Withstanding Trials

James 1:1-18

· Good morning!

· Open up your Bibles this morning to James 1 beginning at verse 1.

· Over the last several weeks I’ve been praying about what to preach on, once Pastor Guy was officially retired.

· And the same thing has come to mind and has come up in my studies every time.

· And that’s the book of James.

· James has a focus on faith.

· We’re going to see the test of the faith this morning.

· Withstanding the trials of your life.

· And in the coming couple of weeks ahead we’re going to see the characteristics of the faith.

· And ultimately, we’re going to see the victory that faith gives us.

· If James, had a theme verse, I would have to say, its 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

· While we are in this transitional period in the church, we don’t know what God has in store for us.

· But we do know that God has given us direction in how to be faithful, in the here and now.

· We don’t have to wait for all of this to be resolved.

· We have to be faithful.

· If you have found your place in the scriptures, James 1 beginning at verse 1, stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word.

· Read.

· Pray.

· James begins this book with his announcement that he is a bondservant of Christ.

· He is totally and completely devoted to the Lord Jesus.

· James, therefore, writes this book with authority.

· This is the word of God.

· And the first thing that James writes is to count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

· James doesn’t say if you fall into various trials, he says when you fall into trial.

· How many of you have been around long enough to know that trials in life are inevitable?

· If you have lived any length of time, you have faced hardship.

· Life, even life as a Christian is not always sunshine and rainbows.

· Some of you have faced financial hardships.

· Some of you have faced hardships in your health.

· Some of you have faced hardship in your marriages.

· Some of you have faced hardship in your families.

· Now let me ask you, how often do you think to count hardship as joy?

· If we’re honest, joy is usually not the first thing on our minds when trials come upon us.

· I started the year off with a boot on my foot because I messed up my feet.

· And for the last several weeks I’ve had a sling on my shoulder because I dislocated it.

· And let me tell you, at neither of those points was my first thought, man I’m so glad this has happened to me.

· I was not laying in the Emergency room with my arm hanging out of the socket thinking I was so blessed that this would happen to me.

· In fact, I was thinking the exact opposite.

· Why in the world would this have to happen to me?

· You know how many dangerous and stupid things I’ve done in my life?

· Too many to count.

· But it’s an inflatable obstacle course at a summer camp that gets me?

· Come on!

· But James says in verse 3 that the testing of your faith produces patience.

· I listened to Adrian Rogers the other day and he said, God is a strange teacher.

· Normally a teacher gives a lesson and then gives the test.

· But often times God gives the test and then you get the lesson.

· The testing of your faith produces patience.

· Perseverance.

· Endurance.

· All these things, we think about in the physical world.

· We know that anything good, doesn’t happen over night.

· If you’ve taken the Dave Ramsey financial peace university class with Irving and Tracy, you know that the whole point is to persevere with a little now, so you can have a lot later.

· If you’ve been in a job, you know that you had to start somewhere, to get to move up later on.

· It doesn’t just happen.

· It takes patience, it takes endurance.

· If you want to lose weight, you know that it takes patience to get to where you want to be.

· If you eat right today, and think tomorrow you’re going to be where you want to be, you are fooling yourself.

· The Olympics are going on right now, and there are all these athletes competing from all over the world, and every single one of them, has gotten where they are today, because of their endurance.

· Olympic runners can run well at the Olympics, because they are out in the elements year round.

· They’re running when its Hot.

· They’re running when its snowy.

· They’re running when they don’t want to.

· They’re running when they don’t feel like it.

· They’re running when they’ve got other stuff going on.

· They’re running.

· And they are building endurance, because instead of quitting when its hard, they push through.

· Instead of quitting, even when they fail, they push through.

· My arm is getting better now, still tender, but it’s good enough I feel okay to joke about it now.

· And so maybe some of you haven’t heard the whole story.

· It was around midnight the last night of Super Summer, because, you know, at summer camp at midnight that’s when you break out the inflatables and the water slides.

· And a kid, who may or may not have been a 12 year old girl, challenged me to a race through the obstacle course.

· So I said sure.

· And we went to run through, but there was a problem, the kids that had been going through the water slide were then going over and going through the obstacle course.

· So it was soaking wet, and I was in socks.

· So when I went to jump the first hurdle, my feet slipped out from under me, and I landed with my arm over my head and I heard the pop in my shoulder.

· I had to get out of there somehow.

· So I stumbled my way through the rest of the obstacle course.

· Up the little ladder, down the slides, with my arm essentially hanging out of its socket.

· This part is probably assumed, but I lost that race.

· I was hurting. But I didn’t quit.

· I didn’t make anyone climb in there and drag me out.

· When you’re in a trial, the reality is, it’s a trial because its tough.

· A trial, is not intended to be easy.

