following program is sponsored by seattle open door church yet all open door church is committed to loving god loving people and loving life our doors are open to whomever no mass required seattle open door church first twelve blessitt is a man who persevered under trial why i'm blessed if i persevered under trial that's what it says it doesn't say you're blessed if you go through trials does it it doesn't say you're blessed you go through that there's a blessing that comes from going under drugs through trials here's what they have serious for once he has been approved that means you passed the test you've been approved so i was  driver i had to do all these days get a background check and all this stuff and then i get a message that says you've been approved as a new driver i passed the test i filled all the requirements all the qualifications i fulfilled it all you pass the test this is not all i got i got to go through trust to be got to accept me so i can be born again you're born again by faith in jesus christ not by your works not by how good you are not by how bad you are this is talking about as you go through a trial for once he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which is the lord has promised to do those who love him the crown of life is for who those who love him and something else you see it now i don't want to get too much time on this as it would be controversial i don't mind being controversial i'm being controversial but there could be a degree of bring this when you look at a blesses a man or perseverance at a trial for once he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the lord has promised that those who love them so you get the crown of life if you love him and watch your approved you pass the tast you go through the trial and pass the test that me to explain this to you i don't want to get into once saved always saved or get into we get all wrapped up in that we forget about why don't we just live for jesus because this right no if i live for jesus i guarantee to have an guaranteed no question my mind if i live in for the devil more than live for jesus there might be some question in my mind but what it says here is says that you receive the crown of life for those who love him who have been approved and i argued that approval is now good i am it is not based upon how hard i work the good works but what is talking about is that when you're going through the trials you're going through the tribulations you're still serving god because that you think that you can accept g d r say jesus i accept you to my heart i believe you die on the cross i believe grossman did accept in my heart and then as you're going through life you flunk every test what do you think you think that's a sign of that you're born again so that every time there's a test i flunked the test i would argue there's got to be some place that there's evidence that there's fruit in your life that you're born again and i can prove it because we're going to get to it i think we'll get to it in time we'll get to the passage that shows that what i'm saying is true so i don't believe that you're saved by works i don't believe you have to be good enough to be getting into heaven but i believe you need to walk out the life of a christian you have to win some tests the very ten the devil tempts you you keep following the film and to some point you have to say am i born again or not and i were argue some people are brought up and raised up in churches where they're telling you that if you say a prayer it's seven years old and you accept jesus seven years old you're bure salvation is secure in a no matter how you live your selfishness to care because you accepted jesus and the problem with that in the deception in that is the person except jesus seven years old and they live like the devil all their life and they think that their say because they said a prayer at seven years old by the way said a prayer doesn't get you say give your heart to jesus get you sinner repeat the sinners prayer over and over again and then does it get you say it's a loud jesus to take control of your life to let him be the lord and save your life and too many people are saying going around and i believe in rose from the grave and through him i can have eternal life that's pretty much the sinners prayer i believe that that's important i believe that something you should acknowledge but some words off of the bible tract doesn't get you saved as would the holy spirit does in your heart and in your life and so there's to be a place and your life that you're getting some victory in your life and we'll see if we get there i don't know if we'll get there or not when we talk about work probably not but we'll see where we go in the first the next verse says thirteen let no one s tempted i am being tempted by god for god cannot be tempted by evil in a sim does not tempt any why does god tempt people no never never ever does god to people would be sin to put temptation from somebody guess what if a sin forgot to put to take a shit in front of somebody is sin for us to put temptation in front of somebody do you believe that i would argue if you know somebody has a certain problem if you know somebody has a drinking problem you don't go to him and say hey we're at this wedding and there's champagne at the wedding i don't think champagne should be a christian weddings that's my belief but say you appen adopt believe that because you think you have freedom to drink and you have liberty and you want to one little drink and one little sip of the champagne and there's this it's on the table but if you know somebody is there that's an alcoholic and you turn around and say celebrate with us come on this all have a drink and you turn around and add that glass of champagne to him have you tempted them is that sin absolutely that sin so just as much as god is not that does not tempt people we shouldn't to people buy with the things that we do ok i know that's not popular and i'm sorry for that unpopular thing i said no i'm not sorry to be quite