Jewels From James I, Growth In Adversity

I want to mention just a couple of things. First of all, I want to thank the parents this morning who delivered your kids to their designated classes. You did a great job with that, parents. And do an equally great job picking them up. And they will be there until you come get them. And this is going to be a regular routine for the next who knows how many months. So that's very, very important. Thank you for helping us with that. Number two, if this is your first, and how many of you this is your first time here? You were not part of SALT or anything, this is your first visit here? All right, many, many of you. When you walk out of these doors, in case you didn't see it, the cafeteria is a good walk down to your left, about 100 yards or so. But there's going to be our refreshment, we have our coffee, we're all set up, and there's going to be a time there for the fellowship meets and people. The home group table's out there, the book table's out there. So everything's out there, and if you didn't bring your transition manual, there are maps out scattered around. Jim and all the ushers will make sure that you can get your hands on those maps to find your way around. So it'll take us a little while, but you made it this time, and this is, I think, the most important time to get acclimated. And third, and I don't normally do this because these people don't expect it, but I just want to thank our staff today, because our staff and some key volunteers did a whole lot to make this a smooth transition. Let's give them a hand. Thank you, all of you, very much. If you're walking in and saying, oh, this is great, everything's just fine, it's only because there was an enormous amount of work that went into it. No, the only thing that's not fine, if you haven't figured out, is my voice. And if you're praying that it goes out altogether and there won't be any sermon, you lose. I'm going to make it through, but I would appreciate just your praying. Carol and I were just kind of laughing about this yesterday when I realized what was happening. It's very normal. What I preach on, I get. I'm not preaching on sore throats. I'm preaching on trials. All week long, I'm thinking, Lord, I know something's going to happen. I'm preaching on trials today. I'm just glad it wasn't something like really gross. This is okay. I can get over this, all right. You ought to try this sometime, by the way. Whatever you preach on, you get. You say, well, why don't you just preach on blessing for the rest of your life? It doesn't work that way. Turn in your Bibles to the book of James, and we're going to begin there today. If you don't have a Bible, maybe the person next to you will share, and if they won't, hold up your insert and your North Way notes and the text is right in there, and you can say, see that? I got it anyhow. I want to begin today by asking a question. Dina, are we all right? When you arrive at heaven's gate at some point in your future, and by the way, 78% of all Americans believe they will arrive at heaven's gate. Only 40% believe there's a hell's gate. But anyhow, what two things will you take with you when you go to heaven? Don't answer out loud. Think about it. What two things will you take with you when you're standing at the gate, and who's ever there? I just pray it's not one of my staff. Who's ever at the gate says, come on through. What two things will you take with you? Tell someone what you think they are. Share with somebody. If you'd like to do that. You don't have to. What do you think it would be? What are you going to take with you? Let me help you. It's none of your stuff. None of your stuff. No U-Hauls, okay? Two things. You're going to take your character, that is who you are when no one's looking, and your relationships. How you love when no one's loving you back. Those two things are what you're going to take into heaven with you. And one book of the Bible speaks about those two things, I believe, more profoundly than any other, and that's the book of James. It's a book about preparing for heaven by learning to live practically here on the earth. And there's a very real correlation, folks. A lot of people don't believe there's any relationship between how you live on earth and what's going to happen in heaven. How many of you believe that how you live on earth will determine what happens to you? No doubt about it, as I understand the Bible. And so, I want to quote Richard Baxter, the Puritan writer who said this, This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it. 1650, he wrote those words. And I'm really excited because today we're going to do something a little different for Sunday morning. We're going to begin what we call an expositional study. What does the word exposition mean? Anyone, any old scholars out there? An expositional study means to draw out the meaning of. In other words, we're going to kind of go verse by verse through the book of James for the next number of weeks. We're going to kind of live with