Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
if you were with us this summer you know that we studied the entire sermon on the mount all summer long and we ended two weeks ago with this simple picture where jesus says if you listen to my words and you do them you'll be a wise builder and you're building your house or your life on the foundation of the rock of truth of my word and no trouble no storm no wind or wave will ever shake you that's where we left off and now we find ourselves in really an extension of the sermon on the mount in the book of james so if you have a bible we are starting a series that will take us through the book of james all the way up into our christmas season and many commentators theologians look at the book of james as an enhancement of the sermon on the mount the book of james is in many ways about how to become a christian that's growing and maturing to be more like christ and how it encourages us to do that is through practical life application to take our faith and to put it into action or to take the sermon on the mount and make it something that you're living out with your life so we've called this sermon series a study in the book of james the gospel on the ground when you hear the good news of god that he loves you apart from anything you've done and he's provided a way to be with you and to allow you to have life in his name that's the gospel and the book of james is going to help us take that from the sanctuary to the streets or from our head to our heart so that we actually live it out and so that's what we're going to try to do throughout this series and i can't think of a better first attempt at that then by listening how to live out the good news gospel that when you hear it and receive it will be covered with joy in your life in the midst of the most difficult times of your life and that's what it says in james chapter one we're not going to go through the entire book this morning or the even the entire first chapter but we do in these first couple verses that we'll study we're going to get kind of a preview of what will be unfolding before us it says in james chapter 1 verse 1. james a bond servant of god and of the lord jesus christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad so early church history james is writing these letters common for the for the church leaders to write these epistles to the to the church and he says very importantly that this is to those who are scattered if you read through the book of acts about the first church you know that it wasn't long before those who were saved faced persecution of their day and oftentimes that persecution required them to leave where they were to be another place in god's sovereignty for their life where the gospel would continue in a new context and james says to those of you who are scattered imagine your life being scattered uprooted you've moved you've changed something has happened through persecution or trial to where your whole life gets turned upside down and so out of the gate in a letter that will be designed to bring christian growth and maturity through christian application of the gospel he says if you're scattered listen to this my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience but let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing then he'll go on to say if you lack wisdom ask an overview of the first couple sections of this chapter could be james encouraging the church to have a joyful perspective about everything the gospel good news message is for everything at all times joyful perspective and then he'll say if you need wisdom ask he's going to give the example of what it looks like to have a faithful prayer life no matter the circumstance and then as the letter will unfold he gives his readers a reminder that they do all of these things under the promise that the reward of their life the crown of their life is eternal life anyone who loves god will be crowned with life so there's in this a um a outline that you could find the joyful perspective leading to a faithful prayer life leading to a hopeful promise and that's what we're going to start to unpack as we go through this in all of the ways that james will teach us that gospel on the ground application but this morning we're going to look at this crazy paradoxical joyful in the midst of troubling times perspective and anytime you talk about the perspective of your life you really are talking about how you view what's happening and james for the purposes of our study this morning is going to give us three views that we are supposed to have in our trials he says my brethren count it all joy when you fall into various trials one of the views that he's going to give us is the view of what we think the perspective that forms in your mind then he says when you face various trials this is the view of what we actually see outside of our mind the world coming at us what is it the perspective by which you see the world and then finally he will say knowing this and this will be the perspective of what you actually believe this is an important distinction that james is going to tease out the rest of this study what do you actually believe based off the way you live your life so we're going to talk about the way we think the way we see and the way that we believe in times where we're totally tried times that are totally testing what does it mean to have a trial i think the simplest answer that i received is anything that happens in your life of following god following jesus listening and consuming the word and then trying to apply it which makes you question everything anything that makes your faith seem like something that you're not so certain about or anything that makes your circumstances something that you don't really see through anything that makes you question what's happening in your life compared to or in contrast to the goodness of god it's important that we figure