Scripture Reading: James 1:1-12
The Scripture here today that we read is from the book of James. Many of you probably remember when we did a study of this book. I think Lisa led that study a couple of years ago. James is a very practical book about Christian life. It talks about how our actions are important, not only our faith. James says that faith without works is dead.
I know we are saved by faith and faith alone, by the grace of God. That is what we believe. Our works do not save us. No matter how much good we do, our works are always affected by our evil thoughts and desires and, many times, by our selfishness. The Bible teaches us that our righteousness is like filthy rags before God. No matter how much we try to clean ourselves up, our actions can still have self-centeredness and selfishness behind them.
So our works are not the basis of our salvation. Salvation comes only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, who came and died for us. Once we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are saved. That is salvation.
But when James, an apostle and one of the disciples of Jesus Christ, later wrote this letter to the churches to encourage them, he said, “I know faith is the only basis of our salvation, but works are also important.” If you have faith in Jesus Christ and say that you are a believer, that faith should express itself in your actions and in your life. If that faith does not express itself in the way you live, James says that faith is meaningless. He says it is dead.
There is one more important thing about James' letter. It is almost the opposite of what we hear many times in this world about the gospel. We hear about the prosperity gospel and messages about wealth and prosperity on television and radio all the time. But the message of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is based on the cross.
The cross that we stand behind, and the cross that I have in front of me and behind me, is not basically a symbol of prosperity. It is a symbol of pain and suffering. You may have to face only one of them. We have to face both.
The basic foundation of Christianity is based on the realities of life: pain and suffering. But we have victory over those things because God is with us during our pain and suffering. James says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”
Jesus had a cross that He had to carry. Before He carried that cross, He wore a crown of thorns. But on Easter morning, the day of His resurrection, He received the crown of victory.
The crown of victory follows the crown of thorns and pain. Sometimes we have to go through seasons of trials and pain in our lives before we can experience the joy of the crown of glory. That is a very difficult thing to perceive and accept because it is not what we want to hear.
We want to hear that everything will be well and good. We want to hear that if you go to church and worship God together, you will become rich. You will have a lot of money. God will bless you if you do good things.
Many churches and megachurches are preaching that kind of prosperity gospel. But I recently read a report that some of those prosperity-oriented megachurches are struggling because the new generation, Generation Z, seems to understand something better than perhaps we did. They want to hear something real. They want to hear about real life rather than simply a happy, prosperous message that says everything will be good if you accept God.
James is actually telling us the reality. Pain is something that we have to deal with in this life because this is a broken world that we live in. The question is not whether we will experience pain. The question is, how do we deal with it?
We don't want pain. Nobody asks for pain, right? But James tells us to look at our trials differently.
If I told you today that I had a box of free gifts and that everyone here could take one, many of you would probably be interested in knowing what it is. You would say, “What is it? Is it something I can use? Is it something I can take home?” If I told you that I had plenty of them and that after the service everyone could come and get one, I'm sure many of you would at least come and check it out.
We see those lines all the time at Costco and other places where they are giving away free stuff. Even though we are not lacking anything and we don't need it, we still like to get the free stuff.
So if I told you there was a free gift here today, you would probably want to know what it was. You might even want to take one home.
But what if I told you that this is a gift that is not generally given out very much? What if I said, “It is the gift of pain”? How many of you would like to have one? I don't think I would see many hands. Some of you would probably say, “Pastor, you can keep that gift. I already have enough!”
Everybody has pain and suffering in our lives, and we don't want to ask for more. Pain is a gift according to Scripture, but nobody likes it.
Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “God, please give me pain today.” We don't do that.
We pray for good things. We pray for healing. We pray for deliverance. We pray for God to remove our difficulties, our pain and our suffering from our everyday lives. And there is nothing wrong with those prayers. We should pray those prayers.
But the message of today's sermon is not a very pleasant one. t is about the gift of pain and suffering.
I cannot make many predictions. I'm not a good predictor of anything because I don't have the kind of vision that some people have. But I can make one prediction for sure.
We will all experience suffering and pain. If tomorrow comes, there will be some kind of pain that we will have to deal with.
So we need to understand how to embrace pain as people of faith when we have to face grief, suffering and difficulty. Pain is part of reality. It is part of the very fabric of life.
Christian faith is grounded in suffering and pain. The cross is the symbol that we are following. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
That is the kind of life Jesus is offering us. But even though the pain and trials that we have to experience in this world are real, they are not purposeless.
Every pain, every hardship and every suffering that we go through can have a purpose because the God who is with us knows the suffering and pain we are experiencing. He can take that pain and suffering and turn it around and make it a blessing for us and even a blessing for this world.
That is the promise of Scripture.
James challenges believers to view trials not simply as disruptions in our lives, but as opportunities for joy. Joy in the midst of pain. That is what Christian faith is.
Even when we are suffering and going through pain in our bodies, our souls and our spirits, we can have a joy that no one else has because there is a God who knows what we are going through, and He is with us during that suffering.
God does not always immediately remove the pain, even when we want Him to.
But God can take something that we never wanted and use it to produce something that we desperately need.
Believe it or not, there are people who actually pray for pain.
There is a disease called Hansen's disease, which is what we commonly know as leprosy. One of the terrible effects of this disease can be a loss of sensation. When people lose the ability to feel pain, injuries can occur without the person realizing it. A person may injure a hand or foot and not know it because the warning system of pain is no longer functioning properly.
