SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: In today's sermon, we'll continue our study of the book of James as we look at the final three phases of the life cycle of authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: The soil, the roots, and the crown.
SPEAKER_00: Today we are going to be continuing our study of James with our series Authentic Faith.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn to James chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: And in just a few minutes, we will read just a handful more verses from James chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Deep in the heart of Redwood National Park stands Hyperion.
SPEAKER_00: Hyperion is the world's tallest living tree.
SPEAKER_00: Hyperion's height is over three hundred and eighty feet.
SPEAKER_00: This tree then literally towers over its piers in the forest.
SPEAKER_00: Don't believe me?
SPEAKER_00: Check out this picture right here.
SPEAKER_00: That's Hyperion right there.
SPEAKER_00: Standing tall above all the other trees around it.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're wondering, uh its branches contain an estimated 550 million leaves.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine having to rake and bag 550 million leaves every single fall.
SPEAKER_00: It would be the job you wanted to outsource to hire out, but you couldn't outsource and hire it out.
SPEAKER_00: You just couldn't afford it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to support a tree that reaches 380 feet high, uh it requires an immense uh foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the trunk of Hyperion, then, it's actually almost 16 feet in circumference.
SPEAKER_00: To help you kind of put that into perspective, a trunk that is 16 feet in circumference and 380 feet high, if you took that trunk and sent it to the mill, you would have enough lumber to build 35 five-bedroom houses.
SPEAKER_00: That's how enormous that trunk is.
SPEAKER_00: And a tree that tall and that massive, listen, it doesn't just appear overnight.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't grow up over the course of a few months or a year or a decade or even a century.
SPEAKER_00: Scientists estimate for Hyperion to have reached 380 feet with a trunk 16 feet in circumference, it took anywhere between seven and eight hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Around the same time that King John signed the Magna Carta, around the same time that Marco Polo set out to go to China, a tiny seed was planted in the soil.
SPEAKER_00: That seed uh spread and got roots that went down into the soil and then it sprung up out of the soil, and now it has a crown.
SPEAKER_00: The very top of that tree is some 380 feet in the air.
SPEAKER_00: That's the life cycle of this tallest of tall trees.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we began our study of the book of James called Authentic Faith, and we defined authentic faith this way: authentic faith is actionable.
SPEAKER_00: It's why James says, I will show you my faith by my deeds.
SPEAKER_00: As we pointed out last week, a person doesn't just wake up one morning and possess authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith, just like that towering tree, has a life cycle that starts with a seed.
SPEAKER_00: In last week's message, we focused on sowing that seed of authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: And it begins when a person has an encounter with the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: A person encounters the resurrected Jesus, and like James before us, we believe that Jesus is who he says that he is.
SPEAKER_00: For James, remember, he's the half-brother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It meant that he no longer viewed Jesus as the son of Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: He viewed Jesus as the son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And now then his relationship with his brother is transformed.
SPEAKER_00: No longer is brother the first word he thinks of when he sees Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now the first word he thinks of is master because James sees himself as a servant of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So we concluded last week's message with this challenge to fill in the blank, to replace the name James with your name.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we wanted you to put your name in the blank to replace James with your name.
SPEAKER_00: Because a saving faith in Jesus Christ requires everyone then to say, I am a servant of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I am acting on behalf of Jesus in the world, that God and Jesus has a plan for my life, certain things they want to fulfill in my life every single day, ways they want me to act in this world because authentic faith is actionable.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saves us so we can be his servant in the world.
SPEAKER_00: The life cycle of faith, however, is only just begun when that seed of faith is sown.
SPEAKER_00: And so in today's message, it's really a follow-up to week one.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at the next three phases of this life cycle of authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about the soil, the roots, and the crown.
SPEAKER_00: So listen carefully to what James says next.
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
SPEAKER_00: Standing before you each Sunday is such a great joy.
SPEAKER_00: I get to open God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We get to share in it together, learn from the Holy Spirit, teaching us from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But there are some words that are found in the Bible that I wish God had left unsaid.
