Thriving, not Surviving

Series Introduction

James 1:1–4 ESV

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 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.

James 1:1 ESV

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

James was written by James, half-brother of Jesus. I think this is interesting because at the beginning of this book, James claims to be the servant or that word is sometimes translated as the word slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but I would never willingly submit myself to be the slave of my older siblings, even though they tried to treat me like one. The fact that James would willingly put himself under the authority of his older brother says a lot. As a matter of fact, if there was anyone that could have some dirt to discredit Jesus, it would be James. Again, your siblings probably know some things that you did that no one else knew about and vice versa. And maybe it was just me, but I had absolutely no conscience about getting my sisters in trouble. I was telling my sister the other day about how I used to go into her room and read her diary all the time. I had plenty of dirt that I could have spilled when the times was necessary. James watched Jesus' life, he saw how he worked, how he played, how he treated others. If there was anyone that would have seen inconsistency in the life of Jesus, it was James. Yet, James chose to be a follower of Jesus.

This did not happen though until after Jesus rose from the dead. During, Jesus ministry, James did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. At first, it seems that James and the rest of the family were concerned about the hostility rising towards Jesus as he claimed to be the Messiah. I'm sure James knew of the hatred of the Pharisees, people were saying that Jesus was insane, that he was in league with the devil , and that he was a blasphemer. No doubt, Jesus's family received ridicule as well. You know how this is. People were probably coming to him and saying, "What's wrong with your brother" "That dude is crazy". He was probably having to answer questions about Jesus's birth since they claimed he was born of a virgin. This could not have been a comfortable situation for James.

At one point, the Bible says that Mary and Jesus's brothers came to Jesus probably in effort to get Jesus to come back home and get out of harm's way. To which Jesus responded that those who believed in Him were more His family than the people he was related to on earth.

It seems that after this incident, James and his brothers became even more hostile and perhaps completely rejected the fact that Jesus was their brother much less the Messiah. Remember at the cross, Jesus asked his disciple John to look after his mother, not his own brother James. Yet after the resurrection, Jesus sought out James, and James finally believed the message that his half-brother had been declaring. Jesus truly was the Messiah, and he dedicated the rest of His life to serving Him. He rose to prominence as one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, and eventually died as a martyr for the cause of Christ.

James is most likely the first book of the New Testament to be written. At this time, the gospel was still being preached primarily to Jewish people. So James is writing to Jewish Christians who had been scattered around the region. With the good news spreading that salvation came by faith in Christ alone, James wrote this book to instruct these Christians how to best live their life as believers in Christ. While salvation came by faith alone, they were not only to believe the teachings of Jesus, but practice the teachings of Jesus. You will find many similarities between the book of James and Jesus's sermon on the Mount. He wanted these believers to live their best life as followers of Jesus Christ. And there was no one better to teach this to them than James who had seen the best life lived by Jesus.

You have probably seen that phrase living my best life as you scroll through your social media. It’s often accompanied by a picture of someone chilling on a beach, or at a party, maybe after a milestone accomplishment in someone’s life. It could be a family picture or a selfie on a day that they were feelin themself or something else along those lines that brings that person fulfillment or enjoyment in the life that they are living. There is nothing wrong with most of those things, but is that what really constitutes our best life?

As we study James, we’ll see that James shoots down the idea that living our best has anything to do with how much money we make, what type of job we have, how much knowledge we have, how much power we have, how much fun we have, or even how religious we are. We should be thankful for the good things that happen in our life, but those things cannot be all there is to living our best life.

James’s very first statement in the book is

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

You know just as well as me that life is no picnic, everyday is not a vacation, we don’t live everyday on the mountain top. Most of the time, we’re struggling through the valley. That’s really where we live. So when I speak to you about living your best life from the book of James, we are learning how we as born again believers can best live our life day to day. So it applies at the highest points and at the lowest, when something exciting happens and through the day to day routine, when we are having the most fun and through the mundane. God wants you to live your best life.

If I was to pick a key verse for this series it would be

James 1:12 ESV

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.

