Dearly Beloved,
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
This week, we begin a new sermon series journeying through the Epistle of James entitled, “Working Faith”.
Do you believe that there is substance to our Christian faith?
Do you believe that for all the troubles of the World, the substance of our Christian faith reveals the image - or the foreshadow - of the ultimate solution for the brokenness of Man?
There is substance to our faith.
The world needs this faith; and the world needs to experience – firsthand, through our lives - the substance of this faith.
And the reason why there is substance to our faith; is simply because at the core of our faith, is established an intimate and personal relationship with the One, True, Living God through Jesus Christ, His Son, and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Do you have this faith? Do you consider your faith – substantial?
In the next few weeks, we will contemplate the substance of our Christian faith.
We will realize that our words, and our deeds, are evidences of our faith reality.
Our very lives must proof our faith in Christ - through a life changed by the Holy Spirit.
Genuine faith produces genuine deeds, resulting in genuine evangelism.
Is your faith genuine? Has your life been changed by the Holy Spirit?
Regardless of what the world claims, the Christian faith remains deeply relevant throughout the ages.
It is my prayer that as we journey through James together, you would discover how relevant and substantial your Christian faith truly is, and more so, when you realign your mind and heart, to the Mind and Heart of God.
Let us begin this process of realignment.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
Trials.
Why do Christian parents have children who rebel against God?
Why do Christians suffer from illnesses and diseases?
Why are Christians constantly facing the hurts of injustice and trespasses, even within the church?
In life, trials are guaranteed; especially if you are a Christian.
If you are not already persevering through one right now, don’t hold your breath…the trials will come.
And it is precisely in our trials – our most challenging and heart-wrenching moments – that we begin our process of realignment to the heart of God; with the biblical understanding of ‘pure joy’.
The world considers ‘joy’ as ‘a feeling of great pleasure and happiness’.
This worldly ‘joy’ is but a temporary and fleeting emotional high. It is empty and unfulfilling.
This kind of ‘joy’ can be taken or robbed from you, for it is the kind that is centered on Man’s heart, and whose sole object is Man’s immediate and temporal pleasure.
The ‘pure joy’ that James is talking about is the divine joy that comes from God when we learn to understand why trials come in the first place; we will never have it within ourselves to create this divine joy.
This ‘pure joy’ is God’s assurance to us that the very trials that will rob an unbeliever’s joy, will serve to reveal His Joy in our lives.
Understand this well: God reaches out to us – through our trials.
Why isn’t it intuitive for us to reach out back to God?
It is because we are our own gods.
At some level, we believe that we can overcome the trials on our own.
Think about it… if the trials were not beyond us, would we consider them trials to begin with?
Divine joy begins with the realization that there is something going on in our trials that is much bigger than us and far beyond our immediate comprehension of what is happening.
Divine joy is then established when we fully believe that God has a specific purpose for us in those trials. And even if we cannot understand His purpose, we are going to trust Him fully and absolutely to see us completely through the trials.
Pure joy. Praise Jesus!
Still.
Why?
Why does our God – who is a good God – choose to reveal and impart His divine joy in our lives through the toughest, messiest, most painful and dreadful periods of our lives?
It is because every trial is God’s way of maturing us, completing us, perfecting us.
Every trial is a test of faith; and every test, an opportunity for us to produce a greater degree of perseverance with each trial; a deeper and more resolute conviction that God’s eternal kingdom is the kingdom that we want to belong to.
The pain of our trials helps us remember that this world is not our ultimate home.
The purpose of our trials helps us resolve to bring glory to God in our transformation unto His likeness, and in our testimony of His greatness.
He is a good God, and He desires that we become absolutely certain of His goodness; and in this, ‘not lacking anything.’
Trials are not meant to impair us.
Believe it or not, trials are meant to
Christ did not sacrifice His life on the Cross for us to live so-so lives. We are meant to live in the glorious power of His Holy Spirit. There is nothing ‘status quo’ about that kind of life. When trials come, consider them God’s wake up call for you – ‘you don’t belong to the world, you belong to Me. You are not destined for the ordinary, you are destined for the extraordinary!’
