Count It All Joy
James 1:2–4
In the book of James. We’re going to be going through much of James and preaching through much of it. If you’ve got your Bibles, open up there to the book of James. We’re going to be in James chapter 1 today and looking at a couple of verses there in chapter 1 for the message the Lord’s put on my heart.
As you’re finding that, as you’re finding James 1, a couple things I’d share. You know, James, some of us might not realize this, but the Bible tells us in Matthew 13:55 that James was one of the Lord’s half brothers. There were others as well, but James was one of them. I believe it says James, Joseph, Simon, and Jude in Matthew 13 were his half brothers. Now, interestingly, the Bible also tells us that James and his brothers didn’t believe in the Lord at first. They didn’t believe Jesus was Lord. But after the resurrection of Christ, James came to faith in Christ. Praise God. He came to trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. 1 Corinthians 15:7 tells us that the Lord in his resurrected ministry appeared to James in his resurrected body. And we also know that James from Acts 1, James was one of the believers that was in the upper room after the Lord had resurrected. Y’all remember there were believers in the upper room praying for the promise of the Holy Spirit before it came. James was one of those. And also, it’s believed that James became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. So God worked through James in many, many, many ways. At one point, he didn’t believe in Jesus, but he came to faith in Christ and God worked through him.
James was also known—some people called him James or one phrase you’ll hear for James is James the Just. James was known for his godly living and known for his prayer life. But the book of James, it’s a fun book to read. It’s very practical for us as Christians. Many people kind of refer to it as the Proverbs of the New Testament. The theme of James, James 1 verse 22 is the overall theme where the scripture says, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”
Today we’re going to be going to a couple of verses in James 1, beginning there in verse two. The title of our message is Count It All Joy. I’d like to invite anybody who would like and is able to stand with me in honor of the reading of the word of God. James chapter 1, beginning in verse two.
The word of God says,
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Opening Prayer
God, we love you. Amen. And God, we thank you and praise you for this time that we’re able to be here to worship you, Jesus. And God, right now, as we dig into your word, Lord, I need your help. And Lord, I just pray the Holy Spirit would move in this place and move in hearts as the word is shared, as the word is preached. I pray God for believers that you’d use your word in this time of worship to mold us and to shape us more and more into your image. And I pray if there’s somebody here in need of salvation, today would be the day, this very day that they would call on you. And I hope and pray they’d make it public. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. All God’s people said, “Amen.”
We Will All Experience Trials
You know, here in James 1, we read about that word trials. You know something as I read this, as we read this, I think we can be reminded of is we will all experience trials on this earth if we live for much time at all. Amen. Every one of us, we’re going to go through hard times if we live enough life. Now, maybe you’re here today and maybe you’re young and maybe you never feel like you’ve been through a trial in your life, something that’s just very, very, very difficult. Maybe everybody has. I do believe this. This is my opinion. Trials, if we live much life at all, we’re going to go through them. Amen. We’re going to have times that we go through hard seasons if you live very long at all.
You know, there’s all kinds of trials we can go through. There’s all kinds of difficulties we can go through. It might be a trial and a struggle with your family. It might be a trial with your children. It might be a trial with your spouse. It might be a trial with friends or loved ones where there’s just some really hard relational things or someone you love and you care about is suffering or someone you love and you care about is not living for God and has not given their life to the Lord. It might be a trial related to health where your health is failing and life is very, very hard. It might be a trial because you’ve lost somebody you love, your mother or your father, a friend, a relative. When we lose somebody we love, it is hard. There’s all kinds of trials we can experience. It might be depression. Depression is of the devil. And man, depression when we go in it, it can make us feel like there is no hope, but there’s always hope with God. There’s all kinds of trials that we go through on this earth. And understand, we are going to go through trials. Trials are a part of life.
Why Do We Face Trials?
You know when I think about this text, I think a common thing sometimes we will ask God or we will wonder or we will ask somebody else, why do we have to face trials? Why do we have to go through hard times on this earth? Why can’t everything just be going great all the time? Why do we have to go through these hardships we’re enduring?
I want to say this. I do not have all the answers. There’s some things we go through that are hard to explain. Amen. There’s some things I don’t think we’ll understand on this earth. We’re not meant to understand everything.
