James | Week 2

Good morning. My name is Steve.

I am one of the Elder candidates here at new life and I want to

add my welcome to all the visitors that are here this

morning and also like to, of course, welcome all of our home

folks. Thank you for being here today.

This this beautiful Lord's day. Thank you.

This morning will continue in our study of James will be

focusing on again in chapter 1 verses 12 through 18. so, if

you'll start, Finding James and while you're turning there, I

can't. I can't not thank you for

allowing me. This opportunity.

A church family like this. I've never had before.

My heart is full. As I step up here this morning,

folks. I'm going to tell you there's

there's not a whole lot of churches.

We're before I could even get up here.

I've had two guys stop and pray over me before I get up here.

And that just, that makes my heart joyous.

I thank you for your confidence in me.

I thank you for your support. I thank you for the opportunity,

over the last Couple of years. Now during this candidacy

process, that I have had a chance to really get to know our

elders here. So much better through Reading,

and reading and reading and reading and reading, right Alan

My head sometimes wants to explode and I have to sit at

home. A lot of times wondering, how

does kala keep up with all this? Because I know he's got more

than that. Then I read.

And I just, I'll just blame it on my old mind.

He has a younger mind, so I thank you for for allowing me to

get to know my Elder Brothers. Even though they are half my

age. But I do thank you for that

this, this letter, written by James the half brother of Christ

can have Rich. Meaning for us, as we are

reminded to put faith in action. It's easy to say, we have faith,

but true faith will produce, loving actions toward others.

Being a doer of the word and not a hearer only, if you're able,

would you please stand as we read God's work?

Again, we're in James, 1, beginning in verse 12, blessed

is the man who remained steadfast at our 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 am being tempted by

God for God, cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself temps,

no one. But each person is tempted, when

he is Lord and enticed by his own desire.

The desire. When it has conceived, it gives

birth to sin and sin. When it is fully grown brings

forth death, do not be deceived. My beloved Brothers, every good

gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the

Father of Lights with whom there is no variation, or Shadow do to

change Of his own. Will he brought us forth by the

word of truth? That we should be a kind of

firstfruits of his creatures. Amen.

Like you may be seated. I've heard it said that good.

Teachers provide information. People do not already have four.

If they already knew it, they wouldn't need the information.

I say that because those of you that attended home group on

Wednesday night have already looked at this passage So it's

my job. My duty this morning to try to

expound on what you may have learned a Wednesday night.

But this job is made much more difficult.

The Men, We are blessed with his home group, leaders and

teachers. But my, my desire is that, after

our time together this morning, we can all see how this passage

in James, glorifies Christ. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this time.

We have together this morning. God, you are the god of Mercy,

the god of Grace, the god of strength.

And I pray. Father that as we look at this

passage this morning, On how trials and temptations come in

our lives and how we should handle those trials and

temptations. I pray.

Father that This congregation this morning.

Sees nothing, but your word. And your son.

I pray, father, that just is the Israelites were instructed to

remove all leaven from their house during Passover.

Every morsel, I pray, father that you remove every morsel of

me. In this sermon and that nothing

comes through except your truth. Father, these things we ask in

The Most Holy Name of Christ, amen.

So how important is it for Christians to trust God?

It's so important James writes that we should call our worst

moments joyful because trials, help us trust God more.

People who trust God, ask him for wisdom and then take what he

gives. People who trust God, make a

bigger deal about their rewards in the next life.

Rather than their wealth and this one.

People who trust God, don't blame him for their desire to

sin, they give him credit for all that is good in their lives.

They look into his word and they act on what they see.

I wish I had written that but I didn't that comes from a

commentary at a website called Bobble ref.com.

But I pray that we look at that last sentence.

This morning. that says they look into his word and they act

on what they see they're I pray that as we go through this

passage this morning that you look deeply into the words of

there were words of James but more importantly that when we

leave that we act on what we hear this morning not just

listen but be doers of the word. So as we begin to look at these

verses, it's important to note that you will see the word trial

used in verse 12. And then the word temptation is

used in first 13. The reason for this is that even

though these words are obviously different in our English

language, they come from the same root word in the original

Greek. I apologize.

I'm not a Greek scholar. Nor do I really have any

business jumping into this, but I think it's important.

