NOTES:
• This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
• This message was “team preached” with my co-pastor, Ryan Fregoso
› Engagement
We live in a culture that values comfort over character. And unfortunately, especially here in the United States, that is often true of those who are disciples of Jesus. We have been conditioned to think that suffering is something to be avoided at all costs. Even the remotest suggestion that there could be value in our trials is viewed as insensitive or uncaring.
But the Bible paints a completely different picture:
• God’s chosen people - Israel - spent over 400 years in slavery in Egypt.
• Later, the southern kingdom of Judah spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon.
• God’s prophets were constantly rejected by God’s people and often suffered persecution
• The early church suffered tremendous persecution and with one exception, the apostles all suffered horrible deaths at the hands of those who opposed them.
• And ultimately, the foundation of the gospel is the suffering of Jesus on the cross that makes it possible for us to have our sins forgiven so that we can have a relationship with God.
So it’s not really surprising that the letter we’re going to be studying for the next twelve weeks jumps right in and addresses the topic of suffering after a very brief, one-verse opening.
› Tension
Many of you are going through some kind of trial or difficulty in your life right now. Or maybe it’s a family member or friend who is in the midst of a valley. And if you’re not experiencing that kind of difficulty right now, based on the words of Jesus, I can pretty much promise you will be at some point in your life.
John 16:33 (ESV)
...In the world you will have tribulation...
And how you respond to that suffering will either push you away from God and make you miserable or it will draw you near to God and you will allow Him to use it to make you more like Jesus. For the most part, you can’t control your circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them.
› Truth
As I mentioned a moment ago, today we begin a twelve week series on the book of James. This is one of my favorite books and I preached a series on it back in 2013. At that time I spent one whole message just covering the background and authorship of the book. But this time we’re going to jump right into the meat of the letter, with just a brief review of the background.
The first verse helps us identify the author, the audience and the purpose of the letter:
James 1:1 ESV
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
Author
Although there are four men named James who are identified in the New Testament, there is nearly universal agreement that the author of the book is James, the half-brother of Jesus. Although he is mentioned only twice in the gospels, he rose to prominence in the early church in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost. By the time of the Jerusalem Council, almost 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus, we know from the account in Acts 15 that James was well respected as a leader of the church in Jerusalem and Paul referred to him as a “pillar” in the church in his letter to the Galatians. In addition to the external evidence in the writings of the early church fathers that he was indeed the author, the letter itself contains a great deal of internal evidence that supports his authorship.
But in the opening of his letter, James does not appeal to his audience on the basis of the fact that he is the half-brother of Jesus. Nor does he claim his authority as one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. Instead, he calls himself “a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Audience
I don’t want to get bogged down here by going into too much detail, but the intended audience appears to be Jewish Christians who have been scattered outside Jerusalem and possibly even outside Palestine. They had been dispersed because of the tremendous persecution they had faced in Jerusalem. Based on the letter itself, as well as historical writings, we also know that these disciples of Jesus were mostly poor and oppressed.
Purpose
Interestingly, James’ letter doesn’t contain a lot of basic doctrine, but instead focuses on how that doctrine ought to impact the way that his audience lived their lives on a daily basis. So it’s a great follow up to the series from Proverbs that we finished a couple weeks ago. And that is why we’ve titled this series “Faith Works” because we’re going to focus on how our faith ought to impact the way that faith should work in our lives.
With that background in mind, let’s read the rest of our passage for this morning:
James 1:2–12 ESV
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage today:
I find joy in my trials when I embrace them as God’s instruments for good
Before we go any further, it’s important to point out the difference between joy and happiness. While the two are certainly related, happiness is more of a feeling or emotion that depends on external circumstances. Joy, on the other hand is more of a choice that is not dependent on those circumstances. Probably the best way to explain the difference is by looking at this verse, which may be familiar to many of you:
Hebrews 12:2 ESV
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Obviously Jesus was not happy about going to the cross. But He did have joy, knowing that what He was about to do was going to provide the way for man to have a personal relationship with God. And as we talk more this morning about how to have joy in our trials, we’re going to see that James likely developed these principles by observing how his half-brother, Jesus, chose joy in His journey to the cross.
› Application
So the first thing we need to make sure we understand is that...
