Pressure Points

Class Lesson September 1, 2013

Hey Gang,

We begin a new six week series this Sunday called "Pressure Points." The entire series is from the Book of James. It opens by saying that some days life feels like a giant pressure cooker - would you agree? It goes on to say that we can feel pressure from a myriad of directions: pressure from society, pressure from Satan, pressure from friends, pressure from our own sin nature, and even pressure from our own emotions. The easy course is to just open whatever valve will release the pressure, but too often that valve spews the pent-up steam of harsh words and inappropriate actions on whoever is near us. The Book of James offers understanding of those pressure points and the proper valves to use to keep those pressures from ruining our lives and the lives of those around us.

Here are our six lessons in this series:

1. The Pressure of Trials             James 1:1-4
2. The Pressure of Temptation    James 1:13-18
3. The Pressure of Partiality        James 2:1-13
4. The Pressure of Words            James 3:1-18
5. The Pressure of Conflict          James 4:1-10
6. The Pressure of Retaliation     James 5:1-11

Parenthood Moment - Pressure Points of Life 

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What pressures squeeze the joy out of life?

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The Point

Joyful trust in God will see you through all trials.

 

No one lives a problem-free life. My mom used to say when life gives you a lemon, just make lemonade. But that’s a whole lot easier said than done.

• I got a call from a friend whose wife was told she has cancer.
• I have a friend who has been married less than a year and his wife just announced to him that she’s leaving.
• I talked to a young dad who is devastated that he is losing his job. Meanwhile, his wife is expecting a child in a couple of months. Where’s the lemonade among these lemons?

It can be a challenge to make lemonade from sour circumstances.

The Bible is full of people who were dealt hard hands, but through faith in God and through perseverance, they made lemonade: Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Hannah, David. This list is long. But each found triumph through God, amidst the messes. They moved from victims to victors. In James 1 we have a game plan for overcoming trials and finding joy, even amidst those terribly unfair trials. As we study, consider how God can use a trial in your life to help you trust Him and grow in your faith.






I. CHOOSE A JOYFUL ATTITUDE – JAMES 1:1-2

1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the 12 tribes in the Dispersion. Greetings. 2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials,





The Greek noun peirasmos can refer to trials that prove one’s faith or to temptations that can lead to sin. Based on the context it is understood to point to trials – what the difference?

• Trials – hardships from without that tests our faith. Trials are difficulties and afflictions that can strengthen our faith and prove its genuineness as in 1 Peter 1:6-7.
• Temptations – inner urges and enticements to sin.

Two problems with encountering trials are:

1. You don’t expect them.
2. They surround you.

You may fall into an unforeseen situation. You may lose your health and/or wealth (Luke 10:30; Acts 27:41). James tells us trials are inevitable: it’s not if you encounter them, but when you encounter them.

How are we to understand trials?

• The occurrence or difficulty is something unexpected not something sought, just as one wouldn’t intentionally look for a hole to fall into or for something to trip over.

Some trials that come our way:

1. Temptation – An enticement to sin, whether it’s a click on a website, a cruel word, or to harbor hatred toward someone.
2. Sickness – Sometimes it’s not your sickness, but the sickness of another person.
3. Persecution – Even Jesus Christ suffered; so suffering for Jesus is to be expected for believers.
4. Trouble – It could be any adversity, affliction, or circumstances sent by God – or allowed by Him – to test or prove your faith, holiness or character. Such troubles can be financial hardship, bad news, difficult people, hard circumstances, troubled relationships, or layoffs.

How were believers to respond when those trials come?

• Consider it a great joy – count it all joy (KJV) – consider it pure joy (NIV) – consider it nothing but joy (NRSV)
• Joy and trials really don’t seem to go together.

What does James mean to consider our trials a great joy?

• Are we to invite trouble into our lives?
• Are we to grin and bear it – make the best of a bad situation?
• Trials are to be received with a spirit of genuine rejoicing because we know the results God can bring out of suffering. It goes without saying that this kind of response calls for great faith and may be one of the greatest challenges of Christian living.
• When we encounter things that are difficult to deal with, the Bible says ‘Consider it a great joy.’ This is a command, not a suggestion. Joy may not be our first reaction, but it is God’s desired outcome for us.

Is joy the same as happiness? What’s the difference?

• Joy comes from knowing the potential the circumstances provide for God to do a good work.

Are trials brought on by God?

• These trials are not necessarily things God causes. James doesn’t deal with cause. His concern was not with cause but with attitude and results. Whatever the source, they are things God permits. God can bring good out of the most trying of circumstances.

What emotions did you feel during your most recent trial? How does joy become your ultimate attitude?

