JUN 15 2025 | Storm Proof: A Study in James S1E1 | This Too Shall Pass

Sea Change Church · JUN 15 2025 | Storm Proof: James S1E1 - This Too Shall Pass
James 1:1-4
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

And together as the united body of Christ this morning, we seek your face. That you might shine upon us. That we might know you more. Open our hearts and give us ears to hear as Pastor Joshua preaches the word. Move God in new spaces for us, Jesus. We love you. We need you. You're the king. And we long to be in the presence of the king. In your name.

Amen. The letter of James, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Greeting. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

This is the word of the Lord. As your love and wave after way Crushes over me Crushes over me For you are a force You are not a guest Champion of heaven You made a way for all to enter in Jeff, that was awesome. That is... Man. Gotta love those bumper videos. That was cool. Run that back one more time for me. That was so cool. Welcome, church. My name is Joshua.

I'm the campus pastor here at Sea Change Church. And I'm so excited to bring the message today. And I first want to say happy Father's Day to every dad in here, those who are fathers currently or on their way to be fathers here soon. My son came and gave me this today. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna rock this when I preach. Because it's cool.

Because he made it. So before we get into this message, I want to kind of go over just the background and kind of understand who James is. Because it's very important as we go through this series called Storm Proof that the background is just as important as the message of what James talks about. Now, this James that we see right here, he is the half-brother of Jesus, right?

Yet he calls himself a bondservant, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love the way he started this because he starts off with humility before he does identity. And in verse 1, James says this. He identifies himself in Christ. And what it does, it outweighs the status. Because if it was me, if I am James, let me say this. If I'm James, everywhere I go, I'm letting everyone know that I'm the half-brother of Jesus.

That's just me. I don't know about you, but that is me. I'm like, yo, my name is James, half-brother of Jesus. It's like a bumper sticker that's always on my forehead. Because for me, that holds some type of weight, right? But James does not say that. He humbles himself and says, I'm just a slave. I'm just a slave. And this is the same James who was first a skeptic.

In John chapter 7, verse 5, it says this. It says, for neither did his brothers believe in him. Like, this is the James that was like, yo, Jesus, go do what you got to do. You know, you're Jesus or you're the one. And he turns and now he is a servant, a slave. Like, that's an identity shift that took place in him. And it's proof also, too, that God may be telling you to do something.

And those close to you do not believe in what God has sent you to do. But you can still do it. James is also a huge pillar in the church. It even says that James is a man of deep prayer. They said that he prays so much that his knees start to look like camel knees. Have you ever seen camel knees? Have you, like, bro, like, that's a lot of prayer.

Like, I don't, like, I love my Lord and Savior, but if my knee is looking like that, I'm wearing pants all the time. That's just me. Right? But this is James who prayed a lot. Prayed a lot. And the primary message of what James writes is to the Jewish community that are scattered abroad. But his message also speaks to all believers, navigating trials, navigating temptations, navigating struggles.

So we all can identify to this book right here. So now that we understand who James is and who he's writing to and how it could relate to us, I want to kind of talk about what it looks like to live a life that's under pressure. That's under pressure. My main point that I want everyone to understand and get from this message is this right here.

Trials test your faith not to fail you, but to form you. Trials test your faith, our faith, not to fail us, but to form us more and more into Christ. That's the whole point of a lot of things that we go through. You see, trials doesn't mean that, like, God is punishing you. Like, they don't mean that. But they're actually something that God uses to prepare us to what could be possibly coming.

We tend to look at things a lot of times in life, like we tend to kind of categorize things as if something has failed or something is a success. But what if the trials you go through, what if the hard times in marriage, what if the way your kids are acting, what if your finances are not where you want them to be, but God is using those particular things to form you more and more like Christ.

So let us remember these two things. Two things I want you to remember today, okay? Two things. What you do before the trial matters most in the trial. What you do before the trial even takes place matters most when you come to the trial. And the number two thing I want you to remember, if you're looking at your notes, is this. Your trials, your struggles, your temptation, they have a purpose.

Your trials have a purpose. God will use everything you come up against in this life to bring him glory. So like James, let us truly be people that really understand this, right? That though we may be under pressure, though times may be hard, though we may be going through some struggles, though we're under pressure, we're not under defeat. Like God, he favors every single person who puts their trust in him.

But we have to believe that. We have to know that. Because they're never to make us fail under pressure. Because trials are inevitable. You can't get away from them. They're going to come. But they're not meaningless. Let's look at verse 2 really quick in your notes. Verse 2 says this. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of temptation of various kinds.