There’s also times we go through trials and difficulties because we live in a fallen world, right? You know, ever since sin came into this world, we read about it in Genesis 3, we are all born into sin. We are sinners. Praise God. God doesn’t make us robots. I love the fact that God does give us free will. That God does allow us to make choices. Right? Everybody agree we can make our own choices. Now, sometimes we choose sin though, don’t we? Every one of us are sinners. Amen. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every one of us mess up. As believers, we still mess up. Amen. Amen. None of us are perfect. Amen. Sometimes sin can lead to a trial in somebody’s life. Sometimes your sin can lead to a trial in somebody you care about. Sometimes your sin can lead to a trial for yourself, right? So one reason we go through trials is because of sin. We live in a broken world where choices people make can cause trials, can cause difficulties.
Sometimes we just go through trials. I mean, sometimes they’re just a part of life, right? You know, these earthly bodies, they’re not meant to last forever, are they? These bodies, this tent that Paul talks about, it’s temporary. It does break down. Now, the human body is amazing the way God designed it. It’s incredible, but it’s not imperishable like our heavenly body that waits. So sometimes when we think about trials with our health, that’s a part of life. We’re going to have part of our health sometimes struggling. It’s a part of these bodies. When we lose somebody, when somebody passes away and dies, that happens in this life. Everybody’s going to die unless they’re a part of the generation where the Lord raptures. We face death. So some trials like that are due to the nature of the way we’re designed. But praise God, we got eternity in heaven as believers in Christ. Amen. Amen. Where we’re going to get a new body where Revelation 21:1–4 tells us about there won’t be tears of sorrow. God will wipe away every tear. I love that thought of God himself wiping away our tears and the word that’s used there—it’s going to be completely wiped away. The sickness, the death, the tears of sorrow, they’re going to be gone. But on this earth, those are some reasons we face trials.
And in this passage that we read today, I believe we get a little insight on some other reasons that God allows trials in our life. And we’re going to speak to that in a moment.
Count It All Joy
Before we do though, something I believe we see when we read this text, it says, “Count it all joy.” When you encounter various kinds of trials, count it all joy. You might be like, uh-uh, this is not joyful what I’m going through. And I’m not trying to say it is. And I don’t think James is trying to say things that are hard we go through are joyful. But I think one thing I think when I think about what James is saying there, this is one thing is the importance of keeping the right perspective in the midst of trials. Keeping the right perspective in the midst of difficulties in our life.
You ever go outside and it’s really cold, you say, “But it’s hot.” You kind of psych yourself and say, “It’s not that cold.” And it really is cold. Sometimes we have to speak positively to ourselves. James says, “Count it all joy.” Our perspective matters. Amen. But how in the world can you count it all joy when you’re in the midst of hard times? Well, no matter what, through it all, you know the Lord is with you. Amen. And just like Paul said in Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice.” We can find joy in the Lord no matter our situation. But the way we think matters in the midst of difficulties.
You know, a lot of times when we’re in trials and when we’re in hard times, what do we tend to do? A lot of times we start focusing on how bad it is, right? A lot of times we start dwelling on how this is awful. Has anybody ever done that? The enemy loves when we do that. The enemy loves when we get caught up in problems instead of being focused on Jesus. See, when we’re caught up in the struggles that we’re going through and that is our focus, we’re not able to keep our eyes on Jesus. The enemy loves nothing more than when we’re in hard times to make the situation even harder for us by us worrying. The Lord says, “Don’t worry,” but we worry because we’re human. We’ve got to be on guard against negative thinking. Our perspective matters. The way we think matters.
We’re in the midst of trials. You know, when I think about our thought life, I think about Philippians 4. Don’t you love that chapter in the word of God? You know, some of the best counseling you will ever get are in Philippians 4. And certainly you want biblical counseling, go to Philippians 4 again. It says Paul wrote this while he was in prison for preaching the gospel. He said, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice.” He was in chains, yet he was still saying, “Rejoice in the Lord.” And then in verse 8 of Philippians 4, he says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” And then as you go on in that passage, it says, “And the God of peace will be with you.” The way we think matters. And in the midst of trials, we’ve got to guard our mind from the enemy trying to get us stuck in negative thinking. Amen. Because when we get stuck in worry and we get stuck in anxiety, the enemy is going to have a field day with us. The enemy will try to sift us like wheat. We’ve got to be on guard.
