The Joy Of Fruitful Trials

Please stand for the reading of God's Word.

Our scripture readings for the Old Testament is Job 42, one through six, and

then 10 through 17.

The Job answered the Lord and said, I

know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?

Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Hear, and I will speak.

I will question you, and you make things known to me.

I had heard of you by hearing your ear, but now my eyes see you.

Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Verse 10.

And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends.

And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he ever had before.

Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house.

And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil the Lord had brought upon him.

And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning.

And he had 14 ,000 sheep, 6 ,000 camels, 1 ,000 yoke of oxen, and 1 ,000

female donkeys.

And he had seven sons and three daughters.

And he called the name of his first daughter, Jemima, the name of his second daughter, Uzziah, and the name of his

third daughter, Haranhubba.

And in all the land there was no women so beautiful as Job's daughters.

And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

And after that, Job lived 140 years and saw his sons and his sons' sons four generations.

And Job died an old man and full of days.

The New Testament we're reading today is in 1 Peter 1, verses three through nine.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,

kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a

salvation ready to be revealed in the last of time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various

trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes

through, it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and

honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him,

you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of

your faith, the salvation of your souls.

You may be seated.

Well, good morning.

Open your Bibles to James chapter one, please.

James chapter one.

Tim had asked me to preach today.

I was planning on preaching next Lord's Day at a church in Michigan that's struggling.

It's a like -minded church and I asked the deacon there what would be the best topic

for me to preach on.

He said, enduring trials.

So that's what I've been working on and Tim asked me to preach today and I said, well, the thing I've been working on is

kind of what you addressed last week.

So, you know, I was thinking about maybe not doing it, but he said, no, it's good to do it.

It's a topic that we need to be reminded of, at least I do, daily.

So hopefully it's a blessing to you as it's been a blessing to me to look at this text.

Again, James one, chapter one, verse two.

James says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full

effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach

and it will be given to him.

But he needs to ask in faith with no doubting.

For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord since he's a double

-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Also let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation because like a flower of the

grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass, its flowers falls and its beauty perishes.

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.

For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love

him.

So let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.

But rather each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death.

So do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

And it coming down from the Father of lights with whom, with the Father, with God, there is no variation or

shadow due to change.

Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of

his creatures.

Oh God in heaven, what a weighty topic indeed of how we are to view trials,

tribulations, testings, examinations.

Lord, in our natural flesh, we want to deal with it in a certain way that leads to death.

But I'm thankful, God, that you have a different purpose for it.

One of life, that is the crown of life, that is to be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

That is that we would be the first fruits of your creatures.

That we would be fruitful, that we would produce not death but life.

Lord, I know that every one of us in here today needs to hear this.

I know I needed to hear it.

God in heaven, may this message solidify in our hearts and minds that you are the one who sends trials and it is for

our good, not our death.

So God, be with my words, be with my lips.

I know, in part at least, how much I need you.

And I pray that you'd be with the people before me so that we can conform better to the image of your great son who has saved

us from our sins by our faith in him.

Jesus' name, amen.

When you hear the name Nobel, you think of, typically, the

prize given for people, for someone in the year who was really instrumental in bringing

peace to the world in some way or the other.

It's called the Nobel Peace Prize.

The prize actually came around in the 1800s when a man named Albert Nobel willed all

his money at his death to be given to this prize that would be given to the person who

was thought worthy of his work of peace.

But it's interesting, the story of Nobel, he was a man who invented dynamite.

At first, he wanted to name dynamite Nobel's safety powder because really the purpose of it was

to enable explosives to create paths and everything for travel in a more

safe way.

But indeed, it was supposed to blow up certain holes in mountains and all that kind of fun stuff.

And he wanted to call it Nobel's safety powder because it was really something that was supposed to be of help.

His intentions was for it to be safer option.

But he settled on dynamite, which in the Greek means power.

Dynamite became known for a different use, however, and that is in killing enemies.

And you had the use that he had for, that was all about for peace and prosperity.

And of course, knowing man, I thought, hey, that could kill a lot of people.

And so it became known as killing many people, used for

killing enemies.

One time, and this is debated if this actually happened, but it's too good to not say, Nobel's brother

died and the newspapers got it wrong.

They thought he died and he read his own obituary.

And in his own obituary, he was appalled to see that his legacy would be that he was the merchant of death because of his

invention of dynamite.

