Count It All Joy

Text: James 1:2–4 Series: Living the Word: Faith in Action (James) Date: January 4, 2026 Speaker: Ed Rangel Location: Waupaca Church of Christ Bible Version: NASB 1995 Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the end of this sermon, the hearer should be able to:

1. State what James commands Christians to do when they encounter trials.
2. Explain how the testing of faith produces endurance.
3. Distinguish biblical joy from pretending that suffering does not hurt.
4. Commit to letting endurance finish its work rather than taking a sinful escape from pressure.

Thesis

Christians must deliberately count trials as joy because tested faith produces endurance, and endurance brings the Christian toward maturity and wholeness.

Hook

Modern life trains us to treat discomfort as an enemy. We reach for medicine when the body aches, entertainment when the mind grows restless, and an escape route when life becomes difficult. We begin to assume that a good life is a painless life.

Then James speaks to Christians under pressure and says, “Consider it all joy.” He does not tell them to enjoy the pain. He tells them to judge the trial by what God can produce through faithful endurance.

The world asks, “What is this costing me now?” Faith asks, “What can this produce in me if I remain faithful?” James teaches Christians to count with a different ledger.

Introduction

1. James writes “to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad” (James 1:1). These Christians knew disruption, hardship, and pressure.
2. He does not begin by promising that trouble will quickly disappear. He begins by commanding a faithful response while trouble is present.
3. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2–4).
4. The movement of the passage is plain: trials test faith; tested faith produces endurance; endurance, when allowed to finish, develops maturity.
5. Joy is not a smile pasted over grief. Joy is the settled judgment that present pain does not cancel God’s purpose or the Christian’s hope.
6. James does not command us to call evil good. He commands us to recognize that no trial has the right to make us unfaithful.
7. The question is not whether pressure will come. The question is what pressure will produce when it reaches us.

I. Count the Trial by Its Result (James 1:2)

A. Trials are expected in the Christian life.

1. “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials” (James 1:2).
   1. James says “when,” not “if.”
   2. Christianity does not remove sickness, grief, financial strain, opposition, disappointment, or death from this present life.
   3. Faith does not buy exemption from pressure; faith teaches us how to meet it.
2. The word “encounter” carries the sense of falling into or coming upon something.
   1. Trials often arrive without invitation.
   2. A diagnosis interrupts the calendar.
   3. A phone call changes the day.
   4. A betrayal reaches a place we thought was safe.
3. James calls them “various trials.”
   1. The word poikilos means varied or many-colored.
   2. Trouble does not wear one uniform.
   3. One Christian faces bodily pain; another faces loneliness; another bears ridicule for obeying Christ; another watches a family fracture.
   4. James gathers every shade of testing under one command: “Consider it all joy.”

B. Joy is a deliberate judgment, not a denial of pain. 4. The verb translated “consider” means to reckon, regard, or evaluate.

1. James addresses the mind before he addresses the feelings.
2. Feelings report the immediate pain. Faith judges the trial in light of God’s word and the promised end.
3. The command is not, “Feel happy about everything that happened.”
4. The command is, “Do not enter this trial in the ledger as spiritual loss before God has finished His work.”
5. “All joy” describes the way the trial is to be counted, not the emotional character of every moment.
   1. Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:35).
   2. Paul described Christians as “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).
   3. Sorrow and joy can occupy the same heart because sorrow feels the wound while joy trusts God beyond the wound.
6. Joy refuses to let the trial define God’s character.
   1. Pain may tempt us to say that God has forgotten us.
   2. Delay may tempt us to say that prayer is useless.
   3. Opposition may tempt us to think obedience was a mistake.
   4. James commands us to reject those conclusions.
   5. Gem: Faith does not call the pain pleasant; faith refuses to call the pain pointless.

C. Trials must not be confused with temptation to sin. 7. The word peirasmos can refer to a test or a temptation, depending on the context.

