Joy in Trial

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, we 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. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given. But let him 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. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. That's the word of God. The focus this morning is very much on the second verse, James 1:2. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, of course, when you meet trials of many kinds.

I'm wondering, as I prepared this message, whether some of you, if not all of you, had spent some time last Sunday night, New Year's Eve, maybe you were alone or in the company of close friends and family. When the clock struck twelve and you welcomed in 2024, I'm wondering whether you had the opportunity to reflect on the year that was and how it was that your faith was grown, tested, tried, and what your experience of God and God's family, the church, was really like. Given the wild storms and the amount of rain that fell, I suspect most of us were tucked up safely in bed, fast asleep. But at some point, I wouldn't mind suggesting there was a conversation, at least in your own head, about the highs and lows of 2023, the good times and the bad times, the blessings and the failures. Maybe there are things that you were hoping would be very different in 2023, improve even, and now looking forward to a situation in 2024 where things might get better. Truth is, we're likely to repeat behaviours that were evident in 2023.

Sometimes things get worse. I don't think anyone deliberately sets out to repeat bad behaviour, the mistakes of the past. In fact, we want to do the opposite. We want to achieve a better future for our families, for our kids and our grandkids and for ourselves. Many of you were here on Thanksgiving Sunday in November, and we've already shared then at that particular time, did we not, things that happened in the church community at least that were cause for celebration and much thanksgiving.

I'm thinking of the birth of a child, a wedding, a recovery over some protracted illness, the welcome of a new believer into our fellowship. And sometimes bad things get shared too, but they don't get spoken about much in church, and neither are they handled very well. And when I reflect on the words of James 1:2, it seems a shame because the perspective James wants us to have is joy. Joy not just in the good times, but also in trials, in trials of various kinds. This letter from James is all about living out our faith practically, practical Christian living, and it's an invitation to live out our faith with joy throughout 2024.

James is talking to all of us. He's talking to me, talking to my wife and my family, to you and your family as well, and to our church family. It's about faith lived out in a real world with joy and perseverance. And so often that faith comes under fire, under attack, and yet it needs to be lived out with joy day by day, sometimes even hour by hour. I know when I focus on the big picture, the long-term picture on what Regina's cancer would mean for our lives, our family, our future, joy was in short supply.

I didn't know how we were going to cope, quite frankly, much less experience the kind of joy that James was talking about. It's a bit like being overwhelmed looking at a picture on the front of a box that has a thousand puzzle pieces inside. Inside, those pieces threatened to do my head in, but my wife, she loves puzzles and isn't overwhelmed by the huge number of pieces. Gently, lovingly, she can find a place for each piece in the big picture. She knows how to break it down into bite-sized chunks, so to speak.

And in the process, you deal with a major trial just one day at a time in bite-sized chunks, step by step, sometimes from one appointment to the next, at other times literally from one tablet to the next. And you begin to see that God has a purpose in it all. For each new day, He's doing something absolutely wonderful. Let me repeat what James is saying to us. There is joy, joy in trials to be had for everyone who shares the Christian faith.

Now notice how James starts his letter. He gives us his credentials. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't describe himself, first of all, as a brother of Jesus, though he was. Doesn't describe himself, first of all, with the authority of an apostle, though he was.

He uses the word servant to identify himself. In fact, that's how he wants to be known by his readers. And what does a servant do? Well, a servant's job is to obey, to satisfy his master, to serve his master. And you and I, we're being called, like James, to be servants of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Knowing that, accepting that the reality of that is something that will define you becomes your identity. You can identify as someone who has the privilege of serving the risen King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you recognise into whose service you have been called, and that is going to be the beginning of a never-ending source of joy in your life. Now, let me ask you a question. What's the worst, most annoying sound you've ever heard? One of my pet peeves, and if you're a younger person here, you've probably never heard about this, but what about fingernails on a blackboard?

You know, at one time there was a blackboard on the wall behind me here. There was a little pastor who stood in the pulpit, and if you were to scrape your nails on that board, the sound would give you not only goosebumps, but would be excruciating. Remember that awful screech. What about a screaming baby on an aeroplane? That's not pleasant.

Or have you ever waited at the traffic lights and the motorist beside you has a hearing impairment? All you can hear is the doof, doof, doofing of the subwoofer in his boot. But another annoying sound is that of whinging children and complaining adults. And that's how some people respond to trials. And no matter how many hints you give them, these people never seem to get it.

