Suffer Well.

If you want a paper Bible, you can go grab one, take it home or leave it here, whatever works. I also want to share, at the welcome table today we have, as we start our new series through the book of James, this nice little half sheet of paper that Josh printed and cut so kindly for us. Can we give it up for Josh and all the little details? So we have this page, and it's going to give you an overview of the book of James, as well as a reading plan. Rather than a day-to-day plan, since sometimes that looks different for different people, some of you want to read a verse a day, others want to do something different, we've got a passage for you to read each week. You could do a verse a day, or read the whole passage every day that week, if you want a fun challenge. That's in the back, grab one so we can continue to journey through the book of James together.

All right, are you guys ready to get into scripture today? No one's ready. Okay. Are we ready to get into scripture today? Okay. Thank you. Now I will read the Bible.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do. Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position. But the rich should take pride in their humiliation, since they will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant, its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

James 1:1-18

Let's pray again today. God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that we can all come and gather in this room today, that we can encounter your presence, that we can hear your truth and your word. God, I pray, as we hear these words, would you draw us closer to you, Jesus, closer to your love? Would we feel your presence as we hear these words? God, would we truly be open to whatever it is you have to say to us? Lord, I thank you that your Holy Spirit is here with us in this room, that you are present, present in this text, present in every single word and encounter we have in this room today. So Lord, we welcome your presence. I invite you, even in your own way, would you just pray, and say, God, I welcome you to speak. Holy Spirit, would you speak through this word today? Because we want to hear you, we want to be drawn closer to you, your likeness, and your love. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Consider it pure joy

Before we dive in today, over the next couple of weeks as we go through James, I want to give some overview of what we're jumping into. The first thing is always, who wrote this book, who did they write it to, which is why we made you that little study sheet. Tradition attributes this to James the Just. He wasn't one of the original twelve disciples, but he was a prominent church leader, known for wisdom, righteousness, and a lot of practical teaching. That's what we're going to see. It tells us right away, in verse one: James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. So he's writing to Jewish Christians scattered outside of Israel, people who had a traditional Old Testament, old covenant worldview, but who were living as Christians, believing Jesus as Messiah, often in hostile environments.

The cultural setting we're stepping into is this: James is writing to people who've been scattered, most likely experiencing social rejection, economic hardship, and injustice. There are stories in Acts 8 referring to their being displaced, to the persecution that led to them being scattered, and that's where we're picking up. Some of the themes James is going to hit on are rich and poor, the poverty and classism happening at the time, favoritism, oppression, the misuse of power, exploitation.

The question I wrestled with as I dove into this again is, why did he have to write it at this time? Because the believers, the Christians, were under a lot of pressure, and the very ones saying, we follow Jesus, we're committed to his ways, were starting to compromise. They were struggling to stay consistent in the teachings of Jesus, starting to say one thing and live a completely different way. James, in a way, is bringing guidance, pastoring, and correction, saying, let's get back to the teachings of Jesus. Let's get back to not only saying we have faith, but living it out in every area of our life, which means thinking about how we use power, money, and status. We're not going to ignore injustice, but we're going to enter into it like Jesus.

Where do we relate to this? Where in our lives are we tempted to compromise? Where do we struggle to be consistent? Where might we, without even realizing it, misuse our power and privilege, and in turn find ourselves exploiting people? This idea of exploitation, which we'll talk more about in the coming weeks when we get into favoritism and faith and deeds, can look like, well, surely I love people, I'm not doing that. But the simple definition is misusing your resources or manipulating people for your own benefit, for your profit. James is addressing all of this, saying, we're not going to overlook the practical ways we live, because if we say we're following Jesus, our lives should look like it, which means we're not avoiding the hard things, not just seeking comfortable lives for ourselves, but following him into the suffering. I don't think James was writing this to induce shame, but to say, hey, the life we actually long for is the one that mirrors the life of Jesus. I want us there today.