this out because james says when you go through trials not if this is one of those times as a preacher where i feel like i've got a lot of grace from the listening audience because sometimes you talk about topics where people are like yeah that doesn't really apply i don't wrestle with that kind of doctrinal dispute i don't really think about those theological terms i'm a simpleton or i'm just really not interested but when it comes to trials everyone listens up because you've either just come out of a trial and you're thinking back to last week you're about to go through a trial and you're looking at the horizon or like many of us you're in one right now and as a pastor at a church i can tell you that the stories we hear this morning as we pray for special needs families and we thank god for his hand of faithfulness in times of emergency trials are so inevitable that they are what makes the church function it's like why we come to worship and seek god in prayer and gather together to dissect the word is because we're wrestling with things we don't know what to do with just this week as i was studying this passage of scripture i counted all of the things and left some off the list that are just coming down the pipeline of our church a woman who just had surgery for breast cancer a family that just had to deal with the loss of a loved one a young couple who is dealing with the loss of an expected child a marriage on the brink these are all things that throughout the week are happening here in our church hopefully covered in prayer and wise counsel but that's just the reality of walking in the world there will be trouble it's why jesus says in john chapter 16 take heart don't be discouraged but be ready because in this world you will have much trouble don't be surprised but be ready and where the trouble comes from it's like pick your poison because we live in a world that is fallen so you are going to have trouble that just comes out you from the outside forces of the world that has turned its back against god and you are now going against the flow of that towards god and we live all around fallen people right now you look around it's like some of the trials and testing may stretch you because of the relationships that you had a different view on and they turned out to be kind of hard and you didn't expect that and then maybe the one that enhances that teaching on judgment in matthew chapter seven we live in fallen bodies we live inside of our flesh that struggles to do what god calls us to do and that's why jesus says before you judge others you should probably take a look at your own heart so we live in a fallen world we live a round fall in people and we live through a fallen body trouble is going to be everywhere so we're supposed to be ready for it how we respond to trouble is what we're commanded to deal with not necessarily how we navigate in or around it or through it's coming the question is how will you handle it and that's what we're going to try to study this morning because what james is offering is a bit of a paradox most of us when we're going through the testings of our faith don't necessarily wake up and say this is awesome i absolutely love this when you have the little tiny challenges throughout your day that are waiting for you unexpectedly your initial reaction usually isn't to worship and rejoice it's usually to be annoyed and bitter just drive on the freeway or stand in line or looking for a parking spot at costco this afternoon and you'll realize that trials are not your flesh's favorite part of following christ and so the question that we have to unpack is how can we have something we don't like become something that we rejoice in the answer this morning is not to grit your teeth and call it all fun it is not always fun to go through trials heaven forbid you leave here thinking that you because you are not enjoying the moment of the trial or because you sometimes feel discouraged by them that you are letting god down and you are not living up to the bill trials aren't supposed to be fun what we are saying this morning is trials are supposed to be good so it's a perspective that we have not an emotion that we have and just as we try to figure out what trials are and where they come from it's important also to try to figure out what joy is because as you study the bible you'll realize very quickly it's not a dictionary it doesn't always define the terms exactly like webster miriam dictionary would the best way to really experience some of these godly experiences that he wants us to have in him is to think about how you've actually experienced them and i find that to be the most hopeful way to figure out what this joy is that james is talking about how have you already experienced joy well the psalmist through king david says that there is joy in your salvation so one of the reference points you have for joy isn't a working definition it's actually a moment of your life for those of you who went from darkness to light from lost to found there is a process by which you experience the joy of heaven coming over your soul when you realize that you were loved by the god who made you and you were saved by the god who saved you apart from good works but because he loves you because he loves you there's a moment of great joy that is unmatched by anything else that's why when jesus describes salvation or redemption or repentance in luke chapter 15 he gives three stories of great joy he says you know when you lose something like a coin and you look everywhere and then you find it that's awesome that's experience where you're like ah this is good and i experience that all the time i'm not a keys guy i lose them all the time and when i lose them there's a moment where i want to be super frustrated and mad but then there's also a moment when i find that i'm like yeah got you i found you and now i can start my car and i can leave here and that's a great joy