Trials get us down and drain our joy.

• Trials can weaken our faith: Go on so hard and long that we wonder where/who God is.

• Trials can provoke anger: We run out of patience with God, self, and others

• Trials can be a catalyst for sin: A weakened mind, body, or heart can weaken our will

Trials can get us down and drain our joy. But it needn’t be this way. There is a way of using trials to increase our faith and holiness, and therefore increase our joy.

In James 1:1-4, the Apostle shows us how to view our trials in a way that will produce joy. Here are three new perspectives on trials to help you rejoice in trials.

1. REJOICE BECAUSE VARIED TRIALS RESULT IN A TESTED FAITH 

• Trials are varied: “Trials of various kinds” (2b). They come in a vast variety of shapes and sizes but they all have one purpose….

• Trials test and prove our faith: “for you know that the testing of your faith” (3a). A tested faith is better than an untested faith. It it’s tested and fails, I find out it’s faulty faith and I need to put that right. If it’s tested and passes, I can be encouraged by that.

• Therefore rejoice! Because varied trials result in a tested faith (2a).

Summary: Trials can weaken false faith, but they also strengthen true faith.

Question: It’s encouraging to know that trials are proving my faith to myself, to others, and to God. Is there any other benefit of these trials?

2. REJOICE BECAUSE TESTED FAITH RESULTS IN PATIENT ENDURANCE  

• A tested faith produces patience: “You know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (3b). Very few of us have a strong patience muscle. Only way to develop it is through trial. Trial is spiritual weight-training that grows the patience muscle in a way nothing else does.

• Therefore rejoice! A rare and beautiful muscle is growing (2a).

Summary: Trials may weaken our pecs, but they strengthen patience.

Question: It’s encouraging that patience is growing through this. But patience implies waiting for something. What am I waiting for?

3. REJOICE BECAUSE PATIENT ENDURANCE RESULTS IN COMPLETE PERFECTION.

• Long patience perfects: “Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect” (4a).

• Long patience completes: “That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (4b). Notice the order here. From various trials to tested faith; from tested faith to patient endurance, from patient endurance to complete perfection.

• Therefore rejoice! You’re waiting for complete perfection. Is that not worth the testing and the waiting. Is all this not a reason for joy?   

Summary: Trials may spoil your perfect life, but they produce a more perfect you.

LIVING THE BIBLE

Rejoice in short-term trials because of the long-term results

PRAYING THE BIBLE

Father, we confess that trials can get us down and drain our joy.

We praise you because these varied trials result in a tested faith, tested faith results in patient endurance, and patient endurance results in complete perfection.

Help us to share your view of our trials and therefore to rejoice in short-term trials because of the long-term results

We praise you for Jesus Christ who suffered the greatest trials, experienced the greatest tests, and endured with extraordinary patience, yet maintained your perfection in order to make us perfect. Amen.

Download Infographic here. Index to Living Faith in Testing Times series.

These testing times will overwhelm us if we listen to human words (the media, politicians, ourselves) more than God’s Word. Human words leave us:

• Confused            
• Depressed            
• Terrified
• Paralyzed            

I want to help you live with clarity instead of confusion, joy instead of depression, calm instead of terror, and action instead of paralysis. To do that, we need to prioritize God’s Word over human words.

That’s why I’m going to be publishing a daily message from God’s Word starting tomorrow. It will be available on my blog, and eventually available as a daily podcast and a video too. I’m going to start with a series that walks us through the book of James as it is so appropriate for these times. It will be called, “Living Faith in Testing Times.” If you subscribe to my blog, you can get it emailed to you every day.

I want to introduce this series by giving you four reasons to prioritize God’s Word over human words.

1. GOD’S WORD GIVES CLARITY

What’s happening? What will happen? When will it end? The questions multiply but the answers don’t. There are many debatable answers. There are many questions we simply cannot answer. But there are three truths from God’s Word that are clear:

• God is judging our sins.
• God is calling us to repent.
• God will forgive and heal our land if we repent of our sins.

If you doubt that, read 2 Chronicles 7: 13-15.

Summary: Human words confuse, but God’s Word clarifies.

Question: But how do I stop sinking into depression in the meantime?

