James #3

“A Living Faith”
James #3
December 28th
Pastor Ben Fleming

Open you bible to James chapter one. Two weeks ago we began this letter that James wrote to believers who were scattered abroad and being persecuted. He wrote the letter to encourage them and to equip them to have --- and experience a living, saving faith. In these first 12 verses James gives 5 keys that a believer must cultivate in their life to equip them to persevere. Please stand with me as God’s Word is read:

All of us are going to encounter trials in life --- some of you already have gone through severe trial even at a young age --- some of you have encountered trials of deep severity………….Everyone of you do not know what is going to happen to you in this New Year? You do not know the trials that God is going to allow in your life – bring to your life or permit in your life to make you become more pure and to bring Him glory. You can be sure that if you have a genuine saving faith, “He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” --- and God often uses trials to complete His good work in you and bring about His purposes in your life.

Watch this testimony with me: VIDEO



Five Keys to Persevere Through Trials
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#1 Cultivate a joyful attitude in your life. Vs. 2 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds”. (BLANK) Trials are going to come to your life but if you are a believer – James says that in that trial… you are to cultivate a joyful attitude in your life. We found that a joyful attitude for a believer…. is a confident knowing in your life that God is in control and that you can trust in the promises and goodness of God. The pure joy that James is talking about….. is a joy that God is in control and that He is going to use your trials for His glory. You cultivate joy by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit --- the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is love – joy – peace ----- so if you are going persevere as a believer through the trials that come your way in 2009 – you must cultivate a joyful attitude by pursuing a daily life of Spirit – filled living.
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#2 Cultivate an understanding mind. Vs.3 “because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (BLANK) When James writes that you “know” --- he is saying that from experience you know that the testing of your faith is going to develop in you a character of perseverance……. You can only know that….. when you know personally the one who brings those trials into your life. You can know about God --- but James is talking about knowing God from personal intimate experience. The only way to know the God of the bible is to know His Son Jesus. If you do not genuinely know His Son Jesus – when a trial comes to your life --- you will not persevere. You will give up --- you will drift away --- you will become bitter – your character will not reflect more of God but your character will reflect more of the world. So ---- today ----- I challenge you to begin this new year by coming to God. Come to Him and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. Make certain that you truly know Jesus and do not be content this coming year to have a religious or a demonic faith. ---- Every person in this room who has a saving faith has got to cultivate a joyful attitude and an understanding mind to persevere through trials…… That was a short review of the first two keys --- look with me at the next 3 keys to persevering through trials.
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#3 Cultivate a submissive will in your life. vs.4 “Perseverance must finish it’s work so that you maybe mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (BLANK)

The only way out of a trial in your life is to go through it. God promises us no bypasses or escapes from a trial – He only promises us that we will suffer no spiritual harm from a trial. But God cannot do His perfect and complete work in us without us being willing and submissive to Him. I heard a preacher say once --- “do not waste the lessons from the test”. When a trial comes to our lives – we have to consciously decide to submit to God’s will. In the book of Job --- one of his friends wisely said to Job.

Job 5:8 “But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before Him. He performs miracles that cannot be counted.”
Perhaps those words encouraged Job to cultivate a submissive will to God. James writes that the work of a trial and perseverance through a trial…. produces in the life a believer maturity and completeness. He says that believer who goes through trial will lack nothing. Look with me at the choice of words that James chose in verse 4.
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Teleios = means to be perfect, but does not mean moral or spiritual perfection, or sinlessness, but it refers to being fully developed.

This obviously is how the NIV translated the word and used the word mature instead of perfect.
A believer in Jesus Christ is expected to become mature. Age does not produce spiritual maturity. I know a teenager who I consider to be more spiritually mature than some 50 year olds I know. Going to church year after year after year does not produce spiritual maturity. As a believer – you have got to cultivate a submissive will in your life that makes you want to pursue and seek to be mature….. and you know that walking through the trials in your life will help to bring that about. Spiritual maturity is an expectation that God has about His children. The apostle Paul wrote in
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Philippians 3: 14 -15 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”

Paul says that he presses on toward the goal that God has called him heavenward. He is not the only one who is pursuing spiritual maturity -- all of us who are mature should take such a view of things and those who are not pursuing maturity…….. God will make it clear to you that you must.
In Galatians 4:19…. Paul says to those believers, “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” I have heard it put this way before ---- “I was saved --- I am being saved and I will be saved.” So --- if you have saving faith --- you are in the pains of childbirth and Christ will be formed in you and you will be fully developed ----- so ---- you are going to either cultivate a submissive will in your life…… which will accelerate that maturity, or you will rebel against God and try to live an independent spiritual life. James makes the picture clearer with the use of another word in verse 4:
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Holokleros = means to be complete, which carries the idea of being a whole, entire person. The prefix to this Greek word holo is the term from which we get the word holograph. It means the 360 degree depiction of an object. Right after this word --- to drive the point even further James writes “lacking in nothing.” So – what is the 360 degree picture of Christ in your life??? When a testing or a trial comes into your life ---- what picture of Christ is seen in you?? What picture of Christ is seen in you when no one else is around??? Are you only content to be 180 degree Christ like? Cultivate a submissive will in your life. Key #4
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#4 Cultivate a heart that believes God. vs.5-8 “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But 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. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double minded man, unstable in all he does.”

The 4th key that James gives to us when we go through a trial is a believing heart ---- believers need a special measure of understanding to help them through the trial and that need should drive them to ask God to supply them with understanding and wisdom. A strong – sound faith is not based on feelings but on a knowledge and understanding of the promises of God’s truth ------- which is spiritual wisdom.

