JUN 29 2025 | Storm Proof: A Study in James S1E3 | The Blessed Life

Sea Change Church · JUN 29 2025 | Storm Proof: James S1E3 - The Blessed Life
James 1:12-15
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Is going to attend today Oh Lord God The latest service today That we get time To just worship you And be more Heavenly Father We thank you For all these opportunities We thank you For your body And we thank you So much for dying Across for all of our sins For it's in Jesus' name We pray Amen The letter of James Chapter 1 Verses 12-15 Blessed is the man Who remains steadfast Under trial For when he has stood the test He will receive The crown of life Which God has promised To those who love him Let no one say When he is tempted I am being tempted by God For God cannot be tempted With evil And he himself Tempts no one But each person Is tempted When he is lured And enticed By his own desire Then desire When it has conceived Gives birth to sin And sin When it is fully grown Brings forth death This is the word of the Lord As your love And wave after way Crushes over me Crushes over me For you are false You are not against Champion of heaven You made a way For all to enter in All right Welcome, church It's good to be with you today I'm Joe Brandy And I want you to picture What a blessed life is When I ask you Like when's a time That you just felt blessed Who are you with When was it Where was it How did it feel Like go in your mind's eye To a time when you were just blessed You just knew you were blessed Everybody have a concept Okay, good That's good So on the count of three God says he gives all good things Every good blessing Comes from him So on the count of three I just want us to say Praise God Because all those blessings You just thought of Came from God One, two, three Excellent Culture equates blessing With success Wealth and comfort And do we do the same As Jesus followers Floyd Mayweather said I'm blessed I got the best cars The blessed clothes The best life Perfect example Of modern day materialism And then from the new age perspective Blessing takes You know It's going inside yourself Deepak Chopra said You are blessed already You only need To realize it And what do both these things Have in common?

They're chasing the blessing Without the one Who gives the blessing I even think As Jesus followers We've had Mountaintop experiences We've Let's say We've believed in Jesus You know We've read the Bible And It's okay to want Material blessings It's okay to want Things to go good But when things Don't go good Do you ever say Is God mad at me? Let's be real Okay Am I doing something wrong?

I don't feel blessed Will my life get any better? But what we've done As Jesus followers Is we've over emphasized I think On the physicality Of what blessings are And how they show up In times of prayer group I've led small groups For about 25 years And we'll have times of prayer Right? And Pretty much like I'd say 100% Of all The prayer requests Are trying to get out Of some yucky situation Right?

We want something physical To change In the physical world Or something Inside For us to change And And that's okay For prayer requests Because You know We're going through trials We're going through This and that We're called to Bear each other's burdens But is it always okay? In Ephesians Paul says I pray that the eyes Of your heart Are enlightened So that you know The hope of his calling I mean Paul did also pray To get out of shipwrecks And this and that But I just believe In my own heart This It was James was such A difficult thing for me It's God's word But it was so difficult for me Because I'm horrible At suffering I'm horrible At trials And I Want things To go nice I organize my whole life So I don't have to go Through trials If possible I don't know about you I don't know So C.S. Lewis said Human history Is a long Terrible story Of man trying to find Something Other than God Which makes him happy Every time I'm on Instagram Everything C.S. Lewis said Is so good I just repost it And get like 100 likes Okay Yeah I wonder if we've had The world's perspective Kind of Wrap around us Like Jonah When he's in the Belly of the whale And all the seaweeds Wrapped around him And he can't really See You know Perspective Or I remember surfing In Oceanside About a month ago And Be careful Off the pier Dude All of a sudden Like I'm paddling And there was like A line that just got Wrapped around my arm And almost wrapped Around my neck Because there's all These fissures That like have these lines That are going 20 yards Into the ocean And you know I'm yelling at him He's yelling at me And what can happen is Our perspective Of blessing If it's With the wrong emphasis It could be like Getting caught in a web Or getting caught In fishing lure Where you're You're stuck And you lose The momentum Of living a gospel Centered life And underneath it all We all long For the garden of God We all long For the garden Of Eden Where we can see God Where there's shalom Where when God Blessed Adam And Eve He said Have dominion Be fruitful Name the animals They're in a garden There's no death yet There's harmony Actually between the man And the woman Imagine that Okay Okay So We all long For the garden Of God But God Allowed the serpent The devil To test Adam and Eve And Adam and Eve Gave in to temptation And if we were there We would have done The same thing Because there's like A federal union A representation That we have With Adam and Eve Says In Adam we fell And they gave in To temptation And after they gave In to temptation In the garden The trials begin What are the trials like?