it. We're going to learn from it. We're going to lean into its wisdom. And if you're unfamiliar with a study like this, I think you're going to be really blessed as we let the Bible speak to us about its topics rather than us combing it for the topics that we want to talk about. And I'm happy about that because there's only one week on trials. All right? It's going to get a little better for me as we go along, I believe. Now, before we dig into these verses, would you just take with me a couple of steps, what I'm going to call sort of an appetizer to the main meal. We need a little bit of background because how many of you know, if you understand the author of a book, you know a little bit more about what he's trying to get through to you. The author of this book is James. How many of you knew this James was not the one that was the brother of John? James and John, the sons of thunder. This was James, the half-brother of Jesus. This was the James who had the same mother, but obviously a different father. By the way, have you ever thought what it would be like to have Jesus as your older brother? I mean, could you imagine something? Mom, Jesus is picking on me, except that he never was, right? Mom, Dad, Jesus won't share his hammer with me, except that he always would. Or I could see James and Jesus in this little disagreement that James is kind of cultivating, and he says, come on, Jesus, get a life. And Jesus says, I am life. I just, I mean, it doesn't compute for me. A scripture teaches, by the way, that James didn't even believe that Jesus was the Messiah until after the resurrection. Did you know that? So he grew up with him the whole, how many ever years they were under the same roof and never believed it. In fact, I was kind of astonished just rereading Mark 3.21. The Bible says that James and Mary and his other brothers went to find him in Capernaum. And here's what it says. I'm quoting the New International Version. They came to take charge of him saying he's out of his mind. They literally thought Jesus had lost it. And I just thought, you know, what an encouragement to some of you who are living in a situation where you're the only Christian witness in your family today. And you're thinking, you know, if I've been a Christian and my wife or husband or my parents or my kids, they don't see it. I must not be a very good witness. Does it encourage you to know that Jesus' own family didn't see it either? So take heart in that. At some point, God will break through. Later, though, something dramatic happened in James' life. Acts 1.14 says he was in the upper room gathered together with all those who were awaiting the Holy Spirit. Acts 12.17 tells us that James was the leader of the church at Jerusalem. He became one of the primary driving forces of the expansion of the gospel. Why? What took him from being an unbelieving, doubting James to the leader of the church? One simple thing. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 7. Jesus appeared to him after the resurrection. Now how many of you have prayed that one time just to settle all your doubts and fears, Jesus would just show up at the foot of your bed and say, it's real. James had this encounter with the Lord and he realized, this is real. You are who you've told me you were all along. And folks, I just want to say the application of that to me is that revelation is always the answer to all of your doubts. Revelation will always speak to the fierce. Is God real? Does God really care for me? Is God in control? And those doubts are real for some of us here today. I want you to know, revelation answers to your doubts. Revelation takes away your fear. You're saying, well, I would just love for Jesus to stop me in Cheneau Road today on the way home and say, it's real. And he may do that, but much more likely what he's going to do for some of you even today is the Bible talks about opening our blind eyes. And how many of you would lift your hand in just a moment and say, there was a point where I wasn't believing and suddenly I saw it. It made sense to me. Lift up your hand right now. You see, that's revelation. And it happens ongoingly to every Christian who's open to it. And then you'll experience faith and trust and fear and doubt will begin to fade. Listen, strugglers, some of you out there right now listening to me, you're struggling. You're saying, I want to believe, I can't. Just keep searching. Jesus will reveal himself to you. Now, the style of this book, the way James writes, I want you to know he did not take a Dale Carnegie course. He is in your face. He's right up front. I mean, there's just no doubt, boom, you're going to hear what I have to say. I mean, he's talking to people who've been scattered all throughout. They've lost everything. And he says, cut it all joy. And he gets right into it. But on the other hand, he's openly affectionate. Fifteen times he says, my dear brothers, my beloved brothers. I mean, there was an affection in his heart. He's humble. He never says, no, he never says