Trial By Fire | James: Tried, Tested, and True

As we continue, now we're going to jump in.

Last week was an overview of kind of the book of James,

where we were going.

Again, this was the half-brother of Jesus writing in the first

century, not that, scratch that, it wasn't the first century.

But as he was writing to the church, writing to Jew and

Gentile, he is writing a message not only of hope, but of just

real life, kind of in your face things that believers deal with.

And so I want to start off, we're going to be in the first

chapter, and we're going to look at the first 18 verses today.

As we go through this, this is going to be one of more of our

expository series, meaning we're going to leave no verse

uncovered.

We're going to look at every verse, some for a longer time,

some for a shorter time, of what James may have for us today.

Today we're going to look at this ideal of trials.

What does it mean to endure trials?

What does it mean to have our faith tested?

So I'm going to start, and we could talk about all the

negative things about trials and all the bad things, and I'm

sure we could fill a lot of the time.

But I'm going to ask first and foremost, so taking trials and

pausing that for a second, where in your life do you find joy?

J-O-Y, where do you find joy in your life?

Just shout it out.

Playing with your friends, absolutely, yeah.

Grandchildren, sure.

Pokemon, absolutely.

But in order to have it, you got to catch them all, right?

Yeah, all right.

Others.

Vacations.

In our heart, man.

Abram, right?

You're the Abram one, right?

OK.

In your heart, high five.

Give me an air high five.

That was an excellent answer.

We're going to come back to that.

All right, try to beat it.

Anyone else?

Work, OK?

Finding joy in our work.

Family.

Giving gifts, right?

Maybe to your pastor on his birthday, absolutely.

Others.

Sitting on the couch, amen.

The Bible, OK?

Serving.

All right, balcony.

You guys scored a lunch last week.

You got quiet this week.

Yahweh.

Finding joy in God, OK?

Very good.

So we find joy in a lot of things.

But notice how none of you said trials.

None of you said, and a lot of you

knew where I was probably going with this,

but none of you said when life's really hard.

When I just don't know if I'm going to make it.

When everything just seems to be down.

When God just feels like that bully in the sky

with the magnifying glass, and I'm the ant, right?

None of you said you find joy in that.

I wonder why.

Because we don't look at it that way.

We don't look at the trials we go through in life.

This is going to sting.

And I'm looking at it.

If there was a mirror here, I'd look at myself first.

The main reason why none of us said that

is because we're selfish.

Because we love when life goes well.

I don't know anybody that comes into my office and I say,

hey, how you doing?

They're like, man, life is going so well.

But I know it's going to come like a freight train and stop.

And I am looking forward to that, pastor.

Nobody has ever said that.

No, on the flip side, you sit down

with your individual that may be going through a long cancer

battle, and they've come to reside to themselves that,

you know what, joy may be coming when I enter glory.

When they may come to peace with the fact

that their life on this earth may be over

or coming to an end.

But for a lot of us, we don't find joy in trials.

Well, James told you you got it all wrong.

And we're going to start with the very beginning.

So James 1, where it says, James,

a servant of God of the Lord Jesus Christ,

to the 12 tribes of the Disperion, greetings.

Count it, all joy, 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

take its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing, lacking in nothing.

Leave that up there.

Consider it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.

You know where I think this comes from is

because these are the Disperion are groups of the way, which

is what Jesus followers were called.

The term Christian didn't come till much later

when Constantine kind of made it the world religion

of that time.

But the followers of the way, they counted it joy

when they met trials.

And do you want to know why?

Because they knew they were coming.

They knew they were going to come from the Roman Empire.

They knew they were going to come from the Sanhedrin.

They knew they were going to come from all the people.

Remember in Easter when we talked about as the women were

going to give the message, they were

trying to already create a money laden cover up

to say it never happened?

Like, oh, that doesn't sound like today at all.

No, it sounds exactly like today.

But understand that they knew it was coming,

and they counted it as a badge of honor.

Considerate, preer, joy is the same as saying,

may I have another, please?

That's their mindset.

What has changed so much that by 2024, when I ask 300 people,

what brings you joy, none of you said when life is hard?

Anyone want to take a stab at why none of you

answered it that way outside of I called all of us selfish?

Anybody? Because it's uncomfortable.

Because if we're being honest, we don't like having bad days.

Now, for some of you, you actually do,

and that's a different conversation

that you and I can have.

