Welcome, friends, to The Line of Fire.
Michael Brown here. So glad to have this time together. As we come to the end of 2024 and soon the beginning of 2025, we're going to take a break from our school of the Word and the Spirit as we've been in the school of prayer, looking at foundations of prayer and intercession. God willing, we'll be continuing that in the weeks ahead. We may take a little longer break and into some other things, but we want to get back to that so much more to talk about when it comes to prayer.
But what I want to do this last week of the year and then even the first of the new year is different. I want to speak to you from my heart and then we're going to take you into some messages I've preached in the past that I believe will edify you, encourage you, and minister to you. This is a season where I've been able to step back from some preaching and teaching and public ministry, been in the midst of some very fiery trials myself.
We all pass through those. So this has been a great opportune time for me to step back and spend more time with the Lord. If you've heard anything that's come up and what's up with Dr. Brown or questions about this or that, just go to our website, thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org. Just go there. You can click on statement video. There's a video in particular that I'd love for you to watch where I just share my heart with all of you about seven minutes long. So if you've heard anything, the latest controversies involving me, please take a moment. Go there. I'd love to speak to you from my heart about that.
Those that say, what? We haven't fallen anything? No problem. We just get back to the Word and doing our best to edify and bless and help you and strengthen you here. But from the heart, I just want to talk to you today and kind of set things up for the rest of the week.
So not a teaching today in the formal sense. I will open the Word. We'll get into Scripture with you. It remains our goal to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. But just a few words from my heart. Those of you who listen regularly on radio or podcast or watch on YouTube, thanks so much for your interest. Thanks for the many words of encouragement you send our way. To all of us, all of you who have supported us financially, thank you so much. We are, like other ministries, a nonprofit ministry. The money that comes in goes right back out to touch and minister to more people. We have a very efficient staff and organization that we do our best to honor every dime that comes in for the glory of God.
We know it is your hard-earned money. Many of you give sacrificially, so we do our best to be really good stewards of the funds. But you don't often hear enough how much we appreciate your support because we are here to serve. We are here to bless. We are here to minister. We are here to help. That is our goal.
That is what we live for. Just like if you are a homeschooling mom, it is not your job that you get paid to do. It is your calling. It is your vocation. It is your love.
Those are your kids. The same way with what I am called to do. If you are a pastor of a local congregation, you may receive a salary for what you do.
You may be bivocational, but you are not doing it for a salary. You are doing it because you love the Lord and you love the flock. With all that we do in life is unto the Lord. It is for him. It is for his people.
It is for the lost. I honestly don't feel as if I have a job or I go to work. Public ministry is just the extension of our private lives. Ministry is just the public extension of our private lives. Over decades of training ministry school students, that is what I have always said to them. Ministry is just the public extension of your private life.
If we were sitting together just hanging out somewhere, we would be opening the Word and talking about it. If you had a need, we would be praying with you. This is just my opportunity to serve you. As my heart continues to beat in the years ahead by God's grace to reach the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that never changes. As my heart continues to beat to see a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution in America, that never changes.
As my heart continues to beat to see revival in the church, to see the church healthy, that never changes. So when you partner with us, you are helping us do those things. You are helping us reach the lost. You are helping us, especially the lost sheep of the house of Israel, you are helping us get the church healthy and see revival.
You are helping us push back against the craziness of the culture and we are doing it together as a team. We each have an important role in calling. I would encourage you not to minimize your calling in God if it is not public. Not to minimize your calling in God if it does not seem to be reaching large numbers of people. Not to minimize your calling in God if you do not seem to get any rewards for it or sometimes make very little progress. Honor the Lord. Do what He has called you to do and His smile will be on you. Let me say it again. Honor the Lord.
Do what He has called you to do and His smile will be on you. You say, I am just a businessman. Do not put just in front of that.
Do not put just in front of that. If that is what the Lord has called you to do, it is your vocation. Paul said if anyone does not work, they should not eat. We have to be responsible. We have to work and supply the needs of our own lives or our families for sure. Those doing the work of ministry, that is what we do day and night and God supplies for us through that. That is your calling.
Let me say this. If you are called to be a computer programmer, a software developer, if you are called to be in the business world, if you are called to be in the media, if you are called to be in the sports world, if you are called to be in the world of education, if you are called to stay at home and pray or be pouring into your kids, whatever your calling is or your calling is to reach the unreached in Asia, whatever your calling is, it is sacred. It is sacred. It is something that God Himself has given you to do. So I want to encourage you to embrace it. And don't think, well it is not as important as this one because they are preaching to millions on TV.