When you meet trials. Like James doesn't say, he doesn't say you may have a trial come. He doesn't say if a trial may come. He says when they come. He says when they come. So as a believer, as a Christian, as anyone in this world, trials are a part of our life. Struggles are a part of your life. It's a part of the Christian walk. Temptation is a part of living in a broken world.

So the fool, you know what, not the fool. Let me not say the fool. I don't want to offend no one. The unwise person, right, doesn't prepare. It's like, since it's Father's Day, we can talk about this a little bit. Like, before I had kids, no one prepared me what it took to change a diaper. Like, no one sat me down and kind of showed me how that whole process works.

So as I'm trying to figure out how to change a diaper, I'm using like 15 wipes just to wipe my child's butt. No one prepared me for that. But on the other end, I don't know what it is about women. Y'all just have it down. My wife could sit down and just do everything. I'm like, how do you do that? Like, I need a nice flat surface. Can't have no lumps in it, right?

Flat surface to make sure I do it correctly. But I was never prepared for that. Or have you ever been, right, in school? Have you ever got to class, right? Sit down. And if you're anything like me, I hate the words pop quiz. I was never prepared. Not one time for a pop quiz in my life. Never. I never prepared. You would have thought at some point I would have got the idea, hey, maybe you should read those chapters before you go to class today.

No, never happened. Never. Not once. You see, these could be like funny moments until they're not. Because spiritually, when the pressure hits, when it comes knocking at our door, you cannot fake preparation. You cannot fake if you're prepared to go through the trial to overcome the struggle that you are about to go through. But James says they come to produce something within us.

They don't come from no reason at all, whatever. They come for a reason to produce something in each of us, but only if we patiently let what it's doing make us more and form us more into what Christ has done for us. There's plenty of stories in the Bible, right, that we see how people prepare. One of the most famous stories is Noah, right? God came to Noah, told him, hey, look, this is about to happen.

There's a flood that's going to come. So you should prepare for it. Now, Noah could have actually said, you know what, God, I hear you. Cool. I understand that, but I'm not going to prepare at all whatsoever. He could have did that. But he didn't. And because he prepared for what God had told him, people were saved. We are here today because of his obedience.

It's the same way with us when trials come. Like we have to prepare for what God is going to do. James doesn't tell us what to expect. He tells us how to respond. Because in verse two, it gives us perspective of how we should act when we're under pressure. And then he tells us this funny phrase. He says, count it all joy. Now, I don't know about anyone here.

Like when I'm going through a trial, when there's temptation of any sort, I'm not thinking about joy. That's just me. I don't know about you. Is there anyone? Anyone? Right? We're not thinking about joy when we're going through those tough situations. But when we go through a trial that doesn't feel good, we have to make sure and understand they are working something good within us.

2 Corinthians 4.17, it says this. For our light afflictions, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. My question for you is this, right? How is the moment, the trial, the temptation, how is it shaping you currently right now? Is it leading you more to Christ or is the trial leading you away from Christ?

Is the struggle that you're going through right now, you're wrestling with, is it bringing you closer to the cross or is it having you go the opposite direction? Because when you truly compare, like when you look at our light afflictions compared to eternal glory, there's no comparison. Like it doesn't even come close at all whatsoever. And the word you see count, it's truly like it's a deliberate term.

It's an act of our own personal will. Like you have to do something. Because when you activate that part of your life, your faith can respond or your feeling can react. So what you do before the moment, it matters. It matters in the moment. It's like training for a marathon. Me and a couple of guys here recently just did a little Spartan race. Now, we could have took this Spartan race and not trained at all whatsoever, and I probably would not be here today.

Okay? That's just what it is. But because we got around a community, a group of guys who said they wanted to do this, we prepared for that. And we sent videos like, look what I'm doing. And it was exciting, you know. I'm like, man, they really out here getting it. I'm like, I got to step my game up. But it was because of that community, those brothers, we got together and said, this is what we're doing, so let's train for this.

But have you ever had a moment in your life, right, to where you didn't prepare? Anyone? Anyone? Right? There's been moments that you, oh, you prepared incorrectly, not well. I'll never forget after me and Alita got married, we're on our honeymoon. Right? I thought I had prepared for the trip that we were about to go on. And I was like, you know, I had $1,000.

Now, that may be seen a little bit to y'all, but I was like, that's enough right there for a five-day vacation. And before we even got to our room, I had to pay, I had to put a down payment, $300 for a rental car and $500 for the room. So you do the math. Stressed out. It put a wedge in our marriage for the first six months because of that right there.

Like, it was the craziest thing. I was like, man, I thought I did everything right, but it was not enough. But what if the trial you're going through, right, what if the temptation that God is preparing you for is God's way of upgrading your character? You see, those trials or those light afflictions that we go through, it sometimes can become God's recipe for our destiny, for our purpose.