SPEAKER_00: There are certain things that God says in Holy Scripture that I wish were left on the cutting room floor.
SPEAKER_00: It's words like these of Jesus in Matthew chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you wish Jesus said, it's okay to worry?
SPEAKER_00: I like to worry.
SPEAKER_00: Then come follow me.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us wish Jesus said, go sell some of it?
SPEAKER_00: Keep part of it.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: Or Matthew chapter 5, verse 44, to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us wish Jesus just said, hey, if you're going to talk about enemies, it should be forget your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Move on past your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Never look at your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Wish the worst upon them.
SPEAKER_00: I bet you've got your own verse you'd like to add to that list.
SPEAKER_00: A verse in the Bible that is difficult to hear, hard to comprehend, and seemingly impossible to apply.
SPEAKER_00: Each of those verses, as I said, they were first said by Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And remember that Jesus is this older brother of James.
SPEAKER_00: And younger brothers, what do they want to do?
SPEAKER_00: They always want to emulate their older brother.
SPEAKER_00: So could it be then that one of the ways that James emulates his older brother Jesus is he decides, I'm going to begin the substance of my letter.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to begin by saying something I know my brother would want to say.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to begin by saying a word that is difficult to hear and hard to comprehend and seemingly impossible to apply.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it pure joy.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you face trials of many kinds.
SPEAKER_00: At first or even a second glance.
SPEAKER_00: James's observation can strike me as a little insensitive, a little impersonal.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe on a first or second hearing of those words from James chapter 1, you just think to yourself, James, he is only able to say something such as this because he has never experienced true pain or tragedy or trials in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He has never experienced the sort of pain or tragedy or trial that rips out your heart and leaves everything that you held dear that you knew to be certain in question.
SPEAKER_00: But that's where we would get James absolutely wrong.
SPEAKER_00: James, when he writes, consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, he is not writing from a position of privilege.
SPEAKER_00: James writes those words out of his own pain.
SPEAKER_00: After James meets the resurrected Jesus, we learn in the book of Acts and in the book of Galatians that he becomes a leader in the church of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He leads that church.
SPEAKER_00: And for those two decades that he's in leadership, that church faces persecution and ostracism.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the Jewish religious leaders are out to get the members of that church.
SPEAKER_00: They are seeking reasons.
SPEAKER_00: They don't even have to be good reasons to arrest members of that church.
SPEAKER_00: Ostracism.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it this way: that the members of this church are kind of operating on the margins of society.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them own their own kind of like small mom and pop shops or they're tradesmen.
SPEAKER_00: But those Jewish men and women, they wouldn't be patrons of their shops.
SPEAKER_00: So they'd have fewer and fewer customers.
SPEAKER_00: Like their businesses, because of that ostracism, that isolation, they were always on the brink of collapse.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the only trials faced by the Church of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Also, during those 20 years, an intense famine breaks out in the land.
SPEAKER_00: Rain doesn't fall, crops don't grow, the animals die, and when famine ravages a land in the ancient world, it means poverty is rampant.
SPEAKER_00: James, in fact, I think he recognizes that trial in the life of his local church when later on in chapter 1 he says that believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.
SPEAKER_00: But the rich should take pride in their humiliation, since they will pass away like a wild flower.
SPEAKER_00: James writes those words because he wants to put the pain of poverty into perspective.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't deny his reality.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say it's not actually all that hard or all that difficult.
SPEAKER_00: You're making it worse than it actually is.
SPEAKER_00: No, James admits it's hard to go to bed when you're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to think that your business may collapse.
SPEAKER_00: But let me put it into perspective.
SPEAKER_00: And here's James's perspective on that trial and every trial that a church that a Christian will face.
SPEAKER_00: Trials are the soil of authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, if you desire to possess authentic faith, it can only emerge from the soil of a trial.
SPEAKER_00: This sort of faith, it will not grow up if life is nothing more than sunshine and smooth sailing.