And he was terrified by this because he was a pacifist.

He didn't want to be known by that.

So that's what drove him to, because he was known by this dynamite to kill so much, it drove him to

say, and when I die, all my money proceeds are going to go towards this Nobel Peace Prize, the one who can be

rewarded for their work of peace in the world.

It's an interesting as I consider that, as we consider that, that something can have so different,

two stark different uses.

That dynamite, as an example, can be used in two totally different ways.

One for helping communications and transportations and the prosperity of culture, another

one in death.

And really, this is the story of all creation, right?

There's things that in life that God has created good, and it is very often used in a very wicked way.

I think Facebook is a good example of that.

I think I might've said that before, that Facebook can be used in a way that really teaches us how to be superficial in our communication and it

destroys it, but it also can keep Nana informed on the family when she cannot be close by.

In fact, in my worst moments, I feel like my aunt, who I haven't seen in probably

10 years, knows more about my family than I do because of Facebook.

It can be helpful, but it can also be very bad.

There's all sorts of different examples.

The family is supposed to be something that is supposed to nurture the youth as they get brought up so that they can be productive

in society, but far too often, the family becomes a curse to the individuals in which they become

very bad for society.

Go to the prisons and ask about their family life, and typically, you'll hear the same story.

They had a very bad family life.

Things that God has intended to be used for good, oftentimes, the devil uses it for bad.

The fruit of Adam, the fruit for Adam.

God intended that fruit for his life.

Satan intended that fruit for his death.

The cross of Christ, Satan intended it for his death.

God intended the cross of Christ for his life.

Things can be used in a very good way, in a cursed way.

And for all those who deny themselves to pick up their cross and follow Jesus, our

trials are the same thing.

Trials have two different purposes, one from a purpose from God and a purpose from

Satan.

A purpose from God and a purpose from our flesh.

And we can use it in very different ways.

As those who have been called out by God to believe upon Jesus and follow him in life,

God intends trials for your good, for a very

particular purpose of good.

But there is a very different purpose that Satan has for it, and it is for your death.

The very opposite of production of fruit in your life, it is to produce death in you.

Trials have that stark two different realities.

Our lives are filled with trials, whether big or various small ones.

In our flock, we talked about trials, and we were talking about how it seems like sometimes, and maybe we're just being pompous when we say this,

but it seems like the big trials are a little bit easier to manage, right?

But it's the small ones, the everyday ones that weigh down on us, right?

Various trials, James calls it.

And what does James say?

He says, consider it joy when you go through this various trials.

It's kind of like rude in a way.

It's not only, hey, get over it, you're going to face trials.

But he says, and you're gonna like it.

It kind of reminds me of with peas and food that my kids won't eat.

And I say, you're going to eat it, and you're going to have a happy heart as you do it.

It almost seems like it could be taunting whenever we consider our days, our week, this week, and how the

various trials come on us, and we are to have joy as we go through

them.

I just think of the smallest, most minute trial in my life, and I think, my goodness, that is a tall order.

I want to talk about trains again.

I've talked about this before.

You remember Marianne?

Trains stop in the middle of the way and stop you from going where you're going.

I think they just want to stop you from going where you're going.

Well, even coming out of the church this week, I turned right to go across the tracks to get to the Dollar General, and

what is there waiting for me?

A parked train.

What are you doing there?

This isn't Marianne.

And so this is all excuse for me to complain, murmur, grumble, such a small trial.

But yeah, I want to use in this sort of way.

But you see, I'm following a path of death.

It's far too, and even I'm doing it right now, kind of joke around about those things, about our murmurings,

about our grumbles.

We got to understand that that's the start of us going down the path that Satan has for it.

That is our death, where the start of what God has for it is joy because we know what

God is doing in it.

What is God doing in it?

What is the use that Satan has for it?

Well, look at verse two.

James says,.

Or consider it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various kinds of

trials.

I meant to do this already.

Trial is like an examination, okay?

The word is like an examination.

It's to examine you.

And we know how much did we like examinations in school.

We didn't like it too often because it applied pressure to the, something that we were supposed to know already.

So now we're gonna be pressured into seeing if we know it already, or if we know it, and it can be a very

terrible process, especially if we come up short.

The idea is an examination where pressure is going to be applied to you, and that pressure

of itself is not fun.

It's not an enjoyable process of itself when you don't see the whole picture.

