James 1:2-4 - Biblical Perseverance // 18 October 2026

Morning.

Um, it's no exciting story.

I slipped.

Yeah.

I was at the beach cold water swimming, which I think some of you would think is absolutely absurd, right?

Um, but there's some there's some real ones in the room who are cold water swimmers, right?

I'm not the only one, yeah.

There we go, there we go, there we go.

Alright, so it was a beautiful morning, Thursday morning.

Great cold water swim, 7 a.m.

It was amazing.

I was walking back to the to the to the staircase up to the car park in Folkestone, and I just got caught up in the moment.

And I went, you know what?

I just want to look at the water one more time.

So I went down this staircase onto this concrete platform, and my brain forgot that the tide came in the night before.

And so as I stepped on this concrete platform to go in like this little cave thing, I just slipped like on a banana in a comedy movie.

I went horizontal in the air.

And unfortunately, I would have liked to have landed on that concrete platform, but I landed on the one below, um, arm and ribs first.

I felt silly because it took quite a long time to get up.

But yeah anyway, I think I'm okay.

I I came to work, was trying to work on this, and by the end of the day, I started to feel nauseous and like I wanted to pass out.

So the NHS said they don't do anything for ribs, and they listed the reasons to go to um the emergency room, and I didn't have any of those reasons except it says if you fall from a height.

I'm like, I'm six foot four.

Every fall is from a height.

So I went to the emergency room and they checked my vitals and they said, look, you're you your vitals are okay.

Um, we don't x-ray unless there's something worrying.

So you've either bruised, cracked, fractured, or broken ribs, and uh you'll find out by how long it takes to heal.

And so that's that's the situation.

So from a little ginger today, um, that's why it is.

Um, Marcus's joke was okay.

That's fine.

I expect that from Marcus.

However, it's not the first time I've heard that joke this week.

See, Rach went to worship practice on Thursday night, and I'm not gonna say any names, but our lovely worship leader who has a beautiful green dress on today and a guitar, she asked Rachel if I was at the age whether it's a slip or if I had a fall.

I'm 43, guys.

I think.

I lose the years between decades, but I'm not, I'm not, I haven't had a fall.

Anyway, okay, so there we are.

Get to air it all out now.

We're good, we can move on.

Uh at the end of summer, start of September, we we asked the question about spiritual drift.

We talked about spiritual drift and how, like a boat that isn't anchored at night can drift off with the current.

We, if we're not anchored in the things of God, can experience spiritual drift.

And that boat was a good analogy because the boat is in the ocean, but not of the ocean.

Like we are in the world, but not of the world.

But if we're not anchored in God, we will drift with the world.

And so at the start of our series on revival, we talked about spiritual drift.

And we said we can recognize spiritual drift by spiritual neglect, worldly distraction, compromise, conformity, or lack of accountability.

We then looked at Psalm 85, 6, where it says, Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?

And we talked about this word revive, which is a word that's cried out by God's people 250 times in the Bible.

And it's this Hebrew word kaya, which means to renew, to revive, to restore.

And we talked about how personally we can experience this revival to our spiritual situation if we feel that we're drifting.

And by the end of the revival series, that language shifted for us because we started to talk about it like that divine breath of God into our situation, into our circumstances, into our whole bearing, our whole being.

And over the last couple of weeks, we've had some amazing movers of God at the end of the service where I know many of us have experienced that divine breath into our situation and our circumstances.

We've felt that that revival within, we felt something restored, something brought back to life.

But then the question we've got to ask, because we can't stay in that space forever, is we've got to ask what now?

What next?

Because what's gonna stop us from drifting again?

See, if we don't approach the moment now after uh being restored and revived well, then we're just gonna repeat old patterns.

That's why it's so important that today and for the next six weeks, we're looking at the book of James.

Because the book of James is about spiritual maturity that forms godly character.

You see, God brings his breath, he brings his blessing, he brings his revelation, he brings his anointing, he gives us gifts, but we need to have a godly character to hold those up.

