Sacred Problems

My name is Adrian, one of the pastors here, and I didn't say this any other service, but two weeks ago I did announcements. Last week I led worship. Now they're asking me to speak. I wonder what's next? I got to build, I'm gonna build that coffee house by myself. But I'm excited to share God's word with you today, and anytime I get a little extra time up here, I'd like to share about our little family, a little bit about our growing family.

That's me and the purple. This is Easter. It's past Easter. Ella is our eight-year-old. She just turned eight, and she's finishing second grade this week, and she loves to read. She loves ballet. She's in her first ballet thing next week, which is like ten rehearsals and all this stuff. We're in that season. Penelope is our five-year-old ball of energy. She is finishing preschool this year and starts kindergarten in the fall here at TLCS. She's very excited about that. A little nervous. She loves skateboarding, and in the past two weeks she has pulled two of her own teeth. Intense kid, man. There was not the skateboarding and the teeth had nothing to do with each other. These are natural pulls.

But you know as I was getting ready for this message, I was starting to think, is it possible to have joy when there's hard times going in our lives? Is that possible? And I saw a video this week that just kind of blew me away, and I wanted to share with you. Check it out. Welcome. Hello. Welcome to America's Got Talent. What's your name? I'm Cody. Hi Cody. How old are you? I am 22 years old. Who are you, miss? Who are you? I'm mom. Tina Lee. Hi Tina. How are you? So what are you gonna do here for us today? I'm gonna sing a song for you on the piano. I love it. Tina, tell us a little bit about Cody. Cody is blind and autistic. We found out that he loved music really early on. He listened and his eyes just went huge and he started singing and that's when I just I was in tears because that's when I realized oh my gosh he's an entertainer. So through music and performing he was able to withstand living in this world because when you're autistic it's really hard to do what everybody else does. It actually has saved his life playing music. Wow. We'd love to hear you. Go for it. You ready? I'm ready. Go Cody. This is your time right there. There's gonna be like 20 film cameras on you. Ready? Yeah. Go.

Boom. Boom. I've been to so many places in my life and time. I've sung a lot of songs and I made some bad runs. I've liked it in my life and stages. 10,000 people watching. Yeah. We're alone now and I'm singing a song to you. I love you in a place. Oh there's no space or time. I love you from my life. You're a friend of mine. But when my life is over, remember we each get a hug. We're alone now and I'm singing a song to you. And I'm singing a song to you. There goes my heart and I'm thinking of you. There goes my heart and I'm thinking of you. That's probably viewing 15 for me. Oh man. Every time. I'm like oh my god Cody. Is that for me? I can't even do that. That's incredible.

Oh man I don't know about you but it's so inspiring to see Cody and his family. You know they're going through, they're in the middle of that kind of everyday struggle that they have. I want to be able to face the trials that come in my life with that kind of joy. Well that's what we're going to be talking about today. Take out your message notes. We are in week two of our series in James called Everyday Sacred and last week Mark did a great job kicking us off with a great message. It's giving us an overview about James. We're going to be in this book for the next couple of months and I want to encourage you to check that out. Go to TLC.org or YouTube and listen to that message. It's really good and what we learned last week was that James, the half brother of Jesus, is the head of the church in Jerusalem and the church is facing all this persecution and discrimination. So all these people scatter abroad and so now he's writing this letter to them and he pens this letter of encouragement telling them this is how you can follow Jesus, be a follower of Jesus living in this world.

And his main point is this, to stop compartmentalizing your lives. The church you, the work you, the home you, the out with friends you and the all alone you. James is reminding them and us that we need to live integrated lives, that our faith isn't just for Sunday mornings. But every day is sacred. Every part of our lives is sacred because this is the truth. When you read the Bible, it says that when you become a Christian, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. And if that's true, if the Spirit of the living God who created the universe lives inside of you, something should change, right? Your everyday changes. Our motivations change. The way we see people change. The way we see this world, the way we see life and the way we see our problems, all that changes.