A crown went to the victor of any sporting event. The one who performed the best. And this verses promises a crown of life for those who live a life characterized by loving God. So if you want to know what living your best life is from God’s perspective, it’s living your life in light of your love for God. Our love for God should change our attitudes, our actions, our passions, our relationships, our fun, and our perspective, our motivations everything about us should change because of our love for God.

So each sermon we’ll talk about what it means to live your best life, and what it is not.

Let’s Read together

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.

James 1:1–4 ESV

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. 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.

This mornings message is “Living your best life is thriving, not surviving”

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

Right off the top, as James teaches how they are to live out their faith, James talks about trials. Notice he doesn’t say if you meet trials, he says when. You know just as well as I do that life is no picnic, everyday is not a vacation, we don’t live everyday on the mountain top. Most of the time, we’re struggling through the valley. That’s really where we live. Someone here may be going through a difficult time. Maybe you have a loved one that has passed away or is sick, maybe you lost a job and don’t know what is going to happen next. Maybe you are just stuck in a rut and are wondering if life is ever going to change. Some of you may be struggling through the day to day with fatigue, depression, anxiety, or a lack of motivation, or a lack of direction, or a lack of growth. Everyday for you is just a struggle and you feel like you are just surviving each day, not living your best life.

Right off the top, James talks about trials. Notice he doesn’t say if you meet trials, he says when. You know just as well as me that life is no picnic, everyday is not a vacation, we don’t live everyday on the mountain top. Most of the time, we’re struggling through the valley. That’s really where we live. Someone here may be going through a difficult time. Maybe you have a loved one that has passed away or is sick, maybe you lost a job and don’t know what is going to happen next. Some of you may be struggling through the day to day with fatigue, depression, anxiety. But according to our definition, you can still be living your best life by living in light of your love for God. It applies at the highest points and at the lowest, when something exciting happens and through the day to day routine, when we are having the most fun and through the mundane. Living from high point to high point, from vacation to vacation, from church service to church service just trying to make it to that next moment when you can feel a little relief. That’s surviving, not thriving, and that is not your best life.

But according to our definition, you can still be living your best life by living in light of your love for God. It applies at the highest points and at the lowest, when something exciting happens and through the day to day routine, when we are having the most fun and through the mundane. Living from high point to high point, from vacation to vacation, from church service to church service just trying to make it to that next moment when you can feel a little relief. That’s surviving, not thriving, and that is not your best life. God wants you thrive being perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

But how do we do that? How can we live our best life when the daily struggle is real? How should our love for God affect the way that we live through our trials?

There’s three commands that James gives us in God’s Word. The first is count. He says that we should count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds. Second is know. Know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And third is Let. Let steadfastness have its full effect. These command work together and the end result is that we will be perfect which means we will be mature. We’ll be complete meaning that we will be fulfilled not felling like we are missing out on something. And we’ll be lacking in nothing which means that we will be well equipped to handle whatever life handles at us. Perfect, complete, lacking nothing, or in our terms today, we’ll be thriving and living our best life.

I. Count it all joy

Now starting with the first command to count it all joy is tough. Obviously, no one enjoys going through the trials and daily struggles. The word count means to regard something or to consider something. If someone asks you to do something, and you want to assure that person that it will get done, you may say, "You can count on me". You are giving them assurance that they can consider the task to already be completed. It’s hard enough for your mind to consider joy when you are going through a tough time, but then the adjective all is added there to. All joy means that we are to complete joy or joy only. Not joy mixed with sorrow, or joy mixed with anger. We are to consider it completely joy when we go though various trials. That seems impossible, so we are going to come back to that phrase and look at the other commands first, because they will till us why we should count it all joy when we struggle.

I. Know God is Working

James 1:3 ESV

for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

That second command is for us is to know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Technically, this in not even a command. The way that this is worded suggests that as a Christian, we should already know this. We should already know that our faith will be tested. Of course the spiritual battles that we face are tests of our faith, but it does not stop there. Every struggle that we go through as Christians is a test of our faith. That problem that you have with your coworker is a test of your faith, that problem that you have with your spouse or your kids is a test of your faith, your financial issues are a test of your faith. How much do you trust God to take care of the situation? Even if the situation doesn’t turn out the way that you want it to, do you trust that God knows what’s best? Our faith will be tested, and while the testing may not be comfortable, we can count it all joy because we know that something good is being produced.

