You are listening to Radical with David Platte, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages

from pastor, author, and teacher David Platte.

Now the Book of James in the Bible, a book about the beauty of faith, and we're going

to use that phrase very intentionally because the Book of James is about authentic, true

faith, as opposed to artificial fake faith.

So the Book of James is going to make clear that it is possible for any one of us to think

that we have true saving faith in Christ when we don't, which means we could approach

this book by just asking the question, do you have true faith or not?

And we will hear that question from God as we walk through James.

But our whole open, our prayer is that more than just asking that question about our faith,

we will find ourselves allured by the beauty of true faith in such a way that we will

find ourselves saying, I want that, I want more of that.

And in such a way that people around us in the world would say, I want that.

I don't want some fake, surface level, cultural version of faith in God that doesn't really

affect my life.

I want the real thing in ways that revolutionize my life.

And I want us to start today by looking at the beauty of faith and the midst of trials

so that beauty of faith in the middle of the hardest, even darkest moments in life.

Let's hear from God, James, chapter 1, verse 1 is where we'll start, we'll go through

verse 12, you don't have Bible, the verses will be on the screen.

James, a servant of God into the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

Count it all, join my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds.

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