Hope Through God’s Goodness

James 1:9–18 ESV

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. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Hope through God’s goodness.

Can you see God’s goodness in your life?

James chapter 1 is dealing with the Christian going through trials. Trials are not inconveniences but they should actually be expected in the life of someone who follows Jesus. Modern day Christians have a hard time accepting this especially where we live. We have been infected with this idea of the “American dream” where our lives should be easy. Nothing should go wrong because we are people who have a dream and we chase it and we deserve a happy and easy life. That is the lie we have bought into.

But throughout history, this has never been the expected life of the believer. Until recent history, this idea was not one that took root in Christians.

In the 1800’s, there was a lawyer by the name of Horatio Spafford who was born in New York and moved to Chicago and was married to a woman by the name of Anna Larson in 1861. He grew substantially in wealth and was a great business man and owned a lot of property. He was an elder in his local Presbyterian church even. Their family grew and they had 4 daughters. They were seemingly living the “American dream”.

Then, in 1871, they experienced the great Chicago fire. In 2 days, 300 people lost their lives, 100,000 people became homeless, and there was over $200 million in properties that were lost. Of that, Spafford lost all of his real estate investments and his law firm.

Over the next couple of years, his wealth dwindled. In 1873, the family planned a trip to England to hear their close friend D.L. Moody preach a revival. Because he was dealing with some last minute business in Chicago, he sent the family ahead of him by ship with him following them a couple of days later.

A week into the journey, the ship that Spafford’s wife and daughters were on collided with another ship. The ship quickly sank. Soon after, a small boat was going through the area and spotted a woman clinging to a piece of wood. It was Anna Spafford, his wife. She was the only survivor from her family. A few days later, they landed in Whales and she sent a message back to Chicago for her husband to inform him that all 4 of his daughters had died in the shipwreck. He immediately began his journey to England.

Eventually he and his wife returned to Chicago. It was during the aftermath of these tragic events that he wrote a poem that would be turned into a well known song. He wrote:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well, with my soul

It was his hope in God’s goodness that got him through such a horrific event. Later on, he went what I would call crazy and practically started a cult and thought he, personally, was the returned Jesus Christ. But in the moment of tragedy, he saw the hope that I pray you see. The hope of Jesus Christ through the goodness of God.

I am not some sort of mind reader. But I know that each and every one of us are going through something. We all have struggles and you may even be going through a trial because of your faith in Jesus. What we can all agree with though is that we want hope. We want to know that things are going to be alright. Not in some superficial way, but truly alright. That when we lay our heads down tonight and try to go to sleep, that while we are sleeping, God is in control.

I want to tell you that there is hope. There is hope in Jesus Christ. And everyone can experience that hope. How do I know that there is hope? Because God is good.

Because God is Good, We Have Hope

I know that if you come here every week, you keep hearing me talk about hope. But what other reason do we gather? We are here because the hope of Jesus has captivated us. It should completely take over our lives. Every time we turn on the tv, we hear what they say and we compare it to the hope that we have in Jesus, and we throw out what is false. When we are scrolling on the internet or on our phones, we see what is going on around us and in other peoples lives and we compare it to the hope that we have in Jesus, and we throw out the rest.

When we are at work, we find ways to tell others about the hope that we have in Jesus. When we are at school, we wait until the teacher isn’t teaching, and then we find ways to tell others about the hope of Jesus. In every conversation we have, we find ways to tell others about the hope of Jesus.

Why? Because he is the only hope that is real and true.

Listen, I am so sorry if you are here and you just want to play church. God didn’t put us here to just act a part. He put us here to be a home for hope. Our world is dying. Sin infects every single human being. There are 3300 people within a mile of us right now that need hope. And God made no mistake when he put Immanuel Baptist Church right here at 1309 Old Charlotte Rd. We are here to be a home for hope for our neighborhood, our town, our community.

And if there is one good reason that we do this, we find it in our text today. And that reason is that God is good.

As we go through our text this morning, I want to point out different things about the goodness of God.

God’s Goodness is Eternal

Our lives should be a reflection of God’s goodness. Everything that we do should be an outpouring of God working in us. As I am working, being a husband, being a dad, being a pastor, counseling, even drinking my coffee, it should all be part of me reflecting God’s goodness in my life.

In the same manner, our lives should be a reflection of eternity.

James 1:9–11 ESV

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.

James brings in the idea of financial stability. What do these have to do with eternity? Well when I start thinking about how poor I am or how rich I am(which I am not), then my focus shifts. My reflection then turns to the world and not the goodness of God. My hope even shifts from God taking care of me to how can I take care of myself.

Our wealth here on Earth does nothing to give us eternal value. Our poorness here on Earth does nothing to give us eternal value. No matter the condition of your bank account, what matters is the condition of your heart. Understanding that your life is to be used by God and that is where the eternal value comes from.