There is also a rare genetic condition called congenital insensitivity to pain. Children born with this condition do not experience pain normally. Their parents have to protect them carefully from cuts, burns and other injuries because the children don't have the normal warning system that pain provides.
There have been tragic cases in which children have seriously injured themselves without realizing it because they could not feel pain.
What a terrible thing that is.
So there are people who would actually pray to have the gift of pain and sensation. Why? Because pain has a purpose.
Pain is part of our body's warning system. It tells us that something is wrong. It alerts us to danger. Without that warning, our lives can actually be in greater danger. James is telling us that something similar can happen in our spiritual lives.
The pain of our spiritual life, the pain of our souls, can also have a purpose. Sometimes pain gets our attention. Sometimes it shows us something that needs to be corrected. Sometimes it reveals that we have been moving away from God. Sometimes it brings us back to God. Sometimes pain becomes the very thing God uses to restore us.
James says that we should consider our trials with joy because God has a purpose behind them. Why did the pain come to me? Why did this happen to me and not someone else? Why did God allow this in my life?
Those are questions we may ask. And honestly, I don't have all the answers. Why did God allow this particular pain to come into my life and not someone else's? That is not for me to answer.
Maybe one day, when we see God face to face, we can ask Him. Maybe when we get to heaven, we can say, “Lord, why did You allow this?” Maybe He will have an answer.
But as human beings, we don't have the ability to understand the whole purpose of everything that happens in our lives.
We don't ask God, “Why did You give me all these blessings?” We don't say, “God, why did You give me a good family? Why did You give me a good life? Why did You give me food today? Why did You give me this blessing?”
We usually accept those things without asking why. But when something happens that we don't like, then we ask, “Why, God?” Pain and suffering are realities through which God can fulfill His purposes.
So we need to learn to look at trials, pain and suffering as opportunities through which God can work. Trials can develop a faith that prosperity can never test.
James says, “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.”
That is one of the important things about perseverance. The testing of our faith through pain and suffering can teach us to persevere.
When everything is against us, when we feel pressed by the situations around us, when we feel like we want to quit, that is when God can give us the strength not to quit but to continue trusting Him in the midst of our pain.
Pain is not necessarily a punishment. Sometimes we think that pain is a punishment from God. But pain does not always mean that God is punishing us. Pain can become a gift when we allow God to fulfill His purposes through it.
So embrace it, as Job did. You know the story of Job. He was a wealthy man who lost almost everything—his family, his possessions and his health. Even his wife told him to curse God and die.
But Job stood firm in his faith. He continued to trust God even when he could not understand what was happening.
And yes, God eventually blessed Job abundantly. But that is not the main point of the story. The point is this: When you are faced with pain and suffering, how do you respond?
Can we learn to embrace it with faith? Can we say, “Thank You, God, even for this sickness that I have in my life. I know it is painful. I know I have to go through this suffering. But I know there is a God who is greater than this sickness. You are Almighty. I trust You. You are with me, and I will not fear any evil.” Can we say that as people of God?
Pain can also serve as a warning system in our spiritual lives.
Sometimes we need some pain so that we can restore ourselves. Sometimes pain reveals that we have been going in the wrong direction. Sometimes it shows us things we have forgotten or things we are doing that God does not want us to do.
Pain can lead us toward restoration. And pain can produce perseverance.Sometimes we don't understand what God is doing.
I don't understand everything God is doing. But I can say, “I am not going to walk away from God, no matter what.”
Paul went through tremendous suffering in his life. Yet he could say that nothing—not even death—could separate him from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
That should be our testimony. Even in the midst of our pain, we can say that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Perseverance and endurance are developed through testing, pain and suffering. Think about physical exercise.
Endurance is developed by exercising and pushing ourselves beyond what is comfortable. You don't build endurance by always taking the easiest path. You build endurance by continuing when the path becomes difficult.
It is the same spiritually. As we go through hardships in our lives, we develop perseverance. And perseverance produces character. Character is who you become when life puts pressure on you. Pain gives us perseverance, and perseverance builds character. Character is the person God wants us to become.
Think about a piece of gold being purified. Gold is put through intense heat so that the impurities can be removed. The process is not pleasant, but the purpose is purification.
There is an old illustration about a goldsmith watching the molten gold until he can see his reflection in it. Whether or not we know exactly how every ancient goldsmith worked, the picture is a beautiful one.
God is like the refiner. When we go through the fire of pain and suffering, God is not abandoning us. He is working in us. And as the impurities are removed, His character can become more visible in our lives.
When our Maker, our Refiner, looks at us, may He see His own image being reflected in our lives. May He see His son. May He see His daughter. May He see someone who is faithful and who is finishing the race faithfully.
What a great God we have. We can trust Him. He will be with us through the fire and through the fiery furnace.
He will never abandon us nor forsake us. So when pain comes, it is natural for us to complain.
It is natural to ask questions. It is natural to cry. It is natural to say, “God, I don't understand.” But don't get stuck in your complaints. Go beyond the complaint and say, “God, if You are with me, I am going to take this pain and embrace it with faith. Give me Your joy. Give me Your peace. Give me Your strength. That is all I need. Then I can endure this pain and suffering.”
Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character produces maturity.
And James tells us to let perseverance finish its work so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. The gift is not the pain itself.
The gift is what God can produce in us through the pain.
May the good Lord bless us with these words as we go from this place, comforted by the Holy Spirit in our times of trials, pain and suffering.
Amen.
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