Through Trials
SUMMARY
In this opening sermon of a series on James, Karl Ihfe reminds us that resilient faith isn't built in the easy seasons of life — it's forged in the hard ones. Drawing from James 1, Karl challenges us to see our trials not as interruptions to our spiritual growth, but as the very places where God is forming us most deeply. Resilient faith doesn't require us to have all the answers; it requires us to keep trusting who God is, even when we don't understand what He's doing.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Well, if you have your Bible with you, invite you to turn over to James. We'll be chapter one today. And I realize the next six weeks or so we're going to be walking through James Epistle here, his letter to a church that's scattered all over the known world at the time. And I realize also we're going to be walking into some deep waters. We're going to be chasing a few things together that I know, at least as a preacher.
It's easy to sound flippant about, to just make it sound like it's easy as falling off a log. And I hope and I pray that that doesn't come across that way. So I'm going to ask for lots of grace, not just for me, but for you. Grace to know that we're in this together and we're learning how to build a resilient faith together by God's grace. You know, some things in life are much easier to start than it is to keep going.
We think about the beginning of the year. One of the most popular New Year's resolutions is to exercise. And how easy is it, how exciting is it to buy those brand new tennis shoes, to get that new cute workout outfit, to get that app or that new device and put it on your wrist? It's much harder. Maybe a week or two or a couple months in, when that alarm goes off at 5:30, you stayed up late working on that project or hoping and praying that you could get that problem solved fixed by the next day.
And do I get out of bed? Is it worth it? It's great to get a new job, to have a new opportunity, a new relationship even. It's much harder when we begin to engage, encounter some of the challenges that go with those new opportunities. The excitement wears off, maybe the frustrations start to appear.
We discover it's going to be a lot more work than we thought it was going to be. I think the same can sometimes be true with our faith, can't it? It's exciting to follow Jesus when we're newly saved and excited to chase after him and the life that he's given to us, the ways that he's rescued us and called us out of the, the life that we were in. And it is maybe then a few months or weeks or years down the road when life gets difficult, when those same challenges start to reappear, when praying about someone or something just doesn't seem to be getting beyond the roof, maybe when trying to do the right thing and be that kind of person, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference to the people or to the people around you when loving that person. I mean, you've been working on, you've been praying about, you've been really trying to love them well.
And it just keeps getting harder, you know, sometimes I think if we're willing to admit it, following Jesus, he said, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. And we think it doesn't feel that way. Sometimes it makes us tired. Not because Jesus isn't good, not because a life of faith is not the best life to live. But sometimes the faithfulness requires endurance, being able to hang in there.
I've been reading a book recently that was recommended to me by Kaylee called what Grows in Weary Lands by an author. She's a minister down in Central Texas. Her name is Tish Harrison Warren. She early in the book, in fact, first chapter, she begins by quoting one of Paul's writings to the church. In Galatians, chapter six, he says, let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Warren makes this really simple, but I think pretty profound observation. She says Paul would not have needed to issue this reminder in the course of life, even a life of faith, if it did not often make us weary. If a Christian life were meant to feel like a perpetual rock concert or an ecstatic mystical journey, if it was not difficult to pray or believe or obey God, the apostle would not have had to encourage us to keep going, to not give up. Instead, he implies that doing good, staying true to the commitments of our lives, it comes with a cost. We know that, don't we?
I mean, if prayer were easy, we wouldn't have to keep encouraging one another, keep praying, hang in there. If obedience was easy, we wouldn't always have to encourage others to keep obeying. If loving people was easy, we wouldn't have to be reminded to keep loving. You see, sometimes the greatest challenge of faith isn't deciding to follow Jesus. It's continuing to follow Jesus especially, and often when it gets difficult.
We're beginning a new series today, and over the next couple of weeks we're going to be in James, thinking together about what does it look like to build a resilient, fit faith. And I think resilience is a really important topic to be thinking about together, because I think that's something we struggle with. Not just we in the church, but in our world of hanging in and holding on. We love new things, right? We love new opportunities and new experiences.
