August 1, 2004

John W. Fowler

Scripture: James 1: 1-18

This morning as you come to worship, is there any particular problem or problems that you would really like God to help you with? In the Bible there is a book about practical Christianity that, especially, is written by someone very well qualified to share with us hope for the problems that we face, about how to live by faith and how God really wants to help us with the problems that come our way. In James I:

Greetings. 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. 9The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. 10But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. 11For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. 12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

Lance Armstrong is an amazing athlete. Last Sunday when he won the sixth Tour de France, he certainly had his share of obstacles. Biking two thousand miles for twenty-one days, that’s a big enough obstacle. I think I could do that if I could find two thousand miles going downhill, but there were a lot of those miles going uphill and against the best bikers in the world. But for the sixth time, he won. Also, he had some hostile fans along the way. They weren’t really fans of his. He got spit at. They threw things at him and at some places they would narrow where the bikes would come through, but he survived that. He survived being accused of performance-enhancing drugs. But if you’ve listen to him, you know that he would tell you that he has faced bigger obstacles than facing the Tour de France or winning it: He has faced cancer. He survived cancer, and coming through that, he knows that, as he says, “I wouldn’t be here if it hadn’t been for that.” He has learned how problems can make us better — not bitter. He has learned how to overcome adversity.

Whether it’s big or small, what problems are you facing this morning that God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, would love to come into your life to give you guidance and help your faith and your trust and your confidence in Him become stronger?

James, the half-brother of our Lord Jesus, was very appropriate to write this book, because, as you can imagine (I grew up with two brothers and a sister, good people) but can you imagine growing up with Jesus as your older brother? I mean, imagine seeing how the faith was lived out in the tool shop, around the dinner table, in everyday life. James certainly understands what practical Christianity looks like and how it can be lived. And in this passage of scripture, it talks about two problems that everyone faces. They are trials and temptations.

Anyone going through a trial? How about temptations to sin? They come to all of us. How can you actually, not just cope with them, but actually benefit from them when they come your way? How can you benefit from trials, according to James?

First of all, he tells us to have an attitude of joy. Now that seems like ridiculous advice. Can you imagine Kobe Bryant or Michael Jackson, the Peterson man or Martha Stewart saying, “I am so happy about this trial.”?

Most people avoid trials and tests. When I was trying to get into Divinity School, I took the MAT three times. I have to say, I did not enjoy preparing; I did not enjoy trying to get a better test score. Most of us do not look for tests, but they do come, don’t they? They are inevitable. And James, though he is writing to people who are suffering for their faith, they have been scattered because of suffering for their faith, and it is a word of hope: Rrejoice for these trials that come your way. What does he mean by that?

What he means by that is your faith is tested and you are going through this difficult time. Your faith has a chance to mature and to grow, and that is what God is going to bring out of this.

The Apostle Paul certainly understood that when he wrote to the Philippians. He said,

He is no doubt remembering back to the first visit to Philippi when the Gospel was planted, and he was put in prison with Silas because of preaching the Gospel. Beaten, imprisoned — every grounds for discouragement that you could think of — but here he is at midnight, singing hymns with Silas, and then, all of a sudden, here is this earthquake and a jail break, although no one leaves the jail.

Here is the jailer who comes and wants to know, “What must I do to be saved?”

He receives Christ. His whole family receives Christ. Why? Because here are two Christians in extremely discouraging circumstances, rejoicing and praising God, not for the circumstances, but in the circumstances. I mean, no one likes to be beaten; no one likes to be put in prison, but they know that God is bigger and He is going to bring us through this time.

