“Count It All Joy”
James 1:2-4
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work , that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
You know the grass withered and the flower fades, but the word of God shall endure forever.
I don’t know what you’ve been going through, but count it all joy.
Those of us that read our Bibles know that the writer James confronts the comfort level of many Christians. James makes many Christians uncomfortable. Because he comes to challenge those of us who say we are saved by faith. But James says that our belief is bogus if does not transform our behavior. James says that faith without works is dead. James says that the faith we claim, ought be confirmed by how we live. He says that the faith we declare, ought be demonstrated in our daily lives. Faith that we verbalize ought to be verified by our walk through this world.
And so in this first chapter of James, he provides at least three measuring tapes, by which we can gauge genuine faith. He provides three measuring tapes that we might be able to determine that our faith is real.
James tells us in James 1:22 that genuine faith responds in obedience to God’s Word. That real faith doesn’t just hear the Word, but real faith activates the Word. It’s one thing to have an appetite for the Word, but its another to activate the Word in the life we live. Then in James 1:26 James says that not only does faith act in obedience to God’s Word , but real faith regulates the tongue. James says that if a man says that he has faith and that he cannot tame his tongue, then he has deceived himself.
You know in chapter three when James goes into detail about that subject that’s in everybody’s mouth, he says that we have to be careful with the tongue. He says be careful because the tongue can burn. It’s set on fire by hell itself. You see Satan is the malicious match striker. And Satan will use that tongue to tear down your house. He will use that tongue to tear down friendships. The tongue is the fire, you’ve got to be careful of the burn.
Also in that third chapter James says that you have to be careful of the bite. He says that the tongue is like a poisonous snake. And if your not careful, someone will bite you and put their poisonous venom in you. Somebody here perhaps your spirit has been poisoned, all because some snake, nawl that’s in California. Somebody said the wrong words in your spirit. So he says that with that tongue you have to be careful of the bite and he says be careful of the boast.
He said it boast of great things. You’ve heard that story of the two birds that were getting ready to fly south for the winter. And brother frog, he didn’t want to freeze up there for the winter. So he came up with this rather ingenious idea. He said I want you to take a stick bird on this side and the bird on this side take the stick in your mouth, and I will just grab the stick with my mouth in the middle and fly with you all to warmer weather. And away they went. And as they were flying south there were two farmers in the field, and they looked up and said WOW what an ingenious idea. I wonder who though of that? And that frog said, “that it was meeeeee!”
James says that real faith regulates the tongue. It responds in obedience to God’s Word. But we’re reminded that genuine faith remains steadfast in the midst of life’s trials and tribulations.
You know that in this world that we are going to have some trials and some tribulations. Job said that man born of a woman is but of a few days and full of trouble. And in the midst of your trouble you need some for real faith. For real faith is some if not faith. For real faith says that I know God is able, but even if not, we are still going to trust Him. Real faith is although faith. Though he slay me yet will I trust Him. So I just stopped by to encourage you today and to tell you that no matter what you are going through count it all joy.
First of all when you have trials and tribulations going on in your life you have to react with a positive attitude. James tells us to react with a positive attitude. He says count it all joy. You know that in the midst of your trials whether you become bitter or better depends on how you respond to it. I just stopped by to tell you don’t let your difficulty defeat you. I’m like Habakkuk now, no matter what tries to s-t-e-a-l my joy, I s-t-i-l-l have joy! I believe I may have one witness in here today that can say, no matter what all I have been through, I still have joy.
Joy in the midst of life’s troubles, joy whether you are up or you are down. James helps us because he tells us at least three things about trouble. He tells us that trouble is unavoidable. Notice that he doesn’t tell us count it all joy IF you fall, but he says count it all joy when you fall. I want to tell you that things maybe well in your life right now, but don’t turn me off, don’t tune me out because trouble is on the way. Don’t laugh at me because trouble is in my life, cause trouble could show up at your house before you go to bed tonight. It’s not a matter of IF, but it’s a matter of WHEN! Trouble is unavoidable!
