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.
Now with aluminum you have to heat the metal up to about 1000 degrees, just below the melting temperature if you go to 1100 degrees you will liquefy the material. So you leave this metal at 1000 degrees for 10 hours. Then you drop it in a quenching tank of water which is 170 degrees. The moment that the metal hits the water it disperses the atoms in the metal making the aluminum object very flexible.
Then there is a thing that is called natural age. This will occur with in 24 to 30 hours after the quench. You must have the object bent into the correct shape with-in this period of time. Once the casting is straightened it is placed into a over at 550 degrees for 8 hours which is called aging the casting. This is what causes the casting to become hard and allows it to hold it shape.
I am not telling you all this to make you a metallurgist. I just want you to see the similarities of our life.
God first makes us from nothing… It is kind of like taking that liquid metal and putting it into a mold. You get a product but it is not very strong. It looks good and it looks like it would be strong but in reality it is not.
Then God allows us to go through trial and temptations in our life. It is like the Heat Treating Process. We usually go through this process shortly after we accept Christ and allow him to be our Savior and Lord. We go through this process and it takes the little strength and begins to make us weak. We become flexible so that God can change our shape and straighten us out. It is during this process that we learn to rely on God’s strength rather then our own.
Now if we don’t get into a bible study or a church we will soon be like the natural age. We will have salvation and we will be stronger then we were before but we will never live up to the potential that God had for us. You see just like the natural aging process, the casting is stronger, but its strength is only about half as strong as it could have been. That is why we need to become active in bible study, prayer, and church. So that we can reach the full strength that God has for us.
During this time there will be many temptation and trial that will come our way. The closer we get to God the more trials we will have but He is strengthening us. He is putting us in the Aging oven of life. We are to learn from these trials. They are not situations that we want to go through but they are necessary for us to ever reach our potential.
James tells us to count it all joy or as the NIV put it we are to rejoice. Why? Because if we learn to lean on God for his provisions and strength we will be stronger Christians then we ever dreamed possible. God is still molding us into the person that He wants us to be.
There is a cute poem that I read this week its called the Oyster
There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that sand had got under his shell;
Just one little grain, but it gave him much pain,
For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain.
Now, did he berate the working of Fate
Which had led him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse out the Government, call for an election?
No; as he lay on the shelf, he said to himself,
“If I cannot remove it, I’ll try to improve it.”
So the years rolled by as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny—stew.
And this small grain of sand which had bothered him so,
Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow.
Now this tale has a moral—for isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand;
What couldn’t we do if we’d only begin
With all of the things that get under our skin.
Along the heat-treating process there is one other very important issue that I want you to know. Look at verse 4, “But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.”
Now one thing that we don’t have in America is patience. We want it and we want it now. We seldom have time to wait on God. But James tells us that we have to have patience. The piece of sand would never become a pearl nor would the lump of coal ever become a diamond were it not for time.
Time has a way of teaching and healing. If we could only have the patience to wait on God’s direction think of all the mistakes that we would have avoided in life. James states that it is enduring with patience that produces perfection.
Think of the piece of metal again if we do not let the casting stay in the heat treat oven for the 10 hours but get in a rush to get it out it will never be as strong as it could have been. If we do not let it set in age for the 8 hours it will never reach full strength either.
But there is one other thing, sometimes we have to much patience and we just sit around waiting for God to tell us what to do next. We stop doing anything. When this happens the natural aging process begins to happen. And we never ever reach the strength that would have been if we would have been in the Aging oven for just a few hours.
That is what has happened to most churches in the United States that have either plateau or are in decline. It is because they have settled into the 1950 or 60’s they refuse to change and to adapt to meet the needs of the community in which God placed them. They are two busy taking care of the people in the church to worry about those outside its walls. We must always be asking the Lord for wisdom as we make the changes necessary to meet the needs of the community. Which leads me to verse 5
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally and with out reproach, and it will be given to him.”
Wisdom, if there is one thing we need to be asking God for is wisdom. Solomon did and became the wise man to ever live. We are faced with so many trial and temptations, we are face with so many obstacles to our faith, we are faced with so many lost and looking for wisdom. If there is one prayer that I have for this church it is for wisdom.
