Trials and Tribulations

Intro

Have you ever looked at yourself in a funny mirror. You know the kind where the glass is shaped differently and therefore changes the reflection that you see of you yourself.

really tall and thin

really short and wide

wavy and distorted

The point is that when you look at these mirrors they are not a true reflection of what you look like. It is a distorted false reflection. To see what you truly look like you have to look in the right kind of mirror.

And you know the Bible talks about a mirror and its reflection in a letter written by who most scholars believe to be the brother of Jesus. His name was James. And I say most scholars because there was more than one James associated with Jesus.

It is impossible to know for sure, without going into the details, most believe this was written by Jesus brother.

But anyway, there is this verse in James that stands out to me in...

James 1:22-24 NLT 22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

In other words, as a follower of Jesus, when we look at our lives we should be able to see a reflection, and that reflection should be of one who not only knows God’s word, but actually does what it says.

But, if as a follower of Jesus, we don’t actually do what God’s word says then we are going to to see a distorted reflection like a in a funny mirror. We will forget what we look like because we can’t truly see ourselves the way God intends.

So as I have been considering this text and really kind of praying through the message or messages that God has for this Church I keep coming back to this idea of a mirror. And I think the question that each of us needs to be asking is what mirror am I looking at, and is the reflection I see what I should be seeing?

When reading James one is confronted with the reality that faith apart of any actual life change or works isn’t really faith at all. And so the kind of faith James talks about in his letter is often described as a faith that works.

And so I believe that the Lord is leading us to really dive into the book of James. I have never preached a book of the bible before. But as you know I have been saying for a while that I believe we need to get back to the basics of God’s word. We have been doing that on Wednesdays as we have been study the gospel of Mark and now we are going to do so on Sundays as we go through the Book of James together.

And as we do this, what I want you to do is to keep this idea of a mirror in the back of your mind. And each week ask yourself if you are putting what you are listening to into practice so that you are seeing the proper reflection of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to look like, or have you been looking at a counterfeit.

Power in the Text

So we are going to jump right in here to James 1:1-12

James 1:1-2 NLT This letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am writing to the “twelve tribes”—Jewish believers scattered abroad. Greetings! 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

So James doesn’t give a very flowery or lengthy introduction and cuts right to the point. He simply says “Greetings” and then says listen, when trouble comes, when trials come, when suffering comes, see it as an opportunity.

An opportunity for what? To experience great joy.

Now, on paper this sounds nice. And in theory yes, find joy in the suffering. We must take up our cross daily, and we must die to self, and we must do so with joy. But you know in practicality, that sounds nice, but it is much harder to actually do when the suffering is actually taking place.

But here is the thing. James isn’t speaking in terms of theory. He is speaking to people who are in the midst of a trial. Look at how he opens his letter. He addresses to the Jewish believers who had been scattered. By what? Persecution (Acts 8).

So these were followers of Jesus who were in the midst of the trouble, trials, and suffering that James is talking about here. He says what you are going through isn’t easy. It is hard and painful and even unfair. He says but it is worth it. Not only is it worth it, but you should use it as an opportunity to be joyous. Why?

Look at what he says in verses 3-4.

James 1:3-4 NLT For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Here James is using a term that would have painted a picture for his readers that I think gets lost on us.

He says that trials and suffering are a test of our faith. And this word he uses for the test was dokimion. It means a state of not being fake or counterfeit. It is a state of being genuine.

This was a word used to describe the process a silversmith would use to determine the genuineness or purity of silver.

They would heat these precious metals to extreme temperatures and the impurities would often rise to the top and would be removed until what you were left with was a metal that was so pure it produced a mirror reflection. Once the silversmith could see their face they would know it was pure.

You know, often we want to know the “why” for our suffering. But what James is trying to get across is the “why” we should have joy in the testing. It is because Jesus doesn’t just want to make us happy. He wants to make us holy.

But that can’t happen if our faith is not tested, if the genuine can’t be separated from the counterfeit. God takes us through the intense heat at times to expose the impurities so they can be removed so that little by little as he looks at us what he sees being reflected back is his image.

We can consider the testing as an opportunity for joy because it means that Jesus is developing us in a way that makes us mature and complete, not lacking in anything.

Have you ever thought about that as the goal of your life?

Look at what he says next in...

James 1:5-8 NLT 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

James understands that suffering doesn’t make sense and at times the testing seems wrong or out of line with God’s will or his character and when that happens we need wisdom to see what God is trying to teach us in the test.

He brings up the importance of prayer (v. 6), indicating that God indeed responds favorably to those who make requests to him, but the emphasis is on faith. There is a necessary attitude on our part that James discusses—asking in faith without doubting.

James compares this doubter to the waves of the sea that are blown and tossed by the wind (vv. 6–7). The term “divided loyalty” or “double minded” as the NIV renders it in verse 8 is the Greek word dipsychos meaning “two-souls.”

James says that a doubter is like a man with two souls and unstable in all his ways. This shows just how defeating it is to have uncertainty, because you have two opposing thoughts facing each other at all times.

Verses 6–8 show what it looks like to have constant conflict with oneself; however, God gives wisdom generously to those who ask in faith. We must be wholeheartedly dedicated to the Lord and nothing else. With one foot set in the world and the other set on the Lord, there will always be tension and strain.

Big Idea

But here is where it all comes together. We can have joy in the midst of tribulation, but only when we have a firm foundation of faith.

But that firm foundation of faith cannot come without the tribulation. They are interdependent to each other.

Have you ever heard the phrase “God won’t give you more than you can handle”? It is often shared by well meaning people as an encouragement for those that are struggling through something.

But here is the thing. That is not a biblical saying. There is not a verse in the Bible that says God won’t give you more than you can handle. It says God won’t allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to say no.

But God certainly gives us more than we can handle, why? So we learn to be dependent on him. So our faith in him can grow.

If God never puts your faith to the test, then I would be concerned because without the test, you cannot know how genuine or mature your faith is.

Application/Closing

I think most people like dessert. I am a cake guy myself. If you were to take all the ingredients that go into a cake and put them in front of me and ask me to eat them and tell you how they taste. I would tell you to go pound sand, I’m not eating raw flour and eggs. Those ingredients taste horrible by themselves.

But when you put them together in just the right ratios, under just the right conditions, given just the right amount of time. You end up with something special, something delicious.

I don’t know what you are experiencing in your life right now. But for some, it tastes pretty terrible. And maybe some of what you are experiencing is due to you own unwise choices, or maybe just maybe, God is trying to make something pretty special out of your life.

Something that in the end will be worth all the struggle, all the pain, are the tribulation.

James 1:12 NLT 12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Don’t stop, don’t give up. Keep moving forward and find the joy in your testing, knowing that it has a purpose and that purpose will make what you are enduring now seem insignificant in light of eternity.

God might give you more than you can handle, but he will never give you more than He can handle.