This Friday and Saturday begin a special month in the Jewish calendar. And we have a Jewish guest coming to speak on October the 12^th, Scott Brown. Remember that he is the man we so enjoyed at the Passover Seder last Spring. We have asked him to come back for three weeks to talk about an exciting outreach he is involved in with Jewish people, and he has agreed to come on the morning of the 12^th and the evening of the 19^th and 26^th.

Leviticus 23 lists the 3 celebrations that the Jewish nation was to enjoy in the Fall of the year. The feast of trumpets, Roshashanna, begins this Friday and Saturday. Then the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, takes place 10 days later, Sunday the 5^th of October. After that the feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, lasts a week, beginning the 10^th of October. Next week we want to remember the feast of Trumpets by blowing the trumpets in our service. And on the 12^th of October, when Scott Brown comes, we would like to have a booth outside to demonstrate how Jewish people today celebrate the feast of Tabernacles.

Since the days of Exodus, Jewish history has demonstrated how things, events, circumstances, situations enter our lives in at least two forms — scheduled and unscheduled. Yom Kippur is a scheduled event that comes every year; "yom cancer" or "yom collision," or "yom accident" is an unscheduled event.

We are in James chapter one today, and the first thing James wants to talk about is how we respond to unscheduled events.

James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

The "unscheduled events" are described by James as "various trials." James is acknowledging that we will "fall into" a variety of "trials." HOW we respond to those trials is very important. And as James points out, the question that will continually arise in the difficulty is your view of God. In fact, your view of God is sort of going to guide your response to your difficulties.

Thank God for the situation. We view situations as "difficult" because circumstances convince us that we are going to be hurt, or suffer loss, or that life is crashing around us. And we have got to make a choice. HOW do we make that initial choice? Do we assume that GOD IS IN CHARGE HERE? Or do we assume that GOD IS ABSENT FROM THIS EVENT?

Look at the recipients of the letter – "the twelve tribes . . . scattered." James is talking to refugees, perhaps the ones in Acts 8:2 who were pushed out of Jerusalem for their faith, lost their houses and lands, and are now traveling, wandering, looking for some place to live and settle down. They are frustrated over the pain of it all. They trusted Christ as their Messiah, became part of this new work of God, the church, saw amazing things happen, with thousands of people getting saved, people healed, miracles in many places – and now this – loneliness, disconnectedness, unsettledness, loss because of their testimony for Christ, loss of position and authority, to be refugees, vagabonds, gypsies. And look at how James words his greeting: "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: Greetings (Rejoice). 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials . . ." He doesn’t sympathize with them, he doesn’t say, "I know you have it hard." Instead he abruptly says, "do you know what is going on, do you understand what God is doing?"

A. A "trial" is a situation that forces you to make a choice. You fall into these circumstances that force you to do something. You can’t "not-respond." You’ve got to say something, do something, hit something, react in some way. James is not talking about a meaningless choice like the brand of toothpaste to use, or whether to read the first page of the newspaper, but a significant choice as to how to react to this unscheduled event that has entered my life. It’s when you drop the new tube of toothpaste on your toe and you are in pain and want to scream and kick. It’s when the tropical storm has just darkened the lights of your house, or dropped a tree on your roof, or your car quits in rush hour traffic on the beltway. At that time you have to make a choice, you can’t stay neutral, especially if your toe hurts and your refrigerator is without power and warming up.

Verse 3 says that this trial involves the "testing of your faith." In other words, trials are circumstances that force us to make a choice as to who we will listen to, believe and obey. When a trial comes in, you will normally hear two different kinds of voices, one from God (or right) and one from Satan (or wrong).

B. The first choice we make is crucial. "Count it all joy" is the command. With this command, God is asking us to make two conclusions: (1) God is in this event. No matter what it looks like, no matter how difficult and threatening it seems, there is a God and He is in control, and He says that He can make all things work together for good to them who love Him. Does "all things" include this trial? The conclusion God desires is, "yes it does, and I can rejoice over the fact that God is in control." (2) The second conclusion is not only that God is in this event, but that God has a plan is to use this trial to strengthen my faith. It’s not a random event. It’s not an accident. It’s not an indication that God has left my life and I am on my own. It is exactly what I need to strengthen my faith.

