"The Profit of Mess"
Notes
Transcript
Intro: My experience going to the hospital
I can assure you that was one of the messiest, middle of the night, situations that I have ever been in. It was painful at its best and beyond uncomfortable. I could not escape it.
Have you ever had that happen before? You know, just a messy or uncomfortable situation that made you wish you were not in the middle of it? The kind you just wish you could avoid.
What does this have to do with where we are going today? It has a lot to do with it. There are books of the Bible that can make us uncomfortable, and we sometimes wish we could avoid.
Sometimes those books call attention to things we don’t want to look at or deal with and yet there is so much rich truth there. They bring up the mess and call us to self-evaluate.
The book of James is rich with that kind of truth. It can be tough to hear and quite direct. But I promise you it is worth the journey. I promise the mess is worth trudging through.
The book of James examines the relationship between faith and works, which is often messy when we try and separate the two. It will clearly teach us that our faith acts out.
The book of James will also teach us that our active faith can be very effective, having an impact in our personal lives as well as the city around us. It will likely test us all, but again, it is worth the journey.
James looks at many practical issues that we face in the world and in our lives. You may not struggle with them today but could easily at any moment.
He covers everything from trials, poverty, riches, materialism, favoritism, social justice, to what comes out of our mouths, worldliness, and boasting.
James hits on what it looks like for believers when making plans, praying, and what to do when we’re sick, among other heavy topics.
And though this book bounces around from subject matter to subject matter, it always comes back to the impact that faith has in the details of our lives and the lives of people around us.
James was most likely the half-brother of Jesus and was one of the leaders of the Jerusalem church alongside Peter. The people getting this letter were deep in their faith being defined.
This was a group of believers that were hard working everyday people but very poor and under a great deal of oppression by the ruling authority of that day who were quite wealthy.
Many were brand new in their faith, and most commentators agree, they were probably very immature in their faith. So new to faith and under trial and oppression do not mix well.
Trial and oppression don’t bring smiles to our faces, do they? Here in a few moments we are going to here James say, “Count it all joy…” to these people who are facing a lot of mess.
So, count it all joy? No doubt you all have been in a place, at some point, where life has blindsided you and joy was the furthest thing from your mind.
Christian life was not easy for these new believers. No doubt they were feeling the depth of following Christ. It was truly costing them something, more than they thought it would.
Have any of you been there before? The place where you felt like you’re getting hit at every end and following Jesus does not feel all that it’s cracked up to be? Count it all joy?
Have you ever said or thought this before, “I thought this was supposed to be easier.”? Maybe you’re there now. Maybe you just came out of this time. So, again, count it all joy?
As many of you have discovered, and I try to tell people, that the more you follow Christ, the more difficult this world can become. For many of you, new trials came out of nowhere.
Maybe some of you lost friends along the way. Maybe you lost your job or can’t even get work. Maybe you’re living with chronic illness or have lost someone very close to you.
Maybe you have a new expense you did not expect and can’t pay rent or buy food, or you have found yourself in the grips of relapse again and are not sure that you can ever beat this thing.
No matter what your situation is, you just simply feel burdened or your whole world feels turned upside down. It is in these moments that we feel the temptation to cash it in, right?
This is where I have, and I bet just about every single person in this room has, thrown in the towel before we even allowed God to work in the situation. I mean, how is He going to work in this?
You may find yourself thinking that God has given up on you or thinking that He does not love you as much as you think He did. You ever felt this, maybe not in these exact terms, but along that line?
If you are here today and have not gone through any trials or ever felt that way, chances are you are under the age of five, you are not breathing, or you are a cyborg.
Trials are an inevitable part of this life that we live in, but I want to make sure that we are clear on this, God is not going to allow trials to just simply be a burden.
He will make sure that trials, in the end, will deepen our faith and our trust in Him. You know how I know this? He has done it repeatedly.
From the Israelites in Egypt being slave driven, to the hospital room where there is little or no hope, this is what I have seen our Great God do in our trial journeys … He shows up.