here, James, the half-brother of Jesus. I mean, he never says that. He never lifts up that particular relationship. And he always, by the way, did you know that James refers to the words of Jesus more than any other writer? More than all the other apostolic writings combined, he references Jesus' teaching. And as I already mentioned, his audiences are the Jews. Jewish believers have been scattered throughout. I mean, persecution hit. Acts chapter 8, verse 1. And the church was scattered. Imagine us saying here to you today, we're no longer allowed to meet. Not just here, but anywhere. You'd have two choices, wouldn't you? You'd go hide in your homes and apartments and so. Or you'd just begin to scatter out and begin to salt the earth. Well, that's what the Lord did. And these people didn't need doctrinal teaching. So James, he talked to them about living the life. This book is not about doctrine. It's about demonstration. It isn't about orthodox teaching. It's about obedience. And folks, I believe here at North Way, more than doctrine right now, we need demonstration. Many of you know much more than you really ever will need to know to be an effective Christian. How many of you would say, don't lift up your hand, but honestly, Jay, it's more a matter of me living in the knowledge that I have than it is gaining more knowledge. As I prayed about this, that's one reason why the Lord led us in this book. So we'll learn. There are 54 imperative statements. What's an imperative statement? It's a command. It's not a suggestion. Go do it. 54 of them in 5 chapters. So James is very concerned about obedience. So let's look at it. There are 2 sections. Section 1 is verses 1 through 25. And section 2 is verses 26 through chapter 5, verse 20. So let's read together now. If you have it with me, read it out loud, won't you? Turn to your Bible. I'm going to wait for everyone to get your Bible back out. Here we go. This is exposition. Read it with me. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 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. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. It sounds crazy, doesn't it, to hear the words trial and joy in the same verse. How many of you put those 2 words together? Trial, joy. Pain, pleasure. Not usually together. In fact, yesterday you heard me say we're going to talk about trials. How many of you said, great, I want more trials. I mean, that's what I'm looking for in my life. Bring them on. I love trials. No. Trials in this culture are something we strive to avoid. We don't want anything to do with trials until our perspective changes on what that trial may accomplish. A while back, not too long ago actually, I was in the dentist's office. Why is it that hygienists are always so happy about what they do? This little hygienist came up. She said, well, Mr. Passoven, we need to do some deep cleaning on your teeth. I don't even like the sound of that. What do you mean deep cleaning? She said, well, I'm going to take this instrument. She holds it up, and it's razor sharp. She said, I'm going to get down below the gum line, and I'm going to start scraping off that plaque and all that stuff that you've allowed to accumulate down there. I said, oh, that sounds terrible. She said, oh, it won't be so bad because we're going to shoot your whole mouth full of novocaine. You won't even know this happened. And then that's when you walk out with this drool coming down your mouth. I said, I don't want to go through that. I don't need that. I brush and I flush. She said, fine, fine. I said, well, what's going to happen if I don't? She said, your teeth are going to fall out. Now all of a sudden, the trial of that cleaning took on a new perspective for me. I guess I'd rather have that temporary pain because there'd be a long-term benefit, although I'm not so sure. But anyhow, I think that's clearly what this is all about. We need to get God's perspective on trials. His perspective is this. His purpose of trials is to bring about, Romans 1 in your outline, maturity. How many people here want to be mature in God? Let me just, encourage me with this. The rest of you don't want to be mature? Let me ask the opposite. How many of you want to be immature? I don't think any of us do. It's not something we're trying to do. We want to be mature in the Lord. No one wants to just continue to be like a babe. Folks, there's something wrong when we look at a dwarf and we think there's something wrong with that person. And if you've walked with the Lord for years and you're not maturing, what's happening in your life? What needs to change? Well, God says in this book, we say in this church that our passion is to raise us up into maturity. We want to be disciples, not just converts, but disciples of the Lord. This doesn't just happen, folks. It happens because we determine that we'll cooperate with the grace of God. Now, if I were to ask you today, how many people want to be physically fit? How many of you say, yes, that's me. I'm physically fit. I want to be in