How you respond indicates what you believe. Job's wife said to him when horrible trials came upon him, "Curse God and die." What did she believe? She didn’t believe that God was in control or she would not have recommended that response.

For a contrast, here is Paul’s response: "Therefore, I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong" (II Cor. 12:10). How can he take pleasure in difficulties? Because when they are "for Christ’s sake," when he goes thru them with Jesus Christ, he becomes strong!

Thus the command is to put a "tag" on your trials. When you fall into various trials, tag them as "GOD AT WORK to accomplish a plan that is the BEST THING FOR ME." Tag them as "friends," rather than "enemies." View the situation as an opportunity for the purest, highest joy! Rejoice. Give thanks to the God Who has arranged it

Think about what has happened this past week in your life. What kinds of trials have charged into your life? Something at school that didn’t sit right, something at your job, something in your family, something to do with Isabel? How did you respond? Did you say things like, "oh no, not again;" or "why me?" Or "why now?" Or "this is miserable?" If your response indicates what you believe, can you think of trials you faced where you didn’t believe that God was in charge and arranging events for your benefit? Can you think of trials where you charged God with doing it wrong? Or not knowing what He was doing? Where you almost responded like Job’s wife, "curse God and die?"

Everyone goes through this same process, of learning to trust God with the everyday events of life, learning to tag then as good rather than evil. Remember Joni Eareackson? Think of what it would be like for you to go out to Sandy Point for a picnic at the beach, to dive into the water and break your neck, and from then on to be strapped to a hospital bed. What a bummer. In her book, Joni, she talks about how early on she was contemplating suicide, thinking about how she could do it. At one point she had been talking to Jackie about giving her an overdose of pills or slashing her wrists, she had just cussed out Jackie for dropping a fan and making so much noise that it hurt her in the head, when Dick , her boyfriend, walks in and reads these verses (James 1) from the Phillips translation. Here’s what he read: "When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance." After realizing the truth of this verse, she prayed, "Lord Jesus, I'm sorry I haven't been looking more to You for help. I've never thought of my accident before as something for testing my faith. But I can see how that's happened. Lord, just like Your Word says, I believe my accident came to test my faith and endurance, but I also feel that You really want me healed. Thank You for this lesson. With Your help, I'm going to trust You. Thank You that even this accident "works" together for good. I pray that others around me will see You through me. In Your name I pray, amen" (Joni, 59).

Joni chose to accept as fact that God was in her circumstance, even the breaking of her neck. And that God not only could strengthen her, but that this very trial was designed by God to strengthen her faith. Joni learned the lesson on James – and the past 35 years have shown how God has strengthened her in miraculous ways!

That trial in your life is something GOOD. It may not feel good, it may not look good, in fact it may feel like the worst thing that has ever happened to you, but God said it was good and creatively designed to strengthen your faith. Are you going to believe Him – and rejoice in it and thank Him? Or are you going to trust your senses, trust how you read the situation, trust how you feel at the moment?

If we do not learn to respond properly, the situation, instead of working "patience" works "stress." Circumstances are a force in your life, that either make you grow and develop your ability to endure, or else they get to you, and invade your life, and sour you and make you rotten.

II. Question # 2 — Can God turn this trial into something good? Determine to go through the trial fully. God has a plan, and this trial that you are facing is a part of that plan. Verses 3-4 indicate what that plan is: 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

A. God is seriously committed to a GOAL. He intends that every one of His children become "perfect." That’s the word, "mature," "complete," "full grown." Every parent has the same desire — to see their child grow up and become an adult.

But we often don’t understand how strongly God desires this goal. Listen to Hebrews 12:6: "For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." That word, "scourge" is an interesting word. It is the word, "discipline." But it is talking about a strong form of discipline that even hurts. WHY? Why does God interject pain into the life of every one of His children? Because He is very committed to a GOAL – HIS CHILDREN ARE GOING TO GROW UP! The scourging is His commitment to enable them to grow.

The question is, "do we understand that?" How you respond indicates what you understand God’s plan to be. If you understand that your trial and pain comes from a loving Father Who wants to help you grow, you will commit yourself to growing up by going through that trial and getting everything you can. If you think that your trial and pain come because life is out of control and God is out of the picture, you will run from the situation.