And so James is a letter to a scattered church, a church scattered by persecution.

But it's talking about the kind of godly character that comes from spiritual maturity.

Each chapter of James is another kind of spiritual maturity.

So over the next six weeks, starting today, we're going to look at today, perseverance, the week after practicing the truth, then power over our tongues, being peacemakers, being prayerful in trouble, and being unified in the body of Christ.

These are the marks of spiritual maturity that James says builds godly character.

Now, before we move too far forward, let's just really quickly address who James is, because there's four Jameses in the New Testament.

And we're going to speak more about James next week, but just so we're aware starting this book today that James that wrote this letter is the brother of Jesus.

So he's first mentioned in the gospel as Jesus' brother.

He doubts who Jesus is, tries to discourage him from doing what he's doing, and then later we find out Jesus appeared to him post-resurrection, and then we hear in Acts that James is now the head of the council in Jerusalem.

So we've got the brother of Jesus writing this letter who holds power and influence because he's got a leadership role in the church in Jerusalem.

So that's where we are.

Why don't we quickly open James chapter 1?

James 1 · chapter mention

We're going to read verse 2 and 4 really quickly, and we're going to hone in on that today.

So it's this consider it pure joy.

Pure joy, my brothers and sisters.

Whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Perseverance must first must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This is a powerful way to start a letter.

And if we can grasp the biblical principle that's in these few sentences, it will change your outlook and perspective on life.

So let's break it down for a minute.

Let's start where James starts.

Let's start with joy.

He says, consider it pure joy.

So we're starting with joy.

Joy is something we've talked a lot about this year as a church.

We started the year saying we felt the word over our church this year came from Psalm 126, to sow with tears, but reap with songs of joy.

So as we say, I can't sort of stop.

The reality is some of us never graduate beyond our reactions.

But the the encouragement of this scripture is we can.

We can graduate beyond our reactions and move into a biblical response.

And in this case, it's joy.

So understand this, because it gives yourself some compassion.

You can react poorly and still respond well.

You can react poorly and still respond well.

And if you're a part of the body of Christ, then you're under grace, which means we give each other the grace so that when someone reacts poorly, we don't hold them to their reaction, we give them a chance to respond.

So James starts with our response.

What a fun place to start.

Consider it a joy.

This is how I want you to respond.

But like to what?

So he starts with our response, but then he says, But this is what I want you to respond to.

He says, trials.

Now, the Greek word here is perasmos.

Now, what's really helpful about knowing that Greek word is it then defines exactly what the trials are that he's calling us to respond to.

The trials he's specifically pointing at here are those that are external.

These are things that are happening to us, whether it's adversity, affliction, circumstances, they're things that are happening to us that are outside of our control.

Now remember, he's writing to a church that is scattered because of persecution that is out of side of their control.

But what I like here is you see this little formula start to appear.

Because James is saying these things are gonna be out of your control.

These things that are external to you, these trials, these adversities, these circumstances that are gonna happen to you, they are gonna be outside of your control, but they are gonna happen.

But then he's saying what's in your control is how you respond to them.

And I want that response to be one of joy.

So this is a formula that's forming here.

We're saying basically things outside of your control are gonna be hard, but I want you to respond with joy.

And what's really important to this is there's a faith aspect to this because we have an understanding that trials are gonna test our faith, but they're not gonna break our faith.

Because when our faith is tested, it should push us further into our faith.

Now, the important thing in understanding that is real faith should be able to identify the difference between circumstances and identity.

True faith should be able to separate your circumstances from your identity.

Because circumstances are not sovereign over your life.

God is sovereign.

And if God is sovereign over your circumstances, your situation, your trial, your everything, then you should be able to separate your identity from those circumstances.

So your identity is in the one that's sovereign, not what you're going through.

And if you're able to do that, if you're able to separate your identity from your circumstances, then your circumstances should push you towards your faith, not away from your faith.

Because he is sovereign.

And that's crucial to all of it.

