A Community of Faith Growing Together

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A Year that lacks nothing

James 1:2-4

This is the first weekend of 2014. I imagine that most of you want to be building something better in the coming year than you did in the last one. The news media are filled with stories of how both the president and congress are hoping for a better 2014 than 2013. More personally, I've found that few people go to church saying that they want to build a rotten life for themselves in the coming year. In fact, most of us go to church hoping to learn how to live well – how to have a life that matters. But, how do we go about building it? I want to focus on one all-too-infrequently-talked-about part of that topic today.

This brings us to our first message in a series from the Book of James that we will be considering for much of the year. In his letter, James assumed that all Jesus-followers are active members of a local church. And, James told us how we are to grow together and glorify God together no matter what happens in the society or culture we find ourselves in. The author James was almost certainly the brother of Jesus. In the Book of Acts, we find James was the main leader of the church in Jerusalem. James was the single most influential man in the early church – even more than Paul and Peter were. I believe that Pastor James wrote this letter to his parishioners soon after a young church leader named Stephen was martyred in public in Acts 7. Beginning in Acts 8:1, the Christians in Jerusalem were persecuted with many church people scattering from Jerusalem trying to find safety from the attacks.

Almost all the believers were of Jewish heritage back then so they fled to cities that had Jewish communities where they hoped to find new places to live and to work. You can imagine how hard it was, can't you? They once had found favor with the people in Jerusalem but everyone had turned against them. By Acts 8, they were unexpectedly ostracized from their families and their former friendships simply because they had become followers of Jesus. When they were driven from Jerusalem, their church situation changed quickly and dramatically. They had once been a part of a large and growing church in Jerusalem where people cared for one another and supported one another. But, almost overnight, they had to run from their home city and find refuge. Almost certainly, the Christian gatherings in the new towns were small.

And, as James wrote his letter to them, what they were discovering was that they were not welcomed in their new settings either. They were suddenly poor and without resources or extended family. Those in power in these cities oppressed them. Many Christians became sick without connections to medical help. All they had was Jesus – and one another. In this letter from their lead pastor back in Jerusalem, we find them receiving very practical instructions about how to be a genuine community of faith. In this situation, James does not do much philosophizing. He speaks plainly and straightforwardly. This letter is probably the most practical for daily living that we have in the entire Bible. James wants them to know how they can grow in their walk with God and live distinctly different lives in their new cities. But, they will have to make a commitment to being a God-glorifying community – together. Together.

Today we start where James started, i.e., with the issue that has always been one of the most problematic for church people, trials. Life was hard for the believers. Really hard. So, James opens with one brief sentence and launches right into the theme. And he will end the letter with it too! How many letters do you ever get letters that begin and end with, "Let's talk about tribulation for awhile."

But what subject is more important and practical for us? Trials do come in this world, don't they? Is there a distinctive way a Christian should respond to them? Do we panic? Deny their existence? Get angry? Demand that God remove them? Beat ourselves and say, "Ah well, I deserve it. God's done with me." When trials come, how do we live? We'll begin to think about this by looking at James 1:2-4:

#1: What we should build: A life that is complete – lacking nothing.

... that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (1:4).

If you were to have a 2014 that is "complete and lacking nothing," what would it look like? I imagine you would come up with a lot of good things. Productive work. Getting married perhaps. Finishing school. Having a child. Gaining financial security? All these things can be good. But, God would say that they are insufficient to be the main foundation of our lives. In fact, if we try to build our lives on anything in this world, we will find that the temporary thing will eventually crumble no matter how good it is.

To help you envision this, I want you to imagine being an artist trying to build something beautiful and then finding out that things are not going right. Scottish artist, Andy Goldsworthy, is a man who builds unusual and beautiful things using a variety of mediums. In one of his artistic creations, he speaks of building for days on a rock sculpture. At one point, he knows there is a flaw in it – but he keeps on building anyway somehow hoping it will work out. When everything collapses, he knows he has to re-set his work from the beginning on. But he discovers that what eventually is built is better than he ever could have envisioned when he began the project. (I'll show this in the sermon.)

God wants you to have a year – in fact, an entire life – that is "complete and lacking nothing". But, the One who made us knows that this is only possible when he and he alone is the foundation for our lives. Our human tendency is to think we can find life by building on temporary things like possessions, personal accomplishments, or finding pleasure. Those things may be good – but they are only add-ons – not the foundation for everything.