B. Our part is to join Him in His goal.

That’s the command of verse four: "Determine to have it in its fulness" — "let this process have its full effect" — "let it attain its end" — "make a complete job of it." In other words, choose to go through the trial FULLY! Don’t miss anything that God may have for you in the trial. After all, if God’s plan is to "perfect" you through the trial, why would you want to miss any part of it? The question is whether we are as serious about growing as He is about providing opportunities for us to grow. If we are as serious as He is, we will want to receive ALL that God has for us in the trial.

Our picture of God is wrong. We think that He intends to meet all our needs as soon as we ask, and make our lives beautiful and white robed, and carry us on this smooth flower garden path to glory. God doesn’t work that way.

Here God has developed a beautiful mushroom. Where did this mushroom grow? To grow so purely white as this, it must have grown up in a white atmosphere, right? No, mushrooms need DIRT in order to grow. And even though this mushroom started as a small plant in the middle of a huge amount of dirt, none of that dirt gets into the mushroom. You can eat this mushroom (I think) and taste none of the dirt at all – no grittiness, nothing but pure mushroom taste. That’s how God works. The dirt represents the difficulties and frustrations and pain in your life. And God, in spite of all of those painful things, wants to bring you out as something totally different, a mature, established, faithful, adult who loves Him. In fact, when God is with us, there is no danger that the pollution of the dirt will get to us. He will bring us out like this mushroom, purely mushroom, healthy mushroom, in spite of the mess all around it. What a picture!

Thus the encouragement of verse 4 is "don’t run away, don’t try to get out of this difficulty, don’t shy away from the pain." Instead focus on the goal – "complete," "perfect," "mature," and determine to go with God fully.

C. The only path to maturity is through difficulty. The only way to purify gold is through heat. This is the testimony of all Scripture

Heb. 2:10 "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." When we follow Christ we go the same way!

5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,

Phil. 1:29 "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me." Two grace gifts have been given to us – the grace gift of salvation, and the grace gift of suffering. Both are equally glorious. One will make you a child of God. The other will make you an adult son of God. Don’t miss either one.

Rom 5:3 "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

I Peter 4:1 - "Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin."

I Peter 5:10 - "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you."

Think of Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob. Jacob probably doted over him, as shown by his gift to his son of a glamorous coat of many colors, which none of his other 11 sons received. He was a good boy and wanted to obey, and loved the Lord. But he lacked one thing – callouses. God had a plan for him, that he run the food business in Egypt as Vice President of Egypt. And if he is going to be able to do that well, he will need to be toughened up! And so his brothers turned on him. And the Midianites sold him as a slave. And Potipher put him in charge of all he had. And Potipher’s wife set out to seduce him, and then had him thrown into jail for a few years. Psalm 105:17-18 says, He sent a man before them: Joseph was sold for a servant. His feet they hurt with fetters; His soul entered into the iron (Heb. from ASV). God put some iron into his backbone so that he could accomplish the job that no one else could do. That’s exactly the way He intends to work with you – if you don’t cop out and quit. It may look threatening; it may look impossible, but that is only until you add God to the equation. God enters the equation when you decide that you are going to go God’s way fully, when you are going to have all the difficulty offers in its fullness.

For Joseph’s soul to enter into iron, his feet had to be hurt. He couldn’t enter into iron, swinging on his hammock, under the palm trees beside the river Nile. He needed some pain. So do I. So do you. We say "no pain, no gain" but do we believe it? How many Americans are really into pain because they want God to put iron into their soul? They passionately desire all that God has for them including the hard parts, because they realize God’s plan – to develop them into the kind of people He can use.

Ask for wisdom. What do you need in a trial? I was driving home at 2:30 Wednesday afternoon from Virginia. I am on the inner loop of the beltway just at the intersection of 270, speeding along at about 3 miles an hour when my car quits. Actually God was very generous to me by putting me in the right lane of 5 lanes of traffic, and in giving me a shoulder wide enough to pull off onto. I could just see myself in the middle lane of that traffic when the car quit. But the trial was eased for me that day.

I’m sitting on the side of the road that is jammed with cars. What do I need? Well I need to get this stupid car started. Well I need to get out of here. Well I need to get back to church where I intended to be at 3 pm. Well, I need to keep my cool, so that I don’t blow up and get out and scream at every driver passing me.