That is an examination.

Think of another, maybe a good example, is like a bridge.

A bridge can look like a bridge, but it's not proven to be a bridge until pressure is placed on

it to see if it successfully brings across semi -trucks and heavy loads.

Well, you call yourself a Christian, do you?

Well, let's see what that examination proves.

Will you be able to withhold the pressure and produce something from it?

This is the idea of a trial.

It's an examination.

It's a time where pressure is placed on you, and of itself, it is not enjoyable.

That's why we like to mumble, to complain, to murmur, and to run away.

And you see, he says, consider it, count it all joy.

Now, consider means that there's two different options for us here, right?

We gotta consider it.

There's an option A, an option B, and we gotta consider it one option, which is joy,

to encounter these various trials, but there's another option before us that we can choose, that we more than we like to

admit, do choose.

And that is, I think, the option of verse 13 that he's getting to.

Whenever we say, he says, let no one say when he is tempted, in verse 13 of James 1, I am being tempted by

God.

Let no one say when he is tested or examined, I am being tempted with this by God to sin.

He says, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, and that desire, when it

conceives, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

You see, what I think he's saying there is that there's this thing that can happen where a test comes, and we say, in

our heart, in our mind, that this is being used by God for my death, for my not good,

for death indeed.

And so, you might look at that, and you might say, you know what, I have never said that.

I have never said I'm being tempted by God in my trial.

I have never once said that.

And you might be right, you probably didn't say that.

But I don't think it's a stretch for me to say that whenever you face a trial, and you start to complain

and murmur, when we do that, what are we doing within our heart?

God is bringing this on me to bring me to sin and death.

Isn't that what we're saying in our heart, if not in our voice?

Is that not what we're saying implicitly, if not explicitly?

That God is obviously bringing this temptation upon me so I can sin, and that's what I'm gonna do.

Beloved, whenever we murmur, complain, whenever we encounter those various trials in a way that is filled with a

heart not full of joy, or anticipation of what God is going to do with it, I think indeed we're saying, if

not explicitly, implicitly, that God has tempted me to sin.

Now see, that's the one avenue that we can take trials, is that we

say, well, God is ordaining all things, ordaining this trial, and obviously it's not for my good, that's why

I'm going to complain about it.

But James here says there's a different way.

There is a different way of looking at this that is truth.

And so he starts by saying, consider it all rather joy.

Consider it joy.

Consider it happiness.

I've heard it before that joy and happiness are two different things.

I don't think they are, personally, I don't.

You know, nevertheless, I probably don't need to get into it that much right now, but I think he's really saying, consider it joy.

Consider it your happiness.

Consider it a good thing, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.

Various kinds of trials.

Well, why though?

What is, in order for us to understand that, in order for that to make sense, we need, and I always say this, need

to see the bigger picture.

We need to see the bigger picture.

If you go to the trial, whatever it might be, whether it's at your work, whether it's your child, whatever the situation

might be, your husband, your wife, whatever it is, if we are just looking at that and we have tunnel vision, nothing's

gonna make sense.

And the moment you start grumbling, it's because you have developed tunnel vision.

You need to take a step back and see what is going on here.

You need to go 40 ,000 feet up in the air and say, what is God doing here?

And James says, when you meet these various trials, be joyful, why?

Because you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Now, when we have faced certain trials in a way that leads to death, what does it produce?

Death, that's what it produces.

But whenever we face it this way, what does it do?

It produces something of substance, of good, and the start of it is steadfastness.

What's the nature of steadfastness?

Steadfastness is a good thing.

It implies that something is applying pressure against you and you are able to stand against it.

God ordains trials for you, Christian, so that in those trials, you prove to be steadfast in it.

Trials are used by God to add pressure so that it creates steadfastness in you as you work up

against the pressure over time.

It is God's goodness to us that he would give us these testings to prove our steadfastness, to

build that muscle.

Because steadfastness is just the road to the end.

It's just a means to the end because there's something that goes beyond it.

He says, let your steadfastness in verse four have its full effect.

So in other words, your trial produces steadfastness and your steadfastness produces or full effects something,

too.

And what is that?

That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

What does this mean?

We can grab other texts from Scripture and know that it doesn't mean that we are going to be perfect in this life.

The point is that through these trials, you're going to one day be a perfect person.

