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This sermon was developed for the Army Community. It contains phraseology that may not be understood by the general civilian population.
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Today is Super Bowl Sunday.
I’m going to need a few volunteers. Now only volunteer if you like football.
Who is going to win the game? What’s going to be the point spread?
How many of you are going to have some friends over and watch the game, you know have a Super Bowl Party?
How many of you would be really happy if your CQ called and said you had to come in right a way and the half-time show just ended.
Or how many of you would be happy if you were to suddenly have a black out and you couldn’t finish watching the game?
These are all things that I suspect that none of us would like to have happen to us, but in the grand scheme of things are they real tragedies? Maybe to some of our volunteers, they would be a serious bummer, but a tragedy? I don’t think so. Life is what happens when you are making other plans.
As we all know life is full of problems and trials. Some are a nuisance such as a power outage during the Super Bowl, some are nagging like an a cold that just seems to go on forever and ever and some are much more serious, such as family problems, finical problems and problems at work. Trials such as these can be over whelming to the person or family in the middle of it. Sometimes there just seems to be no way out, no hope.
Today I would like to talk about a three step process that will help us face the trials of life with courage and reassurance.
Please turn with me to James chapter 1 verse 2. Today I will be reading from the New King James Version.
I. Step One – Patience (v. 2-4)
First and foremost James tells us to be joyful when we face the trials of life. This seems like a really weird thing to do. Who in their right mind would want to be happy when they are faced with the prospect of being deployed away from their family for a long period of time, or who would be happy about not having enough money to pay their bill for the month. And yet James says to be happy. If we were in such a situation what would we have to be happy about?
James goes on to say that we should be happy because the trail produces patience. But why should we be happy about having patience produced in us? Why can we just get patience instantly, why do we have to go through a trail? We have to go trails to develop patience so that we can become perfect and complete as children of God lacking nothing.
Think about it. Anything in life that is worth doing requires a trail of some sort. When you learned to walk did you just stand up and start walking? No of course not. First you had to learn how to crawl and then stand up and then take your first step, and in doing all of that you had to fall down a lot and most likely cry.
Or perhaps when you were older how many of you could just pick up a musical instrument a play well it without any lesions or experimenting at all? I don’t think we have anyone here like that. To learn to play an instrument well you have to practice, practice and practice some more. For sure it is a trail, a trail for the child learning and a trial for the parent trying to get the child to practice after the first week when the kid has lost interest and realizes that musical ability takes real work to develop.
Patience is the first step in trouble shooting the trails of life. We all go through trials. Each trail develops a certain amount of patience whether you want it or not. The patience developed can then carry forward to the next trail that you face. The key is using the patience that you have developed in the past to help move you through the next trail.
I’m sure that most of you have heard this illustration before, but it really illustrates the virtue of patience. Thomas Elision was not an instant success with the electric light bulb. He had to experiment for months and months before he found the right combination of elements to produce a reasonably long lasting electric light bulb. As I recall he had to try over 1000 times before he was successful. Now that’s patients.
The first step in trouble shooting the trials of life is PATIENCE.
II. Step Two – Wisdom (v. 5-8)
With the development of patience comes wisdom. If you learn from your past trails you certainly will gain wisdom. The old adage of history repeats itself if you don’t learn from the past is certainly true. I’m sure we can all point to things in our past we have gone through more than once because we didn’t learn from our past mistakes.
It should be noted however that there will be trails in your life that you won’t have any idea how to deal with. James recognizes this when he instructs us to ask for wisdom when we lack it. Perhaps the best thing about wisdom is that God gives it so freely.
King Solomon of the Old Testament had a dream in which God came to him and asked if he could have any one thing what would it be? Solomon could have said power, or wealth or victory in war, but instead he asked for wisdom. Shortly after the dream Solomon was presented with a difficult situation a trail if you will. You may recall that two women came to him, both claiming that the others baby had died and that the one living baby belonged to her. Solomon of course had no way of knowing who the baby really belonged to so he ordered that the baby be cut in half and that each woman be given a half. Now if the story ended right here it would be truly barbaric, but the Wisdom of Solomon becomes evident when the real mother of the baby willingly gives the child up to the other woman so that the child may live. It was at this point Solomon knew who the baby belonged to.
If we ask for wisdom, God will freely give it to us on one condition. When we ask for wisdom we must do so with faith, that is, believing that God will give it to us. To ask for wisdom in a half-hearted way is the same as not asking for any wisdom at all.
In verse six James says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” James goes on to say in verse eight that a person who asks for wisdom but lacks faith, he or she will receive it is split in their desires. In essence James is saying that if you ask for wisdom without faith believing that you will receive some, you won’t get any.
Let me ask this question, could it be that sometimes we get stuck in our trails because we are not convinced that we really need God’s help? Sure we may say that we are trusting God and we may even pray for wisdom, but do we truly believe that God will give us the wisdom we are asking for? Do we really want God to help us? You know the new Army slogan is “An Army Of One.” This slogan seams to reflect how our society views itself in terms of needing the help of others including God.
It seems to me however, that if we really want to deal with the troubles and trials of life we need get all of the help we can get. God is willing to give us wisdom, why not take help that is infallible and apply it to whatever trail you may face.
So step one in trouble shooting the trails of life is patience. Step two is seeking God’s perfect wisdom. Step three is endurance.
III. Step Three – Endurance (v. 12)
When we find ourselves in the middle of one of life’s trails its normal to try and find the quick fix, the easy way. After all who likes trials and tribulations?
I recently heard a story about a mule that fell into a broad well. When the owner discovered the mule in the well he figured that there was no easy way to get the animal out. It was a shame that the animal was still alive and appeared to be uninjured, but there was no easy way to get him out. The only reasonable thing to do was to fill the well in and bury the mule in the process. It was better than letting the poor animal starve to death. So the owner gathered together his friends and workers and they started to shovel dirt into the well.
Needless to say the mule was upset when shovels full of dirt started to land on him. He was dazed and confused as the dirt began to pile up. But then something amazing happened the mule started to shake the dirt off and step up with each shovel full. After a while the animal was able to step out of the well and walk away.
Now fortunately this story has a happy ending for both the mule and the owner, but initially the owner wanted to take the easy way out of this problem. Could the owner have dug a ramp so the mule could get out? Sure, but that would have required hard work. The owner wanted a quick fix.
We need to be careful with quick fixes. Sometimes we get lucky and our quick fix solves the problem, sometimes they don’t. Often times quick fixes have unintended results as in the story of the mule. It seems to me however, that often when we attempt a quick fix for a trial of life we try to accomplish it in our own power and we rob ourselves of the opportunity of seeing what God and do for us.
I’m not saying that God dose not work in our lives though quick fixes, after all it could be argued that miracles are the ultimate quick fix, but I am suggesting that there is value in struggling with a trial, that there is value in having endurance. Quick fixes are fine as long as they are God guided and not guided by our own desire to get out of a trail of life as quickly as possible.
Remember in verse 12 we are told that the person who endures the temptation or trail as is in many translations is blessed. Gods blessing is a result of being patient and using God given wisdom. The ultimate reward for endurance is the crown of life… eternal life.
So next time you are make plans and life sneaks a trial in on you remember there are three steps to trouble shooting the problem. First you have to have patience, because patience develops perfection. Second you have to have wisdom, if you ask for wisdom from God it will be given to you freely, and third you must have endurance to see the trail through to then end. If you apply these three steps to your next trail or a trail you are currently in I suspect that you will discover that you are in control of your trail instead of your trail being in control of you.