· And often times in a trial, you are probably hurting.

· You may feel like you’re sliding through a wet obstacle course with your arm hanging out of its socket.

· You may be thinking, how in the world am I going to get through this?

· You may be to the point of crying out, Lord, this is too much for me to handle.

· Lord do you care that I’m going through this?

· Consider the disciples in Mark 4, on the boat when Jesus was asleep at the bottom .

· And they were getting tossed all over the place by the storm in the sea.

· And they were terrified, even with Jesus on the boat.

· And they ran down and they woke him up, and they said “Lord do you not care that we are perishing?”

· Maybe you’re in here this morning and you feel like the disciples did.

· You’re thinking Lord, do you not care that I’m suffering?

· Do you not care, what is happening to me?

· Do you not care that it seems like theres always more month left, when we hit the end of our money, and the bills just keep coming?

· Do you not care that I might lose my job?

· Do you not care that my health is failing me?

· Do you not care that my marriage is in trouble?

· Do you not care that my life is crumbling?

· Don’t forget the answer Jesus gave the disciples.

· “How is it that you have no faith?” Jesus asked.

· When we are facing trials, it is our faith that is being put to the test.

· You’re going to find out, where you really out your faith.

· In your own abilities, in the abilities of others, or in the Lord Jesus.

· And James says “Count it all Joy.”

· He’s not saying to be giddy.

· He’s not saying to fake happiness about your trials.

· He’s saying that you need to understand, that it produces patience in you.

· The whole point of trials in your life are that they are going to bring you closer to the Lord.

· Romans 5:3-4 says “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

· I wonder, how often we pray for God to give us more patience, and we don’t even realize that we could be asking for a trial.

· I’m not joking when I say that when I pray for God to draw me nearer to Him, that I do so in the fear of the Lord, knowing that the way He could choose to draw me closer to him is through trials and tribulations.

· Patience, and perseverance, or endurance they’re not actually the end goal.

· When runners run a marathon, the goal is not the act of running, the goal is the finish line.

· And Endurance is just the means to reaching the finish line.

· In the same way, the end goal for Christians is to be perfected.

· James says in verse 4 “Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

· These tests mature us in our faith.

· Immaturity is not an acceptable long-term state for a Christian.

· When you become a Christian, you will be immature in your faith, but just as a child grows and matures, so does the Christian.

· Of course, we know that true perfection will never be achieved until we reach heaven, but we will always be growing.

· Verse 5 says

“If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

· Making it through trials in life requires wisdom, it requires discernment.

· We must seek the Lord for a course of action in whatever it is that we might face.

· Instead of deciding for ourselves what we will do and where we will go, we should be seeking the will of God.

· We should be seeking wisdom from the Lord.

· In our world today, faking it till you make it has become a common attitude.

· People don’t like to ask for advice, people don’t like to admit that they don’t already know everything.

· In fear of being shamed for a lack of wisdom or knowledge, people withdraw and keep quiet about it.

· But James says if you lack wisdom, ask God.

· He gives generously to all.

· Without holding back.

· Psalm 111:10 says

· “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”

· God wants you to come to Him.

· What trials are you facing today?

· Have you gone to the Lord in prayer about those things, truly seeking his wisdom, and not your own?

· James goes on to say that we are to ask for this wisdom in faith.

· It always come back to faith.

· “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is double-minded in all his ways.”

· Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

· When we ask God for wisdom, we must have faith that he will give us the wisdom we are seeking, because he has said that he will.

· When God makes a promise, he’s going to keep it.

· A person who doubts in the Lord is a person who is going back and forth between trusting God, trusting the world, and trusting in their own ability to get things done.

· This ought not be.

· James says that the one who is torn between these things is double-minded.

· Like a wave of the sea is driven by the wind, this person who is double minded is driven by emotion.

· This person allows their circumstances to define their faith.

· Are you allowing your circumstances to define your faith?

· On a high you feel as though God is right beside you walking with you and yet on a low, you hardly believe God is real at all, and if you do then you don’t believe his is good.

· One minute, things are going well for you, and you’re in church, you’re on fire, you feel like you’re going to lead the next revival, the next minute, something in your life changes, and you drop out altogether.

· That’s called being tossed about.

· God says have faith that he will answer you, he has told you he would, and he keeps his word.

· Don’t let your circumstances define your faith.

· Christian I want to ask you this morning, do you believe that God is at work in your life?

· Do you have faith, that even in the hard times, God will bring you through?

· He’s not promising you the wisdom of knowing why you are facing what you are facing.

· But He does promise the wisdom of how to get through it.

· Sometimes I just have to stop and preach to myself, and hope that while I’m preaching to me, maybe it will mean something to you all too.

· Let me ask you this morning, dear church.

