The Testing of Your Faith | Sunday, April 5, 2020

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4)

On Palm Sunday, in the middle of a global trial, can we really "count it all joy"?

The Passion Week and Our Present Trial

Behind me this morning is the city of Jerusalem as it looks today, viewed from the Mount of Olives just east of the Old City and the Temple Mount. The city looks far different than it did 2,000 years ago, but this is roughly the same vantage point Jesus and His disciples would have had as they came into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday before the final Passover and before what we call Christ's passion.

It is interesting that we call this the Passion Week of Christ. In our day "passion" means intense desire, emotion, or love. But Christ's passion refers to His suffering—a time of trial. It is at least a little fitting that as we prepare to remember the Passion Week, we find ourselves in the midst of our own time of trial and suffering.

Every one of us—not just in San Diego County or California or the United States, but around the entire world—is experiencing this. Some are suffering the actual effects of the coronavirus, in critical care, on a ventilator, fighting to breathe. We want to lift them up in prayer. Even those of us not suffering medically are experiencing the economic disaster. In the last two weeks, 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment. The previous one-week record was about 650,000; two weeks ago some 3.7 million filed, and this last week 6.3 million. We are all affected in some way.

God Is Not Surprised

If we had a choice, none of us would ever choose to suffer. We would choose to avoid trials. Yet it seems God has allowed this. If I believe what I say I believe about God—that He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures—then I have to believe He is not surprised by the things we are facing. They did not take Him by surprise. And I must also believe He is not uninvolved or uncaring about what we are experiencing.

Remember that on the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane—located between the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount in the Kidron Valley: "Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me." That reveals that Jesus, in His humanity—fully God and fully man—did not want to suffer, just like you and me. We don't welcome trials. Yet James reminds us that although we may never welcome suffering, we can have joy in the midst of it.

A Word for the Familiar and the New

For some of you, James 1:2-4 is familiar—you've read it, heard it taught, maybe memorized and meditated on it. Sometimes it's good to come to things that are familiar, because familiar things bring comfort. Paul commands believers in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 to comfort one another with the words of Scripture.

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

If you are having a hard time finding patience, comfort, and hope in this trial, let me encourage you to spend time reading or listening to the Scriptures through the week. We are tempted to distract ourselves with social media, the news, Netflix, and YouTube. Instead, spend time in the Word of God, because through it God gives us patience, comfort, and hope.

This is one of the earliest writings of the New Testament—many scholars believe the first letter written. James, the author, is believed to be the half-brother of Jesus and a key leader of the early church in Jerusalem. He wrote to Christians who were not going through easy times. They were a persecuted minority in a city under foreign occupation. And to them James says, "Count it all joy."

Point One: I Must Choose Joy in Trying Circumstances

The command is fascinating because it calls them to lead, govern, and rule themselves into joy. This is a willful, decisive move. You have to make a decision to step into joy in the midst of trying circumstances.

I don't always do that. I'll be the first to confess that when I go through difficult things, I do not immediately choose joy. I choose pity, frustration, irritability, impatience, or pessimism. That's my default, and probably yours too. In trying circumstances we are easily frustrated, impatient, unkind; we lose hope and become irritable. In those moments our true fallen nature comes to the surface.

I experienced this in a big way this last week. Whether it was the weather or my sinuses, I had a couple of mornings with the worst vertigo. If you've ever had it, you know how the whole room moves like you're on a boat in a storm. In that moment I was not the most patient and kind person—so consider this my confession this morning.

Many of us are seeing our flesh come through. My wife and I have four kids who are normally in school every day, and suddenly I've been nominated homeschool dad and she homeschool mom—not what we planned. Maybe you've found yourself impatient with your kids, irritable with your husband, or harsh and frustrated with your wife. This might be a good time to confess that to the Lord, repent of it, and choose not to default to unkindness or lack of self-control, but instead to make that decisive move of the will and choose joy.

Point Two: Trials Are God's Chosen Tools for My Transformation

By itself, this command seems impractical and implausible. But notice James doesn't stop there:

...knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:3)

I can choose joy in trying circumstances when I understand that trying circumstances are God's chosen tools for my transformation. That may be hard to accept—that the very thing we are going through is the tool God chooses to make us more like Him.

Some of you are facing very challenging situations in the coming weeks and months—not just medically, but economically. You may think, "This Bible teacher just studies the Scriptures; he doesn't understand what I'm facing." But I do. Aside from teaching, I help run a small organization, Cross Connection Church, with a staff and payroll to make. Two weeks ago we had to look proactively at our budget and make cuts, adjusting benefits and variable expenses to walk through what we foresaw economically. If you run a business, you've probably been doing the same—talking with your bank about the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program, submitting applications to the Small Business Administration's emergency loan programs.

