You’ll need:
· A large bolt
Never Waste Your Pain
In the now classic movie The Princess Bride, Princess Buttercup confronts the Dread Pirate Roberts when she learns her true love Westley might have fallen victim to an untimely demise. What she doesn’t know is that the pirate is Westley in disguise. As the pirate responds callously to her sadness, Buttercup shouts, “You mock my pain!” To which he replies, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
This classic line is often repeated as a humorous antidote to difficult situations. Life on earth involves experiencing pain, loss, and disappointment. Because of sin we can be guaranteed a fair amount of pain this side of Heaven.
But what is in our control however, is our response to that pain. Today, we are going to discuss how we should deal with pain when it strikes our lives. To do so, we will be taking a fresh look at James 1:2-4. James is concerned with the practical aspects of Christian conduct and these verses can help us to better understand the purpose of pain. The point of today’s discussion is to empower us all to view our trials as positive, character-building experiences, rather than something to be avoided at all costs.
The Opening Act:
Now, these stories that you are about to hear are 100% true, and I found them in this book that I have. But believe it or not, these events really did happen.
A man, age 23, smashed his car into a tree near Rome and was badly injured. After a motorist took him to a hospital, he was sent in an ambulance toward another hospital for further treatment. However, the ambulance smashed into an oncoming car. Another motorist took him to another hospital, where he was again dispatched in an ambulance for further treatment in a nearby hospital. But, that ambulance too smashed into another car in a suburb of Rome, killing the man that was on the way to the hospital.
Or how about this one: truck driver James R. Shaw was on Interstate 5 near Medford, Oregon, when his brakes caught fire. He pulled into a rest area and tried to douse the flames with his fire extinguisher, but was unsuccessful. He hopped back into the blazing truck and raced down the road, hoping the wind would blow out the fire, but was forced to stop after 9 miles when the flames completely engulfed his truck. The burning truck blocked travel on that highway for nearly 3 hours.
One more: George North of Cupertino, California, was celebrating a San Francisco 49ers victory by riding a trash bin with rollers down an exit ramp at Candlestick Park when the bin crashed into a cement retaining wall, flipping the 39 year ol fan off an upper level of the ballpark. He fell 42 feet to his death!
Wow, those sure were some tough breaks! I’m sure you would agree these stories are extreme, but life can be tough sometimes. Real tough. Maybe you’ve had someone close to you die, or you are dealing with divorce in some way, or you’re dealing with sickness. Maybe you’re in despair, or your friends have bailed on you. Trials are going to happen no matter what, we can’t change that. However, we can do something about how we approach trials and how we respond to them. The big question is, “Are you going to go through trials, or are you going to grow through trials?”
Let’s see what James has to say about the tough stuff. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me to James 1:2, and take a look at that with me. In this verse, James is talking about the way that we respond to trials of many kinds. James 1:2 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”
Now, there is a difference between the popular definition of joy, which is happiness; and the Biblical definition of joy, which is confidence. The Biblical definition of joy is a confidence that God is in complete control.
Now, I gave you that definition, now I want you to define a word for me. If someone were to ask you to define the word “Trial,” what would you say?
Well, I believe that a good definition of the word trial would be, anything that causes fear or doesn’t go the way we planned.
It is like trusting someone to be in complete control during a situation like flying on a commercial airplane. You don’t know how they do it, but you trust the pilots enough to get you where you want to go. all the switches and lights and dial mean next to nothing to most people. But of course, they tell the pilots exactly what they need to know and enable them to safely fly the plane. We don’t always understand what is happening around us, but we don’t have to either. God does, and He’s in complete control of everything.
James says that if we choose joy, understanding that God is completely in control during our trials, we’ll receive certain rewards in our lives.
What are some of those rewards that we might gain?
Well, as we look together today, we are going to find out what growing through trials is all about. So let’s go ahead and take a look at why we should choose joy during trials.
The Main Event:
1. When we grow through pain, we can gain strength.
As we read on in James 1:3 it tells us that, “…You know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance…”
James was writing to people in need. Many of them had recently lost their homes, families, and all of their belongings. They were very familiar with suffering. So James wanted to encourage them not to waste this opportunity for growth by blaming God for what had happened.
You see, strength comes from repetition. Athletes know this well. A runner doesn’t shy away from opportunities to run and build endurance. And that is what we need to understand when it comes to trials in our lives. Because when we grow through trials and choose joy, we gain strength.
Have any of you ever seen pure gold close up? Well at least we have all seen a nice gold wedding ring, right? Gold is an amazing metal. For instance, when rings are made, gold goes into a process called refining. During this process it’s heated to extremely hot temperatures until it melts, then it’s poured into a ring mold. The process allows the impurities, which decrease the strength and value of the ring, to burn or be scraped away. When the ring is cooled, it’s shiny, strong, and pure.
So what is my point here?
Well, as it has been said, the point is simple. God allows the heat of pain and trials in our lives to bring about purity in our lives through dependence on Him. What God allows in the area of pain and trials, are only intending to teach us lessons, and make us stronger.
2. When we grow through pain, we can gain maturity.
As we continue on in James 1:4 it goes on to say that, “Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature.”
Before we move on, what does it mean to be mature?