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said to rejoice always and pray constantly, to Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all things; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

When problems come our way, when we make the conscious decision to rejoice, God’s faith and power is unleashed in our life. And then he also tells us that we can benefit from these trials, not only because we can have an attitude of joy, but we can have God’s wisdom. He wants to give to us generously. It says in Verse 5

God is generous and He wants to give His wisdom to us. But there are times, if you are like me, we don’t ask God for His wisdom. In fact, we begin to wonder if God really is practical and God really understands what we are going through and we really delay asking for His wisdom when He really would love to give it. Parents are that way sometimes. They’d love to give wisdom but the children don’t always want it. Isn’t that right? Someone is listening, I know that. But God will give us wisdom. In Proverbs it says:

In the second Proverb it says:

God wants to give it to us. When we are going through a trial we need God’s power and His perspective. In the Bible we have the story of Job, who went through more trials than anyone I can think of. Think about this for a moment, if you are not familiar with the story of Job. Job is a very prosperous business man, a wonderful family, a godly man, but he is tested. Boy, is he tested. He goes bankrupt. That’s plenty right there, but he loses his business and then he loses his family. Horrible. He loses all of his children. And then he becomes ill. So he has lost his business; he has lost his children; he has lost his health. His wife advices him: Curse God and die.

He has three friends who come to him. The best thing they do is that they are quiet and spend time with him. But they are compelled to open up their mouths and give to him what they think is good wisdom. Different tunes, but it essentially comes out: Job anyone who has this much bad happen to them must have done something. If you'll just confess those sins — it’s probably sins — this will go away. And Job didn’t like that. He knew that it wasn’t because of his sin that this had come on him, but he didn’t understand it.

And, as Phillip Yancey shares with us in his book, Where is God When it Hurts?, the book of Job doesn’t so much explain why people suffer; it’s a book of faith, of trusting God in the worst of times. Job actually does have a happy ending. His health is restored. His prosperity is restored. His business, family and children, but oftentimes what we need is God’s perspective. And God helps us, not just with serious problems, but with everyday, ordinary problems.

I prayed a lot this past week as I was traveling east and was going to Raleigh to go to a hospital. Because I’m so directionally challenged, I’ve learned about MapQuest and maps, and even calling places, but still, I get lost. So, I was lost in Raleigh, wandering around, and it was a very rainy day, so I guess I use that as an excuse for why I was lost and missed some turns. And so, I pulled into a convenience store — which I have become very familiar with those when I am lost because I always try to go in and ask them where to get places — and you get some interesting advice sometimes. Well, I called the hospital and I told them I was trying to find it. They asked me what street I was on.

I said, “I don’t know.”

And the guy started laughing at me, if you can believe that, because I didn’t know what street I was on.

I said, “Well, what street should I be on?” and he told me.

So I said, “I’ll go in and ask them here if they know where that street is.”

I was on the right street, just about three or four miles away from where I was supposed to be, so that is great to me. And so, I got there and I wanted to see Marietta graduate, and I want you to know, that was just a beautiful, inspiring service. Marietta really did get her diploma; I saw it and we are very proud of her. . . . (Tape change) . . . ..in Chapel Hill because I was going to stay with my boy that night. He kept giving me these directions and I kept repeating to him, “I just want to get to Chapel Hill.” So, finally he just made it real simple and I got back.

How do we benefit from trials? God will give us joy. He will give us a perspective of rejoicing, that God is still on His throne, he hasn’t left, He hasn’t forgotten me. And He’ll give us wisdom if we will take it.

But then James reminds us though, that all of us not only will go through trials but we go through temptations. He says it this way:

What is he talking about here is that, how do we benefit from temptations? Well, he tells us the truth about temptation. First of all, the truth about temptation is we all have a sin nature. Oh, you may have advanced in great ways — things that used to tempt you to sin don’t tempt you anymore — but this side of Heaven, you will always have this sin nature. All of us have it and we need God’s help.