When believers face times of testing --- physical testing as a result of an illness or a death --- emotional testing as a result of relationships or moral testing and spiritual testing --- they have a special need for wisdom from God. A believer needs to have a heart that truly believes in the words of King Solomon in Proverbs ---- on your outline:

Proverbs 3:5 – 7 “”Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” How do you demonstrate that trust that Solomon is writing about?

James tells us in verse 5. “If any of you lacks wisdom in the trial – he should ask God” – we demonstrate trust in God through prayer. Trials for the believer – should enhance their prayer life. It should cause one who has a saving faith to turn to the Lord for guidance – strength – patience and wisdom………… Our prayers should be prayers that ask God for His wisdom. A believing heart prays. The lack of prayer….. demonstrates unbelief. This is not a suggestion that James is giving to believers it is a command from God --- we are told to ask God. There is nothing wrong with believers coming together and asking God for help --- we should be the kind of church family that comes together and prays together about trials that we are going through. I have planned for us to have a week of fasting and prayer the third week of January and then on Friday the 23rd of January to join me in an evening of prayer. Prayer is an example of believers experiencing a living faith. When we come to God believing Him and asking Him for His wisdom in a trial ---- James says that God immediately and single mindedly gives it to us generously. Jesus put it this way about God and His generous giving in Matthew. OUTLINE

Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If you, then though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him? “ So --- if one of God’s children is going through a trial ----- do you not think that if that child of God asks God for wisdom and help --- will not God give it to him or her?

James now turns from God and God’s faithfulness to the child of God and discusses belief or unbelief of the person going through the trial. Vs. 6 “But 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.” ………….Some Christians simply doubt that God will give them what they need, and rationalize their doubt in many ways. Some believe that they are unworthy as a child of God --- some believe that their need is irrelevant and there are other believers who wonder why God allow the calamity to come upon them in the first place. James tells us two things about this doubting person: A doubting person

* “They are driven and tossed by the wind.” …..This kind of a person really is not serious when they ask God for help --- they are immature --- James says they are driven and tossed by the wind……. That immaturity will show itself in other ways. Paul says in Ephesians 4:14 they can be “blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitfulscheming.” I have to say that in the past 14 years…. I have seen this happen in several individuals lives. I do not think – it is because they do not have a saving faith --- but it is because of immaturity in their life and when a trial or testing came into their life --- especially in the area of a relationship problem --- they easily believed anything and sound doctrine had no value in their life. 2nd characteristic of a doubter

* “They are double minded, unstable in all their ways.” This person claims to be a believer in Jesus Christ. They attend church faithfully – play on the worship team but when they go through a severe trail, they turn to human resources rather than trusting God for the answers and for help. They have become resentful and bitter…. and they act as if God does not exist. Do not get me wrong --- they can have some idea of God’s Word and His power…….. but when it comes down to it – they refuse to come to God for His resources. I have seen a man like James is describing going through a testing and that man failed – he ended up murdering another man because of his resentment and bitterness – he was a double minded man. As I look back on it now --- he had a demonic faith.
Cultivate a believing heart ------ cultivate a submissive will – cultivate an understanding mind --- cultivate a joyful attitude and #5

#5 Cultivate a humble spirit. Vs.9 -11 “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower. For 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.”

James is writing to believers who were economically poor and persecuted. Some of them had been rich ----- but the persecution of believers, made most of them live in poverty. James is saying to them that when that happens they can and should consider their condition as a blessing. He contrasts the poor to the one who is rich ---- the rich person should take pride in being made low or humbled……. because if they do not they will be like a flower that is destroyed when a trial or testing comes to them…………..

When you lose a daughter or son ---- when you lose your husband or your wife or a loved one ---- wealth is no comfort. When you lose your health or you are betrayed --- money will not bring you peace of mind. Trials are the great equalizer ------------------- bringing all God’s genuine children to depend upon Him.

So – humility or a humble spirit is what James is saying that we must cultivate in our lives when a trial or a testing comes to us. Those who are poor have an easier time of being humble – those who are rich ---- when the scorching winds of life come ---- they will fade away if they do not glory in God in the trial that they are going through.

We have a hard time understanding the way James is writing this. Most of think of ourselves as humble. Humility is tough to cultivate in our lives when things are going well. Believers who have lost everything because of sin in their life or because of the sin of someone else…. have the choice to keep to themselves and walk through their trial alone ( which in my experience most believers try first) or they can choose to demonstrate humility and allow others in the family of God to help them and to receive instruction or encouragement or correction. Look at the last scripture on your outline in the book of Galatians.

Galatians 6:1-2 “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you may also be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Paul is talking about carrying the sins of another Christian. He is talking about encouraging that believer and pointing them to God’s Word. He is talking about holding them accountable and helping that believer to be restored. In verse 2 --- he says to carry their burden. In the context of the scripture ----- the reference is to sin. But ----if you are a believer … verse 2 can be easily applied to any area of your life. You can apply it to any trial or testing or temptation that comes your way.

I believe that for the believer in Jesus Christ ---- true humility is demonstrated and cultivated when that believer allows another believer or a family of believers to know and understand and walk with them through the trial. It could be addiction ----- anger and bitterness ----- financial hardship or poor decisions you have made ----- relationship problems or cancer or a death in your family. I have to say to you ------ Rhea and Carol Williams ---- you have been a demonstration of humility over the past 6 months as you have given us --- your church family ---- the privilege of walking with you through your trial. You have demonstrated and cultivated humility.

James closes this sections of keys but telling the believers what their reward will be. He says, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he or she has stood the test, they will receive the crow of life that God has promised to those who love him.” No all are going to persevere. Not all are going to stand the test. Are you?

Let us pray: