Facing Trials Series

Facing Trials

James 1:1-8

Special thanks to Pastor Ted Sutherla and his wonderful sermon God’s Perfecting Process 4 of the illustration came from this talented pastor.

Today’s, starts our journey through the book of James. Today we will look and James 1:1-8 facing the trials in life. One thing that is certain in life and that is that we will all face trials. But it is through these trials that we grow. God uses trials in our life to build our character and stength.

Each one of us face many trials in our life. Some are small and some are quite large. As a matter of fact everyone that is here today are facing some sort of trial in your life. I believe that the Trials and Temptions in life are there to prepare us for the times when God will use us to affect someone elses life.

Murphy’s laws says,

* “Nothing is as easy as it looks; everything takes longer than you think; if anything can go wrong it will.”

* “A day without a crisis is a total loss.”

* “The chance of the bread falling with the peanut butter-and-jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.”

* “Inside every large problem is a series of small problems struggling to get out.”

* “Any tool dropped while repairing a car will roll underneath to the exact center.”

* “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.”

* “The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of an oncoming train.”

Let Read James 1:1-8

Just like verse 2-3 says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Count it all Joy… Some of you may be saying, No Way… I don’t like trials in my life, I just like things to go smooth, But James tells us to count it all Joy. Now James is not saying that we are to pretend to be enjoying trials and that we are to put on a fake smile as we endure them. But he does say to have a positive outlook on it.

We are to look for the good in every situation. We are to learn from the trials that we have in life. You see that is how we grow and mature as parents, as grandparents and as Christians. You know why grandparents are so much better with our kids than we are.. I can answer that in one word “Experience” they have been through the trials. They have learned from their mistakes and now they have more patience. Besides they know that they will be sending the kids home soon.

James also says the we should know that the testing of our faith produces patience. As most of you know I come from working in and around a foundry for 11 years. If we were to take a inget of metal and leave it that way it is usless. But if we melt it down to liquid and pour it in a mold it can make something useful.

God sometimes does that with our lives, sometimes we go through difficulties and hardships so that we can become more useful to God. There is another thing that happens when you melt metal. You see as you melt the metal, dross will being to form on the top of it. A person that works with metal knows that the dross is all the dirt and impurities in the metal. When you remove the dross you have shiny clean metal that can be molded into a useful product.

There was once a visitor that watched as a silversmith heated his crucible. It got hotter and hotter and the silversmith just stared into the crucible. The visitor ask the silver smith, “What are you doing?” The silver smith replied, “I am looking for my face.” You see when I see my own image in silver then I know that it is ready.”

I think that applies to you and me. I think that sometimes it takes trails and temptations… which by the way is the same word in Greek… to not only remove the impurities in our life but also to bring us to the end of ourselves. We will finally reach the point when we scream out to God “I Can’t Take it any more. I need your help” And God says I’ve been waiting for you to say that.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all thing work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

There is another thing that happens with metal. With Aluminum the Heat Treating process is different then any other metal. The first thing you do is mold the product. You have something that looks good but is not very strong and will bend and break. So you have to use a process called heat treating.