Think of it like going to your favorite restaurant. I like Red Robin. Sometimes they are a little slow bringing out my food. But I know that something good is being produced there is something delicious in the works, and when that medium well Whiskey River BBQ burger with no tomato, no mayo add bacon comes out with all I can eat fries, it will be worth the wait because something good came out of it.

That’s what James is saying here. The trials aren’t pleasant, it may seem like it’s going on far too long, but KNOW. Know that something good is being produced and in the ESV it says steadfastness. Some Bibles say patience. The word used in the original language means to stay or remain. Another good word that could be used here is endurance or even toughness. It’s beneficial that Christians develop spiritual toughness when faced with adversity. Being spiritually steadfast, having spiritual endurance, spiritual toughness means that when things get tough we don’t lose our dependence on Jesus. We just lean on Him more. I hear way too many stories of people who once claimed to be Christians who have abandoned the faith because they went through a struggle. The testing of your faith either strengthens your faith in God, or it reveals your lack of faith in God. Either way, I think it’s better to know where we really are.

Transition: The next command is to let steadfastness have its full effect.

II. Let God Work

James 1:4 ESV

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

As we said, God uses testing to develop endurance or toughness in our faith. We have to allow God to teach us as we go through the struggle. When the Bible says let steadfastness have it’s full affect. It’s the idea of taking the time to have a finished product. Think back to our restaurant illustration. Let’s say they bring my burger out at Red Robin in 5 minutes. Maybe the waiter thought that if he brought the food faster he would get a better tip. But the cook wasn’t done preparing yet. So when I take a bite, the middle is still cold. My fries are frozen. They left off my bacon and crispy onion straws. I’m going to be disappointed. Even though I got it quick, it was not the product that I asked for. I would have rather waited and them bring me what I wanted.

That’s similar to what we do with our struggles. Especially those of us that have been saved for a while. We know that God wants to work in our lives through our trials. We get that part. But instead of letting God work, we take things back into our own hands. The tendency is that when we are going through something we first look to ourselves. We think “What am I going to do?” So we worry, we complain, we stress, we blame others, we get irritable. All those negative reactions are a result of us depending on us through trials.

The tendency is that when we are going through something we first look to ourselves. We think “What am I going to do?” But as believers we need to change our default to “What is God going to do?” Because we know that he is working in our situation and I don’t like cliche’s but if God brought you to it, he will bring you through it. The toughness we develop is not us just gritting our teeth and getting through it. That’s surviving. Thriving is

But as believers we need to change our default to “What is God going to do?” Because we know that he is working in our situation, and then, we need to actually let God do it. The toughness we develop is not us just gritting our teeth and getting through. That’s surviving. Thriving is allowing God to work in us to make us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing while we allow Him to work out the situation that we are going. We have to embrace the fact that God puts it’s through difficult times to grow us. We can’t fight against the process. We have to let God work. We just have to remain steadfast and allow God to change us from the inside out.

The tendency is that when we are going through something we first look to ourselves. We think “What am I going to do?” But as believers we need to change our default to “What is God going to do?” Because we know that he is working in our situation and I don’t like cliche’s but if God brought you to it, he will bring you through it. The toughness we develop is not us just gritting our teeth and getting through it. That’s surviving. Thriving is

Transition: That brings us to my final point

III. Count the work as joy

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

When we know God is working and we let God do the work we count it all joy. This take s all the pressure of us when we struggle. If we know God allows testing to make us stronger in our faith and dependence on God, why do we need to worry. We can truly count it all joy.