And notice what it says at the end of verse two. It says, “When you meet trials of various kinds,” it still says, “count it all joy.” Somebody might be saying, “Well, now there’s no way I can count it all joy with this thing. You don’t understand what I’ve got going on. His trial is different.” No, what James is saying, count it all joy when you encounter various kinds of trials. Every kind of trial. No matter the difficulty in life, no matter how hard it is, we can still ask God to help us through that hard time. And to have that strength from God to say, “Lord, help me count it all joy.”
How Am I Responding?
I think a good question for us to ask when we think about how James says to count it all joy and he says something that is opposite of what we do is ask that question. How am I responding in the midst of a trial? I thought about that and I thought about how I’ve responded sometimes in trials and I’ve responded the wrong way. You know, I’ve had trials I’ve been through and I’ve gotten stuck in worry and I nearly died from that. How we respond in the midst of a trial is important.
You know, just let’s just say that difficulty you’ve got doesn’t change. Let’s just say that circumstance stays the same. Do we see how the way we respond if it stays the same as if we respond negatively? It’s going to eat us up. But if we respond, we say, “I’m going to count it all joy and I’m going to rely on the Lord.” We’re helped. Amen. The way we respond matters. A good question for us to ask is if I’m in a situation right now that’s hard. If you’re in a situation right now in your life, because I’m sure there are some people going through some hard things. I know there are. Am I responding in a way that honors God? Am I responding in a way that will point people to Jesus? Am I responding in a way that brings glory to God? Did you know God can use you in your weakness? Oftentimes he’ll use you in the mightiest ways in your weakness.
God Uses Trials to Grow Us Closer to Him
But I want to take a moment. We asked at the beginning that question of why do we go through trials? And in this passage, I think we get a couple more, a little more understanding about why God might allow us to have trials and why we can count it all joy. One thing I think about is God can use trials in your life and in my life to help us grow closer to the Lord. Amen. God can use the hard things you go through, the hard things I go through in mighty, mighty ways for us to grow in the Lord. Have you ever seen that in your life where God has done that?
I’ll tell you God—I believe what I experienced in my own life first off is I believe God used a great trial in my life to be a part of what finally led me to giving my life to Jesus. I’ll say that first. You know, faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of God. Now, I tell you, when I was running from the call to salvation, Crystal, she shared the gospel with me a lot of times, and I would get mad. I’d be like, “You’re close-minded. You’re saying Jesus is the only way.” Yeah. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” I’d be like, “What? What about people that are good? Are you saying they’re going to hell? What about people that believe another way?” Her mom would witness to me. We go to service and I would hear preaching and God would work on me about giving my life to Jesus. But I kept putting it off. Hey, if that’s you today, don’t put it off anymore. The best decision any of us can ever make is to fully surrender our lives to Jesus.
By the way, I heard about a 91-year-old woman that had been in church all her life. I heard about this just the other day. And even though she had been in church, she knew she was not saved. And at 91, she gave her life to Jesus. Isn’t that awesome?
But so God—what God did in me is after hearing the gospel a lot of years, three days after my dad died, who was my best friend, who I loved, man, it rocked me. It was a trial when my dad died. He had a massive heart attack while running on the shores of Carolina Beach. But you know what God did? God used that three days after he died. I gave my life to Jesus. I said, “Lord, I need you. I’m giving my life to you.” Now, that came after hearing the gospel a lot of times, but God used that difficult time for me to give my life to Jesus. That was one piece of it.
I’ll tell you what else God can do in the life of the believer, in the life of any of us that are born again, that are saved. God can use trials to help us grow in relationship with Jesus. Amen. We don’t want to get stagnant in our faith. Have you ever had times you feel like you’re stagnant? Like you’re just kind of going through the motions, you’re not growing. If you’re not growing, what are you doing? Dying. Amen. We want to be growing in the Lord. That means if you’ve been to church all your life, 40 years, 50 years, think about I’ve done it all. No, no, no, no, no. We have never arrived. We can keep growing in the Lord.
It says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” The ESV says the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. We can count it all joy when we encounter trials because God can use that trial that you’re going through for you to grow in the Lord. And when we’re growing closer to Jesus, there is reason to count that all joy. Can we see how it’s better to count that joy even if it’s hard than to count it negative and to be fallen into self-pity? No. We count it joy because God can use it for us to say, “I need you, Lord.”
