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.

Upprove yourselves, doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude or deceive themselves. So this you know. You need to be slow to anger. So in light of all these things, therefore. What's the first therefore and what's the application? He says in chapter 1 verse 21, first we are to continue in holy, untainted living.

I think it's the next slide. We are to continue in holy and untainted living. The idea of separation from the world of holy undefiled living is brought up several times in chapter 1. James actually, chapter 1 ends with 27. James 1 27 is often quoted about how the church needs to champion the cause of orphans and widows.

After all, that is pure religion. But many people just stop there. The liberal left stops there a lot of times. Yes, pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows and to be unstained. And you have to just, may this sober you up. We are more likely to respond to trials in our flesh, in our sin, when we are constantly in the habit of indulging the flesh.

We are more likely to respond to the trials in our fleshly reaction when we are constantly in the habit of indulging this flesh. So here is an admonition that you can draw from the text. The more you befriend the world, later in chapter 4 verse 4 he's going to say that's hostility toward God.

The more you befriend the world, the less you will care about holiness, the less you will care about the Bible, the less you will care about widows, the less you will care about orphans. You may find it trendy to get the likes on Facebook, but the less you will care about that from your heart, and the less you will care about the dying world around you, the more you engage the world.

So for a Christian, God wants to snap you out of that. No. No. No, thank you very much. Stop that. And he sends a trial to remind us that we are supposed to respond in holiness. So when trials come, you are supposed to hunker down and pursue holy living.

Guard your heart. Respond in the ways that the Bible prescribes. And remember the more you give your attention to the things of the world, the less you will be able to discern God's will, God's heart, God's voice, and the more susceptible you will be to be slow to hear, quick to speak, and quick to anger, the more you indulge the world.

Secondly, we are to be humble. This one's hard. First of all, this is, the definition of humility is a little bit interesting, but this one is actually hard to apply. I want you guys to think about this, okay? This is an important theme all over scripture. Is humility important in scripture?

Yeah. Is humility one of the hallmarks of a Christian? Yes. Is humility required of you? Is it commanded of you? Yes. How do you obey? Humble. Do you chant something? Humility. Do you chant some magical formula to humble yourselves? Do you beat your breasts? Do you dress in sackcloth?

How do you try to be humble? This is an important question because it's emphasized not just here in verse 21, but all over the book of James and the Bible. In order to answer this question, I'm going to first share with you what humility is not. First one, it's not an external show or pretense of piety.

It's not an external show or pretense of piety. Yes, God is good. I'm fasting right now to seek God. You should seek God too. Let's fast together. That's not humility. In verse 16, Jesus says, "Don't be like the hypocrites. When they fast, they're like, 'Oh, I'm starving,' and then they're like looking like they're fasting so it's clear to everybody.

But wash your face. Put oil on your head. Don't make it obvious to people that you are fasting before the Lord." So it's not an external show or pretense of piety. Second, it is not an inferiority complex or an insecurity. You know what these are? It's wounded pride. "Oh, so and so is better than me.

That person is more qualified than me." That's not humility. Moses, who was called the most humble man on the planet by God himself at the burning bush, was not humble because God doesn't rage against a humble man. He rages against an arrogant man. And at the burning bush, Moses, Acts 7, 22, Moses was trained up in all the wisdom of Egypt and he was powerful in speech and in action, Stephen said in his speech.

But you know what happens when you don't use something for 40 years? For 40 years, he was just like, he's just hitting the animals and that's it. He probably smelled like a sheep. So he's thinking, "Dude, you should have sent me 40 years ago when I was at the top of my game." But, "Ugh!" And God says, "Who gave man his mouth?" Inferiority complex is wounded pride and that is not humility.

And the third one is not cowardice, it's not passivity, it's not a quiet personality. Some of the most arrogant people I know pretend to be quiet. Some of the most stubborn people are quiet. So loud people, they may be annoying, but that's not necessarily arrogance, okay? Alright. Says the loud guy.