In the early days of the automobile a man’s Model-T Ford stalled in the middle of the road. He couldn’t get it started no matter how hard he cranked nor how much he tried to advance the spark or adjust things under the hood. Just then a chauffeured limousine pulled up behind him, and a wiry, energetic man stepped out from the back seat and offered his assistance. After tinkering for a few moments the stranger said, “Now try it !” Immediately the engine leaped to life. The well-dressed individual himself was Henry Ford. “I designed and built these cars,” he said, “so I know what to do when something goes wrong.” God, as our Creator knows how to “fix” us when our lives are in a mess too.
How often we try to fix our problems with out seeking God’s wisdom. How often do we find ourselves in a ditch that is getting deeper and deeper. How many hardships would we have avoided if only we would have sought God’s wisdom. Most of the time we never seek it until we find ourselves lying in the mess that we have created. God does hear us and brings us out of them but think of the pain that would have been spared if only we would have sought his advice first.
Why don’t we make a commitment today to seek wisdom first in our lives. Before we venture out into new projects, new ministries, new adventure let us always seek God’s wisdom first then we know he will bless it because it is His will.
Verses 6 and 7 “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. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
If there is one thing that we can learn from the more charismatic churches is these simple verses. I think that if God moved in a mighty way in most of our Baptist churches we wouldn’t know what to do. Because we really don’t expect him to do it. We pray for spiritual awakening… We pray for revival… We pray for healing… But can I be honest with you….
I don’t think we ever expect it to happen. If we did the alter would be full each day and every night seeking God. No, I think that we are to comfortable, I think we are to legalistic, I think were to traditional for God to ever move among us. Can I be honest… I think were too busy going through the motions. If we ever want to reach the potential that God has for this church we are going to have to start praying with conviction and be willing to step out in faith when God touches our heart.
In verse 8 James warns us of the implications of praying for something and not believing it will happen.
“he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
So what are you willing to do?
Let me end with this final story, it is a story about an old farmer whose mule fell into the well. After many unsuccessful attempts to haul the mule out of the hole, the farmer decided it was hopeless. With sadness, he instructed his boys to fill up several truck loads of dirt and just bury the old mule right in the well. Dutifully, the boys backed up the truck filled with dirt, and shovel by shovel, they began to fill the well and bury the animal. The mule did not take kindly to this action. The first shovel of dirt hit him square on the head, got in his eyes and mouth, and made him sneeze. Every shovel full after that hit him somewhere, causing that old mule to stomp around in the bottom of the well. Several trucks of dirt later, the mule was still stomping and packing dirt firmly underneath his feet. Little by little, that mule was lifting himself out of the hole. Sure enough, about mid-afternoon that mule simply stepped out of the well and snorted at the whole business.
I have noticed there are different ways people have of dealing with the problems life throws at them.
Some are constant complainers.
* They do not handle setbacks and upsets very well.
* Some of them cannot even handle normal events.
* Others are defeated at the slightest difficulty.
* Quite a few get confused, turned around and seem not to know what to do.
Then there are a few who are invincible. They are like the mule. Problems can hit them square on the head, but they just stomp around enough until they actually use the problem to rise above it.
So what about you, I can tell you that you can do all things yourself for the Lord but if you don’t cover all the bases it doesn’t matter.
Richard Newcome told the story of a professional base ball game. It was the bottom of the ninth, down by 3 runs, the bases were loaded, and there were two strikes. The situation that dreams are made of. The player stepped up to the plate and hit the ball in the right corner. He round all the bases and it appeared to be a infield grand slam home run.
But after closer review they noticed that the batter never touched first base. And the player was tagged out, the game was over and the team lost the game.
There are a lot of Church folk that have missed first, First Base is accepting Jesus Christ as your savior and Lord. Some of you need to do that today. Second base is Baptism and some of you need to do that today. Third base is Lordship, Some of you need to make the Lord the Lord of your life… You’ve hit first and second but you have never made the Lord the top priority in your life. You see the only way to get a home run is to touch all the bases, You miss just one base and none of the others matter. You can quickly turn a home run into an out.
What’s missing in your life? Which base do you need to touch?
Lets Pray