So we jump in: consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Who here loves facing trials of many kinds? No one. This idea of joy, you think, what do you mean, consider it joy, what does that mean? Notice the language, it doesn't say if you face trials, but whenever, that assumption that we are going to experience them. The pain is real, and I hope we walk out of today knowing we have the resurrection power of Jesus with us right in the midst of it.

I want to look at this word for trials. Whenever we do a word study, when they translated the Bible, every word written in Hebrew in the Old Testament, in Greek and sometimes Aramaic in the New, has a number associated with it, what's called a Strong's number, so you can look up what a word means. This one, trial, sometimes temptation, is basically the same word, referring to external pressures and internal solicitations to evil, both the external, painful pressure points, things that happen to us, and the internal, longings that pull us toward evil. Jesus uses this same word in Matthew, in the Lord's Prayer, when he says, lead us not into temptation. He's saying we should pray to be delivered both from external pressures and from internal longings and desires.

Then there's this word, various, multicolored, diverse, layered. Not all suffering, not all trials, not all temptations look the same. It's multicolored, multifaceted, multilayered. That means for each of us, grief may look different at different times of our lives, and different for different people. Betrayal might feel different than waiting and longing for something, than loss and disappointment, than being tempted to do something we know isn't in the ways of Jesus.

Why do we resist this so much, why do we fear struggle and suffering? Often when struggles come, our first default, some of it from how we were raised, is to think something must be wrong, something's wrong with me, something's wrong with what's happening. Am I off track, not doing what God wants, because I'm experiencing these pressures? We might even question, God, where are you, are you even in this? Our brains are wired to avoid pain. Our default is to avoid any pain, any fear, any anxious thought, we want to run, we go into threat mode, and we get stuck there.

This feels a little funny, we just talked about Easter, we should be excited, Jesus rose, he's back, it's all good. But right after, Jesus encounters his disciples, they see him, and then he ascends into heaven, and says, wait. We're in the season now of waiting for Pentecost Sunday, in Acts 2, where the Spirit comes and descends on the people, and he says, wait for me. They go into a season of waiting and longing, and then we read the account of them planting churches and sharing the gospel, and there was temptation, and trial, and struggle, and suffering. Following Jesus isn't about avoiding pain, but continuing to learn how to cling to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of it, how to not avoid the things but know we're empowered by the resurrection of Jesus to go in, to see it through, to see healing and freedom. Because of the resurrection, we don't have to fear, we don't have to avoid. One of the things I want us to see today, which might sound a little funny on a Sunday, is that we need to learn to expect it. We expect the struggle, we expect the pain, we expect the suffering, we expect the moments where we're saying, we cannot do this without the Holy Spirit right now. It says not if, but when.

I should preface this, I'm being one hundred percent dramatic as usual, but yesterday I had a moment of my own suffering and struggle. A few weeks ago, Isaac, Nana, and Hannah, who's in the back here, may have convinced me to sign up for Crazy Legs, a run happening in two weeks in Madison. I am not a runner. I run, but I am not a runner. Yesterday I got up, after lying flat on my back saying, I can do hard things, at least twelve times, before I got up, and I said, you are going to run. Now some of you are marathon runners, and you're thinking, Abbie, that's weak, come on, you can do better. But for me, running four miles that day was a really big deal. Nobody's excited for me. I ran four miles. I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.

There's so much that goes into this, it was painful, there's a reason I'm not wearing heels today, I'm wearing flat shoes because my hip hurts a little. But I prepared. The night before I made sure I was hydrated, woke up, drank water, gave myself space before I ran so I wouldn't cramp, stretched, and stretched after. I thought, I've got this. And part of why the preparation helps is that as I was running, in pain, I realized, wait, this thing I was scared of, I'm actually doing it. It still hurt, there were moments training up and down hills where I looked ridiculous, trying to regulate my breathing, in pain, but thinking, I'm doing it, I can do hard things.

The other thing that gets me through is knowing the pain and suffering is going to end. There's a moment when I hit mile four, and in this case I kept going a little extra, thinking, I can still do this, but it's going to end, it's temporary, it's not going to last. Now, there's a difference if I'd woken up and someone started chasing me, that would have been fearful, or if someone said, come on, you're running a marathon today, I would have said, I'm not ready for this, what are you talking about. But things are a little less scary when we expect them, when we're prepared, because it changes the outcome, we know, okay, this is something that's just going to happen and I'm going to do it. We can go in knowing, this too will end, this too will pass, this pain is temporary.