It says When you work There's going to be sweat There's going to be thorns There's a war Between the man And the woman Her desire is To rule over you But the dude's so strong He's going to rule over her But that's not the way It's supposed to be There's going to be a battle Between Satan's offspring And the seed of the woman Throughout time And then people are kicked Out of the garden of Eden And then death happens Physical death And spiritual death And this is where James begins James redefines What blessed means James redefines What blessed means There's blessing On the fallen path And he says In James 1.12 Blessed is the man Who remains steadfast Under trial Douglas Moo A commentator Describe that James the half brother Of Jesus His audience appears To be predominantly poor Jewish Christians Who have been marginalized Both socially and economically And suffering Not just simple Hardship But outright oppressed By the hands of wealthy And powerful people It says in James They were scattered You ever feel scattered?

You know Not connected One thing I love Being at church And in Maywee groups Is you're together You feel like Part of the family of God And maybe we're not Going through exactly What the early church Did with James But when we leave here We are scattered And we're all alone And when Adam and Eve Hid from God They were alone And I really believe That's when the devil Can get to us They were going through Various trials They were condemned They were murdered And they needed wisdom On how to interpret The times They needed to see Trials as a blessing Not just to run from them Because God is so good And so wise And so sovereign That he can work All things out For the good Even hard things And most of the time When we're going through Hard times We don't in the moment Feel like it's good But then looking back Whether it's six months A year, five years To me it takes a little bit longer You can see the kind of good That he did Through those hard times They needed perspective Blessed in the Greek Is makaros The inspiration of The Macarena song I think is where It got that Horrible dance Jesus Not only did James Say blessed When you remain And steadfast Through trials Jesus redefines Counter Deepak Chopra Counter Mayweather Count all of our Materialistic emphasis And Jesus says In his first Public sermon Blessed are you Who are poor For yours Is the kingdom of God And Matthew says Blessed are the poor In spirit For yours Is the kingdom of God Blessed are you Who hunger now For you will be satisfied Blessed are you Who weep now For you shall Laugh And blessed are you These are words of Jesus I didn't make these up Blessed are you When people hate you And exclude you And revile you Not for being a jerk In your own stuff Okay But Because of the account Of the son of man Rejoice in that day Leap for joy For behold Your reward Is great In heaven And I must admit That My thoughts Are not in line With James And Jesus I tend Again To avoid Trials But after When Pastor Adam Gave me this Sermon topic I don't know It was a month ago Or something James is like It's God's word God I know you hear me But it's like My least favorite book In the Bible To be honest And It sounds like sin Even saying that But because it is It's so It's so challenging I mean In chapter one It says Count it all joy When you face Various trials Do you literally Count it all joy When you face Let's be real Do you count it all Trial Yes Bring me more trials No That's not me That's Not Me My thoughts Our thoughts Are not Aligned And then After meditating on it Listen to different preachers I think I got it When things are going well for us When we got the power When we got the money When we got the win Does God become a little smaller You say thank God a little bit But he can become smaller But the blessing becomes bigger You know The blessing becomes The big thing we want That we're chasing And God becomes Really small And I know this might Ruffle some feathers But Jesus says It's very hard For a rich person To enter the king of heaven And we're in La Jolla It doesn't mean Everybody's rich here But rich in what area?

You know When you're younger And you got your six pack You know Some of you still have The six pack Good for you And I'm talking about Stomach muscles Just to let you know Not beer And you know You can pick Jesus says it's very hard For a rich person To enter the king of heaven It could be beauty It could be finances It could be Pick your different thing Because when you are rich You're loving this world so much You're not longing For another world Right?

It wasn't until I quit God can break us down And then get us To call out for him And get us to Want to Look to his son To reach The other world Heaven It wasn't until I quit College baseball My whole dream Was to be a baseball pro And I quit two years After college And it was like One of the hardest Moments of my life But my whole identity Was unraveled And that's the beginning Of when God Chased me down So When Jesus says Blessed are the poor Blessed are the broken Blessed are the that It's because When we're broken When you get the wind Knocked out of you Over and over and over It makes you cry up to God Because you've lost Your own strength And it prepares you For that That crown of life That if you put your faith In Jesus You will get Is God breaking you down Now To draw you closer To him Is he breaking you down now To draw you closer To him James urges the church To remain steadfast Remain steadfast Under pressure Not running away When it gets hard It's like a different It's like I don't This is so hard But so God's word Why the urgency From James It's because Character development Happens when we're Going through trials And we become More like Christ In a fallen world When you keep going Spoiling yourself And going comfort To comfort To comfort Are you really Like allowing That trial That steadfastness That character development To happen So that you can become Like Jesus Jesus Also Also Why the urgency From James Is that We're in a fallen world And When We can Keep on Keeping on It helps us Through trials And temptations And tests It shows us that We're longing for A future world We're longing for Another world That only has access Through the son To the father We're saying that This Is not All that Life is And The non Jesus followers Are watching us And I don't Suffer well I I was Surfing I don't know What 15 years ago In Nicaragua And my surfboard Hit me in the eye And I had Two eye surgeries That year And I looked like A mutant And I did not Suffer well I remember being I don't think I Smiled for a year I just want to be And I was a Christian And I was still Do a mission I was so gloomy And bummed The way we go Through trials And suffering Can bring glory To God I know they're real I know they're painful But if you can see Like your savior And what he did Through When he went Through trials And go wow When I suffer well When I endure I'm being more like My savior That's a beautiful thing Because Jesus Is beautiful Dostoevsky One of my favorite Russian authors Said The darker the night The brighter the stars The deeper the grief Closer is God But as we try To remain steadfast Our sinful desires Can block God's blessing As we try to remain steadfast Our sinful desires Can block God's blessing Temptation And sin Can interrupt Our experience Of God's blessing Not because He withdraws His love But because Sin Entangles us And draws Our hearts Away from him And in James 1 It says Let no one say When he's tempted I'm tempted by God You ever blame God For stuff?

