Color Me Trouble
James 1:2-4, 12
There is a common misconception about the Christian life. There is the idea that when a person gives their life to Christ they will never, ever have any more troubles. There are some people who think that once you become a Christian, life is going to be smooth sailing from that point on. Everything is going to work out fine. You'll never have any heartaches. You'll never have any troubles. You'll never have any difficulties. The Christian life is going to be a bed of roses.
If you think that the Christian life is a bed of roses, you are in for a big, big surprise. The Christian life is not an easy life. The Bible says that believers are special people, but the Bible does not say that believers are sheltered people.
Troubles, problems, difficulties, and heartaches come to the people of God just as much as they come to those who do not know the Lord. So we're going to talk tonight about the whole area of trouble and what you are to do as a believer with the troubles that come into your life.
Unfortunately, many people live their life like a cork on the water. On the water, that cork reacts to whatever goes on. Whatever waves comes by, whatever storms arise on the water, the cork just reacts to whatever is going on around it.
But as you study these verses of scriptures, you're going to discover that God's people are not like a cork on the water.
We do not just simply react to the things that happen to us, but there is a divinely given response to how we are to respond when troubles come in our life.
In verse 2 we will begin our Bible study. We will almost do it word for word. I like to do it that way. I want us to look at the second verse this evening and begin our thinking around the idea of
I. The Presence of Trouble.
verse 2
You will notice the word in that verse is "when" you fall into trials. He didn't say, "If you fall, but "When you fall." The implication of that statement is that it's not a matter of whether or not they're going to come, it's a matter of when they come. Trouble comes knocking at every door. Into every life there are troubles and difficulties.
Now the old KJV uses the word temptations. We generally use the word to speak about the temptations that come in life. Satan tempts us to bring out the worse in us. But in this verse the word is not the temptations of Satan to bring out the worst in us, but the testings which are allowed by God in order to bring out the best in us. He's talking about testing times, those challenges, those difficulties, problems, and heartaches that come into life.
And notice also the word “various” or “divers”
The word is translated “manifold” in I Peter. And the word is a very interesting study because it means multi-colored. "Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into multi-colored trials."
He's saying that troubles and trials have their own palette of colors. There are the reds of clash and conflict. There are the blues of depression and anxiety. There are the yellows of disease and death. There are the blacks of tragedy and trouble. Trouble has its own rainbow of colors.
I don't know what color of trouble you are experiencing, but they come in a variety of colors into life. It may be some small irritation that you're going through or a misunderstanding in your relationship with other people. It could be that it is some job difficulty. It may be that there is something that is going on in your marital situation. But whatever it is, the troubles have come into your life.
Notice another word there in verse 2, and that is the word fall. It is a word that means to be circled around by them. It's the same word that is used in the parable that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan. The man was going down to Jericho, and the Bible says that he fell among thieves. That's the word that is used here.
The old trouble gang ambushes people. They come to you when you least expect them. They come unwelcome and they come unsought. Before you know it, you find yourself in a multitude of troubles and absolutely surrounded by them.
You can just be living your life and things seem like they are real smooth, and then the next thing you know you are in a whirlpool of troubles and you are beset by all kinds of difficulties and trials on every hand.
And then there is another phrase, and it catches us off guard. We're not ready for what he says in this verse. It catches us by surprise because he says "When ye fall into many different colors of temptations, count it all joy." That doesn't sound right. He's saying that when troubles come, be happy about it. Surely there's a mistake here.
I don't know about you, but that's not what I want to do when troubles come. Something doesn't compute here. Is this saying to us that when hard times, difficulties, or troubles come into your life that there's suppose to be this attitude of flippant hilarity about it? "You just lost your mate, brother. Well, glory to God, hallelujah, rejoice!" Or you have just been fired from your job. Rejoice, be joyful.
The word all joy means total maximum joy. What is the Bible talking about to count it all joy? The word count is a banking term. It is used in terms of putting something in the asset column or putting something in the liability column. A banker is sitting at his desk, and he is evaluating everything which comes to the table. "Will I count it in the asset column or will I count it in the liability column?"
He says that when the troubles of life come into your experience, to count it all joy. That means considerate it, to put it down as an asset rather than a liability. We don't do that normally.
I don't know about you, but I don't look at the troubles that come into my life and conscientiously want to put them down as an asset.
He's saying that when these things come into your life the tendency is to want to put it over in the sad column, but the Lord says to put it over in the glad column. This is a decision that you have to make. It's not something that you do on the basis of your emotions. It is not something you do on the basis of how the situation appears at that particular time. But it is a decision you make on the basis of what God has promised in His Word.