John the Baptist, he was a humble man. Oh, but he was bold. So bold that he told the king, "Hey, that's adultery and that is sin." And he got beheaded for it, eventually. David, he looks at Goliath, he's like, "How dare this uncircumcised Philistine speak against our God?" And you know his brothers actually called him arrogant at that moment.

David's not arrogant, he was humble before God. Moses, when he leads Israel through the wilderness, he's always angry. He's like, "You dumb people!" But he's humble before the Lord. And you see it when Miriam and Aaron say, "Does God speak to you only?" Moses is like offended a little bit, but he responds in humility.

God strikes him with leprosy, what does he say? "Lord, heal them." Jesus, meek. But he was not quiet or cowardly or passive. So humility is not an external show, an inferiority complex or insecurity, cowardice. If you are told to be humble, humble yourself before the Lord, if you take it incorrectly, you're going to end up defaulting one of these three.

Think about it, how do you apply humility? It is not these three. I should just talk less. Now that doesn't mean you're humble, you're like excited, you're like, "Oh, if I only was able to talk." No, you're still arrogant. What is humility? It is the attitude that results from God being elevated to his rightful place in our lives.

That's humility. It has nothing to do with your personality. The attitude that results from God being elevated to his rightful place in our lives. If God truly and rightfully is God in our lives, we will respond appropriately and we will start living lives of trust and faith. There's a quote by a man named W.

Glyn Evans. He says this, "I will not demand that God explain himself to me at any time, but this is characteristic of the unregenerate man. I must be willing to let God be unreasonable in my view because he is not concerned with my understanding but with my faith." The unregenerate man sees contradiction in the world and demands that God justify himself before him, but the believing man makes no such demand but believes God supremely.

Humble yourself before the Lord. So what is the appropriate response to the trials in our lives? One, we mentioned before, to continue in holy and untainted living. Two, to be humble before God, having him elevated as Lord of my life and not just my get out of hell free card.

Lord of my life. Every thought, attitude under the submission to the authority of God. Third, to be quick to receive, hear, obsess over, and do the Word of God. James 1.25 reads, "But the one who looks intently, obsesses over, stares at, scrutinizes the law of liberty, and tabernacles there, abides in it, remains in it, he will be blessed in all that he does because he is not someone who hears and forgets, he's a doer." So the application here is, James says, study God's Word, obsess over it, scrutinize it, not to just glance at it on your daily devotions, but to obsess over it.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sin in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates on it day and night. All hours of the day his mind is on God's Word.

Blessed is that man. John 8.31, Jesus says to those Jews believing in him, "If you remain in my words, if you abide, if you tabernacle in my words, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will," what? "Set you free." And here's a bonus application.

This is not in James, this is just, I think, the whole of Scripture. When a difficult trial hits your life, fix your eyes on Jesus. Hebrews 12.3 reads, "For consider him who had endured such hostility by sinners against himself," why? "So that you will not grow weary or lose heart." That starts the whole section on how a father disciplines a son he loves.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus, cry out, "Hallelujah!" God be praised. Be charismatic a little bit, all right? "Jesus, I'm going to focus on you. Hallelujah! God be praised!" And praise him in difficult circumstances, because he's risen, and one day, "This is not going to be an issue for me anymore.

He's defeated and conquered sin, and his resurrection proves that. Hallelujah! God be praised!" Jesus has risen from the dead. Fix your eyes on Jesus, praise him, and then wait. And that third one's hard, because that waiting could be a week, it could be 20 years. And I'm going to wrap up with a little bit of a, like, I'm going to expose the sin in my heart to you.

So some of you guys know, and I shared this before in a sermon, maybe last summer, but I grew up under a very difficult father to live with. Three divorces, different addictions, very irresponsible humanly and in human standards. And I prayed a lot for him when I became saved in high school.

And I gave up in college, because I was just so discouraged, and I don't want to pray for him anymore. And 20 years later, 2014, and I thought by then, you know, so I've become friendlier with my dad, just kind of sweep issues under the rug, because you know, no water under the bridge.

