← ArchiveJamesLet’s Get RealDateJanuary 26, 2020SpeakerDr Josh BurnhamTextJamesPassages in this sermonJames 10:34James 1:1–45:14James 1:15:181 Corinthians 108:16James 1:319:081 John 3:2420:57Ephesians 321:32TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Music Music Music Music0:28Music If you have a copy of God's Word with you today, please turn to James chapter 1. So we begin a new sermon series in the book of James today. I'm excited. We love the Word of God and I always get excited when we start new books and really I get, I'm sad when we end books of the Bible because we believe in the power of God's Word0:56that changes lives. The sermon series is called A Faith That Works. And so this book is embedded in the New Testament towards the end of the New Testament written by James the Just, the half-brother of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And here's what James wants you to know. One, that this book is not for the faint of heart.1:24This is going to be real. Secondly, James wants you to know that faith in Jesus is worth it. that works. And He's going to prove that to you throughout His inspired Word. And we should have confidence that we have a faith that works. Let me demonstrate it1:52demonstrate it the other way. We live in a world, I think, of falsehood and things that let us down. Anyone ever been let down for any reason in their life. The rest of you are not awake. So one thing that is fantastic as a business owner and terrifying as a parent is what we call the arcade. You give your kid $20,2:20$20, which they turn into tokens, which they then spend an hour trying to get tickets to win something that's 50 cents. I'll never forget. One time, I think as our son, he worked really hard for about an hour and he won this, I call it a paddle board. You know, it has a little paddle, it has a ball on the end and you're hitting it.2:48Some of you, yes? And you just need to know my son, who has my temperament. He gets home and he's so excited because he spent an hour, he won this 10-cent paddle board. First hit, the ball slings across the house. And if you've ever tried3:16to put one of these things back together, it's impossible. And so he loses his mind for the next hour or two because what he wanted to work so bad was broken. James wants you to know that God's faith does not work that way. You can count on faith in Jesus Christ. It's not a cheap trick.3:44It's not an arcade game. It's not something that we play. You can rely on this faith. James is not pumping you up to believe Christianity is something it's not. Many have tried their own way and have called it Jesus and have found it wanting. That's not true Christianity. Listen to what G.K. Chesterton says about Christianity.4:10He says the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. Following Christ has been found difficult and left untried. You see, what's happened to many of us is we have played church or had some type of Southern morality and we've called that Christianity. And when we are in need we sling that paddle board and our faith goes.4:38And it's broken because it's not Christian ideals. It's not built on the foundation of Christ. It's built on our moral code. And James says let me share with you a faith that truly works. It's a faith like you've never seen before. It's a faith in the one true God. It's a faith that you can trust all the days of your life. And so today, as we read the word,5:06the sermon title, we're going to jump off into it. It's called Let's Get Real. James 1:1-4. So let's read the word of God together. James 1:1 New Testament. I don't have a page number. If anyone has the Pew Bible, can you give me an accurate page number? 1071. Thank you. 1071 if you're following along in your Pew Bible. James 1:1 New Testament.5:34Let's pause and pray, Father. We cannot understand your inspired word apart from your spirit.6:02So, Father, we ask that you would open our ears to hear. you would illuminate our eyes to see. You would fan our hearts to feel.6:28And that we would be doers of your word. That we would see how immeasurable are the riches of your love towards us. Father, help us get real this morning. Because your faith works. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. And amen.6:56And amen. So this is James the Just. He is the brother of Jesus Christ. And he introduces himself very simply here in James 1:1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So on one hand, James is displaying his humility. He says, "I am James, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."7:16He didn't name drop his brother. He didn't say, "Oh, by the way, I am the brother of Christ. Pay attention to what I'm going to tell you." He could have. That would have been true and honest. And it would have been a worthwhile proposition. But James says, "I don't want you to know that. This is James, a servant."7:44You see, he had committed his life to Jesus. Because Jesus was his master. James was his servant. And don't think that James learned this the easy way. James did not put his faith in Jesus until after the crucifixion, until after the resurrection. He saw his brother die on the cross.8:12And then in 1 Corinthians 10, we see that Jesus appeared to James after the resurrection. And James believed. So James doesn't say, "Listen to me. I saw Jesus with my own eyes." He says, "No, I come to you with humility. Because I am a servant of Jesus." What does it look like to follow Christ? It looks like this. It looks like servanthood.8:41I, James, a servant of Jesus. I, Josh, I'm a servant. I, fill in the blank. Is Jesus your master this morning? Because we begin with humility as a slave and servant of the one true God. Think about this. Anyone have a brother or sister in the room?9:10Not here, but anyone just in general have a brother or sister? Okay. Any