Basic Sermon Outline

Treasure Through Trials

James 1:2-18

1.&n= bsp; Introduction

Well, you can be turning in your bibles to James chapter 2. We are beginning our serie= s from the book of James entitled, “Faith for Real Life: Encountering God through the Book of James.” This morning we are going to be looking at chapter 1 of James. This chapter specifically addresses trials and difficulties. I believe God is very interested in instructing us through his word this morning. In his goodness he has much planne= d for us through his word so let’s go to him in prayer before we read the passage.

Text: James 1:2-= 18 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, whe= n you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of y= our faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. <= sup>6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven a= nd tossed by the wind. ⁷For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸= he is a double-minded man, unstabl= e in all his ways.

⁹Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, <= /span>¹⁰and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. ¹¹For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower fal= ls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

¹²Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has s= tood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those= who love him.

¹³Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,= 221; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully g= rown brings forth death.

¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. = ¹⁷Every good gift and ev= ery perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ¹⁸Of his own will he bro= ught us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Our text this morning st= arts out with the startling instruction to us, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”. And if we read this without thinking we might miss just how radical it is. James 1:2 tells the brothers, that= is believers, to count it all jo= y when we face trials of various kinds. James, come on, be serious! You expect us to count it joy when we face trials? Now I can see it when we face litt= le trials, like when we get stuck in traffic or when our ice-cream cone leaks = out of the bottom of the cone, but we are to count it all joy when we face tria= ls of the more serious variety? = Do you mean to say when we face trials like losing our job, or extended unemployme= nt or defaulting on our mortgage, or losing a loved one or getting cancer or s= tuff like that? Do you mean to tel= l me we are to count it all joy?

And for that matter, James, what’s the deal with trials anyhow? I thought to come to = Jesus was to walk with God who loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives. What’s the deal with trials, James? I thought following Je= sus was an alternative to the turmoil and troubles of this world. How can you say this? Why does God allow trials? When will my life get better? Who can get me out of these difficulties?

Have you= ever felt like that? Do you feel like t= hat right now? The book of James = is the book for you. What I want to = do this morning is to spend some time in James 1:2-18 learning about trials fr= om God’s perspective. We a= re going learn four things from this chapter that I trust God will bring about= one particular result. Those four things are 1) Trials Remain as a Necessary Part of the Christian life, 2) Trials Result in the very Best Outcome for our lives , 3= ) Trials Remove Sin from Our Lives 4) Trials Require Us to Depend on God, and I trust the one result will be the understanding that we must embrace trials as blessings God uses for our very best. So let’s begin.

2.&n= bsp; Trials are a NecessARy Part of the Christian life

There is an assumption behind this entire book. Really this assumption is dealt wi= th extensively throughout the whole bible.&nb= sp; That assumption is this, “bad stuff happens” or, to use the language of James, “trials happen.” = Now other folks know this, other worldviews admit this but only the bible really provides sufficient understanding to make sense of trials. Before we survey what the bible st= ory teaches us about trials let’s think a little bit about some of the alternative views of trials. = Probably the most prevalent view in our culture is what we can call the pragmatic American view, it is that trials are simply bad things that happen for bad reasons. Yeh, you might learn something from them but the real way to deal with trials is to eliminate th= eir source than we all will be happy. So, we spend thousands of dollars finding diets that prevent cancer = or obesity. We fund millions of dollars of research to cure disease. We spend hours and hours working to make enough money so as to avoid= the trial of being poor. We create regulations to ensure safety and accident free living. When something bad does happen we = look quickly for a source, be it a person or a lack of technology, and we aggressively attack the problem. Did you notice how this played itself out after 9-11? Certainly 9-11 was something bad t= hat originated from a bad source. But our reaction was to blame the government for failure to predict it and prev= ent it. We then implemented new security measures and new policies to make sure it will never happen again. Our prime view of 9-11= was from the pragmatic American view.

