August 31, 2014 - 11th Sunday after Trinity – Pastor Free Theme: The Blessings of Trials 1. It produces perseverance 2. It leads to prayer James 1:2-8; 12 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 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. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. It was an eye-opening conversation for the little girl. She was 13 years old and suffering from junior rheumatoid arthritis. As she walked home from school with her Dad she was complaining about her pain and lack of mobility. You know what her Dad said? To which classmate would you like to give your arthritis. She thought for a minute and said none of them. I don’t think any of us would wish any of our problems on a friend, a relative, on anyone. And God doesn’t want us to. You know why? He has James tell us of the blessing of trials – they produce patience and lead to prayer. It’s tough to have the attitude God has James point out to us, “Consider it a pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” JRA a pure joy. Cancer a pure joy. MS a pure joy. Parkinson’s a pure joy. Loss of a job pure joy. Family problems a pure joy. Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. No God isn’t kidding. He states something similar in other portions of the Bible. Why pure joy – because trials are to be a blessing to us, “Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” Perseverance has the idea of loyalty. It means not turning away from someone when problems or tiffs come up in life. It has the idea of being patient when trials come. That’s the blessing trials in our life produce, patience, waiting for God to deliver us. But how often don’t the trials we experience in life do just the opposite. We worry. We’re afraid. We get angry with God who allowed the trial to come or even sent it. We at times are on the verge of despair. The devil is so good at getting us to be impatient with God. As a result we find ourselves drifting from God. Our faith is shaken. Out trust in Jesus weakens. Our relationship with Jesus is strained at best. And I don’t know if we always realize it but worry is a sin. Fear is a sin. God tells us don’t be anxious – worried – about anything. He tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart. Fear is a sin. Worry is a sin. Sin doesn’t just strain our relationship with God it ruins it and ends it. Sin completely cut us off from God. The psalmist said that God can’t dwell with the wicked, not on this earth and not in eternity. You realize what that means right? Worry and fear, doubt and being angry with God are sins that put us in hell. But as short as our patience is that’s how long God’s patience is. His anger we’re told lasts a moment; His favor a lifetime. When we realize that fear and worry are sins, and understand the damning power of those sins and are genuinely sorry, that’s when God looks at us and says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” When the guilt of sin wears us down, when the fear of hell gets us down, God says come here. And then gently like a parents whipping ice cream from a child’s mouth God takes the blood of Jesus, which was extracted from His body on the cross and wipes away each one of our sins. The sin of fear wiped away. The sin of worry wiped away. The sin of anger wiped away. All of our sins wiped away. Now it’s not hell it’s heaven; it’s not separated from God, it’s living with God. Now it’s not pain that lasts forever, it’s glory that lasts forever in heaven. In our forgiveness you see God’s great love. In love God has a purpose for trials in life, to work patience in our life. Look at God’s track record. How long did it take from the first promise to the birth of Jesus- 4,000 years. How long did the Israelites wander before entering Canaan – 40 years. How long did Noah and his family sit in the ark – 150 days. How long was Jonah in the belly of the fish – 3 days. But each time, in every trial God was with His people. He was leading His people. God finally delivered His people. Patience, God has a plan. You know the saying – what God leads you to He will lead you through. You know God’s promise - He won’t give us more than we can bear. You know the confidence, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. God will never forsake you. God will always bless you. Hang in. Hold on. God has never and God will never forsake those in need. In time, His time, the right time, the trial will be eased or lifted or God will give us the strength to endure it and our patience will be rewarded. The trials are intended to produce more than patience. James write, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete:” Trials born patiently result in a mature faith. As the Lord comes through for us and delivers us, we see that God won’t fail us. We realize in time God will deliver us. And we end up trusting that God who has blessed us in the past through trials will do the same in the future. And one more thing. When we face trials of any kind what does that drive us to do – it drives us to the Word. We read the Psalms quite a bit in the time of trouble or we have a favorite portion of the Bible which we read and read and read. And when we’re in the word what happens. God said faith comes from hearing. God says as we crave pure spiritual milk we will grow up in our salvation. The blessings of trials in our life – we learn patience to wait for the Lord, we grow stronger as we look to the Lord and His Word. For the most part that girl with the arthritis was patient. But there were times when it got to be a bit much – surgeries, medication, a wheel chair in her 30’s. Patience ran out. The why me cry came out. So did tears. But that just meant the trial provided another blessing. God had James write, “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.” Prayer. The blessing? Trials don’t just drop us to our keens in pain, they drop us to our knees in prayer. And that’s exactly what God wants us to do. Later James wrote, “Is any one of you in trouble – he should pray.” Prayer is such a blessing. Here’s one we don’t think about – it shows that our sins have been forgiven. Sin, think worry, doubt, despair, puts a barrier between us and God. Prayers can’t get to God. But when Jesus died on the cross He paid for, eliminated, erased, got rid of all our sins. That means the barrier has been torn down. The blessings are so many – we can be in God’s family, we will rise from the dead. We will, by faith in Jesus, live in heaven forever. And we can pray. Just think of that. We can pray. We can talk to God. The blessings of that conversation. We take our trial to the throne of God and say here, I can’t bear it alone, I can’t solve it on my own, I can’t deal with it on my own. Please help. Now think of this. Who are we asking for help: the powerful God who created the heavens and the earth. We’re going to God whose wisdom is out of this world. He created this world to function in ways that humans can’t imitate. We’re going to God whose love for us is as high as the heavens are above the earth. Not only does He know how to solve our problems He has the power to solve them and the love to want to solve them. And when you take your trial to God seeking His help and His deliverance, please don’t doubt. Don’t doubt His desire or ability to help you. Please don’t think that He has limits for us – we can only come to him so many times a day or so many times in our life, or if the problem isn’t my fault. If I caused the problem God won’t help. It’s not like God will measure us and say you should have a stronger faith or you should know better or not again. How often don’t we hear the word “hope” in our spiritual vocabulary. I hope it works out. I hope God will answer. I hope God will help me. Listen to what God had James write, “He gives generously to all without finding fault.” God’s ears are always open to the prayers of His people. His desire is to always help us. When we take our trails to God’s throne of grace we can walk away confident that the ball is now in His court, the court of Him who was the only one who could devise a plan to rescue us form the curse of our sins and then powerfully and lovingly carry it out.. That’s the blessing that trials bring into our life – we pray, we go to God, look for His help and then live confident that in His way and His time that help will come. So to who would you give your trials. I pray no one because God has given us our trials to be a blessing, to teach us patience and to lead us to prayer.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 17:30:33 +0000
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