What's Going On? James 1:1-4

1. Read James 1:1-4. What does it mean to “count” it all joy in verse 2?
2. What needs to happen in the middle of a trial for you to be able to step back and evaluate what is really happening from an eternal perspective?
3. What kinds of things keep you from evaluating trials and seeing the deeper reality behind them?
4. How is this kind of evaluation and processing of ultimate reality different from mere “positive thinking”?
5. How does the testing of your faith produce greater capacity and opportunity in you?
6. How inclined are you to see everything in your life as a test of your faith and character and steadfastness? And how can you become more aware of this reality and start counting it all joy?

Practice: Evaluate your life and the past, present, and potentially future trials. As the heat rises in your life, what might God be teaching you? Write down some ways he’s changed you in the past through enduring trials of all kinds. Then write down what he might be producing in you now through current trials. In light of this reality, do these new capacities and opportunities produce joy in you, despite the difficult circumstances? Finally, write down a few things you are going to do in the future to keep an eye on the deeper reality behind your trials and to see it all as a test that is helping you become a certain kind of person. How can you keep that awareness?

We started a series last week on James. The book is full of practical advice, but it’s about genuine faith as opposed to false faith. For James, faith is everything. It’s the supreme thing. You can’t do anything without it.

I read something this weekend that said, many people can’t distinguish between what they say they believe and what they actually believe.

Last week we said faith is multi-dimensional. It has an operational and mechanical side to it. It’s not just intellectual. A faith that isn’t working is a false faith. It’s a dead faith. James will describe it as dead and good for nothing.

James says you can be deceived if you think you have the real thing and don’t. James isn’t trying to upset you and your faith. You can be deceived, but you can be certain too. If you’re worried you’re being deceived, that’s probably a good problem.

Real faith acts a certain way. You either have it or you don’t.

We’ve been comparing faith to riding a bike. Os Guinness asks, what would you think of a boy who gave up learning to ride a bicycle, complaining that he hurt himself because his bike stopped moving, so he had no choice but to fall off. If he wanted it to remain stationary, he should have chosen a chair.

James is going to show us that your faith is either a chair or a bicycle.

This verse is an outline for what we’re about to experience in the rest of the book.

James is likely the first book written in the New Testament. He addresses three things here:

1. Relationship with God
2. Miserable circumstances
3. Joy

That’s the setup. Here’s how the first line reads:

James is saying he’s a servant. Because God is in my life, I am a servant.

This is the brother of Jesus. We learn in the gospels that Jesus’ family didn’t believe in him. If your brother tells you he’s the Messiah, you’re probably not buying it.

He appears to the apostles and to numerous people. But he appeared to one person alone that we know of, and that was James. This encounter turned his life around. James became the leader in the Jerusalem church. He was eventually martyred for his faith. When he calls him Lord, you get a validated account of an encounter from the resurrected Lord. All the family squabbles were over.

I love to read about how atheists come to Christ. One guy said he remembers saying to himself there is no God. He started working as a bartender and he started to date this girl he met in the bar. Her father was a pastor and she wanted a guy who was nothing like her dad. They start dating, she gets pregnant and they have to tell the dad what happened. He was a big guy and they were scared to death, but on his face was nothing but grace. He started attending the church with his arms crossed. The dad gave him Mere Christianity. A truth hit him that he couldn’t recover from. Jesus is Lord and I’m a sinner. His girlfriend found him on the floor crying.

When you come to Christ, that happens. It’s not because you’re smarter or better than everyone else, but because God is bigger than you.

James is saying I met the resurrected Lord.

Because I’m related to him, I am a servant.

He’s thinking of Jews in the early church when he writes to the dispersion. James stayed as a leader in the Jerusalem church though many scattered. The language of the dispersion began to be used of all believers, because we’re all dispersed and passing through to our true home.

The world doesn’t love what you love or value what you have.

The word Joy links verses 1 and 2.

He says to count all of it joy.

By itself, this is good news. There’s no relief like it that this isn’t our final home.

When you consider and evaluate, this isn’t mere positive thinking, but stepping back to evaluate that wonderful truth. All James wants you to do is evaluate the two realities.

What’s really going on? When you think about what’s really going on, James is saying to count it all joy.

You say that a lot probably: What’s going on?

Anything can happen in your life, and James knows it. He says there’s a lot going on and things you can’t even imagine. You’re going to love this when you know what’s going on. It’s much more than you think.

Here’s the beauty about faith. You can’t even consider this reality unless you have faith. The possibility that there are really things going on is pretty wonderful.

What if James told you nothing was going on? It kind of gives you a little joy just to know something deeper is going on.

When you meet trials of all kinds due to this not being your home, this is worth looking at what he means.

James could have spoken to specific trials, but he speaks to an array of trials. Imagine a color spectrum on your computer that allows you to have any range of color. There’s a wide spectrum of things you’ll encounter in your life, because this is not your home.