SPEAKER_00: Andy Stanley is a pastor in the Atlanta area, and he describes the relationship between trials and faith this way.
SPEAKER_00: He says that trials expose the authenticity of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Trials expose the authenticity of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you face a trial, you immediately discover something about the faith that you hold.
SPEAKER_00: So this time last year, one of the trials that parents around the United States attempted to navigate was balancing working from home and schooling from home.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do I work from home?
SPEAKER_00: How do I hop on a Zoom call when my kids are supposed to be on Google Classroom at the exact same time?
SPEAKER_00: We have one computer, we have one tablet, and we have one phone, and I've got more than those number of children or people who need to be in front of a screen at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: One young boy, his name is Ben, he described that uh trial this way.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he wrote.
SPEAKER_00: It is not going good.
SPEAKER_00: My mom's getting stressed out.
SPEAKER_00: My mom is really getting confused.
SPEAKER_00: We took a break so my mom can figure this stuff out.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, it is not going good.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's a lot of wisdom in those words.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of wisdom in what young Ben says.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it's okay to admit that a trial is stressful, confusing, and exhausting.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to say that a trial is not good.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, in an effort to say that we are people of faith, we think that that means we must call every trial good.
SPEAKER_00: This diagnosis is good, this loss of employment is good, this broken relationship is in fact good.
SPEAKER_00: The only thing we do when we um call bad things good is we forget what truly good things actually are.
SPEAKER_00: When we call bad things good, we're denying real pain in the world.
SPEAKER_00: We are distancing ourselves from a world that is truly hurting.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually avoiding the process where we can heal through painful, um, gut-riching moments of life.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith does not require us to call the bad good.
SPEAKER_00: But authentic faith does give us something.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us the eyes to see in the moments of the trial that we name as confusing, exhausting, and difficult and painful.
SPEAKER_00: When we say all of those things about the trials that we face, authentic faith says this.
SPEAKER_00: Open your eyes and just see this.
SPEAKER_00: God is good.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's only when you're in the midst of a trial that you begin to grasp that God's love is beyond comprehension, that God's faithfulness is without peer.
SPEAKER_00: That God's mercy, it truly is new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the midst of the trial, when we come to the end of ourselves, we fall face first, flat on the ground at the feet of God.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the trial that we cannot solve on our own, we discover how weak that we are and how strong God truly is.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, it's from that perspective, flat on the ground, face first at the feet of God, that then we can consider it pure joy.
SPEAKER_00: Consider pure joy, it's this, you're gonna have to think about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be secondhand nature to consider this trial a moment of pure joy.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have to reflect on it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's where the pure joy comes into play.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to see that everything we sing about God, everything we read about God, everything we believe about God is 100% true.
SPEAKER_00: He is better than we can describe and greater than we can believe.
SPEAKER_00: And we, listen, we we consider it pure joy when in the midst of the trial we catch our breath.
SPEAKER_00: And we realize that God is closer to us than we could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: You are in a trial, but you are not alone in the trial.
SPEAKER_00: God is closer to us, and that just proves to us who God is.
SPEAKER_00: And when we know who God is, listen.
SPEAKER_00: It actually is this summons to then go out into the world and tell people about who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Because listen, people inside the church and outside the church, all of them face trials.
SPEAKER_00: Trials are inevitable and unavoidable for every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what's in your bank account, no matter what job you have, no matter your family situation, every one of us faces trials on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_00: And as the body of Christ, it's our calling.
SPEAKER_00: As people who know how to take a trial and consider it pure joy, because we know that God is like right here, He's at my hip, He is right there with me in the middle of it all.
SPEAKER_00: We can actually go in, be the body of Christ to people outside of our church when they are in a trial.
SPEAKER_00: Standing in solidarity with those who are experiencing pain, deep tragedy.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be the body of Christ in those moments and in those places, because then we can point people to the presence of Christ, the goodness of Christ, the salvation of Christ, the grace of Christ, the mercy of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But only if we occupy those places and spaces with them and show them the character of God and who God is.