Far from it. Our trials remind us precisely that the Kingdom of God is here, and not yet. Christ has no doubt overcome the world today, but trials will continue to be a constant in our lives because we continue to require purification and consecration through these tests of our faith. We need to be made holy, because He is holy; and trials achieve that divine purpose, when we undertake them knowing the divine good that trials do for us.
Our hope in God must become more determined; and our love for Him, more steadfast. In other words, when we face our trials in the joyous knowledge that God is preparing us for an eternal existence in His Kingdom, we are undergo a transformation that ‘makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.’ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
There will be found no greater inspiration than the knowledge of God’s divine blessing upon your life. When you consider God’s heart in your trials, you will discover that God’s grace is more than sufficient for you.
The next time a trial comes, are you willing to stand the test and stand solely upon Jesus Christ, the Rock of your Salvation?
In the pain of your trials, are you willing to seek God’s purposes for your life?
Are you willing to see where God desires for you to be transformed into His likeness?
Are you willing to realize the areas of your life that requires His Spirit’s purification and sanctification?
Are you willing to make the change?
When faced with trials, our tendency would be to fight back in anger, freeze up in fear, or simply take flight; to remove ourselves, or get as far away from our trials as possible.
Don’t.
Deny these tendencies; for these tendencies are based on Man’s most primitive and blasé reaction - mere survival.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and save us not to just for us to merely survive, but for us to thrive – in the face of any and all challenges this life has to offer on this side of eternity.
To persevere in the face of our trials according to James 1, is to ‘remain under’God’s mighty hand, and to wait solely upon the Lord for Him to direct our paths.
Biblical perseverance is the willingness to take up God’s divine opportunity to live out Christ’s teaching and reveal the supremacy of Christian living to the world.
Biblical perseverance is understanding that when we remain under His hand, God has given us the ability to glorify His name whilst facing our trials.
1 Peter, an epistle also written to exhort Christians undergoing persecutions and trials, inspires us in 5:6 likewise,
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
In His time, He will lift us up.
In His time, the world will see that, like our Christ, we will overcome the world.
Humble yourself under God’s might hand, and He will give you every good thing because every good thing from God comes upon us when we are utterly surrendered to His ways and His purposes.
Every good thing comes when we are willing to see what God is trying to accomplish through us during our trials.
Persevere in Christ!
Are you willing to wait upon the Lord and solely focus on getting His heart on every matter of your trial?
Are you willing to pray for God’s wisdom and strength to learn His lesson for you, rather than pray for God to remove the trials from your life?
Are you going to persevere in the face of your trials, and let perseverance finish its work in your life? (James 1:4)
Through your trials, God desires to mature and complete you.
Is God’s desire yours as well?
Shalom.
Let us pray.
My heavenly Father,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.
Today, I come to that place of utter surrendered-ness to your great and infinite love for me and declare,
Here I am, my Lord and my God… teach me, guide me, mold me, fill me, lead me, and empower me through the trials of my life.
I desire to be deepened and matured in my faith in Christ.
I desire to be made complete in You.
May I fully learn your lessons, and clearly know your purposes for me through these most painful and heart-wrenching periods of my life.
Lord, please forgive me for the times when I was angry and doubted You.
Forgive me for my insolence and my defiance.
Forgive me for my self-centeredness; for I know that at the root of this evil, is self-idolatry. I declare that I have no other gods but You.
Holy Spirit, thank you for loving me enough to continue your loving work of correcting and rebuking me, and realignment my mind and heart to the Mind and Heart of my Creator God.
Thank you for blessing and honoring me with the trials that you have placed in my life.
I will consider it pure joy, whenever I face trials of many kinds, because I know that the testing of my faith produces perseverance.
May perseverance finish its work so that I may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Thank you for counting me worthy of Your eternal Kingdom.
I pray all these in the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ; in whom I will always and forever trust. Amen.
Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!
This week, we begin a new sermon series journeying through the Epistle of James entitled, “Working Faith”.
Do you believe that there is substance to our Christian faith?