Because if this happens, if we take what we can't control, but we face it with what we can control, which is our response, which is joy, and if we know and do that because he is sovereign and that pushes us further into our faith instead of away from our faith, then James says what happens is perseverance.

Now, the perseverance here is another Greek word, which I'm totally gonna butcher, even though I've tried really hard to listen to it, but it's hoopomni or hooper pomony or hooper pomony.

You know what?

I hurt my ribs.

But it's two words squashed together, and when you look at the meaning of these two words squashed together, it actually forms a biblical understanding of perseverance, and a biblical understanding that perseverance that's used by understanding this word is abiding under pressure.

So what James says perseverance is is abiding under pressure.

Now we know who we're abiding into, the God that's sovereign over all these circumstances.

So basically, an easier way to understand this is maintaining a continuous, living, dependent relationship in Jesus no matter what's going on.

Maintaining a continuous living dependent relationship with Jesus throughout everything we're walking through.

That's abiding under pressure.

That's what perseverance is, according to the Bible.

How powerful is that?

Perseverance is staying in Him no matter what's going on, so that what's going on and our choice to respond the way we do pushes us further into Him.

That's pretty powerful.

Now, that's actually though a little hard for us to wrap our head around.

Because as I was thinking about this, I was like, this doesn't match the world's view on perseverance.

Because if you talk about perseverance outside of this biblical understanding, it's not the same thing.

See, perseverance usually comes down to somebody conquering some great feat.

You know, it comes down to their willpower or their mental stamina or their grit.

It's not about abiding in a God that's sovereign, it's about man's ability to conquer all odds.

And so when we see these great feats of perseverance, we're inspired.

Why are we inspired?

Because in the world there is a lot that's out of our control.

And we have this fleshly desire for certainty.

Because if we're honest with ourselves, we have a fear of the unknown.

And so, with that fear of the unknown, we're constantly searching for proof of human agency because we want this assurance that we can conquer all in our own ability, our own strength, our own grit, our own willpower.

That is the opposite of what is being said in this passage.

That's the opposite of biblical perseverance.

Biblical perseverance gives you no assurance in your own will to conquer anything.

But that's good.

Because if your worldview is a belief that you can conquer everything, what happens when you can't?

Your worldview shatters.

But if your worldview is he is sovereign over all things and you are in him, then you can persevere by abiding in the one who is sovereign.

That is so much more powerful.

You see, we don't need assurance of our own human agency, we just need the assurance that our faith provides in his sovereignty.

Come on.

Because I guarantee you, all of us at all times are gonna be faced with things we can't overcome, we can't push through, we can't find certainty in.

And we need the faith in his sovereignty.

But even with that, a faith in his sovereignty gives us a certainty of our eternity.

Because there's gonna be prayers we pray that aren't answered in the physical now.

But we have the certainty of our eternity.

Faith in his sovereignty is fundamental to who we are.

So there's two things to finish with that James says that's really important here.

He says, Perseverance must finish.

And then he says, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.

So these are both important.

Let's start with perseverance must finish.

That one's pretty obvious, right?

What's that telling us?

Don't give up.

Don't give in.

See this through.

Maintain that continuous, living, dependent relationship with Jesus as we walk through the circumstances, the hardship, the situations, as long as it takes, because we have assurance in his sovereignty.

You know, I loved what Matt said last week at the conference.

He says we need a reason to pray that is greater than our circumstances.

Because he is the God of the mountain and the God of the valleys.

I love that.

We are being told that we should respond with joy.

Well, what happens when I don't have joy?

What happens where I can't get to that?

Like I can actually like, like, you know, intellectually understand that the Bible is telling me to respond with joy, but I don't know how to find that joy.

Well, that's why praise is there.

Praise is like a weapon, praise is like a tool.

If we don't know how to respond with joy, let's respond with praise because praise takes us to joy.

And I love what Matt said last week.

If praise is dependent on our circumstances, then we are at the mercy of our circumstances.