And so today we're going to focus on how we can view our problems as sacred. We're in James chapter one. If you have your Bible, you can turn there towards the back. James chapter one, starting in verse two, it's also in your notes and on the screen. James writes this. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James gets right into it. If you read the verse before this, verse one, basically it's, hey, it's James. And then verse two, boom, life is hard. Pow. Have joy. That's kind of how it feels, right? I'm sure at first you're like, I'm going through a really hard time. Just be joyful.

You know, people misuse this passage all the time, I think. There's this girl in my church growing up when I was in high school and she used to love to use these like Christiany churchy like phrases and scriptures like at you. And so, you know, I would say I'd go to church and maybe I'd be sick or something. I have a cold and coughing, I have a fever and I'm trying to get sympathy like, oh, oh, oh, you know. And she looks at me and she's like, oh, hey, Adrian, you're sick. Have you prayed about it yet? And I'm like, oh, have you prayed yet? For what? I cough on her face. She deserved. No, I should insert it. It's bad. Sorry. Or she'd overhear me talking about my high school problems, which are very major. And she would say, hey, count it all joy, brother. Like, get out of my life, please. Count it all joy. Consider it pure joy. It can come across as I don't want to hear about it. Nobody wants to hear about it. Just be quiet. Get over it. Okay? It's fake it.

That's not what James is doing here. What he's doing is he's telling us how we can have joy when we have trials. And the first step to really understanding that, I kind of hit me in my study this week. It's this phrase that you find in the beginning of verse three. Check it out. It says, because you know. Circle that. Because you know. You know, so many times when you read the Bible in the New Testament, I'll read Paul's letters to the church, like Corinthians or Galatians. And it sounds like his audience has no idea what's going on. Like he'll write, like, hey, guys, this is Paul. What is happening over there? I leave you for like a month and it's all falling apart. Now, James here is doing something a little different. His command sounds different than those that I hear in Paul's letters. He isn't trying to convince them of something. He's reminding them of something that they already know, something they've already come to realize.

You know, times are tough and you're supposed to have joy because you know. Why is that important? I've talked about this before. In my last message in January, I talked about anxiety and I was honest about my own struggles with anxiety. I struggle with anxiety and panic attacks and they come on. I can feel them like start when I'm thinking of something like the unknown. Like, for example, like I'll feel like a weird pain somewhere and like, oh, no, I'm having a heart attack. It's like what happens? Or I got this like bump. Like, oh, what's this mosquito bite? I'm like, oh, it's a tumor. And my brain like spirals out of control. And like, it debilitates me, honestly. And the first time this happened, I actually remember I was here at the office and my left arm was like feeling weird. And I'm like, that's, you know, they tell you that's like a heart attack. Your left arm hurts. You're dying. So I'm like, oh, so I start freaking out. I get in the car, I drive to the hospital. I probably should have told somebody. And I get there and they tell me, you're having a panic. You're not dying. You're having a panic attack, which like floored me because it was I felt something.

So after that, I went to my doctor. I was like, I had these panic attacks. And this is the reason because I feel this. I think I'm dying. He goes, okay, well, let's do this. Let's have all these tests. Let's do a stress test. Let's get your blood work done. We'll do a full physical. And in my mind, I'm like, yeah, you're worried, right? I'm dying. And so you take all these tests. I wish those tests were ready, like in an hour, but you got to wait like a whole week, you know, for like to analyze blood. I guess it takes a while, you know. So a week later, I come and I'm like ready. You know, I've probably had like a thousand anxiety attacks like on the way to the doctor. And I'm sitting there and I'm ready for him to tell me like you're dying. And he goes, okay, let's look at these tests. I'm like, okay, what'd you find? Nothing. What? So you're fine. You're totally healthy. This is what the doctor was doing. The doctor was not worried, but he knew I needed to know what was going on inside. I needed to know that I wasn't dying.

And this is the thing. I'll tell you this along with the medication that I have, along with eating well and exercise and prayer and good counsel, the fact that I know what's going on inside has dramatically decreased those times where my mind spirals out of control. Now, my anxiety is not gone. It's still a struggle that I have every day. But when I start to feel that come on, I have a way different attitude when it starts. I have a way different perspective. I can look at it a little more objectively and not spiral out of control and have to take medication because what I learned is this. You can write this down. My knowledge affects my attitude. My knowledge affects my attitude.