And new possibilities. But what about when things get tough? You see, resilience isn't so much about how things begin. It's about what happens when things get hard, right? When expectations aren't met, when the excitement fades away, when you start to face opposition, pushback of the life that you're trying to live.
You see, resilience is the capacity to keep going when quitting would be that much easier. I think James is going to teach us a few things about resilient faith. And it's not just about trying harder or getting more mentally tough. It's rather developing a deep, enduring trust in God that's going to shape how we live even, and maybe especially when things are tough. Now, here's what's interesting to me.
When James writes this letter to the church that's scattered often and because of persecution, he doesn't begin the letter by telling them how to have a better prayer life. Keep praying, everybody. Even though that's probably some encouragement they needed. He doesn't say, well, just get up a little earlier. Just make sure you have that quiet time before work begins, and that will really change the course of your day.
He doesn't say, let me help you develop a better rubric for making decisions. If this happens, then go here and do that. He begins with trials, hard stuff, things that test our faith. And I think it's because James understood something. You don't really know how resilient your faith is until it comes under pressure.
You see, resilient faith is going to be tested. James is going to show us resilient faith. It's going to be tested. Consider it pure joy. He writes, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, and let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Now, again, can we just acknowledge this is kind of an odd way to begin a letter? Consider it pure joy. Whenever you face trials of many kinds, really consider it pure joy. That's not usually my first reaction when I encounter trials of many kinds. Right.
Maybe a breakdown happens that I wasn't planning on, or something fails that I was really hoping for, or your favorite football team lose in the last three seconds.
But I digress.
Joy is not usually the first thing that comes to mind when I'm experiencing one of those moments. Frustration, maybe, little anxiety, some anger, some sadness, some disappointment. But James isn't telling us that we need to enjoy suffering. Just enjoy it, lean into it. He's not Saying, pretend it's okay, it's all okay.
He's not saying, that hurt. It doesn't really hurt.
When I was a kid, I'd come in and tell my dad, man, my finger hurts, and go, hey, let me step on your foot. And then you'll forget how your finger's hurting. James is not doing that. Instead, I think he's trying to point to something deeper. I think he's telling us that, that there is something God can do, he can accomplish through our trials, and that gives us a reason for hope.
Notice that James says, whenever you face trials, consider it pure joy. Whenever you face trials, he doesn't say if you face trials. James operates with this assumption that your faith is going to encounter some trials, that your life is going to encounter some really hard things, and some are going to be really small and insignificant, like a missed field goal and at the end of a game. But some of them are gonna be a lot bigger, be a lot stronger. There's gonna be an unexpected diagnosis.
There's gonna be a loss of relationship. There's gonna be a kid who gets in trouble. There's gonna be grief. There's gonna be a season where things just don't add up and aren't making sense. And James is not gonna minimize any of that.
He's not gonna ask you to pretend. Instead, he's gonna point. He says, it says, you know that the testing of your faith, it produces perseverance. That word perseverance is going to be central to what we talk about and spend some time thinking together about these next few weeks. Perseverance points to this idea of steadfastness, of not giving up, of continuing to trust God when trusting is difficult.
James says, that kind of perseverance, though, it produces something in us. It doesn't just appear. It's not something we manufacture. It's something that God does in us. When you think about it in a similar way to physical strength, if you want to get stronger, you have to introduce a little stress to your body.
Your muscles are going to have to push back against some forces that are pushing against it. And when you do, you get stronger, your body responds. James will say, there's some dimensions of faith that often develop most deeply when they're facing resistance, when there's some pressure, when there's some stress. We can believe that God is faithful when everything's going great.
But you learn what it means to trust God when things aren't going right. You learn his faithfulness. Then we can believe that God provides. When we got Everything that we need.
But you learn to depend on him when you don't have what you need and you're not really sure if or when that needs gonna be met, right? We can believe that God is good when it's all coming up roses. But resilient faith, we're told, is formed when life doesn't make sense. But we keep trusting anyways. Warren, in her book, she argues that perseverance develops in us through the actual experience of struggle.
