Untitled Sermon

What does trails show us

Most of the time people see pain or trails as meaningless.

Seculars believe that life is short so the goal to life is to heighten pleasure and minimize pain. This is the point of life to them. They say that pain serves no purpose it is just a speed bump to pleasure.

Richard Dawson, In his book the God delusion states that pain is meaningless because our existence is meaningless.

Many believe that pain and trails are just Karma coming back to you for something you did wrong.

Praise God that the Bible does not say any of that. The bible says that God can take all the junk from this sinful, fallen world and turn it into good.

C.S Lewis said this “We can ignore even pleasure, but pain insist upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is a megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Trail means – to test, temptation, disaster, plague ect.

He did not just say trails he says various or many kinds- here he was casting a wide net to show all that believers go through.

We can also see that he did not say if but when you go through these trails

you will suffer

How should we face trails in our lives

1. With a different Attitude

He says we must count it as Joy- count means to consider

He is not saying we must be smiling and laughing as we go through these trails but to understand they are not to destroy us but to make us stronger

That is another one of those that are easier said than done things in our lives so how do we do this.

We can only do this if our faith is grounded in God.

God has to be the source of our Joy, Place of Joy and satisfaction. Our joy is rooted in God Almighty.

We can face them with Joy because we serve a God that turns all things for Good.

We can be sure that they are not happening meaninglessly they are to mold and shape us.

2. Letting our hearts understand what our minds already knows

Knowing-gnṓsis (a feminine noun derived from 1097 /ginṓskō, "experientially know") – functional ("working") knowledge gleaned from first-hand (personal) experience, connecting theory to application; "application-knowledge," gained in (by) a direct relationship

“ Believers understand many doctrinal truths in the mind, but these truths seldom make the journey down into the heart except through disappointment failure and loss.” Tim Keller

Our minds already know that it is making us stronger through other things in our life we know that it caused us to mature

James: An Introduction and Commentary a. Letting Trials Accomplish Their Purpose (1:2–4)

The idea, then, is not that trials determine whether a person has faith or not. Rather they strengthen the faith that is already present.

James: An Introduction and Commentary a. Letting Trials Accomplish Their Purpose (1:2–4)

The believer is asked to respond to trials with joy, then, because he knows that they are working to produce a deeper, stronger, more certain faith.