But understand that we don't like feeling bad.

We don't like going through bad things.

But Eli, I'm going to use your testimony for an example.

You went through some very difficult medical stuff

over the last 18 months, two years or so.

How do you look at that stuff now?

You grew in your faith.

I had Eli about a year ago kind of hobble into my office

because of the pain he was experiencing,

and he wanted to turn his pain for a purpose,

and he started writing songs.

I don't know about you, but it was decent, right?

That God is using a lot of the pain

that he was being put through, and he made it purposeful.

That there was actually purpose in the pain.

That there was an understanding of God was at work.

But for a believer, that should be our go-to.

Man, life's really hard right now.

I wonder what God is trying to teach me.

But for a lot of us, we don't go there.

Or if we do, it's after we've exhausted all of the self stuff

of trying to make it better.

Because what James is saying is not only should we consider

a pure joy that we know when we meet trials.

It would read very different if it said, count it all joy,

my brothers, if you meet trials of various kinds.

Because there will be some of us that want to camp out,

and ooh, he meant if.

I might not ever have to face trials.

No, when we face trials of various kinds.

For you know that the testing of your faith

produces steadfastness of way that I like to understand

that word, because it's really hard to say from the stage,

is the understanding that in all things,

you have your center.

In all things, you have your foundation.

That though you may get bent by the wind

and the waves of life, you may be struck down,

but you're not destroyed.

That that is the steadfastness of your faith.

And let steadfastness have its full effect

that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Now, we know perfect doesn't mean actual perfection.

That we may be perfect and complete seeing your pain

and your trials as a part of your story.

The crazy thing is, one of the things we all have in common

in this room, is that you all have a testimony.

Knowing that there might not be believers here this morning,

but we're so thankful that you are here.

But we all have a testimony, because a testimony

is your life before the cross and your life after the cross.

Holston's testimony got a little bit more defined today

as he grows up, that it's gonna be talked about.

Hey, when were you baptized?

I was baptized at eight weeks old.

Again, he's not gonna remember any of it,

but it's a part of his life.

For some of you, your testimony started

when you came back to church.

And when maybe you got yourself,

or the Lord brought you to the cross,

and now you're someone different.

For some of you, if you're not a believer this morning,

your testimony may be impacted absolutely today.

We have no idea.

But the perfection and the completeness

that James is talking about is that in all situations

in life, we can look back to God, we can lean and rely

on God that he is doing a work.

But I know that there are some of you here today

when you're going through it,

when the fertilizer is hitting the ventilator,

all of a sudden, your understanding of God

is that God has checked out.

Friend, I'm here to tell you, that has never been the case.

That will never be the case, because God doesn't lie.

And God always has been consistent and steadfast

in his words that he will never leave you or forsake you.

That I will be with you always to the very end of the age.

In this world, you will have trouble,

but take heart, I overcome the world.

Many different things that he has said.

And Jesus never pays us lip service.

Though for a lot of us, we love to pay him lip service,

he never pays lip service to us.

So understanding trials, understanding that trials

are going to come and understanding that trials

not only are gonna happen, but they may be severe.

What are some things we can pull out for that

when it comes to the trying the true testing of our faith?

How many think it's be, so we can go through

all of this alone?

Even my introverts, you better not put your hands up.

No, consider a pure joy, our brothers and sisters,

read it as count it all joy Munster Church.

When you all go through, it may be collectively as a church,

but it could also be individually as families.

That we are here to do this together.

We're here to band together when things go wrong.

Not to always come and give the answers.

We all know those people and they drive us insane.

When life's going wrong and they just wanna preach

the Bible to us, and I'm saying this as a pastor,

I understand that when life goes wrong

and you call me to come over or you come to my office,

you don't wanna Bible study.

You just need comfort, you just need prayer,

you need community.

Because more times than not, in of my ability,

I can't fix your problem, but we can acknowledge it together

and actually explore what God might be doing.

I don't know about you, but that's pretty awesome.

That's pretty amazing that the family of God

has that understanding.

Let's go on the flip side.

For a world that doesn't believe in Jesus,

that doesn't have that comfort or that peace,

where do they find their joy?

If we're supposed to find joy in trials,

because it's supposed to enhance our relationship

with Jesus and grow it to make us steadfast in our faith,

what about a world that denies his existence?

Or that Jesus was just a guy?

How do they handle trials?

Any guesses?

Drugs, yeah, wow, we went straight there.