Do you believe that for all the troubles of the World, the substance of our Christian faith reveals the image - or the foreshadow - of the ultimate solution for the brokenness of Man?
There is substance to our faith.
The world needs this faith; and the world needs to experience – firsthand, through our lives - the substance of this faith.
And the reason why there is substance to our faith; is simply because at the core of our faith, is established an intimate and personal relationship with the One, True, Living God through Jesus Christ, His Son, and revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Do you have this faith? Do you consider your faith – substantial?
In the next few weeks, we will contemplate the substance of our Christian faith.
We will realize that our words, and our deeds, are evidences of our faith reality.
Our very lives must proof our faith in Christ - through a life changed by the Holy Spirit.
Genuine faith produces genuine deeds, resulting in genuine evangelism.
Is your faith genuine? Has your life been changed by the Holy Spirit?
Regardless of what the world claims, the Christian faith remains deeply relevant throughout the ages.
It is my prayer that as we journey through James together, you would discover how relevant and substantial your Christian faith truly is, and more so, when you realign your mind and heart, to the Mind and Heart of God.
Let us begin this process of realignment.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
Trials.
Why do Christian parents have children who rebel against God?
Why do Christians suffer from illnesses and diseases?
Why are Christians constantly facing the hurts of injustice and trespasses, even within the church?
In life, trials are guaranteed; especially if you are a Christian.
If you are not already persevering through one right now, don’t hold your breath…the trials will come.
And it is precisely in our trials – our most challenging and heart-wrenching moments – that we begin our process of realignment to the heart of God; with the biblical understanding of ‘pure joy’.
The world considers ‘joy’ as ‘a feeling of great pleasure and happiness’.
This worldly ‘joy’ is but a temporary and fleeting emotional high. It is empty and unfulfilling.
This kind of ‘joy’ can be taken or robbed from you, for it is the kind that is centered on Man’s heart, and whose sole object is Man’s immediate and temporal pleasure.
The ‘pure joy’ that James is talking about is the divine joy that comes from God when we learn to understand why trials come in the first place; we will never have it within ourselves to create this divine joy.
This ‘pure joy’ is God’s assurance to us that the very trials that will rob an unbeliever’s joy, will serve to reveal His Joy in our lives.
Understand this well: God reaches out to us – through our trials.
Why isn’t it intuitive for us to reach out back to God?
It is because we are our own gods.
At some level, we believe that we can overcome the trials on our own.
Think about it… if the trials were not beyond us, would we consider them trials to begin with?
Divine joy begins with the realization that there is something going on in our trials that is much bigger than us and far beyond our immediate comprehension of what is happening.
Divine joy is then established when we fully believe that God has a specific purpose for us in those trials. And even if we cannot understand His purpose, we are going to trust Him fully and absolutely to see us completely through the trials.
Pure joy. Praise Jesus!
Still.
Why?
Why does our God – who is a good God – choose to reveal and impart His divine joy in our lives through the toughest, messiest, most painful and dreadful periods of our lives?
It is because every trial is God’s way of maturing us, completing us, perfecting us.
Every trial is a test of faith; and every test, an opportunity for us to produce a greater degree of perseverance with each trial; a deeper and more resolute conviction that God’s eternal kingdom is the kingdom that we want to belong to.
The pain of our trials helps us remember that this world is not our ultimate home.
The purpose of our trials helps us resolve to bring glory to God in our transformation unto His likeness, and in our testimony of His greatness.
He is a good God, and He desires that we become absolutely certain of His goodness; and in this, ‘not lacking anything.’
Trials are not meant to impair us.
Believe it or not, trials are meant to
- Impact us – to jolt us awake from our status quo;
Christ did not sacrifice His life on the Cross for us to live so-so lives. We are meant to live in the glorious power of His Holy Spirit. There is nothing ‘status quo’ about that kind of life. When trials come, consider them God’s wake up call for you – ‘you don’t belong to the world, you belong to Me. You are not destined for the ordinary, you are destined for the extraordinary!’