We have to make sure that when we're going through those tough times, those tough situations, we're not running back to the world. We're not trying to go back to Egypt when God has already provided provision. So let's recap real quick. So trials test your faith not to fail you, but to form you. So what you do before the trial, before the temptation, what you do before those things come, it matters a whole lot.

So in the way you prepare, the way we prepare for these trials and these tribulations is by reading God's word. It's by prayer. It's by fasting. It's by getting in community, getting around other believers, getting into small groups. It's these different things that God uses to prepare us for when those trials come. But if you're trying to be the lone wolf in life, I guarantee you, you're probably going to fail.

But the good thing about God is that in our failure, he still calls us back. He says that I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's the God that we serve. The second point, your trial has a purpose. In verse 3, it says this. Let's go back to the scripture. It says this. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. You see, trials test our faith not to destroy us, but to reveal and refine us to look more and more like Christ.

It's like fire purifying gold. You see, God sometimes uses our trials like a gym does, right? We go to the gym. We work out. It sucks when you're going through it. You're preparing for a marathon. It sucks when you're preparing for it because you're like, man, I want this to be over. But when the race comes, you are well prepared. And the great thing about trials, or not so great thing, I should say, about trials, about temptations, you don't get to choose them.

They just show up at your doorstep. But if you have not prepared, it could take you out. It could take you out. And I've learned in my own personal life that before that situation comes, let me spend as much time with God in my word, reading, reading books, getting around other believers, letting them encourage me. Those things help drastically when trials come.

Because testing produces patience or steadfastness. It's like this resilient endurance that you get. It's not this passive, well, I'm waiting for the trial to come or I'm waiting for a tragedy to come. No, we're not waiting. We're acting. We're in movement. We're doing things before they even come. Because faith is not created by trials. But it will expose your faith.

It will expose your faith. Like when you get to a place in your life when it's hard to not get angry, when it's hard not to forgive, when it's hard to love in tough situations, that's the time you need your faith and your trust in God. That's when you have to be prepared for the tough situation. Tim Keller said this quote, which I love. He says that you don't really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

You see, that's the thing about trials, about temptations, about struggles. Like you get to a place in that moment where it don't feel good. And James makes it very clear. Like it really doesn't feel good, but there's a purpose for it all. And if you could learn, if you could understand and value the importance of a risen Savior who died on the cross for your sins, who has made a way for you to be in a right relationship, to be in corner near with him, it changes everything.

I'm not saying that's going to be easy. I'm not saying that's not going to hurt. I'm not saying you're not going to cry. But I am saying there's been provision made at the cross. And we as the body of Christ, there's so many things going on in the world today. You just turn the news, you can see it all. It is, wow. But even in these tough times, these tough situations, these trials and these tribulations, God has made a way.

Because trials are not meant to undo your faith. I've seen a couple of my friends when I was serving in the military, well, I'm still serving in the military, but when I was in the military, who when a tough time came up, they thought it was good to go to a whole new religion. I was like, wow, okay. Like, totally opposite. I was like, oh, you praying to the stars now?

Like, what is going on? But because he didn't prepare for that tough situation he was going to go through, it took him out. He ran well for a season. But as soon as the pressure came, it crumpled him. And I'm praying for him that he comes back. And I believe he will. But trials can do that to you. But it's not meant to undo your faith, but it's to uncover its depth of your faith.

You see, God doesn't waste none of our pain. He doesn't waste none of our struggles. He doesn't waste those times. We just don't know what's going to happen next. He doesn't waste any of that. But what he does do in those is he shapes us. He molds us like on a potter's wheel into being used for his purpose. But you cannot jump off. You can't jump ship when the marriage gets hard, when the raising the kids gets tough, when work is not going the way you want it to go.

You can't jump ship in those moments. We have to dig in deep. We have to make sure the roots that have been planted on our hearts have taken deep within our own personal lives. Because that's when you need it the most. Let's read verse 4. Verse 4 says this. It says, That word perfect right there in the Greek, theos, the meaning of that is to be mature and complete, is to be finished.

But it's not this like sinless perfection to where you've done everything right. Like the Bible says that if we say that we have no sin, we make him a liar. Like we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So we all have something in common. But the goal of this is to get us to be in a place where we are spiritually mature, that we're not looking for comfort, but we have grown in our understanding that those tough situations is to form us, is to mold us, is to build us up.

Because trials are not just about enduring, but it's about embracing for what God is doing. It's to transform you into looking more and more like his son. And that doesn't always feel good. It really doesn't. Like I could just go back in my life and just think about every single trial. And you ever been to, you know when you go to the stoplight and trying to cross, you hit the button and it says wait, wait, right, wait.