Read passage: James 1:1-12
1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
So how is it that we can have joy, all joy, as James puts it, when we are going through a trial? How does our faith increase through trials?
Well look at some of the wording that He used. He mentions, “trials of various kinds”. He is talking about all types, big and small. He is saying, “All of them”.So, why and how joy?
We are going to look at four profits that can come from trials and hopefully have a better understanding or reminder of God’s perspective of trials.
The first profit that a trial can produce that we find in our passage today is that ...
1. We can grow in His likeness
1. We can grow in His likeness
Henry Nouwen, a Dutch Priest, once said, “We fail to see the place of suffering in the broader scheme of things. We fail to see that suffering is an inevitable dimension of life.
Because we have lost perspective, we fail to see that unless one is willing to accept suffering properly, he or she is really refusing to continue in the quest for maturity.
To refuse suffering is to refuse personal growth.”
The first truth that we discover is that James is not telling us to count it joy about our situation in the sense, "This is fun and so much to be excited about!”
No, James is saying the trials themselves are not joyful, but that we can be joyful because we are under the authority of a sovereign God who will accomplish His purpose even through the mess.
What is He accomplishing? He goes on to tell us verses 3-4. Read James 1:3-4
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The testing of our faith, living through the mess, develops steadfastness or perseverance. In other words, it begins the maturation of our faith. What does majority of our faith do?
It helps us as this world that is not our home starts to weigh heavy on us. When evil attacks, we can persevere! When the mess is active, we can be strong. How?
James says that God matures us so that we lack in nothing. This is the purpose, God’s goal in our faith is to mature in Him. The reason this is conflictive for us is because we don’t think like this.
We think more "me centered" about this life, don’t we? We want to be successful, have a nice job, attain certain goals, have the perfect spouse or family, not be sick.
Look, there is nothing wrong with those things, but when we are centered that way and not more on Jesus, we are devastated when the trials hit those things that we strive for or hold dear to us. Illus: My ability to do things for myself
When we are centered on God, to know God more, and to be more like Him, then we can be joyful in trials because no matter how tough, trials are always moving us closer to our goal.
Look, I get that this is a radical mindset, to live through and endure the testing of your faith, but to not work towards steadfastness and perseverance is to set yourself up to always be let down.
When we are so focused on our circumstances getting fixed, we set ourselves up for being let down constantly. Why? Because rarely do the circumstances stay fixed or may never get fixed.
I don’t know about you, but I take it very seriously when Jesus said, “In this word you will have trouble…” So even when one thing is fixed, new messes are around the corner.
When we stay so focused on the mess that we are not leaning into Jesus during the mess and asking Him to deliver us through it, we will find ourselves living in a constant state of anxiety.
But listen, James says, if your goal is to know God more and grow in His likeness, then rejoice even in these trials, because no matter your circumstances, you will always achieve your goal.
It is in our trials that we experience godliness like no other way in this life. The second profit that comes from trials that we find in our passage today is that ...
2. We begin to trust in His wisdom
2. We begin to trust in His wisdom
Let’s read verse five again. Read James 1:5
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
You know what I see there? We are not where we need to be when it comes to trusting the wisdom of God. How do we handle this mess? How do we dig through?
Wisdom is something that we desperately need when we are walking through trials. When we walk in God's wisdom through our trials, we can grow in our own wisdom. Why?
Because God has complete knowledge of our situation, a proper perspective, an eternal perspective. It is one that we grow to understand more when we lean into Jesus.
There is our wisdom, right? It was Jesus that went through through every possible test and trial and prevailed through every one of them. Why would we not lean in and seek His wisdom?
Hebrews 4:15 says, “15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
God gets what we are going through, right? Jesus gets it and He is abundantly full of wisdom when it comes to our messes. The beauty of verse 5 then is this.
Not only does He offer and give it, but He gives it generously. He gives without question. He gives without hesitation. Take note though, it is something that you must ask for.