Have you ever had that in your life where you’re in a hard time and all the more you’re like, “I need to pray more.” You ever had that happen where you’re going through a hard time and you’re so desperate for help and you might have tried every other thing. We might have tried talking to this person, talking to that person, going to this doctor, going to that doctor, but the trial doesn’t change. The trial’s still there. What about are we trying God? When we are in a trial, God can use that for us to cry out broken and say, “God, help me. I need your help.”
And it says, “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” That’s not the Bible saying that we’re going to be perfect. Not on this earth. One day we’re going to get in a glorified body and he’s going to make us perfect. But I do believe God is telling us in his word he wants us to grow closer to him. Amen. Amen. He wants us to keep growing. And God can use trials to test our faith. And when our faith is tested and we go towards God and we rely on God, it helps us to grow.
I’ve had so many times—I don’t know if you have—have you had times in your life when you’re in a difficulty and it’s so overwhelming. It’s so hard that it causes you to go to God more. Anybody? Like I remember times where I was in such physical pain or overwhelmed by the enemy with anxiety or recovering from that surgery when I couldn’t put any weight on my leg two different times. And I remember just thinking, Lord, I need you. Help me. Where I felt like, how am I going to ever get out of this day? How am I going to get through? And where you felt like everything’s hopeless. And what happens is when we use that for us to cry out to God more, we start to grow. Have you ever had those times where you’re hurting so bad and it just causes you to cry out to God in prayer more and more to be broken when you pray more than normal? That causes us to stretch and to grow. Or maybe where you’ve had times where you just go pour into the word of God because you say, “Lord, I need help.” Crystal was reading a verse this morning. Where does my help come from? My help comes from where? Y’all know it. My help comes from the Lord.
When we’re in a trial, if we want real help and true help, we get it from the Lord. And what trials can do is they can stretch us and they can test our faith and they can lead us to crying out to God more, relying on God more, and as we do, we grow. And growing in the Lord is reason to count it all joy. Amen. That’s reason to count it all joy.
God Uses Trials to Teach Us to Trust Him
I’ll tell you what else. God can use trials to teach us to trust him. Sometimes we go through difficulties. Does anybody get guilty of this? You go through something hard and your natural response is to try to figure it all out on your own without God. You go through something hard and you try to ask everybody for their opinion and you ask a bunch of people. Before you know it, one person’s saying this, one saying that, one saying that and your mind is swimming. And you’re like, “Well, this person says to do this, this person says to do that.” And you’re even more overwhelmed.
One thing that can happen as a result of trials is as our faith is tested, it can cause us to stop relying on ourselves and start relying on God. Amen. A trial—we can count it all joy when God is allowing a trial in our life because it can lead us to depend on God instead of depending on others. I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t get wise counseling and others. God can use others. Not at all suggesting that. But I am saying ultimately we want to put our trust in the Lord. So trials can be a good thing in the sense that they can cause us to trust in the Lord.
God Uses Trials to Equip Us to Minister
I’ll tell you what else about trials. God can use trials to help us be better equipped to minister to others. Have you ever experienced that in your life where you went through something and you got through the heat of that situation? You got through the heat of life. You went through something really hard. And God got you through it. And then later God has been able to use you to minister to others that are going through that same thing that God pulled you through. Amen. God can use trials to help you and me better minister to others going through something hard in their life that God’s already pulled you through. Amen. That’s another reason we can count it all joy. Have you ever experienced that in your life where you’ve been able to minister to somebody going through something because God got you through it?
I think about after I answered the call to preach and I went into darkness. The enemy tried to make me fall into such a darkness that I thought there was no hope. But God got me through it. But before that, I thought when somebody said somebody was sad or depressed, I was like, they just got to suck it up. That’s kind of what I thought. I was like, toughen up. But there’s times when we can’t click ourselves out of it, right? Amen. Amen. There’s times when we get really, really—and I’ll just be honest. I call depression of the devil. It is of the enemy. But there’s times where we get so overwhelmed we just can’t flick the switch back to have joy and peace again where we need help from the Lord. Amen. And I tell you before I went through that I would not have understood how to minister and I certainly am no expert in it. But I’ll tell you this much. I have seen how I’m able better to understand and relate when somebody’s going through anxiety or going through worry or going through depression. It doesn’t mean I can fix their problem. The Lord can. But it does mean I’m better equipped to minister.