In the Old Testament we think of Joseph dealing with temptations to sin. When Joseph went into Potiphar’s house, Potiphar’s wife liked the way Joseph looked and kept wanting him to have an affair. Joseph kept resisting and finally one day she just grabbed his cloak; he ran, which is oftentimes very good advice for temptation to sin — just run in the other direction. He did the right thing but he still ended up landing in prison, and I’m sure wondering about: Here I am; I resisted the temptation to sin and here I am landing in prison. But God honored that. But that wasn’t the only temptation to sin that Joseph had to deal with. Can you imagine having to deal with your brothers’ selling you into slavery, all those years going into prison, being in a foreign land? When his brothers came back and you read the story in Genesis, you find that he played a little cat-and-mouse with them when they were wanting food to take back to their home. But finally, at the end of Genesis, he forgives them. He resisted the temptation to resent his family.

The truth about temptation: We all have a sin nature. And then also, another truth, is that generally sin, especially when the Devil gets involved, it’s a deception. Here is what it says:

And oftentimes that’s what sin does — it entices us. But then, it is a deception. But there is some kind of bait, some enticement. I think it is amazing. It’s a smart man who can figure out how to fish for a living. They are having this Bass Masters fishing tournament down at Lake Wylie. This man from Japan is winning so far, and he won’t tell anyone how he finds them, but I just think it is amazing that anyone can fish for a living and get paid for it. It’s great; people are watching it. But I guarantee you: They know the bait that they want to use to get the fish. And I promise you that the Devil comes at an opportune time and he knows the bait that will work. And the good news about temptation is that as we come through them, we resist them, God gives us the strength for the next time. I am wise about that.

But also we learn from the example of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 4. We learn the truth about temptations. They come to all of us, as they came to Jesus. What did he do? He knew the power of the scriptures. He knew that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. So He knew that the truth of God would help Him to spot counterfeit words. And he would learn, for example — when the enemy keeps trying to tell you that you are not good enough, God will not love you until you do this or that, or accomplish this — that the Lord will take you back to I John, for we know that God is Love, and He will lead us through that time of temptation.

What problems are you facing today? Sometimes trials and temptations sort of mix. If it’s a health problem, one of the best places to read in the Bible is read about Jesus, the Great Physician. Read about Him touching the lame. Read about Him helping the paralyzed man to get up and walk. But especially why do you read those stories? Because they help your faith to grow and you know, sometimes I have gone to those healing stories, trying to try to figure out some formula about how to get well, how to pray for someone else to get well, but oftentimes I find I want to be convinced that Jesus Christ really does care about me, because oftentimes when you are sick you begin to get discouraged and you begin to wonder: Has God really abandoned me? Read the stories, especially in the New Testament, of Jesus and be reminded that He is the Great Healer. He has the power to touch you and make you well.

If it’s a financial problem, we need to read the stories of Jesus feeding the five thousand or four thousand. Or read about God supplying manna to the Children of Israel in the wilderness, and be reminded that God is our source. He will supply the needs that we have if we will go to him.

If it’s a family problem, well, there are all kinds of things that you can read in the Bible, but especially go to the Book of Genesis and read about the Children of Israel. And when you read about Abraham, and Isaac, and Sarah, and Jacob, and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers, you’ll feel better about your family — I can guarantee you. If God can work through that family, and then choose them to be the chosen people that He wanted to demonstrate His faith, He certainly can work in your family and my family, and He will encourage you.

Practical Christianity. It is Christianity that is not theory — it is a faith. It is a Lord who is real and lives and loves you and wants to help you, not just cope with problems, but to conquer them.

He was born in Albany, Georgia, in 1930. At five years old he became very ill, and at age seven he lost his sight completely. He also had a brother to die when he was young. By age fifteen he was orphaned, so you can imagine at age fifteen to be orphaned and blind. But they found that he had some musical talent. He learned to play the piano. At age seventeen he moved out to Seattle to start a singing group and just a few years later, Ray Charles was a star. He passed away just a little while ago, but he was remembered for the joy that he had and the great energy that he had. But I use him as an example of someone who overcame adversity, who really lived out the promise that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. . .

James says:

Let us pray.