1. In James 1:2–4, the pressure tests faith.
2. In James 1:13–14, sinful desire entices a person to disobey.
3. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13).
4. God is not the author of evil, yet He can use hardship without approving the sin that caused it.
   1. Persecutors are guilty for persecution.
   2. A betrayer is guilty for betrayal.
   3. The devil is guilty for his schemes.
   4. God remains able to strengthen faithful Christians in the middle of what others meant for harm.
5. The command therefore reaches the moment when pressure begins to speak.
   1. The trial says, “Quit.”
   2. The flesh says, “Take the easiest way out.”
   3. Faith answers, “I will obey God here too.”

II. Know What Tested Faith Produces (James 1:3)

A. Knowledge gives the command its reason.

1. James continues, “knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:3).
   1. Christian joy is not blind optimism.
   2. It rests on something the Christian knows.
   3. God has revealed what faithful endurance under testing can produce.
2. The “testing” of faith refers to faith being proved under pressure.
   1. A bridge may look strong until weight is placed upon it.
   2. Metal may look pure until it enters the furnace.
   3. Faith may sound strong in peaceful days, but testing reveals where confidence truly rests.
3. Trials expose false supports.
   1. Money cannot answer every fear.
   2. Health cannot promise another day.
   3. People cannot bear the weight of being our god.
   4. When those supports shake, faith must stand on the character and word of God.

B. Tested faith produces endurance. 4. “Produces” describes work being accomplished.

1. The trial itself is not automatically beneficial.
2. The same pressure can harden one person and strengthen another.
3. The difference is not the size of the burden but the response of faith.
4. Endurance is hypomonē—steadfastness, constancy, the ability to remain under a load without abandoning obedience.
   1. Endurance is not passive resignation.
   2. It keeps praying when the answer has not come.
   3. It keeps worshiping when the heart is heavy.
   4. It keeps speaking truth when truth is unpopular.
   5. It keeps doing right when sin offers quicker relief.
5. Endurance grows under resistance.
   1. Muscles do not grow by avoiding weight.
   2. Roots deepen when the wind forces the tree to hold its ground.
   3. Faith becomes steadfast when it is required to stand.
6. Peter describes the same refining work: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
   1. Fire does not create gold.
   2. Fire reveals and refines what is there.
   3. Trials do not manufacture faith out of unbelief; they expose whether faith is genuine and train genuine faith to endure.

C. Endurance requires faithful action while the pressure remains. 8. A Christian may escape discomfort and still lose the test.

1. A lie may end an embarrassing conversation.
2. Compromise may end ridicule.
3. Bitterness may feel easier than forgiveness.
4. Leaving the church may remove the immediate irritation of dealing with imperfect people.
5. None of those escapes produces endurance because each one abandons obedience.
6. The mature prayer is not merely, “Lord, remove this.”
   1. There is nothing wrong with asking for relief; Paul asked that his thorn be removed (2 Corinthians 12:8).
   2. But when relief does not come, the prayer must continue: “Give me grace to remain faithful.”
   3. God answered Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
7. Parents teach endurance long before they define it.
   1. Children watch how adults speak when money is tight.
   2. They watch whether disappointment leads to prayer or complaint.
   3. They watch whether hardship drives the family closer to Christ or gives everyone permission to become bitter.
   4. A home learns endurance by watching Christians remain faithful under load.
   5. Gem: Testing produces endurance only when faith stays where obedience requires it to stand.

III. Let Endurance Finish Its Work (James 1:4)

A. Endurance must be allowed to complete its assignment.

1. “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4).
   1. “Let” is a command.
   2. James calls Christians to cooperate with the work endurance is doing.
   3. We cannot control every trial, but we can refuse to sabotage its spiritual fruit by unbelief and disobedience.
2. A person can suffer and still learn nothing.
   1. Pain alone does not sanctify.
   2. Some leave a trial more resentful, suspicious, and self-willed than when it began.
   3. Endurance has its work only when the Christian continues to trust and obey.
3. Hebrews says that discipline “afterwards… yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” to those “who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
   1. The word “trained” matters.
   2. The pressure must be received as an occasion to practice righteousness.
   3. The fruit comes afterward, not always during the hardest hour.

B. God’s goal is maturity and wholeness. 4. “Perfect” translates teleios and means mature, complete in development, brought to its intended end.