• Consider it so. Joy in a trial comes as we make a careful and deliberate decision. The word consider is that of evaluating, and then leading your mind, attitude, and actions based on the evaluation.
• Don’t rely on feelings. Give due consideration to what God asks you to do about what has happened. Let Him show you the facts. Let Him manage your feelings. Listen for what He’s telling you to do. Then do it.

1. Joy and trust in God could benefit me by:

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2. Joy and trust in God could benefit this loved one by:

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3. Joy and trust in God could benefit others by:

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Consider a time in your life when you faced situations that tested your faith. How did your response attest to your faith, or to the lack of it?




God wants and commands us to choose joyful attitudes when we go through trials. This may seem inconceivable to some of us. Is it even possible to be honest about the difficulty of a great trial yet have great joy at the same time?

• Paul was in prison and yet rejoiced (Phil. 1:14‑18; 2:17‑18). He rejoiced in his sufferings (Col. 1:24). He said we are to rejoice always (1 Thess. 5:16).
• The young believers in Thessalonica received the gospel with joy even though they suffered severely for doing so (1:6).
• Peter said we are to keep on rejoicing as we share the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet. 4:13).

Verse 3 gives more insight on how to accomplish what may often seem to be an impossible task.

II. TRUST GOD’S LOVING HEART – JAMES 1:3

3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.




What purpose do trials or even temptations serve?

• Ways our faith is tested for authenticity.

Verse 2 is the admonition (Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials), verse 3 is the reason it is possible (knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance)

• Another way to ‘consider it a great joy’ when we experience a trial is to know what God will do for us as a result of the trial.
• Knowing or because you know (NIV) means to know with understanding.
• Because believers know what can or will result when a trial is successfully overcome, they have cause to rejoice.

Focus on the phrase testing of your faith in verse 3.

• Testing of your faith (knowledge coupled with trust) proves faith’s genuineness, making it strong and pure. Through the testing process, a person’s faith can develop into something more than it was. So, a time of testing can be a time of growth.
• Understand that whatever the God-given test may be, it is, as the author says, “a test of your faith in the strength and wisdom of God to see you through”

What outcome results from having our faith tested?

• Endurance or steadfastness of faith is acquired by going through trying times or testing.

We all know that physical exercise is good for us. The more we exercise the more exercise we can do. Faith is also a muscle that must be exercised to gain strength. The less you use faith, the easier it is to lose it. One of the times we need those faith muscles most is during trials.



It’s easier to be patient with my spouse when I’m in a cheerful mood. But what if I’m stressed and grouchy?

• Then I watch God accomplish something very specific: patience and kindness that endure.
• Look again at verse 3, and note the word endurance. Just as the purpose of physical exercise is to build our physical strength and endurance, so God’s purpose in a trial is to build our spiritual strength and endurance.
• Endurance is one of God’s goals in tests. He develops staying power in believers.
• Endurance means to be unswerving from God’s purposes. We show our loyalty to Him in the trials and in the joys. We sometimes call this perseverance, faithfulness, or steadfastness. It is God’s work of developing our spiritual muscle and resolve to stand firm.
• We have a definite reason for joy in our trials: the testing of your faith produces endurance. The hardships we all face are not meaningless! They evaluate our faith.

How do I consider it joy in the middle of a trial? By knowing what God will do.



What blessings came into your life during a time of difficulty when you faced them with an enduring faith?



Remember the story Jesus told about the soils (Luke 8:4-15)? Many people hear the word, but in the end, the only seed that was fruitful was the seed that endured in the soil. If you are going to bear fruit in your Christian life, then perseverance and staying power are not optional.



Our lesson gave four other things to think about when we are tested.



If you are being tested it means:

1. You are a child of God, and you have faith that can be tested.
2. You have a faith worth developing and refining.
3. God has a plan to strengthen you, and prepare you.
4. You have the assurance of God’s presence, because when He refines you, He never abandons you.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8‑10, Paul described a great trial he experienced and what he learned in it. He did not name the trial explicitly as persecution or threats or some critical illness that nearly took his life. It may have been any of these things or something else. Whatever the trial was, it was severe. Paul wrote that he was under great pressure, overwhelmed beyond what he could endure in his own strength. He felt the sentence of death as he went through the trial. Paul then explained that the trial came upon him so that he would not depend upon himself, but upon God who even raises the dead.



Remember that Paul was an apostle, a man of faith who preached and taught about faith. Still, God took Paul through a terribly difficult trial so he could learn more fully and experientially to depend upon God’s strength and power rather than his own.







But lest we think endurance is a one-and-done proposition, James goes on to let us know that developing endurance is an ongoing process.


Remember what your parents taught you about finishing a job, and what they would have said about a job that was half done.

• God is not in the business of doing things half way. As the Scripture says, ‘He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 1:6). James hits that point right on the head in verse 4.”

