Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Fear
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Analytical
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Perseverance and Confidence
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
easter
team building
family night
agm
board nominations (say who is not returning)
march break
Redefining 'The Right Way’
Redefining Value
So James starts off with this basic question: where is God leading us to?
This is why I love his description, calling trials ‘pure joy’.
Not just ‘hey, they could be good.’
It’s ‘pure joy’ to persevere under trials.
In verse 4, James ties the idea of perseverance to God developing maturity in us, that our faith would be complete and not lacking.
James starts his letter off talking about the idea of God developing perseverance.
Why is perseverance so important?
Perseverance brings us to that place where we not only ‘pass the problem’, but we become the kind of person that will receive this crown of life that God has promised us
Because God has an eternity ahead of us, not just the next day.
And that eternity is more valuable than anything in this world
And it’s quite possible to miss it.
It’s quite possible to let life drag us away to the point that we stop looking for God’s crown of life, and start being happy with the temporary crowns we make for ourselves.
When we consider God’s plan for eternity, we see God’s value for perseverance.
So this gives us a little bit of a different perspective on trials.
We like to avoid pain.
But temporary pain that leads to a more lasting gain is worthwhile.
This is what we think of when we say ‘perseverance’.
Now, there’s an important point I need you to understand.
And that’s the source of trials and temptations.
Whenever something bad happens to us, we tend to default to two perspectives.
The first is, ‘oh no, I messed up, everything is going wrong, i’m on my own this time’
The second is ‘Things are not going well because God is trying to teach me something -I need to have faith and confidence I’m on the right path’.
And here’s the thing - neither one is all that correct.
Later, james says this:
James is reminding us that the source of temptation to do wrong in life is not God, and it never will be.
Sometimes, a trial is God helping us to redefine an incorrect truth or value we are holding.
Sometimes, it’s God helping us to remember that a truth He gave us is worth holding onto.
But sometimes it’s just the fruit of us being ‘dragged away by our own evil desires’.
They say everything happens for a reason - and often that reason is that we make bad decisions.
And this is the real, real value of perseverance.
Because in perseverance, God is doing three things:
He’s trying to burn the evil parts of our nature away.
Our faith is tested because we make a decision other than what God wants us to make, and we see the poor result of that.
But we learn to persevere in our FAITH, not in our folly.
He’s trying to teach us to understand and see the world the way HE wants us to see it.
We are in a ‘trial’ because things aren’t going the way WE want - but are they going the way God wants?
He’s trying to help us understand why living by HIS truth is way better than living by our own.
He allows us to see Him come through for us in mighty ways, so that we gain confidence in asking Him for things.
Because we’ve seen him deliver.
So we understand something important from the beginning of james:
God has a different growth plan for our lives than we do
That’s why James talks about believers in humble circumstances vs rich believers in verses 9-11.
Riches and wealth are an area where we tend to lose sight of eternity.
Humble believers are in a ‘high position’.
Jesus himself said that those who are humbled will be exalted.
Peter talked about how wealth is temporary and will pass away - this is why the rich should take pride in their humiliation.
Now, this isn’t about how wealth is evil, and poverty is good.
His point isn’t ‘if you are rich, you should be poor’ - otherwise, he would have directly and literally said that.
James he has a reason for BOTH sides to have ‘pride’.
Peter talked about how wealth is temporary and will pass away.
His reason is this - believers in both circumstances should take pride about understanding reality and making wise choices in light of God’s eternal truths.
Those who are rich should realize the temporary nature of riches and wealth.
They should take pride in making wise choices knowing that all their wealth will pass away.
They should have total confidence in the idea that God’s idea of wealth has nothing to do with their own.
Those who are poor should look forward to God’s exaltation of them.
They should understand God’s priorities when it comes to what kind of people will be lifted up.
They should take pride in knowing that they’re lined up for God to exalt them.
So when we expect something from God, what kinds of things should we expect?
Should we expect God to uphold the truths about reality that HE has established, or should we expect Him to do things our way?
James is not just pushing knowledge, he’s pushing wisdom.
He’s saying, ‘What you know is one thing - what choices you make and priorities you have is another’.
His reason is this - believers in both circumstances should take pride in the fact that
This leads us to the next part of this section that I want to focus on.
James is pushing the value of perseverance.
He wants us to hold onto our faith, to endure, because God wants to burn away the bad and deposit the good.
And that’s an easy thing to say, but how do we get to that point?
How do we learn the difference between the good and the bad? James throws a little line out here about wisdom that I want to focus on.
Redefining Confidence
Redefining Value
So james tells us to ask for wisdom.
Not just knowledge - but wisdom.
And there’s a difference.
Redefining Trials
Redefining Temptation
But it comes with an admonition - ‘believe and not doubt’.
Now, James uses a phrase here - ‘like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind’.
That’s not the only place we see that kind of language.
Both Paul and James pushed the idea that the mark of ‘maturity’ was properly understand AND living by God’s truths.
The key word in James is ‘wisdom’, in paul it’s ‘teaching’ - they both suggest this idea that what we take in, what we believe, and HOW we believe makes up this phrase ‘believe and not doubt’.
I think we hold an incorrect notion to this verse - at least, something James isn’t suggesting.
We tend to think of this as meaning, ‘we have to have perfect faith - no struggles or doubts or issues - before God will answer us’.
And that’s not what James is saying at all.
James teaches us that we can expect God to answer us when we have full confidence that His truth is the real truth.
Picture a person trying to walk down the street.
But the person is being blown about by the wind.
It’s difficult for them to keep going forward right?
Maybe they even wind up in the wrong spot.
James is applying this same principle to teaching and wisdom.
He’s saying that lacking understanding, lacking wisdom is the same thing - we’ll get tossed about in life, and thrown off track.
But the difference isn’t perfect faith - Jesus was pretty clear that isn’t going to be possible.
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