Personally I have seen this in my own life as I am deal= ing with my aging. I’m not = that old but as I progress further into my 40’s I am losing my hair, I am = gaining lots of wrinkles and aches in my bones, I have a knee that is detoriating a= nd a waistline that materializing. I am very tempted to try to find some drug that will slow the aging down. I want a pill that I can take that= will relieve me of any of the trials of aging.&= nbsp; Somebody needs to make a pill that combines minoxidil for my hair, glucosomine for my knee, lipotor for my cholestorol, ginseng for my energy,= and dexetrim for my waist line. I= f you can discover an antiaging drug and throw it in there that would be even better. I imagine there= is quite a bit of money out there for someone who can come up with such a pill= . I want to stay young and heal= thy and avoid the trials of aging. While some of this is natural, for God made us for eternity with him, not for death, I can fall int= o the same line of thinking about trials as the world around me does – basically a mindset that neglects the central function of trials – our God and God’s glory.

There are some serious shortfalls i= n this worldview. While it may help = us prevent something bad from happening again it ultimately can not explain the origin of bad things apart from some impersonal and fairly random psychological/sociological /technological mechanism. And it can ultimately = find no purpose in the occurrence of bad things. Additionally, it can not guarantee= an immunity from suffering, ever. It simply leaves us adrift as nervous potential victims of an infinite variety= of impending mishaps.

Other worldviews attribute evil and trials to the neces= sary result of the freedom of the will. In other words, because we are ignorant or we choose to do evil, evil happens. This idea fails to address impersonal evil such as disease and nat= ural disasters. Other worldviews h= andle trials as the mysterious will of capricious deities or fates, so folks turn= to appeasement of their gods or the use of lucky charms and horoscopes.

However, in the bible God himself, the Creator and Sust= ainor of all creation presents us with an explanation of trials and evil that is robust and able to answer our questions, at least the necessary ones, and provide hope and strength to deal with trials and see their true purpose. Much of this understanding will un= fold as we go through this passage, but let me set the backdrop of the bibleR= 17;s storyline that informed James as he wrote this passage.

We find in Genesis that God created the cosmos and call= ed everything “good.” When he created mankind he called them, “very good.” There is not mention of evil or tr= ial in the beginning. And from James= and many other places in the bible we will learn that God did not create evil.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> But in Genesis 3 evil and trial are introduced into= the story through the serpent, a created being we know as Satan, who tests the = man and the woman to get them to disobey God.&= nbsp; That is the first temptation or trial the bible presents. So, right from the beginning, befo= re mankind had sinned, there was already testing and evil, allowed by God thro= ugh the means of an evil being, Satan. Now God did indeed create Satan yet it was Satan himself who chose e= vil and introduced evil to mankind and therefore the rest of creation. God is not the author of any evil.= Yet, he weaves it into his plan to= turn it on its head for his good purposes. Again, more on that as we go through James. We know the rest of the story, Ada= m and Even fall from the state of sinlessness and become tainted by evil themselves. However, througho= ut the rest of the bible God is constantly redeeming a people from evil to himself. However, all of these characters suffer trials as they put their hope in God. To be a follower of God means to go through trials but to go through them with God. This theme starts with Abel, conti= nues through Noah, Job, Abraham to the nation of Israel itself. Even Jesus himself undergoes a lif= e of trial culminating in the biggest trial in all of history, his suffering and death on the cross to pay for our sins.&nb= sp; Hebrews 5:8-9 (ESV) says, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. ⁹And being made perfect, he became = the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him”

The bible clearly teaches that trials are an integral p= art of what it means to live on the earth. The biblical view of trials is that they are a necessary and even God-ordained part of our existence on this earth. God has allowed trials and sufferi= ng to exist because of the presence of evil and also as an integral part of his purposes in this world. But r= ight along with this truth is that God is willing and able to deliver us from our trials and will provide relief to those who wait on him and trust him. This deliverance in the bible is m= ost completely and finally expressed in the final culmination of God’s creation purposes, when, through the life, death, resurrection and reign of= his son he brings everything to its conclusions and creates a new heaven and ea= rth where sin and suffering no longer exists and God’s people live with h= im in eternal bliss, enjoying him forever as the final and full deliver from e= vil and the only source of infinite goodness and glory. The evil that was introduced in the beginning is finally dealt with and no longer remains. But in the meantime, from the time= of Adam until the return of Christ, trials and suffering are key instruments w= hereby God accomplishes his perfect plans and demonstrates his glorious character.=

