“Bona Fide”
A study of James
Genuine Christian Living
Part 2
“The Heat is on”
James 1:1-4, 1:12-15
Years ago I decided that I needed to change my profession
This was years before I was a firefighter or a pastor
I was still making living working cattle ranches
I can tell you the life was a good one
But the wages were not
So
I decided to go to welding school in hope of increasing the size of my bank account
It turned out I was not very good at welding mostly due to my lack of patience
You see I wanted to build things
But
The teacher
Knew that in order to build things correctly
I had to learn to weld first
So the nights went like this
Run beads
Run beads
Run beads
Then
Test them
You see he knew that in order to make a living as a welder
His students would have to be Bona Fide
And He knew in order for them to be Bona Fide
Their welds would have to withstand the pressure test
Many of you know how this works
But for those who don’t
The student would weld the prescribed pattern and then
The plates would be put into a bending machine
And a great amount of pressure would be applied
The Bona Fide welds would bend and not break
The non Bona fide
No matter how pretty they were would break
You see in order to pass the test
The welds and the welder had to withstand pressure
Extreme pressure
And not break
I think a lot about pressure
When training a colt we apply and release pressure
And the results are a well trained horse if the colt responds correctly to the application of pressure
A bronc if not
People are a lot like those welds and those colts
All people
Christian and no Christian alike
You see
The world applies pressure
And we either bend or break
As believers
Bona Fide believers
Pressure should show our faith
Not our lack of it
How we handle pressure as believers
Shows the world what we truly believe and where we place our trust
Let’s open up to the book of James this morning
James Chapter 1
Let me read verses 1-4 for you
You have heard these verses many times before
But
I believe we need to hear them again and again
As reminders as to how we become Bona Fide
James 1:2-4
2 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
This verse always draws a wide range of responses from people
The level of your own spiritual growth
Or lack of it
Will determine how you react or respond to this verse
Or more importantly to pressure
Trials and troubles
Let me quickly remind you that James is writing to believers in this book
He does not go into deep theological teachings
He does not lay out the plan of salvation
He is talking to believers about how to live the real Christian life
The Bona Fide Christian Life
Oswald Chambers is quoted as saying
“The book of James is very simply asking- if you are saved, why do you keep living as if you were not?”
And he opens his letter with talking about how we should be thinking about
Storms
Wrecks
Trials
And troubles in our lives
I like to get real
Actually it is real that the word Bona Fide means
And it is realness that he covers so well in his book
So let’s get real
The world does not see troubles as a reason to rejoice
When cancer
Illness
And death
Show up
And fires and hurricanes
Come
When finical problems
And kid problems
And job problems
And divorce
Rear their ugly heads
When life is not all honey and roses
And the happy ending that the fairy tales promise
Don’t happen
The world sees these things as tragedy
Many who had a little faith lose it
Many reject God altogether
Many fall into despair
And depression
Many just quit
In the form of substance abuse to kill the pain
And some even take what they feel to be the easy way out and take their own lives
But James says
Believers should react differently
He says
Bona Fide believers
Should look at these things as a reason for joy
The world wants to say
“Do what?”
It wants to say
“Yeah right”
It wants to say
“You have got to be joking”
Or
“you must be on dope”
What is there in this situation that could possibly be a reason for joy?
But for the believer
These things are simply pressure
And you see James knows
That the application of pressure and the proper response to that pressure is what produces
Growth
Endurance
Perseverance
In cowboy terms --This is what makes us stronger
And more useable by God
And it is our reaction to the pressure as believers
That shows the world
The unbelieving world
And those with little faith
What we are really made of
And where we place our trust and faith
James says
To look at
Think about
Trials
And pressure as joy
So
So that
We can use that Pressure
Those trials
Those things that break those of little or no faith
As a chance to grow in our faith
And as a chance to show that faith to the world
He goes onto say that if we get this done
That we will be perfect
Needing nothing
I want you to notice something about what James says here
Let me read verse 2b for you again
“when troubles of any kind come your way”
Notice he does not say
If
He says when
We will have troubles in this life
Believer or not
How we respond and react determines how we handle them and the impact they have on our lives
James teaches us to turn our times of trouble into times of learning
And also into times of teaching
You see
We can never really know for sure the depth of our character
Or the depth of our faith
Until it is tested
You may say
What do you mean preacher
Listen
It is easy to be kind to others when they are kind to you
It is easy to smile when everything is going good
It is easy to say “I trust in God” when you are on a smooth road
But
How do you act?