Notice this though, it’s not the trials that we take joy in. Y’all that have been here know I love my grammar when it comes to breaking down scripture, but for sake of getting to technical, think of it like this. “when you meet trials of various kinds” is a clause. That whole clause basically works together as one word. It’s not the trials themselves that we are to take joy in, it’s “when we meet the trials” that we are to count it all joy. We are to have joy in the opportunity to grow our faith, but that does not mean that we are going to be always happy, always smiling while we are going through the struggle. Here’s an example

I think I was in either the 8th or 9th grade and somehow, our basketball coach scheduled a game against St. George Academy. My Christian school was tiny, I graduated with 5 people and we had a big class. Needless to say, we didn’t have very much talent to choose from for basketball. I was one of the better players on the varsity team even at that age. St. George of course was a bigger private academy and at that time they had a guy named Elliot Williams on their team. After high school Elliot went to Duke then transferred to Memphis when his mom got sick and he was on the bench for the Grizzlies several years ago. So he was NBA level talent. When I found out we were playing them I was excited for the opportunity. I was going to get to play against a top level talent and see how I would do. I loved to compete and loved challenges, but the game was not fun, I did my best and had some good plays, but at stage of my life, there wasn’t much I could do. Not to mention, the last player on their bench would have been a starter on our team. Luckily Elliot only played like 5 minutes because they were beating us by like 100 points. At the end of the day, it was a good experience for me and really pushed me to work harder, get stronger, and try to grow. 2 out of the 3 wasn’t bad. I took joy in the opportunity, even though the struggle was frustrating.

That’s the idea here of count it all joy. No one likes trials. They aren’t fun. They aren’t enjoyable. We can’t always be happy. Again that word count means that you are making a deliberate consideration. It’s a mental decision, not a emotional response to our situation. We can’t ignore pain, fear, grief, stress, frustration or anxiety those are all natural emotions. But even in the midst of those emotions, we can deliberately choose to have joy. Having the knowledge that God is perfecting you, completing you, and equipping you to live your best life gives us something that we can hold on to, it gives a calm in the midst of the storm, it gives meaning and purpose to our trials, knowing that God is and always will be in control can help us to choose joy.

One of the natural by products of love, is trust. If we love God we trust that God is in control of every situation that he allows us to be in. We trust that God will grow us into stronger followers of Christ, and we trust that whatever the outcome of what we’re going through God loves us and will do what’s best for us even if it’s not what we think is best for us.

We will be living our best life, thriving, not just surviving when we are able to trust God in the midst of our struggles.

Know that God is working, Let God do the work, and Count the work as joy.

When it talks about testing your faith in verse 3. It goes back to the idea of putting gold through intense fire to get out the impurities. Without the testing, there cannot be pure gold.It reminded me of a song that we used to sing. It says “O rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistakes, for knoweth the end of each path that I take, for when I am tried, and purified, I shall come forth as gold.” God wants us to come forth as gold. He wants you to live your best life. He wants you to thrive, not just survive. But that happens as we love and trust him through our struggles.

The song goes “O rejoice in the Lord, he makes no mistakes, for knoweth the end of each path that I take, for when I am tried, and purified, I shall come forth as gold.” God wants us to come forth as gold. He wants you to live your best life. He wants you to thrive, not just survive. But that happens as we love and trust him through our struggles.

My sermon is done, but I want you to think on how this applies to you. As a Christian, do you feel like you are just surviving? Do you feel like you are living your best life? Does your love and trust for God guide you through the struggle?

God wants us to come forth as gold. He wants you to live your best life. He wants you to thrive, not just survive. But that happens as we love and trust him through our struggles.

If you would say no, then I challenge you to search your life and figure out why. Maybe you are leaning on yourself instead of God. Maybe you lose sight of the fact that God is in control and He is constantly working on making you more like Christ. Maybe you don’t have a desire to be more like Christ, so you can’t see the joy in the opportunity to grow. Whatever your situation might be, understand that God has a purpose and learn embrace the testing that he puts in our life.

If you are here this morning, and you do not know Jesus. There’s nobody that’s been through a greater struggle than Him. Jesus had to struggle with all our sin as He was crucified on the cross. But Jesus rose from the grave in victory. He didn’t just survive death, he thrived through death. And his resurrection has given us all the opportunity to have a relationship with God. We must turn from sin and trying to be good enough on our own, and place our trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you have never had a time in your life that you’ve done that. One of our pastors will be back at out next steps table and He will show you from God’s word what it means to be saved