of you like the wisest, any of you the oldest kid? Like the, that's me, right? The, you know, we're the most awesome. That's just, that was our birthright. It has nothing to do with the sermon, sorry. Just sometimes those come out. If my brother, Eric and Bethany, if you're listening, forgive me. How hard would it be for you to convince your brother or sister that you were God?9:38Think about that. What would you have to do in your life? To say, in case you didn't know, I'm the son of God. There would have been a crucifixion right there in my house.10:05Because I'm not God. So for James to stand before a community of faith and say, I am a servant of Jesus Christ. He believed it with all of his being. Because he saw it. He lived it. He didn't believe until after the resurrection. And he wants the world to know that this is Jesus.10:33This is faith that works. And then he begins to greet the people. Now James is, I love James because James is short and quick and to the point. Every other New Testament writer is going to have a flowery greeting, right? To the church, grace and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's kind of bring you in slightly. James says this. You ready?11:02You ready? Greetings. Let's go. Verse 2. James is basically like, bam! Let's get on with this. With our missionary partners in Bulgaria, they would say it like this. Greetings. Let's we go. He says then, consider it great joy. What a hard landing for the introduction of any book. Because James says, consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters.11:28When you experience various trials. James is saying this. And I want us to understand this deep truth. You and I will experience difficulty. He doesn't say, hey, just, I know Jesus. He's my half-brother and he died on the cross. He appeared to me and I believe. And if you just follow Jesus, everything will be awesome. Your life will, it'll be roses.11:55And unicorns. And your bank account will be full. And you won't have to use an Instagram filter because you will always have the right angle. And if we're not careful, we feel like we need to convince people that if they just come to Jesus, their wildest dreams will be fulfilled.12:16You know what James says to that? You have lost your mind. Look at verse 2. Brothers and sisters, count it great joy. You will experience great trials. If you're older than 25, really I would say if you're older than 2, you realize that life is difficult and broken.12:43And James says this is a reality. The rain falls upon the just and the unjust. Brokenness falls upon the just and the unjust. You will experience. Now here is why Christianity and faith in Christ changes the way that you live. Because it's the Holy Spirit that shapes and redefines the way that you walk through trials.13:12Consider it a great joy. Brothers and sisters, you will experience various trials. Wake up! Why is this comforting? Because James is saying, look, you're not alone. If you're dealing with a difficult situation right now, you're not by yourself.13:38Because someone over here is going through the same thing. And we can find solace knowing that the Holy Spirit is with us there. So why can James say this? Tradition says this is how James lost his life. He believed that Jesus was the Messiah. And so they couldn't stand it anymore. So the church leaders threw him off the pinnacle of the temple.14:05But he didn't die. And so one man grabbed a club and beat him to death. James is someone who personally experienced trials in his life. And he says to us, consider it a great joy. Listen, this week, some of you have lost a husband. Some of you this week have got diagnosis that you never thought you would receive.14:35Some of you this week have been mourning because your marriage is falling to shreds. And that your son or your daughter is sick. And you have walked in here in this room right now experiencing various trials. And I'm not going to sugar coat that. There's nothing that I can say right now that's going to say it's going to be okay. But I will say this: Jesus is with you.15:05And you are not alone. And the Holy Spirit shapes and redefines the way that we walk through this life. That even if we are killed for our faith, we can look at the world and say, "That's all you have?" Because Satan, don't you know? When you tried to kill Jesus, it didn't work. And if that's all you can do to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.15:31But I will grab onto the promise that I will consider it a great joy when I face various trials. If you are going through a trial right now, I want you to know this: God hears you. He sees you. He hears you. And He knows you. Right now in your moment of need.16:02God sees you. He hears you. And He knows you. I know what you're probably thinking. How could we live through these things? What should we do? James says this: "Consider it a great joy." Now listen to what the Bible does not say here. He does not say, "Well, consider all things that happen to you joy."16:32That's fool's errands. Because there are things that are going to happen to you and me in my life that are not joyful. Here's what James is saying though. Here's another way to translate this verse. We do not consider everything joy, but consider pure joy the trials of faith. You see, through the Spirit, we can view our difficulties here as opportunities for rejoicing.16:58We view our difficulties as opportunities for rejoicing. Now, when you hear that, when I hear that, I say, "Wow, this is not real." So what is joy? Joy is an unnatural reaction of deep, steady, unadulterated trust in God.17:21Joy is no matter what happens to me in my life, I will stand firm on the conviction that Jesus is everything that He says He is. And because I have Jesus, I have fullness of joy.17:47And that brings me