“Count It All Joy”
James 1:2-8
02/03/2008
INTRODUCTION: May the words of my lips and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight, giving praise, glory and honor to Your name our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen!
• Are you going through a trial today? Are you struggling through hardship? Well if so, then this sermon is meant to help you. Today we will be looking at a strange statement made by James, As he say’s - “count it all joy when you meet various trials”.
• One of the things that intrigues me most about the lives of the Saints is their ability to remain faithful in trials of all kinds. In many cases the Saints of God embraced persecution and even death for the sake of Christ. For instance Ignatius ran toward not away from the lions that killed him and the letters he wrote on his way to martyrdom, expressed joy in the thought of trials he would meet.
• Today, things are very different. In America we would consider type of thinking “crazy”. We seek to avoid trials and hardship as the enemy of life. When trials occur, our first prayer is that God end them immediately!
• But what if God has a purpose for pain, suffering and trials of all kinds? What do we miss out on by avoiding trials, seeking to shorten them not experiencing God’s purpose in the suffering? What do we miss?
ILLUSTRATION: For two years, scientists sequestered themselves in an artificial environment called Biosphere 2. Inside their self-sustaining community, the Biospherians created a number of mini-environments, including a desert, rain forest, even an ocean. Nearly every weather condition could be simulated except one, wind. Over time, the effects of their windless environment became apparent. A number of acacia trees bent over and even snapped. Without the stress of wind to strengthen the wood, the trunks grew weak and could not hold up their own weight. This is true with all who avoid trials of various kinds.
PROPOSITION: Christians are not to run from trials but to embrace them with “all joy”.
ORIENTATION: Let’s look at James together today as we see:
1. The Purpose Of Trials and Tribulation -
2. The Products Of Trails and Tribulation -
3. The Promise Of Trials and Tribulation – The Crown Of Life
TRANSITION: Let’s begin by looking at…
I. The Purpose Of Trials and Tribulation – Produce Steadfastness (v. 2-3)
EXPLAINATION:
One of the things the scriptures never suggest is that Christianity will be easy. Actually it teaches the opposite, that the essence of Christianity and our level of success in it, cannot be determined until we are in actively engaged in trials and tribulation. But while adversity is difficult, as is always with God, there is purpose in it. Let’s look now at what this purpose is?
Observation – In order to properly understand the purpose of trials and tribulation, we must first understand what James is saying…
v.2 “Count it”
• He begins with these two words - “count it”
• The phrase - “count it” literally means “consider”, or to have a change of mind about our trials, to view from a different perspective.
• In other words, do not avoid thinking about or run from trials and tribulation, but rather, actively consider them and engage them.
v.2 “all joy”
• The perspective on suffering we are supposed to adopt is that of “all Joy”?
• While, our immediate response is typically to avoid trials, James say’s we are to consider our trials not as a detriment but rather as a joyous occasion.
• Literally what James is saying is – not “mixed joy” but rather “pure” or “all” joy. James teaches that we are to embrace trials as moments of “pure joy”.
• But you ask, why in the heck would I want to do that?
v. 3 “The testing of our Faith”
• James begins to answer that question with the word “testing”. If there is a test, there is a tester, we need to remember that nothing happens outside the will of God. As such our suffering is not meaningless, but has purpose.
• God allows the situations in your life to occur and In this sense there is always a purpose in suffering. Understanding this is the beginning of understanding trials from God’s perspective.
• God does not test our faith as a means for Himself, He already knows, but rather uses it to show us where we are at, that we may continue to grow.
v. 3 “Produces steadfastness”
• Ultimately God uses our trials to produce in us steadfastness, which literally means unwavering, firm in belief and unmovable.
Interpretation – (v. 13, 14)
• James statement in 1:2 should cause you to pause, what he is really saying is that while trials are painful, they are like a workout, molding and shaping our faith and developing in us a steadfastness. This is required of us to complete the life of faith, the unmovable, unshakable commitment to Christ.
Illustration –
(Quote from Barkley) Hort writes: “The Christian must expect to be jostled by trials on the Christian way.” All kinds of experiences will come to us. There will be the test of the sorrows and the disappointments which seek to take our faith away. There will be the test of the seductions which seek to lure us from the right way. There will be the tests of the dangers, the sacrifices, the unpopularity which the Christian way must so often involve. But they are not meant to make us fall; they are meant to make us soar. They are not meant to defeat us; they are meant to be defeated. They are not meant to make us weaker; they are meant to make us stronger. Therefore we should not bemoan them; we should rejoice in them. The Christian is like the athlete. The heavier the course of training he undergoes, the more he is glad, because he knows that it is fitting him all the better for victorious effort.
When I was young I used to work out almost every day (cant you tell? ) I can remember a few times faking exhaustion so I could quit a set without giving it everything I had. My workout partner said to me (seeing through my scheme) go ahead and stop but your only cheating yourself! The same is true in trials and hardship, by seeking to avoid them or by asking God to remove them before God’s finished using them causes us to cheat ourselves from growing in a disciplined faith.
Application –
• Today, God has called me to remind you that no suffering occurs outside of His will, and that trials and tribulation are the means by which God grows us spiritually, particularly in the area of faith.
• What trials are you facing today? What trials are you seeking to avoid or run from? How is your faith being tested? How could your steadfastness in God grow if you embrace the trial with all joy, knowing God is building in you Steadfastness?