Absolutely, yeah, self-loathing, it could be drugs, sure.

Or we'll just kinda umbrella that,

look for some kind of escape for all of that.

But where I was kinda going was they look inward.

So how does that work?

If I'm the one going through the muck in the mire,

and if we're being honest, a lot of times it's our fault,

why am I looking to myself to be the answer?

The problem, right, to quote the great theologian,

Taylor Swift, hi, the problem is me.

I can't be my own answer.

I publicly apologize for saying her name in a sermon.

We have elders tomorrow, I bet that's gonna come up.

Anyway, but understand that that is a world's understanding

that if I'm the problem, how am I gonna be the solution?

Because we've been sold on crazy pills in this country,

in this world, in our understanding

that we are the answer to all of the problems.

How does that work when I turn the TV on

and in the first three minutes I go,

oh, no, no, no, no, the problem isn't, the problem is us.

We're not the answer, we are the cause of all of this.

We're the cause of the hypocrisy,

we're the cause of all the death and destruction.

But for a believer, the trials is an opportunity.

So I challenge you as we go through the book of James,

when you have trials of many kinds, of various kinds,

it's not, hey, you're gonna have these three, that's it.

No, it's gonna be different in type, different in number,

different in length of trial.

Because someone that's battling a relationship crisis,

that may take years and years and years.

And to the person that runs over the tire,

gets a flat tire and says, why is all the world against me?

God, why do you hate me?

God's like, no, drive better.

Like, understand that we need to consider it joy

that we go through these things.

Because it's an opportunity for growth.

It's an opportunity to grow our faith.

So that means that growth must mean something,

that growth must be producing something actual.

And James is gonna talk about that, chapter, or verse five.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God,

who gives it generously to all without reproach.

And it will be given you.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting,

for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea,

that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive

anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Oof, this is tough.

But I love the, so we go from,

I love the steadfastness to have its full effect

that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So then he's giving us an opportunity.

So ask for wisdom.

For a cup of coffee and a conversation with Pastor Jim,

who do we know in the Bible that actually did that?

Solomon, over there?

Mike, okay?

So understand, guess what, God gave it.

And James is telling us, he'll give it.

But isn't it funny that he says you have to ask for it?

Because for a lot of us in this room, myself,

I'm gonna put myself at the top of the list,

I don't always ask for that when I ask for how do we get,

how are we gonna get through this?

Because there are times, I do just kinda wanna sit

on the couch and let God do all of it.

Or say, God, raise up someone else to fix it.

Yet he's telling us, the half-brother of Jesus,

the half-brother of Jesus is saying,

if any of you lacks wisdom, which meaning we will,

ask for it, and God will give it generously,

without reproach, meaning without proof.

God doesn't need proof that you're gonna be

a good steward of it, he will give it to you.

He will give you the wisdom that you are asking for.

But, let him ask in faith.

What does James mean by this?

Well, when we ask, and this is so, this is tough.

In our prayer life, when we ask God to fix something,

what God is desiring of us is to ask him

without any doubt in our heart.

It's got real quiet in here.

Because understand, for a lot of us, that's really tough.

Because we struggle intellectually,

we struggle kind of emotively,

we struggle analytically with this idea of prayer,

with this idea of asking God for anything.

Because in some ways, it shows the one or two percent

that might be within you, that you might not think God exists.

I'm a passing grade, I'm a 98 percenter.

I'm an A plus in most school systems.

That I can have an A plus in prayer, A plus in faith,

but I'm gonna hold that little two percent

that he might not actually be real.

So if that's the case,

I'm gonna end up doing this myself anyway.

Doesn't that kind of throw the whole case out?

God, I trust that you're gonna do this.

I seek wisdom and discernment

for how we're gonna move forward.

Look at your counsel.

We're looking at potential new addition.

And we are trying to be the best stewards we can.

But what would a counsel look like

if we ask God to give us the discernment

to make the best stewardship decisions for this and for that,

yet there is a two percent in the room

or in each one of the counsel folk that go,

but I don't know if God exists.

Doesn't it fall in on itself?

Doesn't it cancel each other?

Doesn't that two percent completely destroy the 98?

Because we can't be 98 percent in.

We need to be all in.

And I know exactly how that sounds

because I don't know if I believe it all the time.

Because I struggle with that.

That's the struggle of faith.