• Experiencing joy in my trials is a matter of my mind, not my emotions
James begins this passage with a command – “count”. That command to “count it all joy” is the main theme of this passage and the remainder of the passage then explains further how we are to do that.
That verb - count - actually has several different potential meanings. Its primary meaning is “to consider”, but it can also mean “to lead”. The word is actually derived from an accounting term that means “to add up all the figures and come to a conclusion.” When we put all those ideas together, we find that James is commanding his readers, and us, to make a deliberate and careful judgment after considering all the facts, rather than making a quick decision based on emotions.
So exactly how do we do that? Fortunately, James gives us some very practical advice on...
HOW TO COUNT IT ALL JOY
• Expect trials
One of the first things we notice in verse 2 is the little four letter word “when”. It’s instructive that James chose to use that word rather than another one he could have chosen – “if”. The implication here is clear - we shouldn’t be surprised when trials come into our lives. We saw that earlier when Jesus told His disciples that they would face tribulation as long as they are in this world.
So when trials come, instead of asking, “Why me, Lord?” maybe we should be thinking, “Why not me, Lord?”
• Trust that God has my best interests at heart
This may very well be the most important thing that we can take away from this message today. Ultimately the reason most of us don’t want to go through trials is that deep down inside we don’t really trust that God has our best interests at heart.
James addresses those doubts directly in verse 3. He writes that we “know” that the testing our our faith is intended to produce steadfastness. In other words, God wants to use the trials that come into our lives to help us develop steadfastness in our lives. We’re going to talk more about what steadfastness looks like in a few minutes.
Let’s pursue this idea a bit more. We’ll begin by looking at the word that is translated “trials” in verse 2:
“trials” =
Greek “pierasmos” =
“testing”
When we get to verse 13 next week, we’ll find that when James uses the same Greek word there, it is translated “tempted”. That is because the word in Greek has neither a negative nor positive connotation. So the context has to determine the proper translation.
In the passage we’re looking at this morning, the testing is being applied for the purpose of demonstrating the good in the object being tested. Peter comments further on this idea, using this same Greek word:
1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials [pierasmos],
7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The illustration that Peter uses here is very instructive. When gold is tested by fire, it for the purpose of proving that the gold is the real thing. According to both James and Peter, God either allows or brings trials into our lives so that we can demonstrate that our faith in Jesus is real. He does not bring trials into our lives to bring us down or hurt us, but rather to build us up and help us see that our faith is genuine.
Once again, God has chosen to test me by seeing if I’m going to practice what I’m preaching. When I first started working on this message a few weeks ago, I had a week where our family was put through several pretty challenging trials. And that really hasn’t let up. So I’m really grateful for so many of you as well as some of our church family who are no longer with us. Over the years, I have had the great privilege of watching you handle the trials in your lives and seen firsthand how God used those trials to prove the genuineness of your faith. And that was a real encouragement to me to remember that God is for me, even in the midst of my trials.
• Allow God’s process to run its course
As we have discussed many times before spiritual maturity is a process, not a destination. And it is a process that takes time and effort. There is no such thing as instant spiritual maturity.
In verse 4, we find the second command in this passage:
…let steadfastness have its full effect...
As Ryan promised a few minutes ago, we’re going to dig into this idea of steadfastness a little more. The underlying Greek word is a compound word that literally means “to remain under”.
“hupomone” =
“hupo” (under) + “meno” (remain, abide) =
“to remain under”
Many English translations render that word “patience”, but I’m really glad that the ESV has chosen to use steadfastness. The English word patience conveys passivity. But biblical steadfastness is not merely resignation or a “grin and bear it” attitude. Rather it is the ability to deal triumphantly with anything that life can do to us. It accepts the blows of life but transforms them into stepping stones to spiritual maturity. We see that in the second half of verse 4, which provides us with the purpose of these trials:
…that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
We’ve dealt with this idea of being “perfect” quite often, most recently in our study of Hebrews, but it won’t hurt to be reminded of how that term is used in the New Testament.
Greek “telios”=
“having reached its end”
“complete, fully equipped or mature”
James uses the technique of Hebrew parallelism here by combing that word with two other words or phrases that serve to amplify the meaning of “perfect” - “complete” and “lacking in nothing”. Both serve to further emphasize that God desires to use the trials in our lives to help us mature spiritually. God wants to use the trials in our lives to make us more like Jesus and to equip us for the purposes for which God created us.