Hey, this is my dad. So I had thought I had dealt with different emotions and bitterness and rage and anger, because the Bible says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger." Right? Hypocrisy, self-doubt, all of that stuff. I was like, "Okay, I got to have a good attitude toward my father." So in 2014, I was in Korea, that was our third year there, and I got a phone call saying that he got diagnosed with colon cancer, stage 3B.

He had surgery, and then we arranged it, and I took a seven-week leave of absence, and I flew to America to try to take care of him, because he had three divorces, so he was living by himself since 2008. So by that point, six years of living by himself, there's no one to take care of him.

So I came to just take care of my dad. But 40 years of irresponsible living doesn't go away overnight. He refused to get any kind of treatment, any kind of chemotherapy, because even though he had surgery, the scans showed that it had spread. So no, no thank you. And then he just refused any kind of help.

I said, "Dad, I'm just going to go back to Korea. You're going to just drop dead." And I was just so frustrated, because I was spending all of the waking hours of my day trying to find him senior homes, but then he had to sign off on it, try to find him some kind of a hospice care.

And I'm like, "How am I going to do this?" And then, because of jet lag and because of anger, just in the middle of the night, maybe day four of my return to America, I woke up. First thought I had was, "You know, it'd be nice if he just died." I was shocked.

I was broken. I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." I was so frustrated, I wished my own dad dead. And I rolled over right away. It was like three in the morning, and I was like, "Praying God, I am a sinner." And I was like, "I'm a pastor. I travel the world speaking toward reconciliation, taking care of children, and I'm here thinking that it'd be nice if he just made me less uncomfortable and was no longer a distraction in my life." That squeeze brought out that emotion, and I prayed.

And then I called my wife, because she was in Korea, and it was evening time, and I confessed to her, and she said, "I thought a similar thought." I was like, "Whoa, sinner." And to this day, I don't believe that that was a sin I committed against God. That was a temptation, because I immediately sought God's help.

What that did do, that exposed the anger, the bitterness that I just tried to mask. I went back to Korea, defeated, failed. Seven weeks, nothing had been done. I gained 10 pounds. Now, all that had been done. I went back. Becky saw me at the airport. She was like, "Whoa." I was like, "Sorry." And I was stressed.

But just a couple months later, we've been praying for babies for so long, and then I got to make a phone call to my dad saying, "Hey, you're going to be a grandpa." And then we called him again. "There's two babies, and a boy and a girl. Can you name them?" He's like, "No, I'm not qualified to name them.

I've done too much wrong to name them." Asked Becky's dad to do it. We said, "No, we want you to name them." So he came up with two Korean names for them. The first one for our daughter was, in Korean, is Chu-hyang, which means fragrance or aroma of Christ.

The second one, our son, he named him Chu-won, which in Korean is translated, hope in Christ. He's still alive. He's still like being a 70-year-old kid, roofing. He's healthy. Never went to the hospital since. And I don't like my father. When he cancels lunch on us, I'm okay. But I've learned to love him because I was squose.

Because that was revealed in my heart, I asked God to help, and we waited. Waiting's hard. Be still and know that I have the Lord. That's hard. Wait on the Lord is hard. But the trials end. They're used to sanctify us, to prune us, to wean us off the world, to serve as a testimony of God's faithfulness.

But the funny thing is, those prayers I prayed as a high school kid got answered 20 years later through cancer and was healed by what I believe, the arrival of grandkids. After eight years of just struggle on our end, wait. When a really difficult trial hits, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, born into the shame.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful man so that you do not grow weary of his heart. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Say, "Hallelujah. God be praised." Wait. This you know, my brethren. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God, but faith in his atoning sacrifice, life, death, and resurrection brought me to Christ.

And I am righteous before him because of my faith in Christ. My encouragement is simply to be quick to hear, quick to obsess over his word. Wean yourself off this world if you can and watch the world. Praise God, observing your life. That's what it says in both Matthew 5 and 1 Peter 2.

And wait on the Lord. Amen? Let's pray. Father, help us to manage our holy anger, manage our unrighteous anger in a way that is appropriate for a saint purchased by the blood of Christ. Help us to be faithful. Help us to be humble through your exaltation in our lives.

We believe. Help our unbelief. We pray these things in Jesus' name.