Some translations don't say when you face trials, they say when you fall into them. I love that language too, because there's nothing worse than walking along, tripping, and falling, not expecting it, not ready. This is the idea, expect the trials, show up knowing you have the strength to endure and get through, because expectations change everything. When we expect the trials are coming, we don't panic as quickly. We don't personalize everything as failure, thinking, I'm struggling, God's not providing the way I thought he would, does this mean I'm doing something wrong. We say, okay, this is part of it, part of following Jesus. When we expect it, we can prepare to meet God in it, for him to be our source of strength, and that's when, like Jesus, we enter into it and embrace it. James is telling us, expect the trials, and embrace it. Consider it joy.

Jesus entered into suffering to show us how

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

These are Jesus' own words to his disciples:

Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

John 16:20

There's always an end to the grief, to the pain, to the trials, to the suffering. So much of James' teaching mirrors Jesus' first teaching, on the Sermon on the Mount:

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:11-12

These are tough ones to read, but he says, blessed are you when this happens, rejoice, be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, in the same way they persecuted the prophets, in the same way they persecuted Jesus. We don't have to fear, we don't have to avoid, because Jesus showed us how to enter in, embrace it, and endure it, so we can come out on the other side. We can do that when we have eternity on our mind.

Look at the life Jesus lived. He left heaven and stepped into a human body, fully divine, and he embraced the human limitations, the limitation of, I can't just go, go, go, I have to stop and eat sometimes, I might need a nap because I didn't get enough sleep. He embraced those things. He did not resist the betrayal. As we celebrated on Palm Sunday, he rode into that city knowing the people singing his praises would, in just a few days, be persecuting him, betraying him. And he entered into it anyway. His path to obedience, in Hebrews 5:8, says he learned obedience from what he suffered. Jesus didn't avoid it, he entered into it to show us how to suffer well. And his suffering was our means of redemption.

Entering in instead of avoiding

I want to talk for a moment about what it looks like to not avoid the really personal, painful trials and struggles in our own lives. There's this natural thing of wanting to avoid it, anytime something hard comes up we want to think, this must be a sign God's not here, or I should just run, I just want to avoid it. I've shared before that one of the things that's been a constant source of struggle and trial in my own life is anxiety. We live in such an anxious generation, and I know I'm sharing from my own experience here, because it looks different for so many of us. But that's been a huge thing for me, something that's kept me stuck, something I've had to keep walking through. When anxiety is at its peak, our brain keeps us trapped in cycles of avoidance, trapped in fearing the outcome so much that we're not even able to physically step into the room sometimes.

About a year and a half ago, I was starting a new job at a new clinic, and the night before I was filled with so much anxiety. I know I've done hard things in the past, walked into rooms where I don't know anyone, that's just part of the human experience, we've all done it. I know there's going to be awkward moments, I know all these things, but I was so stuck with anxiety, and then stuck with the shame of, Abbie, come on, you can do this, you know it's going to be fine. But the anxiety of not being able to sleep, not being able to eat, of literally drafting the email, I'm going to quit before I even get started because I cannot show up tomorrow, I just can't do it.

Here's the reality: often we stay stuck thinking about all these things, and most of them never happen. Most of the anxious spirals, the fears, the doubts, they don't happen. But some of them do. When I showed up, some of what I was worried about never happened, it was fine, it was great. And some of it did, it was awkward, painful, there were more anxious moments, it wasn't easy right away. But when we enter into these hard moments with Jesus, we're letting him heal us in the process, instead of suppressing it, pretending it doesn't exist, letting it leak out in other ways. We're training ourselves that we can enter into these things and endure it with Jesus, because it's temporary. The pain, the hardship, the anxious thoughts, the things the enemy longs to keep us stuck in, it's temporary. Because Jesus is longing for us not to avoid the pain, the hard things, the things we feel like we can't get through, he wants us to enter in, so we can show people his presence right in the midst of this broken world.