God has made a promise to the people of God in His Word that there is a door through which everything that comes into your life must pass. That door is God's will for your life. The Bible says in Romans 8, verse 28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God," not that all things are good in and of themselves, but that everything that comes into your life, God passes through the door of His will for your life.
The word “count” has the idea that means to go ahead. He's saying to put these things in the future dimension. Though they may seem to be a liability now and though they may seem to be sad experiences now, before God is finished with those trials and troubles in your life, you'll look back one of these days when you see it in the total dimension that God has and say, "I thought that was a liability in my life, but God has used it for a positive asset in my life." "Count it all joy when you fall into many colored trials."
II. The Process of Trouble.
Why does he say that? In verse 2 he talks about the presence of trouble, the fact that trouble is something which comes to every one of us. It comes unexpectedly and yet God says that He has a purpose and a plan and it will turn out for your good before it is over. In verse 3 he's going to talk to us about the process of trouble.
He says that we can count it joy because there is a process that God is carrying us through in the time of trouble.
Verse 3 says, "Knowing that."
He's saying that the believer can know some things. The believer can be taught of God in the Word. You can know some things about your troubles that other people do not know. The word knowing means to know by experience.
As you grow in your Christian life you come to know by experience that God has a process. God is doing something in the troubles that come into your life.
Read that verse in that light: "Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." What is the process doing here? What is God trying to accomplish in our life? The process of God allowing troubles in our life, first of all, is intended to
test us.
You never really know the reality and the genuineness of your faith until your faith is put to the test.
One of the things I have heard for so many years in my Christian life is a faith which cannot be tested cannot be trusted. You do not know really what kind of faith you have until that faith is put to the test.
Simon Peter, before the crucifixion, was bragging to the Lord and saying, "Lord, if everybody else runs out on You, You can count on me." Jesus said to him, "Simon, Satan has desired you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not, and when you are convert you are to strengthen the brethren."
He's saying, "Simon, you don't know how weak your faith is. I'm going to allow Satan to put you in his sifter. I'm going to allow you to go through these difficulties and you will discover just how weak your faith really is." Faith, sooner or later, is always going to be tested.
A young couple just gets married. They are all goo goo eyed at one another. They just declare, "We believe that our love is going to last a lifetime." That belief is going to be tested. It may be tested by the likes and the dislikes they have in their life. It may be tested by the plusses and minuses. Every mate has plusses and every mate has minuses.
When you get married, it's like buying a record. You marry a mate for what you like on the topside, but the bottom side comes along as well. That belief that you have that your love is going to live forever is going to be tested by the plusses and minuses in your life.
You get tested by the in-laws. It may be that you get tested by financial strains that come. Faith in the love you have for your mate is going to be tested somewhere in the future.
He's saying the process of trouble is intended to put your faith to the test. He puts it to the test for your own good. The troubles of life will do one of two things with your faith. It will either make your faith better or it will make your faith bitter. Your faith will either be strengthened or your faith will be weakened. It is determined by how you respond to these tests of faith that come into your life.
It is also for the benefit of those who are around you. When God's people go through troubles, it is an opportunity for them to demonstrate to those that do not know the Lord the difference Jesus makes in their life. Christians have the same troubles that other people have, and we are not immune from the trials and difficulties of life. But the difference is that God's children, if they will allow the Lord to, can
go through those trials and difficulties in such a way that their faith is strengthened, they grow in the Lord, and those around them can see that when you have Christ in your life He can help you make it through the troubles of your life. They are intended to test us.
Not only is the process of trouble intended to test us, but it's intended to
teach us.
It says in verse 3, "the testing of your faith produces patience." The verb “produces” means to work deep down in.
When troubles come God begins to work deep down in our souls. There is the process that God is doing in our life in order that He might produce patience in our life. The word patience does not mean just grim resolution, but it's the idea of perseverance. It's the idea of staying under the load. It's the idea of carrying on and not giving up. When troubles come, God is teaching us to keep on keeping on.
One of the sad things I see sometimes is that there are Christians, who when difficulties come in their life, they bail out on the Lord. If you're having trouble in your marriage, that's when you need to come to church, not quit going to church. When you're having personal problems in your life, it's not a time for you to stay away from God's house. It's a time to come to God's house. It's not a time to quit reading your Bible. It's a time to read your Bible. It's not a time to quit praying. It's a time to pray like you have never prayed before.