Trouble is unpredictable! He says count it all joy when you fall into. Now those words fall into means to have an unexpected encounter. It means to be ambushed by trouble. And anybody who’s been alive for over ten days ought to know that you will be ambushed by trouble. You can be traveling down the road of life and thinking everything is fine and all of a sudden from the side you are ambushed by trouble. Somebody went to the doctor just for a routine visit and you was ambushed by trouble. The phone rang at night and you picked it up , you didn’t know who was on the line, and you was ambushed by trouble. It’s unavoidable! It’s unpredictable! But trouble is unique!
He says count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation. That means all kinds of trouble. My trouble may not be your trouble. Your trouble may not be my trouble. But every problem leaves it’s own pain to print. Pain is like a fingerprint, pain leaves it’s own print. Somebody maybe walking around here with some pain prints. You are smiling on the outside but you are torn apart on the inside because you’ve had trouble in this life, but when trouble comes you have to react with a positive attitude. Count it all joy!
Paul says rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice! Rejoicing, that’s what puzzles the world about the people of God. That in all our trials and tribulations we can just keep on smiling. That when you have fallen down you are able to stand back up! That’s an understandable joy! That’s a joy that surpasses all understanding! COUNT IT ALL JOY!!!
React with a positive attitude. Don’t let old man trouble keep you down. Not only should you react with a positive attitude, but you should realize that there is a purpose in your every pain. Every pain and every problem has it’s purpose. Notice that James says count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. There’s always a purpose in your pain. Sometimes your problem, your pain is just to examine your faith. He says the trying of your faith. You see sometimes your problem is just your faith on trial. And God is allowing the problem to come in your life to determine whether or not you will act in a faithful way, or if you will forsake the principles of God. And it’s a tragedy that many of us are in the midst of our trials. When our faith is put to the test, we don’t do to well with our test. You see its to examine your faith. I heard somebody say, a faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted.
You see the only way that you will know the level of your faith is when you put it to a test. It’s one thing to say you have faith, but the only way to know the strength of your faith is when you put some pressure on it. And some folk in the midst of heir problem have discovered that they weren’t as strong as they thought they were. But on the other hand some folk discovered that they were stronger than they though they were. I’m looking at someone today that thought they could not handle their problem, but God allowed you to make it through. And you discovered that you had more faith than you really thought you did. Sometimes it’s just to examine your faith, it’s just your faith on trial, it’s just another test of your faith.
The songwriter says we wonder sometimes why the test, when we are trying to do our best, but I want to tell you that no matter how many test you have had already, that there are some more test up the road. You’ve probably already been through some valley’s, you’ve probably already climbed some mountains, but you have some more test up the road. But what I like about the Lord that he is not like my elementary teacher, He does it different than she does, because the Lord always announces His test in advance. We come in class and she decides she want to have a pop quiz. But God announces His test in advance! And he’s saying to everybody in here today that your faith will be tested! It may not be tonight , tomorrow, next week ,but your faith will be tested!
Not only does God announce the test in advance, but He allows an open book examination! And I’m glad I can keep the book open while I’m going through my test. Is there anybody glad today that you can keep the book open, when you going through your test? Not only does he announce the test in advance, not only does He allow an open book examination, but the Lord even provides the answer key to the test! He gives us the cheat sheet on eternal life! And the answer is to keep believing even when you don’t know why! Keep believing even when you don’t know how! Keep on leaning and depending on the Lord!
So sometimes it is to examine your faith. But then notice that James says that the trying of your faith worketh patience. That’s the second thing that it does, it enriches your inner strength. He says the testing of your faith increases or enriches your inner strength. In other words when you’ve got problems in your life, when you’ve had some burdens in your life, if you can just abide under the pressure, when it seems like the world is on your shoulder, you will be stronger when you come out!
You will be stronger than you were when you went into the problem. I’m not telling you what I heard, but rather what I know for myself. In this life God will allow burdens in your life, but if you just keep faith in God, if you could just abide under the pressure and hold on to God’s unchanging hand He will give you the inner strength to endure your trial!