Ever? God you're sovereign You could have Not allowed this To happen You could have Done your magic wand I know I have I let no one Because sometimes When things get so hard You're like In my strength I can endure I cannot make it Through this test God I'm kind of mad at you I'm mad at you That my mom died I'm mad at you That I have cancer I'm mad at you That I don't have As much money as so and so I'm mad at you That somebody's married And I'm not I'm mad at you That I am married And she's Or he's not The way I want her Pick your thing I think if we really Analyze our hearts We all grumble A little bit Like the people Of the wilderness Of Israel Temptation doesn't Come from God It arises from within Sinful desires Act like bait Drawing us away From God's path And leading us Towards destruction The Greek word For lord Means to be Drawn out With bait Like a fish Caught By a hidden Hook If you grew up Fishing Certain bait Works better Than others In certain lakes And streams I actually used to Fly fish with my dad I didn't know What I was doing He like Did the knot For me And gave me The little things That shined And a little furry I mean Luke's probably All these So many fishers here That know what They're talking about I caught a lot of fish When I was a kid Even though I didn't know How to tie my own knot And I had to use The right bait To get the fish And Satan knows With our sinful desires How to use the right bait To catch us Have you studied yourself Because the devil And sin Is studying you In Genesis 4 After Adam and Eve fell Right before Cain Was going to Kill his brother God says That If you do well Will you not be accepted But if you do not do well Sin is crouching At the door Its desire Is to have you But you must Rule over it There's so many Cool things On Instagram And I It's kind of shocking But it's kind of cool When they have like The crouching Silent lion Tiger thing You know And there's like The wildebeest Or the whatever Kind of animal And it's crouching And it's waiting To take down The prey And the devil God is sovereign Over the devil But the devil Is waiting To take us down Sin It's like Anthropomorphic language Sin is like Crouching Like a lion Waiting To devour You So As we try to endure And be steadfast Do we do it perfectly?

You know I know this is what James says Like Be steadfast Endure Bless you in trial But I don't do it perfectly So is there any hope? Am I saved by my works? Am I Is my identity And how good I'm being steadfast Through trials? Or is it Do we look to another? Do we rest In another's righteousness? Jesus The truly blessed one Is the one who brought Blessings He was the only one Who remained steadfast Winning the blessing for us Jesus does not just Teach us about the blessed life He is the blessed one He alone lived the beatitudes Perfectly He alone endured Temptation without sin He alone deserved The crown of life Hebrews 2.10 says He was crowned with glory Because of his suffering Of death Jesus When in the wilderness Being tempted by the devil He obeyed God's word Where Adam and Eve didn't Where Israel didn't Well we don't In Gethsemane He prayed Not my will But yours be done O Father And on the cross He bore every temptation Jesus accomplished Salvation Through his active obedience To satisfy God the Father By actively Being the perfect son Eternal God Born of the woman Born under law And as R.C. Sproul said Jesus didn't just get born And go right to the cross What was all that In between time Well when he entered His public ministry It was to show that Unlike Adam and Eve That were God's Special children He was the perfect son That again Resisted the devil Obeyed God Just like Israel Was supposed to be God's corporate son Jesus was the perfect son He accomplished salvation And we are blessed Only the true blessing By faith in him Jesus accomplished salvation But the spirit applies salvation When you There's debates on this Like you put your faith And then the spirit comes Or the spirit comes first And then gives you faith We can talk afterwards Either way If you have faith In Jesus His life And his death And his resurrection To bring the blessing For you Before the father The spirit applies salvation And causes you To be born again Causes you To be regenerated And it's It says union with Christ We go into him Positionally He goes into us Experientially By the Holy Spirit And we Are blessed In the spiritual realms Paul said Blessed be the God And Father Of the Lord Jesus Christ Who's blessed us In Christ With every Not every material blessing But every spiritual blessing In the heavenly places And then As we come into a close Salvation lived out When you Believe in Jesus And you get the spirit You are justified You are declared righteous All of your shame Your lack of steadfastness Your giving into temptation Your pick your thing Gets reckoned onto him Gets transferred Gets credited To his account His righteousness Gets transferred Or reckoned to our account That's what's called Justification We're declared Righteous And then he adopts us As his sons and daughters And then he begins This process Of sanctification Where he conforms us More and more Into the image Of his son Before we either Die and meet him Or he returns In glory But in this process Of sanctification Are we trying To do it alone?