So we're going to give it a go. I practiced all week on this

Greek word. So, the Greek word, Pereira

spoke It's a good for a smoke. Can mean trial or Temptation can

mean either? The meaning of / aspo is rooted

in the Old Testament. Where several Hebrew words?

Speak of difficult situations that are experienced by those

chosen by God, as a test intended, to demonstrate the

quality of an individual's Faith or to purify their character.

Obviously these two words have different meanings to us a trial

is something we experience not necessarily by choice but a

temptation is something that we do have a choice in.

So, whether we experience a trial or Temptation, we must

remember that. If we persevere, the struggle

will contribute greatly to the development of our spiritual

maturity. This happens to sign with our

muscles in our body. I'm again speaking without much

knowledge of this, just as I did with the Greek because you may

not know that I'm allergic to working out and gyms and such

When I'm around exercise, I break out in a sweat.

I get tired, I get sore and I get really grumpy.

So I don't think personally, it's a good thing for me.

However, my wife does not share that same idea, but in talking,

with some of you that participate in this form of I

was trying to come up with a good word here and I came up

with tenants because I think that's what exercise is penance.

I have learned that as you exercise, Muscle tissue is

actually broken down. Its broken down and it's

stretched. So it doesn't return to its

normal original size as long as the exercises continued, the

same thing happens with trials and temptations as long as we

persist in our pursuit of a Godly life.

We may be broken and stretched their our faith will continue to

grow. So, let's see how this happens.

It's look at verse 12. Blessed is the man who remain

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 in verse 2 that Alan preached on last week.

We're told to count the trials we encounter as joyful.

Joyful. Why?

Because our faith only grow stronger when tested by trials,

Trusting God through our trials, produces steadfastness

steadfastness is more christ-like maturity where we

trust him more and with more resolved, the choice to keep

trusting God. In the midst of the trial,

brings his Blessing, our circumstances may be hard, but

God is on the side of those who trust him through life's most

difficult moments. Our reward for our dedication is

the Crown of Life. Not an award like he's given to

a winning athlete. Not a wreath out of metal, not a

trophy. Nor the glory or honor.

Here on Earth, but the ultimate reward that we receive is

eternal life. It is given to those faithful

Christians who persevere through trials and Temptations in this

life. Both Paul and Peter write about

crowns that are given to the faithful.

First Corinthians 9 verses 24 through 27 says, do you know

1 Corinthians 9:24–27

that in a race? All the runners run but only one

receives the prize so run that you may obtain it every athlete

exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we and

imperishable. So, I do not run aimlessly, I do

not box. His one, beating the air, but I

discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after

preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. and

Peter says, in First, Peter 5 verse 4, And when the chief

Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading Crown of

Glory. So James says, in verse 12, he

says he makes the connection between our love, for God, and

our ability to remain faithful to him.

In hard times, those who truly love God trusting, and those who

truly trust him continue to obey even when life gets hard, Let's

look at verse 13. 4:13, 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 temps.

No one. So where does Temptation come

from? Temptation develops from an evil

desire inside us. Not from God.

It begins with an evil thought and becomes sin when we dwell on

it thought and allow it to become an action.

Like a snowball rolling downhill, sin grows more

destructive. The more we let it have its way.

The best time to stop a temptation is before it's too

strong or moving too fast to control.

First Corinthians, 10:13 says no temptation has overtaken.

You that is not common to man, God is faithful and he will not

let you be tempted, beyond your ability, but the Temptation, he

will also provide the way of Escape that you may be able to

endure it. People who live for God, often

wonder why they still have temptations.

This is God, tempt us. God tests people, but he does

not tempt. God does not tempt us.

My trying to seduce us into sin. God does allow Satan to tempt

people but he does this in order to refine our faith and to help

us grow in our dependence on Christ, we could resist the

temptation to send by turning to God for strength and choosing to

obey his word. In his word, there are lots of

examples of God testing his Saints.

Abraham in Genesis 22. Abraham. when God required him

to sacrifice his son, Isaac Israel in Exodus, specifically

Exodus 16 for where. It says, the Lord said to Moses

behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the

people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I

may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.

And of course, job. It was a man in the land of us

whose name was job. And that man was blameless and

upright, one who fear God and turned away from evil.

Then beginning a few verses later, God allows Satan to test

joke. when I consider the testing and the trials of these

Great, Men of God, I think, who am I to question?