God is eternal. I love the verse that I quote each week before I read our text.

Isaiah 40:8 ESV

8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

What does this mean? It means that everything around us will die, it will fail.

You have heard me talk about my grandpa before and how he had a huge garden. It was probably more than a half acre and upwards of an acre in size. He was old school. I rarely saw him use a tractor and he did most of it by hand. And they grew all sorts of things. They were generous with it and gave away most of what they grew it seemed.

But one thing was for certain. There came a time of the year when he picked the very last vegetable from that garden. Everything in it would die. It was what you would call temporal, the opposite of eternal. It means that it has an expiration date.

I want to assure you that everything around you that you see and that you can touch and that has worldly value is all temporary. Even the troubles that you experience, the trials that you face will all end. But there is no end to the goodness of God.

When you come to the end of your rope and you understand that the hope of Jesus is eternal and has no expiration date, and you submit yourself to how God is trying to work in your life, you will finally understand that God’s goodness is eternal. It will never end.

God’s Goodness is Life Giving

I love that we all have different personalities. Anybody an introvert? (probably wouldn’t raise your hand because you are introverted) Anybody an extrovert?

How we interact with people can be energizing or draining. If you are an introvert and you have to be in a room with other people for hours on end just talking and conversing, you are going to be drained. If you are an extrovert and you have to be cooped up in a room all alone for the whole day, that is going to drive you nuts and you are going to be drained.

I fall somewhere in the middle. There are times when I want to be around others and enjoy that and I am filled up by it. But then I need my time to myself where no one talks to me. Kind of weird when you think about it. But it is in God’s goodness that he has made each of us this way.

Thinking about God’s goodness and it being life giving is where we have to trust in the hope that is in Jesus. James gives it to us real straight in verse 12.

James 1:12 ESV

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.

James has been real serious talking about trials. Trials are not inconveniences. Trials are attacks against you that are to build up your faith in God. And what happens when we are steadfast in the trials? We are blessed. How are we blessed? Because God has promised that when we do this, when we are steadfast in trials, that we are loved and that he will give us the crown of life.

This isn’t a crown that is covered in jewels or the crown they give you with the kid’s meal at burger king. When James said this, everyone would have pictured the crown that you win when you win a race or a sporting event. They would run a race and if you won it, you would get this crown made of a laurel wreath.

Now, I don’t know anything about running. I have not won many sporting events in my life either. If I were to go and run a race, the only thing I would win is an oxygen tank and a trip to the emergency room. But, if I run the race that God has put before me, if I remain steadfast in trials and I keep spiritual integrity and keep obedience, then the crown that I receive at the end of that race is worth more than any worldly crown you can imagine.

And how do I know this will happen? Because God has promised that it will. And if there is one thing that I am 100% sure on, it is that God will always keep his promises.

But while he is talking about remaining steadfast in trials, James wants to make sure that something is cleared up. He wants to make sure we understand where our temptations come from.

James 1:13 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

God is fully good. He cannot be tempted, because of his purity in holiness. But he also does not tempt, because temptation comes from evil.

Where we get mixed up is this confusion with a test and a temptation. See, the point of a test is to make sure you do the godly thing. But the point of a temptation is to lead you away from God and into sin. God will test but not tempt. So where does temptation come from.

James 1:14–15 ESV

14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Where does temptation come from? It comes from ourselves, our own sinful desires.

I know that this is hard to believe but when I was growing up, I got into trouble quite frequently. And back then, we didn’t get put into time out. We didn’t even get spankings. I can promise you that I have never received a spanking in my entire life. What we got were classified as whoopings. And yes, there is a difference in a spanking and a whooping. I like to tell people that when I would walk in the door in the afternoons at my grandma’s house, she would just be waiting with the yard stick to give me a whooping because she already knew that I needed one.

But I got into trouble often. And that was because I was a trouble maker. My favorite excuse though when I did something wrong was “the devil made me do it”. The devil doesn’t make us do it. He may take our desire and tempt us with it. But the fact that we do something sinful is our own fault.

You hear me preach constantly on God’s sovereignty. How God knows what will happen, how God chose us, how God is the one who drew us in to make a profession of faith. But it works simultaneously with man’s responsibility.

Let me put this down on a level that I understand. We all got choices. You choose to get out of bed this morning and come to church. You choose what you were going to wear, or maybe your wife did. You choose whether or not you were going to tithe when the plate came around earlier. We all have choices.

I am all for things like prayer and bible reading. You hear me pushing you and challenging you to do it every Sunday morning. But without fighting your sinful desires, what good is that stuff doing for you? You must be equally fighting sin and growing closer to God. Because James is clear that when we don’t fight our desires, it turns into sin and what does sin do? It leads to death.