shape. I want to be able to put on my spring and summer clothes next weekend. Yeah, I want that. I wish I could just wave a wand out there and have you all just get right into shape. Low cholesterol, drop off the weight you need, tone the muscles up. Boom, I'm in shape. But if I say to you, you want to get in shape? You've got to exercise. What do you do? Oh, that's it. Oh, God. Exercise? I'm not so sure. Shape? Well, and you know what we do? We modify our definition of shape. I'm in shape. I mean, I'm just not the kind of shape you're talking about. It's really my shape. Can I tell you that what we tend to do with the Bible's definition of maturity? We tend to modify. I'm mature. And I'm not sure that we really understand a whole lot about what biblical maturity is, church. I mean, I could have gone off on this for the whole balance of the message. Here's just five quick things, Ruth, if we'll flash these up. If you're mature, this is in your outline, you're stable in your convictions. When someone comes along and sticks a track in your face about some kind of doctrine, you're not blown away because you know what you believe. Number two, you're humble and gentle. And I did a whole message, a couple of messages on this just about three months ago on gentleness and humility before God. When you're mature, you're able to give when called upon. In other words, you don't recoil and get all mad and angry when someone asks you to give. You're anxious to give because you know Jesus was right when he said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. If you're maturing, you're trusted, trusting and submitted in your relationships. You're not cynical. You're not withholding. You're not trying to domineer or to control. You're trusting and submitted. Hebrews chapter 13 talks about that. And finally, if you're mature, listen, you're able to minister. Paul says, we've been given this ministry of reconciliation. And I don't know, do those five things describe your life today? You say, well, to some degree they do. But the question is, are you growing? Are you maturing? This isn't some incredible list of sainthood characteristics. Folks, this is what the norm is to be. This is normal Christian living. This is what we're supposed to be like. James says, mature, not lacking anything. No weak spots, one translation says. And if that's God's purpose for us, how do we get there? Well, His process is trials. I know, here it is. Now, there's lots of other things that God uses to mature us. He uses the spiritual disciplines. And I've talked and will talk always about prayer and about fasting and about reading the word and worship and repentance and so. And if you've not taken Discovering the Keys to Spiritual Maturity, that whole seminar next week will help you in that whole process of growing in the spiritual disciplines. God matures us by cooperation with the Holy Spirit. He matures us as other people rub up against us and help us just to see our weak spots and to grow. He matures us through serving and through gifts in the body. But the main way that He matures us specifically is through trials. James is writing to people in serious trial, scattered about. They lost their homes, their jobs, their careers. They were being persecuted. Some of them were being marched off and killed. Folks, this... I mean, whatever trial you're facing, it's probably not life or death at this point for most of us. Now, you said... How many of you said you wanted to be mature? Did you know you just sang that to the Lord? Didn't you just... How many of you just sang, Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary? Next two words. Pure and holy... How many of you sang that? God's just saying, I am... Thank you for inviting me to mature you. I'm just about to send you a trial to answer your prayer in that song. You say, wait a minute. I didn't sing that. I sang holy, holy, holy, but I did not sing Lord, prepare me. There are many kinds of trials. Look what it says here. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, I was encouraged to know that God doesn't have just four basic kinds of trials on the shelf. You know, a standard... Here's trial A, B, C, D. No, God has many kinds. He has a fiber optic highway of trials. Zillions of choices for you. How many of you know that one person's trial is another person's little pleasure of sorts? I mean, God knows what you need, what you need way in the back. One person's difficulty may be another person's piece of cake. I mean, if Carol and I are standing in line to return a can opener at a discount store, that's a trial for me. Especially if the line takes a long time. And I'm mumbling and Carol's saying, just be patient, honey. This is the Lord fashioning you. But if we get up to this, you know, this customer service area, and there's some kind of customer service guy there with an attitude, like, well, lady, when did you buy this? Well, I'll tell you what, suddenly it's a trial for Carol. And I'm there like, hon, you know, Lord's just trying to fashion