Joy in Our Trials

Introduction

Over the last few months of 2022 we spent time going through several Old Testament books in Jonah and Ruth while taking a bit of a break from Hebrews to go through our Advent series and now church mission series for 2023. As we kick off a new year and get ready to get back into Hebrews during our Sunday morning services, it was also time to tackle another book for Sunday nights. Given that we’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Old Testament at the end of last year, I wanted to go the New Testament route and prayed and James was the answer to that prayer. I’ve taught Bible studies and Sunday school classes through James, but I’ve never preached through the whole book! I’m excited to go verse by verse through this incredible letter for the next few weeks as we see the importance of having a faith that leads to works of righteousness for the glory of Jesus Christ!

James is a book that addresses plenty of important and at times controversial subjects in our world today. From dealing with temptation to choosing our words carefully to the importance of listening to the importance of giving to those who have needs, James deals with many topics but as we go through this book slowly, we will better be able to see what his points are in their rightful context. As we studied the last few Sunday mornings, we are living in a dark world that desperately needs the light of the Gospel. James helps us shine that light as James will encourage and challenge us to live a changed life through our actions instead of simply with our words or social media posts. James’ call to obey our Lord and Savior are found throughout this letter (59 commands in 118 verses) and we must understand today that genuine faith in Jesus is a working faith for Jesus. Our actions do not save us… but if we have been saved by grace through faith in Christ, we will naturally seek to obey what Jesus commanded as a new creation and seek to share the Gospel to those around us.

Let’s begin this study by looking at the first 12 verses of this letter

James 1:1–12 CSB

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings. 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.

The Purpose of Trials (1-4)

This morning we talked about the truth that every single human being experiences suffering and trials of different shapes and sizes. Many wander, though, why exactly we face these things. What is the purpose behind trials? James addresses this question and he provides the Biblical answer to it - but it’s important for us to discover who James is talking to whenever he says what he says in these opening verses.

It’s one thing for someone to say that we should rejoice during our trials whenever they themselves haven’t suffered. That can come across as insensitive and their words, even if they mean well, can fall on deaf ears. Think about the differing opinions that people have when it comes to trials in the Christian life in the first place. You have a growing group who views trials and suffering as something to be completely avoided and they argue that it is God’s will to never suffer. Therefore, if you do suffer then the reason why you are suffering is because you lack faith in God. If you just have more faith in God then you won’t suffer anymore. If you just have more faith in God then your kids won’t get sick. If you just have more faith in God, you will be prosperous in all that you do and have more money and less problems. Just have more faith. It doesn’t take much reading in God’s Word to quickly realize that this is a theology based on feelings, not Biblical facts. It sounds nice, but it’s not Biblical. God’s people have historically been a suffering people and as God’s Word shares with us, God has a purpose in that suffering. We don’t have a Savior without suffering and to say that suffering isn’t God’s will is to say that the cross wasn’t God’s will and it certainly was according to Acts 2 and Acts 4.

I’ve had people with a straight face tell me that if I just had more faith in God, I wouldn’t have a chronic condition like Type 1 Diabetes. They’ll argue that you’re a bad pastor because you clearly don’t have enough faith in God because of your health situation - how can you lead a congregation? It’s ironic that one of the leading Word of Faith/Prosperity Gospel preachers wears glasses… they’ll argue that it’s always God’s will to heal… except when it comes to Bill Johnson’s eyesight but that’s another story for another time! Why do we go through trials? Why do we suffer? We have 2 options.

It’s all random and we don’t know why

It’s not random and we don’t always know why

Why does understanding the context of James help us see the correct answer here? Because James is writing to Jewish Christians who have been spread out throughout the Roman world and they are hurting. They are poor. They are being persecuted to some extent, largely from Jewish believing people. They are undergoing trials and James’ encouragement to them is to remind them that they are not random… They are purposeful! For this reason, James says to rejoice in these trials because God is using them to do something beautiful!

Now, let’s be clear here… James doesn’t say to smile when it’s fake. He’s not saying that you have to fake it till you make it. He’s not saying you lie. Your brokenness is welcome here with your faith family and as we realize that we’re all broken and we’re all suffering, we should dive into the Scripture even more eagerly to see what God is doing in our suffering. Here James provides us with a Biblical answer. God is making us more like Jesus as we go through every type of trial. How do we know this? Because he doesn’t only say to rejoice whenever you go through persecution for your faith… as if that suffering is the only suffering to rejoice in. He says rejoice during various trials because they teach us to persevere.

