Joy in Trials

Rebecca has written our verse on the board again for us. Very good. And I've tried to organize it. It was hard to kind of fit. We need a longer board here. But you have two imperatives. Count it joy. Let steadfastness have its full effect. So, we have two main arguments. We have two main points here. Count it joy. Let steadfastness have its full effect. This is an imperative. Here's an imperative. There's an and connecting the two. Underneath count it joy we have the circumstance. When. Count it joy. When. That gives us a circumstance as to when we are to count it joy. For. Here's the grounding for why we count it joy. Count it joy when you meet trials because for you know that it has a good result. Continuing the same argument, obviously, because we have steadfastness and steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that, a purpose, that you may be perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. And those three here go together. So, two imperatives. This imperative has a condition. This imperative has a ground. A basis. This is the basis. This is the ground. This is the reason why he can say count of joy. For you know. And then the other imperative has the purpose. Does that make sense? I'm just trying to show you the basic framework of the verses. So thank you, Rebecca, for writing that up on the board. What I want to do is just walk through this very slowly. And I'm going to be asking you questions, hoping that you'll, well, answer them. So, I'm not going to stand up here and just give you a lecture on what the meaning of this text is. Who is James addressing? Some of these questions, all you have to do is look down and read the words right out of the Bible. His brothers. Very good. His brothers. And this implies, when he says his brothers, what does that mean? Does it mean like his physical brothers? Fellow believers. This is a way of addressing The church of God, the family of God, all those who are adopted in Christ. Why is it important that James is addressing brothers? What is significant about the fact that he is addressing brothers? It's a message only for believers. This isn't a message I think you can teach non-believers. A non-believer can't really grasp, a non-believer, he can't say, for you know, because they don't know this. Another thing that's important, because as a brother, he's running with some sympathy, knowing that they're in trials, and wanting to comfort them in them. There is a command, count it all joy. Does anybody have a word other than count there? Is there another translation? Considerate? Reckon. I reckon that would be right. What does it mean to consider or to reckon something in this context? What is James saying when he says considerate or count or reckon it? What is the meaning of that word? Yeah, it may not be the most apparent thing, but if you were to consider it such, it's not a quick thought. When you reckon something, when you consider something in this context, it's not a quick thought. It may not be the first thought that comes to mind, but it's a... when we talk about elders, we were the qualification sober-minded. That's what it means to consider here. to be sober-minded, to be thoughtful and careful in the way you think. It's clear thinking. It's a response of thoughtfulness. So, it says, count it as all joy. Now, you don't get this in your English, and it's okay. It's not a major point to not get here in English, but the same word for joy in Greek is the word for greetings in verse 1. And so as you're reading this, if you're reading Greek, there's a certain kind of rhythmic. So he said, blessing to you. That's the word for greeting there. Blessing. Count it all blessing when you go through trials. So he says blessings to you and then he says you are to count it all as blessings. So we have there joy. What is joy? What is joy? Happiness. It's just being glad. The same word here is rejoice. To have joy is to actually rejoice. So we're being told we need to rejoice. Now here's the real hard interpretive decision. He says count it as all joy. How are we supposed to reckon the all here? How are we supposed to think through the all? Well here's the two options I think that are most obvious options. It's either a measure for intensity or exclusivity. Either the all is saying exclusive joy or it's saying have intense joy. So let me try to interpret that a little better. Count it all very joyfully or it's saying count it only joyfully. Which one do you think it is? Those are the two kind of options I think we have. Is it a measure of how intense your joy should be or is it saying you can only have joy? So you're saying intensity or exclusivity? Okay. Okay. Anyone else? Count it all joy when you meet trials. Why don't I think it's all trials? Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds. Because trials is being... Count it all joy. That's a possible interpretation. No, I've always understood it as all is modifying the joy. I'd have to go back and look at the language, because if it's a gender in the words, it would show me. But no one actually interpreted it that way that I read. Of course you would. Either you or Brian Davis would. Yeah. There you go. Brian Davis did. So yeah, it's the joy. Alright, so we have an exclusivity. Any takers? Yes. Okay. So you're more of an intensity man. Let's not have a war across the pond over this. Alright. Anyone else? This is a difficult interpretation issue here. How do you take this? Is it that you can only have joy in trials? Or is it saying you should have uber joy in trials? You should have great joy in trials? Ben, you're thinking something. You're thinking about that cake walk. Okay. Yeah, I'll All could be just kind of an all meaning here, yeah. Again, the option is that he's saying that you should be very joyfully or only joyfully or very only joyfully. I started with David a bit because it does say we are to mourn, not like those who have no hope. we are supposed to see the reality of suffering. We're supposed to see that we participate in the suffering of Christ. We can actually look at other texts that speak to this. I don't think it necessarily doesn't mean exclusivity, but I think it's really saying you should not let trials disturb your joy. You should not let trials disturb your joy. When trouble comes, Your joy remains hot. Your joy doesn't have a stop on it. When trials come, you remain steadfast in your joy. That doesn't mean you ignore the actual trial and you try to pretend it doesn't exist. An example from scripture, Jesus goes and Lazarus has died. Jesus weeps. He weeps at death because death is horrible. He knows he's the resurrection. He knows Lazarus is even going to rise from the grave that very day, but Jesus still weeps because there is real sorrow and mourning and there's a trial taking place. So, Jesus, I think, he doesn't let his joy stop, but he has the reality of the real trial. And you had your hand raised. I don't think the exclusive is a wrong interpretation. The danger, if you really push that too far, would be you're really ignoring actual suffering. You're actually trying to live kind of pie-in-the-sky, rainbows will always, you know, around every corner kind of a thing, where, you know, the Gospel actually says, no, you're going to go through real suffering, and you're to count it joy. Jim? So, we're still getting the difficulty of, we're supposed to count this as joy. Go ahead, Steve. If we can get that spread, I just realized why you want the microphone on. If we can get that handy. Nathaniel, would you mind grabbing the mic? Is that okay? Well, now the big transition. Count it all joy, which, I mean, that was worth the long discussion because it is a, I forgot the word all there. That was my fault, not Rebecca's. It wasn't actually written down. Now the big surprise, when You meet trials of various kinds. Notice it doesn't say F. There's no F. There's a when. What's the difference between F and when? When's for sure. When says it's going to happen. It's just a matter of time. And it's a matter of degree. F says, maybe you'll be one of those Christians that doesn't face trials. That is an impossibility. God disciplines those He loves. We will face trials. The same word for trial here is also used in verses 12, verse 13, and verse 14 of this chapter. Trial is actually a theme that James will go back to over and over again. James loves to talk about trials and money. Those are the two things James loves to go back to. Here we have trial. It could be interpreted as temptation. There's two different meanings between, I think, what he's doing and versus the later verses in here. Here, I think he's referring to trial. Later, it's referring to temptation from within. But we'll discuss that in verses 13 and 14. He says, count it all joy when you face or when you meet trials of various kinds. What kinds of trials is he talking about? Various ones. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to be various? What kind of trials fall into the scope of various? Oh, it's actually interesting. The Greek here is poikelois, which is the word we get polka dots from. So, you know, big polka, big dot, small dot, all the different kinds of dots. I see some polka dot shirts here. Polka dots. It's all kinds of trials. Name some different trials Christians go through. Death. Losing a loved one. Facing the fear of death yourself. Sickness. Failure. What kind of failure? We can go through all the different kinds of failures one faces. Did you say math just for me? Sorry, you have to say something because you're kind of like beyond my peripheral here. There's common trials. And then there's specific being persecuted for righteousness. It takes us back actually to 1 Peter 4. beginning verse 12 of the passage very similar to this and then it goes on to say if you're being persecuted for doing what is righteous that is good but do not be persecuted for doing what is evil if you're suffering for what is evil. Yeah, being fired, being laid off, that's a trial many people are facing that's more of a common trial. Being gossiped by a friend, being gossiped about, that is a trial, a difficulty many face, not necessarily a Christian trial I think the specific Christian trial that is most plaguing for Christians is the accusations from the devil. That is a trial, being lied to that you're guilty for your sin. Being beaten down for your sin. I think that would be the most common specific Christian persecution or trial, right? That would be the trial that is most dangerous and most damaging. Non-Christians don't get that one. The devil doesn't want them to feel guilty because then they may turn to the cross. He wants us to feel guilty so that we do not feel like we can go to the cross. So here we have count it all joy when you face various trials, all kinds of trials. This is very counterintuitive. This is when James gives us his next declaration, what Anne was getting at. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Here he says, for you know. What does the author assume the audience knows? What is he assuming that the brethren know? The gospel. Can you elaborate? Do we have a microphone so Mike can elaborate on how this is the gospel? I don't disagree at all. For ye know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." He's assuming they know it. What is he actually assuming they know here? Let me define some of the terms Chimp's using. He said that what he's assuming here is the indicative. Typically Paul begins with an indicative. The indicatives are Jesus Christ is down on the cross for your sins. You are forgiven. That's a declarative statement. It's a truth statement. There's a truth statement. Christ is risen from the grave. You have hope in Him. That's a truth statement. The imperative is in Therefore, you flee sin. Because Christ has died for you, you are forgiven. Therefore, flee sin. So you have the indicative to the imperative. Yeah, James is interesting in that he just really launches right in because it's more wisdom literature. I mean, he's speaking more like a Jewish prophet of Proverbs. The reason I thought it was interesting he said the gospel is that he's assuming they know that testing leads to steadfastness and that's something that only Christians can really get. because they see what Christ and His suffering has led to. This is one of those obvious questions. What does James say is tested? What is being tested when trials come? Faith. Why is faith tested? Why is faith tested? Okay? Because faith is trying to believe and keep hope in those promises of God that we have not yet seen fulfilled in every possible way. I think faith is tested because that's the battleground for your soul. Your trust in God's goodness and God keeping His promises. That's where the battleground takes place. That's where we either remain faithful or Satan creates enough doubt in us to make us unuseful for the kingdom. That's why the accusation of sin is so important. Him attacking our faith in Christ is the most crucial trial, the most crucial test. Satan's goal is to create doubt in us. God's goal is to help us so that we see that He is true. It's important to see that our faith is being tested in trial. Because every time we go through a trial, we're not just saying, am I going to count it as true? I'm going to say, is the gospel true? Every time I see a trial, every time we face trials, the ultimate question you're asking is, is God good? Will He remain good to me? That's why Exodus is actually so important. Going from 1 Corinthians 10, these things are meant for us. Exodus is nothing but Israel hearing great promises grumbling, God being faithful. God does something great, they grumble, God is faithful. God does something great, they grumble, God is faithful. It's a pattern that we see that God is always good. We need to see that He's always good and see that we need to stop grumbling. The end result is supposed to be that our faith is tested and we become steadfast. Faith needs refining. A test is a fire. It puts in the fire and it refines it. It makes it more pure. It makes it better. So, every time our trust in God is put into the fire, if it's true faith given to us by God, it comes out stronger. So, faith, when tested, produces steadfastness. What does it mean to be steadfast? What is the word steadfast? Not easily moved. It's like a big offensive lineman, or a nose tackle. All right. Sorry, that's just my categories. I saw a hand over here somewhere. Staying strong. Patient. Yeah, one other way to translate this. Who has patience, actually, in their translation? I think that was the King James. New King James. Yeah. The word here, oftentimes this word is a, well the word actually helps us see what's going on here. And the word literally translated means to remain under. To be steadfast, literally translated is to remain under. And the picture is someone who has a load on their back and they persist and continue under it. They don't throw it off. They continue to struggle. They continue to be under the burden. And they remain under it. And it's a very powerful metaphor because it's someone who keeps a heavy burden. When you think of someone who keeps a heavy burden, I always think of Christ in the temptation in the desert. Satan continues to tempt Him. Christ continued to battle Satan and not give in to the temptation. He remained under temptation. A lot of people will say, well, how can Jesus relate to me? He's never really been through what I've been through. He never sinned. He can't really relate to me. Well, no. He's actually suffered temptation greater than anybody because he kept it above him. He remained under it. He didn't give in to it. He didn't let it consume him. And so, someone who is steadfast is someone who is constant and remains under the burden in the trial. It's someone who is persevering. Yes. Yeah. How does testing your faith produce steadfastness? This is something he assumes we know. How does that work? You know, instead of improving self, we learn that God is always faithful and good. It reminds me of the great hymn, those who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true. Those who remain under the burden or remain under temptation without actually giving into it, they're the ones who realize the full power of the gospel. Notice here, he is not saying that testing proves if you have faith. It's not a proof that you have faith. It's an encouragement and testing of your faith. You don't go through trials to prove that you have faith. You go through trials and it's meant to encourage and strengthen and refine your faith. There's an assumption of faith. Trials aren't what we use to actually determine if we have faith or not. It's interesting here. So it says, count it all joy for you know that the testing of your faith When you face your very