Most of the= Psalms were born in difficulty. Most of the Epistles were written in prisons. Most= of the greatest thoughts of the greatest thinkers of all time had to pass thro= ugh the fire. Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress from jail. Florence Nightingale, too ill to move from her bed, reorganized the hospitals of England. Semiparalyzed and under the constant menace of apoplexy, Pasteur was tirele= ss in his attack on disease. During the greater part of his life, American historian Francis Parkman suffered so acutely that he could not work for mo= re than five minutes as a time. His eyesight was so wretched that he could scr= awl only a few gigantic words on a manuscript, yet he contrived to write twenty= magnificent volumes of history. Sometimes= it seems that when God is about to make preeminent use of a man, he puts him through the fire. [1]

So all that to say, that trials are designed by God as = part of his purposes in and through our lives, and to live in this time between = the beginning of it all and the final conclusion, which is coming very soon, is= to experience trials of various kinds.

Sorry if that is new news to you. If anyone tries to sell = you a Christianity free of trials now don’t believe them. As a matter of fact, becoming a Christian may mean that you suffer more trials. Paul had this teaching as a basic = part of his instruction for new believers. In Acts 14:21-22 (ESV) it says, “When they had preached the gospel = to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium an= d to Antioch, ²²strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” And Jesus himself said, in John 16:33 (ESV) “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome= the world.”

For when you become a Christian you become a friend of = God and necessarily an enemy of the world in its broken state and as such you m= ight suffer greater trials through persecution and spiritual struggles. But, do not fear, God has given us= his word and every thing we need in Him to not only endure trials but to see tr= ials produce treasure, treasure of infinite worth that will ultimately make every trial seem like nothing at all. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8:18 (ESV)^“<= i>For I consider that the sufferings= of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed = to us.”

So, with the understanding that trials are a necessary = part of the Christian life, ordained by God until the return of Christ, let̵= 7;s continue with what we learn about them from the book of James. First, trials produce the very best outcome for our lives.

3.&n= bsp;     Trials produce the very Best outcome for our lives

Back to our opening verse. It says, “= ;Count it all joy, my brothers, whe= n you meet trials of various kinds, ³for you know that the testing of y= our faith produces steadfastness. ⁴And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.= 221; We = are told to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds. Why? Because trials are the testing of = our faith and for the believer the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. And steadfastn= ess will have as its full effect that we are perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The reason we count = it all joy is not because we are some sort of sick masochists, not because there is some sick Zen-Buddhist pleasure in pain, not because the trial itself is something good but that the trial produces something good. The reason we can count it as the highest good, the greatest joy, as pure privilege and blessing is because trials in the hand of God for the believer are used to produce the very best outcome for us!

The end result of trials for a believer is maturity and completion, in other words, Christ likeness! Peter in 1 Peter 1:7 likens it to = the proving of gold. Proving gold involves heating it up until it melts. In the process, everything in the gold that isn’t gold rises to the surf= ace and can be skimmed off with the result that all that is left is the genuine= 24K gold. So Peter likens the tes= ting of our lives through trials to the testing of gold. Our confidence is not in our abili= ty to be strong or smart or somehow better than other folks at dealing with stress. Our confidence is tha= t God has so changed our lives that where there used to be only wood, hay and stubble, now the living Christ dwells and there is a faith from him and bec= ause of him that is pure gold and when the trials come all that other stuff will burn off and what will left will look just like Jesus. That is what James is talking about. Count it all joy folks= when we find ourselves in trials because the way it works for the believer is the trials only show what is inside, Jesus.&nb= sp; And all that other stuff gets burned off.

So, one of the most amazing things that the people of G= od do in trials is simply endure. T= he other day I was speaking with someone who has been going through some very serious trials. She wants to = be through the trials so she can be free to serve others better.   She was feeling like she wasn’t doing anything good. I was reminded of the truth from James, t= hat to simply endure is an amazing thing and is much good. For that is where we always go wro= ng when trials come, we don’t endure, but James says that trials produce endurance and endurance will have its full effect in creating someone who is perfect and complete in Christ, lacking in nothing, having no area of his or her life which is not purified in some way and proven to belong to Jesus. Enduring is a whole lot of work an= d for some of us in trials, you need to remember that and stop worrying about not being able to do much else, simply to endure through trial, trusting in Chr= ist, is a most amazing miracle. An= d your endurance is great encouragement to the rest of us!

