Don't Test Me

Announcements:

VBA is in a few weeks. Need your help

We’re going to kick off summer on June 9th. We will have a welcoming of the new youth that will be joining us, and we’re going to have some fun. Don’t ask what it is because I don’t know yet.

We will not have youth activities VBA week, or the two following weeks.

Bats Game on June 4th. Let me know if you’re going.

Prayer Request

New Series: Book of James

Last week we finished up our series on Science and the Bible. We’re starting a new series, and it’ll be a short one, on the Book of James. Now because we are only doing this for three weeks, we won’t get to cover the entire book. There are a few things that have stood out that I believe are very important for us to understand.

Go on and open up to James 1 we’ll be looking at 12-18 this evening.

So let’s talk about the Book of James

So this book is obviously written by James. It says so in verse 1.

It doesn’t specifically say it was written by Jesus’ half-brother James, but that’s who scholars believe wrote it.

Jesus half-brother James was not a follower of Jesus during His time here on earth. It wasn’t until after the resurrection that James became a believer.

Mark 3:21-35 and John 7:5 talk about how James didn’t believe Jesus.

He was one of the leaders of the church at Jerusalem. Paul called James one of the pillars of the church in Galatians 2:9

When is this taking place?

It’s believed that James wrote this around 45-49 AD

Luke recorded a meeting in Acts 15 that James, Peter, and Paul agreed to take the Gospel to everyone, not just the Jews.

It’s believed that James wrote this right before this meeting.

Some believe this could be the first written book of the New Testament.

What’s so important about James?

James is very blunt in his writings

To sum up all of James, it would be If you’re a follower of Christ, you should act like.

Some of taken some of James words and pulled them out of context to say that you have to earn your salvation through works and not just faith. This is something we’ll get into next week.

Read along with me, James 1:12-18

First for tonight, Whatever situation your in, don’t move.

So let’s be clear, I’m not talking about physically not moving.

I’m not saying you find yourself in a situation where a ball went into the street and you ran out to get it but a car is coming. Obviously when faced with that situation, you would move to get out of the way.

What I’m saying don’t move from is the faith you have in God.

It says 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.

One thing this is not saying is that the only those who suffer are blessed.

It’s the ones who endure the sufferings of life they will be blessed.

What or how would you define a trial or some form of suffering?

A trial is where your faith is being challenged in a way that’s not caused by you.

One example I would say is suffering for your faith. We don’t really have that problem here in America, but it will come our way eventually

In China, Christians are arrested, and thrown in jail daily.

One might think, ok well that’s on the other side of the world in a communist country, it’s not here in a normal country. Just recently in Canada, just a few hours north of us, a pastor was arrested for having church during their latest lock down. We could split hairs on if it’s right or not because of the health lock down, but the point is, it happened here.

Another example, in the UK a preacher was preaching and the police didn’t agree with what he was saying so they arrested him. He was just reading out of God’s Word.

This is the type of trials and suffering that we’re called to endure and that we would be blessed

Something else to realize is that being blessed doesn’t always mean money or something amazing.

One thing some people tend to do is associate the word blessing with materialistic things. Oh well if I do this, God will bless me and I’ll be rich.

That’s called the prosperity gospel and it’s far from the truth.

Joel Olstein is one of those preachers. He says if you give to his church God will make you happy health and wealthy.

Not how it works at all.

Sometimes our sufferings earn rewards in Heaven, and this is shown in verse 12 talking about the crown of life.

Everyone who loves God will have trials and will have problems and we’ll be completely rewarded in Heaven.

Second point for tonight, There is a difference between trials and temptations

So we established earlier a trial or suffering is not something that we cause but temptations on the other hand is something that we put on ourselves.

How would you define a temptation?

It’s defined as a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.