hope. Because I wish I could stand up here and tell you what tomorrow looks like. I wish I could say, "You know, you're going to wake up in the morning, and the sun's going to rise, and the birds are going to sing. You don't have to put your makeup on, it's going to be there. And you're going to walk to the table, and your coffee's going to be made, and the Bible's going to be open to the exact scripture that the Holy Spirit has already opened for you in that morning."18:09And you don't even have to read it, it's just going to jump into your minds. And everything is as it should be tomorrow. That might not be true. But you know what I do know? That Jesus is there. And He is the same tomorrow as He is today, and as He was yesterday.18:36And that if I go through a difficulty tomorrow, it is an opportunity for the joy of Christ to work in my heart and through me. And even if that trial is not joyful, I do not get my joy from my circumstances, I get my joy from my Savior. This is what James wants us to know. So how does this work out in our life?19:05Look at James 1:3. How can we do this? This is not easy. Verse 3, "Because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance." Now, this is counter-cultural because James does not say to us, "Well, you feel joy when you are under immense stress." No. James uses a word of knowledge. He says, "Count it.19:34Consider it." No. Because in times of trial, we are so quickly tempted to fall back on our feelings. You know, I believe difficulties in my life elevate feelings and downplay what I know about God. I got a shot on Friday. I was not rejoicing in that moment. You know why? Because the pain of that shot was screaming at me louder than anything else in my life.20:00So in that moment of trial, the pain was elevated more than anything else. So when we go through these difficult things, James is reminding us, "Look, don't base your life in this moment on the way you feel. Base your life on what you know." And what do we know? That God uses trials to perfect our faith.20:28To make us stronger in Christ. God wants you to know when you're going through difficult situations. He said, "Hey, I'm working on you." You might not see it, you might not feel it, but I'm there. I'm working on you. Listen to what God wants us to know in His Word. The implication is that the testing leads to approval. 1 John 3:2420:57The one who keeps His commands and remains in Him, that's Jesus. And He in Him. And the way we know. Did you hear that? The way we know. Not the way we feel. The way we know that He remains in us. From the Spirit He has given us. How do you know that God is with you? Because His Spirit is with you. It's the same reason James says, "I want you to know, remember this.21:25Don't forget this promise. Don't forget this truth." Listen to what Ephesians 3 says about remember what you know. "I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and the width and the height and the depth of God's love. And to know, and to know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God."21:49Consider it great joy, brothers and sisters, when you face various trials because you know. Never forget what you know about God.22:16Never forget the promises of God. Remember what you know. Verse 3. Because you know what? That the testing of your faith produces endurance. God will never test you because He is a strict schoolmaster.22:43This is what James is saying. The language in Greek is written in the affirmative. He's saying because of Christ you've already passed the test. God will never give you a test that you can't pass in Christ. So if you are walking through a test right now, know you already have a passing grade because of the Holy Spirit. That's what James is saying.23:12James assumes that the Christian is passing the test because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. This word testing has thematic roots in metallurgy. They would have known this in the ancient world, especially silversmiths who would smelt silver-bearing lead ore. They would take silver that was mixed with ore and other rocks and they would crush it into a powder. They would ground it up and then they would put it in a crucible and then they would set it on fire.23:42An extremely hot temperature. And in that, all the impurities in the silver would rise to the top. And it is called dross. It's the elements that you don't desire. The silversmith would scrape off the dross and then he would set it on fire again. He would continue to heat up the elements. And over time, the silversmith would heat up and test the metal and he would clean off the impurities.24:12Heat up, clean off. Heat up, clean off. This was over and over and over again. And in the ancient world, you know how the silversmith understood that the silver was ready? When he could look in the crucible and see his reflection, he knew that the silver was pure.24:34You know what James is saying about trials in your life if you were in Christ? He's saying God is heating you up and he's wiping away the impurities. And he is heating you up and he is wiping away the impurity. But don't focus on the fire. Yes, it's painful.25:03Yes, it's hot. But if you can see it from God's view, he's molding you that one day he will look into your life and he will see the perfect image of Jesus Christ in you. James is saying you will pass the test in Christ. Brothers and sisters, consider it all joy when you face various trials because you know, you know this, that the testing of your faith is producing the image of Christ within you.25:25Because of Christ, God wants you to look like him. And let endurance have its full effect. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but you cannot short circuit righteousness and endurance.25:56I can't give you a pill. I can't give you a switch to turn on. The present imperative calls for this continuous action already in progress. James is saying it this way. Let what God is already doing in you continue. Let what God is doing in you. So what is endurance? Does it mean we should let other people just walk all over us? No, by no means.26:26The word endurance here is a military word. It's a word that a general would use when he's holding his troops on the mountaintop and he sees the enemy coming. It's the same image, the same word that an army in the battlefield or in a valley when they see everything pressing upon us and they're ready to attack. The general would say, hold still. Endure.26:55Endure. Hold still. Endure. I've been here before. Hold still. Don't jump. Don't shoot. You know who you are. Put it away. Endure. Endure is a military general who's been through the war. Giving hope. Bringing faith. And said, I've been here before. And God is faithful. Endure is not woe is me. Endure is God fortify me again.27:24Because I've been through the battle and you were there. I've been through the fire and you are wiping me clean. And Lord, I will stand firm again. Why is this important? Because the virtue of endurance is only earned through the battlefield of life. When I want people to pray for me, I want someone who's been there before.27:49I want someone who knows, who has been hardened through the Holy Spirit in the battlefield of life. And James says this way. Let endurance have what? Have its full effect. Why? Listen. Endurance is not the end game for James. It leads to something even more important in our life.28:18He says in verse 4. Let endurance have its full effect. So that what? So that you. Did you catch that? So that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Listen to the word of God. The Christian himself is the perfected work. This is not add another virtue in your life and one day God's going to say,28:44"Good job, Josh." You get the endurance star. No, this is God saying, "Josh, don't you see? I am producing in you the full-blown character of stable righteousness." Like Josh, don't you see? Endurance is having its full effect on you. So that you may be complete and mature, lacking nothing. Josh, you don't see. But one day I'm going to look into your life.29:14And I'm going to see the perfect image of the Creator in you. Christian, you are the perfected work. That is God's desire for your life. How can this be so? Listen to what Jude says about Jesus. He says, "Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory,29:42without blemish and with great joy." How does God receive you because of Jesus Christ? Without blemish? Because He scraped off the impurities. And with great joy. To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever more. Here's what James wants you to know.30:12Let's get real. Life is broken. But Jesus is real. Life is difficult. But God will not leave you. Life is difficult. But Jesus is working on you so you may be complete and perfected. God is working in you right now. So that one day Jesus will present you before His heavenly Father.30:42And He will say, "God, this is what we were doing in Josh's life." When the heat was ratcheted up, Lord, we were making Him in our image. And Lord, I can't wait. I can't wait to present Josh before you with great joy, without blemish. I don't know what you're going through right now. But know if you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit is causing you to pass the dust.31:07And yes, the fire might be hot. And yes, it might be difficult. But faith is worth it because faith in Jesus Christ works. And God will not leave you. Holding you into His image that He might look down upon you one day and say, "You're ready. You're pure." Consider what you know.31:34That He will present you faultless before the throne with great joy. Man, what hope that James gives for those in Jesus Christ. If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, we want you to know that before you thought about Jesus, He gave His life for you. That while you were still a sinner, Jesus died. Let me put that in perspective. On your worst day, that's the day that Jesus said, "I'll die for that day."32:03And if you, in this moment, would recognize that it is because of your sin that you are not in relationship. That it is because of your sin that you need a great Savior. If you would believe that Christ came to live and die and was raised from death to rescue you from your sin. If you would say in your heart this morning, "God, forgive me.32:30I trust in you. And I want Jesus. I want Jesus to present me before your throne with great joy." If you would do that this morning, you know what the Bible says? That God will welcome you into His kingdom. And that He will say, "I've been waiting for you. And I've been waiting for you." Welcome home. This is the power of the gospel.33:00If you are ready to give your life to Jesus today, I just want you to know that we want to celebrate that with you. We're going to have prayer partners up in the front. If you want to come pray, if you want to come kneel at the altar and pray for others. If you want to come share with someone this morning, "Hey, I want you to know that this Jesus you were talking about, the Holy Spirit was doing something in me and I want to follow Him." We want to be the first to welcome you into this family of faith and say, "Welcome home.33:29Welcome to new birth. Happy birthday." We would love to celebrate that with you this morning. Maybe you want to fill out a connect card and have a pastor follow up with you later in this week. We would love to do that. But to Him who is able to keep us from falling. Brothers and sisters, this life is not easy. But in Christ you will pass the test. Let's pray. - I pray, Father.33:59- I pray, Father.Next in James →Be A DoerMore sermons on James →