In these verses, what James is doing is he's giving your problems, your trials, a physical. He's giving us a picture of what's going on in our lives, the problems that we face. He's doing that so you and I can have a context in which to respond to them. And church, the wisdom that we read in James, it will dramatically and drastically affect the way you deal with the trials that come your way. It's not going to eliminate your trials. It's not going to eliminate the struggles that you go through. But it will give you a context, give you a worldview, prepare you to respond to them. So what do we know? What do we know about our problems? Well, number one, problems are inevitable. Problems are inevitable. He says whenever you face trials, every time I open the Bible to this page, I want it to say if you face trials. And every time I look, it still says whenever. Because trials are coming.

A quick survey. It's time to be honest. I want you to raise your hand in here if you would say right now you're going through a trial or some kind of problem. Raise your hands to be honest. Safe place. Lots of us. Yeah. Put your hand down. Now we have a group of people that raise their hands. Now for the rest of you who didn't raise your hands, I want to ask you this question. If you didn't raise your hands, have you ever in your life gone through a problem, a struggle or a trial ever raise your hand? This is a trick survey. Everybody should have risen, raised. Everybody's hands should have gone up. How do I say that? Because problems are coming. I heard somebody say it this way. You're either in a trial, you just came out of a trial, you're about to get into a trial. We all go through them. They are a part of life. And listen, I don't want to depress you. That's not my point. Because the Bible tells us there is hope. There is a day coming when there is no more pain. There's no more tears. There's no more death. No more grief. No more sickness. No more wars. Amen? That's not today. It's coming. We're not there yet because we live in a world ravaged by sin. And its effects, the effects of sin on this world, the effects of sin on people, the effects of sin on us, it's a source, many of our problems. No matter who you are, problems are coming. They're inevitable.

And then we need to know number two, problems are unpredictable. They're unpredictable. He writes, "Whenever you face trials." The word face, the Greek word here he uses is "peripypto," which means to fall into unexpectedly. To get a better picture of this word, it's also used in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus is telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. Maybe you've heard of it. There's a man walking and he fell among robbers, "peripypto," among robbers. Unexpectedly, they ambushed him. Troubles aren't something you need to go looking for. You know, James is in this passage showing us how we can grow from our trials, how we can have joy from our trials. But what he's not saying is, "So if you want to grow, go look for trouble." What he's saying is, "Troubles coming when you least expect it." So it's unpredictable.

And number three problems are diverse. They're diverse. He says, "You face trials of many kinds." In the Greek, this means many kinds. James wants to make sure — it's a slow one — James wants to make sure we don't think he's talking to somebody else. The problem that you're facing, he's talking about that problem, no matter how small, no matter how big. Because this is the truth. The spectrum of trials is very wide. The rainbow of suffering has many colors. Because some of our trials, some of our problems, the inconveniences of life, maybe they're green. They're like not that bad. You go all the way over to red. I know that's not how a rainbow works necessarily, but you go to red. And that's the major trials of life. That's the grief and the loss. What James is saying is, no matter what kind of trial you're going through, this applies to you. They're diverse.

And number four, problems can have value. Problems can have value. He continues, "The testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." We see two things going on here. The first is this. We are being refined. We are being refined. He says, "testing of your faith." When you hear the word test, usually we think of like school, right? Like, oh, I got to go to school. Maybe you're in college and you're about to finish. You just had a test. You're about to have a test. You're just in a test. You're about to get out of a test. A test is on its way. And you study and you go take a test. This is not that kind of test. The word he uses here for test is talking about testing precious metals. The way you find out if it's pure is you put them under fire and you refine gold and silver under fire. The same word used here in James is used in Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 7, watch this. It says, "These trials," still talking about trials, "will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold." Tests and purifies gold. Though your faith is far more precious than your gold.