Deep in our hearts and minds, we know that we are not meant to live for things that don't last. Still, most people keep trying to accumulate more and more, thereby hoping to find meaning in life. Or, we think that if only we could experience something like a marriage or children or success, then that will bring us the life that is "complete and lacking nothing." God says that we have to bring him into the center of our lives and let him do the building. That means that the things that we have put into his place, the idols that we think will bring us life, must sometimes be taken away so we can find our life in God. And that brings me to my second point, i.e., to the point James makes to the Christians from his church who had been forced to flee Jerusalem and felt they were losing everything that mattered.

#2: God's Path to a Complete Life: Often we need trials of many kinds.

...whenever you face trials of many kinds, you know that the testing... produces perseverance (1:2b-3).

This may not be the message that most people want as we begin a new year. It is, however, a message that the NT teaches in almost every book, i.e., that God often does his most beautiful work in our lives through times of trial. So, what is James talking about when he speaks of trials having the potential of making us complete and lacking nothing?

I think we need to understand a bit about what the Bible means by the word translated "trials" in James 1. The word comes up several times in James 1 and sometimes is translated "trial" and at other times is translated "temptation". For us, there is a big difference between a trial and a temptation, isn't there? We think of a trial as an external circumstance of life that tests our physical, moral, or emotional caliber. A trial, in and of itself, is neutral. There is nothing intrinsically evil about a trial, is there? It's just something that happens to you. On the other hand, the way we think about a temptation is that it's an internal matter. It's an inner incitement to do something we think might be unwise or wrong. And while we may say that temptation itself is not a sin, it still is a push toward sin.

The word James used, peirasmos, refers both to inner tests and external trouble. The reason is that for James, a trial is anything that might pull us away from faith in God. A trial could be an external kind of trouble like the poverty or unjust oppression the early church was experiencing. You understand that, don't you? If the one thing you want for 2014 to be complete is financial security, then that really becomes the main focus of your life. If something comes and takes that away, it's a trial. You get anxious, fear-filled, and angry... The trial strips you of something that you have made central to a life of joy.

And, temptations can have the very same affect. When we know there is a way God would have us to live and then a temptation comes up, we have a decision to make: Will we obey God or follow our own internal desire? The point is that either external trials or internal temptations can take me away from faith in God. Do you see that? James tells us in v.2 that there are various kinds of "peirasmoi". In fact, external trials can easily lead to lead to interior temptation. Take sickness. It's a trial. But, I've often seen how it can lead to many internal temptations ‑‑ to bitterness, faithlessness, angry outbursts, self‑pity...

Or take persecution, especially being scoffed at for being a Christian. That's an external trial but it can lead to being tempted to compromise or even to deny the faith. Or, take financial trouble. It's a trial but can lead to one being tempted to cheat, lie, or steal. Again and again, we see the same reality.

So various trials come. If we respond improperly, the trial can lead us to temptation and sin. What we have to learn to do is respond properly. The trial can lead us to trust God as never before but it can lead us away from God. I've seen it so often, i.e., the churchgoer who says, "Unless I have this thing, I refuse to be happy... Unless I get married I refuse... Unless I get that job, I refuse..." Those are the kinds of things that become your idols. The loss of them becomes the kind of trial James speaks of. They will leave you feeling incomplete and lacking everything.

The Bible's point is that trials are necessary for us to become what God made us to be. James insisted,"The testing of your faith develops perseverance..."

Most schools of human psychology are agreed that human beings need stresses in order to develop, to mature, to grow. We are all born with great potential but it's the demands of practical living from the cradle up that stretch us and develop those realities of human potentiality we call character. Trials are often hard but, without them, people do not grow. A pampered child who only eats and sleeps and is given whatever it wants will never be mature – only become an infantile and spoiled older person.

Well, the Bible knew that long before the emergence of psychology as a discipline. Let me illustrate it this way. Imagine a young man having to take a tough physics exam. "Consider it a joy when you have to take an exam from the toughest teacher in the school", says the Bible. "Rubbish," says the young man. "Exams are miserable things. I'd rather be playing golf." The teacher says, "So would I. But, if it were not for exams, you wouldn't have any incentive to learn. You'd watch TV, party, and play games all the time. You know how you are. The intelligence you have inherited, which God gave you, would remain undeveloped without tests. You'd never become what you were meant to be. At the end of the day, you would say, 'Why didn't I work harder.'"

James is saying, "The wise Christian knows this. When we become believers, God forgives us of our sins and plants within us the seed of a new Christlike personality ‑‑ but there has to be development and growth. And one part of this is that we develop perseverance when we trust God in situations of stress.