Jesus wants you, in your classrooms and workplaces, to be his presence. But the enemy wants you filled with anxiety and fear, so you avoid going, avoid making new friends, avoid showing up differently. Jesus wants you to go into the meeting you're dreading. He wants you to do it scared. He wants you to lean into that excellence. The enemy wants you trapped again in avoidance and anxiety. Following the ways of Jesus isn't avoiding pain, fear, anxiety, it's enduring it, trusting the resurrection power will empower you and see you through to the other side. We endure it through Jesus.

Shepherding our desires

James reminds us, in verse five:

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt.

James 1:5-6

He's saying, if you're lacking anything you need, go and ask Jesus. Even when Jesus began appearing to his disciples after the resurrection, some of them needed to touch his hands, to see the scars, to believe. Others just heard the news and said, I'm all in, Jesus, I trust you. He knows what you need, and he wants to give it to you. He wants you to lack nothing. We can ask God for wisdom, for insight.

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

When we know it's temporary, we show up differently. But if we get stuck in the lie that this is our eternal state, that's when it gets hard to suffer. Endurance is not pushing through and pretending, emotionally shutting down and saying everything's fine, or saying I'm okay, I'm okay, until we feel okay. Even though positive thoughts are good for us, and I did lie in bed saying I can do hard things until I got up and did it, endurance is choosing to stay, choosing to trust, continuing in faith every single day, because Jesus knows best. He does. He knows best. Without endurance, we remain fragile. With endurance, we become steadfast, strong, formed, looking more like Jesus.

Jesus went beyond entering and embracing the suffering, being okay with showing up. He endured it fully. He endured being misunderstood, rejected, beaten, crucified. And he stayed present, stayed surrendered, stayed connected to the Father. This is what it looks like for us as followers of Jesus to join him in this.

It says each person is tempted when they're dragged away by their own desire. I want to talk about this word desire, dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it's fully grown, gives birth to death. So there's a progression: desire, then sin, then death. I'll get to how we see Jesus overcome this in a second, but I want to talk about desire for a moment. Desire in itself isn't always bad, desire is simply a strong craving, something that entices you. But here, it's talking about desires that pull you off track. There's a progression, these desires come for something, sin comes, and that sin leads to death.

We're in a culture where so much of the language we're given is, follow your heart, follow your desire. But I did not desire to go running yesterday morning. It was because I had a plan, because I had community and accountability who'd ask, Abbie, what are you doing, if I didn't show up to that race in two weeks. Something in me said, okay, I can do this, I didn't desire to. We can't always feed our desires, because desires are often shaped by unmet needs, sometimes past wounds, fears, old patterns. I've trained my body to desire sleeping in on Saturdays, to desire a donut, even though I'll have one again on Sunday. That's what I desire, because I've trained myself to be like that, these old patterns.

The question isn't do we have desires, and sometimes it's not even, do they start good, because sometimes they're longing for things only Jesus can fill, and we go looking for them elsewhere. So it's not, do I have desires, but who's leading those desires, and do I have a plan for how I lead those desires to Jesus. We never want to be people who have desires, even ones that look like they're headed somewhere sinful, that's going to lead to death, and just keep going. Pause. Where is this coming from? What am I actually longing for in this moment? What am I not feeling fully fulfilled by in Jesus right now? How do I look to Jesus and let him fulfill those desires? We don't suppress our desires, we listen to them, we sit with them, and then we shepherd them. We have to be a shepherd to our own desires and longings, take care of them, lead them, tell them where to go, submit them to the Father.

