Sermon Tone Analysis

Let this messy life lead you into joyful, whole hearted devotion to God.

Every feel like this? [Mess slide]

Quote about life being messy

Life is messy!

Amen?

Life is messy!

Amen?

What do we do with this messy life?

Christian - life not supposed to be messy.

Supposed to be sorted.

Must be doing it wrong?

How can we make sense?

Start series in James.

Messy church.

As we open up James worth bearing in mind he is writing to group of churches, probably predominantly Jewish converts, but most facing extreme poverty and persecution, but his desire is to help them to see what it looks like to live for Jesus, live out faith amidst the mess.

What makes James hard to read is that he switches between topics very quickly without a clear flow, as he addresses practical matters, and yet through it we get a clear message.

What God says to us is this

Let this messy life lead you into joyful, whole hearted devotion to God.

READ v2

Do you?

Consider it joy?

When life gets messy?

When car drive through puddles and soaks you on walk from school?

When you get given another assignment.

When you have a bad day at work.

When you or someone you know gets sick.

At loss of loved one.

When someone takes a dig at your faith?

Joy?

[Stereotypically smiley Christian - through gritted teeth] ?

Not sort of Joy he’s talking about.

PURE JOY.

Intense, defining, inexpressible.

Sort of Joy that surpasses circumstance.

Let this messy life lead to joy.

How? - Consider context James writes to.

READ v1.

Probably mostly jewish Christians, scattered all over the place.

Facing persecution, poverty, forced to live outside city.

Where is their joy to be found?

READ v3-4.

Where is joy to be found in the midst of trials of every kind.

What if I told you these trials are not just random or chaos but being used by God for a good purpose.

World is fracture and broken, and often so are our lives.

And without anything else, that is enough to send us into despair.

But what if, God in his goodness, out of the chaos promises to produce order and beauty in you - that will last forever.

That’s exactly what verse 3-4 is saying.

Word for “testing” same word used in reference to refining gold or silver.

Put into fire, remove the rubbish, and whats left it pure, perfect.

A Gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials”

In these verses, written the brother of Jesus - whose family member was brutally killed, and who himself shortly after writing will be martyred.

In these verses we find most astonishing truth and profound truth.

That God in his sovereign power and control, cares so much about you - his people, that he works all things for your good.

Notice verses don’t say if you have faith you’ll be healthy and happy.

You’ll have a comfortable life.

You won’t have any hiccups or loss or tragedy.

No far better.

Faith produces perseverance - and that perseverance will one day finish its work and you will be - mature and complete.

full.

Spiritually whole.

Needing nothing, because you will be everything you are supposed to be and have everything you could ever want - in God himself.

We go through things that we may never understand the why’s.

And they are awful and sad and heartbreaking.

But God is not surprised by them, and rather than destroying us, God wants to use them to make us the people he designed us to be.

Whole hearted, committed, complete, perfect.

How do we know - because every good gift comes from above.

From our maker.

He doesn’t change.

The one who broad order out of chaos in the beginning will continue to do so.

In our lives before doing it finally in the world.

That is the heart of Christian faith.

Not about getting a better job, better car, better life - but realising that everything we could ever truly need is found in God.

God who stepped into the brokenness in the person of Jesus to rescue and restore.

Easter tells the story of the one who faced death and beat, who showed that the end of the story was not really the end - but as Lord of history he has begun a process by which he will restore all things.

Ice sculptur crafting means knocking away.

What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

If you let God own it, and trust him with it: What doest kill you will make you stronger.

[Last week saw how end is not really end but the beginning.

-and v18 tells us that]

How do we know.

Because that is the heart of God.

Bringing order out of chaos.

That’s the gospel in a nutshell.

new birth through gospel of grace that we might be the start of his new creation.

Rest is yet to come.

But means God’s greatest goal for us is that we’ll be wholehearted, Spiritually full, mature, complete, disciples, who love him wholeheartedly and whom he has prepared a place for?

Why?

READ v16-18.

Why? God is a good giver, who doesn’t change.

He doesn’t seek to trip us up but to build us.

The God who made the word, the giver of every good thing, who does not change, made this plan.

He chose to rescue - and to those who trust him, he gives new life - what is this new life - its just the beginning.

We might be a first fruits of all he created.

God is in the process of restoring all things - making perfect again, never to fractured or broken - and its starts with us.

And how does he do that.

Well a large part of the time through trial.

Trials that produce perseverance as we keep trusting him in the things we don’t understand, and through that he produce Christ like character.

We might be a first fruits of all he created.

God is in the process of restoring all things - making perfect again, never to fractured or broken - and its starts with us.

And so what does he want for us?