But he is saying that this is going to prove to mature you and grow you after the image of Jesus Christ who is perfect.

That this is going to be used in your life to grow you after the image of Jesus who is perfect and that will cause you to

immaturity to be lacking nothing.

A believer in Jesus Christ starts off looking very, very shaky, doesn't he?

We need to be careful when someone first comes to Christ how much we expect from them, right?

If I could look at my life 10 years ago, 15 years ago from now, I would blush.

And 15 years in the future, if I could look back, I would still blush.

We are in this state as Christians through progressive sanctification of growing more and more after the image of

Jesus who is perfect.

And God uses trials to do that in your life.

He doesn't use, although he does, I shouldn't say he doesn't, he uses good times in your life, too, to grow you in

that.

But he uses trials.

He certainly loves to use trials to bring about the pressure on you so you can remain steadfast through Jesus

and it produces an image of Jesus that is perfect.

You grow in perfection.

You wanna, it's a tragedy.

It is a tragedy to look at the older generation, I'm not talking about all you guys,

but to look at the older generation and to see them not matured.

And I guarantee you, if you go back to see what the issue was, is that they never learned to have joy

in their trials because it's producing something good.

Instead, they face these trials with a murmuring heart over and over again, and God,

and maturity's not worked in their heart because of it.

You see James here, he's saying that when we encounter various trials, what needs to be in our minds is what God does

in trials, and what God does in trials is he works steadfastness in you and he works perfection or maturity

or growth in you to the point to where you become lacking and nothing.

But see, that's not the only thing that trials, that what God does in trials.

Look at verse 12.

James says, It's the same idea, right?

Blessed is the man who faces trials and he remains steadfast.

For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to

those who love him.

See, not only are we growing in maturity after the perfection of Jesus, growing after his image, but

also we receive the crown of life, which I think is the eternal life.

We receive the whole thing in eternity.

And so God uses trials as a means towards that end to give you that eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

But it's not even just that.

I think generally speaking, he summarizes it in verses 17 and 18.

He says,.

I could wait until I get here in a few minutes, but why would he need to tell people that who are

encountering various trials that tempt them to get their eyes off of God?

Because whenever we are encountering a trial that's hurting us, we can start to think, well, God might be changing his

disposition to me, right?

Isn't that a temptation we all have?

Oh, we believe that God is full of love and good for us, but whenever that trial is placed on us, all of a sudden

we could be thinking a different thing.

Maybe God has changed the way he's treated me here.

And James is reminding them, don't ever forget that everything that is happening to you is coming to you as a gift.

Your trial is a gift from God.

And I say that without blushing.

He says it comes from God who never changes.

Why?

What is he doing?

He says in verse 18,.

So through these trials, we grow in maturity, we're going to have eternal life, and we are going to produce fruit for

God.

Now, again, that cannot be a throwaway point.

When I say that you can produce fruit for God, that needs to get you giddy.

That needs to get you excited because that is the whole purpose God has for you.

You know that?

You know that whenever you are producing fruit for God, you are fulfilled because that's his whole purpose for your salvation?

He did not save you just so you could go off to do your own thing, but he saved you for a purpose that you would produce

fruit for him.

The firstfruits was, whenever the fruit was coming in for the season, they would offer their first, what they

got, to God.

And so what James here is saying is that in other scriptures, it says that Jesus Christ is the firstfruit, and those who

believe upon Jesus, we become firstfruit.

That is the firstfruits of the whole earth, all creation being renewed after

righteousness.

One day, everything will be made new and all will be in righteousness.

And us being changed after the Lord Jesus Christ, being made righteous within our heart by faith in him,

we are the firstfruits of that major change that's gonna happen.

And as he carries you out through your life, he puts pressure on you so that righteousness that he has given you in

Jesus can reveal itself so you can reveal that fruit that he's producing in you.

Fruit, to be fruit, to produce fruit, is to be or to act righteous.

Is to display the character of who God is.

In our sin, we display the character of who God isn't.

But in Jesus Christ, he makes us righteous and we practice that righteousness by his power and we so and so do and

produce fruit for him because we are reflecting who he is.

Your whole mission, your whole purpose on this earth is not to grab hold of

all of your possessions that you want to have so tightly.

Your whole purpose is that everything that you have, you would use as a display of who God is,

who Jesus is, and in so doing, you are producing fruit.