Like that's the way it's grown and developed in us is when we experience struggle. So she says, actually our struggle isn't interrupting our spiritual formation. It may actually be one of the primary places where God is forming us and shaping us most deeply. Now, to be clear, not every struggle that we face is God's orchestration. We live in a broken world with broken people who make broken decisions.
Our bodies fail us. Relationships sometimes break down. There are natural disasters, as we've seen in Evidence just even this week. Yet even in a broken world, James will tell us God can take painful experiences and he can produce something good. He says, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
And notice that little word there. Let. Let perseverance. James is inviting us to cooperate with what God is doing. When difficulties hit, we want the problem to be solved, don't we?
The pain removed, the situation changed. And James, I think, would say it's okay to pray those things. It's okay to ask God for that. In fact, we look at the testimony of Jesus own life. When he was in the garden facing the most challenging moment of his life, he prayed, God, if it's possible for.
For this cup to pass, could it pass right? But Jesus was also focused on the Father's will. And so we hear that counsel from James. He invites us to consider a different question. God, what are you trying to form in me through this?
What are you trying to teach me? What are you trying to show me? Is it about patience or humility? Maybe it's about trust or, or love or what really matters the most. See, sometimes the greatest thing that God accomplishes in a difficult season isn't changing the circumstances around us, but it's changing us.
It's reshaping us. You see, resilient faith also learns to trust God in the middle, to trust him right in the middle. If any of you lacks wisdom, he says, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. You see, when life is difficult, we don't always know what to do. We don't know what to say.
We don't know how we should respond, what decision to make. And so James says, thank you, Captain Obvious. Ask God. Ask God for wisdom. He loves to give his people wisdom.
He doesn't say, ask for an explanation. God, why is this happening? What's going on? How long, when, where, how? Why?
Now, James might say it's okay to ask those questions, but maybe a better question or more important question is God, how do I live faithfully in the midst of this, in the middle of what's going on? James says, that's wisdom. Ask for wisdom. God, how, how do I live in the middle of this? You see, what we're gonna discover the next few weeks is wisdom is not having all the answers.
That's not the definition of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing how to live in a way that honors God. When you don't have the answers, when you don't know the outcome. James says God gives wisdom generously, not reluctantly or begrudgingly. So I think James would invite us to add to our prayers when we're in the midst of hard things to say.
God, would you give me wisdom? What does faithfulness look like in this day? God, help me to make the next right decision. I can't see very far. Help me just to make the next right step.
God, help me to trust you with things that I can't control. Warren notes how easy it is to fall into this habit of imagining a different life when we're going through something really hard, especially when we're in the middle of it. How easy it is to get lost. And man, this resonated with me. I. I can get lost in that life, right?
I call it the Lake Wobegon life. Some of you may know be familiar with Garrison Keillor. Where in Lake Wobegon, all the women are strong and all the men are good looking and all the children are above average. And I can imagine my life where I have fewer problems. Just people weren't so annoying, that relationships were just so much easier.
I didn't have all these people wanting stuff from me. Instead, I could just live my life. We imagine if our circumstances were different, well, then I'd be different. I'd be so man at Lake Wobegon, I would be so patient. I'd be so generous and so kind and so faithful.
And we think, well, maybe, maybe not. Here's the flaw in that way of thinking is the only life you can actually live faithfully in Israel is your current life. The life that you're living right now, not the life you wish you had, not the life you were hoping would be at this point in your life. It's your life now. All we have is this life with these people and these relationships and these challenges and these disappointments and these opportunities and these limitations.
The good news is, though, as God says, follow me. He invites you to ask for wisdom in the midst of your real life. I mean, how much energy do I spend? Do we spend dreaming about hope? Only if instead of asking, God, God, would you help me to be faithful to you?
I mean, what if God wants to meet you right here in the midst of this season of your life?