I've had many odd jobs in my life, but one of the most memorable was I worked at these jewelry stores in college. Now these aren't like brand name chain jewelry stores. These are jewelry stores owned by people at my church. So I grew up in a Korean church and at this Korean church these families had these jewelry stores. And they're like, "You want a job? You speak English? Come and sell jewelry for us, please." So I'd go. And I worked at two. One was called Holy Gold. Another was called Grace Gold. My friend's mom owns a jewelry store. It is called Emmanuel Gold. I think what's going on there, this is not a joke, I think what's going on there is they think, "You know what? If we name our jewelry store like a church Christian name, God's going to bless us and make us rich." So at Grace Gold, one of the oddest things I did there was I would do molds of teeth. Why would you do that? People would come and say, "Hi, I would like the front of my teeth all to be gold." I'd be like, "Oh sure, come here. Let me take a mold of your teeth." They are called fronts or grills, you might know them as. If anybody has those in here. But then we would take that mold, fill it up, get it back and give it to them. That was interesting. But my favorite thing was watching the jeweler melt gold.

Partly because I like fire a little too much. But let me explain. You take all this scrap gold, we put it in a crucible which is this fire hot heat proof bowl, and then you take this massive torch and you light it on fire for a long time. It's incredible to watch. This huge flame and over time that gold gets red and starts to melt and turn into a liquid. Now the interesting thing is in that liquid impurities come out. And you can skim off those impurities to make a purer gold, like a higher carrot gold. Or you can mix it in to make more gold. We always mixed it in. We want more gold. We don't need no pure gold for your teeth. Now what is happening there? What is God doing? When our faith is tested under the fire of trials and problems in our lives, those impurities come to the surface. The way we react to problems, the hopelessness, the bitterness, the desire for revenge, the unforgiveness. And as those things come up through each trial, God skims some of that away. It's called dross. He skims some of that dross away. And another trial comes, those impurities come out, and He skims that away. We are being refined.

And when our faith is tested, not only we're being refined, but we experience growth. He says it produces perseverance. And this perseverance, some translations say patience, but when I read patience, I think of this passive thing, like you're stuck in traffic, you've got to be patient. I've got no choice. I'm just going to be patient. This is not that. This is an active word here. The Greek word James uses is "hupamone," which means steadfastness. Deadfastness, constancy, endurance. Think about like a movie you've seen with a big battle scene or a TV show you've seen. And there's one army on this side and one charging, and the commander's like, "Hold your ground. Stand firm." That's what this word means. Stand against this oncoming battle, this oncoming trial.

My wife and I go to a CrossFit gym in town and been doing it for a few years. And when I first went to my first CrossFit class, I could not do any of the things that they do. I could not do a pull-up. I'd never done a pull-up in my life. I've hung from a bar in junior high kicking while my friends laughed at me. Thank you very much, Presidential Fitness Test, whatever that was. I appreciate it. I went to CrossFit and I'm like, first thing I said, I cannot do a pull-up, okay? And they're like, okay, we're doing them today. Couldn't do a pull-up. I barely could do push-ups. Couldn't squat all the way down. But I kept going five days a week, every week as long as I was in town. And every time we do exercises, couldn't do a pull-up, but I'd do something else. And my muscles would hurt and it'd get stronger. And I'd go, I could do a little more. My muscles would hurt, get stronger. And the idea, I got my first pull-up. And then I got two pull-ups. And then so on and so forth.

Last week, Memorial Day, a lot of gyms around the world do a workout called Murph. And it's a workout to honor those who have fallen, soldiers that have fallen. And the workout Murph is named after Lieutenant Michael Murphy. And the workout we do is one that he would do weekly. Check this workout out. So we go and we run a mile. And then we come back to the gym and we do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats. And you finish it off with one more mile. And if you have a 20-pound weight vest, go ahead and throw that on as you do this workout. Because that's what soldiers wear, those flak jackets that are heavy. I will tell you today. So my wife and I did it last week. It was her second year doing it. And I finished it in record time. Record time for me, not like in the world. But I did it. I got through it. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Bring out the pull-up bar. Here we go. I'm going to show you. No.