Well, praise is not dependent on our circumstances, it should be dependent on his sovereignty, which means that's what we're at the mercy of.

And it's not mercy, it's grace.

So praise is a really important part of responding in joy because praise gets us to Choi when we don't know how to get there ourselves.

And there's lots of elements of praise we've talked about.

But maybe in this situation it's a holy roar.

But you know, the other thing too is if we know we need to respond with joy, but we don't know how, we are a body of Christ.

Let's rely on that spiritual connectivity.

Let's grab that that brother and sister next to us and just say, look, I need to respond with joy, but I don't know how.

So I'm just pulling some of your joy closer to me so that we can respond together, because I don't want to respond on my own.

I really needed someone to grab onto on Thursday.

It was just a slimy concrete I was trying to comically with one arm get myself up from.

Oh, that that was the wrong lean.

You know what?

They tell you to cough, sneeze, and um laugh with a pillow on your chest because they're all bad.

I ate a burger really fast last night.

Hiccups are the worst.

Okay, I'd sneeze, I'll cough, I'll laugh, but hiccups are like five minutes of rhythmic torture.

I was knocking back water, trying to get rid of them.

I asked Elijah to scare me, but I knew it was coming, it didn't work.

Anyway, can't laugh.

Let's finish it with this bit though.

It says, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

You know what I really felt as I was reading that and thinking about this word is I think that some of us are enduring when we should be persevering.

I think some of us are enduring when we should be persevering.

Now let me explain that difference.

You see, when you're enduring your situation, your circumstances, your hardship, you're tolerating them.

At best, surviving.

And when you get through them, I promise you, you're pretty much the same, except you're probably exhausted, worn out, and wiped out.

That's not what you're being told to do.

You're not being told to endure, you're being told to persevere.

And persevering is choosing how we respond because we're not going to tolerate, we're not going to survive, we're not going to revive rely on our mental strength or our stamina.

We're going to rely on him in this situation so that we push into our faith, that our maturity is built, our character is developed, and when it's over, we come out transformed.

That is what the biblical definition of perseverance is.

So for those of you in the room over the last couple of weeks that experienced that divine breath in their situation, that experienced something pop, something come alive.

What did you learn from that?

What did it teach you?

What was the revelation that God gave you?

Because you want to grow in that, you want to further develop that, you want to expand on that, you want to push in to these marks of maturity so that God can take you to the next level.

But for some other people in this room, if you feel like, you know what, I've been enduring, I didn't know I could persevere, I've just been hanging on, I've just been enduring.

Well, we want something to break for you in worship.

Because the problem is when we start to endure, when we try to tolerate, when we try to survive, the enemy gets in and convinces you that this is God's will for your life, that this is all that God has for you.

So you just have to tolerate, you just have to survive because it ain't gonna get any better than this.

Always me.

And the enemy wants you to think that way because he doesn't want your circumstances to be something you can overcome.

The enemy wants your circumstances to hold you captive, to be that horrible, like one that's always struggling.

And you start to think in your head, you know what, everyone's disregarding me because it's just me again, the one who struggles.

Because that's what God has for me.

I'm the struggler.

That's not biblical, that's not of God, that's not truth.

God is calling you to persevere, to push into his sovereignty over your situation, over your circumstances, to choose to respond with joy, to push into something of the divine that's in you.

That's what God has for you.

Make sure you understand what voice is in your head.

Because if I'm gonna build my response on a voice in my head, I want it to be something sovereign, not something fleshy.

Let's bring our everything under the one who's sovereign.

Why don't we stand?

Because I think it's a great time to come into worship.

I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna hand it over to these guys.

Dear Lord, we give our everything to you.

The one who's sovereign over our situation, our circumstances, our hardship, our trials, Lord.

Let us build our certainty in who you are so that we don't have a fear of the unknown.

We have a confidence in the known.

That you are real, that you are powerful, that you love us, that we are under your grace.

Let it fill our hearts with gratitude.

Lord, I pray to you now that you would minister to us in this worship as we offer ourselves up to you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.