You're listening to audio from Ascend Church. For more information about Ascend or to access more gospel-centered tools to grow as a disciple of Christ, visit ascendkc.org. My name is Tim Yatch, and I have the pleasure of leading our student ministry here at Ascend, also our connected ministry here. And this is my first time standing on the stage in the capacity of a preacher. It has not happened as of yet, this is my first time. And it's really nice up here, I must say. And I'm not just saying this because I work here to get brownie points, but this is like the most beautiful church building that I've ever seen in my life. I mean, do you agree or do you not agree? If you don't agree, that's too bad. I don't want my house to look like this. I totally love the modern goodness of it all. It's wonderful. So it's my pleasure here to bring the word. I've been doing this for the last seven years, kind of after Christmas, post-Christmas message, sometime around the New Year. So this is my honor. This is National Youth Director, Youth Pastor Preaching Day. So it's not really that, but it feels that way, right? Our years of being portable feel like a distant memory to us. It was a while ago, you know, the struggle, the frozen locks, and who's going to pick up the trailer, and, you know, the children's panels, and then more children's panels, and then more children's panels, you get the idea. A seemingly endless building project, right? trials and difficulties, but then the blessing, right? We're getting to experience the blessing of this place, being here, and really, honestly, excited by what the Lord has next for us as a church. I hope you're excited about that. And this is what life is all about, right? We come to these periods of testing and difficulty with blessings intermixed between that. That's what we're going to be looking at here today. And I don't know where this last year would fit with you. And I don't know if maybe your idea of trials over this last year has been pretty minor. Maybe it's just the occasional telemarketer call from somebody speaking Chinese, which everyone sees at the beginning now. Maybe that's your worst trial you've had over the last year. Or maybe you're in the midst of incredible difficulty. You've been struggling, or maybe you see it coming on the horizon, kind of like a storm coming in in 2010. No matter where you find yourself here today, the Lord has something for you in this message, whether it's for yourself personally, or whether it's to encourage someone else who's maybe going through a difficult time. So let's go ahead and grab our Bibles and turn to James 1. If you're grabbing the Bible in the seat in front of you, it's on page 1,011. You can grab that, turn over the book, and let's do that. The book of James begins with a test, a test of our faith. These brothers and sisters that James was writing to, they understood trials. They understood difficulty. They had just experienced a dispersion. They had just been kind of scattered all abroad from Jerusalem. Stephen, being martyred, kind of causes this bond to go off, right? And everyone is kind of just like, oh boy. And they're out. They're everywhere. They're all over the place. They've lost their homes. They've lost their money. They're being exploited. They're being slandered. They're being dragged into prisons. And all the while knowing that horrible things are happening in their home, right? In Jerusalem. Assaults, grabbing people, putting them in prisons, having them killed. So they understood trial. They understood difficulty. So before we get any further, let's define what a trial is. This would be a good thing to write down. A trial is simply this. It's an examination of our faith for the purpose of strengthening and purifying. I'll say it again, an examination of our faith for the purpose of strengthening and purifying. Our big idea here for the text today is this, having a right understanding of trials creates an environment where you can give glory to the God that brings them. Let's pray. God, as we jump into your word, Lord, I pray that you would move, Lord, that you would show us what it is that you want us to see, that your Holy Spirit would be moving, that you would bring people to mind, Lord, that we could share these truths with. God, we know you're here, we know you want to meet us. Would you do that through your unchanging character and your unchanging word? We pray this in your name, amen. So first, let's look at the purpose of trials, the purpose of trials. We're starting in verse two. Comment all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. That is the purpose, steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may become perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. This is essentially the thesis statement of this section and arguably the whole book. James is kind of just laying the cards right out on the table of where he's going with this. He says, count it all joy. Be of an opinion, believe, consider all things joy. So what does joy mean here? Well, he's talking about like a full and a complete joy. Like a vivid joy, a bright and just all-encompassing type of joy. But how do we experience that, and where are we supposed to experience that? Well, it's in trials of various kinds in passion sites. Trials of various kinds. Does this mean that we are to meet every trial with kind of this, like, this giddy happiness, where we're just like, oh, everything's fine. Is it supposed to be that way, this kind of false sense of happiness? No. This would be an impossible task, right? Douglas