More than anything else, I need wisdom. What to do, what to say, how to respond – all of those things are based on wisdom. The one essential that I needed was wisdom. My response at that moment indicated whether I understood what I really needed. James says that the wisdom I need, God has. James says that the wisdom I need God will give me generously, WHEN I ASK for it. So the command in verse five is, ASK!

What I needed at that moment I could only get from God. I didn’t know what to do, and that was a simple trial. So I bowed my head and made three statements to the Lord, the three that are in this passage. I don’t always handle difficulties well, but I was working on this message and knew what I was supposed to do. In fact, as my engine quit and I drifted over to the side, the thought flashed through my mind that I was going to have to speak on this subject Sunday morning. So I ought to be careful!

I said to the Lord, "thank you for this trial, not because I enjoy this, but because you say that this is good." "I want to go through this difficulty with You fully to get all the benefit out of it that you have planned." And then I said, "so what do I do now?" The Lord first brought to mind that I should call Martha on my cell phone. But when I tried, my cell phone was dead. I then thought about the fact that when this car had quit previously, it would start after it sat in the shade for awhile. So I opened the hood and sat there for awhile, letting it cool off. It still wouldn’t start. So after an hour and a half of that, I said to the Lord, "maybe it would be better to get out of here." "Would you bring along a tow truck, or a blue shuttle van, or a taxi, or a person who could take me home ?"

Up to this time, traffic had been crawling beside me for almost 2 hours and no one had said a word to me. No one stopped. People looked at me, I smiled back, they kept driving. Within a very short time of that prayer, a woman said, "hey, do you need help over there?" Do you need to make a phone call? So she let me call Martha; then she wanted me to call AAA. Then she said, "why don’t we just take you home?" I said, "where are you going?" She said, "oh we are going to NY." "Well this will take you at least 20 minutes out of your way." "We are not in any hurry; get in."

Went home, went to AWANA, since Rob had asked me to welcome the kids, and then asked God how to get the car back home. By 11 that night the car was in our driveway, in one piece, with no tires missing, at no cost. AMAZING!

Notice verse 5. James says, "Every trial should lead us to prayer. Every trial should lead us to realize our need for insight that we don’t have, and that no one else has – and motivate us to turn to God."

And then he says, "It will be given him." James is confident that God is so generous with His wisdom that there is no problem for anyone on earth to find what they need in a trial. God GIVES it out liberally! Without reproach. He doesn’t make you feel bad when you keep coming back again and again. He loves it! ASK!

Have you prayed for wisdom this week? Or have you tried to handle your frustrations as best you can? Every one of us needs outside help. And that help is so easy to get because God is so generous!

In Enterprise, Alabama there is a monument dedicated to the bollweevil. It is the only known monument ever dedicated to a pest. The Mexican bollweevil disastrously invaded SE Ala in 1915, destroying 60% of the cotton, the economic mainstay of that one-crop area. But what began as a curse ended as a blessing, for the farmers turned to diversified farming with emphasis on peanuts. This new crop brought unexpected prosperity.

By 1917, Coffee County harvested more peanuts than any county in the nation. The citizens were so grateful for the bollweevil that they dedicated on 12/11/19, a public marker on the main street of Enterprise with this inscription:

In profound appreciation - Of the bollweevil

And what it has done - As the herald of prosperity

What a great testimony of the way God works. They thought that losing their cotton would be only disaster. And yet it turned out to be a transforming experience for the whole area. We could learn from those Southerners. Oh if Christians could say, "in profound appreciation of my worst, most painful trial – and what it has done, as the herald of maturity in Christ – spiritual prosperity." That is what James wants to see in us.

Do you realize the privilege of the pain? If you are a child of God, whether you are in fellowship with Him, whether your fellowship is questionable, He is committed to help you grow, and that’s why He is determined to bring difficulties and painful things and hard situations into your life – not to hurt you at all, but to do something in your life, that nothing else can do – to help you grow to be like Him. Amazing? Don’t miss it by neglecting your responsibility to trust Him and THANK Him, and DETERMINE to go all the way thru it with Him, and ASK Him for His directions..

09/21/03, BBC am