It's a behaviour that we might normally attribute to a three-year-old. It's the never-ending self-pitying, nagging sound of someone whinging. It's just awful. Not the best way to respond to life's problems and difficulties. But that's how many people choose to respond.

If not verbally, then certainly on Facebook or other forums. Other people just throw in the towel. They give up. They sink into some kind of depression, and there are those who respond with anger. They blow their temper.

They get mad. They lash out. Sometimes, they even get angry at God. And another response is to live in denial, to pretend that the trial or the temptation never really happened. It's like nothing's wrong.

You know, we have two English expressions for that, keep a stiff upper lip or keep your chin up. You know, when someone gets upset, the lip might tremble. Keep it stiff, we say. Don't show that you are upset. And the same thing is true for keeping your chin up.

Don't walk around with your head cast down. Look at the person you're talking to in the eye. Have confidence. Be optimistic. But James doesn't tell us to have those kinds of responses, those that I've just mentioned.

Have a whinge. He doesn't say that. Give up or live in denial. Doesn't say that either. Get angry.

He doesn't say that. He doesn't tell us to keep a stiff upper lip. James tells us that a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ can count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of many kinds. Now, what are these trials that James is talking about? Well, the first one should be obvious, and it's actually a daily occurrence for his audience, those original readers.

It was a trial of persecution. Because these early Christians claimed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they were persecuted. I'm sure you're familiar with the kinds of persecutions that they were subjected to. Thrown into the arena to face wild dogs or lions, put on a cross to be crucified, having hot pitch poured on them and then set alight as torches, dragged off to prison, a sword to the throat. Trials like those can test our faith to the max. But notice that James just doesn't talk about persecution here.

He says, when you meet trials of various kinds, many different kinds. We don't face such persecutions today, thank God, at least not here in Australia. But we do have other kinds of trials, don't we? Family fights, quarrels, cancer, a heart attack, a mental illness, a loved one with a terminal illness, a pregnant teenager, bankruptcy, a prison term, an addiction, divorce, failing uni or college, being homeless, breaking up with a girlfriend or a boyfriend, a loved one dying without knowing the Lord, a disabled child or parent, a disability, Alzheimer's, and concerns about ageing parents, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure you could add your own things to that list that I've just mentioned. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds.

Count. Count. Count one piece at a time. Don't be so overwhelmed by the big picture that you can't deal with each puzzle piece one by one. Didn't Jesus say something similar?

Each day is enough trouble of its own, He said. Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. The Greek word for meet, meet trials, or in the NIV, when you face trials, the original word is greet. Greet trials.

When hard times come, they should be greeted, says James, with joy. Doesn't that sound odd, if not a little crazy? Doesn't that sound the opposite of how sane, rational people should respond to trials? On the face of it, that statement from the Bible sounds neither true nor realistic. You know, we might have no problems accepting the great truths of the Bible.

When the Bible says that we'd be made like Adam from the dust of the earth, we believe it. We agree with it. When we confess that God is our almighty Father, and He's made and sustains this world and continues to look after it, well, yeah, we believe it. We agree, and we know from the Bible that the wages of sin is death because time after time we've seen evidence of that. People die, and we know this misery that sin can bring.

We have no problem accepting the virgin birth, the resurrection of Jesus, and even our own resurrection. But we do have problems accepting these words from James 1. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds. Really? God, do You mean that?

You know, some things are just meant to go together, like salt and an egg, or potatoes and gravy, or Virgin and Mary. But trials and joy, when we consider that, it seems those two don't go together at all. Our world thinks that joy comes by avoiding trials, not by encountering them, much less greeting them. And as Christians, we often buy into that mentality. Question.

Does the Christian life really offer a life free of trials? Is that what Christianity is about? No. Jesus summed it up when He said, in this world, you will have trouble. So is James right?

Can there really be joy when we have to deal with trouble? Jesus goes on to say, but take heart. In another translation, be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. You know, if the goal of our lives was to take things easy and have no pain, then of course trials are bad. If we're living to be comfortable and healthy and wealthy, yeah, for sure trials are bad.

If you make it your only goal in 2024 to have a prosperous new year, one in which you can get ahead and do better than 2023, then a question. How do you cope with trials and setbacks and misfortune? But if the goal of your life is something else, something deeper, something based on your true identity, if you identify as a servant of the living God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have goals that won't be shattered when trials come. Instead, trials will bring joy. Therefore, count it all joy, brothers and sisters, when you meet these trials of various kinds.