Liu says that we're not being commanded to never be saddened by difficulties. That's not the command here, right? Sometimes fear or sheer terror is an appropriate reaction to a trial. The passage, it says, when you meet, kind of when you come across, it's the idea of coming across a hazardous situation kind of suddenly or by accident. And so as I was thinking about how to illustrate this, I had one story come to mind. I've had the privilege of leading trips to the Dominican Republic five times over the last 10 years. Love that place. Love the missionary that he partnered with. His name is Richie Paulette. He shared a story with me one day about when he was at his house, and he was doing some laundry. So he's being a good husband. He's working. He's doing some laundry. And he's grabbing on the shelf some laundry detergent. And as he moves the box of laundry detergent over, he hears a hiss. and sees not a cat, but a seven-inch spider hissing at him and then jumping at his face. Kurt literally just lost it there. Not a spider fan. You can imagine the sheer terror of coming across that hazardous situation by accident. Now that's a minor trial, right? Like you grab a shovel or whatever, you got your pot and you smack it with the ribbon, you know? So there's a diversity to the various kinds of trials that we experience in this life. So what is the key here? What's our response to these trials? Our response to them. These trials create a testing environment, and as already stated, the trial is an examination of our faith for the purpose of strengthening and purifying it. That's what they're intending to do. We're to choose joy in the midst of this examination. To count it all joy. Like, keyword there, all. All joy. Your response to trials displays the true nature and the character of your faith. God uses them to ask questions of your faith. Here's some of those questions. What do you really believe about me? Is your faith genuine? Does it mean strengthening isn't legitimate at all? Our response shows the answer to those questions. Trials reveal this answer. This testing, when done in a God honoring way, produces in you steadfastness. The goal of it all, the purpose, steadfastness. This word is mentioned twice in these verses, and again later on in verse 12. And that defined is simply this, the power to withstand hardship. we all need, right? Like we all need greater ability to withstand hardship and stress. It's the idea of stick-to-it-ness, like you're willing to stick to the task, you're willing to stick to the goal, right? William Barclay says it this way, he said, it's the quality that enables a man to stand on his feet while facing the storm. One of my wife's acquaintances from college, she lost her husband only in his 30s to a massive heart attack while he was playing soccer. He died right on the field, leaving four kids behind. And it's been incredible to see her response to this tribe. Like her Facebook post, and to know that God is holding her close, that she's staying faithful in the midst of it, and the Lord is using and for her good. Her faith has been tested, and it's been proved, genuinely. But times of weeping call for times of weeping, right? Times of grief call for times of grief. But the inner disposition of our hearts, like our baseline of emotion, our baseline of rock solid-ness is joy in the Lord, in who He is. And this is the key hinging point here, right? That joy is not based on our feelings. It's based on the character of God. It's who God is. That's where we find our joy. in Him alone, in the Almighty, Sovereign, Loving, and Gracious God, that we could place our trust, we could place our hope on Him alone. And He was satisfied with our longing hearts. I'm sure you're familiar with the idea of pressure points. Essentially, what a pressure point is, is it's a quarter-sized spot that are all over the body that basically when pushed, they create an effect that literally will crumble a man, 603, 250 pounds, to his knees, right? Like if you're pushing that spot, It's literally going to crumble somebody. My youth pastor growing up in high school in the 90s, he used to literally shake my hand and then immediately do this, and just, you know, I would talk him up. That would be downright, that would be bad in our day. I don't do that, students, don't worry. But God uses pressure points. He applies pressure to our lives. He knows the weaknesses and struggles that we have, and he pushes on them. You know why? Because as He pushes on them, as He squeezes us, the truths that we believe about Him, they come out. Steadfastness is what God gives you to withstand the pressures of life, the pressures of trial. It's the power to not turn depression into self-harm. It's the power to see parents get divorced and not turn away from God, but rather turn away or turn towards Him. It's the power to say, God, I choose you over this momentary difficulty or this momentary pleasure. The word for steadfastness is tenacious, it's forceful. It's not a patience that passively emerges. It's an aggressive word of strength and action. I love that. The question answered by the testing of our faith is whether that mature faith will remain. Will you be strengthened and grow through it? Verse four, let steadfastness have its full effect, and we will be perfect. lacking in nothing. That sounds like the way I want to live life, right? Trials lead to steadfastness. Steadfastness leads to maturity and perfection. This is the crucible of our sanctification. Write down Romans 5, 3, and 4. Love these verses. Kind of highlights