This is exactly what Paul mentioned this morning in Romans 5. God desires us to grow in our faith, to mature, and it is impossible to mature without trials. Think about that statement for a minute. It’s impossible to mature spiritually without spiritual trials. Let’s think about this in a physical sense. We have 2 types of people here at FBC Salem: Those who enjoy running long distances and those who think they other group are crazy! Think about running a long distance race for a minute. If you’re going to run a marathon, you’re not going to just get off the couch the day of the race and survive, much less actually finish the race - it’s not going to happen! Your muscles aren’t trained properly. You need to mature and train and practice. Growth requires discomfort. Maturity requires us to train. Training will lead to some pain. But it’s purposeful pain. What is the purpose? As you train, you are getting closer to your goal of running the race. Our Christian life is often compared to a race that we’re running. How can we prepare ourselves to run? We mature. How do we mature? We practice and we train and part of training is undergoing trials and those trials will hurt - they’re not always easy! But they’re purposeful as God is training us to become more and more like Jesus. To depend more and more on His power in us and not our own abilities and strengths.

This doesn’t mean that trials are easy… but it does mean that they lead to something good, even when we don’t feel good. Spurgeon put it like this, “In shunning a trial, we are seeking to avoid a blessing.” That’s not a natural way to think - but if we are going to mature and rejoice in our faith, we must seek to understand that God knows what He is doing, even when we don’t. Yes, we’re in a battle each day… but God has already won it. Even when we can’t see what He’s doing - we know what He’s done. Therefore, we can rejoice because God has us in His hand and God has a purpose for us… even in the suffering!

The Person With Us in Trials (5)

The reason we know that we can rejoice is ultimately because we know the end of the story. Again, think of the book of Revelation. What is the 2 word theme of the entire book? It’s not Left Behind! It’s God Wins! Not only does God win in the end, but God has already won through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Think about this… Jesus said that it would be for the benefit of His people for Him to go away and for the Holy Spirit to come. Why do you think He said that? Because instead of God being around them, whenever He sent the Holy Spirit, God would now literally be with them wherever they went. What a blessing!

Does God leave us whenever we enter into a trial?

Hebrews 13:5 CSB

5 Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you.

No! He’s with us in our trials. This means that whenever we don’t know what to do in a trial, the best thing to do is to pause and ask God for wisdom… because He’s with us, and because God gives to all generously. This is good news because usually whenever we need wisdom the most - we realize that we lack wisdom the most. Whenever someone snaps at you, in that moment you need Godly wisdom the most, and sadly, most of the time we reveal that we don’t have it because we snap back. Whenever our flesh gets involved, we usually demonstrate our lack of wisdom… but that’s not how it has to be. Whenever we’re in a trial, James shares that in that moment, the best thing to do is to admit that we don’t always know what to do. Sometimes the best thing to do is to simply stop doing anything and pray and ask God to guide us as we take our next step. That’s hard! But we serve a good, generous God!

Look at what our God does for us:

He gives wisdom generously

He gives to all who ask

He gives ungrudgingly

This is great news and it’s all because He is with us that we can ask for His aid in the first place! God’s not going to be upset at you for asking Him for His help… in fact, that is the first thing that we need to be doing, is it not?

In Daniel 3 we know that there was a 4th person with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the fiery furnace. While it’s not explicitly in the text that this was Jesus Christ, many believe that it was. This is a great picture for us in our trials today to remember that there is another in the fire with us, so to speak. He’s with us in our trials. He provides wisdom for us whenever we need it. But sometimes this leads to some problems…

The Problem We Have During Trials (6-11)

Our problem at times in trials is that we fail to ask God for wisdom in the first place! Have you ever been there? We all have been before, even if we don’t like to admit it. James shares several ways not to ask God for wisdom in the verses that follow. Here’s one of our problems that we have whenever we go through trials… we treat God like one of us. What does that look like? Not only do we at times fail to ask God for wisdom in our trial but there are other times that we’re in a trial and times are hard but we look around at God and as we ask Him, there are times where we treat Him like another human. What if God lets me down? What if God doesn’t have the time for me like this other person? What if God doesn’t know how to solve this problem? We make a mistake to treat God as though He were man and in turn, we often elevate ourselves to the status of God. This is our problem: We often fail to initially turn to God, and when we do, we often fail to trust fully in His power and goodness.

James is not saying that we declare what God must do and if not then the problem is our lack of faith - that’s not what the point is here. The point James is making is that God has the goods to get it done - regardless of the trial or problem and we have to hold onto that truth during our trial. Not only is God with us during our trial, but God is good and trustworthy in our trial too.

What does James mean as he talks about the doubter being tossed around by the waves? Think of this picture in terms of a person in a boat like James’ audience would have been familiar with being in the Mediterranean Sea. You’re going through your life and out of nowhere a storm hits and the waves start to pick up - this happens in our lives whether it be an unexpected phone call, health diagnosis, or relational conflict. Whenever the boat starts to rock we are told to immediately go to God and ask for wisdom. Here’s what some people do and if we’re honest, we all do this. We go to God and then 1 minute later we immediately go back to looking at the waves and we start making our own plan and we go back to what got us in the problem in the first place. That person, the person who trusts in themselves and occasionally goes to God for help, that person is unstable because they lack a fundamental trust in the Lord.