So when James says that trials lead to you producing fruit, you are

to say, yes, there is good for me there.

If your whole purpose in life, if your whole desire in life is to produce fruit, you will say, we'll bring

the trials, if that's what he wills, just let me use it for his glory and honor and be fruitful for my God.

This is the means that he uses.

So that's what he's getting at here.

The question can be in our hearts and our minds how

difficult it is to be in that mindset as we face this

particular trial that we may be looking at.

Because I can guarantee you, which road are you on?

And the way your attitude is as you approach that trial will show which direction you're

heading.

If in your heart you're filled with joy, it might not look like happiness like you're in Disney World,

although I wouldn't want to be there now anyways, but nevertheless, it might not look like that, but nevertheless, there's an underlining joy saying I

know what God is doing here.

And then you will be ready to go to that trial with the expectation that you're gonna produce fruit

in that trial.

But what helps us to get in that mindset?

Well, I think he labels two things here that I'm gonna cover.

And the first one is wisdom.

In verse five.

Verse five, he says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without

reproach and it will be given to him.

You gotta imagine, he just said you need to have joy in your trials, various trials.

And it's gonna produce perfection, maturity in you.

And the question can be, well, you know what?

A lot of times, that's not even close to being on my mind when I'm encountering these various trials.

It's not even close to being on my mind that God is using this for my good so I can produce fruit for him.

It's not even close.

Well, he says, well, then pray to God for wisdom.

Ask God for wisdom.

Wisdom is applied to knowledge, right?

I know something to be true and so my life is going to reflect it.

That's what wisdom is.

And so what he's saying there is if you kind of have a hard time having joy in your trials, the first thing you should probably do

is pray to God for the proper wisdom that will facilitate that in your heart.

I like what he says here.

This is a great comfort.

That he says he gives.

You know, your God loves you.

He cares for you.

He gives generously to you.

It's not like he's thinking, well, I don't wanna give them too much wisdom.

He loves you.

He wants you to understand this.

He wants you to be a bulwark of truth in Jesus Christ as you encounter various trials.

He's not against you.

He's for you in Jesus Christ.

So I love the words here.

It needs to be something that just, that really just is a warm blanket to our

souls.

And what she says, he gives generously to all without reproach and it's given to him.

But look at verse six.

He needs to ask in faith though.

Verse six, he needs to ask in faith with no doubting.

For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

What is he talking about here?

Well, faith is a confidence.

You know what faith is.

We say we need to have faith in Jesus.

What does that mean?

Faith is a belief or a trust or a confidence in something.

You are saved when you place your faith or trust or confidence in Jesus Christ that he can take care of your sins

and make you a new creature.

That is your salvation is when you place your confidence in him, nothing else.

When you're confident in one thing, you're not gonna be having your confidence in anything else.

Your confidence is all in on Jesus.

Well, it's the same thing with this kind of faith that he's talking about here.

When you ask God of things, you need to do it with confidence, not in your own self, but confidence in

the one you're asking.

And again, when the heat of that trial, that pressure is bearing down on you, you need to have the faith, the trust, the

confidence that when I ask God for help with this, he is the type of God who's going to help me.

He's all powerful, all good.

Whenever you have a promise of scripture that God says, I will do this for you, highlight it

and understand it and cry out in light of it.

Far too often, Christians can fall into this trap of having such confidence

and promises that God never promised.

God doesn't promise you good health.

He doesn't promise you wealth and possessions.

You don't need those things ultimately.

You need Jesus Christ and he promises you him.

And he promises you help to reflect Christ in trials when you cry out to him in

confidence for that wisdom.

That is something that should really, really

encourage you.

That in those moments where I feel very far from having joy in my trials, I feel very far

from seeing the bigger picture, what are you to do?

Go to your father who cares for you, who says, I will give you that wisdom if you ask me with confidence that I am the type of

God who will do that for you.

So that's what we do.

That's what you are to do.

Guess what your worship looks like as you're struggling with those trials with your kids and with your spouse and

having patience.

And what does your worship look like?

Oh Lord, give me the wisdom and the understanding of what's actually happening in the bigger picture here, please, because all I can see are my

problems.

Your worship, your time with the Lord becomes so much more beautiful as you are relying

in confidence upon God that he will give what he's promised to give.

Now granted, it might not be as fast as you would like, but it will be given when you are confident

in the ability and the desire for God to give you these good things, to give you

the understanding of what is happening in this trial that I'm facing.

