The Joy of Becoming Like Christ

Introduction

Text: James 1:2-4

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a terrible wife, named Mary Vazeille. She tormented him beyond measure. At one point, a witness known as John Hampson, Sr. claimed that he walked into a disturbing scene taking place in the Wesley home: John being dragged across the room by a handful of hair, held by his wife. But Wesley said that he attributed most of his success to his wife because she kept him on his knees and because he was kept on his knees, he had the victory.

The many trials of life are like that; they have a way of keeping us on our knees before our Father in Heaven. Now I am not suggesting that wives are trials to live with, in sharing this story of John Wesley. What I am suggesting is that trials come to us from various sources and that joy is the by-product in the midst of these trials because Christlikeness is being produced. In this sermon I will be focusing our attention on three aspects of Christlikeness gleaned from our text: its Path, it’s Process and its Product.

Have you ever asked God why you were going through a trial? God has answers for us if we will listen to the call to joy, that James gives to us.

The Path to Christlikeness.

We as Christians are on a journey to the Celestial City. For us to fit in up there, we must be conformed to the likeness of Jesus in the inner person. So our Father in heaven places us on the Path to Christlikeness that is strewed with many trials. There are two responsive attitudes that we must have for joy to be present in the midst of trials. They are the attitudes of acceptance and thankfulness.

Why do trials come into a Christian’s life? Is it because of some sin in their life? Is it because God is angry with them? This kind of questions will no doubt go through your mind when you encounter a trial of your faith. In answering these questions, we must understand that the word 'encounter’ better expresses the word for 'fall' in the original language of the text. The word ‘fall’carries the connotation of a person being responsible for the trail that is happening. The term ‘encounter’ does not imply a personal responsibility for the coming of the trail, so encounter is the better word used.

I know many of us can relate to a time when you may have tripped on a tree root during a walk through the woods. You did not intend to trip on the root, but you encountered it as you minded your own business as you walked on the path. Encountering a trial, or difficulty or temptation is much like that in our spiritual walk with the Lord. We do not intend to encounter them we just do because we are on the path that leads to heaven. The word “divers,” in our text, means various or all kinds of trials. The word ‘temptations’ refer to the common trials of life that come from different sources such as poverty, sickness, persecutions, difficulties of various sorts. James wants us, Christians, to account that being made like Jesus is the apex of full joy.

Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” It is a given in life that we will encounter trials and difficulties. We cannot avoid them they just happen. Since we live in a fallen world bad things happen to us even as Christians,and there is no getting around them, but Christ has promised never to leave us nor forsake us – Hebrew 13:5. Accepting this reality is the foundation for ‘counting it all joy.' Elizabeth Elliott once said that “in acceptance,there is peace” in the midst of trials and this is so true.

The second attitude we must have to experience joy during trials is Thankfulness. The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks.” The apostle knew that if we can grab hold of this truth, we can be dynamic in our level of joy. When we can truly be thankful to our Father in heaven that He has entrusted us with this trial, then it is that we are maturing into of the likeness of Jesus. Joy will be the natural outflow when thankfulness is on our lips. When we can praise God that He is taking the time to purify our faith more into the faith of Christ, it is then that joy will soon follow behind.

It is like the story of a frisky puppy and an old hound dog sitting on a porch one day. The old hound dog sat there watching the frisky young puppy run in circles trying to catch his tail. The old hound dog asked the puppy why he was chasing his tail. The puppy said, “I have heard that happiness is in the tail and when I catch my tail I will be filled will joy.” The old hound dog said, “I know a better way to have happiness my young friend, and that is if I just go about my business that joy just follows right along behind me and I am much happier than if I chased after it all day long.”

It is time for us to allow the truth of God’s Word to so control our thinking about trials that we become at peace with our trials. Too many times we are at war with trials and fight against them instead of seeing them as being an opportunity that God has granted. We need to remember that they are intended to purify our faith in God and mature us into the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. Trials are the pathway to Christlikeness. So the next time you encounter a trial stop and learn to accept it and thank God for it. Doing so will quench a spirit of complaining out of your heart and enable you to ‘count it all joy.'

Having this understanding brings us to our next point,and that is:

The Process for Christlikeness.

How is joy infused in the heart when we suffer? James says in verse 3, “Knowing this.” Joy comes from knowing or experiencing. When we experience some hard place and get through to the other side of it, we learn a lot about our faith and God’s enabling grace to see us through the trial. James then says “that the trying of your faith worketh patience or endurance.” When we let endurance to increase our attitudes of acceptance and thankfulness, joy will then be infused into our very character thus producing a Christlike Spirit.

Joy is infused in our hearts as we experience being made into the image of Christ in our inner man. As we experience trails, this knowledge helps us to ask ourselves “What would Jesus do in this situation? Our answer to this question will enable us to allow the joy of knowing that we are being made into His image to control our responses. This joy will increase as our level of endurance increases.

I like what Dr. Philip Brown admonishes, “We often want to “learn the lesson God wants us to learn” so we can get the trial over with. But God is less interested in us learning a lesson then He is to us becoming the person He wants us to be. You don’t change your character quickly, that is a process. God puts us through trials that test our faith in Him, and keeps us in trials that test our faith to refine us like gold.”

