There is a Purpose Part 1

Introduction:

There was a man named Craig Randall, who drove a garbage truck in Peabody, Massachusetts. In a garbage container one day, he noticed a Wendy’s soft drink cup bearing a contest sticker. Having won a chicken sandwich the week before, Craig checked it out, hoping for some free French fries or a free drink. Instead, he peeled a sticker worth $200,000 toward the construction of a new home.

I’m convinced that what we often get out of life is often determined by how we see life. If you all you see in your life is trash, garbage, troubles, trials, and problems you are going to struggle throughout life. However, if within the trash of life you see the blessings of God, the provisions of God, those little stickers from God that demonstrate His grace and love and protection and guidance in your life, then you will discover that within the garbage around you God has blessing waiting for you.

But here is the thing, in order to see some of those blessings, your faith will need to be tested. And when it’s tested, you will be able to see and experience incredible blessings within your trials and troubles.

Last week, we talked about what the peace of God is (Jesus), what it does (guards our heart and mind) and how to continue to walk in it (keeping our trust and thoughts on Christ).

This week, that peace of God will help us look for those little stickers from God when we are in difficult situations and trials. Because the peace of God is what will help you flesh this passage out.

Let’s take a look at what God’s Word has to say about trials and how we can view them as a sticker from God. As we turn to James 1, I want to give us some background.

Background:

Verse 1 tells us that James wrote this letter. He was the half-brother of Jesus who later became the primary leader of the church in Jerusalem. This was written probably before the Jerusalem Council mentioned in Acts 15 as James does not make any reference to the Council or what was discussed during the council.

Audience: James is talking to the 12 tribes of Israel who, as a result of the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, received persecution (Acts 4:1-4) and it intensified and was headed by Saul (Acts 8:1) who watched Stephen being martyred. Then the Jewish believers went home (dispersed) and shared their conversion to Jesus Christ and they experience persecution at home as they did in Jerusalem.

The persecution began in Jerusalem and spread to Judaea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. Was that just a coincidence? I don’t think so!

Acts 1:8 CSB

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So, let’s read the text for this morning and I want to make a few observations from the text:

James 1:2–4 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Transition: The first observation I see is in verse 2:

Body:

I. Trials are Inevitable (v.2)

James 1:2 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,

A. “Consider”: to think, count or regard something based on weighing and comparing the facts.

after initial powerful emotions have subsided a bit, we need to consider the trial from a Biblical perspective

B. “Joy”: an extended state of well-being (peace) rather than an immediate feeling of happiness or pleasure

C. “Encounter/experience”: Greek word refers to an unwelcome or unexpected experience such as trials in general or specific hardships such as persecution, sickness, or poverty.

Psalm 118:24 NLT

24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

In other words, you can read this verse like this: Consider (from a Biblical perspective) it a great joy (not based on outward circumstances but live in peace from God), whenever (because it is inevitable) you experience (unwelcome or unexpected trials) various trials (in general or specific).

Transition: So, trials are going to happen! Don’t be surprised or caught off guard. They are inevitable! But the next observation is even more important:

II. Response is personal and optional (v3)

James 1:3 CSB

3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

A. “Know”: You can choose to respond from a Biblical perspective or personal/worldly perspective

B. “Faith”: this is tested through trials but not produced by trials.

i. Romans 10:17

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

C. “Endurance”: a growing determination in the face of adversity based on hope.

i. Hope is confidence in the day in which Christ will vindicate us

1 Peter 4:13 CSB

13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed.

In other words, you can read this verse like this: you know (choosing to respond from a Biblical perspective) that the testing of your faith (which comes from hearing the Word of God/staying in the Word of God) produces endurance (to persevere in the face of adversity knowing Jesus will help you get through)

Transition: So, trials are inevitable and we have to respond correctly. Why does it matter how we respond? That leads us to our last and final observation this morning:

III. Maturity is based on our response (v.4)

James 1:4 CSB

4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

A. Choosing to live in the face of adversity (endurance) leads to maturity

B. Maturity defined: one who shows integrity, single-mindedness devotion to God nad is characterized by godliness

A.W. Tozer quote:

Here are two kinds of ground: fallow ground and ground that has been broken up by the plow.  The fallow (unplanted) field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow (being broken up). Such a field, as it lies year after year, becomes a familiar landmark to the crow and the blue jay. ...Safe and undisturbed, it sprawls lazily in the sunshine, the picture of sleepy contentment.  (Yay! lazily sleepy contentment) BUT.... But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility: Never does it see the miracle of growth, never does it feel the motions of mounting life, nor see the wonders of bursting seed, nor the beauty of ripening grain. Fruit it can never know, because it is afraid of the plow and the harrow.  In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come: practical, cruel, business-like and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken.  But its rewards come hard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight its miracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. All over the field, the hand of God is at work in the age-old and ever renewed service of creation. New things are born, to grow, mature, and consumate the grand prophecy latent in the seed when it entered the ground. Nature's wonders follow the plow.

Trials (the plow) shape us and help us to grow and mature.

This week, I want us to understand there is purpose in the pain/trials. The purpose of trials is to help us mature if we respond the right way.

We will discover another purpose for trials next week. But this week, I would hope for us to look at trials from another perspective, a Biblical perspective. If I am facing a trial, I will be joyful because it will test me so I know where I am in my faith and it will help me to mature/grow up spiritually.

When we pray for God to take away a trial we are facing, we are in essence telling Him we don’t want to grow up spiritually!

Conclusion:

Sweater says: Pain has a purpose

(Pain, change, trials, unwelcome/unexpected circumstances has a purpose in our life. For us to have a Biblical perspective when they come into our life, to respond with an eternal mindset, and to recognize Jesus will walk us through what we are experiencing in order to help us grow and mature in our faith.

Sweater says: Break the cycle

(We need to stop viewing pain, change, trials and unwelcome/unexpected circumstances as an opportunity to pray for God to get us out of it and to complain to everyone else about what we are going through. There is a difference between having a mature Christian support system where you can vent and venting to anyone and everyone in any way you can)

Questions to ask:

What are you facing today?

Are you viewing your trial through a Biblical perspective or are you praying for God to get you out as soon as He can?

Are you basing your response by how you are feeling? Or are you basing your response to the trial by letting the joy of the Lord be your strength?

Are you striving to live for Christ in the face of your trial or has it derailed your Christian walk (reading the Word, prayer, etc.)? If you are derailed, your faith will show it because it will start to weaken and the peace of God will leave (trust in Him and keep mind on Him: we can’t do without spending time with Him and in His Word).

If we truly want to grow and mature in our faith, we need to:

-recognize trials as being inevitable

-recognize trials as an opportunity to learn endurance/perseverance

-to rely on the joy of the Lord to be our strength

-to know that Christ has everything under control whether we understand it or not and that He will take care of that situation where a person doesn’t treat you the right way, your boss mistreats you for no reason, etc.