So we have 2 options. Life or death. God is a binary God. Male and female, good and evil, holy and sinful, life and death. He makes it simple for us to understand.

And maybe you are here and you hear me talking about how sin leads to death. I want you to know that this is very real. As a really smart person told me one time, hell is really hot and eternity is a really long time. If you do not have life that has been given to you by God, and you leave here today and for some tragic and unfortunate reason, you die, then my friend you are going to hell.

That is the bad news. There is good news but the good news isn’t good unless you understand the bad.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Good news of the gospel presentation

We all need hope. Here is one of the best things that can bring you hope today. God’s goodness is life giving.

God’s Goodness Never Changes

I would say that generally, we don’t like change. Whether they are putting up stop signs on a road that doesn’t need them, putting in a round about, changing the music at church, or maybe Aldi changing their entire store around. We just don’t like change.

Well I have some wonderful news for you. The goodness of God will never change. He has always, is and will always be fully good. If you believe that he isn’t, then you have bought into a lie.

One of the biggest arguments against God that I hear has to do with his goodness. I know we have all heard it. If God is good, then why does he let bad things happen to good people.

The correct, biblical, and only answer to that question is that God is good and he has only let something bad happen to one good person and that was the cross. And that is because Jesus is the only good person to ever live. No one is good. We are all sinful. And that is why we need hope. The hope that is only found in Jesus Christ.

But we are constantly being deceived. We have all of these voices that are coming in and trying to confuse and distort our minds. We need discernment. We need to know which voices to listen to. And James helps us with that.

James 1:16–17 ESV

16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

All good things come from God. He is the creator of the universe. If there is anything good in me, it is from God. And the amazing thing of it is that he will never change. The same God that walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve is the same God who reigns today. The same God that was with Moses when he led the people of Israel out of captivity is the same God who reigns today. The same God who was with David when he slayed Goliath is the same God who reigns today. The same God who was walking around in the fiery furnace with Shadrack, Mishak, and Abednego still reigns today.

He will never change. So how do we know that we are listening to the right voices. How do we tell the difference in the voice of our sinful nature or even the demonic forces working against us and the voice of God.

James 1:18 ESV

18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

God has given us a scale that we can measure truth with. It is his word. His word is truth. So if you are confused about what truth is, look to his word.

Now, this book is not a guide to how to pass a drivers ed test and you aren’t gonna find a buttermilk biscuit recipe in here. You won’t even find a guide as to which politician to vote for(side note, they are all bad candidates according to scripture).

But when we are dealing with the sin in our lives and the influence that is coming in from outside forces to try to sway and control us, there is no better place to go than to God’s word. And when this happens, it is a preview to the goodness that we are going to experience for all of eternity.

That is what James is talking about when he says that we should be a kind of firstfruits. He is saying that the goodness of God that we get to experience here, is only a taste of what we will get to experience for all of eternity.

God is so good. And because God is good, we can have hope.

Conclusion

Do you have that hope? And if you do, are you growing in that hope because you can see and have experienced the goodness of God?

If you don’t have that hope, the bible tells us that we need to turn to Jesus. He is the only place for that hope. All of the sinful personal desires that try to take us away from God and that lead us to death, you have to turn completely away from them and go to Jesus. That is where we will receive the crown of life.

And I know that everyone wants life. You have a decision to make, life or death. If you know that you are not on the life side of that, then you need to call out to the Lord today.

It is simple. There is not a magic prayer. You tell God that you know that you are a sinner and that you cannot do this on your own. That you are tired of living caught up in your own sinful desires and you want to be caught up in him. And you turn to Jesus. That is it.

If you have done this today, you have crossed the starting line of the race that God has set before you. But races aren’t easy. So that is why we need to grow. We dive into the word of truth that James tells us about. We want to know the God that has saved us. We want to serve the God who has saved us. We want to be obedient to the God that has saved us.

The first step of obedience is baptism. So if you have never been baptized as a believer, and you are a believer, you are living in open disobedience and we want you to be obedient. So you need to be baptized. I made it simple, you can walk down front here and sign up to be baptized.

For those who are believers, what are your next steps. I can’t tell you for yourself but maybe it is

finding a way to serve the church

sharing your faith regularly

getting involved in Sunday school or bible study

becoming more generous

surrendering to a call to ministry

I know that we are all in different positions and we all have different struggles. But I also know that God’s goodness and the hope of Jesus is the same for everyone. God has a purpose for all of us and will use us.

That is why I opened with that specific illustration with the man who wrote one of the most well known hymns in history. Even though he completely left the faith, God used him to give us a reminder that even when we are going through some of the hardest times imaginable, that we can look to the goodness of God and be comforted. So I want us to end our time together here today by singing It is well.

If you would like to come down and have a specific time in prayer, the front is open down here and I would love to pray with you.