Today on the Verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Trials and temptations come to every single one of us, and I would suggest that one of the reasons we're defeated by trials and temptations, and one of the reasons why the challenges and struggles of life sometimes discourage us, is that we have an unbiblical view of God. Welcome to the Verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Fear, loneliness, worry, and disappointments—we all struggle with these challenges because life is difficult. But today on the verdict, we'll see how God-centered living gives us hope as we continue our new series with wings like eagles.
Now, to introduce his latest message dealing with trials and temptations, here's Pastor John Monroe. Tough times, trials, tribulations, and temptations come to all of us. What's been your experience? Have they defeated you, or discouraged you, or embittered you? From Scripture, we're learning that through these challenges and struggles, we may be renewed in strength and mount up with wings like eagles.
This is a fantastic promise of God, and I want you to take it very personally today.
Now, we're thinking particularly of trials and temptations. When they come to us, we sometimes blame ourselves, or think that God is punishing us, or think that we have been treated unfairly. But today, I want you to be encouraged as you listen to the Word of God, as we think of being renewed in strength through our trials and temptations.
Well, this is the second message in the series with wings like eagles. In this series, we're going to understand something that's very difficult for us: that God's ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. Isaiah 55. God's ways are unfathomable. I want us to turn in our Bible.
To the first chapter of the letter of James, where James writes in the New Testament about trials and temptations, we're going to learn. First of all, you will have trials of various kinds. It's maybe not what you want to hear, but whoever you are in life, you are going to have trials of various kinds. We don't all have the same trials, but all of us have trials. James one.
Verse one. I'm reading from the English Standard Version. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. How did all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds? I mean, we think, are you going to be kidding, James?
This is the inspired word of God. Counted 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. Here's a lesson for us: trials are an important part. Of the Christian experience, verse two, James writes, "When you meet trials of various kinds, he doesn't say if you meet trials, but when you meet trials." Have you grasped this? I don't mean just intellectually, but also emotionally.
That life for followers of Jesus can be very, very difficult. That was the teaching of our Lord, John sixteen verse thirty three. Jesus says, "In the world you will have tribulation." The apostles said, Acts fourteen verse twenty two, that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Yes, you will enter the kingdom of God as your trust is in Jesus Christ. But between now and then, you're going to enter into some very difficult situations.
And in the following context, James is going to make it very clear to us in verses nine through eleven that trials come to every one of us, whether you are rich or poor.
Some of the wealthiest people I know have had the most difficult lives. If you're poor, you have trials. If you're rich, you have trials. If you're somewhere in between, you have trials. Joseph, surely one of the godliest men in all of Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, we read that he suffered in an Egyptian prison, betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused, sentenced unjustly, and he's in prison.
The Apostle Paul is shipwrecked. He's beaten. He's stoned. He's imprisoned. He's slandered.
Reality following Jesus is sometimes very painful and difficult. I find it interesting that when Jesus says in the Gospels, "If anyone comes after me," you remember the first thing he says: "Let that person deny self." That's difficult, isn't it? It's difficult to say no to ourselves.
Something we want to do, something we desire to do, something which is comfortable for us, something which is pleasurable for us. No, says Jesus. If you're going to follow me, you're going to deny self. You're going to take up your cross and follow me. That is not easy, is it?
If you want a comfortable life, don't follow Jesus. Take up yoga. Become a Buddhist or something, but don't become a Christian. Following Jesus is difficult. These trials are experienced by every follower of Jesus.
Now we don't choose them. We don't want them, and I find it intriguing. That James says here in verse two, counted all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, manifold kinds. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors.
So the trial that you experience, I may think, is relatively trivial, but I'm not going through it. And the trial you experience may be very, very different from the person sitting next to you.
Some followers of Jesus are persecuted. Think of the history of the church. Think of what's happening in our world today. Christians are imprisoned, persecuted, reviled.
Some have serious health issues.
Some have family crises.
Some know the pain here of being abused or treated unfairly at work.
Some have experienced profound challenges when serving the Lord.
Some children here, some students here, know what it is to be bullied, know what it is to be ridiculed when their contemporaries know they're following Jesus. It's not easy, is it? If you're 12 years old to be marginalized by your contemporaries. When they know you're a Christian, not easy for a twenty-year-old young woman at UNC Charlotte or UNC Chapel Hill to be looked down on in class because she has the courage to stand for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's tough.