Now you realize, don’t you, that patience is not something that we are just naturally born with? In fact, you don't even get it in the new birth, necessarily. You get saved, but God doesn't all of a sudden give you patience. In fact, patience, endurance, is something that God does in a process in your life.
I heard about a young preacher who went to an older preacher and he said, "I want you to pray for me. I don't have enough patience at my church. I want you to pray that I'll have more patience." The wise older preacher got down on his knees and started praying, "Dear Lord, this young servant of Yours needs more patience.
I pray that You will give him more problems with his deacons than he's ever encountered. I pray, Lord, that he'll have more obstacles to face than he's ever faced in all of his ministry. And I pray, Lord, that You'll give him a difficult time."
The young preacher said, "Oh, no. That's not what I asked you to pray for. I asked you to pray that I would have patience." The older preacher said, "Son, read Romans 5, verse 3, or James 1:3 and you will discover that it is the difficulties of life that produce the patience."
III. The Purpose of Trouble.
verse 4
There is a purpose in the troubles that come into our life and it is that you may "be." God wants you to become something. God has an intention in mind. Trouble is God's tool to fashion you into the design He has for you. Trouble is God's pruning knife to make you the flower He wants you to be. Trouble is God's furnace to burn away the dross and the impurities to help you be that pure vessel that He wants you to be.
Think about the three Hebrew children in the Old Testament. They were placed into the fire bound, and yet the Bible tells us that the fire did not burn the three Hebrew children but rather it burned away the bonds that bound them.
When you and I go through trials, God is making us become what He wants us to become. He is working in a process in our life for a purpose in our life, that you may be perfect.
The word perfect here does not mean sinless. He is not saying that you are going to become sinless in your life. There are some people who say that you can be sinless in this life.
But God doesn't teach us in the Bible that we can be sinless. The word here does not mean sinless. That's not what God is trying to produce in your life. You will be sinless one of these days when you're in the presence of Jesus. You'll be saved to sin no more in the presence of Jesus.
But what this means is maturity, perfection in the sense that you are mature, that you are a full grown Christian. God wants you to be a full grown Christian. God wants you to mature in the Lord. So His purpose in the trouble that comes into your life is that you may be perfect, mature.
Then he says, "complete, lacking nothing." That means that you are to be deficient in no part, that there be nothing lacking in your life; that you be fully equipped to be everything that God has saved you to be and everything God intends for you to be.
In verse 4 is a little word that is the key.
He says, "But let patience." See the word "let." Allow patience to do its perfect work. He's saying that if trouble is to accomplish what God wants to accomplish in our life by allowing it to come, we must let it. We must cooperate with the will of God. God has a will. You have a will. God wants us to do His will, and God has a purpose and a plan for the troubles and trials.
When those troubles and trials come, if we will let God, if we will allow God, if we will cooperate with God He can accomplish what He wants to accomplish in our life.
A boy's girlfriend fell out of a canoe and he swam out to try to rescue her. He reached out and grabbed her by the hair on head and the wig came off. Then he reached and grabbed for her arm and an artificial arm came off. He said, "Mildred, if I'm going to save you, you're going to have to cooperate a little bit."
God is saying to you and to me that if He's going to develop us and mature us, then we've got to cooperate. "Let God do His perfect work that you may be mature and lacking nothing."
I want to show you something very beautiful in the Word of God. He's says to us in verse 2 that trials come in many colors, divers colors, manifold colors.
I Peter 4:10
That verse teaches that we have many colored troubles that come to our life, but the Bible says that God has many colored grace. This means that for every color of your trouble, God has a matching color of His grace. You've got blue troubles, God says, "I've got blue grace to cover those troubles." You've got red troubles; God says, "I've got red grace to care for those troubles. You've got black trouble; God says, "I've got black grace to cover those trials." The manifold, the many colored grace of God can carry you through the troubles that you have in life.
We find in verse 12 what he says about the future for the child of God that goes through these experiences of troubles. If you're going through some troubles tonight God says, "Let Me do My perfect work. You cooperate with Me. You trust Me. Let My grace match your need."
Then He gives us our glorious future in verse 12.
He's saying that if you respond correctly when the troubles come in your life, let God do His work in your life, God says that in the future, "I have a special crown of life for you."
You ever play checkers? I’m not much good, but I know this:
In order to get crowned you may have to get jumped a time or two. Hear what I’m saying? A good checker player doesn't mind giving up a few pieces when you're headed for a crown.
The troubles of life may take a few pieces along the way, but when the battles over and the troubles are ended, God says, "You love Me and be faithful to Me through the trouble and there's a crown waiting for you one day."
Let's bow our heads and pray.
