I’m wondering this morning if there is anybody who knows anything about trials. Is there anyone who’s going through a trial right now? Maybe you’ve just come out of a trial and I’m not psychic, but I have a feeling that somebody is about to go through a trial.
• The words of the great theologians Rob Bass and DJ EZ Rock say, “Joy and Pain, Sunshine and Rain.”
• In other words there will be some good days in our lives, and some bad days. There are going to be happy times and some hills to climb. There will be some victorious moments and some weary and lonely nights.
Sometimes we may feel like life isn’t fair. It may seem like dark clouds hit the brakes and park over our lives, and it doesn’t just rain, but it pours. Trials seem to bombard our lives when the time just isn’t right.
• The economy is slow and we’re losing jobs. This world is lonely and relationships are falling apart. Life is already stressful and your children not cutting you any slack.
• Gas is $4.00 a gallon and still rising. You come to church to worship God, but some church folk talking behind your back. You’re trying to make it through school and the tuition keeps going up.
• You just got well and now you’re going back to the doctor for another pain. I tell you when it rains, sometimes it pours.
Someone may be saying, “Preacher, I didn’t come to church to hear a depressing sermon. I didn’t come here to talk about my trials. I deal with them every day and I thought that this morning I could get my shout on for a change and forget about what I’m going through.”
• Well that’s why God sent me by this morning, so that you can get your shout on; I’m here to show you the Christian’s perspective of trials.
• You see the world looks at life one way, but for the Christian there should be a different perspective and outlook on life.
• When we view trials through the lens of the world we become depressed and stressed; discouraged and dismayed; feel heartache and pain. But when trials are viewed through the lens of God’s Word, it makes a world of difference.
You said you wanted to get your shout on, well shout on this. Your problems have purpose, pain can be productive, and it is possible to grow in the dark. Trials aren’t a waste of time, and they should be a lesson learned.
• And don’t make the mistake of thinking that because you gave your life to Christ, that you’re free from trials and immune from tribulations.
• It will rain in your life, hard times will come, and your faith is going to be tested. But if your trials always seem like the end of the world, then you need to understand the Christian’s perspective of trials.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In our highlighted passage, James shares with us that there is more than one way to view the trials of life. James, not to be confused with James who was one of the 12 disciples, but the author of this book was actually the half brother of Jesus.
• Why a half brother? Because the Virgin Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit, therefore, Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father.
Thank God for that because it takes the genes of both parents to determine the blood type of a child. Knowing that we’re born in sin, there would be no way that Jesus could be the perfect sacrifice with tainted blood if Joseph was His biological father.
• Since God is His Father, and He and His Father are one, perfection was sent to this earth to die for imperfect people.
• But after Jesus, Mary and Joseph did have children together in which one was James the author of our text.
James wrote this book to Jewish Christians in order to provide them with some practical instructions for living. Similar to the practical teachings found in the latter part of the letter Paul wrote to the Roman Church, James stresses the need for Christian living not only to show the reality of a person’s inner development but to show the world that the gospel does, in fact, change lives.
• If a person claims to be a Christian but is no different from an unbeliever, what benefit is that to the world who is in need of truth?
• But when we are renewed by the transforming of our mind and exhibit the power of Christ in our lives, we’ll become a transforming force in the world.
So, in the first few verses of chapter 1 James’ practical instruction to Christians tell us how we’re to view trials of life. James wants us to understand that the Christian’s perspective of trials is way different from the world’s perspective of trials.
• If we’re going to ease the stress and pain while going through trials, we must understand this Christian perspective. If we’re going to become a transforming force in this world, our Christian perspective of trials must be reflected in our actions that are displayed while going through the storms of life.
If you were concerned that this might be a depressing sermon, this is the segment of the message where you sit up and takes notes, because God is about to reveal in His Word how His children should view the troubles of this world.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first principal James reveals to us in this passage is that the Christian should view trials joyfully. Look at verse 2, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.” “Preacher, you killing me this morning, first you start talking about all these trials and tribulations we face in life, and as soon as I thought I had something to shout about, you tell me I need to consider it all joy when I face trials, now what kind of sense does that make?.” Remember this is the Christian’s perspective of trials, so you may want to check that status first.
But let’s see if we can’t make sense of this. Consider it all joy, this does not mean that we are to be happy about the trouble, because you’re not going to rejoice if the doctor says you have cancer. You’re not going to rejoice if the employer tells you that your services are no longer needed, unless you were trying to get fired.
• You’re not going to be happy if your child is misbehaving in school. These things aren’t going to bring you joy, but your joy comes in knowing what trouble produces.
• You see we have to evaluate our trials in the light of what God is doing for us and trying to bring out of us
James says to “Consider it all joy,” in other words, once you’ve given some thought to your trial. After you have closely examined your situation and determined what God is trying to get out of you and that through your trial He’s making you a better person, then you should have a joyful attitude, not about the trouble, but about the end results of trouble.