Why? I am being tempted.

Why am I experiencing these trials?

How can I ask the question, when God ordained so many in the

Bible with much greater Faith than I to experience his trials?

The ESV Study Bible says that. God tests us so that our

character is strengthened but he never temps or lures people into

sin. Since God cannot be tempted with

evil. He is unreservedly good.

He would never entice human beings to sin or seek to harm

their faith. God brings trials in order to

strengthen the Christians Faith. He never temps however, because

he never desires his people to sin, Christians should never

blame God when they do wrong. It's easy to blame others and

make excuses for evil thoughts and wrong actions.

We talked a little bit about this in Sunday school this

morning when the Israelites changed their mind about leaving

and going back. They wanted to go back to Egypt

and pharaoh changed his mind about letting the Israelites.

Go and coming back. But my fault went to Adam.

Adam was the first to blame That woman.

You gave me tempted me. He's an in effect.

He's Shifting the blame to God. Adam rationalizes just as we do.

This thinking and Adam was thinking, I didn't even ask for

a mate. That was God's idea.

So God, it's your fault. No, no no.

We should never think this way. But we are quick to play.

Play that blame-shifting game, aren't we?

It's their fault. I couldn't help it.

Everybody's doing it. It was just a mistake.

Nobody's Perfect. I was pressured into it.

I didn't know. It was wrong.

Verses 14 and 15. But each person is tempted, when

he is Lord, and enticed by his own desire, the desire when it

has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin.

When it is fully grown brings forth, death is Satan our only

source of Temptation No. We have at least 2 Enemies.

To fight Satan for sure. But we must also deal with our

fallen Human Nature. So you see Temptation leading to

sin, brings with our selfish desires begins.

Excuse me with our selfish desires when we are lured and

enticed, Just as fish is enticed away from its safety.

By the fisherman's bait in order to trap the fish with a deadly

hook. Here.

It's the person's evil desire that ensnares tempted by Satan.

As 1st Peter 5 says, it is Satan who seeks to Devour the very

source of Temptation is a distrust in God.

In this course, I'm I'm talking about temptations.

That we go the next step with we're tempted virtually every

day in today's world frequently, where Innocently scrolling

through our favorite social media platform.

And just out of nowhere, there pops an advertisement that we

shouldn't see. If we stop and take the time,

make the attempt to make sure that that ad doesn't pop up

again, or we just quickly scroll by without taking a second,

look, or a second thought. In friend, we have won that

title. the winning of small battles every day is when we win

the war. Those small victories add up to

winning. Add up to Victory.

The distrust of God develops. When we stop it.

Temptation and pursue it further.

The thought that God is withholding something from me

that I deserve gives birth to sin.

Sin is then manifested. Brings forth, death.

I can't leave these verses without Sharing something with

you from the book that the men are going over on Thursday

night, disciplines of a Godly Man.

As James said, we meet Thursday nights at 8:30.

Last week, we went over the chapter, entitled discipline of

purity. And it talked about, of course,

the sins of King David. This is a process that they lay

out in this chapter that James Jones called last week at our

home group, he called it the sins cycle.

Now, I don't know whether this is in the ladies book that

they're covering called disciplines of a Godly woman,

they meet Sunday afternoons at 4:00.

And by the way, that was an advertisement for biblical

manhood and biblical Womanhood. Again, that is important.

If you're not coming, you should be but moving on.

So we all know the story of David and Bathsheba, we've heard

it. We know it.

But let's look at the look at the story again from this.

Send cycle perspective. This Story begins with David's

life at the top, David was chosen by God to be king.

David was Brave. He was enthusiastic.

He was confident. He had charisma.

And under his leadership, all of Israel had been reunited.

But David suffered from what can be called Progressive

desensitizing to sin and that results in a loss of holiness.

one of the first things that David did when he became king,

Was to take more wives and concubines from Jerusalem.

This Deuteronomy 17 had laid out that the standards for the

Hebrew Kings. And one of the things that it

laid out was that they must refrain from taking many wives.

David's sensual, Indulgence began the process of loading him

into a place that made him easy prey.

Four deadly sin today, long hours of indiscriminate TV

watching video game playing or internet.

Surfing is a massive culprit to the desensitizing of people

inside and outside of the church, The second flaw in

David's conduct was his relaxation that included his

moral life. if you'll remember, In this passage, David was still

on the top of his. Temple or his his house.

