Peace in Test
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
Who here likes tests?
Raise your hand if you do.
Raise your hand if you don’t.
Raise your hand if you don’t care.
I hate tests.
Why, because they challenge me.
They show what I know and do not know.
I used to think the teacher just assigned tests to spite me.
I thought they did it to try and trap me and make me not able to pass the class.
I have terrible test takers anxiety.
What that means is that I always overthink the test even if I know the answers.
It means you are not as confident, even if you have prepared.
The anxiety(remember the opposite of peace) gets in the way and it makes me not able to concentrate as much.
Maybe some of you also suffer from test takers anxiety.
If you do, you can overcome and get better, as I have.
Tests can cause a lot of mental anxiety, because they are often how we progress in life.
We are often judged based on our results.
If we do well, we progress.
If we do not, we might stay behind.
This often can have the temptation to want to cheat.
This is caused by the anxiety.
It is caused by us not being okay with the truth.
The thing is that tests are not supposed to be a negative thing.
It took me a long time to realize this.
I went many years with thinking that they were out to get me.
As I got older, I realized that they were very good for me.
The truth is that tests are actually necessary for many things.
They help show where we are with a subject, skill, or as a person.
They help us see how much we know.
They help show things about where we are on the inside.
They help reveal the inward reality of who we are currently.
These are important to know for teachers, parents, and other people.
But they are also important for us more importantly.
Today we are going to be talk about the most important tests in your lives.
Today we are going to be talk about the most important tests in your lives.
Turn to James 1:2-4.
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
Count it all joy...
Count it all joy...
Here is that command thing again that a Bible author is doing.
They do this again, because we can control our thoughts and emotions to an extent.
They do this knowing that with God, we can have what all humans want, and that is joy.
I want to do a quick study on the word joy.
Notice that James does not say to count it all happiness.
Well Matt, what is the difference?
They are the same.
No, at least not in the biblical sense.
Happiness is close in relationship to other words like happenstance and haphazard.
These both have a base meaning of accidental and random.
The idea is closer to being lucky.
The is all summed up in random chance.
The take away is that happiness is not being glad overall, but that it can change.
Happiness is an emotion.
I am happy if I find out I am going to win the lottery.
That emotion came based on my situation.
Then I cashed my check, and spent all of the money and now am broke.
There goes my happiness.
I am told that you are going to buy me ice cream.
That would make me extremely happy.
(Please buy me ice cream!!!) JK,
When I finally have ice cream, I trip and it falls off the cone, onto the hot summer ground and starts melting and having ants crawling all over it.
There goes my happiness.
In those examples, my happiness(emotion) changed from the each situation.
I don’t like that it is a variable.
Joy is not based on emotion, feelings, or situations.
Joy is a state of mind.
You can go from happy to sad, to angry, and still have joy.
Joy is a constant and based more on attitude and perspective.
It is based on being content.
The word content means you are okay with how things are currently.
You are not going to be anxious for those things that you do not have or for the status that you want it to
There is a relationship between joy and peace.
You cannot have true joy without true peace.
They go hand in hand like a PB&J.
Peace is is one of the foundations for the concept of joy.
You cannot have one without the other.
In life so many people are not content, and this will lead to more pain than it is worth.
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
Here we have that word testing.
I hate hearing it, but guess what?
Even God tests.
He uses them.
He creator of the universe uses tests so they are not the bad thing that we think they are.
I think we can all have a little more comfort knowing that they are a part of the design in life.
They are all for the whole point of some bigger purpose.
What kind of tests are they?
What kind of tests are they?
They are tests of our faith?
What is faith?
It is important that we define this.
This is a good verse to define it:
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is a substance of things hoped for.
There are things that are unseen, and those are things that we hope for.
Remember how we talked about the hope that we have on that future day.
Another way to think of faith is trust.
That might paint the picture a little better.
***** Ask someone to come up:
If I were to say “Hey, come up here and fall back and I will catch you.”
Would you actually fall backwards and let me catch you?
That would all depend on if you had faith in me and my ability.
That would all depend on if you trusted me.
You would have a hope for a reaction and ability in me that you would not be able to see, until it was tested.
Faith is a hope or trust in something that you cannot see, but it moves you to have action.
If I hear that a missal is heading towards my house, I am going to ditch all of you and act with urgency to go save my family.