You see often in the midst of our trials we want to get out and we pray that God will deliver us out of our trouble. But I come to tell you that sometimes the only way out of it is to go through it. The only way out of it is through it! I hear you saying, Lord I’m in a bit of a dilemma and I need you to take me out of it. Well baby I come to tell you, you have to go through it! And if you can just hold on, you will be stronger when you come out than you were when you went in.
I know often when we are in our trials we want a premature deliverance. Well when you get a premature deliverance you got an undeveloped faith. Troubles are to examine your faith! To enrich your inner strength! But sometimes they are to eliminate your fleshly impulses! Sometimes trouble is designed to crucify self. Self is something else! Self will stick his chest out. Self will stick his nose in the air. And sometimes God has to allow trouble in our lives in order for us to crucify self so that the spirit can have control.
You see we are either controlled by self or by the spirit. And sometimes trouble is the only thing that can handle self. The psalmist says that before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I’ve kept thy word. It’s something about trouble that can handle self. I don’t care how much we strut our stuff, or how bad we think we are, trouble will bring us to our knees.
Sometimes trouble is to establish our heavenly hope. We look not at the things that are seen but the things that are hoped for. The things that are seen are only temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. Often when things are going well in our life our focus is on the things we can see. But when trouble comes, it has a way of shifting our focus to things you can’t see. I mean when things are going well and we can sing Amazing Grace and don’t sing it with passion. But when trouble comes we can sing Amazing Grace and remember through many dangers toils and snares that we have already been through.
Sometimes your trouble is to enable you to better help others in their troubles. The Bible says the God of all comfort, comforts us in all of our tribulations that we may comfort others with the same comfort we ourselves have received from the Lord. What ever you are going through, somebody else is going to go through. And your very problem maybe God’s way of equipping you to be of encouragement to somebody else. That’s why you have to be careful when you say use me Lord in your service. Because to qualify you in His service, you have to first go through some problems. Listen you can’t be used by God in the Kingdom until you’ve gone through some problems. But when you’ve gone through some problems, then you qualify to help somebody else in the Kingdom.
Well I’ve got good news today, that no matter what you are going through Job said there is a place where the wicked shall cease from troubling and the wearied shall be at rest. There is a place where there will be no more crying and no more dying. I’ve got good news today, Psalms 56:8 says that God has got a record of all your tears. Every time you’ve cried, every time somebody made you cry God has a record of your tears!
I’ve got good news to tell you, that one day he’s going to wipe away all the tears from your eyes. Isn’t that good news to know that one day God is going to wipe away all the tears from your weeping eyes? Count it all joy! When trouble comes, react with a positive attitude. Then realize that there is a purpose in your every pain. Every pain you have there is a purpose wrapped up in it. Then request heavenly help. You see the problem most times is that when we need help we call everyone else but, God! But the Lord says that if you call on Me, in your day of trouble I will deliver you. Is there anybody here that know that if you call on God in your day of trouble He will deliver you! Satan may think he got you check mated, but if you call on God in your day of trouble he will deliver you. There’s promise in prayer, but the Lord said just call on me and I will answer. Grandmamma says that, I got a telephone up in my bosom and I can call Him up from my heart! I know we sing it but some folk don’t grasp it when we sing Jesus is on the mainline tell Him what you want! I don’t have to wait on you to get off the phone, but I can just call Him up and tell Him what I want!
We serve a God who’s approachable. Not only is He approachable but he is available! I don’t have to make n appointment to see him all I have to do is call Him up! I have some more good news for you and that is He’s able! I have some family members who are able but they are not willing. I have some that are willing, but they are not able!
Aren’t you glad we have a Savior who is both willing and able? All you have to do is ask the Savior aid you, comfort, strengthen, and keep you, He’s willing to aid you, Jesus will carry you through.
Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
Through many dangers toils and snares
I have already come
It was grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me on
Hold on to God’s unchanging hand
Let him lead you on
Hold on
Don’t give up
Your deliverance is on the way