That we're gonna give our faith, give our lives,

and look to this thing, this person,

that's supposed to have my best interest at heart

when I just am entering this hard season of life.

Well, let me turn it another way.

Who are you to have a perfect life?

What have you done, what have I done,

to not have any troubles in this life?

How many of you have made mistakes in your life?

I'll wait.

No, no, keep them up.

Yeah, some of you wake up.

So if your hand's raised, then you're not promised that anyway.

But what we are promised is wisdom to work through things,

compassion and love and acceptance and an understanding

of what God is doing in our lives to offer to other people,

to get out of our own self-crazy

that we have to do this life alone.

What kind of parents would Curtis and Hope be

if they raised Holston to understand,

Holston, you gotta do this faith on your own.

No one's gonna help you, said his parents.

What would the baptismal vows you just make mean?

Absolutely nothing.

Zilch.

Just wasted all of our time.

But think about it from God's point of view.

That he's the one cheering you on.

And if you ever, I'm just gonna use it for Sox fans this year

because it is what it is, right?

We're gonna keep cheering on something

that Jack's team could probably beat.

And we're gonna keep the faith, right?

We're gonna keep cheering,

we're gonna keep going to the games by the hundreds

and all of those things because we believe one day

things are gonna be better.

Friends, we already have the everything.

We celebrated that two weeks ago.

We already have the salvation,

we already have the new life in Christ,

we already have the relationship with God

we already have the relationship with God now

which Christ is the mediator.

We already have all of these things.

And what God is trying to get us to wake up to

is that when life goes wrong, he is still right.

When all the chips are down,

we still belong to the resurrected King.

That you and I are sons and daughters of the King

and one day we will get it.

But for a lot of us, that's not enough

because we want that now.

James is gonna make it pretty clear

that we can't have that, that it takes that faith.

Because in those trials, in seeking wisdom,

in trying to make sense of it,

there's actually blessings in trials.

I'm gonna use a pretty personal moment

that a lot of us have had.

And I know that there's a lot,

Carrie and I included, that had trouble with infertility.

And what should be a sacred time,

a time that should be celebrated and excited about

and all that can be met with disappointment

after anger and hurt and disappointment

and then a nasty cycle of all of those feelings

when things just aren't going the way

that we believe they should go.

One of the things I love,

not that I love when couples go through that,

I don't mean it that way,

but when I'm walking alongside couples

that are going through that,

how God opens their eyes to a lot of these other blessings,

a lot of these other things that are going on

in their relationship in the world around them.

One of the things that this church does pretty well

is they love on people that are hurting.

Right, you saw it even in the News and Notes.

And with the passing of a man,

even in the News and Notes, and with the passing of a loved one,

we loved on the family that's still around

and they recognize that.

That couples that go through those things

can recognize the support and the care.

Oh, and believe me, friends,

there are those that think they're caring

and they make it so much worse.

We have people in our lives say,

oh, don't worry, it's gonna happen for you,

I just know it.

Do you, really, do you know that?

Like you just wanna rip their, no you don't.

But maybe you do.

That people are gonna say these things

thinking they're caring and they're really not,

but then there's gonna be those true friends,

that true community that's gonna come alongside you,

care for you, and then throw one heck of a party

when it actually happens.

That's just one glimpse of many glimpses

of what we get to experience in trials

because of Christ.

Yet we forget.

And maybe I'm gonna go so far to say is,

maybe we don't forget about this,

but we don't want the blessings that come from trials.

Because we would much rather have it like Burger King.

What is that?

Our way, right away.

We want it that way.

We want it, we think, we know best,

we want it to go that way,

or go down that line, that thread, whatever,

that that's how we want it,

and God, you are basically a genie,

so we're just gonna pray and wish to that,

and that if you don't give it to me exactly how I want it,

that I am, I'm gonna take that 2% and make it 3%

that you don't exist.

Huh?

The God of the universe?

The God of the wind and the waves?

The God that said star, star, star, star, star, star, star.

The one that brought humanity into existence?

That's the edge you wanna take?

That's the reflection of God you wanna be?

You're misunderstanding the blessings.

Let's go to verse 12, right?

Is that the next one?

Verse 12.

Bless is a 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.

Let no one say when he is tempted,

I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted.

God cannot be tempted with evil,

and he himself tempts no one,

but each person is tempted when he is lured

and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire when it gives, ah,

then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin,

and sin when it is fully grown

brings forth about death.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers,

for every gift and every perfect gift is from above,

coming down from the father of lights,

with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Of his own will, he has bought us forth

by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of,

first fruits of his creation.

