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Sermon Notes for January 12, 2003

Series on James

“The Purpose Of Trials

In the Life Of The Christian”

James 1:1-8

Pastor Steve Malone tells the following humorous story:

Sprite, Kevin and Becky’s ferret was having a pretty good day, running around, playing in a pile of clothes, and then things caught bad, real fast. Within a split second Sprite’s world changed. One minute he is jumping around in laundry, the next minute he became part of the laundry.

For you see, unknown to Becky when she picked up the pile of clothes, Sprite was hidden deep within. He was tossed in the washer, the lid was shut. It was dark and then the washer was turned on.

Can you imagine what went through little Sprite’s mind as the water started to pour in (I wonder was it hot or cold) then the churning of the washer – maybe he tried to balance himself on the churner (or whatever it is called), then the churning stopped, the water drained out, and Sprite jumped down thinking it was over and then the rinse cycle began . . .

And just when Sprite thought the worst was over – the spin cycle began . . . now that had to be tough . . .

24 hours later – Becky found the little critter in the washer . . . I’ve never asked Becky about it, but I wonder if Sprite played in piles of clothes again or if he ever got nervous and shook with fear when the washer was turned on . . .

Can you relate to Sprite? Most of us can. One minute you’re standing in familiar territory, you’re happy things are going great, and like Sprite, jumping around, singing a song, thinking that it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere your world becomes a place of spinning darkness. Your boss hands you a pink slip and tells you that you’re laid off; your spouse tells you, “I don’t love you anymore;” a policeman comes to your door and says he has your child downtown; the phone rings and you hear the words, “There’s been an accident;” you go to the doctor’s and he tells you that it’s terminal and they can do nothing for you; your mother calls long distance and tells you that your dad just had a heart attack . . .

You don’t even see it coming, but in a blink of the eye, you find yourself being sucked into the dark caverns of despair, your face is being hit with the icy cold harsh waters of reality, things are getting dark and your world begins to spin hopelessly out of control.

If you have ever had the experience of hurling downwards towards the ground, after having life’s rug pulled out from under you, then this message from James/God is for you.

Introduction

  1. WHAT Was The Point?
  2. WHO IS HE KIDDING?
  3. Vs. 2 – “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”

1. “Is he saying what I think he is saying?”

2. “It sounds as if we are supposed to be happy when we suffer.”

3. “What kind of view is this?”

  1. This “seems” to make no sense at all.
  1. He is not kidding anyone.
  2. Because James is speaking to a Christian audience.
  3. And he wanted them to have a spiritual perspective on their suffering.
  1. WHO Was The Audience?
  2. He is speaking to suffering New Testament Christians.
  3. More specifically, he is referring to those of the dispersion, the “diaspora.”

1. After the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7-8, the Jewish Christians
in Israel “dispersed.”

2. In a sense, they went into hiding all over the nation of Israel and
other parts of the world.

3. But BECAUSE they were “Jewish Christians,” they were
rejected both by their fellow Jews and by the Gentile elite.

a. They were robbed of their possessions and hauled into
court.

b. They essentially had less standing than slaves.

  1. These “dispersed” became “religious, social and economic pariahs.” (Hughes)
  2. It would have been similar to the experience of the Jews during the Holocaust in WWII.
  1. He is also speaking to Biblical and other saints as well.
  2. Abraham was tested 25 years before he was called to sacrifice his son Isaac.
  3. Joseph was tried for 13 years before he reached the court of Pharaoh.
  4. Moses was tried for 80 years before he led the people of Israel out of Egypt.
  5. Jesus suffered through His life and especially during the last three years of His life.
  6. Paul suffered greatly during his life and was martyred for his faith.
  7. The disciples all suffered and were ultimately killed or died because of their spiritual life and ministries.
  8. He is speaking to us.
  9. We are, as well, the audience of James as we struggle and suffer in this physical life.
  10. All the while asking WHY . . . why do we suffer and what is God doing?
  11. I want to ask those who believe that Christians should never struggle or suffer:

1. Who believes that if you are spiritual enough and prayed more –
that you would not suffer.

2. I want to challenge those people to FIND SUCH PEOPLE IN
THE WORD OF GOD:

a. “Those people who practiced such faith and never
suffered.” WHERE ARE THEY IN THE BIBLE?
What about:

1. Noah

2. Joseph

3. Abraham

4. Moses

5. David

6. Esther

7. Daniel

8. Jeremiah

9. The disciples

10. Paul

11. Jesus

12. Hebrews 11:36-38 – “Some faced jeers and
flogging, while still others were chained and
put in prison. They were stoned; they were
sawed in two; they were put to death by the
sword. They went about in sheepskins and
goatskins, destitute, persecuted and
mistreated--the world was not worthy of
them. They wandered in deserts and
mountains, and in caves and holes in the
ground.”

b. AND WHERE IS THE TEACHING IN THE WORD
OF GOD TO SUPPORT SUCH A VIEW?