2. GOD’S WORD GIVES JOY

There’s a lot of sad news around and it will probably get worse. Many of our plans have been dashed. Many of us will lose money and even our jobs. We cannot deny the sadness and we don’t want to minimize it. But the Apostle Paul spoke of being “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10). The Christian can add joy to sorrow and balance it out, if we keep our focus on truths that never change. For example, as we study James together, we’ll experience:

• The joy of God’s constant love.
• The joy of God’s constant care.

Summary: Human words cast us down, but God’s Word lifts us up.

Question: But how do I stop stressing?

3. GOD’S WORD GIVES CALM

We’ve never lived through such unstable and scary times. It’s unprecedented and unpredictable. We’re therefore tempted to fear and anxiety. But if we read God’s Word:

• We’re calm because God still reigns.
• We’re calm because of our heavenly hope is still secure.

Summary: Human words terrify, but God’s Word pacifies.

Question: But can I do anything?

4. GOD’S WORD CALLS TO ACTION

God’s Word clears our confusion, raises our spirits, and calms our hearts, but it also calls us to action. While we must heed the government’s advice regarding where we can go and how many people we can be with, as James’s letter highlights, there are still opportunities to serve God and our fellow men and women.

• We can evangelize the lost: This is a time to call family and friends to repentance and faith, to prepare for eternity. Why not use the “Living Faith in Testing Times” series to minister to your family? Gather them around your phone at a meal time and play the daily podcast.

• We can serve the needy: We can phone the old and vulnerable, we can help with their shopping and meds. We can provide for the multiplying poor. Why not send them this message to comfort their troubled hearts?

Summary: Human words paralyze, but God’s Word mobilizes.

Question: Do you see how much you need God’s Word?

LIVING THE BIBLE

Fill yourself with God’s Word to keep your faith alive in testing times.

PRAYING THE BIBLE

Sovereign Lord, you are testing us in an unprecedented way. We confess that we are in danger of being overwhelmed because we are listening to human words more than your Word.

When we listen to the media, politicians, and our own opinions, we get confused, depressed, scared, and paralyzed.

Great God of truth, your Word gives clarity, joy, calm, and motivation. Therefore help us to prioritize your Word over all human words.

We thank you for the example of Jesus who lived with perfect faith in the most testing of times. We stand in awe that by feeding on your Word he did his painful duty with clarity, joy, and calm.

Therefore, fill us with your Word to keep our faith alive in testing times. Amen.

Download Infographic here. Index to Living Faith in Testing Times series.

Introduction to Living in Faith in Testing Times.
1. Joyful Trials (James 1:1-4)
2. I don’t know what to do or say (James 1:5-8)
3. Role Reversal for Rich and Poor (James 1:9-11)
4. Beating Temptation by Worshipping God (James 1:12-18)
5. Changing the Pace to Finish the Race (James 1:19-25)
6. How valuable is your religion? (James 1:26-27)
7. Beating Bias to Save Souls (James 2:1-4)
8. God’s Heart for the Poor (James 2:5-7)
9. God’s Judgment on Pre-Judgment (James 2:9-13)
10. God-words without God-works (James 2:14-17)
11. The Justification of Faith by Works (James 2:18-26)
12. The Most Dangerous Job in the World (James 3:1-2)
13. Influencer of the Year (James 3:3-8)
14. Our Two-Faced Tongues (James 3:9-12)
15. Know-it-alls don’t love-at-all (James 3:13-18)
16. Me-first or God-first (James 4:1-10)
17. Everyday Worship (James 4:11-17)
18. God’s Message to the 1% (James 5:1-6)
19. God’s Message to the 99% (James 5:7-12)
20. Help! I’m losing confidence in prayer (James 5:13-18)

What would Jesus say to us were he living in this world during the Coronavirus pandemic?

That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with the past few days. It sent me to my Bible because that’s the way Jesus speaks to us today. I turned to Exodus chapters 7-11 where we read of another time God used plagues to create a national state of emergency. I encourage you to read these chapters and ask God to help you hear his ever-relevant, ever-powerful Word. I want to focus on God’s message in chapter 8.

We can make two major mistakes when God sends judgments on the earth. We can under-estimate God’s judgments or we can over-estimate God’s judgments.