What if he's inviting you in this moment to learn patience?
What if he's inviting you to say, in the midst of these relationships, I'm gonna teach you how to love people? Because loving people's not easy. It's actually really hard. What if this were a moment where he's just inviting you? Would you learn?
You see, God isn't waiting to meet you in the life that you wish you had. He's inviting you to follow him in the life you're actually living now. That doesn't mean there aren't some hard decisions to make. Sometimes we need to change our circumstances. When we're facing unsafe or insecure situations, there is a good idea to get out of that, get to a safe place.
You see, James reminds us that spiritual formation, that our development as a disciple, as a follower of Jesus, it doesn't have to wait until life gets easier, until things slow down. How many times has someone said, hey, can we get together and go? Well, not right now. I'm so busy. I just need a little time.
Let me wait till next week. When I don't have as many things on, then we can get together. James says that's actually not how discipleship works. God can work even in the hard things.
He'll ask us to ask God for wisdom now. He'll go on and say, but when you ask, you have to do it without doubt. This, I think, verses has caused a lot of confusion in our day. At least it has in my life. And I think what James is trying to tell us here is not that Christians can't have questions or uncertainty.
Instead, I think he's warning us against this divided heart, meaning, I want God's wisdom, but I'm not necessarily willing to follow God's ways.
He then reminds us that our circumstances are going to change and we can't define ourselves by what we have and what our status is in the world around us, how we compare ourselves to other people. He says, whether we have a lot or a little security, our security can't be found in those things. So he says, blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, having stood the test. That person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Blessed is the one who perseveres, who keeps going and stays faithful.
You know, ultimately, I think resilient faith isn't just about getting through hard things. I think it's about becoming who God's created us to be, the people who trust him. So I think it's important that we heed James warning. Beginning in verse 13, he says this. When temptation, or when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me.
For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's full grown, gives birth to death. There's this important distinction that James is making for us, that God can use our trials to strengthen us, to encourage our faith, to help us persevere, but he doesn't tempt us toward evil.
You see, sometimes the same circumstances that we're in can help us grow perseverance, but it can also expose temptation in us. And so when we're under financial pressure and we're not sure how these ends are going to meet, we're going to be tempted to compromise our integrity. When we're lonely, we may be tempted to look for comfort in unhealthy places. Or when someone hurts us, we may be tempted to pursue revenge or resentment. James says that temptation, it's not from God.
It arises from our own desires. So the question then becomes, when life gets hard, who do we turn to? We turn away from God or do we turn toward God? See, the same pressure that exposes our weakness, James says, can be where we learn to depend on God, on his strength. In fact, that's where James is going to anchor us in building a resilient faith.
He says, resilient faith anchors in God's goodness. It anchors right there. Don't be deceived, he says. My dear brothers and sisters, see, when life gets difficult, it's easy to confuse and to conflate my circumstances with God's character. Things are going good, God is good, but things aren't going so good.
Maybe God forgot about me. Maybe God doesn't care. Remember things don't go the way we want. James says, don't be deceived. Don't be deceived.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he's created at the Father, the sun and the moon and stars, the Creator who made it all. He doesn't change like shadows. I mean, think about how much of life changes our circumstances and our relationships and our health and our plans and our jobs. Sometimes the solid ground we think we're standing on actually is sand.
James reminds us God's character never changes. You see, God is good when life is good, and he's still good when life isn't. God is faithful when we understand what's going on and we can see his hand at work. And God is still faithful when we can't see a foot in front of our face. And this is where resilient faith really begins, by growing our confidence in a good and beautiful God who loves us again.
Harrison in her book, she makes this distinguishes between optimism and hope. She says optimism is the belief that things are probably going to get better, we'll win another game. Right, Brian? Maybe. But hope is rooted in something much deeper, and it's rooted in God's faithfulness.