The implication here is that even though God desires to use the trials in our lives for the purpose of helping us to mature, we can hinder that process by not submitting to what God desires to do in our lives.
When Mary and I decided that we were ready to have children, we were unable to conceive. So for three years we went through all kinds of medical tests and various treatments before Mary finally became pregnant. At the time, those were three long years, but looking back I am so thankful that God took us through that trial. Mary and I both learned to trust God much more deeply that we ever would have had we been able to get pregnant right away. And at the end of that trial, we were blessed with the birth of a beautiful girl who has grown into a godly woman, wife and mother.
• Pray for wisdom
Most of the time when trials come into our lives, the first thing we ask God is “Why?” “Why me, God?” And once we ask that question our next prayer is almost always for God to remove that difficulty from our lives. But as we just saw, the key to letting God use trials for good in our lives is to remain under that difficulty for long enough so that He can accomplish His purposes in our lives.
So rather than pray to be removed from our trials, James instructs us to pray something else first - wisdom. And when we begin by praying for wisdom rather than relief, it causes us to focus more on the questions of “How?” and “What?” - “God, how do you want to use this trial to make me more like Jesus?” or “What do you want me to do in response to this trial?”
Unfortunately, verses 5-8 are regularly taken out of context and used as a general exhortation to pray for wisdom. Obviously that’s never a bad thing to do. But we can’t ignore the context where these verses are sandwiched between the rest of the passage that is dealing with how to approach the trials in our lives in in a way that we become more mature. James is going to deal with wisdom in more general terms later in his letter, but the command to ask for wisdom here is directly related to how to handle our trials.
In a sense, this is really the key to the entire process of counting it all joy. When we pray for wisdom, we are essentially asking God to let us see things from His perspective. And that provides us with the encouragement we need to remain steadfast.
That leads us to our last principle...
• Let God be enough
Beginning in the second half of verse 5 and going through the end of verse 8, James gives us some instructions about how we are to pray for wisdom. The first thing we have to do is to recognize that it is God’s nature to give generously and without reproach. That means that when we pray for wisdom. God delights in answering that prayer because, as we’ve already touched on, He wants what is best for us.
But we are also warned not to be double-minded and doubting when we ask for wisdom. When trials come a double-minded man often turns to God as an anchor, but the problem is that he doesn’t really trust that God alone is going to be adequate so he also latches onto other anchors as well – usually his own strength, resources and abilities.
I think this is particularly difficult for us as men. We like to jump right in and fix things on our own. But sometimes when we do that and we don’t wait for God, we actually short circuit the work that God wants to do in us and through us.
In the late 1980’s I was working for a land developer and as the real estate market began to crash. And I could see the handwriting on the wall and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I was out of a job. So I applied for a position as an executive pastor at a large church here in Tucson. And I was actually very qualified for the position with my background and experience. But the problem is that I did that on my own without really consulting God first. So while it might have appeared that I was trusting God, in essence I was being a double-minded man and coming up with my own plan just in case God didn’t come through.
Fortunately, God kept me from getting that job, because had I taken that job I would probably still be there today and I would not be where I am now, which I believe with all my heart is where God wanted me to be. That’s what happened when I quit being double-minded and finally allowed God to be enough.
We’ve seen this morning that...
I find joy in my trials when I embrace them as God’s instruments for good
› Action
• Undoubtedly there are some of you who are going through some trial in your life right now. If that is the case, then I want to encourage you to just take a “time out” and consider how you can apply the principles that we’ve learned today to your individual situation.
• If you’re not currently in the midst of a valley, this is one of those messages that I’d encourage you to hang onto in some way. Maybe hang on to your notes or bookmark the audio or video of the sermon on your web browser. Or even make some notes right in your Bible. Because there is going to come a time when you’re going to need to apply what you’ve learned today - either in your own life or in the life of somebody you love.
› Inspiration
A couple weeks ago, in the midst of a difficult week, our daughter, Pam, pulled out a Bible that had been given to her some time back by her grandmother Billie. And she was drawn to open the Bible to this passage that we’ve studied this morning where she not only read the Scriptures, but also the notes her grandmother had made in that Bible years ago. And in the midst of that difficult week she found joy in the words of James and in the words of her grandmother. My prayer for you is that you, too, would choose joy, regardless of your circumstances.