I cannot see the missal, but my faith/trust in the news and source.
This causes me to act and do so fast
Everybody has hope/trust in something, and that means everyone has faith in something.
You have faith in the chairs that you are sitting in.
You have faith that they are well put together.
Therefore, you have trust in the manufacturer.
You have faith in the people who built this chapel, because you are trusting it isn’t going to come all crashing down.
You have the hope, whether you take it for granted or not, to not worry about that when you come in here.
There is a correlation between peace and faith.
There is a correlation between peace and faith.
They go hand in hand, just like peace and joy.
Because you have faith, and trust, it brings confidence and peace.
You are probably not walking into buildings and sitting in chairs with great anxiety.
Constantly being tense and looking over your shoulder.
No you are able to come and go with peace.
How does God test our faith?
How does God test our faith?
We have to go back to James 1:2.
James says it is our enduring trials.
What is a trial?
Is it what happens to decide if someone goes to prison or not?
No, this is the definition:
Trial- a test of the performance, qualities, or suitability of someone or something.
So a trial is a kind of test.
It is also a hard time, like when bad things happen.
Everyone goes through trials.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:45
45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
There are trials that come in life.
They really test a lot.
They are definitely not fun most of the time.
They can be things where there is drama in your life, money problems, etc.
Really when things don’t go according to your plans.
Jesus says that it doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong.
Holy or wicked.
Good or bad.
The rain does not take into consideration if you are being good or bad.
It will still rain on whoever equally.
Trials are a big part of life and they are going to feel unfair.
We all want things to go good for us, especially if we have been doing well.
The problem is that that is now how it works.
God is sovereign.
What does this mean?
He is in control.
When bad things happen, He is not surprised.
God is not causing all of the bad things to happen.
This is what can we can feel like when bad things happen and we just want peace.
We just want better things.
We need to understand that God is not making you have health problems.
Not making the bullies at school bully you.
God allows things things to happen.
Not because He likes seeing people suffer.
But because He has a plan and they will bring about a result.
We need to understand the role and place of God, trials, and the reality, as not to misunderstand them.
James says that these trials are tests of our faith.
James says that these trials are tests of our faith.
They help show the inner reality of what faith is.
Where it is at.
Why is it important?
Faith is what pleases God.
Everybody has something that pleases them.
Faith/trust/hope in God is what makes Him pleased with us.
We are created to have a relationship with God, and this is part of a healthy relationship.
Pleasing each other.
Having faith and trust in one another.
The test through trials is not for God.
The test through trials is not for God.
You may be asking, why God needs to test us and allow trials.
It is not for Him.
God knows everything.
He is omniscient.
It means all knowing.
God tests us and allows trials to test us for ourselves.
So we know where our faith in Him is.
So we know where our peace is.
So we know the content of our joy.
A math test shows where our understanding is.
A PE test shows how in shape we are.
We can keep going.
A life trial, something that gets in the way of our peace, tests our faith.
Remember, peace is not being a way from the crazy, but having contentment, faith, and calm in the chaos.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
The results of the testing from trials, is that God is producing the result in us.
he is giving us patience.
Patience is a form of peace.
It is a skill in peace, to be all right with how everything going.
God will also make us perfect.
Who wants to be perfect?
There so many definitions and expectations of what being perfect means.
We typically think that being perfect is something that is impossible.
The biblical definition, which is really Gods definition of perfection is that you lack nothing.
The cool thing is that if you walk with Jesus,you will be perfect.
Everything that you lack, you will have in Jesus.
Dokimon
Dokimon
The word for test in Greek that James uses is “dokimon.”
Not Pokemon.
This word paints a picture in the original language.
It means test, but not like we know that word.
It paints the picture of a smith, mining for gold or silver ore.
When he finds it, it is all gnarly looking.
It looks very dirty and it looks more like rock.
The smith takes it and subjects it to fire.
This fire is the test.
The fire brings about the impurities and makes them come to the top.
The smith scrapes them off.
He does this multiple times.
He keeps putting the ore in the fire and getting rid of the impurities until he can see his reflection in the gold or silver.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This is what God is doing for us.
He is testing us.
Putting us through fire, if you will.
He makes is bringing out all of the things in us that are not good, and we will start looking more in His image, as He created us.