When all of his armies went out to war.

Usually the Kings went with their armies to war.

But David had decided, I'm going to sit this one out.

I'm going to stay home and relax.

And when he did that, he let that relaxation bleed over into

his moral life. David then, fixated in this

case, he was consumed with Bathsheba However, that term

fixation extends much further than just lustful desires.

We can become fixated on a new car, a house, a boat on.

And on if it exists, we can become fixated on it.

As our fixation grows, the reality of God, Fades until he

disappears from our Covetous eyes. after David fixated, then

he rationalized The mind is controlled by greed, envy and

lust and has an infinite capacity for rationalization.

How can something I enjoy be so wrong.

God wants me to be happy, doesn't he?

My marriage was never God's will in the first place.

David's Fall From Grace ends with degeneration, from many

things. That included adultery lying

murder, the generation of his family and also National

decline. Do you think David would have

taken that first step? If he could have seen the end

result? verses 16 and 17 do not be

deceived my, beloved Brothers, every good gift and every

perfect gift is from above Coming down from the Father of

Lights with whom there is no variation, or Shadow do to

change God's intentions for us are always good.

And there is nothing in this world that is truly good.

That has any other origin than from above.

God is unchanging immutable in his character and therefore it

is giving of good. It's important to hang on to the

truth which is that every good thing in our lives is an

undeserved gift from God in the middle of our trials.

We could be tempted to mistrust God Rather than doubting God,

James is encouraging Believers to remember.

That every good thing we have comes from God.

He doesn't go from being a good God, to a bad God, when our

trials begin God is the source of light at times.

Shadows may fall on us, but he is ever and always will be

light. Turning away from God.

In order to escape hardship. Is as ridiculous as hiding from

the Sun in an effort to escape darkness when we're faced with

ordeals. We should seek the one who can

make all things new. And verse 18.

Of his own. Will he brought us forth by the

word of truth? That we should be a kind of

firstfruits of his creatures. First century, Christians were

the first generation to believe in Jesus Christ as Messiah.

James called them, a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

The Jewish leaders would be well, aware of the practice of

offering the first crops to ripen, just prior to the

Harvest, as an act of worship. And also, as a blessing on the

rest of the Harvest, In 1st Corinthians, 15 verse chapter,

15 verse 20, Paul refers to Christ as the firstfruits of

those who have died. James completes the thought of

God being The Giver of good gifts.

With an example of God's greatest, good gift us.

God gave us New Life In Christ. Look at the wording, a little

closer of this verse. This verse is amazing.

The verse says of his own. Will he brought us forth?

Meaning, because he loved us, he offered us salvation.

The verse says, by the word of Truth.

Which is salvation through the gospel.

The good news of Jesus Christ. The verse says that we should be

a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

We Christians. Are the first fruits, the

Pinnacle standing of Above the Rest of everything else that he

is made. What more evidence do?

We need that our God is good and loving and powerful and faithful

to us. No matter how dark our

circumstances in the moment. Nothing can change the enormous.

Good gift that God has given us in Christ.

Worship team, yell can begin making your way this way.

My friends. In the Christian life, there are

trials and temptations. Successfully overcoming these

adversities produces maturity and strong character.

Don't resent troubles when they come pray for wisdom.

God will supply all you need to face persecution or adversity.

He will give you patience and strength in times of trial.

And in our trials, God is Not tempting us to sin, rather the

difficulties in life are intended to strengthen and

perfect us and make us more like him. one of the greatest

blessings associated with, Persevering through trials and

proving our faith to be genuine is the confidence that he'll

will not have to be endured. Instead there is the

encouragement that comes from the word of Revelation 21:4 that

Revelation 21:4

says God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain. For the former things have

passed away. What does it mean to remain

faithful in hard times? It means continuing to

acknowledge that God is the source of what is good in our

lives. And what will be good in our

future? Would you stand as we pray?

Father, thank you. For this time to look in your

word this morning. Father, I pray that your word

has made itself plain to do to these people.

Father, I pray that it has pointed to nothing but the

glories of Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that there's

anyone here this morning that does not know you.

That they would see that through the trials and temptations that

we face. You are still good.

Amen. That they would see that through

the trials and temptations that we face.

You are still good. Amen.