He will give you that wisdom.

But whenever we are so all over the place, trial's hit, and now all of a sudden we have no

confidence in God.

We don't believe him and his promises.

He says that in the Bible, but now that I'm hit with this trial, I'm not gonna believe it.

I'm all over the place.

Well, we're like a wave in the sea.

It just goes.

He says, for that person, in verse seven, when you are not confident in God because that trial is

causing your eyes to look elsewhere, he says, that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He's a double -minded man, and he's unstable in all his ways.

So in those trials, it must be our desire that when you lack that wisdom, you go to the God who has

promised you that wisdom in Jesus Christ, and you take him at his word.

You have faith in what he has said.

Not just wisdom, though, to help us with having joy in our trials for it to

produce fruit in us.

Not just wisdom we need, but he talks about humility as well.

He says in verse nine, let the brother who boasts in his exaltation.

He says, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.

Now here, a lot of times when we talk about humility and the like,

we can be talking about just spiritual humility, right, being humble.

But sometimes when we talk about exaltation here or being, having much,

we're talking about material blessings.

And I think what James is talking about here is material blessings.

He says, the lowly brother is one who is poor.

But I think he's referring to the lowly brother who's poor.

Why is he poor?

Because he's facing trials.

And that trial, one of them is, is that the governor or whoever has taken his wealth away because of his faith in Jesus.

See what I mean?

The lowly brother here is the one who has taken, his trial that he's facing is all his possessions are being taken away because of

his faith in Christ.

And you know what he says about that person?

It's the same thing.

Because they're all joy when someone takes all your possessions because of your faith in Jesus, right?

Jesus taught the same thing.

Consider it all joy.

He says, actually, you know what you need to do?

You need to exalt in that situation of your life that your possessions would be taken for the sake of

glorifying Jesus.

You need to exalt in that humility, right?

He says, let the lowly brother boast in that situation, in that

exaltation of producing fruit for Jesus and your possessions being taken away.

And he says, and the rich brother or the rich one who has those possessions, he needs to boast in his

humiliation.

Well, what does he mean?

Because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass.

Its flowers falls and its beauty perishes.

So also all will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

The rich man who pursues everything that his whole life, one day it's gonna all get burned up.

And I find it interesting that in the trials that we face, the things that we want to have the grumblies about, right, are typically

things that we're holding on tightly, they're gonna burn up one day anyways.

You know what will not burn up?

The fruit we produce for the Lord.

That's gonna remain forever.

One day in eternity, you're gonna look back at everything, hopefully in the presence of the Father because your

belief upon Jesus.

And the only thing you're gonna care about is how much fruit did I produce for my Lord.

You won't care about whether you got the raise or not.

You won't care anything about how your kids were very difficult when they were two, three, and four years old.

You will care, did I produce fruit in that difficulty?

The things that you want to hold so much onto and have such a bad attitude with, I'm speaking to myself here, are the

things that are going to burn up in eternity.

But what will remain forever is the fruit you produce to the Lord.

And that is what you are going to care about in eternity.

I just want to produce more for my King who has saved me from my sins.

I want him to have it all.

I want him to have it.

Everything else will burn.

Paul talks about that too.

The chaff will burn.

But what remains is our works or our fruit for the Lord.

So the need for humility, right?

The need for humility, that all of it is going anyways and I just want to humbly come before my King and produce him

fruit.

The need for wisdom, the need for humility.

But notice how there's a lack of both wisdom and humility in the one who is going after

the fleshly desires or going after the avenue that the Satan has for that trial for your death.

Notice the lack of those things in verse 13 on.

He says,.

And he himself tempts no one.

You know what that person needs when we're in that mindset?

We need wisdom.

That person thinks that this trial is coming upon me is God just using this to try to get me to sin or to fall into death.

Again, you might not say that explicitly with your words but with your actions, with your attitude, you might be saying

just that.

And what we need in that moment is wisdom.

What is actually going on here?

No, this thing that's happening to me isn't for my death.

It isn't for me to sin.

It is actually for my production.

It is actually for me to be productive for my king who's worthy of such production because of his work of salvation.

You see in verse 13, the person lacks wisdom.

And so James is providing to each person.

You know why in that trial you fall into sin?

It's because each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

What should your desire be?

To produce fruit for God.

