Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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?

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.