you a little bit here. You see, one person's trial is another person's. I mean, it's... So God knows I have an unlimited smorgasbord of opportunities for trials. And folks, I found that God seems to interject those trials when I least want them, and least expect them. I mean, I can be cruising. I was... About two years ago, I was doing a retreat for another church leadership group, and we just had a great meeting. The Lord came, presence of God, talked about fellowship, walked off, you know, people were saying, well, thank you for coming, this is great. We walked down to the mess hall at this camp, aptly named, went into the mess hall. I was standing at the door, and some little out-of-control five-year-old came barreling through one of those swinging doors they have in camps. Whack! Knocked into this other little kid who was holding... Hmm. Lord, prepare me. And right that moment, all the spirituality I had just exuded to that kid, just kind of like... I mean, everything in me wanted to say, where's the parent of this kid? What's going on? You know, my spirituality was suddenly exposed in that moment. And God has a way of always surprising me. It's unexpected. You know, for me, I don't know about you, but for me, the worst moment for me, the time that God most gets through to me, is when I hear what I want to call the two most dreaded words that I face in a public trial and time when I'm like out there exposed, maybe talking to this customer service guy myself, I'm going through this thing, my two most dreaded words, it's the voice behind me saying, Pastor Jay. All of a sudden, you know, my life flashes. Pastor Jay, that's right. God has many kinds of trials. And I want you to know, the word parasmos there in the Greek means specific, pointed, certain tests for specific examination purposes. And every trial that you face, folks, there's two things. This is in your outline. It refines and reveals. It reveals and refines. It reveals what your faith is weak. And by the way, I can normally pick out a person who hasn't had many trials in their life. You know why? They tend to be just a little bit on the arrogant side, a little on the insensitive side because they think they're really more mature than they are. God has yet to try their faith. You know, I used to be, and I'll just confess this to you, I used to be probably a little bit impatient with people who had physical problems. I mean, who I felt, I'm not talking about elderly people or people that had profound problems, people who just were going through the normal and they would say, Man, I don't feel right. And I'd look at them and I'd say, Well, you know, if you got in this shape. And then three years ago, God gave me a trial. And I'm still going through it. And I have a whole new understanding. My maturity level has gone way up in terms of compassion for people in pain. On the other hand, I have to say, I mean, I was very embarrassed about where I was as I look back on it. On the other hand, I have seen God surprise me through some people who I've encountered, who I thought weren't all that mature, you know, who didn't seem to have much sense of, you know, involvement. Maybe they weren't exercising their gifts or whatever. And all of a sudden, they faced a trial. And I saw their lives begin to blossom. And I said, you know, they would rejoice as they walked through this trial. And I said, God, forgive me. I didn't realize the caliber of their faith. They're mature people. Trials reveal and they refine. And I want to say this very carefully right now. I've been making kind of light of some trials. I know that many of you here today, I would say hundreds perhaps, at least scores, you're going through very significant trials right now. I know one family here today who got news just this week that their job was terminated. Boom. And this had, you know, this had been a job of over 10 years. Boom. Just gone like that. No warning. They're going through a trial. There are people here today that are going through the trial of a physical report. I had a report from someone yesterday. They found cancer and walking through a trial. I had another phone call this week. I can't live with my husband anymore. I've had it with him. I want out. It's over. They're going through a serious trial. Please understand, church, I know that when God says I have all kinds, they can be very serious. There are some of you here today who are really going through a trial of your faith. Literally, you don't know if you want to keep... I had a conversation as I recall it last night with a person who told me. Over the phone they said, you know, at the end of the year I was thinking about just walking away from God because I wasn't seeing answers to prayer. God has allowed these trials in our lives. But His purpose is they're not just random acts. They're not just happening so that folks, we don't walk through life like, well, what's going to happen to me next? We walk through life with a certain knowledge that God has allowed these things for the purpose