  1. He is speaking through His Word.
  2. STRUGGLES, TRIALS AND SUFFERING IS THE NORM FOR THE CHRISTIAN and we shall find out why today.
  3. I want to say to those preachers who preach against trials and troubles in the Christian life –

1. You are denying the lives of countless believers all throughout
history.

2. And denying the very Word of God that tells us about them.

I. The VARIETY Of Trials.

  1. The RESPONSE To Trials.
  2. A call to confusion?
  3. It is indeed confusing to try to understand what James is saying.

1. How can trials be considered a joy?

2. The last time that I checked, suffering and trials caused me
pain, not joy.

  1. In fact, I want to do everything that I can to AVOID trials – don’t you?
  1. A call to consider.

Vs. 2 – “consider it pure joy.”

  1. The definition of consider. (two definitions)

1. to evaluate

a. to dream

b. to think about

c. but importantly to consider the trial in the context of
what God may be doing in your life

2. to be a leader

a. to go before

b. to go directly to God

  1. The application of consider.

1. Putting these definitions together, the word consider means that
when you experience a trial:

a. You are to CONSIDER AND THINK about what God
could possibly be doing in your life.

1. What could He be teaching you?

2. How does He want this trial to impact your life?

b. And then, IMMEDIATELY, YOU ARE TO RUN TO
GOD and seek Him out for an explanation.

1. Don’t sit down for weeks and figure it out on
your own.

2. ASK GOD!

3. This actually suggests a wrestling. Consider:

a. Jacob wrestling with an angel.

b. Moses wrestling and questioning God at
the burning bush.

c. Jesus wrestling with His heavenly Father
in the Garden of Gethsemane.

d. Paul wrestling with God over his “thorn
in his side.”

2. It is an active encounter with God.

  1. A call to calm.

Vs. 2 “Consider it pure joy.”

  1. We need to speak clearly to the meaning of “pure joy.”

1. What “pure joy” is not:

a. We are not to “jump up and down” when we hear that
we or someone we love has cancer or has been in a car
wreck.

b. Nor are we are not to “fake it until we make it.”

c. Notice what Hebrews 12:11 says about trials – “No
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later
on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and
peace for those who have been trained by it.”

2. What “pure joy” is:

a. When we “consider” and when we “go running to God”
to gain understanding about our trails, we will actually
see that God, in His sovereignty, has a plan of good for
us.

b. THAT’S when our pain turns to joy. In fact, it turns to
“pure joy.”

1. Several years ago the Presbyterian Pastor Lloyd

John Ogilvie underwent the worst year of his life. His wife had undergone five major surgeries, plus radiation and chemotherapy, several of his staff members had departed, large problems loomed, and discouragement assaulted his feelings. But he wrote, “The greatest discovery that I have made in the midst of all the difficulties is that I can have joy when I can’t feel like it – artesian joy. When I had every reason to feel beaten, I felt joy. In spite of everything, [God] gave me the conviction of being loved and the certainty that nothing could separate me from him. It was not happiness, gush, or jolliness but a constant flow of the Spirit through me. At no time did he give me the easy confidence that everything would work out as I wanted it on my timetable, but that he was in charge and would give me and my family enough courage for each day: grace. Joy is always the result of that.”

2. IF we truly believe in the sovereignty of God in
our lives

a. Confession Of Faith - Of Providence #1 – God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

b. Confession Of Faith - Of Providence
#2 – Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He ordered them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.