Now let me correct something that quite often people say mistakenly or think mistakenly. We're not told to rejoice because of the trials. We're told to rejoice or to have joy when or whenever we face trials, in trials, and during trials. It kind of borrows from the language of the apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Thessalonica. Give thanks, he says, in all circumstances, not for the circumstances, but in all the circumstances. And there are people who mistakenly think that what Paul is saying is that we have to give thanks for all circumstances, and that's what they mistakenly think James is talking about here, that we have to be joyful about the trials themselves.

A number of years ago, there was a popular heresy in the church, and maybe in many parts of the church it's still the case. People say that when you experience pain, give thanks to God for it. Think back to our Thanksgiving service here in November. None of us got up and said in church, I'm thankful that I had a heart attack in the last twelve months, or I'm thankful for the particular trial that I'm going through right now, as if the more pain we were feeling, the more joy we might expect.

That's not what the Bible says. It's not what James is teaching here. Brothers and sisters, count it all joy when you greet trials of various kinds. And the early Christians, they offer an example to follow, don't they? As hard as it is to imagine, they did rejoice in all circumstances.

Think about those apostles as a group. At one time, the Jewish leaders summoned them to appear before them. They commanded them, stop preaching about this Jesus, and they were thrown into prison because of it. You might remember that story from Acts 5. They were in prison and an angel came.

Something happened to the guards that caused them to be kind of frozen, and the prison doors were flung open and the apostles walked out. And then did they go into hiding? No. They went straight to the temple, and they started preaching about Jesus again. The Sanhedrin met, the Jewish ruling council, and asked for the apostles to be dragged before them.

The guards returned and said, they're gone. They're not in their cells. The cell doors are locked, the doors are secure, but you know what? We found the apostles. They're in the temple and they're preaching about Jesus.

How did the apostles respond? They were flogged by the Sanhedrin. They were warned again to be quiet. How did they respond? We read, they left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name, the name of Jesus.

Paul and Silas, remember them? They cast out an evil spirit from a young servant girl. The servant girl could predict the future because the evil spirit was within her. As a result, she was a great money earner for her masters. She was making some big bucks, but the apostles cast out the evil spirit that was in her.

As a result, she could no longer make money for her masters. So the business owners, her masters, whipped up a crowd to speak out against Paul and Silas. Eventually, they were beaten, they were whipped, and thrown into prison. They had their feet fastened in stocks. And about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

They rejoiced during their suffering. Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds. And, you know, these early Christians, they were just following the example of Jesus. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, as Hebrews 12 says, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy, let me repeat that, who for the joy set before Him. What did He do?

He endured the cross, scorned its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Joy in suffering. That was Jesus. That was the apostles. For Jesus, the cross and joy went together.

Shame and joy went together. That was true for the apostles too, and that's supposed to be true for us as well. God expects us to find something to be thankful for, to rejoice in even in the midst of a difficult situation. I came across a story about Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry wrote a commentary on the whole Bible in the early seventeen hundreds.

He was robbed one night when he was walking home along a dark street. He did not rejoice in the awful event that had happened, but he still found four things to rejoice about. Listen to what he wrote. Let me be thankful. One, because I was never robbed before.

Two, though they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Three, though they took all I had, it wasn't much. And four, it was I who was robbed, not I who did the robbing. Wonderful. Count it all joy, brothers and sisters, when you face trials or meet trials of various kinds.

If you have the right goals in life, then trials bring joy. So what are the right kinds of goals? Well, ask yourself a question. What goals would a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ have? That's how we identify, don't we?

Isn't that who we are? Servants? Trials bring joy when they deepen our trust and love for our King, Jesus Christ. When they help us adore Him, reverence Him, to worship Him as our Saviour and Lord. Thank You, Lord. When they bring positive change to our lives.

God uses them to make us more like Jesus when they teach us the discipline of serving God in all circumstances. For you know, says James, 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. Could it be that you are going through a hard time, a trial of sorts? When you think ahead and contemplate what might be in store for you in this new year, will you plan for joy, whether you're on the mountain or in the valley? I was listening to some Christian music on Spotify, and I came across a song sung by Lyndal Randall.

I don't know who she is. I've never heard of the song before, but the song is called God on the Mountain is the God in the Valley. That chorus still echoes in my mind. The God on the mountain is the God in the valley. God doesn't change like the shifting shadows, says James.