honest i'm not sorry i was going to move on because i would like to say more i have been tempted by god for god cannot be to buy even himself does not tempt anyone but each one is tempted when he is carried away enticed by is all and l so a trial comes my way and there's a something that in there and i have to choose left or right whatever it may be am i all lost my own nature my own simple nature my own feeding my flesh is that the spirit will cause me to be tempted does that make sense can the devil throw temptation at you absolutely you could be serving god with all your heart good to a temptation at you but look follow the if you start baking about whatever the temptation is with that lead you to sin but do you think so i turn around at something whatever it may be there's a temptation it comes my way and i start meditating and i start thinking on it i start lusting for it i start desiring for i start hunting on green for art does that lead to sin every time every single time it leads to sin and if it was just sin just sayin it won't be so bad but what is the next step and when sin is accomplish it brings forth death the sin lead to death oh no adele because i've said all the time i'm still alive would died in you what died in you what did you chase after that turn around as you chased after you got consumed by it and then you participated in it you got involved in it and would did you lose a relationship a job intimacy with god a career would you lose sin will always bring death jesus was the example of the sin of mankind put on and lead to death but we experience death all the time and then it says do not be deceived my beloved brother and he says beloved brethren so are these rotten terrible sinners tongues i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm walkin fully with god no way i can get to see is that true if you don't watch out if you go put a check in your heart your spirit against sin you can easily get deceived as do not be deceived by brethren every good thing in every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights whom there is no variation or shifting saddle chattel and the exercise of will he brought us forth by the word of true so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures and all this is what is really talking about here is this is do not be deceived do not follow those other days guess what you got the father of lights you can't b c we have the father of lights in your life that if you follow the principles you're brought in and taken heed you're not going to be deceived and what's going to happen is you're going to walk on the word of truth and that there are going to be fruit that comes from your life should it be fruit in a christian's life so if you accepted jesus and you're turn around in every day and it looks like the devil and you're not walking in the light you're not walking in truth are you born again you might look at that you might ask yourself that am i truly born again the were going to stop and think oh stop right there because that there's a whole nother passage here to get into so this summarize what we have here so the very first thing that we looked at is a look as has considered all joy so i'm going to give you an example story because they're all trial droid the trials and tribulations go through craig is that's the name darling so there's a gentleman named craig that's in prison in california there to write to me here interacting letters back and forth and he went up for parole and everything looked like he's got letters of recommendations from everybody in the prison i mean look and good because he's got letters like you can't believe he's got certificates he's got this and find joy in the midst of that and so if he finds joy in the midst of any rights and he says you know what my last letter i was very discouraged by i got to tell you what i just know that god has me here for a little longer i  work to do in this prison my ministry isn't over yet that's what that's talking about isn't it and so i decide i want to do something i don't have to find out all the dead's required because i'm going to drive down to visit him in prison to have joy that for sure i'd think that a pastor would drive from why why why would i do that why it's no benefit to us he's not send us money he's this stuff coming up why to give hope to give encouragement to build is is faith and out of that in oh why god never tone need to build this church he told me to grow the church is the part of the church is the have a ministry where he's at who comes and visits him i don't know maybe there's people someplace else but i believe that my responsibility because god put it in my heart to do it god give me wisdom when i heard it as soon as i heard i started praying god how do we handle this what should we do i know he's discouraged give me some wisdom in the midst of it and then very clearly was go busy at him take some people with you visit him to feed into quote his ministry isn't depth part of what the church should do in the midst of it we give some hope to somebody that oh you're older than i thought my goodness eighty years old eighty years old is carstone you can make it to church i want to how that happened eighty years old you can make it a church people get make it a church of their twenty two years  he's here and here's what happens because he perseverance is the example for every single person in this room you see that's why we persevered that's why we hang tight that's why we go through those trials that's why we did up saying god i thank you because you're putting character me and i know if you build character me is that of me being a character i have character and i'm able to help somebody else that maybe is being a character did you get that i help you ok is that of me being a character have you know any characters out there is that a been  anybody ever been one of those characters out there so instead of being a character i have character so i can help somebody as being a character because they all listen to me now because it's their