SPEAKER_00: And as we recognize and declare that Christ is with us in the trial, he is right beside us.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, that's when the roots begin to grow into the ground.
SPEAKER_00: That next phrase that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance, those are that's our root.
SPEAKER_00: That's what holds us holds us up.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance is the ability to hold up under stress or pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance allows.
SPEAKER_00: Allows us to move forward even when life is filled with bumps and detours and collisions.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to keep pressing forward.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance in faith means this that no matter what happens in my life, I will not stop believing that God is who he says he is and pressing forward with him every day, saying, I will serve him.
SPEAKER_00: One of the characters in the Old Testament who learned something about perseverance is that a young boy named Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he learned perseverance when he was thrown into the pit by his brothers and thrown into prison by Potiphar.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph learned perseverance when he sat next to Pharaoh, and as that famine ravaged the land.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph learned that if he had roots that were deep down in the character and in the presence of God in his life, he could continue to move forward every single day, believing and trusting that God was going to fulfill something through him in this world.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to call the pit good.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to call the prison good.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to call Egypt good.
SPEAKER_00: But he could see that God was with him and God was taking that pain and bringing it into his plan.
SPEAKER_00: So one day when those same brothers who threw him into the pit come to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They stand face to face with their brother that they wanted to kill.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph looks them in the eye and he says, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance says this, I will never give up.
SPEAKER_00: I'll keep going forward.
SPEAKER_00: And what is true of Joseph should be true of you.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to face trials.
SPEAKER_00: They are inevitable, they are unavoidable.
SPEAKER_00: But you got to have roots to persevere through them all.
SPEAKER_00: So that you don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: So that no matter the trial that emerges, you say, I am a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And with those roots entrenched in the ground, now we come to that fourth phase of that life cycle, the crown.
SPEAKER_00: A crown of a tree.
SPEAKER_00: That's the very top part of the tree.
SPEAKER_00: Out of the crown, that's where the branches grow when the leaves grow.
SPEAKER_00: The crown of a tree is the sign of maturity.
SPEAKER_00: That's what James talks about in chapter one that trials to perseverance to what?
SPEAKER_00: Maturity.
SPEAKER_00: Maturity in Christ, completion in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The simplest way to explain what maturity in Christ is is with this simple statement.
SPEAKER_00: It is living, loving, and looking like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's living and loving and looking like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the final phase of someone who wants to possess this authentic, actionable faith.
SPEAKER_00: So what does it mean to live and to love and to look like Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Read the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Who does Jesus spend time with?
SPEAKER_00: How does he talk to him?
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Who does he love?
SPEAKER_00: What's he look like?
SPEAKER_00: He looks like someone who cares for people that other people don't care for.
SPEAKER_00: He loves the people that people say are unlovable.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks really harsh words to religious folk.
SPEAKER_00: But to those who are suffering and in pain, he is that balm of Gilead to their soul.
SPEAKER_00: To the woman at the well who was forgotten and abused by men, he says, I will give you living water.
SPEAKER_00: I will talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: To the tax collectors no one wanted to do with, he will be their friend.
SPEAKER_00: To the man named Zacchaeus who swindles his countrymen, he says, I'm coming to your house.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, he finds a way to be with people no one else wants to spend time with.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't try to explain away their pain or their trials or their tragedy.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell them it doesn't exist.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let me come with you and I can give you healing.
SPEAKER_00: I can give you nurturing and I can give you grace.
SPEAKER_00: That's authentic, actionable faith.
SPEAKER_00: So as people who live and look and love like Jesus, we have to begin to see those stories in the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: I think as maybe the script for our own life.
SPEAKER_00: We begin to draw connections between those people and places with people and places in our own community, in our own sphere of influence.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what James is driving us toward.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus possessed authentic faith, guys.
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: The seed of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're like, Jesus, Son of God, how do you sow a seed of faith?
