Goal of trials

Intro:

— The goal with this series is to help us grow in our faith! Grow in our trust, to point us to the limitless power of God and what He can do in and through us:

Eph. 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Setup:

— today, we are gonna learn about faith from Jesus’ half brother, James!

— It is interesting, we know from the gospels that Jesus’ brothers were not believers during His lifetime.. Can you imagine? Imagine the dynamics there. Your mom and dad were visited by an angel, and your brother is “the chosen one”.. Imagine the therapy costs that James would need dealing with that!

— But something happened.. Maybe it was around the time of the resurrection, I don’t know. But at some point, James not only became a believer, but one of the major leaders in the early church..

— the interesting thing here too, is that we get the most direct language of the deity of Christ from James’ brother. That should tell us something!

— He introduces Himself in vs 1 as “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,”

— The original language here is putting Jesus on a much higher level, in the original language that could’ve been translated as a servant of “Jesus Christ who is God and Lord,”

— So, if Jesus half brother had this kind of faith that is telling!

— The people that James were writing to were at their wits end. They were at the limits of what they can capacitate following Jesus.

— In Acts ch 8 we see that because of persecution, the Christians in Jerusalem were forced to flee their hometown. They flew to the four corners of the known world fleeing persecution. These Christian Jews are now not only still being pressured by their fellow non-Christian Jews, there is beginning to be persecution from the Romans as well!

— There is immense pressure to turn back to Judaism.. The trials these believers were facing would have likely included poverty, discrimination, oppression, imprisonment, physical…Here’s what he says:

++James 1:2 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.

Prayer:

Story: I don’t know if you’ve heard of him but this is Cody Detwiler, who films and publishes videos destroying cars under the moniker WhistlinDiesel,

He takes expensive cars and tests and punishes them beyond their limits. I found him on accident when researching about my beloved Honda ridgeline and I watched in horror as he not only destroyed one but talked smack about it at the same time.

Transition:—

— We are on this topic of going beyond your limits. Today, I want to talk about the kind of limits no one wants to get near to.. But it will happen..

— I am talking about the kind of trials, “Various kinds” that hit your limits and at times exceed them..

— We only have so much: patience, finances, health, time, etc.

1. The goal: melting point

— The word tested in the greek is the same word that metal workers used to evaluate wether or not the metal was pure or not.

— The metal, say like silver for instance, would be melted down so all of the dross, all the impurities would rise to the surface..

— Then, at the end the ultimate test is that the silver would be so pure that it would be able to reflect the refiners face!

— Maybe you’ve heard it said, “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.” But nothing could be further from the truth!

— God will have you past your limits in your marriage, in other relationships, you will find difficulties in your health, your finances, your energy levels, your emotional life, your legal life, your assets etc. the list goes on!

— Pastor Robert spoke about how God uses people last week past even despite their own abilities! God will take us in all sorts of ways past our melting point..

— Story about planting a church..

— My wife and I were way past our limits. God called us to plant a church. I had no idea what I was doing, what is a worship leader doing planting a church? I had the blessing from my previous pastor and my denomination, and the calling was validated etc. but I felt like a phony! When we first planted we were stretched financially, emotionally, in our leadership, in our knowledge base, all around! I remember calling my supervisor- I was working another job at the time as a realtor and being super stressed out.. And my supervisor said, “I can’t think of a better way than church planting for God to start revealing and removing impurities from a leaders life..”

— that was encouraging. Self dependance, pride, insecurities.. When only 10 people showed up to one of our early services, I was so panicked and stressed I went and hid in the bathroom with a panic attack..

— But God began to deal with these issues. My prayer life increased, my trust had to expand. Now, as we continue to face challenges in ministry, a weird thing has begun to happen.. My wife and I begin to recount how much we have changed over these 10 years. These 10 hard years have brought out and dealt with so much ugly, and God has used that in our lives to begin to really change us!!

— So, like James says to “count it all joy” a scholar writes this about that statement..

— When James told us to “count it all joy” he used a word in the Greek that means facts, not feelings. According to Dave Anderson in his wonderful book Triumph Through Trials,2 this scripture is saying, “be objective and don’t let your feelings throw you in the midst of your trial.

— Yes, even while the heat is turned up, God is cooking something good!!

2. The goal: steadfastness

— When we go to buy something, we want to make sure it’s going to last!

— Like the torture tests I talked about earlier, we want that thing to last and last!

— one of the by-products of trials is sticktoitiveness! The ability to last and last..

— What is interesting to me is how James doesn’t assume they will fall away

— Won’t the trials make me just curse God and die? Won’t they just make me give up?

— This is a paradox, It would seem logical that testing would weaken our faith, make us quit. But according to James the opposite is true!

— Here’s the truth.. If you quit on God when a trial comes, that means there wasn’t any faith in there to begin with..

— If you are a believer however, even in the midst of the storm, there will be this small still voice. “Keep putting one foot in front of the other, I got you, hang in there, I am with you, I will never leave you or forsake you.”

— He is with you in the fire, He is the fourth man in the fire. He is right along with you!! When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were put in the fiery furnace because they wouldn’t bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol that took faith.. But Jesus was right there with them.

— Church, Jesus is with you in your fire. You can stay put in your marriage, in your calling, in your faith. No matter what fire comes!

— We all know the power of sticking with it when it comes to your 401k. It doesn’t mature overnight!! But as you steadily pay in, it grows and over vast amounts of time it compounds.

— When we put FAITH at the center of our lives, it helps to create long term growth over time..

— I will say our marriage is better now 25 years in than from any other time. Not saying we have struggles.. But because we have faith in the center, and pleasing God is priority #1, when challenges have come up (and still do) God helps us to work through it, and the faithfulness over time has created a richness that we couldn’t have in just a short amount of time..

— When we put FAITH in the center (our relationship with Him) it helps us be consistent where it matters even through difficulty: our careers, our community of faith, our finances etc.

Gal. 6:9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

3. The goal: holiness

— I think often we come to faith and it’s almost always associated with good feelings, so we often think that God wants us happy. There are times when happiness overloads our soul!

— But beyond happy, God wants us holy

— 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

— We can’t be perfect right? You cannot be perfect this side of eternity, but when we read it in context we understand to mean that as we endure through hardships and pain, the ugly stuff begins to be removed from our lives and we begin to look more and more like Jesus! We begin to reflect the refiners features back at Him..

— I would venture to guess, that if you looked back on your life, difficult moments were the times you grew spiritually!

— You go through hardship, you pray. You get in the Word, you begin to prioritize your relationship with Him!

— Look at Hannah in 1 Samuel, she was miserable because her husband had another wife (You think?) but Peninnah his other wife had all these children and then would  “And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.”

— but the result of that was Hannah pressing in.. She goes to church, she weeps, she asks God to open her womb..

— God comes through! Her faith expands.

— I think what happens is that we turn to God in our trouble, we grow, then at some point we learn to REMAIN in this place of seeking Him being steadfast in it.. It’s the healthiest place to be.. We get to be proactive instead of reactive to spending time with God. We have His guidance and leadership to avoid some pain if possible..

4. The goal: heaven’s crown

— James 1:12 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.

— We have to remember that through all of this the goal is the smile of heaven. To hear well done good and faithful servant..

— But hear this part of the text “to those who love him”

— Do we have that kind of relationship, that kind of depth.. He will carry you through every storm…

— It’s our daily connection with Him, our daily loving communion with Him that will carry us and sustain us through it all!