and he gives an example of a sheep and then he more importantly says now how much more if you're excited about losing your keys and then finding them how much more is god excited about a lost soul that has come home he says when that happens there's more joy in heaven than 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance joy in salvation is experiential joy that becomes a reference point for your life it's kind of like when you fall in love the person you marry and you don't always feel in love god gives us this grace period we call it the honeymoon period we should just call it the pure love period when you have a reference point for how crazy in love you can be you think about it all the time and you write poetry and you write songs and you just obsess over it and you no one else makes sense only one person and that wanes but then you have a moment to say return to your first love remember what it was like then now you understand what love is remember what joy was like in salvation that's the joy you are called to live in all the time one of the reasons is because your salvation hasn't changed your trials does not do not change the status of your salvation there's another reference point to joy in psalms chapter 16. also very important for us to think about when we think about the command to live in the joy because the psalmist says there's the fullness of joy in the presence of god another way we can experience joy beyond the working definition is to say remember the times when you were so enriched by the presence of god but you were but you were overwhelmed with praise you got on your knees with tears of joy and the worship of god that is something that we try to live in as a discipline and a practice as a church when we sing his praises what we're saying is where two or more are gathered god meets us with his presence let us be in his presence weekly minimum so that we have a reminder of the joy in the presence of the god that we serve and again one of the reasons we're called to joy that is not rooted in circumstance because if joy is in salvation that doesn't change if joy is in the presence of god that also is available to you regardless of the trying times of your life and then jesus says for one more experiential joy he says i'm telling you these things my teaching my commandments to love one another so that your joy may be full john chapter 15. so the third way we can experience joy is by following christ this is a really important thing to remember by the way as you think through the world view that you believe in the tribe that you belong to the people that you'll listen to as wise counsel for your life follow the joy matthew henry says we must serve a really good and kind god because he has made joy one of the top priorities of our experience and that's not true in every tribe that you find and it's not true of every god that people worship but it's true of our god it's true that he wants us to know his commandments and follow him in them so that we can experience the joy of the life that he has created for us and these three joys are completely rooted in god and not the circumstances of your life if you remember that truth when you hear this command in contrast to the circumstances of your life because you're going through a trial so now we look at the three perspective shaping aspects that james is going to offer us in just these two verses he says this brethren count it all joy remember the first way your perspective is shaped is in the way that you think the way that you allow your thoughts to shape who you are and james uses the word to count if you have the new king james translation he says count it all joy have you ever tried to count while someone is talking to you very difficult have you ever seen someone counting and then say i should throw some other numbers in there just to throw them off that's very fun but it's not helpful the reason that counting requires focus is because accounting requires your mind it requires you to think through the things that you're making an account of and that's why i like the niv translation here because he says consider it all joy make a consideration for the possibility of the joy of the lord in every situation that's what he's saying hey think about the word consider what does it mean here's tucker male's definition it's to think before you choose that's what it means to consider you're considering a car to buy you're considering a vacation to take what you're doing is you're considering all of the things to think about before you choose what to go with and james is saying do that with joy he is not saying every believer needs to be so slain in the spirit that wouldn't wake up out of bed they're just like no matter what i don't have to think about it's so natural for me that i'm always smiling and i'm always singing rather he's saying when you go through trials your instincts are probably to not be joyful but think about it take some time to as the apostle paul will say into the romans to renew your mind no longer thinking how you view the lens of this situation but what does god say about your situation what would god's word rightly apply to this situation change the way you think about whether it's good or whether it's bad and to me this is one of the most important things that i can pass on to you for the study of james and really the knowledge of god in your life i love that james says as you go through this process it'll actually teach you patience which is impossible to think without patience we live in a world where every little dispute or everything you could ever want to know is seemingly at your fingertips and yet there are some deep understanding and wise things that require you to think and to meditate on them and one of them is joy one of the reasons you have a lack of joy is not because your emotions are haywire it's because you haven't thought long enough you haven't thought about the