I know this is true. Christians who has gone through trials without rejecting God emerges surer of their faith. I've seen it among persecuted Christians from other nations. I've seen it when believers struggle through bereavement. We mourn when our loved ones die but it's only through experiences like that, you know, that some of really know whether we believe or not. Many nominal Christians find out in the midst of trials that they have no faith at all. They were just in it out of tradition. And many professing unbelievers have found out in trials that they really do believe. They can't escape that they believe that there is more than just living and dying. Everyone who has endured trials knows whether he believes or not. For those who do believe, their faith has a new steadfastness, a new grit – what James calls a new perseverance.

It's so counter-intuitive: Patiently suffer a trial so you won't lack anything! But, the only way that a trial can bring about a life that is complete and lacking nothing is for us to respond well. That point #3:

#3: How to Live on a Trial-filled Path: Taking time to "consider" and let God finish his work.

Consider it pure joy... Let perseverance finish its work... (1:2,4).

Pastor James gives two commands here that will lead to a life that is complete and lacking nothing. Neither will come naturally or easily to any of us. But each one will change our lives:

1. Consider the trial a Joy

We need to understand what the Bible means here. There are several things it is not saying:

The Bible is not saying that we should go out of our ways to make trials for ourselves. "When you meet or face trials" ‑‑ the actual word he uses is "when you fall into them." A trial is like a pothole in the road that you don't see until it's too late. You couldn't see it coming. You couldn't' avoid it. But it can do great damage. Only a fool says, "Ha, there's a big pothole. Let's see what it can do." But unintentionally, all of us sometimes hit the things. That's what James is talking about. He's not advocating a martyr mentality that goes out searching for persecution. He's telling us how to react when some things hit us that we couldn't have avoided.

Beyond that, the Bible is not telling us here that such trials are, in themselves, joyous and happy events. He's not telling us that a Christian response to trial is some mindless laughter in the midst of pain. Notice carefully what he says, "Consider it pure joy..." Even more literally, "Count it or reckon it as something that leads to joy." It's speaking of a way of thinking about it. It's an effort of mental calculation. We Christians pull back and look at trials in a way that others cannot. We have a perspective on life that assures us that even trials are not out of God's control ‑‑ that there is purpose ‑‑ that they can lead to joy.

The Bible is not saying we will discover joy in a trial on the surface of the event. What we often find on the surface of the event is sadness and pain. What the Bible is teaching is that we who know God have a way of stopping and considering -- thinking about what it happening and calculating the consequences God might bring about through the trial. That's what gives us a deep joy even in the midst of pain and uncertainty. That's what the Bible is talking about. We believe a good and sovereign God is in control.

Our response begins with our minds. We rationally evaluate what we believe and, in the midst of the trial, we can have a deep inner confidence and peace. We have a joy because we know and trust God.

2. Let God finish his work

Patient faith is an essential part of our response. "Perseverance must have its perfect work..."

but perseverance must finish its work so that you might become perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

Our normal response is, "Get me out of this now." "Take the pain away now." "Get me a job now." But just as athletes know that strength is developed only when we're able to hand on just a bit longer, so too we must let the trial have its work. James is saying here: When trials come, don't panic. Don't demand too quickly. God is doing something here. Let him finish what he is doing

There is a balance here. James tells us later, "Often, you have not because you ask not." We need to ask. But sometimes God says, "Yes, freedom from this trial is coming ‑‑ but not yet. Trust me. Talk to me and wait upon me. Only then will the trial help you to grow rather than destroy you."

How do we handle trials? First, count it as a part of joy because you know... You know God will use it in your life. You know God will use your response to help others see the difference He makes. Mostly, you know that God, your heavenly Father, is present in the mist of the trial and knows what He is doing. So let Him do it.

One of the things we miss in this text is that James takes it for granted that Christians will walk through these things together. All the verbs are plural here. We are not meant to handle trials alone. But I'll take that up next week (so you'll have to come back).

As my friend Jamie Rankin said, "These verses should change our eyes toward every kind of trial or temptation we will face in the coming year. I know they can give me hope and faith in the midst of each one I will face in the coming year." I pray the same will be true for you.

So, as always the choice is a self-directed life or a God-directed life. Maybe the best way to conclude is for me to ask you not how to be complete but to be incomplete in 2014? James would say this:

· Have a chip on your shoulder if you don't get what you want.

· Make life miserable for those who keep you from what you want.

· Be impatient if you don't get what you ask for or pray for right now.

· Give in to every thing you are tempted to do,

· Be clear to God about your expectations. Pray, "Maybe you didn't understand me God when I said..."

Or, you can obey God's Word when it says: Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

 

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor