Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading Isaiah 53

Welcome

Good Morning and thank you for being here this morning.

If you are new with us today, I am glad you are here today.

If you have any questions please find me after church or fill out a connection card with your contact information and I would love to get in contact with you.

We have a couple of announcements today.

We have a business meeting today after church.

I would ask all member to stick around.

It will be a short meeting to vote on the interim pastor position.

It will be here in the sanctuary.

Announcements

Women's Potluck Brunch.

Bible study sign ups in the foyer.

Small groups start up the second week of October

Operation Christmas Child

Prayers

God’s Direction for the Church

Gordie and the family with the passing of Joani

Clara Barker - Hip Surgery Recovery

The Lost People in our lives.

Let us Pray

Introduction

We have been going through the first chapter of James for the last couple of weeks.

Feel free to turn there as we will be reading from James 1 in a little bit.

James has been walking through and teaching on how Christians grow and mature as believers.

He has been walking his readers through this the maturing process that God uses for his children.

So far he has taught that when we experience trials that we are supposed to look at the bigger picture.

And that when a believer’s faith is tested, they gain endurance and mature.

A believer is approved through the testing and because of the outcome of growth of the believer, we are to count these trials and joy.

We all know that this is easier said and done and James continue to teach that in order to deal with these trials in this way, a believer must ask God for the wisdom to live in this way but the person asking must not be divided in their mind and must have confidence that God will provide this wisdom otherwise they will not receive it.

Last week we looked a specific trial that all people deal with in their life and that is the trial of material wealth.

That there are people that are seen as poor and there are those that are seen as rich.

The poor person should boast in the fact that with Christ they have been put in a high position maybe for the first time.

The rich person is to boast in their humiliation or the opening of their eyes to the temporary nature of wealth.

James doesn’t teach that money is either good or bad but that the focus of the poor and the rich is to be on the eternal things of God and not the temporary things of man.

He then goes on to say that the one who endures trial will be blessed and receives the crown of life.

This is where we will pick up today but first lest open our bibles and read His Word.

James 1:2–18 (CSB)

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.

6 But let him ask in faith without doubting.

For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, 8 being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation, 10 but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

11 For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes.

In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.

12 Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

18 By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

The Blessed...

James 1:12 (CSB)

12 Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

A believer who has endured the trials is blessed or in a state of blessing.

They have stood the test and have come out the other side.

They have used the wisdom of God and have stood the test.

Stood the test means that some one has been “approved” because they have made it through the test.

Those that are “approved” will be given the crown of life.

The crown of life is given to those who love him.

At first glance through this, it looks like there is a subset of Christians that will earn this crown of life by the work that they do while they live on this planet.

However this is not what James is trying to communicate.

Many of you know that my oldest son Kayson is a black belt in karate.

To earn his black belt he had to be tested.

It was 3 hours of running and performing memorized forms, more running, move combinations.

running, board breaks, more running and more forms.

After 3 hours his instructor gave him his black belt.

How does this relate.

The test was not to see if he could become a black belt it was a test to see if he was already one.

It was an approval process and in the end he proved that he was a black belt.

James is saying those that are believer, those that love God.

Those that obey God love God,

John 14:21 (CSB)

21 The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father.

I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

John 15:9–10

9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Remain in my love.

10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

This is one of the most basic definitions of a believer, a person who has put their faith in the saving grace of God by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The best proof of that is the a person who lived a love of love for God.

A person who learns what the bible teaches and then lives accordingly to the word.

Not out of compulsion but out of love.

A person who loves God will see trials as part of God’s greater good and true believers will endure these trials and they will be approved as one who has been given the crown of life.

The gospel of Jesus Christ.

The good news of redeeming plan for man.

James is not saying a person earns this crown but demonstrates that they have already been given it.

The Inner Man

James continues with one a very challenging set of scriptures.

Not challenging to understand but challenging to accept because they are in direct opposition to out human nature.

Our natural self.

James 1:13–15 (CSB)

13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

We will walk through this step by step as James brings for the idea of self-deception and the progression of sin in a person’s life.