worst day in a row to be livin is flippy floppy to christian life and then you're going to give godly counsel to people but when you allow god to work mode your life and shape you and change into the image of christ you have godly character you're able to help somebody house so that they're able to gain that character of god and then what happens you start feeling each other t on the i know about i haven't looked up i think i did i did do a background check on all of you so i know some of their background there's a reason for that that i don't do that every member of the church and check your background check you because they're going to be involved in ministry  characters by their old testament they've shared a public that's why doing this because they've shared a publicly they've shared bible studies and church everything else they've been characters the mist of addiction everything else right you've been characters never been characters to a point of having their face and bulletin boards  the most wanted character but they've been characters almost and the midst of that god's got ahold of their life and when they first come here it was tight it was tough and there was couple of times it was really bad weeks bad weeks for but they came in my office with joy they came my office with a think came in s was real and it character being built in and then the reaching out touching somebody's house and trying to help somebody else and then people are calling me because they they've talked to him as a call pastor rich and out of it they're doing something to because they're not just characters now they've gained character and they're sharing that character with others and out of it i see that and then i can turn around and say we're going to be open a house up for a women and we need a manager and the only reason we haven't ever done it again is because we never had anybody as a manager and then they come along and i see the character that's in them and i say they're qualified to be the manager because they can share that character that they're gaining with others now if you want to know a secret they haven't arri become managers will know that ok and i share that to say look at yourself can somebody say that about you there's others i could say about that i'm not going to take all day to say about others but can somebody say that about you that you were a character and now you have character i hope so i hope that your testimony if not ask god to mold you shape you and change you and get ready for the trials get ready for the tribulations and out of it karma he said to me today i wonder if they would be willing to be of our family neighbors family and what they would be part of our family you know we have no kids we have no family i wonder if they'd be part of our family you know she's saying she wants them to be part of our but what i'm saying is i want that to be my life and by story do you want to be the your life your story that people look and see something in you and they want what you have and so builds and so out of it out of it i have i have a flawed character in some areas i'm a real jerk i'm a real smart alec at times i to grow sarcastic and i've done something in the midst of that i looked at that and i said you know what that i know personally has helped me to change to help me to grow every single person here because i say lord i want to be more like jesus so do you want to be more like jesus you want to have his character this close this is vast  ridge do you need to know jesus christ your lord and savior jesus said behold i stand at the door and not going to be one hears my voice and opens the door i will come in romans didn't thirteen's as recalls upon the name of the lord will be saved your church is our vision is loving god loving people loving life now that's a vision for a church to love god to love people love life let me tell you something that if you love god and love people you will love life you know why some people don't l you say god i just love you with all my heart thank you jesus so you've done so much for me but i just love you yeah what can i do for you that's what happens when you have true love yeah what can i do you love me how can i love you you know god is going to answer love people that's what he's going to say he's going to say love me because you already love him anybody know that the greatest commandment love the lord thy god with all your heart soul mind and the second greatest commandment is what the father said yourself so loving god lisa loving people let me tell you if you love god or i love you so much what can i do it says i want you to love this person over here i want you to love this person over here i want you to do this for this person here almost all you start loving people start loving god you don't think there's a fire let me tell you if you say i don't have a fire and me why don't i have a fire in the wind i'm not excited about life you're probably not loving god loving people try it just try it if you if you think life is kind of boring to start saying god help love people and let me tell you you will be able to love people the way god has you to love them unless you start loving god so long i am my life and i'm a deadbeat human being i'm a deadbeat christian i'm the boss blowing christian there is gonna change me ok you know what i'ma start loving people well so you start loving people you'll find out people on loving you start to love people and they backstab you so what do you do with that give up yes you do well still you give up but when you start to people so that's their vision have been listening to there is so with pastor richard over through jesus christ we can live the victorious life seattle open door church located in period committed to loving god loving people  loving like seattle open door church once you know that regardless of where you've been or what you've done god loves you there are doors are open to anyone and everyone their services are sunday mornings at eleven seattle open door church is located at six twenty five