Maybe you don't run a business. Maybe you're the primary breadwinner and you've already gotten the call that there's no work for you next week—a frightful, fearful thing. It is easy to become anxious, irritable, and frustrated. Maybe you're concerned about vulnerable family members. At this very moment, on this Palm Sunday, my wife is working in a critical care quarantine unit at a local hospital. I understand those fears. I can become anxious, worried, frustrated, angry, and irritable.

And we can begin to justify our irritability—"I'm stressed, don't you understand?" But that is not an acceptable answer, not because I'm a pastor, but because for any follower of Jesus it is God's aim to make us, by His Word and Spirit, more Christ-like. Because I have the Spirit of God in me and the Word of God in my heart, by His empowering strength I can choose to respond in line with the Spirit of Christ—showing forth the fruits of righteousness. My impulse is to resist that and give in to my fallen nature. But simply knowing that God desires to use this situation to transform me changes my perspective and helps me find joy in the trial.

Point Three: The Fiery Trial Is Meant to Purge My Imperfections

"The testing of your faith" is important language. Trials prove the genuineness of my faith and reveal something about my trust in God. A trying circumstance pushes me to ask: do I really trust God, or is my trust in the economy, my own ingenuity, my health, my savings account, my 401(k)? When shaking circumstances come, we are forced to ask what we truly trust in.

The word "testing" is connected in the original Greek to the idea of refining metal. When you mine metal from the ground, you purify it by putting it into the refining fire, which melts it so the impurities separate and rise to the surface. The same is true in my life. When God puts me into a fiery trial, all the impurities—anxiety, fear, irritability, anger, impatience—come to the surface. God already knows these things are in my heart. He allows them to surface not to embarrass me, but so that I can see them, confess them, and ask Him to take them away. He allows the fiery trial to bring the imperfections forward so He can purge them.

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. (1 Peter 4:12-13)

James says the testing of my faith produces patience—but notice this is a potential outcome, not a certain one. Sometimes the trying of our faith results in added frustration and unkindness instead. But God's desire is that it produce good fruit.

We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4)

That word "perseverance" is the same word James uses for "patience." Patience, perseverance, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness—these are the things God wants to produce in your life and mine through trials.

Point Four: God's Completed Work Through the Trial Is a Completed Worker

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:4)

The word translated "perfect" means fully grown, mature, and complete. The completed work God wants to accomplish through this trial—whether the medical issues, the economic issues, or the added stress in your home—is a completed worker. He wants to make me more mature, growing me into the likeness of His child. If I allow God to have His way in me through this trying circumstance, He will accomplish that work.

...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

The same Greek root is used—He will accomplish it, He will fulfill that work.

The Lord's Table

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gathered with His disciples to partake of Passover, and He took the cup and the bread before going to the garden to pray, "If there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me." Today we partake of communion. Many pastors across the country have wondered how to do this; we've encouraged you to gather your own elements—some bread, a tortilla or pita, some grape juice or even water. The substance is not in the elements but in what they represent.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." (1 Corinthians 11:23-24)

Let's partake together.

In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." (1 Corinthians 11:25)

Let's partake together. As Jesus said, "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." This Friday we will remember the Lord's death on Good Friday, broadcasting a service at noon. Two thousand years ago Jesus's body was broken and His blood was shed so that we could experience salvation, His forgiving grace, and the transforming work of God's Word and Spirit—even through trying circumstances, where He brings joy in the fiery trial and grows the fruit of the Spirit in us.

An Invitation to Faith

If you have never put your faith in Jesus, I want to ask you to do that. We are in the midst of a trying circumstance, and the things happening in the world shake us. Just the other night we even had an earthquake here in San Diego County, and people texted me asking, "Is this the end of the world?" You may find yourself worried, anxious, and without hope for the future.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Jesus died on the cross so that you and I could receive salvation and grace. If you would like to receive His forgiving grace, pray this with me—prayer is simply talking to God:

"Dear Jesus, I realize my need for You. I know that I'm not perfect, that I have sinned, and I ask that You would come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, that You would help me to follow You by faith, to know You and to love You. In Jesus' name. Amen."

If you prayed that prayer today, please reach out to us so we can connect you with materials to help you grow and with a church near you. For the rest of you, we miss you, we are praying for you, and we look forward to gathering together again.

Closing Prayer

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.