Two people in our congregation have endured some= long term serious trials. Mary Sor= enson has gone through a season of much suffering. Two and a half years ago her godly and beloved husband Paul died suddenly. A= s Mary was recovering from this shock and grieving she learned that she, for the 3= ^rd time in her life, had cancer. She has spent the past 1 ½ years dealing with constant sickness, doctors vis= its and chemotherapy. Mary desper= ately wants to be well so she can be more active in our church. But she is very active in our church! Through her endurance= and her faith in Christ amidst some very difficult circumstances Mary has been a shining example that Christ is real and is able to sustain us in suffering. Mary has demonstra= ted that knowing him is more precious than anything else in this world. Thank you Mary for your faith and = all that you have accomplished in our lives as you have endured!

Micki Haavisto is another person who has endured= some serious trials. Micki has suf= fered from debilitating migraines for the past 16 plus years. These migraines often are so sever= e that Micki is not able to leave her room and often has to be taken to the hospital. We all have prayed = for Micki and with Micki that God would take this affliction from her and that = she might be freed up to be more involved in the activities of our church. God has not yet seen fit to do tha= t. Yet Micki has remained such a sour= ce of encouragement to so many around her. Almost never do you hear her complain or bring the focus on herself. If you didn’t = know Micki well you wouldn’t know her serious trials. Yet, Micki has endured with joy and faith. She may not feel like = she gets to do much because of these headaches but she is affecting us much. Her endurance and her faith is shi= ning like gold to the rest of us and showing the power of Christ in her weakness= and giving us fresh faith that Christ is really sufficient for the worst this sinful broken world can throw at us. Thank you Micki!

So, simple endurance is a miracle folks. And endurance = will have its way. For because the= re is gold within it will shine in the end. Oh yeh, there may be some dross that rises up in all its ugliness, s= ure, we may stumble and fall, but because of Christ we will endure and the end result of the whole process is that we will look like Jesus. We will be free from that sin, that dross, we will shine for his glory and our good.

You see, God has our very b= est at heart in his use of trials to refine us.&n= bsp; In Romans 8 it says,^“And we know that for those who lov= e God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestin= ed to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstbo= rn among many brothers.” Maybe you know this verse already. But have you ever wondered what is the good that God uses all circumstances to accomplish? = Do you think that good is a nice life or a nice home or a good job, not that there= is anything wrong with those? No= , the good this verse is talking about is truly the goodest good for us that could be. A nice job, home or even = a nice life is not the goodest good. The good God is accomplishing is simply the best good possible, it is the best outcome imaginable for us – that is to be comformed to the image of his Son – to become like Jes= us, finally and fully free from sin, fully in love with God, fully able to love others, fully able to see and enjoy his glory, unencumbered by sinful tendencies and temptations, free from this old body of sin and death, able = to live fully and freely in God, through God and for God in all things. There is not better good than that= folks and that is the outcome God has in mind for those who are his. And that is the exact purpose of t= rials – to make us mature and complete, no lacking anything, like Jesus in every way. That is the unalte= rable trajectory he has every believer on and so James can say confidently, Count= it all joy brothers!

      &nb= sp;     Do you count it all joy? Do you consider trials the way the bible portrays them? Or do you think of them the way the world does, as bad things we must avoid and prevent if at all possible. The bible never advocates that we = pursue trials. And it can be the lov= e of God to relieve folks of trials, Jesus himself did this in his ministry and = will ultimately do this when he returns. But, nevertheless, we are not to view trials the way the world does,= as something that we must be ever diligent to preclude or prevent. No, we are to take a radically dif= ferent approach. We are to count it = all joy. We are to be as excited = as a kid at Disney World when we consider the outcome of our trials. Are you counting it all joy? Is there some trial in your life t= hat you are currently considering from a worldly point of view?

      &nb= sp;     Let’s do an exercise together. Firs= t, take a minute and think of what your most recent trial is. Now, think about what your attitud= e is about this trial. Are you cou= nting it all joy or are you feeling something different? Are you viewing that trial the way= the bible does or the way the world does, as something to be avoided rather then enjoyed for its result. Now t= ake a minute in prayer to tell God you are sorry for how you have viewed that tri= al, receive his forgiveness Christ purchased for us and ask him for power to reconsider the trial from his point of view. Let’s take a minute to do th= at then we will conclude in song and prayer.

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