this whole idea of of this process, it's essentially the gospel happens, we come to faith in Christ, and then the trials of life come, they produce endurance, and then character is formed, and then we find hope. Hope is a word that we need. Do you need hope right now? Hope does not disappoint us, that's what the verses say. Because God pours His love into our hearts through His Holy Spirit. I love that. So how are you seeing hope in your personal trials right now? Are you counting in all joy? Are you persevering? Or are you unstable? Next, let's look at our practice in trials. What are we to do when trials come? And the answer is prayer, prayer. James launches into verse 5. He says, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Do you need more wisdom? Do you need more wisdom? I do. Wisdom is the capacity for rational thought and the application of it. It's essentially the idea of taking knowledge of things that we know, and then they in turn turn into action, right? There is an occasion that requires this idea of prayer. It is in the midst of our trials. Don't we need wisdom when life gets hard? We need wisdom to understand who God is and believe in Him actively. When the pressure is on, compromise is right around the corner. That's why prayer is so important. It connects us to God. We need to stay close to the Father in prayer in the midst of the trial. When this is happening, the passage tells us to, it says, let him ask God, this is the primary imperative here, the primary command, that's to beg, to demand, to cry out for the wisdom that's above, to cry out to the God who can and does give it. Brixton, our youngest boy, he's two years old, We have three boys and one boy on the way. So, you know, five kids and a wife happens. Um, continue on. Brixton. He's adorable. He's inquisitive. He's always asking questions. And one of his favorite questions right now is, Dada, what's that? What's that? What's that? Like, literally 50 times a day. Like, he's wanting to know what something is, but does he know what most of those things are? Yes. He just wants to ask it. It's very repetitive. Kids ask a lot of questions, and in very similar ways, we're not so different, right? Like, we're very simplistic in our understanding, and God wants us, He wants us to constantly ask, to constantly cry out, to continually seek after Him in prayer. We're never to stop. He wants to meet us in that He promises no reproach, the passage says. In fact, it's the opposite. He promises to give generously, bountifully, overflowing, not being annoyed about the request. But there's a requirement here. It's an important one. How are we told to ask, God? We're told to ask in faith, with no what? Doubting. No doubting. James then illustrates it with the idea of a wave. Waves are powerful, but a wave has no power apart from the wind, right? The wind literally rises up, it blows the wave wherever it wants to go, it gives it its strength. That's what happens to us when we're a doubting people. We're like a wave, we're getting blown and tossed. We have no idea where we're going, we have no idea what and what we're doing. This represents a person who, when a trial has come, they grow to be out of control. They grow to be unstable, unsettled, disorderly, not controlled again. Everything seems to be falling apart for the one who dies. The life is a mess, right? Now, there's a certain degree where that's going to happen when difficulty comes, right? Like, your life is gonna kind of unravel a bit, but is that the pattern? Is it continually unraveling, right? It says, though one soul declares, I believe, the other one in turn shouts, I don't. This sort of instability is not only apparent to the man who prays, it marks everything that he does, his personal life, his spiritual life, his business life, everything is marked by an indecisiveness that negates effectiveness. All your life will be affected by disbelief in God, by disbelief in God's moving through prayer. You must not doubt like Peter did and focus on the wind and the waves in Matthew 14. You remember that story? Peter says, can I come out to you? And Jesus says, yes. And Peter starts walking on water. It's a good day, I say, right? But what does Peter do? He starts to focus on the wind and the waves, and he begins to sing, right? That's what we do. We're focused on the external factors. We're not focused on the Christ who's at the other end, right? We must not prove, we must not show ourselves to be double-minded, as the passage says. This is the idea of having a duality of self, like we think one thing and we do another. One commentary says it this way, that one moment he voices the yes of faith, the next moment it is the no of disbelief. Your practice in the midst of trials must be faith-filled, crowned out. That is our hope here, that God is faithful, that He will respond, that He will pour that love each from your heart through His Spirit that I talked about earlier. Let me give you three steps in prayer when trial's coming. Number one, confess your sin. Confess your sin, turn from your sin, repent, keep a close watch of yourself, turn to Christ, The second one is cry out to God for wisdom. Constantly seek and pray and be close to the Father. Ask Him for the wisdom to understand. He will give you what you need in that. And three, continually pray. I love the idea of a child, a two-year-old, who's staying so close to their father, by the way, with their arms wrapped around their leg, right? I love when my kids do that. That's what we need to be like. We need to be continually holding the Father, staying close, staying near. There is great hope in faith-filled prayer. Next, what should our posture be in the midst of trials? What posture should we take? It's humility. Look at verse nine. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation. Because like a flower to grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat, and withers the grass. Its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man, fading away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast in the trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. The lowly brother here in verse nine is characterized by a believer who lives in poverty from a worldly standpoint, so their exaltation is in their standing in the kingdom of God. And as a person who is not incredibly wealthy, amen, right? This is another calling to persevere under trial. This is a money-related trial. The rich man's humiliation, as the pastor calls it, speaks to the humbling that will occur when their wealth is stripped away. Because it will be, right? Like a flower rises in beauty, it's a beautiful thing, and then after a while, it withers. It dies, right? The only imperative here that we see is the idea of boasting or proclaiming. And we are to boast in our weakness, right? That's what we're called to do in Scripture, boasting in our weakness, because that's how Christ is glorified. It might seem at first glance that James is taking some kind of an off-ramp here from this idea of trials, and then he brings it all back in verse 12, right? Talks about the effects of wealth, the humility that we should have as believers, and then he says, now remain steadfast. when you receive the crown of life, love verse 12. This is an encouragement to the suffering poor and the missing of their trials to trust in God, to know that they will be exalted in the kingdom of God. This is a real life example for these dispersed Christians. It's also, it's a warning to the rich, right? It's a warning. We're not to boast in our riches. We're not to boast in the things that give us this comfort feeling like we're going to be fine because we think about this thing that we've been given, ultimately. The reality is this. Wealth and poverty will bring various trials and temptations. There's a level playing field when trials come. James is saying, one commentary says it this way, James says, seems to be indicating that trials erase any superficial distinctions that may be thought to separate the rich brother from the poor one. Aren't we all surprised when we hear of someone like Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain and Keith Spade taking their own life? Why are we surprised by that? I think secretly it's because we Rain falls on the head of the rich and the poor. And the trial of oppression doesn't matter. It doesn't care how much love they have or how little. The playing field is level when it comes to trials. So what posture should we take in the midst of difficulty? Let's think. Philippians 2 says, 2-3, we should, in humility, count others more significant than ourselves. This is the principle of selflessness, which is literally the opposite of what we tend to experience and feel when we're going through a difficult time. When we're struggling, when things are hard, man, we want to focus on us, right? But that's the opposite of Christian conduct. We should be desiring to put Christ on display, to take on the character of servant, of humility. We should not act as the unbeliever and literally want all focus upon us. It's a difficult thing to do. I've seen this illustrated in situations when it comes to finances that like, when the struggle gets real when it comes to finances, it's so easy to cut corners. to take advantage, to steal, right? To cheat on taxes, to do those things that we know we shouldn't do, but we're like, well, I will justify my actions because of my suffering. We must do what James 4.10 says, which is to humble ourselves before the Lord, knowing that He will exalt us. We stay faithful, we persevere under monetary trial, we honor the Lord in that, You may not bless with money, but you will bless with favor from Him, right? Closeness, nearness, satisfaction, no matter what it is that you have. So how are you doing in this regard? Is it all about you first? Is that how other people would characterize your life? How do you react when difficulty comes? How do you react when you're sinned against, right? important mark of humility. 1 Peter 5, 6, and 7 says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time, key phrase, proper time, he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Whatever anxieties you have coming into this, the end of this year, going into next year, whatever cares that you have, know that God, He cares for you, and He can do it. We must take down the posture of the humble. There is hope in being exalted because we've been humble before the cross, right? Like that is our exaltation, the fact that we've been humble before the cross. And I love the fact that the crown of life is promised in verse 12. Kind of takes verses two to four a little bit further, and it says, a crown of life is available to those who remain steadfast in the trial. I love that. The posture of the trials is humility. Next, the playwright of trials is God. The playwright of trials is God. Look at verse 13. Let no one say what he has tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, what it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it has fully grown, The sub-point of this section could be the playwright of