He's there in the good times and the bad. We're going to listen to that song in just a moment. You'll be able to follow the words up on the screen. It's when we know God like this that our faith grows and we persevere, and there is joy. It's when we're distressed that we really come to know God as He is.

Count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds, says James. God, I want for You to change me. I want You to grow me. I want You to sanctify me by Your Word and Spirit. And that kind of change is never easy.

It takes time. It takes effort. It takes trials. But ultimately, come 2025, I want to be able to say that my faith has grown, and I've grown to be more like Jesus. So count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.

Don't let your response to trials be determined by how you feel at first, how awful the situation seems to be. Because through trials, God is at work, little by little, changing, improving us, working in us to His glory and praise. There's no such thing as a fair-weather Christian in the kingdom of God. We're not sheltered from the storms. We come battered.

We come bruised. We come fatigued and as failures so far as the world is concerned. But Jesus is there with open arms, welcoming us, urging us, nurturing us, taking us by the hand. An old Sunday school chorus is one that I'll always remember. With Christ in my vessel, I can smile at the storm.

Or how about, joy is the flag flown high from the castle of my heart when the King is in residence there? I still remember my own kids singing it in church up on a stage like this, waving their hankies, the flag. Now, on a personal note, I want you to be aware of how it is that Regina and I have found joy in the midst of trials. After all, that's what the sermon's about, is it not? Can I begin by saying thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your support during our trial?

It's been over twelve months now that Regina was first diagnosed with a cancer in her blood called multiple myeloma. It won't be something that will kill her, but it can be managed, and that process has not been easy. With chemo and stem cell treatment, we don't doubt that she's getting the best medical treatment, and over the last twelve months, she's been in and out of hospital on five different occasions. But in the midst of the trial, we found reason for joy. Sadly, with her immune system compromised, she can't be here today to share that with us publicly upfront.

But what was it that gave her, and me for that matter, joy in our trials? Well, we had the choice to participate in a new experimental drug, a trial drug. And we've seen something of the effectiveness of that. And as much as the bad protein in the blood, it dropped from a dangerous level at 38 and plummeted to as low as one just a fortnight ago. And that's good news. There's joy in meeting with so many different health professionals here at the Pindara Hospital, but also at the Mater at South Brisbane.

Her haematologist, treating doctor, one of the best in the business, we can't but help share in his excitement about the progress Regina has made. It was an occasion that I can recall when Regina asked him, when can I go back to church? And he said to us, if I didn't let you go to church, my mother would shoot me, is what he said. But he did ask us to pray for his patience. Sharing with family and friends, mutual times of encouragement, had been reason for great joy.

We operate as servants of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's how we function. It's our mindset, our identity about going forward. But let me say this, there are still things we need to learn about this joy in times of trial. When the diagnosis was first confirmed, it was not easy.

It was awful. It was the worst news. We even went out and got our wills updated. Our boys graciously accepted their responsibilities as having power of attorney, and we're on holidays, for crying out loud, in a caravan up on the Sunshine Coast. We haven't used the van in over a year now.

The response, my response, Regina's response too, has been shock, tears, crying, prayers, heartbreak, sleepless nights filled with tossing and turning. In retirement now, I never dreamed that I'd have to look after my wife. Even had to make a coffee before I left to come here this morning. And I have to say that in so many ways, I'm so proud of her. She's such a woman of faith. She's better than me.

And that faith inspires joy, but it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen easily, and it's not yet complete. But it does happen. It is happening. And I'm so thankful to see that in her.

As servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are closer than we have ever been to each other. And that's a reason for joy. And you know the communion of the saints. You know, thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your elder representing Jesus and all of you, the church family, whenever he would come to visit.

I publicly want to acknowledge his visits to us in the hospital and at our own house. And though Danny Venta has left us, nevertheless, I want to thank him and Renee for their prayers and their support. They reached out to us time and time again. That's a part of it, is it not? Joy in trials.

Open house. I'm so thankful for all of you. Though I've not got to know all of you individually, I thank you for being part of my church family. I have to acknowledge our two sons. In their own way, they've given us of their love, compassion, and support, and their guidance too.

Also for the women in their lives. To Jess and Emma, their support and encouragement has been something that God has blessed us with. Hard? Yeah. For sure.

You bet. But we're getting there. Keep praying so that we can fully get there and experience the full measure of the joy that God has for us in these trials. So I challenge you as I challenge myself, count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds. Count it all joy as you consider what might befall you in 2024.

Of all people, Christians have the joy of the Lord in their hearts. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and oh, how the world needs to know it.