Whether our circumstances get better or not. God's already acted decisively on our behalf in Jesus on the cross. He gave us new life. I mean, if there was ever a moment in time where people could have looked at a situation, Friday afternoon, that Good Friday afternoon with Jesus hanging on the cross was probably that people could go, this has gotten out of hand. This is not going the way it's supposed to go.
I can only imagine the disciples who are watching all these events unfold, and they're devastated. In fact, we read John's account of a couple of them walking to Emmaus and they encounter Jesus, but they can't see it. Their grief, their. Their fear, their anxiety is just so overwhelming. He says, what are you doing?
And they say, man. We hoped to hope. This is man.
I mean, if you judge God's faithfulness solely by that one event, in that one moment, you might have concluded that things have gone horribly wrong. But you see, God was doing something in that moment, couldn't see at the time. His own disciples, who'd followed him for three years, couldn't see at the time that Jesus was accomplishing redemption and salvation. And so Jesus Resurrection reminds us that suffering and death don't get the last word anymore, that God does. God gets the last word now, again, that doesn't mean every situation in our lives is going to end up great, exactly where we want them, this side of heaven, that every prayer is going to work out the way that we're hoping this side of heaven.
But it does mean that our hope is anchored in something that cannot be shaped or formed or torn away from us by trials of any kind. And Paul would say, nothing can separate us from the love that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. You see, our hope is in a risen savior and our trust. It's in a faithful God.
That resilient faith doesn't require us to understand everything God is doing. It requires us to trust who God is, even if we don't understand. So let me ask you a question as the series begins. Where's your faith being tested right now? Church.
Maybe it's a relationship or a situation at work. Maybe it's in your health or a disappointment that you've been carrying for a while. Or maybe, just maybe, you're just tired. Tired. Tired of waiting, tired of praying.
I'm tired of hoping that things will change and they're not changing. I want you to hear something this morning from James. I want you to hear this through this series. God hasn't forgotten you. That your struggles in faith don't mean you're a failure, that your weariness doesn't mean you've stopped being faithful.
Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is take another step. Just keep going, pray again, trust again, obey again, ask God for wisdom again, show up again. Not because you're strong enough to handle whatever it is that life can throw at you, but because God is faithful. He is with you, and you could trust him. And so maybe this week you could try adding one of these prayers to your own prayer life.
Maybe the first one. God, what are you trying to form in me?
What are you trying to shape? What are you trying to expose? What are you trying to teach? What are you trying to show me? Or God, would you give me wisdom?
Would you give me wisdom to take the next faithful step in my work, in my life, in my job, at school, with this friend, in this situation? God, would you give me wisdom what to say? Or God, would you help me trust you? Would you help me to remember who you are, your character, so that even when I can't understand what's going on in the world around me, I can remember you? You see, that's Resilient faith.
Resilient faith isn't faith that never struggles, never questions, never has a problem. It's a faith that keeps turning back to God, even when, maybe especially when life is hard. See, God isn't just interested in helping you survive this difficult season. And God wants you to become the man, the woman he created you to be. May he be at work in you, in me this week, Father, may that be our prayer.
Would you show us in the midst of a hard thing? Because, God, I know we have some folks here today, they're going through some really hard things, maybe tempted to feel like they're alone. I can imagine that because I felt that way, wondering what you're doing, where you're at. Oh, God, would you show up in a way today that they would know you're with them? May not solve the problem, may not satisfy the outcome.
But God, it'll may be enough to know that they're not alone, that you're with them, that we are with them. God, would you help us As a church, one of the primary roles we play is to be with one another. God, would you help us to be there for each other in the midst of hard seasons, in the midst of challenges? God, would you help us to be your hands and your feet this week? God, as we endeavor to build a resilient faith, would you do that changing work in us that only you can do?
God, would you help us to be people who remember that faith gets tested? That's part of the faith journey. But God, would you help us to trust you in the middle of things when we don't see the end, knowing and believing God, you are good and your goodness never changes. You don't change, your character never does. And so, God, would you be with us?
Would you help it to be real? Would you help us take our next step in developing that resilient faith? This week we pray in Jesus name, Amen.