· Do we believe that God is going to give us wisdom in this trial of transition that we are in right now?

· Do we believe that God is going to bring us through this stronger?

· I’m here to tell you, we’re facing a lesson in patience.

· We’re facing a lesson in perseverance, and James says to count it joy!

· He goes even further in Verse 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.”

· Blessed is the one who endures trials.

· Why are you blessed?

· Because your reward awaits you at the end of the race.

· If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, and your faith stands the test of trials.

· Your faith perseveres to the end.

· A faith that does not persevere is not a true faith.

· You have to finish the race.

· But what a glorious prize we get to look forward to at the end of our race.

· Heaven awaits you.

· When you have that ahead of you, and you keep that promise at the forefront of your mind, any trial that you could face now is small.

· Revelation 2:10 says

· “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

· When eternal life stands before you, even death can seem small.

· 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

“For our light and momentary affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

· Our afflictions here on earth are light and momentary when compared to the glory that awaits us.

· Now James moves on to the trials that come by way of temptation.

· “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God.’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He himself tempt anyone.”

· This is an important distinction to make, especially in our culture.

· You’ll hear people make excuses a lot, well if God didn’t want me to do it, he wouldn’t have allowed it.

· If God didn’t want me to do it, he would take it away.

· “God made me the way I am, so I’m just following my heart.”

· But James is clear here, God does not tempt you.

· Adrian Rogers says it like this: “God will test us, but God will not tempt us. God tests us to make us stand. Satan tempts us to make us fall.”

· If you are facing a trial in your life because of sinful decisions you have made, that’s on you.

· God didn’t throw that one your way.

· If you are facing temptation, God is not dangling that before you.

· Verse 14

· “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

· When you are facing temptation, its because that is something you desire.

· We are all tempted by something, and its probably different for all of us.

· But the devil knows your weaknesses, and those are the places he is going to bring temptation your way.

· Its not a sin to be tempted, even Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert.

· It becomes sin when you act on those temptations.

· The first-place sin starts, is in your heart, it is your desire.

· You lust because you desire those kinds of relationships in your heart.

· You lie because you have a desire to be liked.

· Or you want to get ahead.

· That’s how temptation gets to you.

· And when you give into those temptations and allow them to turn into action, your desire becomes sin.

· “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.”

· I already said this, and its worth repeating, if the trial in your life is brought about by sin in your life, that’s not God.

· If you’re broke because you spent all your money on frivolous things, that’s not God testing you, that’s just consequences of bad decisions.

· If your marriage is falling apart because you have been unfaithful to your spouse, that’s not God, that’s sin doing what sin does, bringing forth death.

· If you’re stuck in an addiction, whether its pornography, alcoholism, or drugs, that’s not a test from God.

· That’s sinful actions causing problems for you.

· Sin leads to brokenness.

· To blame God for that.

· But also know, if that’s where you are, God can and will bring you out of that, if you are willing to allow him.

· And there is still hope for you, because God is bigger than all of your sins.

· You can still repent, you can still find forgiveness in Him, through Jesus Christ.

· Here James reminds us of just how good God really is.

· “Every good and perfect gift, comes from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

· God is always good.

· He is never changing.

· He is the father of lights, he put the stars in the sky.

· He created the lights that rule the days and the seasons.

· God doesn’t change like shifting shadows.

· And this is the reality of life.

· Sometimes there is light.

· And sometimes there is darkness.

· And let’s be honest, sometimes it just feels like we’re stuck in darkness.

· But when life gets weary, when life gets hard, when the shadows are shifting and it feels like you can’t go on anymore.

· When it feels like the hounds of hell are nipping at your heels with all sorts of temptations, you’ve got to press on.

· You must endure.

· James says you must keep your eyes on the Father of Lights, he never changes.

· He is always constant, and he is always good.

· Its not your power that will bring you through these trials, it’s the power of God.

· And its only by His power.

· Psalm 23:4

· “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For you are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

· Romans 8:28 tells us that he is always working things together for the good of those who love him.

· “He brought us forth by the Word of truth,” James said.

· In other words, He has given us the gospel of Jesus Christ.

· When man failed to live to his standard, he came here to live the perfect life for us.

· Isaiah 53:5-8:

· “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

· He faced the ultimate trial on our behalf, when he faced death on the cross.

· The grave wasn’t strong enough to keep him in.

· And 3 days later he rose again.

· Because of him, we can have eternal salvation.

· When trials come our way, we must keep our eyes fixed on Him.

· I want to ask you this morning, where are your eyes fixed today?

· Do you have hope in Jesus Christ?

· Do you have a faith that can stand the test of trials?

· If you don’t what is keeping you?

· Is there sin in your life that needs to go?

· Give it to the Lord.

· Today is the day.

· The altar will be open. – Give invitation.