Before the Lord called me into full-time ministry,I worked for about twenty years as a machinist in the manufacturing industry. I worked in various fields of specialty which included the aerospace and medical industries. Suffering or trials are much like a heat treat furnace used in these fields. The furnace, to achieve a certain hardness for various types of metals, had to be heated to a certain temperature and the piece of metal put in the furnace for a certain length of time then taken out and allowed to cool down. This process is called annealing. Annealing changes the physical properties of the metal so that a machinist can machine the piece. The heat treat furnace can be heated up to 2,400° to achieve this annealing process. The metal that goes through this process will have a certain hardness to it depending on how long the metal was left in the oven. The engineer determines what hardness is best which is determined by the application that the piece of metal will be fulfilling.

God is the Great Engineer of life’s machine shop. He determines beforehand what job he wants you to do in fulfilling His desire for you glorifying Him. So he puts us through the heat treat furnace of trials and suffering to achieve the Christlike character in us so that we can be His useful tool in a fallen world.

God has given all of us a calling in this life that He wants us to fulfill. Some of you are vessels of gold. Some of you are vessels of silver. Then some of you are vessels of copper. Then there are those of us who are vessels of wood or clay. You know they say that the melting point of gold is 1,945°F. They say that silver’s melting point is 1,761°F. The scientist tells us that the melting point of copper is 1,983°F, while they say a diamond’s melting point is at a whopping 8,540.33 °F. Whatever God’s specific design is for your life, each of us must pass through the furnace of trials to purify our character into the diamond of Christlikeness.

Just knowing that we serve a God in heaven that is Sovereign over all things both good and bad, releases the inner person from a deforming sorrow that trials can cause. He only intends the ultimate good for his children and many times that good comes to us in the hard places of life. This ultimate good is for his children to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

So I ask you this Sunday morning, “What is your melting point?” I love the song sung by Steve Green, titled:

The Refiner’s Fire

There burns a fire with sacred heat White hot with holy flame And all who dare pass through its blaze Will not emerge the same Some as bronze, and some as silver Some as gold, then with great skill All are hammered by their sufferings On the anvil of His will

Chorus: The Refiner’s fire Has now become my soul's desire Purged and cleansed and purified That the Lord be glorified He is consuming my soul Refining me, making me whole No matter what I may lose I choose the Refiner’s fire

I’m learning now to trust His touch To crave the fire’s embrace For though my past with sin was etched His mercies did erase Each time His purging cleanses deeper I’m not sure that I’ll survive Yet the strength in growing weaker Keeps my hungry soul alive

The Product of Christlikeness.

Christlikeness is the product of choosing joy and having endurance in the midst of trials. In verse four the word ‘perfect’ means in the sense that it’s work is complete. The word ‘entire’ means in the sense that the whole person, body, soul,and spirit are blameless. While the phrase ‘Wanting nothing’ means that there is nothing else to be carried out.

These words point to the Christlikeness that God wants us to grow in. Purity is not maturity because there is always room to grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus. In one sense we are complete in Christ, but we can grow up and be a stronger Christlike person.

“Perhaps some of you started your trial out well, like Job: The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, Blessed be the name of the Lord” But as the trial goes longer and longer, you’ve lost sight of what God was doing,and so you’ve lost your joy. You have not been counting your trial a reason for great joy. Instead, you’ve succumbed to grumbling or complaining, or stubborn, grit-your- teeth-and-bear- it silence. In either case, you aren’t responding to your trials the way God wants you to.”

“I have good news for you; God never commands anything that he won’t supply the grace to obey. You can refocus on the goodness, wisdom, faithfulness, and sovereignty of God. You can recall that God is allowing your faith to be tested to produce an enduring faith in you, and ultimately He is making you like His Son. Those are reasons to rejoice in the midst of trials.”

Like one man said, “If I could see what God was doing in my situation, I would be shouting happy, but I can’t. But I can trust him that He is working all things together for my good, and that good is that I am conformed to the likeness of his son (Rom. 8:28-29).”

“When lodge pole pines grow, especially in areas that are prone to forest fires, their cones are tightly sealed. A layer of resin and woody tissue sticks the cones’ scales together. The seeds are locked in tight, and the cones can’t open unless they’re exposed to VERY high temperatures–the type of temperatures that fire provides.”

“Serotinous” is a scientific term for a seed that requires an environmental trigger to be released. For the lodge-pole pine, that trigger is heat. And since big fires don’t come along very often, those well-sealed pine cones have to be extremely patient. They can hang out on the tree branches for several years waiting for enough heat to open them up!” (Moment of Science website)

So it is with our faith under fire. Our faith cannot be passed on and coupled with joy until it has been through the fire of trials. When others see our responses of joy and endurance, then they will want to know something about Jesus who makes us like himself in the midst of trails.

Conclusion:

Choosing joy in the midst of trials is an action we all can do with the help of the Holy Spirit. When we allow the attitudes of acceptance and thankfulness to guide us on the path of Christlikeness joy will follow right along. The process of submitting to the Refiners Fire will purify our character so we can have real joy. Seeing that God is a loving and sovereign Lord helps us to have endurance. By God’s grace, you can be joyful in the midst of trials. By God’s grace, you can persevere in faith through difficult times with joy because God is faithful and all wise and you can trust Him fully. When this happens, it is then that our faith is passed on to a watching world.