And I believe listen that hard thing you went through or you’re in the midst of and God’s helping you. You might have battled addictions. Maybe you’re still battling or you might have been battling and God got you through. God can use you to help others and relate to others battling addictions, right? There’s all kinds of ways God can use the hard things we go through to minister to others.
And I’ll tell you what else something we go through is the enemy loves to try to get our mind in our thought life, right? The enemy will try to sift you. One thing you learn if you’re seeking after God when you’re struggling with that is you learn some good fighting verses help, right? Does anybody have fighting verses they fight back against the devil with? I mean we got to speak the word. You remember what Jesus did when he was under attack when he was in the wilderness? He fought back with the word of God. The devil tried to give not the full word of God. That false teaching will give you part of the truth but not the full truth. Jesus fought back with the full word of God. We need that sword. So one thing I tell you, another thing I’ve been helped with when ministering to others is to encourage them to have fighting verses. Have fighting verses that you can fight back with.
The Best Is Yet to Come
I’ll tell you what else, another reason we can count it all joy when we encounter various kinds of trials is God can use trials to remind us the best is yet to come. This earth is temporary. The problems we go through on this earth, they’re temporary. That struggle that is so hard—I’m not to diminish how hard it is. There are hard, hard things to go through on this earth. But it can remind us to look forward to the promise of eternity in heaven when we’ve given our lives to Jesus. The only way to enter into heaven, the only way to be forgiven of sins and have our sins wiped clean and enter into eternity in heaven is through the blood of Jesus, through faith in Jesus Christ. But when we go through a trial and a difficulty, sometimes that hard time, that hard season we go through can remind us to look forward to the promise that’s to come.
Brother Dave was just talking about that—to everything there is a season. When we’re in a trial, sometimes it does us good to tell ourselves this is just a season. To everything there is a season and there’s a reason for it. But it does us good to remember the best is yet to come. Amen. Like we haven’t even experienced anywhere near how amazing heaven is going to be. It’s going to be glorious beyond our imagination. So if you had a hard time reminding yourselves of that, you can count it all joy that the best is yet to come.
There Is Always Hope with God
And I want to say this, God is able to lift us out of any trial. Sometimes we get this feeling like there’s no hope. I remember experiencing that when I was in darkness where I never thought I’d get my mind back. I never thought I’d have peace again. I never thought I’d have joy again. Every moment was agony. But you know what God did? He healed me. There’s always hope with God. Always. For with God, nothing will be impossible. Nothing.
Now I’ll say this. Sometimes we have to bear things, right? I was reading this morning in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul had to bear a thorn in the flesh. Amen. And people debate on what that thorn in the flesh was. But the bottom line, you know, he prayed three times for God to take that thorn away. God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Amen. In other words, even if we have to bear that thorn in the flesh or even if that circumstance in our lives does not change, his grace is sufficient for us. And I think it says something there too about in my weakness I’m made strong and the power of Christ would rest on him. So in your weakness, God can make you strong. But remember that even if that circumstance doesn’t change, that trial in your life doesn’t change, God can strengthen you. God will get you through it and God can work through you. And remember, there’s always hope with God. God can heal what we thought. We’ve all lost hope. God can do things that we could never imagine.
Whether he does or not, we can count it all joy. Whatever happens with that trial you’re in the midst of, what we’re told here in the word of God is no matter what it is, we can count it all joy.
Closing Prayer
And I just want to close by saying that if you’re in a trial today, ask God to help you in the midst of that difficulty to count it all joy. Not joy for how hard it is, not joy for how difficult it is, but to remember that God can use that trial for the good. First, God could heal you or God could fix it in the way that you want it. But either way, God can use that trial in so many ways. He can use that trial to help you grow in the Lord. He can use that trial to help you depend on him instead of yourself. He can use that trial to help you minister to others. He can use that trial to help you remember heaven’s forever and this is all temporary. And God can use that trial to cause you to draw closer to him than ever before in your life.
God, we love you and I just thank you and I praise you for this day and I thank you for your word. And I don’t know the difficulties everybody might be facing today, but I know you do. And I pray for the ones that are hurting today. The ones that are discouraged, the ones that have some heavy, heavy, heavy burdens on them today. I pray somehow someway through your word, your word ministers to them in this situation that they’re in in their life. And God, I thank you for this encouragement in your word that no matter what we go through on this earth, you can use it for your good and for your purposes. God, we love you. It’s in the name above all names, our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