Why do you fall into sin in such trials?

Because your desire is your own desires for anything else.

Whether it be comfort.

What's the idol that you have in your heart that's causing you to grumble at trials?

It's something.

It's typically comfort.

I want to feel better.

Whatever it may be, that's your own desires.

So guess what you need there?

Humility to lower those desires to be what God desires for you, and that is to produce fruit.

Oh God, if your desire for me is to produce fruit, I want to produce fruit.

And this trial is given to you by a good gift from you so I can produce that fruit, my desire is to produce fruit for

you there.

But if your desire is bringing you to a different direction, making you grumble, making you sin,

what does that show?

It shows that your desires are haughty, prideful.

It's above what God has for you.

You don't want that.

You don't want to be in that situation.

No, instead, our desire is to be humbled and need to be lowered to what God desires, and that will then, in that, exalt you.

He says,.

And so what does he say?

Do not be deceived.

Have wisdom.

Don't be deceived.

Verse 16, James 1, stop being deceived.

You need to have wisdom, stop being deceived.

Stop going down the track that looks like the better way because Satan is deceiving you, but rather, submit yourself to

the Father.

Why?

Because he says in verse 17,.

So, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds because it produces steadfastness,

because it produces perfection in you.

It produces fruit in you.

This is what James' aim here is.

So what are you using your trials for?

You get a good indicator if you have a heart of joy or grumbling as you encounter it.

That is a good indicator in your life.

You ask, how do I have joy?

How do I do that?

That's a tall order.

Well, pray in faith to Christ that he is able to give you joy by giving you wisdom and knowing what God is

doing with that trial.

There is such an importance for you to understand what God is doing in that trial.

Instead of believing what Satan wants to do, you follow what God wants for that trial.

Pray in faith to Christ that he would humble you to desire what God is doing for you in that trial.

His purpose for you is that you would be productive.

God desires productive people.

He wants productive people.

He's not okay with his people being lazy and not pursuing holiness and righteousness and

showing the world who Christ is.

No, God has saved you for righteousness.

He saved you to be righteous.

He saved you to glorify his son.

His purpose for you in these trials is that you would be productive, that you would be using all your

circumstances in life to reflect Christ and therefore produce fruit.

Because at the end of it all, the things that make us grumble and question God's goodness in the trials are the things

that will burn up and all will be left is the fruit we have produced for Christ.

So may your trials today be something that will result in eternal fruit and may it be your joy to

be so used by God.

And this is why, and we're not gonna go right into the Lord's table, but this is why the Lord's table is so

good, isn't it?

It's like, oh man, I stink.

Like, I completely stink.

Because it is such a tall order to have this sort of attitude.

It is something that takes time and patience and it takes trials and experience.

And as we are going through it, we fail and we stumble and we complain and we murmur.

But how good and kind is it that Jesus Christ is patient with us?

He's not looking down at us and be like, oh my goodness, look at that.

He's being an idiot again.

But instead he's saying, I'll produce fruit from this.

I'll produce fruit from this.

So what a blessed thing it is to take of the Lord's supper to remind us of these beautiful things that Christ is doing for us.

That he'd be kind to us, he would remind us of his gospel, of his peace, of his patience, of his grace for you, so that

through these things you would learn that it is a good thing to face trials because this is the pressure he's applying so that I would

respond in faith and trust in him and produce fruit of righteousness as I go through it.

What a kind God we have in this as we will talk about more in a few minutes.

Let us pray.

God in heaven, I thank you for Jesus.

I thank you Lord that you expect great things from us, not because we're

great, but because you have given us Jesus Christ who is great.

You've given us of a spirit, you've given us the ability through the new covenant

to live in a way that is so different from those around us.

Lord, we see trials coming, let us not act like the world, but let us know that you are doing something very

significant with this trial, that you are doing something that will produce something in eternity that is fruit for our Lord

Jesus Christ, worship for him, reflecting him to all those around us.

God in heaven, I pray that we wouldn't be deceived and follow after the path of what Satan uses trials for, for our death,

for our prideful desires to be fulfilled, but rather Lord, let us humble

ourselves, look to Jesus and see that it is good to serve him, even and especially in the midst

of the worst of trials.

I thank you for these reminders and I thank you for Christ who applies it to us by his work of the spirit.

Let us look to him now for the strength to do so.

May he be praised forever, in Jesus name, amen.