• Get ready to write this down, you see your attitude is a product of your understanding. If you understand that what you’re going through will only make you stronger in the end, then you’re able to have a joyful attitude.
• Now if you can’t see anything good in what you’re going through, and you can’t understand why you’re going through a particular trial, you’re going to have a negative attitude toward your trial.
So it’s important that we understand the trial’s process in order to count it all joy. We need to also understand what James means by the words “trial” or “temptation”.
• In the Greek these words used in other contexts mean a leading into evil, but this isn’t the case here. In this context the meaning of these words is a “testing of experiences that prove a person’s intentions.”
• In verse 13 of this same chapter James says that God can’t be tempted by evil, nor does God tempt anyone with evil.
• Since James isn’t talking about tempting trials that can lead to sin, we should be able to have pure joy, because these trials are a part of God’s permissive will to prove the genuineness of our faith.
What type of attitude are you displaying while going through your trying experiences? Can you consider it all joy, or do you question God the whole time you’re in your trials?
• Have you examined your trials to determine what God is trying to work out of you?
• Our values determine our evaluations. If we value comfort more than character, then trials will upset us. If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not be able to “count it all joy.”
• If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better. Therefore, Christians should view trials joyfully.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another principal in our text is that the Christian should view trials as a certainty. The latter part of verse 2 James says, “When you encounter various trials.” James didn’t say if you encounter trials, but when you encounter trials. As I said earlier a Christian isn’t free from facing trials, and we aren’t immune from the storms of life, they’re sure to come. There are some things in life we can avoid, but trials aren’t one of them. If you’re expecting everything to always go your way, then you’re in for a very sad and disappointing life.
We don’t have to go looking for trouble; trouble will come find us. Some trials come simply because we are human: sickness, accidents, disappointments, even tragedies. Other trials come because we are Christians.
• Peter said, “Don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange is happening to you, instead be very glad because your trials will make you partners with Christ in His suffering.” “Well God I just don’t understand, why me? I pay my tithes. I go to Sunday School and Bible Study. I even take my Advil and go work with the youth.” (Pause)
Trials shouldn’t surprise us in the sense that we don’t know they’re coming, we may not know what the trial may be, but they are coming. Jesus told His disciples in John 16:33, “In this world you will have many trials, but take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
• Whoever told you the Christian life was easy lied to you. Christians have to face trials just like everyone else, but the difference is we serve a God who’ll be with us in our trials, and if He has overcome the world, then that means I’ll be victorious in my trials as well.
Also notice that James says we will encounter various trials. There isn’t one particular trial that we will face in life; trials come in different sizes, colors, and shapes. Keep in mind that the Bible says trials (plural), not trial (singular).
• As long as you’re breathing, you’re going to face trials. Some of you may think, “Well I already been through my trial for this year, so I’m done until next year.”
• No, you don’t have a say in how, when, where, or why your trials come, but you do have a choice in how you face them. So, a Christian should view trials as a certainty.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Look at verse 3, “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” James brings out yet another principal here and that is the Christian should view trials as a producer of good fruit. This ties into our first principal because if you’re going to consider it all joy when facing various trials in life, you must know that your trials are going to produce good fruit in the end.
• You must know that the trials are going to produce or build a certain character in your life. Here we are told that when our faith is tested, it produces endurance.
We need to understand that some trials we bring upon ourselves. For instance, if you get a loan to purchase a $250,000 house, but you only bring in $50,000 a year, then your trial is going to be trying to keep up with those monthly payments. God didn’t send that trial; that was you.
• Other trials God may send (but remember they’re not evil, because God doesn’t tempt us with evil) or He may allow trials to come our way.
• ssNo matter where the trial comes from, God will use it to produce good fruit in your life, if you’re willing to let Him work it out of you.
When God called Abraham to live by faith, He tested him in order to increase his faith. God always tests us to bring out the best; Satan tempts us to bring out the worst. What is God trying to bring out of you?
• Is he trying to increase your faith? Is your testing making you more kind and loving? Are you learning that the tithe and the 90% belong to God?
• God is testing our faith to produce something good in us. He’s trying to give us a 6-pack faith.
• You may never be able to admire your own 6-pack in the mirror, but you can develop a 6-pack faith by allowing God to work you out during your trials.
One common fruit or character that God will produce in us from our trials is endurance. Endurance is the ability or strength to continue or last. It involves having patience and holding up under pressure.
• As Christians we are to endure unfavorably circumstances without letting them take away our joyful attitude.
• Endurance is a must for a successful Christian life and knowing that we will face various trials throughout our lives, if we don’t have endurance it should be on the production line in our character manufactory.
This reminds me of a story of an old dog who fell into a farmer’s well. After considering the situation the farmer decided that neither the dog nor the well was worth saving.