That's a trial. The Apostle Peter writes, First Peter four verse twelve, beloved. Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. No, don't think it's strange. Don't think it's odd.
It's common. Peter is writing to persecuted Christians, people who are driven from their home, writing to the dispersion, as James was. These first-century Christians knew about trials, and our trials and our struggles and our challenges may be different in nature from the first century, but they are severe nonetheless. Basic point, followers of Jesus. Are not sheltered from trials.
Don't think that you are granted some immunity because you are a genuine follower of Jesus.
However, that's not all. James says, "Is it counted all joy?" He's saying these trials, allowed by God in your life, don't rebel against God when they come. These trials are for a purpose. In the purposes of God, have you found this? In the purposes of God, isn't it the case that sometimes the most painful times of our life become the most fruitful?
Most of us learn, spiritually speaking, more in adversity than prosperity. Most of us learn more. About God, about ourselves, about sin, about the beauty of our Savior, in the valley experiences of life than on the mountaintops. We all want the mountaintops.
So this is what James says: count it all joy, my brothers. He's writing to Christians. How can you count it joy in the middle of a trial?
Well, biblical joy is not the emotion of feeling happy. But it does come part of the fruit of the spirit from an understanding that when your trust is in God, remember what we said last week: trusting God in tough times, reminding ourselves that God is good. Or the trial is difficult; the trial, in that sense, is bad. But it comes from a good God. And when I understand that God is good, and when I trust in Him.
I can rejoice because God is doing something in my life. That's exciting, isn't it? Isn't it wonderful to know that God is concerned with your spiritual growth, and and that in order to toughen you up a bit, in order to bring you to maturity, in order that you're not childish. In order that you're not a spiritual wimp, God allows you the fire and the testing. And as we stand back and think about that, it's not that we enjoy the trials as such.
Of course not, but we rejoice. In what God is accomplishing in our lives, and there are many of you sitting here this morning. If I gave you the opportunity, you would stand up and say. That the most painful situations in your life, and the most difficult, and the most draining, have been the times when God, in His goodness, has been at work in your life, and you thank God and you count it joy that God allowed you to go through these trials, and with His strength, and with the power of the Holy Spirit, you endured, and you give God the thanks because you come out of that fiery trial much different than when you entered it. Isn't that what James is saying?
Verse two: Counted all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know, here's the point: you know. If you don't, I'm telling you, James is telling you, you know now that the testing of your faith. Produces steadfastness, endurance, patience, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
So, what do these trials produce?
Some of you are going through them now, and it's hard. You sometimes feel like quitting. I know the thought, but they produce endurance. They produce spiritual maturity. Isn't it the case that in the dark nights of our life, we trust God in deeper and deeper ways?
Isn't it true? When our life seems to be going so orderly and everything seems nice, and then we hit a brick wall, something unexpected comes into our life which shakes us. Isn't it the case that when we're stripped of our self-reliance, can I say our pride, our self-sufficiency, when we've taken God for granted for so often? And what happens? We get down on our knees, we get flat on our face before God, and to and to cry out to God in the midst of the trials, in the midst of the challenges.
We learn, don't we, to trust God more and more, and to love Him more and more.
Someone has said that this endurance, this steadfastness, is faith stretched out. In the trial, our faith is stretched. Very easy to to sing about trusting God and to preach about trusting God when we're on the mountaintop, but in the valley, our faith is stretched, and and and we feel we're just hanging on by our nails. We're not we're not sure if we will make it. And our faith is stretched, and our faith is deepened, and we begin to understand that while we don't appreciate all that God is doing, and we certainly don't have the answers to all of the problems in our life, but we do know that God's hand, although it may be invisible, is a loving hand, is a good hand, and this God.
Has allowed this trial in my life, and therefore I count it all joy. One of the other things that happens when we go through these trials, it makes us more understanding and more caring of others. Paul says that in Second Corinthians one verse four. He says that as you go through the trial and the affliction, and you receive the comfort of God, you are then able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Some of you know about bereavement, don't you? Your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter, your father. Your mother, a close friend, has been taken. You you you had to you had to deal with that incredible situation. You're the very person, aren't you?