What do you say?
What do you show?
When the tough times
Come
I want to get real again this morning
I want to help to give you the tools to overcome
To preserve
To grow
And mature in Christ
I want to give you the tools to find joy
And to show that joy and the reason for your joy to the world
I want you to become Bona Fide
There are 5 things that I see in the book of James about trouble in our lives
First
Everybody has problems- Believers and unbelievers
We are not singled out as believers
But neither are we immune
But here is the straight truth about those trials and troubles
James says
And I believe it
That If you really are a Christian
If you really are Bona Fide
It will be reveled by how you respond to pressure
Listen
If your faith is only good in the good times
It is no good at all
If it is only good when you don’t need it
Then you don’t need it
True faith
Bona Fide
Faith
Will sustain us when things go wrong
You see
When the wheels fall off our lives
And things come unbolted and unbuckled
Bona fide faith stands up to the test of pressure
Understanding that we are not alone in our troubles can give a bit of comfort
Next
Our attitude often determines outcome
Look at Verse 2c
“consider it an opportunity for great joy.”
What I mean
Is our responses have a real part of how things work out
Let me explain
When life gets tough and you throw up your hands and walk away
When it gets tough and you turn your back on God
It very rarely gets better
Think about a trial in your life
When your attitude turned to
Disappointment
Anger
Frustration
And then think of the outcome
Or the perceived outcome
Now think about a time where you trusted God in the hard times
And how he handled the problem
How you braced for a fight that never came
I can’t tell you the times where I was faced with a difficult situation and after trusting God with the outcome
It simply went away
Or became a non issue
Knowing that trouble comes on everyone
And that our response directly relates to the outcome
Helps us cope with times of trouble
But
Next
Start
What I believe are the real keys
We are never intended to go through these times alone
We were not created to be the Lone ranger
Think of the 23rd Psalm verse 4
Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Or from Deuteronomy 31:8
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you."
In Matthew 11:28
He says he carries our burdens
In proverbs 3:5
He says we can rest in his strength and understanding and not our own
You see
We don’t walk alone
God never intended us to
And knowing this and believing
This and practicing this
Can cause us to completely rethink our times of trouble
Next
James shows us the trials and troubles are used by God for a purpose
Let me ask you a question
Would you trust a bridge or a ship or an airplane that was welded together by someone whose welds would not pass the pressure test
Not me
God uses pressure to produce in us
Faith
He uses pressure to produce endurance
He uses pressure to produce perseverance
Look at verses 3-4
“For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
God has a purpose for trials
He uses them to give us the tools we need to keep and increase our faith
And to overcome any trouble we may face
If those welds are never tested
It the colts are never pressured
How can we ever be sure they will achieve their purpose?
Same with us
And lastly
James
Shows us that God intends trials to become blessings
Once again
The unbelieving world sees this as a completely foreign concept
But as a believer
As a Bona Fide believer
We need to learn to see trials as a means of blessings
We need to skip down to verse 12 to see this
James 1:12
God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
These words mirror Jesus’ words from Matthew
From the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:10-11
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
James is saying
The one who overcomes
The one who keeps the faith
The one who sees trials as a way to grow
A way to witness
Will receive blessings in this life as well as the next
Here are the facts
A person who confesses Christ as Lord
And Endures
The pressure
The trials
And remains strong
Keeps the faith
The one who
Learns
Grows and teaches
Is the Bona Fide
Genuine believer
We all know people who come
They accept Jesus
They get baptized
They come to church’ and then
Old Slick
Starts hammering on them
The world starts in on them
And
Their lives actually get worse
And they give up
Troubles come their way and their gone
Someone asks whatever happened to old- so and so
We check on them and soon they just quit answering or returning calls
Problem is they ain’t Bona Fide
And they may not Bona Fide because they never responded to pressure in the right way
Perseverance through trials is evidence of Bona Fide faith
So this morning
What I want you to leave here with is this
We will all face problems
Our attitude, reaction and responses can and will affect the outcome of those troubles
We were never intended to face our troubles alone
God always has a purpose for our troubles even when we can’t see or understand them
And God uses these problems as a way to bless us
So
Here are a few simple guidelines to dealing problems as a Bona Fide believer
First seek God in the problem
Ask God to answer the question -- not “why me”
But
What do you want me to learn from this?
Ask “How can I grow?”
Ask “What can I change?”
Ask” Did I cause this?”
Ask “What do I need to change?”
Ask “What are you trying to teach me and others through this?”
Close from the heart
Pray