III. REACH THE GOAL – JAMES 1:4

4 But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Is endurance the goal or the means to the goal? What is the goal?

• Endurance also has a work to accomplish that becomes the means of reaching the goal – endurance must do its complete work.
• Something must take place for the full effect of steadfastness to be realized – for the goal to be achieved.

Let’s put it all together: Believers can rejoice in knowing that the trials of life that test their faith produce the strength to stand firm for their convictions.



What is the goal?

• The goal of spiritual endurance is spiritual maturity.

How does believing the Lord is at work and has something good in store for you help you deal with the pressure of trials?

 

“If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better.” – Warren W. Wiersbe

In writing and sending his letter, James was one believer coming alongside others to encourage them to continue steadfastly in faith for the long haul. After receiving James’s letter, the believers surely read it aloud during their gatherings. In fact, they probably did so over and over in gathering after gathering. Then they probably talked about the trials testing them and encouraged one another to endure.
God intends something very similar for us. God gives us help through one another. Christians are to encourage one another. When we meet together for Bible study, prayer, or fellowship, we can talk about our trials and give encouragement.
God often gives wisdom (Jas. 1:5‑8) through fellow believers. His wisdom includes insight and understanding that equip us to think and act rightly in our trials. By His wisdom we discern whether to wait or act, whether to be silent or speak, and what to say when it is time to speak. Many times it is in talking with one another that we come to see practically how to endure faithfully in trials.
We can also help one another stay focused upon the goal of our trials. According to James, the culmination or end goal of the endurance process is for the believer to be mature and complete. What type of maturity or perfection is in view here? Is it maturity in faith we are able to realize in this life? Or, is it perfection that will only come beyond the present age?
Mature translates teleios. James used teleios elsewhere of God’s good and perfect gift (Jas. 1:17), the perfect law of liberty (v. 25), and the perfection of not stumbling at all in what a person says (3:2). In each case, absolute rather than partial perfection was James’s meaning. Thus, in the second portion of James 1:4, James probably intended to lift his readers’ eyes toward the full maturity of our Christian faith that is God’s ultimate goal for us.
Therefore, in James 1:2‑4 earthly progress toward maturity and final perfection are set before us as one great process with a definite completion. Steadily, progressively, God works to refine us through the testing in this life. Finally, fully, He will bring the work to a glorious end.
James 1:9‑12 teaches us to endure present trials with a view toward the final state awaiting us. If we are impoverished now, we can rejoice we are really exalted with Christ Jesus (1:9) and awaiting the disclosure of our high position when God gives us the “crown of life” in the end (v. 12).
By faith we press toward the goal. God finally will complete His work in us when Christ comes and transforms us into the likeness of His own glorious body (see Phil. 1:6; 3:14‑21).
Unless the Lord comes (Jas. 5:8) before we pass away from this earth, death will be the final trial we must endure. James endured trials for three decades as a believer in Jesus. Then, in A.D. 62, he faced the final trial of martyrdom. Though the details of his death are not completely clear, the tradition is that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem pressured James to deny Jesus publicly. They sent him to the pinnacle of the temple to make his denial, hoping to curb the rising tide of faith in Christ in the city. James seized the moment and confessed boldly that Jesus was exalted at God’s right hand and would come again in power and great glory.
The infuriated Jewish leaders cast James down from the pinnacle of the temple. When the fall did not kill James, they stoned him. As he neared his last breath, he prayed for the forgiveness of his killers, just as Jesus had prayed from the cross. Imagine the impression James’s confession of Jesus and love toward his enemies must have made on the people who saw James die!

Like Jesus, for the joy set before him, James endured his own death (Heb. 12:1‑2). The fall and the stones caused pain, deep pain, no doubt. But I suppose James suffered the death-inflicting blows with joy that was real and profound as he trusted the God who was perfecting him and would give him the crown of life!


Are you going through a trial currently? Does one lie just ahead? How might God use it to help you trust Him and grow strong in the obedience of faith? 






What does God want you to do when trials come your way? 

1. Choose a joyful attitude. Evaluate how a joy-filled attitude could alleviate the pressure you feel from life.
2. Share your story. Explain to someone how, during a previous trial, God strengthened you through a difficult time.
3. Help someone who is struggling. Find someone who is going through difficulty. Be available to listen, encourage, and help them.

God is working in you. He is working in every circumstance, both good and bad to bring about the development of His character and power in you so that you may be perfect, complete, and useful for His glory. Despite life’s circumstances, God gives us the capability to turn sour into sweet. Now go make lemonade.

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, when the pressure of life’s trials come, grant me faith to withstand and wisdom to understand that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5) to those who love and trust in You. Amen.

See you on Sunday!

In His Love,

David & Susan