Live Free with Josh Howerton - Consider It All Joy // James 1:2-8

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

James, Jesus’ brother, encourages us to consider it joy when we face trials and struggles. Even in the midst of our crisis, God is working on our character and making us more like Christ. The joy that comes out of our sufferings is rooted in the fact that the one who loves us and will ultimately overcome the brokenness in the world is with us through every hardship we face.   For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Well, hey, guys, welcome to our daily drive. If we haven't met, my name is Carlos, and I get to be a part of the pastoral team here at Lake Point. Then we get to hang out this week for a few minutes every day as we dive into the Word of God.

And this week, we're talking about how Jesus is good news that brings great joy. And we're in the month of December, and around this time of the year, it's probably the worst time to think about your diet and your workout routine. That's happening most likely, hopefully in January. but I will say this. Generally speaking, I think I've been fairly decent in trying at least to keep up

with eating fairly healthy and having some sort of workout routine and being intentional with that stuff. But there's one thing that I've basically failed in doing for the last 50 to 20 years when it comes to working out. This is a moment of confession, actually.

And actually have been repenting about this for a while. But I've never been great at working out my core. You know, I've been a runner. I enjoy weightlifting, but I've always hated, hated, hated doing abdominal workouts. And it's weird because we all know somebody that is really into working out their core. And if that's you, we don't want to hear about your CrossFit classes. Come back in January and tell us all about it for inspiration, okay? That's a joke.

We actually don't want to hear about it at all. And because if you've ever done a core workout, you will know that that thing burns like nothing else. Like whenever I try to quote unquote start doing some sort of ab workout, I feel excruciating pain in my core. And honestly, there's been moments where I'm like, why do people even do this? Like, this is so painful. But here's the thing. Some people, they don't just do it. They actually enjoy it.

That's why they do it over and over again. And they get all excited about it. You know, it's almost as if people that work out their core. regularly and actually enjoy going through that pain. It's like, it's as if they know something that the rest of us just don't know. Look at what James, this is Jesus' brother. This is what James says in James chapter 1, verse 2 to 8. He says this, dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way,

by the way, that's difficult situations or circumstances. consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete needing nothing. Let me give you a little background about who is writing this.

According to the tradition, James was Jesus' brother. James saw his brother being bruised, mocked, tortured, and publicly humiliated in a tragic way. After Jesus dies and resurrects, James becomes a leader of this Jesus movement. And at the time, the government tortured and killed Christians. That was just reality. And many Christians were literally suffering for believing and trusting and living out the Jesus way.

And according to tradition, there were several who insisted that James stopped preaching the name of Jesus. Stop sharing who Jesus is. And he said, no. So they took him to the, according to tradition, to the top of a temple and threw him down. He fell to the ground and survived. And then when they saw him still alive, they threw stones at him and one person grabbed the rod and beat him to death. That same James writes this. When you face any kind of problem or challenge or trial, consider it joy. Would you find your, when you find yourself in a health crisis, consider it joy. When you have challenges in your finances, consider it joy. Uncertainty about or anxiety about your future. Considerate joy. When you, when you worry or are preoccupied

with what will happen tomorrow, consider it joy. Family, relational struggle, consider it joy. for any normal person that that would just not make sense. But could it be that James knows something that we don't? And he does. He actually explains that. Verse three, he says, for you know that when your faith is tested, endurance, perseverance, your character has a chance to grow. So James says, verse four, let it grow.

For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete needing nothing. Here's what he's saying. In the midst of your crisis, God is working on your character. God is conforming you to the character of Christ no matter what is happening to you. The Bible says in Christ, you have the power and the supernatural ability to have joy. Now, I've heard it said before that the word happy comes from the word happenings. So there is a sense in which there's a certain type. of happiness that comes and goes based on your happenings.

But this is why the Bible uses the word joy in this case, because there's a certain happiness that depends on your happenings, but there's a joy that depends on Jesus. And if you are in Christ, if you walk with Him, if he is your shepherd, if you trust in him, no matter your circumstances, you can have Jesus's joy. And today my prayer for you is that if that's you, and as you go through trials, you can consider it joy. Not because everything is perfect, but because of the one who is perfect is with you, is strengthening you, is forming you. And listen to this. And he will overcome for you today.

In Christ, you can have joy. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.church slash daily drive.

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