Aren’t there times in your life where you ask, how in the world did this happen?

My wife is one of those people. Things happen to her and her sister that can’t happen to other people.

James wants us to step back from all these trials and evaluate them.

You need to consider and evaluate and then you need to know for sure that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

This is something you can evaluate and know. This is something you can accept. James wants you to accept this reality. You can’t do it without faith. It opens up the possibility that this is even a reality.

When your faith gets tested, it produces steadfastness.

James goes on to show the progression:

When you evaluate that something deeper is going on, and you accept it and know it, and know that there is a process, this faith works to produce endurance, which works to change you into something you’re not. On any given day you can know that’s happening.

You and I can’t wake up certain about hardly anything. But James wants you to be sure.

Most of us probably prefer an untested faith. Please leave it alone. I want to live with the imperfections. But what we’re learning here is that in order for this process to work, this has to happen.

The text says that these trials are inevitable.

When you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you enter into this process. The trials become fruitful.

It’s saying something about the nature of faith. It’s not ok to just sit in it like a chair.

Faith can’t just sit there for you to go on with your life. We’re going to test its genuineness.

1 Peter 1 and James 1 are like sibling passages. Very similar themes. All Christians are called displaced in 1 Peter.

This testing is referring to the smelting process. The metal is melted and the impurities separate from the gold and turn into particles on the surface that can now be removed.

One of the best things you can do for your life it to consider everything a test. It’s the safest way to live your life. Every aggravation and responsibility. It’s all a test at the end of the day. It’s testing to see if your faith is genuine. If it’s something you say you have or really have.

We learn that faith is more valuable than anything you possess. It’s more important than anything going on in my life. My faith has impurities. It can be heated up and tested. And genuine faith can survive heat, just like gold. It can survive any loss. It’s indestructible and durable. When you discover that your faith can endure trials, it will give you joy to know you’re on the right path, your faith is real, and there really is a home waiting on the other side for you.

No trial is joyful. You’re nuts if you’re joyful in the pain. You can be knocked down and hurt and cry and wail. But James tells you what’s really going on, and that gives you joy.

The testing of your faith produces something. Produce means to work. It’s mechanical. It’s an important word for James. We picture it as these cogs. When faith gets tested, it works something. It creates a different me. There’s a lot of working and a lot of activity.

Faith, when it’s stimulated by circumstances and you’re forced to evaluate your life and circumstances and how to respond, you realize everything is a test. Every test is an opportunity to see which reality is more important to you.

This faith is going to open up two things. One is capacity. Can you run 1 mile or can you run 26? The second thing is opportunity. When that faith starts to grind and the cogs move, it creates capacity and opportunity.

I’m not sure we always feel that and I’m not certain we think faith is possible in a moment. It creates something we don’t even think is possible. Faith is telling you that you have greater capacity.

A lot of times we’re doing life so fast we’re not even thinking of the ways faith can operate here.

Small group is one thing you don’t want to do at times. Or things your spouse tells you to do. A lot of times your first reaction is no.

It may be possible for me to sacrifice. Faith is creating capacity and opportunity for you. You’re trying to rely on your history and experiences.

There are greater possibilities.

Calvin Miller said faith is not a resting place. As new disciples enter into the fortress of faith, they realize they must leave again.

You come to Christ and you’re cozy inside the faith castle, and as soon as you settle in, you’re kicked out of the safe place. Faith is always moving and working. It’s not just sitting there for you to say no.

When our faith is heated, we learn the things we value the most. These are the impurities that rise to the top. This world is not our home, but we act like it is. Or we value security or reputation. You take so much pride in your reputation. All these things drive you instead of faith. James says it’ll kick you out of the comfortable place. There’s more to be done. That’s what endurance is.

If I can get you out of that comfy castle, there’s more things we can do if you just keep moving. Endurance just means to hold up under pressure. It’s the only thing that keeps you upright is know there’s something going on bigger than you. You just keep moving. Sometimes you move really slow. Sometimes you struggle to move. Sometimes you have to be pulled or dragged. Sometimes someone has to make me go.

Have you ever stomped into something God wants you to do?

If you’re married or have kids, you’re stomping. Life will make you stomp every once in a while.

When I used to work out at the YMCA, we used to work out in the afternoons and we had a guy who was a beast. He was really strong, middle-aged, had been in the military. We loved talking to him and telling stories. He entered a competition. He could lift weights and endure a long time. He entered a contest where you have to ride a bike for 24 hours. They interviewed him and asked how. He just said, I just didn’t get off the bike.

You may not be moving fast at first when you get started. James is saying, don’t stop moving. There’s more work that’s possible. Don’t cave under the pressure. Faith will make some things happen. You’ll learn that keep-going mode. Then all things are possible.

How do you do that?

I can’t give you anything more special than this final verse.

The only reason we have any hope of enduring is because he endured. A servant is not above his master. If he did it, we must do it.