Subject to Change

Intro:

Have you ever had to make a big life change? Like, a real big change. I have. My first year of college was a disaster.

Bad grades in Calculus, twice, changed majors, then dropped out of that major.

Now, you can view those changes in one of two ways:

You are an utter failure and this is your life

This is God doing something in your life

I have an illustration for this:

Show images

Tension

The good news is: this lesson isn’t about your college choices.

But, it is about the fact that in all of our lives, we need to change the way we see the obstacles and trials put before us.

1. Maybe its school?

-How do you see your struggles with a subject? As something that defines you as a failure? or as something there to teach you to persevere?

2. Maybe its your friends?

-Are your friends choices pushing you away to what you know is wrong or are you pushing them toward what you know is right?

3. Maybe its your parents?

-Are the expectations of your parents causing you to resent the things that you know are good for you?

4. Maybe its your self-control?

-Are the things that you see and read creating a callous over your heart toward God and his Word?

We are going to have trials in this life. Things that are hard and miserable to deal with. But how are we to handle those trials and temptations? I think the Bible has the wisdom that we need in this area.

Text

We are going to be looking at the book of James tonight.

Written by James, the brother of Jesus and brother of Jude around 45 AD

Written to the dispersed Christians outside of Palestine(Jerusalem)

Whats happening for him to write this?

-James, the brother of John is executed

-They are under Roman persecution and occupation

-Peter is executed

-There was a famine in Palestine

-The Temple is being abused

-There has been a massacre of Jewish Christians in Samaria

Look what James opens up with:

James 1:2–4 ESV

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 in nothing.

First, You have all of these things happening and James says, “Count it all joy.”

-James is saying, “you have to change the way you are seeing this, because since you have Christ, you have joy.”

-He is saying that this life is all about pointing to the joy of Christ.

Second, When do we count it all as joy? In our Trials.

-What is as trial?

-Why do you think James calls these hardships trials?

Thats right, because the “testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

-Any other words for steadfastness? Endurance, perseverance, patience.

-You see, we count trials as joy because they make us better. They improve out endurance, they train us to persevere, they condition us to patience.

Third, he encourages us by saying “Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

-The Greek word used is Teleios. it means to be mature and complete. So, let “Endurance, perseverance, patience, steadfastness in trials leave you mature and complete.”

Application

Lastly, the KJV labels this passage as this: “Profiting from trials.”

-what would it look like if we changed the way that we saw trials to be able to look to Profit from them?

How does that change issues at: School, with friends, with your parents, with your self-control?

Question for you to take to small group:

How does the mindset of “profiting from trials” effect how you act today!

You will not be able to understand