Temptations, us, right? Like, we're the source of that. We're gonna get into that. There's a big distinction here to be made between temptations and trials. And I think it was very intentional by James. He actually uses the same root word when he's talking about trials and temptations. It's this Greek word para. It's the root, beginning word of it. There's a degree of commonality between these words. There's a testing that happens with trial and also with temptation, right? But it's a very different source of those two things. They examine our faith. They have that in common. But here's the difference. Temptation comes from where? Here. From our own sinful desires. We are lured and enticed by our own desires. Trials come from the Lord. He causes them for His glory and our good. The warning in this passage is against being deceived into thinking that God is the author of temptation. Just because He allows temptation, doesn't mean He's causing it. Look at verse 13. It's clear that God tempts no one. And in fact, in verse 17, kind of the opposite. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, amen? He gives every good thing. He says, do not be deceived. Every good thing comes from above, from the Father of life, to whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. We love that fact. Think about the reality that God is unchanging. We sang about that this morning, right? He is unchanging. That's an amazing thing to think about when we're in the midst of difficulty. That God, He doesn't change. No matter how much we want to change, how much we are blown and tossed like a wave, He is unchanging. He is our rock. He never changes. The gifts that God provides for us, though difficult, are our trials. But his gifts are marked by kindness and helpfulness, not a destructiveness, right? He's not providing temptation in us, right? That would be the opposite of his goodness. So what is a playwright? Well, it's a person who writes a play. So, there you go. You understand that now. The playwright allows characters of the play to experience that which he has allowed, that which he has caused. God is the sovereign playwright of our trials. He knows. He knows. It's those pressure points that I talked about earlier. He has designed your exact trials for you. He thought of you when he thought of that. This testing is an incredible gift given by God to refine our faith, to test it like gold, 1 Peter talks about, to heat it up, to make it more pure and strengthen it. I believe that temptation is mentioned here because James, he wants to clarify the difference between the two. I think that's a point of what he's trying to do. But also, I think that there's another reason for it. I think he realizes that there is a slippery slope between trial and temptation. I'll explain this. When a trial comes, temptation is very close behind. Let me give you a biblical example from Genesis 4. Think about the first offspring of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. Cain, he brings an offering before the Lord, and he brings the fruit of the ground. He worked among the ground. He brought the fruit of the ground as his offering. Abel, though, on the other hand, he brought the first fruits of his flock. Verse four says, and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. And here's a key phrase. So Cain was very angry at his face, for Cain. And God, in His loving kindness, He says to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face falling? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. This desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Right? Cain is disappointed. God is disappointed with Cain's offering. So temptation rises up. Anger rises up. Despair rises up. James 1.14, but each person is tempted, but he is lured and enticed by his what? His own desire. That's what's happening with Cain. He's being lured and enticed by his own desire. And what does it lead to? The first murder according to Scripture. progression. But it was not God's fault. It was conceived in Cain's heart. It's so easy to blame circumstances or other people when the responsibility is on whom? You and me. After you've begun doubting God, begun getting into temptation in the midst of trial, sin is starting to take hold and then ultimately it can bring This is the progression. Trials bring temptation. But here's the difference. Testings, trials, are to be endured, right? They're to be persevered through, they're to be remained under in, whereas temptations are to be resisted, avoided. We must remember the truth of verse 17, that every good gift is from above, even the most difficult circumstances that God has. They're from Him. He gives us every perfect thing we need to endure. Think about that. That's one of His gifts in the midst of temptation, that He gives us a way to stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. The passage ends at verse 18, kind of carrying out the thought of verse 17, that God is the giver of good gifts, and when our world shifts and is rocked, He doesn't change. He brings us forth, He sanctifies us, and He says in verse 18, of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth. He is purifying and making us right and making us new and making us clean and making us more like Christ as this whole process is going on. And He says this, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Like we get to partake in the blessing and the hope of being united with a holy God. He meets us in this. He calls us His children. He chooses us. Christ through trials, through His words, He uses all things.