We can under-estimate God’s judgments in two ways:

• We minimize them: We can do this by ignoring God’s judgments, by playing them down, by attributing them to chance, by false assurances that all will be well.
• We equalize them. We wrongly think that human power is equal to the challenge of God’s judgments. Or we can equate God’s power with the devil’s power, seeing any battle as one between two equals with an uncertain outcome.

We can over-estimate God’s judgments in two ways:

•  We catastrophize. We panic that it’s all out of control and there’s no way of escape. God’s just lashing out at everyone.
•  We idealize. We are sure people will be scared of God’s judgments and turn to him in repentance.

We don’t want to fall into these errors and lose the spiritual profit that is available. Is there a way to approach these judgments of God that will yield the maximum worship for God and spiritual profit for us? In Exodus 8, Moses helps us to have a balanced view of God’s judgments that neither under-estimates nor over-estimates them.

For more, see my sermon notes.  Scroll down a bit further and you’ll find a one-page sermon summary infographic. Index to other sermon notes here.

Sermon Notes

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Is Christianity worth it? What are the benefits of Christianity? Apart from the promise of eternal life at the end, what good will it do me? How will it help me here and now? To put it more popularly, is it all “pie in the sky when you die” or is there also “steak on the plate while you wait?”

If people think that Christianity is all and only about future reward in heaven, it will have the following results:

• Dangerous delay: People will delay faith as long as they can and then sign up for their heavenly insurance policy just before the end.
• Half-hearts: People will not pursue Christ or holiness with vigor because there’s no immediate advantage in it.
• Gritted teeth: Christians adopt a “grin and bear it” approach to the Christian life. We just have to put up with present losses in the hope of eventual heavenly gain.
• Cold legalism: We instruct our children to do things merely because they are commanded, which runs the risk of legalism.
• Spiritual Blindness: We don’t see the glory and beauty of Christian ethics, but just bare commands.

The question then is, can we add motivation to our morals? Morals are about what we should do or not do; motivation is about the why. Morals are the rules; motivations are the rewards.

The good news is that God has attached motives to his morals to stimulate and empower obedience. In other words, Christianity is worth it, not only for future rewards but because of present rewards.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this because motivational science has found that unless there is some present reward it’s very hard to keep going at anything. God knew that before they did (e.g. Exodus 19:5-6; 20:12).

For more, see my sermon notes from my fourth sermon in the Proverbs series entitled Wisdom University (download pdf here).  Scroll down a bit further and you’ll find a one-page sermon summary infographic. Index to previous sermons in the series here.

Sermon Notes

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If you’ve ever suffered from any long-term illness, you learn many lessons along the way. You learn what makes you better and what makes you worse.

Take diabetes, for example. There’s a figure that’s measured at every clinic visit, it’s called HbA1c. If it has come down, the medical staff will sit down and ask “What did you do differently to make this improvement?” so that they can identify the causes of the improvement and keep doing what they were doing.

The basic idea is, “Whatever you’ve been doing, let’s keep doing it. As you’ve begun, so continue.” The last thing you’ll hear is, “OK, this and that change has led to improvement, so let’s do the opposite now!”

The same idea applies to progress in our spiritual lives. We want to ask, “How did I begin to know Jesus?” so that we then say, “As I began, so let me continue.” The worst conclusion we can come to is, “OK, I began with Jesus this way, so let’s do the exact opposite now.”

What would the opposite look like?

• We began rooted in Christ, but we go on by pulling our roots out of this soil!
• We began on the foundation of Christ, but we go on moving away from this foundation.
• We began by building with Christ, but we go on by building with self-made bricks.
• We began by overflowing with thank-fulness, but we go on by complaining.

It’s ridiculous isn’t it? We began by welcoming Christ, but we go on by walking away from Christ? Of course not.

How then do we grow spiritually. How do we go on in the faith? We go on in faith as we began in faith. It’s that simple. As we began, so we go on. We’re going to look at how we began with Christ in order to learn how to go on with Christ.

For more, see my sermon notes from my seventh sermon in the Colossians series entitled Complete in Christ (download pdf here).  Scroll down a bit further and you’ll find a one-page sermon summary infographic. Index to previous sermons here.

Sermon Notes

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