But when you go through trials in life, and when your faith is tested, your perseverance has a chance to grow. It produces perseverance and it has a chance to grow. And you're ready to face the next trial. You have a trial in your way. You get through it and you're ready to fix that bigger trial that's coming. And church, let me tell you something. Your faith has to be tested. It needs to be tested. Your endurance has to grow because a bigger problem most likely is on its way. And if your faith hasn't had a chance to grow, if your endurance hasn't had a chance to grow, you risk quitting. Quitting when that problem comes. So we experience growth. That's a picture of our problems. They're inevitable. They're unexpected. They're diverse. And they can have value. We can grow through them.

But how do we experience that kind of growth? When a problem comes, do we just sit, crunch our fists, close our eyes, and we just grow? No. James gives us three ways our faith can grow. And these aren't the only ways. This is what James is telling us today. There are other things that we could talk about, like being in community and finding people to be around, which is very important. Like the Stephen ministers. They are here for the times when trials hit and you can talk to them. Not just here after the service, but throughout the week. They'll meet with you. If you're going through a hard time, encourage you to check that out. There's other resources in your notes at the bottom. A list of books. If you're going through a trial right now, I'd encourage you to seek out those things. But today, James tells us three ways we can grow.

And the first one is this. How can I go through my problems? The first one is choose joy. He says, "Consider it pure joy." Whenever you face trials. Now, we've got to look at that word, consider. The word consider here is the Greek word, "hegeomai," which means to account, to think, or weigh and compare the facts. James is saying, "You need to think about this." Not turn off your brain. Don't think. Just have faith. Just have joy. But he's saying, "Account. Add it up." And what we're supposed to decide, what we're supposed to add up is joy. We're supposed to choose joy. And this trips us up, I think. Because we read, "Consider it pure joy" as get happy. Be happy when trials come. James is not a sadist. He doesn't say, like, "Oh, the trial's here? Hey, it's time to enjoy it." No. He's saying, "Choose joy." We have to distinguish happiness and joy.

Because so many of us think that the point of life is happiness. Like, "Oh God, put me on this earth to be happy. Like, God saved me just to be happy." That is not true. Jesus didn't die on the cross and rise from the dead to save you into a life of pure happiness every day, every moment of your life. If that was true, he wouldn't have left us on this earth. He would have taken us to heaven. But we live on this planet, in this earth, and this world is messed up, right? Read the news. Just scroll through your Facebook feed, news feed, a little bit. Go on Twitter. It's crazy out there. And this is the thing, happiness is an emotion based on your circumstances, on the world around you. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying happiness is bad. Be happy. I like happiness. I would like to be happy as much as possible. But it doesn't stick around when times get tough. Happiness goes away when trials come. Happiness says, "Call me when that trial's done. I'll come back." Joy, on the other hand, is a posture we can take when trials come. Happiness is obsessed with the present, and joy looks to the future.

What James is saying is when those hard times of life come, look to the future. Because you know God is up to something, and God is doing something. God is working in you. But you might say, when problems come, it's not so easy to think and consider and account, "I'm underwater. This trial has me buried. I'm sinking." How can I get above to look past and see that God is doing something? Well, James gives us that answer. The second thing we need to do, the second way to grow, is to ask for help. Ask for help. James chapter 1, verse 5, right after this command to us to have joy, he says this, "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault. It will be given to you, and it will be given to you." Ask God for wisdom.

We see two things going on here. One, this is a practical command. James just asked us to think. But when trials come, it's hard to think. And so he says, "Ask God for wisdom, the God who is the creator of the universe, where other places of the Bible, he can give you a peace that passes understanding. He can give you wisdom, godly wisdom. He can supernaturally help you to face your trials." And that's important to understand, because without that part of this sermon, this message today, what we're doing today is just self-help, because all this stuff is very valuable without Jesus. But with Jesus, we have a source of help through the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us. We have someone who can help us, amen? But not only is it that practical you need help because it's hard, but it is theological. We see a truth in this verse, and it's that God is gracious, that he gives generously without finding fault. That not only does he call us to live this life and to have joy when trials hit, but he gives you the strength to do it.