thoughts, can you know that testing your faith will produce steadfastness? The only way that we can really count it as joy is if we have this end hope. Right? We're a people. Again, last time I picked on Americans, and I'm sorry I'm going to pick on someone again. We love immediate gratification. Right? We're trained to get exactly what we want when we want it. But Biblical Christianity says you wait, and you watch, and you hope. Put another way, in order to really capture this verse, in order to say I'm going to count it joy when I face various trials, I have to say I'm going to see my sanctification as more important than my comfort. I've got to see that the end result of my sanctification, that's more important than my present, immediate gratification and comfort today. In order to really get this verse, we have to see that the end is better than my immediate gratification. We must trust God will bring us through the difficulties and that He will make us better at the end of those difficulties. That's our first verse. I think we can actually finish the second one because it just kind of continues our thought. Any questions on that first verse? Again, we're to count it joy. We're to not stop rejoicing in God when trials come because we know that trial will be an opportunity if we remain under it to have more faith in God as we see that He'll take us through it. That He'll either deliver us or carry us through it. Yep, Ron. I actually was going to read through a couple of verses. I'll read that one because we started late. I wasn't going to read through these, but I'll read that one because it is helpful. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but rejoice in suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. That's Romans 5, 2 through 5. So, it's the very same thing. Yeah. Getting back to our forgetfulness theme that we've seen throughout. Very good. Yeah. Other questions, comments? Again, the whole issue here is that if we see our The temptation is to see your present trial as an opportunity to either give in or to doubt or to endure it and see that God is actually going to make you a better worshipper through it. Let's go on to verse 4 and this is all we'll be doing tonight. Know that the test of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect. Let it have its final end result. What is the full effect of steadfastness? You can actually just look down. What is the full effect of steadfastness? Endure to the end? Being perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. Now, there's three, there's three different ways that you can see those words working together. That perfect, complete, lacking in nothing. One is that they're synonymous. Kind of what I do often times in a sermon, I'll try to use different words to mean the same thing and I'll just list them all together. Just to kind of make sure I'm repeating it so a different word may catch somebody a little differently. Or it could be a trajectory. You know, this is perfect and then maybe complete and then lacking in nothing. I don't think it's trajectory because I don't understand how that actually makes sense. That you become perfect and then complete and then lacking in nothing. I think it's the same concept here. Perfect, complete, lacking and nothing is referring to the same thing. It's the perfect end. So instead fastness, which comes from the testing of our faith, which comes from counting it as joy when we're in trials, that is the perfect end. That is what we're really looking for. What we're really wanting to do is become better worshipers. That's the real end. It's to be worship God with all our heart and all our soul and all our minds. To truly glorify Him in every possible way. To rejoice in God no matter what. If we look at the big message here, the whole thing is about rejoicing. The perfect end is that we rejoice in God more. The end is that we become a perfect and pure worshipper of God. That's why we endure. That's why we see that these trials are a means to an end and not something that conquers us in and of themselves. This is why, again, this passage is so great with what we're going through in Exodus. When we face trials, we can either grumble and complain and accuse God and question God or we can remain under the trial and trust God and wait for God and know that He is good. Any questions in terms of that big idea? This is actually the hardest section. This section just kind of wraps it up for you. Yeah, the issue here is a call to respond properly so that you become who God has called you to be. In Ephesians language, the workmanship. The Christian's responsibility is to respond according to how God has told us to respond, trust Him so that we become who we're supposed to be. Again, the whole thing here isn't test your faith. Try to figure out if you're a real Christian in this way. But I would say if someone is just, they don't care. They continue to jump into sin, they continue to be defeated. Yeah, that would be when you start wondering, am I a Christian? The person who's wanting to figure out how to persevere, the person who's desiring to remain under, but still wrestling with regular defeat, that person, your faith is being tested, I would hope. Other, yeah, Mike. Correct, so we don't become sinless here, but whatever God is trying to accomplish with every little trial that you go through, that can't have its full effect. You will become a better worshipper through every single trial if you respond with faith. Yeah, I think that's why I love the verse Paul says, one of these statements says, it's in Timothy, 2 Timothy I think, this