- Inform us – in the pain, tears and struggles of our trials, we must remember that this present earth is not our ultimate home;
Far from it. Our trials remind us precisely that the Kingdom of God is here, and not yet. Christ has no doubt overcome the world today, but trials will continue to be a constant in our lives because we continue to require purification and consecration through these tests of our faith. We need to be made holy, because He is holy; and trials achieve that divine purpose, when we undertake them knowing the divine good that trials do for us.
- Improve us – with every passing trial, our faith must become more and more resolute in the reality of the Kingdom of God.
Our hope in God must become more determined; and our love for Him, more steadfast. In other words, when we face our trials in the joyous knowledge that God is preparing us for an eternal existence in His Kingdom, we are undergo a transformation that ‘makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.’ (2 Corinthians 3:18)
- Inspire us – when our faith is tested, and if we know and believe why we are tested, we become truly blessed; because “having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
There will be found no greater inspiration than the knowledge of God’s divine blessing upon your life. When you consider God’s heart in your trials, you will discover that God’s grace is more than sufficient for you.
The next time a trial comes, are you willing to stand the test and stand solely upon Jesus Christ, the Rock of your Salvation?
In the pain of your trials, are you willing to seek God’s purposes for your life?
Are you willing to see where God desires for you to be transformed into His likeness?
Are you willing to realize the areas of your life that requires His Spirit’s purification and sanctification?
Are you willing to make the change?
When faced with trials, our tendency would be to fight back in anger, freeze up in fear, or simply take flight; to remove ourselves, or get as far away from our trials as possible.
Don’t.
Deny these tendencies; for these tendencies are based on Man’s most primitive and blasé reaction - mere survival.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and save us not to just for us to merely survive, but for us to thrive – in the face of any and all challenges this life has to offer on this side of eternity.
To persevere in the face of our trials according to James 1, is to ‘remain under’God’s mighty hand, and to wait solely upon the Lord for Him to direct our paths.
Biblical perseverance is the willingness to take up God’s divine opportunity to live out Christ’s teaching and reveal the supremacy of Christian living to the world.
Biblical perseverance is understanding that when we remain under His hand, God has given us the ability to glorify His name whilst facing our trials.
1 Peter, an epistle also written to exhort Christians undergoing persecutions and trials, inspires us in 5:6 likewise,
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”
In His time, He will lift us up.
In His time, the world will see that, like our Christ, we will overcome the world.
Humble yourself under God’s might hand, and He will give you every good thing because every good thing from God comes upon us when we are utterly surrendered to His ways and His purposes.
Every good thing comes when we are willing to see what God is trying to accomplish through us during our trials.
Persevere in Christ!
Are you willing to wait upon the Lord and solely focus on getting His heart on every matter of your trial?
Are you willing to pray for God’s wisdom and strength to learn His lesson for you, rather than pray for God to remove the trials from your life?
Are you going to persevere in the face of your trials, and let perseverance finish its work in your life? (James 1:4)
Through your trials, God desires to mature and complete you.
Is God’s desire yours as well?
Shalom.
Let us pray.
My heavenly Father,
Hallowed be Your Name.
Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.
Today, I come to that place of utter surrendered-ness to your great and infinite love for me and declare,
Here I am, my Lord and my God… teach me, guide me, mold me, fill me, lead me, and empower me through the trials of my life.
I desire to be deepened and matured in my faith in Christ.
I desire to be made complete in You.
May I fully learn your lessons, and clearly know your purposes for me through these most painful and heart-wrenching periods of my life.
Lord, please forgive me for the times when I was angry and doubted You.
Forgive me for my insolence and my defiance.
Forgive me for my self-centeredness; for I know that at the root of this evil, is self-idolatry. I declare that I have no other gods but You.
Holy Spirit, thank you for loving me enough to continue your loving work of correcting and rebuking me, and realignment my mind and heart to the Mind and Heart of my Creator God.
Thank you for blessing and honoring me with the trials that you have placed in my life.
I will consider it pure joy, whenever I face trials of many kinds, because I know that the testing of my faith produces perseverance.
May perseverance finish its work so that I may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Thank you for counting me worthy of Your eternal Kingdom.
I pray all these in the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ; in whom I will always and forever trust. Amen.