Well, you can be old and still be immature. Maturity is more about character and less about age. Not only do trials help build strength, which leads to perseverance, but the whole process isn’t considered complete until the trial actually produces maturity. In other words, until it finishes its work.
Have you ever seen or smelled cow manure? Well I have, and I can tell you that it’s gross! Just ask Nellie, the first time that we went to our friend’s dairy farm in Indiana, Nellie stepped out of the car and about threw up. Any way, the very fact that we bag something that comes out of a cow is amazing. But, what is manure used for?
Well, it is best used for plants and grass, manure is the best thing you can put on it. Why? Because it makes things grow. It’s the oldest known fertilizer. Well, trials are like manure in our lives. Trials stink, but they have a purpose. They cause growth and maturity because we learn to trust God rather than ourselves. When that happens regularly, spiritual growth takes place.
And what we learn through this is that spiritual maturity can’t happen apart from trials. We need trials in order to grow.
3. When we grow through pain, we can gain completion.
As we continue to look at James 1:4, it says, “…Complete, not lacking anything…”
So, what does it mean to be complete?
Completion is all about God seeing His plan for us through to the end. Ultimately, we’ll be totally complete with Jesus in Heaven. But we can also experience semi-completeness by becoming more like Christ in our day-to-day living.
When we choose to grow through trials instead of being bitter and just going through them, we’re actually allowing God to make us more like His Son, and that’s what being a Christ-follower is all about.
Picture yourself getting on a brand new roller coaster, it’s the world’s longest, tallest, and fastest. You strap yourself into your seat, and your car begins to pull away from the loading area. Just then, you notice something fall to the ground up ahead. Straining down to see what it is, you notice that it is a big ol’ bolt! (Hold Up A Bolt) It’s fallen from somewhere on the roller coaster, though you can’t tell exactly where. What would you think about riding this roller coaster now?
Well, obviously you would not want to put your life in the hands of this coaster. But why? Because it’s incomplete. It’s lacking something.
Well, God wants us to have all we need in order to be capable, confident servants. When we go through trials instead of growing through them, we actually miss out on being a complete person. We miss benefits we need later in life.
The Grand Finale:
It’s not easy choosing to grow through trials instead of go through them. Sometimes it’s downright tough. But it’s not impossible.
Dave Dravecky pitched for a major league baseball team until it was discovered that he had cancer. Dave ended up losing his pitching are to the disease. His career was shattered. Here is what he had to say about suffering in his book When You Can’t Come Back:
“One night, a woman came up to me and told me how she once was down and out with a drug addiction, until someone told her about Christ, and she became a Christian and was healed of her addiction. She told me God wanted all His children to be one hundred percent healthy.
But does He? What would God’s children grow up to be like if all the bumps in the road ahead of them were made smooth? Cancer introduced me to suffering. And suffering is what strengthened my faith. Yet that woman implied I was suffering because I didn’t have enough faith. She seemed to be saying, have enough faith and get the life you want. But that struck me as making God into some cosmic vending machine, where if you pushed the right button, you would get a sweet life, free of suffering.
Someone once said the difference between American Christianity and Christianity as it’s practiced in the rest of the world has to do with how each views suffering. In American Christians pray for the burden of suffering to be lifted from their backs. In the rest of the world, Christians pray for stronger backs so they can bear their suffering. That’s why we look away from the bag lady on the street and look to the displays in store windows. That’s why we prefer going to movies instead of hospitals and nursing homes.”
So, if we can learn how to grow through trials and pain, then we can begin to gain strength, gain maturity, and gain completion. So consider this question, “Are you going to choose joy and grow through your trials or are you going to kick the dirt and blame God, causing yourself to miss that opportunity to grow?
Encore:
Get It?
· How do most people view pain and trials?
· What kinds of trials are normal for people today?
· How do you usually respond when tough problems come your way?
· What does it mean to consider trials joy?
· Why do trials help us grow spiritually?
· What does it mean to never waste your pain?
· Which one of the three rewards do you think is the most important to understand and live out? Why?
· Why do you think trials are referred to as tests in some translations?
· Why do bad things happen to good people?
What If? The Big Picture:
· If your friend were to say, “God doesn’t care about the bad stuff that happens to you,” how would you respond?
· Our world encourages us to pursue comfort and run from discomfort. The Biblical writer James is actually telling us to embrace pain as something that can help us grow. How do you handle the difference between those 2 perspectives?
· Sometimes God can do the most work in our lives when we’re broken. So what does it mean to be broken?
· What would happen if you began to view trials as opportunities to grow and become more like Jesus?
So What? It’s Your Life:
· What trials have you gone through in the past year?
· What trials are you going through in your life right now?
· Of the three rewards—strength, maturity, and completion—which one do you most need in your life right now?
· Who do you know who’s going through a tough time right now? What can you do to help that person grow through it instead of just go through it?
Does anyone have anything that they would like to add before we close today?
Well, if there is nothing else, just keep in mind that it is much better to grow through the pain and trials in your life as opposed to simply going through the trials and pains. If we can learn to grow through them, then we can gain strength, we can gain maturity, and we can gain completeness. We need to make sure that we never waste our pain.
Let’s Pray!
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