is a true and trustworthy saying, and one of my favorite verses in scripture, when we are faithless, he's faithful. Even when we don't respond the way he is wanting us to respond, he doesn't change his direction on us. I mean, the Red Sea deliverance. He didn't change his direction for these people when he I mean, any logical human being would have thrown them on the fireballs and destroyed them. But he was gracious. He was faithful. He was kind. So, yeah, I'm interested in the cycle. God puts us through a trial. We respond faithfully. We are refined and we become a better worshipper. But sometimes we don't respond the way God is calling us to respond. And there we learn He's still faithful. We always learn He's faithful no matter what. It's a matter of how you will learn that. That was helpful, thank you. Other thoughts? Yes, Dorian. Oh, 71. Yeah, what you said there was very helpful and I'm going to try to articulate this thought that just occurred to me while you were talking. I don't really think I need my faith to be stronger. We think there's something internally in us that needs to be fixed. There's a way we need to strengthen ourselves. Really, for our faith to be stronger, we see God as more faithful. It needs that objective side of faith. We need to see God as more faithful. So there's two real practical steps. We have the imperatives, kind of joy. I mean, I trust this has been somewhat waiting. It was waiting to meditate upon and just walk through slowly for the last week that trials are to be counted as joy. Again, only Christians could possibly think trials are joy because the end result is that I worship God more. One way to actually encourage this, one way to help yourself be a better, more faithful, obedient servant in this, one is to look to the stories in the Old Testament. Learn from somebody else. Don't learn from your own mistakes, learn from somebody else. Of course, we can look to Israel and the Exodus and then how they continue to fail and how God continues to persevere. Another character we studied already, Abraham. I mean, Abraham's taking Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him in Genesis 22. That is one of the high points of a faith testing. God proved himself to be faithful and Abraham was faithful. So look at the Old Testament and look how God is carrying these saints through their failures and through their trust in Him. Secondly, Galatians 6 says this, Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you be tempted. bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. The law of Christ, of course, being summed up simply in the love of God and the love of neighbor. Bear one another's burdens there. That would be the same word we use as trial. When we go through trials, we are burdened. We're not meant to do that alone. One of the ways to actually grow in your ability to count it as joy is to invite others into your suffering. and let others invite you into theirs. And therefore, we bear each other's burdens. We walk with one another. We're not supposed to bear these things alone in our rooms. We're supposed to be walking with one another in the midst of our trials. Here, this is why the church is so important. Having brothers and sisters who have gone through trials and can encourage you in the midst of them. Yeah? Here's a trial and temptation that he faced he dove in and went berserk with him and when David he has not only adultery commits murder this is this is responding to a despicable gross action and so yeah, I think he has lost the joy of Salvation be and he's wanting to be restored. He's wanting to hear forgiveness. He needs to have this guilt removed And know that it's removed. No know that the Lord has provided so No, absolutely. Whenever one dives head first into these kind of temptations that come up from his heart. He wanted a woman, that desire came from his heart. He wanted her husband dead, that desire came from his heart. That took away his joy in Christ. But see, there's a difference. You know, count it joy when you face trials. Knowing steadfastness has its full effect. He did not remain under that trial. Those are the two things we only have in Christ. Peace with God and joy in God through Christ. We will pick up next week with our next reading. Let me give you the other verses that I was going to read. They are Romans 5, verses 2-5. 1 Peter 4, 12-14. And then 1 Peter 1, 6-9. Those are other passages that actually speak to counting suffering as joy. Persevering through suffering because it produces the proper effect which is making us better worshipers. Let me go to the Lord and pray to close this. Father, we praise You. We thank You that You are a good and holy God. We thank You. We thank You that You are just. We thank You that You have chosen to exercise Your wrath that we deserve against Christ so that we can be forgiven, so that we can have joy, so that we can know You. We thank You that even though we are faithless and we are unfaithful, You remain faithful to us because you have called us to yourself and you have claimed us as your own sons and daughters. Lord, teach us to see your faithfulness. Teach us to know that you are always with us and you will always be fighting for us. Help us. Help us to remain under trials and temptations. Help us to resist the sinful urges. Help us to resist the sinful desires that come from our own hearts. Help us to respond appropriately to those trials that come from outside and help us to trust You, the God who is able to deliver, the God who cares for us and guides and directs us. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.