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's his baptism, where Jesus identifies with his heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: The trials, I don't have to tell you about the trials.
SPEAKER_00: There were trials with the betrayal of friends and his countrymen who want to arrest him.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a trial, like the literal trial, and then the crucifixion and the perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: That's like the garden moment.
SPEAKER_00: Father, not my will but yours.
SPEAKER_00: The maturity and the completion when the crucified Son of God on the third day comes out of the tomb and then weeks later ascends to the right hand of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Like this life cycle of authentic faith, we want to walk that journey because Jesus first walked that journey.
SPEAKER_00: But let me make two quick observations about this life cycle as we close.
SPEAKER_00: Observation number one: the life cycle of faith is not for your sake, it's for the sake of others.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for your sake, it's for the sake of other people.
SPEAKER_00: That's why it has to be actionable.
SPEAKER_00: It's not to make you feel good.
SPEAKER_00: It's not so you know more, or I know more, or I can preach a better sermon, or you can lead a better Bible study, or you can sound more intelligent in conversations with your friends about things of faith.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's for the sake of other people in our world.
SPEAKER_00: That they would know how good God truly is.
SPEAKER_00: And number two is this it's a life cycle.
SPEAKER_00: Four phases, each of them 100% necessary.
SPEAKER_00: We all desire the end result, we all desire the crown, we all desire the maturity and the completion, but we maybe we want to skip step one.
SPEAKER_00: We never want to put our faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We never want to say, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ in the world, and you're like, why am I not reaching maturity in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: It's because you first don't identify and live as a servant of Jesus in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Or you think, well, uh, servant part, okay, but I I want to skip just phase two, I'm gonna skip the trials.
SPEAKER_00: Like you just look for easy ways out of everything.
SPEAKER_00: When anything hard emerges, you you just seek like, how can I get out of this?
SPEAKER_00: How can I lift the burden?
SPEAKER_00: When really, in that moment of the trial, God He provides us opportunities to just open our eyes and realize how close that He is.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the proximity of God's presence that leads us to maturity.
SPEAKER_00: You'll spend a couple days in the trial, but pretty soon you just give up and you walk away.
SPEAKER_00: No more will I be a servant of Jesus, I'll be a servant of self.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if we want to experience the life cycle of faith in our church and in our homes and in the lives, our individual lives, each step is absolutely necessary.
SPEAKER_00: No phase can be skipped over or forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: So where are you in this life cycle of authentic faith?
SPEAKER_00: Is it time to sow the seed?
SPEAKER_00: Is it time to be okay with the trial and say, God's with me in the trial?
SPEAKER_00: Is it time to stand in solidarity with someone who's in the middle of a painful tragedy or trial?
SPEAKER_00: Is it time just to keep taking another step forward every single day?
SPEAKER_00: So that you can reach maturity and completion, so that you can possess this authentic, actionable faith that is not, listen again, for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: It is a faith that is for the sake of other people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God and everlasting Father.
SPEAKER_00: The words of James this morning, they they stir our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: None of us like a trial or a test, God.
SPEAKER_00: When life is hard, God, I think sometimes we all want to just say, What did I do wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Like it has to just be a reflection of a mistake I've made.
SPEAKER_00: And Holy Spirit, you reminded me this week that often in life there are trials that just happen to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the result of anything I've done wrong.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a trial-filled world.
SPEAKER_00: It's broken, it's hurting.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of that trial, God, open our eyes to know that you are with us in the trial.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to avoid it.
SPEAKER_00: But we also don't have to call it good.
SPEAKER_00: But we can know you are good.
SPEAKER_00: Um, for the person this morning who has been in a trial for a really an extended season and it has tested their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Prove yourself faithful to them again today, God, and let them endure.
SPEAKER_00: Help them just to take one more step forward in the name of Jesus as his servant in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And oh God, through the power of your Holy Spirit, lead us to maturity in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: May we truly be people who love and live and look like Him.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.