For five years, God told me to wait. And it was killing me. I'm like, this sucks. I want to be out of this, Lord. Take me out. He just kept saying wait. That's all I kept hearing the Holy Spirit say, wait, wait, wait, and I waited. And now I see the finished work of what God was doing. It didn't feel good when I was going through the trial, when I was struggling.

But when I look back and see how far God has brought me, when I look at my kids on his father's day, when I'm going hiking on trips, and I'm like, man, I'm glad I didn't take my life. that's what it's all for. It doesn't feel good. I know. But God has a plan. He has a purpose. For God's goal for each and everyone is that we would be perfect, is that we would be complete, is that we would be lacking nothing.

that spiritual maturity that looks like Christ. So practical takeaways, as we wrap up real quick. Practical takeaways. I want you today, throughout this whole entire week, I want you to pray and ask in prayer, God, what are you producing in me through this? Whatever that temptation is, whatever that struggle is, whatever that pain, ask God, what are you producing in me through this?

And the second thing is this, when you are tempted to isolate, when you are tempted to go back to something that you shouldn't go to, I want you to choose community. I want you to get around other believers. I want you to get plugged into a small group, to a group of guys, a group of women, whatever that looks like. I want you to get with people that when you're going through that tough time in your marriage, I want you to get with other married people who are doing good in their marriage, to vent, to talk about it, to get help.

Seek community, not isolation. Because the world tries and tells us, right, that you can do it on your own. We have all these motivational speakers like, just trying, I got this, I'm the man. But you don't see what's going on in the background. You don't see their full life. Like, everyone could seem like they're tough on social media, on YouTube. But real men, real women, understand the power of having someone walk alongside them when they're going through a tough situation.

It's needed. God didn't create the church to be alone. He said there's a body. There's many members in it. Find community. And watch what God do. Trials may not be joyful in themselves, but joy comes from knowing God is at work, he's at work through them. The same God who worked through James, a skeptic turned servant, is shaping you not to break you, but to build you.

Amen? Amen. Let me bring the worship team back up real quick. You have a close? Yeah, okay, cool. And I really want you to take the time to, because this is a tough message. Like, it wasn't all feel good. I get it. I could feel it. I could feel it in the room. But it's a needed message for today. Because so many people are losing their faith. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. If you'll stand with us. We're going to sing Good Good Father again. And we're going to start from the beginning. Amen. I've heard a thousand stories of what they think you're like. But I've heard a tender whisper of love in the dead of night. Can you tell me that you're pleased and that I'm never alone? You're a good, good father. I have a good, but I have a good, it's a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, I have a good, You are perfect in all of your ways to us.

Sing that again. You are perfect in all of your ways. To us. Oh, you are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways. You are perfect in all of your ways to us. Love so undeniable. I, I can hardly speak. Peace so unexplainable. I, I can hardly think as you call me. Deeper still as you call me. Deeper still as you call me. Deeper still into our love.

You're a good, good Father. It's You, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am.

That was just beautiful listening to you all sing. That was a good message. Pastor Joshua was supposed to close it up, but I had a couple things that I felt like the Lord put in my heart. One, we're just so blessed by the pig family coming to our church. Man. Whole family. Man. Blessed. The other thing that the Lord said to me is like, I feel like he said to me, you've been depending on your seminary training, what happened in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s as your preparedness, and you can't stop preparing and keep leaning on the old preparation, on the old wineskins.

God has some, I feel like it's a word for all of you. That's why I got up front. That there's new seasons, and God says there's new preparation needed. What I did in the gym when I was 20, it ain't really holding true at 55 unless I get back in, you know. So that's a word. We need some new preparation. Get back into fasting. Get back into that community. I want to bless you.

Extend your hands. We're going to have the prayer team come forward. Worship team. That was beautiful. Lord, I want to pray, God, for first of all, you feel like there's people that have father wounds here. Some of us have worked through it. I know I work through mine. I'm sure my kids got some wounds for me too. And Lord, we ask if we have that father wound, we need the perfect father to step in. So I pray for that, Jesus. I pray for that you would just heal us, God. Let us be fully mature and completed looking back and being able to give forgiveness, working through and facing in our feelings and those things. Bless the fathers that are here. I bless this church, and I thank you, God, this is a church where angels sing along with us, God, where the spirit descends and where you are allowing us to make Jesus known. I just bless you as you go in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Come up for prayer. Love you. Hey, anybody, we got a ton of donuts. We got more donuts we can eat from mini donuts and hot dogs out there. Come forward for prayer. We love you. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.