That's what the verse Philippians chapter 4 verse 13 is. It's a very famous verse. You've probably heard it before. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." You've heard that, right? You've seen it on a poster. People like sports players will write it on their face, will say it. But I think we misinterpret that verse. You know what that verse is about? Paul wrote that verse after listing all these hard things that he's going through. He's like, "Guys, I've been shipwrecked. I've almost died. People want to kill me. But you know how I can make it through this life? It is through Christ who gives me strength." But you know what we think that verse is about? God wants me to accomplish my dreams. And so Christ gives me strength. He wants me to accomplish my goals. That's not what it's about. I want to run a mile. I can't even run a mile. I want to run a marathon. I'm going to go out today and I'm going to run a marathon. 26 point something or whatever, lots of miles. And I'm going to do it through Christ who gives me strength. Do not blame Jesus Christ when you're passed out on Soquel Drive, okay? That's your fault. God does not only call us to live this life, but he gives us strength, the strength to do it.

So choose joy. Ask God for help. And finally, we look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. We look to him because when we look to Jesus, then we can come to God and ask him confidently for help. In Hebrews it says, "Jesus has gone through everything we've gone through. He's been tested. He's been tempted. He's been tried." And he made it through. He knows exactly what you're going through. And because we know that, because we know that we have a sympathetic Savior, we can ask God confidently. We can know that God's not like that problem. You're asking me for that problem. No, he knows exactly how you feel. And not only that, but he, Jesus, is the perfect example of someone who considered it pure joy. In the book of Hebrews, the writer, chapter 12, verse 1, he calls us to live this life, endure the race, like live your life to the end. And in verse 2 he says this, "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith." Watch, "Because of the joy awaiting him, he," what? "Endured." Say it one more time. "Endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne." Jesus endured.

And the same word used here, endured, is the same word we read in James. Hupamanda. Think about the night before Jesus died, the night before he goes up on the cross. He just had dinner with his friends, and he knows that one of those friends is about to betray him. He knows that the next day he is going to have to get on the cross and die. And so he steals himself away. He takes some friends. "Guys, come with me. I need you to pray right here. I'm going to go by myself and I need to pray." And he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane. He gets down and he cries out to God. Jesus cries out to the Father, and he yells, "Father, take this couple away from me. Does it have to be the cross? Is that the only way?" But then he finishes that prayer, "But Father God, your will be done." Jesus chose joy, and he endured the cross. He was facing the cross, but he looked to the joy of the resurrection. That death was facing him, and he looked to the joy of his death and his resurrection, bringing redemption to the world. He endured, and he chose joy.

So we have a picture of our problems. We have a way to grow through them. We choose joy. We ask for help. We look to Jesus. But maybe you're here today, and you say, "Adrian, I'm in the middle of a red alarm trial." And you feel like it's too much and you don't know how you're going to get through. Be encouraged by this. This is too much to handle. Be encouraged by this truth. Jesus endured the cross so that you can know today that you have a Savior. You have a Savior who will give you the strength you don't have, who will give you the wisdom that you don't have, who will even give you the joy you don't have. Amen. I'd love to pray for you if you're going through that trial right now. Would you join me in prayer?

Father, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy and your love and your goodness, that God, you don't cause those trials that come into our lives, but Lord, you do not waste the trial that we face. That you are doing something, that you're refining us, that you're growing us, that you're getting us ready. And so God, I pray that you would help us to see that. You would give us the wisdom to see that, Lord. And right now, specifically, I pray for those in this room, those watching online who are going through it right now, who are in the middle of a trial that seems like it's too much. God, I pray for your peace, your supernatural peace, your supernatural wisdom. Father, I pray that you would be with them, comfort them, and encourage them. I pray you surround them with people who can do the same, who can encourage and love. We thank you, Lord, that you endured the cross, for the joy set before you, Lord. We'll respond to all that love, that grace and worship this morning. We thank you. Help us, Lord, to endure, Lord, those trials that come into our own lives. In Jesus' name, amen.