So there's a lot there.

But the blessing that James wants us to understand today

is that when we remain steadfast under trial.

I've used this analogy before,

but I think it's relevant today.

Baseball was my favorite sport, played it for a long time.

And my mom remarried to Dan.

How do I, I say this lovingly, and dad, if you watch this,

you know what I'm about to say.

My dad, the athletic side, that athletic bone,

his sister's got that.

And understand that when it comes to his computer mind

and all that nerd nerd and all that stuff,

my dad was fantastic at it.

And I remember we were in the townhouse in Orland

and he must have been told by my mom to do this or something

that he'd say, hey, do you wanna go out and play catch?

And kinda like, through gritted teeth, I was like, sure.

Because I kinda knew how this was gonna go.

And I remember, probably after the third or fourth time,

of it really not going well, I was getting frustrated.

He could tell that I was getting frustrated,

all of those things.

And so, he just relied on the fact

that I had other people to play catch with.

And that's fine, and I love my dad for that.

But I guarantee you that I could always,

I could pick his cheering out of a lineup.

That when I succeeded in sports, in baseball,

his cheer raised above all of them.

And I will remember that to the day I die.

That then, even in my failures,

he came alongside and he encouraged.

And I think that's what James is trying to tell us today,

that we need to be that for each other.

That when we go through those trials,

when we go through the muck and the mire of life,

when we think we're doing it alone,

know that you're not.

You never have been.

And if you're in the body of Christ, you never will be.

That there are people that will come alongside of you.

And church structures have made it so that there are.

There are 10 individuals, we call them elders,

that are there whenever you go through those things.

But a healthy church isn't that the elders

are doing all of the loving on people.

No, it's that we're doing it together.

That we go through trials as organization,

but as individuals together.

And it's in that that Christ is glorified.

It is in that that Christ is seen and heard.

And guess what, friends?

In that, the world around us sees that.

Because remember where joy is found

when we don't have God?

It's found in self.

And that has an expiration date.

But the family of God doesn't.

That we have this understanding

that we can walk alongside all of those

that are in trials as they walk alongside you and me.

Blessed is the man, or blessed, yeah,

blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.

For when he has stood the test,

he will receive the crown of life.

That doesn't happen on this earth.

I know for a lot of us we secretly want it.

But what would a crown of life do on a world like this?

Nothing.

And it's not for the right now.

That we go through these things

not for the instant gratification,

though we desire that always.

It is for the day when we get to be in glory forever and ever.

James even gets into our skeptics

and 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.

Man, God's tempted me to do this, eh, wrong.

No, God doesn't dangle carrots.

God doesn't stand up on the cross and say,

all right, you gotta do all these things

and you gotta do it this way

and then you can come and be with me.

No, he's gone to you.

And he said, this will make it better.

I am with you always.

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I love what Isaiah says and I use this on Easter too.

When you pass through the waters,

the waters of death, the waters of chaos,

the waters of whatever it is,

the waves will not overcome you.

Yeah, you may get banged up, you may get bruised,

but you're not gonna be destroyed.

The flames, right, the flames of hypocrisy,

the flames of hurt and pain,

the flames of financial burden,

the flames of insert whatever here,

they'll never take you down fully.

That's a promise we have.

It's a promise we should believe in.

Then at the very end, every good gift and perfect gift

is from above coming down from the Father of Lights

and to me this sentence is the sentence of the sermon.

With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

God's gonna come down the way God comes down.

God's not changed by the forecast of the day.

God is still God regardless of life's going well or not.

God's gonna come down as God does

to bring the blessings he's going to bring

for the people it's meant for

for the season of life that they're in.

And all we need to do is receive it, count it as joy,

and just keep swimming.

Just keep going.

It's the believer that comes in the office and says,

I have fully given up.

Given up on what?

I can't do this anymore.

Do what?

I'm not gonna do this or that anymore.

What is that?

I never get an answer.

But it's always just everything that we do that.

When one thing goes wrong, everything's going wrong

and therefore God doesn't exist.

Friend, no.

Regardless of whether you believe or not this morning,

God not only exists, God loves you,

wants the best for your life,

and will give you the wisdom to work through the trials

if you ask.

But there can be no doubt.

That's the hard part.

The doubt.