• So, he decided to bury the old dog and put him out of his misery. When the farmer began shoveling dirt into the well, the dog became hysterical.
• But the farmer kept on shoveling and as the dirt hit the dog’s back, a thought came to the old dog’s mind.
• Each time a full shovel of dirt hit the dog’s back; the dog would shake off the dirt and step up.
So, blow after blow, the dog would shake it off and step up. No matter how painful those shovels of dirt were, the old dog fought panic; he just kept shaking it off and stepping up.
• Finally, the dog, battered and exhausted stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well. What he thought would bury him, actually benefited him because of the way he handled his adversity.
• When a load of trials are dumped on you endurance is the ability to shake it off and step up.
You thought because your spouse left you without a dime to your name, that your life was over, but you endured, shook it off and stepped up.
• You thought that sickness would bury physically, but you endured, shook it off and stepped up, while God healed your body.
• Our endurance is not just to benefit us, but when a dying world sees how you handle your trials. When that unbeliever sees that you didn’t give up, but held on to the rope of faith, it becomes a testimony that we serve a God who’s real!
• Are you learning how to endure? The Christian should view trials as a producer of good fruit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m feeling good right now, but there is one more principal I want to share before I sit down and be happy all by myself. Verse 4 says, “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Finally, James shows us that the Christian should view trials as a road to maturity.
• I hope you’re beginning to see that the Christian has a different perspective of trials, that as a child of God you should have a different outlook on troubles.
• Some people see trials as a road to a destructive end. Some see trials as a road to more heartache and pain, but James says it should be viewed as a road to maturity.
In other words, every time you go through a trial, you should get a little taller in faith. As more and more troubles come your way, you should be able to handle a little bit more each time. James says, “Let endurance have its perfect result.”
• This means we are to observe our attitudes more than our circumstances when going through a trial. Now how many of us can really do that?
We focus so much on situations rather than our faith, character, and focus on God, which are needed to make it through trials. When Peter walked on water he was more concerned about his surroundings rather than focusing on Jesus who was the only one who could keep him protected from his surroundings.
We have to allow endurance grow so that it can fully develop. Many times we are so eager to get out of trials that we fail to receive the entire lesson that God intended for us.
• Don’t be so quick about getting out of your trial of unemployment by getting a job you know God didn’t want you to have, let endurance fully develop in you.
• Don’t be so quick about getting out of a marriage, when you know the reason for leaving isn’t approved by God; let endurance fully develop in you.
• The only way you can mature and make it through the next trial on your agenda is by allowing endurance to have its perfect result in your life.
So, we have to allow God to build our character and when we submit to Him He can accomplish His work. God is not satisfied with a halfway job, he wants a perfect work. He wants a finished product that is perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
• God’s goal in our lives is maturity and trials are one tool that God uses to develop our character. Think about this, what if your children remained little babies? How would you feel?
• Some of you can’t wait until they turn 18 now, what if they never matured enough to leave the house?
• God wants us to grow and mature so that He can use us for His service.
God builds character before He calls us to service. He must work in us before He can work through us. Since we were born wrong, it’s going to take time to get us right.
• God spent twenty-five years working in Abraham before He could give him his promised son. God worked thirteen years in Joseph’s life, putting him into “various tests” before He could put him on the throne of Egypt.
• He spent eighty years preparing Moses for forty years of service. Jesus took three years training His disciples, building their character.
• But God cannot work in us without our consent. There must be a surrendered will. The mature person does not argue with God’s will; instead, they accept it willingly and obey it joyfully.
Have you surrendered your will to God? Do you allow God to move you through your trials or do you make your own decisions? When a Christian views trials as a road to maturity, it’ll make a big difference in how that trial is received and handled.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Christian’s perspective of trials may seem foolish to world, but know if you view trials in the way the Bible has revealed to us, then the world’s foolishness becomes your victories.
• The Bible tells us that we’re in the world, but not of the world. This is why the world has a different perspective of trials.
• The world views trials with heavy hearts and hopelessness.
• The world views trials as a producer of negative outcomes.
• The world views trials as a dead end road.
But I’m so glad, that the Christian has a different perspective of trials. The Christian should view trials joyfully, because we know that a trial isn’t the end of the story and something great is awaiting us on the other side.
• The Christian should view trials as a certainty, knowing that we will encounter various trials, but also knowing God will be with us as we face them.
• The Christian should view trials as a producer of good fruit. God wants to bring the best out of us in our trials and the testing of our faith produces great character in us.
• Finally, the Christian should view trials as a road to maturity, understanding that tribulations equal endurance, and endurance equals perfection.
• That’s what I’m working my way toward perfection in the life to come.
You see this really wasn’t a depressing sermon, because I just gave several reasons to shout about. Is there anybody here, who’s going to change your perspective of your trials? Count it all joy…