James has been called the New Testament book of Proverbs by more than a few people and for good reason. Look at what Proverbs says about this same principle

Proverbs 3:5–6 CSB

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.

If we lack wisdom, what must we remember? That we aren’t supposed to trust in ourselves. We trust in the Lord. We don’t rely in our own understanding - we look to Him and He saves us and helps us out because of His power, not ours.

In our trial our temptation is to fail to trust in the Lord but after our trial our temptation is to boast in our power, understanding, and wisdom. This too goes against what James teaches! Look at verses 9-11, James tells us to not boast in ourselves and what we have done but instead to trust in what God has given to us. James’ audience was poor - very poor in fact - and whenever you are at rock bottom, trusting in God is all that you have because you can’t trust in material things… but if you have much, even if you don’t think that its much, there can be a temptation to trust in self and worldly things and find your identity in a worldly title or a social status rather than in the One who gave you those things in the first place.

We talked about this last week when it comes to being generous givers with the things that God has first given to us, problems in our lives force us to realize that money and worldly possessions do not solve our problems. Those things will burn up one day as God’s Word tells us and we’ll have nothing left to stand on… except for God’s Word and the treasure that we store up in glory. That is what James calls us to boast in. Instead of falling in line with a world that loves self and the treasure of this temporary world, James calls on us to remember that we are ultimately rich in Christ and that reality should humble us like Philippians 2 commands

Philippians 2:5–8 CSB

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

Without Jesus we’re all bankrupt even if we were the highest paid CEO with the nicest car and biggest house. As Christians, we must remember that our boast is not in what we have or who we are in terms of our job or status… but in Whose we are and I pray for us that is a reminder that ultimately we are in Christ Jesus. Only Jesus can solve our sin problem and only by looking to Jesus can we avoid the problem of trusting in ourselves or what we have done. We all need to trust and look to Jesus who alone provides.

The Promise After Our Trials (12)

What does Jesus ultimately provide? Let’s go back to our race image from before. You’re prepared for your race. You’ve trained. You’ve disciplined yourself. You’ve endured hardship during the race. You’ve gone through adversity. You’ve run the race faithfully even though there were some hills and valleys in more ways than one… Finally, you arrive at the finish line. What is awaiting you? No, not a recliner and not a nice cup of coffee, instead you receive a wreath to place on your head after you won the race. Who receives the crown after the race? Only the winner. Unlike modern society, races remind us that there is only room on the platform for those who place. Only the winner receives the gold medal. What James is telling his audience, and us 2,000 years later is that we run in such a way as to receive this crown. How do we run? With our eyes fixed on Jesus as Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us

Hebrews 12:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This doesn’t mean that we run the whole way - you’ll probably have several moments where you slow down… but as a Christian you’re always moving one direction and we have to understand this. There is no room for complacency or stagnancy in the life of a Christian, you’re either moving toward Christ or away from Him. We’re called to grow and look more and more like Jesus each day of our lives and as we endure the trials of this life through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we walk in that newness of life each day and we succeed. Not because of our own power or righteousness but that of Jesus.

We’re all running this race - all 8 billion of us on planet earth, but only some will receive this crown of life. It’s not the person who runs the fastest - praise the Lord! It’s not the person who runs with the best technique. It’s not the person who runs with the most money or friends, either. It’s the person who puts their faith in Jesus Christ and runs after Him daily as His Word instructs. James 1:12 promises that it is promised to those who love God receive this crown. This person always faces trials during the race like every other runner, but they look ahead to the finish line knowing that there is a promise awaiting them when they get there and that promise is a person and His name is Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:17 CSB

17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.

One day the sufferings and trials of this life will be no more. One day we will reach that stage of maturity and lack nothing and be with our Lord and Savior and that’s going to be a great day! But that day is not today for most of us. So what do we do while we wait? We rejoice in - not because of - our trials. We endure each day knowing that God is at work in us. Knowing that He is doing something even if we can’t feel it or see it. Praising Him for all that He’s done before and what He promises to do in the days to come. Remembering that He sends us trials because He loves us and because He desires to see us grow in our trust of Him and in the knowledge of His Word!

This week as you go throughout your life, pray that God would grant you wisdom as you seek to glorify Him through trials of all shapes and sizes. Whether it be a person driving you crazy, a health situation, a financial situation, a relational situation, we all go through trials. Commit to be a Christian who encourages your brothers and sisters in their trials by praying for them, giving them the truth of Scripture, and reminding them of the hope that is awaiting us because that provides us with hope in the midst of our trials… There is joy to be had in our waiting. Choose Joy Today!