Faith in Trials

CRISIS

Opening Illustration: Tell a story about experiencing a specific trial (probably light-hearted about the recent half marathon)

COMPLICATION

Whenever we are put in a stressful or scary situation and our bodies are flooded with adrenaline, a lot of psychologists describe the 3 primary reactions that our bodies naturally undergo. Each one of us in the room tend to respond in one of these three ways to that adrenaline rush. Neither one is “right” or “wrong,” but they are all real. What are they?

(1) Fight, (2) Flight, and (3) Freeze

Show of hands, who reacts most often in the first way: Fight? Ok, how about Flight? And last, who tends to Freeze up in those scenarios? Ok, good. Remember, none of those responses is necessarily “good” or “bad,” or “right” or “wrong,” they’re just our natural reaction.

Interestingly enough, I think these 3 responses are very similar to how we are prone to respond in the face of suffering and trials. Here’s what I mean:

Fight: Some of us, when we face trials, decide that it’s time to muscle up and do life on our own strength. It turns out that faith isn’t good enough because life is getting too challenging, so we try to fight back against the suffering or trial we’re facing by working harder or doing more to try to make it go away. If any of us in the room tend to be performance-based people, this may be your natural response.

Flight: We face suffering and we want to run away from God. Maybe we just shut down or maybe we get angry. We start asking the “why me” question. We start doubting our faith and rebelling against God because if he was real and all this wasn’t just some mumbo jumbo, then our lives wouldn’t be in this place. The flight response in trials can also look like running towards various types of coping mechanisms and self-medicating behaviors (partying, sex, alcohol, drugs, you name it). We run away from all the “good behavior” stuff that has proven to be useless and we run toward things that promise us temporary relief. This flight response leads many people to run from faith when life gets hard. Maybe that’s been your reaction to walking through a recent trial.

Freeze: Another possible response to suffering is to freeze up. You just don’t know what to do anymore, so you just stop. You stop reading your Bible. You stop going to church. You stop praying. You stop talking to your friends about Jesus. You just stop. Suffering and trials get you really discouraged and you just don’t see a way out of it. You can’t see a way out of the darkness or the tunnel, so you just begin to shut down emotionally and you cut yourself off from God. You’re not mad at God, you’re not actively rebelling against him or anything like that, you just can’t seem to muster up the energy or the effort or willingness to draw near to him. Maybe that’s been you lately.

Clue

It is my goal tonight to show us that there’s a fourth response to suffering and trials that James is advocating for. There’s a better way. There’s a promise and a purpose in the midst of the pain. There’s a light in the tunnel.

Have you ever wondered why suffering is so central to Christianity? Isn’t it odd that our very salvation comes from the suffering of God’s own Son? Maybe suffering plays a role in our salvation—maybe there is a closeness to Christ that is gained there that couldn’t be gained any other way.

Climax

The early church was facing immense suffering and persecution; in fact, this letter is addressed to the “Diaspora,” referring to those that have been scattered and exiled from their homes because of persecution. Remember a couple of weeks ago when we spent time praying for the persecuted church? Those are the kinds of people James is writing to. At this point in history, the Romans were openly murdering Christians for fun and sport. They faced immense social persecution from their family and neighbors. They were jailed, beaten, fired from their jobs, and forced to flee from their homes. These early Christians understood what it meant to suffer.

To them, James offers…

3 Promises to Cling to in the face of suffering.

The joy of suffering (1:2-4)

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing,” (James 1:2-4).

Before we dive into the text tonight, let’s [PRAY]

These are perhaps some of James’s most famous words. And they are startling as opening words of the letter to a people who were literally running for their lives. James tells them that they can count it as joy that they are facing suffering and trial. Why? How?

In suffering, we come closer to Christ than we ever could in earthly prosperity (if possible, share a moment in your life where your own suffering/trial brought you closer to the presence of God).

Illustration: Share story about journeying through our miscarriages bringing Lauren and I closer than we ever could have been.

The reward of endurance (1:12)

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trail, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him,” (James 1:12).

What is “the crown of life” James references? Is James saying that the real reason we follow God is so that we can earn some kind of special prize in heaven?

I like to think of Paul’s words in Ephesians when I think about the blessings and inheritance that await us as believers:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ …In him we have obtained an inheritance….[we] were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory,” (Eph 1:3, 5-6, 11, 13).

So, that was all one massive run-on sentence (Paul was really getting carried away), but basically to sum up: our salvation in Christ gave us the status of adoption into God’s family. With that adoption came an eternal inheritance. That inheritance is promised and guaranteed to us by the Holy Spirit. This inheritance that Paul speaks of is the crown of life that James talks about.

Imagine all of the best moments of your life with Christ. The times you’ve felt closest to God, the moments of pure joy and peace, the comfort in trouble, all the greatest moments of feeling truly loved by the Father—all of those precious moments were glimpses of your inheritance that awaits you. These were the little hints that the Holy Spirit was giving you. The real inheritance, the crown of life, is getting to experience those in fullness, all the time!

The hope of Christ’s return (5:7-11)

“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful,” (James 5:7-11).

The reason that Christians can endure suffering and hardship is because we are awaiting the return of our glorious King who will make all things new.

Remember in our series “The Story,” we talked about what this future day will look like! Revelation 21 gives us a glimpse: that in the New Heavens and New Earth, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and there will be no more suffering; God will dwell with us once again in perfect peace! This is the hope that we long for and it’s this vision of Christ’s return that gives us hope even in the darkest time.

And it’s not just some far-off future that we can hope for one day: the reality of God’s Spirit dwelling in us is that we get to experience the personal presence of God every day while we wait for his eventual return. For James—and for us as well—this eschatology is not just a future hope, it is an ever-present reality.

Conclusion

Authentic faith endures suffering with joy and hope in the return of Jesus.

All throughout his letter, James has been working out the implications of what authentic faith really means. James makes it clear that authentic faith empowers believers to live with joy and hope in the face of even the darkest times.

This does not mean that you have to “grin and bear it” every time you deal with hardship. It is ok to feel real emotion.

James references Job in his comments on suffering.

Job certainly was real about his emotions. But he took those to God and allowed God to meet him there. That’s the joy. That’s the hope.

We have a God who is close to us at all times, maybe especially in hard times. And we have a God who wants us to go to him with our burdens and our hurts and he loves to comfort us and bless us with his presence.

At the start of this message, I told you that James offers a fourth response to suffering. There’s a better way: James’s fourth response to suffering isn’t fighting against the suffering in our own strength. It isn’t fleeing and running away from God or running towards sinful coping mechanisms. And it isn’t freezing up and growing cold toward the things of God. As simple as it may sound, James’s response is faith. Faith that endures.

Faith that endures looks like faith that is honest with God about the suffering you’re facing.

Faith that endures looks like faith that opens up to your community about where you’re struggling and how you’re hurting.

Faith that endures looks like faith that clings to the promises of God found all throughout Scripture when we’re in the middle of hard times—promises like the ones found in Romans 8 that remind us that nothing can separate us from the love of God and that we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.

Faith that endures looks like faith that experiences God’s presence and nearness in the midst of hardship. It’s a faith that knows that Psalm 34:18 is true:

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Faith that endures does not minimize or ignore suffering. It does not try to cover it up, run from it, medicate it away, or fight against it under its own power. Faith that endures runs to the arms of the Son of Suffering, the Great High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness. Faith that endures clings to Jesus in our darkest times and has hope to endure and grow through the suffering because it knows that joy is on the other side.

Let’s [PRAY]