Keep in mind thought that His answer may not be easy, and it may not fix our circumstances even, but it allows to draw close to Him and He possesses all knowledge in how to walk through it.
Our natural inclination is to want to trust our way, our perspective, but he reminds us in 6-7 to believe and not doubt, because doubt will confuse us and bring us to trust ourselves first. Read James 1:6-7
6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
Think about your own life. How many times have you watched someone go through a tough situation and the wise decisions they make as they go through that mess?
This will put you in a place where you naturally trust that person and even go to them as you battle something similar. The more you trust that person the more you go to them.
This is how we should approach God in our relationship to trials and the mess. The more we go to Him in the mess and trust Him in the trials, the easier it is to trust Him when they hit us.
The third profit of trials that we find in our passage today is ...
3. We rely more on His resources
3. We rely more on His resources
This will be a theme that will be played out throughout the book of James. It is centered around poverty and wealth. It seems like an odd transition, but there is a point to what James is doing. Read James 1:9-11
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Most of his readers were likely poor, but some of them were wealthy and had come to trust their wealth to get them through things in this life.
In these verses James makes a point that trials have a way of leveling the playing field. He put it quite simple. If you are poor you can be reminded that your circumstance can lead you to trust God more.
But if you are of wealth you must be careful to not lean on your fortune. You are reminded money can't solve all your problems or cover all your pains.
You need to build your life on spiritual resources that only God can provide because in the end everything else will fade away.
It’s in these moments, when it is out of our hands, when it is all stripped away, that there is nothing else we can do but to trust that Jesus is going to walk us through it.
This is when, during a trial, if all we get is more of Jesus, that we can boast in that alone! This ties in so well and leads us to the fourth and final profit that we will look at today.
When we figure out how to be steadfast, even in the mess …
4. We lean into living for His reward
4. We lean into living for His reward
This section closes out with a quite poetic verse that seems to allude to the sermon on the mount. It’s here where he tells us the results of enduring these trials in life. Read: James 1:12
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Romans 8:18 Paul says, “For I consider the sufferings of this present age, the present time, are not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
James goes on to talk about the crown of life as the reward. Let's make sure we understand what he is talking about here.
This is not a crown like you picture a king or queen wearing, this is the reward of eternal life that James speaks of. He is setting us up to know that there is something on the other side of this life.
The whole point of what James is talking about here is having a proper understanding of your trials. Yes, there is pain, suffering, and sorrow here and now, but…Right?
But, at the end of this life, as we have endured and persevered through various trials, God meets us at the end of this race with eternal life.
In the end this is what James has been alluding to this whole time. You are fighting through these trials now because you are living for the reward that is to come.
Paul said it this way, 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison… 2 Corinthians 4:17
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
You see there will be a day and let me tell you I have said this at many funerals so let me encourage you today with it, the hope that is to come.
There will be a day where there is no more suffering, no more pain, no more sorrow, for believers don’t stay focused on the death that came with the cross.
Yes, there is a sting. Yes, there was suffering, but we don’t focus on the death on the crown that was one for us in the victory over death.
James has established for us this week the greater profit of trials. God is not above causing evil to happen in your life, no sir.
He is taking what was meant for evil in this life and will accomplish something in you that goes way beyond anything that you can fathom or imagine in your own wisdom.
I don’t know where all of you sit in life right now, but I know some. I would bet at some point or another you have been in a mess, and that hurt, and that suffering has been very real.
Know this, there is an enemy that wants you to believe that it is God that is inflicting this mess into your life and He has left you to wither away. That is condemnation and that is a lie.
Call the enemy out where he stands. That is a lie. You see if you are a believer there is no more condemnation. I know how easy it is to believe that lie.
You’re going to have to come to a place that you’re trusting God on His character, His sovereignty, and remember that He will never abandon or forsake you.
No matter where you are it is time to anchor in. If you have anchored into the wrong source, move the anchor into the hope of the Lord.
If you have anchored into the Lord already, dig in deeper and let Him help you persevere. If you have not begun those roots yet, let’s start today by giving your life to Him.