of our maturity. He's behind them. Not causing them but allowing them to happen to us so that maturity will come forth in our lives. That's His process. Finally, His promise to us is this. I see it this way. We have two choices when it comes to facing trials. We can see them as enemies or we can do as Philip says, we can welcome them as J.B. Phillips' translation, friends. Or, I like the word really better, You see, it's never, you never say, oh God, thank you for cancer. You don't say that. God, thank you that I lost my job but what you say is, Lord, I consider it pure joy that I have you in my life and right now you're going to do something with this circumstance to use it in my life to my benefit. You're going to make me complete in every way as a result of this. And what we all tend to do, dear ones, we tend to consider it an enemy and we say things like, why me? It's just my luck. What did I do to deserve this? I have a question when people say this, what did you do to deserve what you have? That's really the right question. And worse than that, people say, well, where's God when bad things happen to good people? Remember the name of that book? Some rabbi wrote that book about ten years ago. When bad things happen to good people. You know, that's really not even a biblical question. You know, a better way to say it? Why do good things happen to bad people? That's really, that's the question we have to answer. And so when trials enter our lives, we have to see them as, I like the word, allies. Something God uses in us to cause us to make progress on the path of maturity. This trial, God can take and fashion into our character and build our relationships so we can look at it and say, Lord, I count this as joy. Joy because you in the midst of it are going to make me what you want me to be. Consider it pure joy because you know something. If you don't know this, it'll never be joy to you. It will always be pain. It will always be why. It will always be mystery. But when you know that God's in it, you can make it through anything. Consider it pure joy. Analogies to this abound to me. I was thinking, ladies, what's the worst pain that you ever faced? Well, physically speaking. Do I have to help you with this? Yeah, thank you. I mean, that's what I've been told. Has this been a big joke all along? Is there something worse than labor pains? Help me out with this, ladies. All right? I mean, from what I could tell watching my wife, it was labor. All right? But how do you make it through labor pains? Well, most of us make it through. I get an epidural. What do you do? No. You set your mind. You set your mind on the goal. You know what the fruit of that labor, that pain, is going to be. A new precious life. Right? I mean, that's part of it anyhow. Men? I mean, obviously, I can't use laborers. Maybe it's the Lamaze class. I don't know. But there's all kinds of things. You know, over at the gym, sometimes when I try to strengthen my abdomen, someone showed me if I put some weight on my chest, it'll make those things more difficult to do. Now, I can look at that weight and I say, I hate this thing. I don't like this weight. This is making it tough. But up here, I know something. What do I know? I know that if I do this consistently, this is going to get better. It's going to help this. And I'll be able to stand up longer. And that's so, I count that, that's joy. Oh, I don't like it, but it's joy. Oh, thank you. You see, that's what life's about. These trials come so that joy, the joy of the Lord will emerge as He brings about His maturity in each of us. You know, it's so easy to be holy and godly here. You know, the banners wave, the music rises. Praise the Lord, glory to God. No, no, don't give me any pain. And you walk out the door, you know, and expect it. Folks, we have to change our thinking. Trials are not just for a season. Trials are for the rest of your life. Just go ahead and give a collective sigh. All right? I mean, you may be going through a time when it's not intense, but you will have times of trial. And when those happen, what you know will get you through. And I know this. I count it all joy. Because God is maturing. I want to introduce you to a couple right now who went through a trial. A major trial. I want you to come up, please. Dave and Darlene and Natalie. Just not long ago, their family went through an unexpected trial that really, I believe, forever has changed them. And they're going to share that with you just now as we conclude today. Good morning. Let me back this up a little bit because if you're outside of this light, they won't be able to see you. I'm going to step right in the middle here, Natalie. This is David and Darlene and Natalie McComas. For three weeks, I have asked them to hold this testimony. I said yes and then no. And I realized today's the day that really this testimony fits exactly where they are. So, Dave, share just some of the details of what happened for those folks who don't know what happened with Natalie a couple of months ago.