1. James is not promising sinless perfection in this life.
2. He is describing Christian character that has grown up.
3. The immature Christian obeys while obedience is easy; the mature Christian remains obedient when obedience hurts.
4. “Complete” translates holoklēros and carries the idea of wholeness in every part.
   1. God is not content with a faith that sings well but collapses under pressure.
   2. He is not content with knowledge that never becomes steadfast character.
   3. He is forming Christians whose confession, conduct, worship, speech, and endurance belong together.
5. “Lacking in nothing” points to the sufficiency of mature character for the demands of faithful living.
   1. James does not mean that a mature Christian knows everything or needs nothing from God.
   2. He means that endurance fills what weakness exposed.
   3. The trial uncovers a deficiency, and faithful endurance strengthens that very place.

C. Jesus shows how present suffering is endured in view of the promised end. 7. “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

1. Jesus did not enjoy the nails, the mockery, or the shame.
2. Gethsemane proves that He did not treat suffering lightly.
3. He endured because the Father’s will and the joy set before Him outweighed the shame pressed upon Him.
4. “Despising the shame” means He regarded shame as unworthy of comparison with the purpose before Him.
   1. Men stripped Him, mocked Him, spat upon Him, and treated Him as a criminal.
   2. Their shame did not move Him from obedience.
   3. He finished the work the Father gave Him to do.
5. Christians are commanded to fix their eyes on Him.
   1. Jesus endured the cross; we must not abandon Him over insult, inconvenience, delay, or wounded pride.
   2. He remained obedient unto death; we must not demand that discipleship remain comfortable.
   3. He reached the throne by way of the cross; we reach the crown by remaining faithful until death.
6. James later gathers the whole lesson into one promise: “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12).
   1. Endurance does not purchase salvation.
   2. Endurance belongs to the obedient faith that loves the Lord and refuses to leave Him.
   3. The crown is promised at the end of the test, not at the first moment of pressure.

Application

For the Christian under pressure: Name the trial honestly. Do not pretend it does not hurt, and do not give it more authority than God’s word. Ask what obedience requires today—not next month, not after the pain ends, but today. Pray for relief, but also pray for steadfastness. Refuse every escape route that requires sin.

For the discouraged Christian: Do not mistake exhaustion for failure. Endurance does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it is getting up, praying again, assembling again, forgiving again, and doing the next right thing while the heart still aches. The Lord sees faith that remains under the load. Keep your eyes on Christ and do not surrender the ground you have already held.

For parents and the next generation: Your children will learn what Christianity is worth by watching what it costs you. When trouble enters the home, they hear whether you accuse God or seek Him. They see whether worship becomes expendable and whether truth is negotiable. Show them a faith that can grieve without quitting, suffer without sinning, and wait without turning bitter.

For the church: A congregation must not become a place where struggling Christians are told to smile and hide their wounds. “Count it all joy” is not permission for coldness. Christians bear one another’s burdens, pray for one another, and strengthen weak hands. We help one another endure; we do not shame the wounded for needing help.

Conclusion

1. Trials come in many forms, and no Christian receives an exemption from them.
2. James does not command us to enjoy pain. He commands us to count the trial by what tested faith can produce.
3. Tested faith produces endurance when the Christian remains where obedience requires him to stand.
4. Endurance must be allowed to finish its work, because God is forming mature and whole Christians.
5. Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him. Fix your eyes on Him when the trial tells you to quit.
6. Do not waste the pain by adding unbelief, bitterness, compromise, or sin to it. Count it as joy, remain faithful, and let endurance finish.

Invitation

The first need of every sinner is not greater endurance. It is reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Sin has separated you from God, and no amount of suffering can remove that guilt. Christ endured the cross, shed His blood, was buried, and rose again so that you may be forgiven.

Hear the word of Christ and believe that Jesus is the Son of God (Romans 10:17; John 8:24). Repent of your sins and confess Jesus Christ as Lord (Acts 17:30; Romans 10:9–10). Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, being united with Him in His death and raised to walk in newness of life (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3–4). Then remain faithful to Him, even under trial, and He will give the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).

To the Christian who has allowed trial to turn into bitterness, compromise, neglect, or unbelief: repent. Do not let the pressure push you away from the One who carried the cross for you. Confess your need, ask for the prayers of the church, and return to faithful endurance. Come while we stand and sing.

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