Comforting others with the comfort we ourselves have received. When you're going through the trial, the last person you want is the legalist with his self-righteous. Finger pointing at you and giving you some spiritual cliche. I don't want that person, a person like the Pharisees, who's removed from us. As if how could you ever get yourself in that situation?
I mean, why is it so difficult? Are you not strong in your faith? Get with it, man! No, give me the person who's gone through the trial. Who has received the comfort of the Holy Spirit?
That's the person that comes alongside you and me and brings us comfort from God.
Now, some of you are facing trials right now. What do you do? Stand strong. Don't be overcome by self pity. Don't think you're unique.
And sadly, don't think God is punishing you. Yes, there is a possibility He may be disciplining you. Read Hebrews twelve. Don't be bitter. Don't run from God.
Count it all joy. Think of this: that through these painful trials, God and His purposes is doing something remarkable. He's making you more and more like Jesus. See, without the trial, you are likely to be spiritually flabby. You are likely to take God for granted.
You are likely to be proud. But these trials, these fiery trials that Peter says, they help us, they strengthen us, and they prepare us to serve others. Notice what James says in verse twelve. Here is a blessing. James one verse twelve, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
Or you could be devastated, you could deny the faith, you could be bitter, you could be consumed with self pity. But blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test. See the test. One day will be over. When he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.
Isn't that incredible? You see, this remaining steadfast—this is not passivity. This is not just sitting around doing nothing. No, it is endurance, steadfastness. Think of endurance.
It doesn't. A page back in your Bible, at least it's a page back in mine, to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter twelve. For the writer of Hebrews uses the same word that Peter uses. In the ESV, it's translated steadfastness. In James, in Hebrews chapter twelve, it's translated endurance.
Same concept. Hebrews twelve verse one. Therefore. Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, think of the the Hall of Faith in Hebrews eleven. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance.
With steadfastness, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, steadfast was our Lord, as he envisaged the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured. No man endured like Christ. No man suffered like Christ. No one went through such a deep, deep valley as our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was steadfast. He endured.
Now we are running the race. The writer is using an athletic imagery. We are to run this race with endurance. Many of you, like myself, have been in a race. I used to do cross country.
One thing you need in cross country running is endurance. You're not long into the race when that terrible pain in your side comes, and you wonder why on earth did I volunteer to do this? After all, I didn't have to do it. I could be at home with the feet up. Reading a book, watching television, doing something else—why on earth would I choose to put myself through this terrible pain?
Run with endurance. How is it that Jesus did? He looked ahead to the joy that was set before him. This is enduring with triumphant hope, with a great expectation. Many of you have been, as I have, playing a team sport.
In my case, football, soccer, and the other side seem to be running all over you. And in, and perhaps your teammates not doing exactly what they should do.
Some of them seem to be getting tired. And then during the game, you can see a bit of a bad attitude.
Somebody wants to kind of give up. Oh, they're still on the, they're still on the, on the game, but they're not performing well. Instead of encouraging their teammates, they're complaining. They have a bad attitude. That's very discouraging, isn't it?
To get the picture, here we are running the Christian race. I'm following Jesus Christ. I want to do that. God and His grace has saved me. I want to live a life to His glory.
You want to do that, but then these trials come and they're they're difficult for us and they're discouraging for us. And we think, why doesn't God just remove them? Life would be so much easier, and I would serve God so much better if this situation, my family, and my ministry, whatever it was, was removed. Easy to get a bad attitude, isn't it? No, I want you to be steadfast.
I don't want you to give up, because remember this: says James, back in James one verse twelve, you will receive the crown of life as you follow Jesus. You will have trials of various kinds. You are listening to the verdict with the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. John will be right back with more on today's message.
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Get full details on service times and ministry at theverdict. dot org. And now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? We certainly don't choose to experience trials or temptations, but none of us are immune. We know from Scripture that some of those who have been the closest to the Lord have been tried and tempted the most.
So today, don't be discouraged. God is at work. I realize you may not see Him, but I want you to trust Him. Don't focus on the difficult circumstances. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
And join me next time as we continue this important subject of trials and temptations. Thanks for joining us today on the Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