No, no, don't think like that for a split second. We each have different assignments from the Lord and if our lives are yielded to Him, every assignment is sacred, every assignment is blessed, every assignment means something in the body. And here let me share this. There are businessmen that I know have underwritten other ministries with millions and millions of dollars. Not our ministry but other ministries that I know. And that underwriting has enabled them to reach millions and millions and millions of people with the Gospel.
So let me ask you, in God's sight, which is more sacred? The businessman that honors the Lord, walks with integrity and uprightness in the place of business. Businessman, businesswoman, walks with integrity and uprightness in the place of business, uses the skills God has given and works diligently to earn money, do well, is generous in their giving, walks in faith so as to be able to give and then donates millions of dollars or thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars, whatever the case may be, to an organization that feeds the poor. So that organization actually goes a Samaritan's Purse, you know, helping those in need in crisis. So there's a natural disaster, they're there to help. All right, so they're there on the ground doing the work, the medical doctors doing their work, the people distributing the food, all doing their work. Is that any more sacred than you earning the money to help them do their work? Me sitting and speaking to 10 people or a thousand or a million people, whatever the number is, praying and preparing for this moment, is that any more sacred than you donating to our ministry every month and enabling us to speak to the people? If it's as unto the Lord, out of a heart for Him, it's all equally sacred. Yes, there is greater accountability for those in certain public roles.
Obviously, just like if you have a business with 500 employees, you have greater accountability than if it's just you and your brother doing the business together, obviously. And James Jacob tells us that those who teach are held to higher standards because we're telling people this is what God's Word says. But in terms of sacredness of calling, please take hold of it.
These are not just my words. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 is explicit about the whole body. The whole body, each member, does its part. And look, for those of you who've ever gotten the kidney stone, it's agonizing. And then passing it can be agonizing it. And if you've ever passed the kidney stone and then you see it, you're actually able to see it. You see the size of it, you think, how could that cause so much pain?
Because God made everything to work intricately. And that little kidney stone, so something malfunctioning paralyzes your whole body. You can't do what you want to do because of that tiny little thing.
Every part of the human body plays a role and it's important. Do not, I encourage you, do not compare yourself to others. Say, Lord, what do you want me to do? And then in terms of our standard, Jesus is our standard of conduct in life.
So our entire lives will be falling short of that. But striving after that and where we fall short, we turn back in repentance and we're freshly cleansed by His blood and our fellowship with God continues. What I want to do is to spend the rest of this broadcast with some reflections about going through trials as we all do. And then I'll set things up for the rest of the week as we're going to take you into two messages that I preached.
If I'm correct, one in Hawaii, one in Texas. And they'll both minister to you. We'll break them up over two days. So Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll hear one message. Thursday, Friday, another. And then next week we're going to give you encouragement when it comes to food and diet. Oh, what a way to end the year and start the new year.
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If you're there, the code you can use for maximum discount and for 100% of your first order being donated to the ministry, you can go to trivita.com and if you're there, you can use the code BROWN25. Okay, so here we go. Jacob, James, chapter 1, verse 2. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Okay, problem, problem, trials by their nature are trying. Trials by their nature are difficult. Trials by their nature are not fun.
Trials by their nature are challenging, stressful. They can steal joy. You know, you think of a Navy seal going through hell week.
I can't imagine the shape they're in physically and emotionally and psychologically. And then they have to go through hell week and survive that. Consider it pure joy when you're going through hell week. Consider it pure joy when your body is wracked with pain in the hospital and the doctors don't know what to do. Consider it pure joy when you're on the verge of bankruptcy. Consider it pure joy when you just get the divorce papers from your spouse. Consider it pure joy when half the people just leave your church.
What? Consider it pure joy? Not just joy, but pure joy when we're going through trials? Many times the trials are the results of an attack from the enemy. Many times the trials are the results of mistakes we've made. Many times we don't understand the reason for the trials.
Why, where, how? How can we be encouraged to consider it pure joy? Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance because there's something good God wants to get out of it.
There's something positive God wants to get out of it. You know, it's just like the expressions in the gym, no pain, no gain. Let's say you're working out for the first time and the next day you're sore all over and you think, wow, I obviously hurt my body.
I shouldn't be doing this. And then your trainer says, oh no, no, that means that you started pushing your muscles. That's a good sign.
That's a good sign. Now let's keep working accordingly and we will make progress. The goal of our lives, the ultimate goal of God in our lives is to conform us to the image of Jesus. When Paul writes in Romans 8 28, and we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God and are called according to his purpose, the next verse tells us that God's eternal plan was to conform us to the image of his Son.