We’ll go with a non-biblical example first. Let’s say you’re wanting to lose weight. You’ve set a goal to lose 5 pounds. You’ve just gone to the grocery store before you made this decision and you bought $200 worth of your favorite ice cream, cokes, cookies, and it’s all setting right there in plain sight on your counter. Those are a temptation for you to not lose weight.

Now let’s take a Biblical look at a temptation

You really want to make an A in this class, but you have to make a 100 on the next test in order to get that A. You walk into class early one morning, and the answer key is sitting on the teachers desk, where you could easily take a photo of it and have the correct answers to make a 100.

So that temptation is there to cheat and get a good grade.

But where do these temptations come from?

James spells it out for us in verse 14-15 but in verse 13 James makes it very clear where it does not come from

In verse 13 it says “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.

In other words, God’s not going to play got ya. He’s not going to put you in a situation where you can sin, because God hates sin and He can’t be around sin because He is perfect. So if God can’t be around sin, then He won’t force you into a situation where you could possibly sin.

So where does temptations come from then if not from God.

Verse 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

It’s our own desires that lead us into a temptation

Back to our examples, you want to have an A in this class. You’re desire is to have an A in the class, and you want to achieve that A whatever means possible.

Now this alone is not a sin. Being tempted with something is not a sin

But it’s how we act when we are tempted by our own desires that becomes the sin.

Verse 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin,

So our desire is what can make us sin.

Now are there different types of desires? Well yes.

If we desire to be like Christ and we desire to do as God commanded, then those desires shouldn’t lead us to sin. But when our desires are more self oriented that’s what can and 9 times out of 10 leads to sin.

Like I said it could be a desire to have a good grade, be popular in school, get a promotion at your work, a desire to date a specific person, any type of desire that’s more self oriented can lead to sin.

You’ll get those desires in your mind and then next thing you know you’ll do almost anything to get those desires met. You start compromising and think, well if I just do this I can get it, I’ll ask for forgiveness later. Doesn’t really work that way.

Now hear me out there is nothing wrong with having desires to do things. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having the desire to make all A’s in school, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be popular or getting a promotion at work. Those are great things to have, but we should make sure we have a form of checks and balance.

Have a friend who is a believer that you can trust and make sure they help keep you on track.

Accountability partner, Hey we’ve talked about how I really want a good grade on this upcoming exam. I found the answers to the test, I really need some encouragement right now to help keep me from cheating. What would you suggest?

A believer in Christ will help guide you in the right path. They’ll help you through it.

Stay in God’s Word so it can help focus you on God’s things and not your own, These are just a couple of ways to help out.

The last thing for tonight, We ourselves may be the authors of our own temptations, but God is the author of all things good.

Starting verse 16 James tells us not be be deceived. We shouldn’t think that evil and sin comes from God, but instead everything that is good comes from Him.

Verse 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights

Remember going back to the last session, when God created everything He finished the day with and it was good.

God creates everything Good and God only wants Good for us. Again, God isn’t going to send us something that would cause us to sin, He only wants to provide things that are good.

When evil comes around when sin comes around, it’s because of human fault that sin occured. Sometimes it’s our own sin and on occasion it’s the sin of others.

Now will everything we go through in life, or if you are a Christian, will everything in life be good? No of course not, but this ties back to the beginning where we learned to not move in our faith, to keep focusing on God knowing that not running from God or our faith when times are bad will result in being blessed. Again may not be a blessing on this side but one day when all things are made right, we’ll be blessed.

But lets focus on the most important good thing that God did, was send Jesus here to earth, have Him die on a cross after living a perfect life, and raising Him from the dead three days later.

If it wasn’t for that goodness of God, then we would still be lost. It wouldn’t matter if we gave in to our temptations or not.

Instead God in all His goodness wanted a relationship with His sinful creation and the only way that relation could happen was through Christ.

I want each of you to look at your relationship with Christ. Do you have one? If you don’t have that relationship with Jesus, why not? What issues are you having coming to term with that relationship? Let’s talk about it

Let’s pray.