circumstances of your life with the view that god has instead of the view that you have and this is why where the other parts of the bible talk about the commandment of joy they also talk about the practice of thinking philippians chapter 4 says rejoice in the lord always in all circumstances in good times and in bad in terrific times and in trials rejoice and then paul says again in case you didn't hear it again i say rejoice double emphasis means really important in the bible to be joyful at all times but how does paul get them to this joy he says as he gives the command to rejoice always finally brethren philippians chapter four whatever things are true in times of trials you will feel like things are very uncertain you will feel like there are things that you had planned that now you don't know what the plan is you will feel like people you knew you don't know anymore because they let you down and they hurt you will feel like certain things that you never saw coming are now making you ask the question how did this happen to me and in on certain times you cannot find joy apart from certain truth and that's why paul says if you want to rejoice you must find whatever is true whatever is noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there is any virtue if there's anything praiseworthy meditate think about it take all of the ways that your trial wants to point you towards pessimism or bitterness or despair or even a hard heart towards god and paul says find the thing that is good find the truth that is not dependent on the shaky ground of the circumstances of your life find the foundation the sure foundation of christ and his word in unsure times and where you find what is true think about it all the time and this is the divide you will have one of two reactions to the tests of your life i know that because i appreciate the literal word here test how many of you enjoyed taking tests in your educational experience just show of hands there's see there's always a couple weirdos there's always at all times every class has the kid who's like when are we going to take a test and i'm like bro because you get two reactions in the test you either get the reaction of fear because of uncertainty i'm not ready i don't know what to say i'm not a great test taker i get anxiety i don't like waiting for the results this is me or you have a reaction of great confidence because you know what you know and this is the response that is happening in the tests of your life you have two responses you will either feel fearful because of the uncertainty or you will find joy in what you know and what james is saying is count it all joy consider it joy put every trial into the category of joy and focus on all the things that you know to be true about the goodness of god regardless of the changing circumstances of your life there is a lesson that i learned in this just the way that we have to reshape our thoughts so that we can actually celebrate what god has given us in doing so looking at the bigger picture of life my three-year-old daughter just got her tonsils out which is a young age to get the tonsils out um and it was kind of a challenge because at that age it's very hard to look at the big picture of life your picture only has three years and two of those years you don't remember so her picture is very small anyway and it was very interesting because i saw in this process of trying to walk her through for her life maybe the biggest trial the pain of having something removed from your throat as a lesson in rethinking the whole story so she walks into the hospital and it's kind of like a picture of god's goodness and initial blessing of our life the joy of salvation that is just free and instant because when you're a three-year-old and you're going to get a surgery like that they just shower you with gifts they want to put you in a really good mood so she's like i got this coloring book and a stuffed animal i got candy waiting for me her initial run up to the surgery was so blessed that her sisters were like man can i get my pencils out because that looks like a good deal and yet as you go down the road of a surgery it's very similar to the road that christ calls us to because there's joy in the salvation and salvation is free but discipleship calls you a whole life it'll cost you your whole life and we get an enhancement of the sermon on the mount when jesus says that you know easy and broad leads to destruction difficult is the way that leads to life and as soon as she came out of the surgery she realized that she was now going through something that she couldn't trust me in all the ways i gave her gifts and experienced the blessing of the run-up now she's like what have you done to my body i don't trust you at all and it was very challenging because the best thing that she could have done was to trust me when it was time to take her medicine and yet she's like who are you to give me all this pain and then tell me how to get out of the problem that you created for me and so of course in my flesh my earthly fatherly instinct was to pin her down and to take a syringe of medicine and then just jam it in her throat and i tried that actually and she just spit it all out it did not work because she hadn't rethought the situation in her mind medicine tastes gross and she's in a lot of pain and i've betrayed her trust so i had to rethink my approach to her and you know what i had to do i had to talk to her and i had to help her think about the entire process that she was going through think about the pain that she was in before the surgery think about the joy of not having to deal with all of the issues that were coming up because of the swollen tonsils and to think about the immediate care i wanted to give her with the application of medicine and it took a long time but after a long while of her crying and then being calm and then l
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.