So that's God's ultimate goal, to conform us to the image of his Son, to make us more like Jesus and to build up our characters and to deepen our hope and to deepen our confidence in God. And as we've gone through trials we can now help others in their trials because that's what will happen in this world. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So the reality is there's certain things we only gain, certain ways that we grow that only come through deep, intense, difficult trials. When I find myself in the midst of an extended trial and test, what I have to remind myself is there's something God wants to do in me at this time. Yes, there are times like I say when we're just being spiritually attacked by the enemy and there are times when the trials are results of mistakes that we've made and there are times that we don't know why, what's happening. Did God send this? Did the devil send this?
Is this just part of this world? We don't even know but what we do know is if we're children of God is that God is ultimately overseeing it and if we're a young man and if we're yielded to him, he will not allow some devastating thing to come our way that is not, as Pastor John Kilpatrick from the Brownsboro Revolver used to say, he will not let anything come your way that is not father-filtered. Those are his words.
Everything that comes our way is father-filtered. So perseverance, let it finish its work that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything and then he comes back to this again. He comes back to the subject of trials again and he says in verse 12, blessed meaning truly happy is the one who perseveres under trial. There's the word perseverance again because having stood the test that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. I've often thought to myself that my life and your life is like a book with different chapters and let's say this chapter is about the fiery trial that you went through, the difficult test that you passed through.
How do you want that chapter to read? And by God's grace I came through it stronger. By God's grace I learned certain lessons that have marked me for the rest of my life. By God's grace I drew closer to Jesus.
That's how you want the chapter to read. That when you look back at it you go wow that was difficult, miserable, hard. I hope to never ever pass through anything like that again but look at what God brought out of it.
Look at what he brought out of it. So many quotes I have put together over the years from leaders, from individual believers who went through hell on earth, who endured unimaginable hardship but then say it was the worst thing that ever happened to them but the best thing because God did amazing things through it. Look at how Peter addresses this. First Peter chapter one. Look at what he says because he also addresses the situation of trials and tests and the book 412 days by my friend Turbin Sondergaard.
He talks about what he went through in prison unjustly in America for 412 days and how his world collapsed around them and the ups and the downs but how he met with God and God got him out at the right time after he was a changed man. Peter says this, the inheritance we have is kept in heaven for you, for us who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice though now for little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. So the trials can bring grief.
James, Jacob is saying well consider it pure joy. In the midst of the grief consider it pure joy. In the midst of the pain still praise God. Still thank God and say all right this is happening for a purpose. I'm going to get through it with a good attitude. You know it's just like if you're driving to work and you hit red light after what's going on and the traffic accident and then and then God says to you this is just a test to see if you'll keep praising me in the midst of this minor frustration.
Then you handle it differently don't you? And that's what Peter is saying. These trials have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus the Messiah is revealed.
Wow. So the trials that we all face for one reason or another that we will all face in this world Jesus said in John 16 33 in this world you'll have tribulation you'll have trials you'll have tests. There is a purpose in them no matter what starts them what causes them. There is a divine purpose in them and part of it is to teach us character through perseverance. Another part is to teach us faith that we trust God no matter what. That we do what Job does when everything seems to be collapsing around us we praise God for his goodness and faithfulness anyway and when you've gone through that fire you'll come out a different person. So it's my prayer for each of you that are in a fiery trial just as I pray for myself that that you will come out refined like gold and silver and then these times of trying and testing God brings a lot of our flesh up to the surface and when he does you see things in yourself that you didn't know were there maybe an immaturity maybe an anger maybe a jealousy maybe a greed maybe a bitterness maybe a carnality you see things you didn't know were there but it's good the fires bring them up to the surface to skim them away skim them away skim them away so that we become different people and shine like Jesus so may you come out shining may you come out closer to Jesus than you've ever been may you come out more in touch with the Lord than you have ever been you come out looking like Jesus more than you've ever been in the past may you come out with deeper faith with a greater heart to persevere able to minister to others hey as you'll be in the holiday season christmas season be blessed the days ahead we'll take you into some sermons i preached before as we come to the end of the year this is a time when your tax deductible gifts mean the world to us they really help us end the year strong and begin the new year with wind in our sail so if we've been a blessing to you would you consider a one-time year-end donation go to the line of fire.org the line of fire.org click donate thank you so much for standing with us this is dr michael brown thanks so much for tuning in just a reminder that we are listener supported if we have been a blessing to you if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast then stand with us so that we can reach many many more and bless many many more together friends we're making a difference so go to the line of fire.org the line of fire.org and click donate