American Christians Were very individualistic You know I don't know If you know that And James Says brothers In the book of James He doesn't just say Joe Or Rebecca He says Brothers Meaning like They were a family And to get a family You had to Spend time And be in relationships Jesus sent them out Not one on one But in pairs The Acts 2 community After Peter preached 3,000 people Got saved Did they go get 10,000 people saved?

No They met in homes They ate together They prayed together They became family To encourage each other In this walk To fight Temptation And to go through trials And then Lastly God is a triune God God is Father Son and Spirit And he made us In his image Therefore We are a communal People If you try to walk With God Your walk with God Is between you and God But it's also not If you try To Resist The world The flesh And the devil All by yourself You will fail I'm not saying You're failing And you're going to Be punished forever And hell And stuff like that But you're not Going to experience The experiential realities Of being blessed You know One thing the Catholics Got right I mean they got A few things right I'm sure But Is they had I never confessed You know when I was Forced Catholic And But at least they have A confession booth When's the last time You confessed to somebody I mean James and John says Confess your sins To one another So times of refreshment Can be healed It's so hard To be naked Before somebody We are not meant To be alone And in this Sanctification process Who are Your Friends And then lastly As we close The future crown There's a future crown You know It says He who Remains Steadfast Through trials Will receive You know The future crown And this crown Was a victor's crown And I believe Jesus is the one Who first got The victor's crown Because of how Good he was When we put our Faith in him We also Will get a crown But in this meantime As we're walking With God There's all these Tensions in scripture And they're hard For us to really Keep in tension Keep in peace But Philippians 2 Says Work out Your salvation With fear And trembling Do it Do it But that's So much law Because It's God Who works In you Both to will And to work For his good Pleasure 2 Peter 1 10 Therefore Brothers Be all the more Diligent To confirm Your calling And election For if you Practice these Qualities You will never Fall And in this Way There will be Richly provided For you An entrance Into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ As we look Forward on this Path of thorns We look upward To Jesus And someday When we meet God I believe we're Going to look Back And realize He was carrying Us the whole While Causing us To be steadfast John MacArthur Said if we could Walk away from God Every day John MacArthur Said I would There's a big Debate Can you lose Salvation Or not But I believe That God When he gives You eternal Life It is eternal When he Caused you To be born Again He gives you That spirit As a deposit And that spirit Is ever So mysteriously Motivating us To be steadfast And to Endure We're going to Have a prayer Team That's going to Come up now And I would Encourage you To be vulnerable Maybe there's Some areas Of sin In your life That you've Not been able To have victory Over That it's Super hard It's super hard To be transparent But there's an Awesome prayer team There's one awesome Person right there And there's a two All right And let me close In prayer Father God This was a heavy Word Thank you for Inspiring James Help us be Steadfast Through trials Through temptations And know that Even when we fail That Jesus never Failed And you say Whoever Believes in him There's no Condemnation Help the devil Has condemned So many people Our consciences Have condemned So many people And your sons And daughters They don't always Experience your love Because they're so Hard on themselves Because that That whisper Whispers all the time That inner critic So help us be able To look to Jesus As we walk Through this wilderness In Christ's mighty name All right So if you want to stand I'm going to Are you You're going to play music And right now You're going to play music All right And then I'll give a blessing After she does a little bit Of worship Cool Let's sing that song So swing wide All you heavens Let the praise go up As the walls come down All creation Everything with breath Repeat the sound All His children Clean hands Pure hearts Good grace Good God His name is Jesus Let's sing that one more time Swing wide All you heavens Let the praise go up As the walls come down All creation Everything with breath Repeat the sound All His children Clean hands Pure hearts Good grace Good God His name is Jesus To swing wide Swing wide All you heavens Let the praise go up As the walls come down All creation Everything with breath Repeat the sound All His children Clean hands Pure hearts Good grace Good God His name is Jesus Jesus Our redemption Our redemption Our salvation Is in His blood Jesus Light of heaven Friend forever His kingdom come At this church We like to give a blessing I have no power in myself But it's symbolic That God is for you Through His minister Thank you for fellowshiping today May God the Father Protect you from all temptation May the Son's intercession for you Be effectual And may the Holy Spirit Counsel you To not be afraid of God Go and know that you are loved By the Lord Jesus Thank you church Bye And may the Lord Wom A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A