Jesus, in the garden, said, let this cup pass from me. In that moment his body was not desiring to be persecuted, beaten, and crucified. What he entered into was real anguish, a real longing to avoid the suffering. But he didn't deny it, he didn't bypass it, he shepherded that desire and submitted it to the Father when he said, not my will, but yours be done. We all have desires, something deeply wired in us wanting to avoid pain, protect our comfort, protect our peace. But following the ways of Jesus means we don't suppress those desires, we shepherd them and submit them to the Father. We follow Jesus in this way because he shows us something beautiful, this pattern of having these desires to avoid the pain and the trials, pausing, naming it, bringing it to God, not being ashamed of it, but recognizing it as part of the human experience. As we do this, in the same way we look at Jesus and how he suffered and see that he overcame every trial and temptation and defeated death, we encourage others, we bring people along the way.

Jesus, in his suffering, related to us in every way. He knows physical pain, knows what that feels like. I don't want to sugarcoat this, because I know for many of us, even hearing these words brings up something different. I can't give you a clean, pretty definition of the purpose of the hardship and struggle you're walking through, I can't give us a purpose for why we're seeing wars break out, people oppressed and taken advantage of and exploited. But what I can do is remind us of the promise we have in Jesus, that he overcame all of it, and the pain we're witnessing and experiencing is temporary, because we have hope in eternity, that it will pass, that he defeated it. We may never understand the exact purpose. Sometimes we do, sometimes we get that clarity, looking back and thinking, this is why I had to go through that, it happens, God moves like that. And sometimes we just don't know why we had to go through certain trials, why we were so enticed by certain temptations and desires. But suffering is temporary. Suffering is just a moment, not just in your story, but in the story God has been writing for all of eternity, and suffering is forming you, if we let it, if we keep shepherding things and submitting them to Jesus. Suffering is joining him in his mission of showing other people what it looks like to not avoid, but to enter and endure, so we too can overcome.

Closing prayer

Our so-what for today, and I'm going to invite the worship team to come as we get ready to close, is that Jesus doesn't just show us how to avoid suffering, he shows us how to suffer well. So what do we do with that? We need to submit and shepherd our suffering. We need to not let our painful things, our emotions and feelings, define us and tell us who we are and what's going on, but take them to Jesus, submit them to Jesus, over and over. Here's the thing: when we watch how Jesus suffered well, we see that he expected it. He knew part of his role was to come into the dark places and bring the light, to heal what's broken. He entered into it and embraced it. He did not flee, even in the garden. In those moments he endured the pain and suffering, and now he walks with us through ours. His Holy Spirit is with us in the midst of our suffering.

I want to invite you to stand today, and the worship team is going to lead us in a time of reflection. Josh and Ashleigh, and some of our leaders, are going to be available for prayer in the back. I want to invite you into a conversation with God. There are a few questions that will stay on the screen for a few moments as the team plays. First, I want you to identify what you're facing, or what you're seeing around you, that feels hard, that feels like external pressures or internal desires enticing you and taking you off track. Just ask, Holy Spirit, will you show me where you are in this with me? Sometimes we want to jump straight to, why, God, why is this happening, but start here, where are you in this with me. Then ask, what are you forming in me, how is this helping me become more like you, Jesus? Are there ways I need to be more intentional about what I'm shepherding, what I'm submitting? Then have that honest conversation: where am I resisting instead of entering in, what are the things I want to suppress and avoid? Maybe the Holy Spirit is saying, will you enter it, will you embrace it, what does it look like for you to stay with Jesus in it? Because we know it's not the end, we know we're created for eternity.

I'm going to invite you to close your eyes, and often, as a posture of surrender, we hold our hands out in front of us and say, Holy Spirit, would you speak, would you have a conversation with me, would you ask these questions. And if you're here and want to partner with someone in prayer, whether about this or something else, maybe it's, God, I lack wisdom, I need things from you, I want to invite you to go to the back and receive prayer. The team is going to lead us in these moments.

God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we can stand here today and have these honest conversations with you. I pray you would help us name the temptations, the trials, the struggles, the sufferings, the things we might be avoiding. Would you speak to us, Holy Spirit? Would you give us fresh eyes and fresh revelation to see where you are, how you're forming us, the ways we're resisting that we need to submit and surrender to you and embrace? Would we feel your presence today, be reminded of your glory, reminded that we're created for eternity, and this too is temporary. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence. We welcome you. Would you come and speak during these moments? You are welcome here.