• Maybe before you ask God to end a particular trial, you should first ask Him what He is trying to teach you in it. God never wastes suffering and God always has a purpose in trials and tribulations.
• Today, I am asking you rather than running and seeking to end trials and tribulation, allow them to work towards perfecting steadfastness.
• It has been said that the only solider ready to live through war is the one who is ready to die. Be absolutely surrendered, resolved that whatever God allows in your life, He will get you home before the dark!
Transition – So we have seen the purpose of trials is to produce steadfastness, but what does steadfastness produce?
II. The Products Of Trials and Tribulation – Maturity (v.4)
EXPLAINATION: Once we develop a life of steadfastness and trust, then God begins to deliver on a perfected maturity of faith. Let me show you what I mean…
Observation –
v.4 “be perfect and complete lacking nothing”
• JAMES describes this process of testing with the word dokimion. Which is the word for sterling coin. It is to this aim that God allows testing, to purge us of all impurity.
• God uses the hardships of life to perfect our faith to be that of sterling silver, or purified Gold. Just as we use heat to purify silver and gold God uses trials to purify us…
• This training through fire, does not simply mean you are able to bear the hardships of life, but rather that you begin to mature in your faith and are able to turn trials into greatness.
Interpretation – (3-4)
o Ultimately what James promises is that through hardship and trials as we stand steadfast, God will grow us in Maturity.
o Maturity leads to greater challenges and great challenges, when faced and conquered lead to great individuals for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Illustration –
• The thing which amazed the heathen in the centuries of persecution was that the martyrs did not die grimly, they died singing. One smiled in the flames; they asked him what he found to smile at there. “I saw the glory of God,” he said, “and was glad.” This is the quality which makes a man able, not simply to suffer things, but to vanquish them.
• I can remember riding my bike as a kid, I was down more than I was up! I would fall and scrape my knee, my elbows and one time I almost knocked out a tooth. But I kept on riding that bike, enduring the pain until one day, I had moved beyond the pain and into a freedom. I could just jump onto my bike and take off, I had matured my skills.
• As I reflect back now, I realize that this process of getting hurt over and over again, yet looking forward to the day I can ride with the other kids is the same process James is describing in this passage. Embracing the fear and pain of falling, even looking forward to it, that you may receive the reward, which is mature faith, this is the product of “counting (our sufferings as) all joy. Paul said – 2 Cor 12:10 ”For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Application –
• Do you pray – “God change me”, “make me like Jesus” or a similar prayer? Do not be surprised when God provides hardship and trials as the answer to your prayer.
• If we embrace our testing, if day by day we develop unswerving constancy, day by day we will live more victoriously and reach nearer to the standard of Jesus Christ himself. That is maturity in Christ, that is what brings us to new levels in our walk.
Transition – So we have seen the purpose and product of trials but lastly let’s look at…
III. The Promise Of Trials and Tribulation - The Crown Of Life (v.12)
EXPLAINATION: Lastly, I want us to see that for those willing to persevere to the end, there is a great reward awaiting you! James say’s in vs. 12 “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
See also Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Observation – (v. 12)
“The Crown Of Life”
• In the ancient world the crown (stephanos) had at least four great associations.
(a) The crown of flowers was worn at times of joy, at wedding and at feasts (cp. Isaiah 28:1, 2; Song of Solomon 3:11). The crown was the sign of festive joy.
(b) The crown was the mark of royalty. It was worn by kings and by those in authority. Sometimes this was the crown of gold; sometimes it was the linen band, or fillet, worn around the blows (cp. Psalm 21:3; Jeremiah 13:18).
(c) The crown of laurel leaves was the victor’s crown in the games, the prize which the athlete coveted above all (cp. 2 Timothy 4:8).
(d) The crown was the mark of honour and of dignity. The instructions of parents can bring a crown of grace to those who listen to them (Proverbs 1:9); Wisdom provides a man with a crown of glory (Proverbs 4:9); in a time of disaster and dishonor it can be said, “The crown has fallen from our head” (Lamentations 5:16).
Interpretation –
o We are not called to choose between the crowns, they are all included, they make up a single crown, the crown of life!
o The crown spoken of here is literally life in abundance, John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
o James says that if the Christian meets the testing’s of life in the steadfast constancy which Christ can give, life becomes infinitely more splendid than ever it was before. It was once said – “The struggle is the way to glory, and the very struggle itself is a glory.”
Illustration –
• After Jesus had been scourged they placed a thorn of crowns upon His head, but this was not a crown of defeat, it was the in fact the crown of life, won through a steadfast and mature faith.
• When God offers you the privilege of this same crown, will you wear it?
Application –
• Nothing of worth comes without a price
o Today God has called us to joyfully pay that price that we may receive the crown of life.
o This begins with seeing the trials and tribulations of life as God’s means to grow us and produce in us steadfast faith and maturity and it ends with a victors crown. Will you seek this crown, the “crown of life?”
Conclusion
Today we have seen that the trials of life are not random events and they are not to be avoided, they are to be embraced with “ALL JOY”!
When we heed James call to embrace our trials with “all joy”, we find:
1. Steadfastness
2. Maturity in Faith
3. The Crown Of Life
Closing Illustration:
Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, a fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, "Are you sure I will never sing again?" The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. "I’ve had many good times singing the praises of God," he said. "And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God."
There in the doctor’s presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts’ hymn, "I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath. Let us pray… AMEN!