3. Elisabeth Elliott in her book Let Me Be A
Woman, records the story of Gladys Aylward.
She was a woman who was unable to accept the
looks God had given her. Ms. Aylward told how
when she was a child she had two great sorrows.
One, that while all her friends had beautiful
golden hair, hers was black. The other, while
her friends were still growing, she had stopped.
She was about four feet ten inches tall. She
was called to be a missionary. When at last she
reached the country to which God had called her
to be a missionary, she stood on the wharf in
Shanghai and looked around at the people to
whom He had called her. “Every single one of
them,” she said, “had black hair. And every
one of them had stopped growing when I
did.” She was able to look to God and exclaim,
“Lord God, you know what You’re doing!”

4. Pastor Jeffrey Lindsay – “James does not say

“feel joyful” or “put on a happy face” when
these sorts of things happen. No, James says
that the joy we experience amidst trials is a
considered joy, a joy that comes as a result of
reflection and meditation on the way of God
with us, the way of God in the world. It is a
mature joy, not giddiness or hysteria. It is a
joy that is comfortable and completely
compatible with tears. Because it is a joy that
sees with the eyes of faith, to this world and
the next, that understands that the last
chapter is still yet to come.”

  1. Pure joy is the view that despite my struggles, trials and suffering, God is sovereign and HE LOVES ME!
  1. The REALITY Of Trials.

Vs. 2 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”

  1. For many Christians, they think that they will be different:
  2. I don’t “want to” go through trials.
  3. I don’t “need to” go through trials.
  4. Notice that the word is not “if” but when you face trials.
  5. You can’t mistake the word.
  6. The Greek word is: hotan

1. when

2. as soon as

3. as long as

  1. IT IS A GIVEN THAT CHRISTIANS WILL GO THROUGH TRIALS.

1. Hebrews 12:5-10 (read)

2. C.S. Lewis – “The real problem is not why some pious,
humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.”

  1. The RAINBOW Of Trials.

Vs. 2 – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”

  1. The Greek word for many kinds is the Greek word poikolos from where we get the word polka dot.
  2. In other words, not only will we undergo many trials, but we will undergo many different kinds of trials –
  3. “many dots” of different sizes
  4. financial
  5. relational
  6. physical
  7. spiritual
  8. Hasn’t that been your experience? Have you only struggled in one area of your life? I have struggled IN EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE AREAS.

II. The VERACITY Of Trials.

  1. The NECESSITY Of Trials.
  2. Our knowledge of trials.

Vs. 3 – “because we know that the testing of our faith develops perseverance.”

  1. The word know

1. In the Greek - ginosko

a. It is a word that means to perceive, to learn, to
understand.

b. It suggests that as believers, we come to understand
early in our Christian lives that God is doing a work in
our lives and that He uses these trials to change us.

c. But the word also speaks of a man being intimate with a
woman.

1. Meaning that as Christians God is intimately
involved in our lives.

2. And that as you “know” your spouse and their
moods, so you “know” when God is doing a
work in your life – you “expect” it.

2. We should “know.”

b. The word testing

1. One – it was a Greek word relating to sterling coinage.

a. to assess the purity of coins

b. Why must a coin be pure?

1. What is today’s quarter really worth?

2. Israel – 100 coins to make a penny

3. Fort Knox – at one time our true financial
stability.

a. Currently with 147.3 million ounces

b. Since1980; 320 to 460 dollars per ounce

2. Two – it was a word found on the bottom of ancient pottery.

a. Meaning that the pottery had gone through the furnace,

b. And that it had not cracked and thus was approved to be
used.

  1. Our need of trials.

Vs. 3 – “Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

  1. Trials create in us.

1. The word “develop” in the Greek means to achieve, perform,
work out and bring about.

2. The word develop suggests that something will be “produced”
or “developed” that was not there in the beginning.

3. We didn’t have something, so it was “created” in us through
these trials.

4. Look at Romans 5:3-5.

a. Paul uses the word produces.

b. Same word: to create something that was not there.

  1. Trials change us.

1. The word perseverance is the attitude or view of life that these
trials are directed to produce.

2. What perseverance is not:

a. It is not a stoic attitude that sits under the trial because it
should endure it.

b. It is not a repetition of Bible verses that have taught us
to learn endurance through trials by repeating.

1. Romans 5:3-5 – “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

2. James 1:1-3 – “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

3. I Peter 4:12-17 - Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

3. What perseverance is:

a. Perseverance is dealing with the totality of your
personality and all of that energy and being able to
harness it WHILE YOU ARE ENDURING THE
TRIAL.