“PRESSURE POINT – HARD TIMES” – SUNDAY, JANUARY 7, 2024

Sermon Preached at Stouffville United Church
Rev. Capt. John Niles
Music by Stouffville Choir

            Suffering is inevitable.

            There was a man who was laying across three chairs in a theater. The usher noticing this, came by and told me that he was only allow one seat, and that others were reserved for the other two seats. The man said nothing. The usher became indignant and said, “Sir, if you don’t move I will have to call the manager.” Still he said, nothing. The manager came and shook his shoulder and told him that he had to move. The man just moaned. Then that manager threatened that he would call the police. Which he did. The police came and said, “Sir, you will have to move.” No response. “Sir, they said, “What is you name.” The man said slurred speech, “Sam”. The police said, “Where did you come from.” The man pointed and then said, “he balcony.” Life is just like that. You make one wrong step and the result is devastating.

And James was trying to tell his people that faith makes a difference especially when we are facing pressure points. He was not so much trying to console them or us but rather, trying to challenge them and us to remain faithful.

            There was a boy who wrote a paper for class about the devastation of earthquakes and fires in the lives of people. At the end of the paper, he wrote how important it was to have faith in times like these. The teacher gave him an “F” saying, that if he would rewrite the paper making it more realistic he would get a better mark. The boy spoke with his father, and with his permission went to the teacher and said, “Sir, you can keep you “F”, and I will keep my faith.

            Faith does make a difference in the hard times. Yet, I have had people say to me, “Well, Reverend, you don’t live in the real world. You live in ivory tower.” And whenever someone says that to me, I tell them I have experience more of the real world in a week then they will ever in a life time. I have cut down more people hanging themselves in the rafters, and cleaned up after more suicides then most people see in a life time. I have had to deal with more death and violence in a week then most will in a life time.

Life is hard. And we need to know that our lives are unmanageable alone. We need to know that we need to turn to the one who can make a difference in our lives. For pain is real, as pleasure is real. Sickness, loneliness, humiliation, frustration, distraction, affliction–“trials of many kinds”–fall on us like bricks tumbling out of a dump truck, one after another. “

            In real life there are plenty of problems. Just look at the news. It is full of the bad news that is happening all around us. The loss of a job, a broken relationship, or difficulties at work –– an untimely death or a lingering illness or a depression that will not lift –– a wayward child or an unfaithful spouse or an abusive parent often make us feel overwhelmed. Can that change? Is there any help for dealing with difficulties? What do we do when life closes in on us?

            James writes to Christians going through hardship. These Christians were going through persecution. They were dealing with discrimination. They were suffering trials and tribulations. James addresses this situation in a practical way. By doing so, he gives them hope. But he does it in a somewhat unusual way. Rather than consoling them, he challenges them. He challenges them to rethink their difficulties. And he challenges them to trust God in the midst of their difficulties.

I

            The key to facing our difficulties reaffirm our faith.  It is to trust in the Lord in the midst of the trial. If God is at work, we need to look to him in faith. James tells us that if we lack wisdom we simply need to ask God. If we seek God’s wisdom, he will give it to us generously. Trusting God in the midst of the hard time means that we seek and ask and come to him.

            Trust that he will show you what you need to know and give you what you need to have to successfully face the trial. What we see here is a call to faith. It is a call to be dependent upon God. A Christian who thinks he can do it in his own power is a dangerous person. God does not want people who think they can do it on their own strength. Especially in this country, that is a tough lesson to learn. We are raised to be independent, to pride ourselves on our own individualism. But when it comes to serving the living God, it is essential to learn how to be dependent.

            So trust in the Lord. Don’t doubt that he is at work. Doubt will only result in instability. Doubt will make us “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” Doubt makes us “double minded.” We are called to trust God as little children naturally trust their parents. That is a key to facing trials.

II

            The next key to facing the hard times that come our way is to reaffirm our faith. Thirdly, recognize the big picture, not just the trouble. Sherlock Holmes and Watson were out camping one night, when about three o’clock, Holmes said to Watson. “Watson, when you look up, what have you deduced” “Well, said Watson, “I deduce that cosmologically, there are millions of planets in the universe, and perhaps thousands of solar systems.   Also, it looks like we will have good weather tomorrow.   Theologically, I deduce that God is sovereign over it all and all is well. What do you deduce Holmes?” Holmes says, “Watson, your idiot. I deduce that someone has stolen our tent.”

            We need to cultivate a clearer perspective.  James says, “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position.” In other words, each of us should take time to reflect on the other side of the coin. Someone once said that things are never as bad as they seem and things are never as good as they seem. Those in “humble circumstances” should be saying, “how rich I am in Jesus Christ!” The rich ought to be saying, “What a mortal I am. I’m nothing special because I have money.”

            We need to see ourselves from God’s perspective. We need to see that some of the things we think are so important are not really that important at all. Success is not measured by money and business status. James says “the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.” I can almost see him scurrying here and there, working long hours, devoting his life to the pursuit of that which will fade away. A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things possessed. “For one will a man be profited if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matthew 16:26a) What will it profit him? Nothing. He will leave it all here. We need to cultivate a clear perspective of what is really important. Who you are is not determined by whether you have a lot or a little, but by your submission to God.

III

            The next key to facing the hard times that come our way is to, reaffirm our faith, recognize the big picture.  And finally, refocus on what matters. This brings us full circle back to the challenge that James gave us at the very beginning. He challenged us to “consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” because we are being made complete and mature in Christ.

            God is at work in our trials. If we trust him, we will see that work. Our trials come to make us better not bitter. And how we respond makes all the difference.

            Doug Goins, one of the pastors at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California told the story of a woman he met when he was in junior high school. She lived about four doors down the street from him in Seattle, Washington. Let me quote him:

Her name was Helen Hayworth Lemmel. She was in her nineties. She had been born and raised in wealth in England, and was well-known as a songwriter. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Lemmel probably wrote seventy or eighty Christian hymns and gospel songs that were popular in the 1920s through the early 1950s. Mrs. Lemmel had married into nobility; her husband was a lord. But she was stricken with blindness as a very young woman, and her husband divorced her because he didn’t want to be married to a blind woman. I don’t know all the circumstances, but somehow she ended up destitute in Seattle, Washington, a ward of King County, living in a tiny room in a home where the rent was paid by the county.

Every time we would visit her or she would come to our home, we would ask her how she was doing, and she would always say, “I am good in the things that count.” That’s a godly perspective on things that could be embarrassing or humiliating.

One final thing about Helen Lemmel: she had in her room a little plastic organ on a table. It was like a child’s chord organ. She would play that and cry and sing. She had this vision of getting to heaven and having a mighty, thundering pipe organ. She didn’t see the little plastic organ as a disadvantage. It was just a foretaste of glory. This was a down payment on what God was going to do for her, and she counted on that. Another of her sayings was “I can hardly wait!”

You probably know the most famous song that Mrs. Lemmel wrote:

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.”

Are you good in the things that matter? You think about that. Amen