How many of you ever tried to make a deal with your siblings to get what you wanted? My siblings and I used to say things like “If you give me that I will do whatever you want.” Or “If you go do this thing for me I will say yes to everything you ask for an hour” sometimes we would make bets and if one of us lost they would owe everyone else one favor that we could cash in whenever we wanted.
Every time I made those deals I regretted it. Everyone knows there is nothing worse than having your siblings tell you what to do! You get it right?
Now imagine openly calling yourself a servant of your brother or sister. Imagine dedicating the rest of your life to following them and getting other people to follow them. Doesn’t sound too ideal does it? Something insane would have to happen to get me to do that for my siblings. What about you?
The reason I ask is because that’s exactly what James did. Who’s James? James was the half brother of Jesus and he wrote the new testament book “James” that we are going to be studying.
Imagine being Jesus’ brother. Big shoes to fill right? The thing is James didn’t even believe that Jesus was the messiah while Jesus was alive. John 7:5 literally says
“ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”
Which can you blame them for? They grew up with Jesus. They saw him as a kid. If my brother started acting like the Messiah I wouldn’t believe him. I’d check if he hit his head recently. Because there is no way the same kid who rode through our neighborhood on his scooter in a diaper was gonna save the world.
I imagine James probably felt the same way. But something happened between John 7:5 and the book of James. Somehow we went from brother to disciple. He became one of the strongest and most passionate leaders in the church. Look at what he writes in James 1:2-4,
“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
He is saying when you feel like you are facing one hard thing after another, think of it as an opportunity for joy, because your faith will grow through it. You will become stronger and wiser and closer to Jesus. Your faith will become indestructible if you let it.
Now you have to understand James isn’t just writing this randomly. He didn’t just pick a random list of topics to put together in the Bible. The book of James was originally a letter that he wrote to the church in Jerusalem. And they needed to hear this message because they were facing real troubles.
James was writing to a church that was being extremely persecuted. Christians were being arrested for sharing their faith. They were being hunted down and murdered. They would be put on crosses, burned alive, put on trial and ridiculed. Forced to reject their faith or pay the consequences. Families were separated. Some of them weren’t able to meet with their whole church body so they were forced to start small house churches all over the place just to meet together.
These people were suffering. Real pain and fear and heartache. And in the face of all that suffering James says consider it joy. Take this as an opportunity not to give up or run away, but an opportunity to put your faith in the God of the Universe. To let Him make you stronger and better. To believe that He will be with you in your darkest moments. When you face death consider it a joy to face that trial in the name of Jesus. Don’t give up or just bear through it but find joy in it. That’s what he encouraged them to do.
What about us? When life feels like it’s falling apart what do you do? When you don’t have the answer to what is coming next? Where do you turn? When your friends turn their backs on you. When your family is falling apart because of a divorce. When you didn’t make the team you have been dreaming about for months. When your dream girl/guy breaks your heart. When your close friend stops talking to you because of your faith, When everyone at school is talking badly about Christians. What do you do?
Do we crumble and just give up? Do we fall apart, let life get us down and stop moving forward? Do we believe the lie that God doesn’t care about us? Do you believe the devil when he whispers in your ear saying things like “You’re not gonna make it” or “if God was real this wouldn’t be happening.”
No, when you face trials when I face trials, we need to consider it a joy. We are going to find peace and joy knowing that God is using this trial to grow us. That if we put our faith and trust in Him and His timing not only will we make it through the storm but we will come out better for it. We have to believe that. When you are in a dark season of your life you have to remind yourself of this verse. Remind yourself of the fact that God can use this to do something in your heart and transform you. When you go through storms it’s not for nothing. God is working for you. I love the way C.S. Lewis puts it. He says,
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
God is doing more in us than we could ever imagine. He is making your faith stronger and better through every storm. He can use your hard times to draw you even closer to Him, if you let Him.
The question is how do we let Him? How do you let God use your storm to heal you and draw you closer to Him? You have to talk to Him. You can spend all your time complaining and stressing about your circumstances or you can pray.
Prayer turns fear into faith.
You have to start praying. I don’t mean just pray here and there I mean get real with God. Sit down and cry and talk and be brutally honest with him about how you are feeling. Ask him to make it clear that he is with you. Ask him to show you how he is getting you through the hard times. Ask Him to use this to bring you closer to Him. Tell him exactly what you are feeling and ask HIm to help you trust Him. Whether you pray out loud, in your head or you write it down. Start talking to God. Lean on Him in the storm and see how much better you will come out of it.
You are going to suffer. You are going to go through hard times. The question is would you rather go through that hard time feeling alone, confused and lost? Or would you like to go through the storm knowing that the God of the Universe is with you and is going to give you joy in your biggest heartache.
James wasn’t a stranger to suffering. He experienced the persecution that he was writing about. He knew exactly what it felt like to be mocked, ridiculed and hurt for his faith. But he stayed committed and trusted God through it and it gave Him the strength to stand firm. James was so strong in His Faith that even facing death didn’t stop Him from following Jesus.
The main account of James' death tells a story of Pharisees and religious leaders bringing James up to the pinnacle of the temple to teach. Their goal was to get him to lead people away from following Jesus but instead he boldly proclaimed that Jesus was Lord. The crowd loved it but the Pharisees were furious. So they pushed James off the temple. When that didn’t kill him they beat him to death. All while James was praying for them and still proclaiming Jesus as Lord.
He lived for Jesus. He was convinced that his half brother was the messiah, the savior of the world and everyone needed to follow Him. No suffering would get in the way of Him living for His Savior. He trusted God enough to die for Him. That is strong faith. That is the kind of faith you get when you pray through your storm and choose to believe that God is working through even the worst times of your life.
I don’t know about you but I want that kind of faith.
You might be thinking “What changed for James? How did he go from disregarding his brother completely to dying for Him.” It’s simple really.
James saw his brother get arrested for nothing, put on trial illegally, be beaten, mocked and spat upon. He watched prophecies about the messiah being fulfilled as Roman guards laughed at Jesus and fought over his clothes. He watched his brother carry a cross to the foot of a hill where he would hang for hours. And when he watched his brother die he saw the sky grow as dark as midnight, felt the earth shake and the temple veil tear. Three days later he starts to hear rumors that his brother is alive. He watched his brother go through all of that because He loves you and me and wanted to pay the cost of our sins. Jesus went through all of that so people like James and like me and you could spend eternity with our Father in Heaven instead of paying for our sins in Hell. I don’t know about you but if my brother went through all of that. I think I would believe him.
There is so much to the book of James. I am so excited to keep studying this book over the next few weeks. But there is so much more than we will be able to cover at Remix so your challenge is to read it for yourself. There are only 5 chapters in James so all you need to do is read a few verses every day. Read a few verses and ask God to help you develop a faith like James.
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