Leading The Way

Guest (Female): Today on Leading the Way, Dr. Michael Youssef offers a biblical perspective of the places where faith meets life, and how seasons of trial, big or small, can become evidence to the reality of Jesus to those around you.

Dr. Michael Youssef: The first evidence that a person who claims to be a Christian, to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the first evidence that that person can show is what they do, not what they say. When we face hurt, disappointment, setbacks, and sorrow, how you respond to that situation is the first evidence that your faith is for real.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way, as he begins a prospective and life-changing series called The 12 Evidences of Faith. With practical and, of course, biblical truth from the New Testament book of James, Dr. Youssef is ready to guide you toward a deeper walk with Christ. So listen with me as Dr. Youssef begins this introductory episode.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Words like faith or love are used to mean all sorts of things other than what they intended to mean. Some use the word faith as having confidence in yourself. Have faith in yourself. Others use faith to mean just having a blind faith. Yet others think faith means just being gullible and trusting and believing everything.

And yet the scripture makes it very clear, the definition of faith is very clear, and it is simply this: having a complete trust and absolute confidence in God and his promises. That's what faith means. The Bible speaks about three kinds of faith, not in the systematic way, but you see them in different contexts.

The Bible speaks about saving faith. Saving faith comes when an individual comes to the realization that he or she is a sinner and heading straight for a Christless eternity without Jesus Christ being the only Savior and Lord of your life. That's the saving faith. It's trusting and absolutely believing in the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ when he said, "Whoever comes to me and believe in me shall never die." That moment, a person is transformed from death to life, from darkness to light, from hell to heaven.

Then the Bible speaks about daily faith, living faith, everyday faith, moment-by-moment faith. Now, obviously, there is an order of this, that you have to have saving faith before you can really experience daily faith. The first step is to have a saving faith. After you experience saving faith, the Holy Spirit is going to come and dwell in you. And he is the one who's going to empower you to have daily faith to face the difficult circumstances of life, to trust in the promise of God that regardless of how tough things may get, that he's with you, trusting in him and obeying his word that you're going to receive a blessing sooner or later, trusting in him that no matter what befalls you in life, he's working his purposes out. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. And the list goes on and on.

The third faith the Bible talks about is that faith in eternity, that the moment I close my eyes in death, I know as I know I'm standing here before you that I will be in the presence of Jesus. Not possibly or maybe or I'm not sure, absolutely. That is the faith, the third kind of faith. Now the problem arises when somebody comes and claims that they have faith, and yet all of their life they exhibit no evidence of this faith. Everybody claims everything these days. It's amazing what people claim. Just having faith in faith.

But anyone who claims to have faith, saving faith, must prove it day by day in living faith. Now, there are people who have no time for God. No time for him. But they think because they do some good things, God under obligation is going to let them into heaven. No. That's what you call living in a fool's paradise, and millions of people are living in fool's paradise. And that is why today I'm commencing a series of messages on the 12 evidences of faith. 12 evidences of faith from the book of James.

Now, I want you to just imagine growing up in a home where your older brother is Jesus. Just think about this. Because you really will not understand neither Jude nor James, those two epistles particularly more than any of the others, until you understand this. Everything was James' fault. Jesus could do no wrong. He's perfect, right? It's all James' fault. It's also uplifting to know that James later on not only considered it a privilege to call himself the servant, actually the slave of Jesus, but he died a martyr's death for Jesus.

And so he begins his letter, chapter 1, verse 1, calling himself bond-slave, the doulos of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, if I was half-brother of Jesus and I'm introducing myself to people who don't know who I am, I would have milked that relationship with Jesus for all it's worth. Truly. On my letterhead, "James, half-brother of Jesus." On the seal, the corporate seal, "James, half-brother of Jesus." On the door of my office I'd put a sign, "James, half-brother of Jesus."

But that's not how James begins the epistle. Verse 1: "James, bond-slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ." What's that mean? What is he saying? He is saying, just as a slave obeys the will of his master, I am honored to obey the will of the Lord Jesus in my life. Just as a slave lives in total submission to his master, I am honored to live all my life in submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Just as a slave does not have a divided allegiance and look out for his own interest, I am totally sold out to Jesus.

Then he goes on to give us the first evidence of faith. What is it? He said faith in Jesus is that unshakable faith in the face of trials. Faith in Jesus is that immovable faith in the tough times of life. Now there are some people who can be called fair-weather Christians. There are some people who become real Christians when they need something from God. They go to church, they think they do God a little favor. Still others think of themselves to be Christians because they're confused.

The first evidence that a person who claims to be a Christian, to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the first evidence that that person can show is what they do, not what they say. Anybody can claim anything. And what do they do when tough times hit? When trials come? When testing takes place? When the inexplicable circumstances appears on the horizon and we've done nothing for that? When we face hurt, disappointment, setbacks, and sorrow, how you respond to that situation is the first evidence that your faith is for real.

Look at verses 2 and 3: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." The great British philosopher C.S. Lewis, many of you have read his books and you know the Narnia series, he was going through a tough time in his life, a trial in his life, a really trying time. And somebody came to him and looked at him and was sorry, said, "Why does God let righteous people suffer?" His response was very simple. "Why not? They're the only ones who can take it."

It's like somebody said genuine faith is like a bag of tea. A bag of tea has its greatest impact when it finds itself in hot water. That's genuine faith. Now today's Western Christians would not be recognized in the first-century Christianity. You see, when James wrote about this evidence of joy in the midst of trials, Christians were being persecuted. They were tortured for Christ. They were killed. They were put in boiling oil. They were lit on fire for simply believing that Jesus is the Lord.

Actually it was more than that. They didn't only consider it joy, they actually considered it a great honor to be chosen to suffer for Jesus. Imagine this in our day today. "Oh, thank you, Lord, that you're giving me the privilege to suffer for you." Listen to me, I know this is a foreign language to Western Christians in the 21st century. I know that. And I know some of you are probably asking what's that mean to be joyful in the middle of trial? Does it mean or is James suggesting that we should fake it?

Is he saying that we go around and pretend everything is wonderful when it's not? Somebody go around and said, "Oh, praise the Lord, I've got cancer." That's not what he's saying. "Goody, I've got a heart attack." Or "Isn't it wonderful, I lost my job." No, no, no, no, no. God does not want us to display hypocrisy or false emotions. God is not suggesting or wants us to hide behind our Christian masks. God does not want us to pretend that we're not hurting. Not at all.

But God wants us to reach the point in our life where we face trials and difficult circumstances and tragedies not of our own making, and in the middle of it we would have unflustered hearts and stable faith. I know there are people at the first sign of trouble and the first sign of trial and testing times, they miss. "Oh God, get me out of this. God, do this. What's wrong with me, God? Why, you know, God, are you mad with me?" Now really, I heard people say, "God must be mad with me. He's must be punishing me for some sins that I committed 20 years ago." No, that's not our God.

Can I get a witness? No. God wants those who have genuine faith to look to heaven in the middle of their tough times, in the middle of their difficult circumstances and tragedies, and say, "Lord, certainly this is painful, but I'm completely confident that you are working your purposes out in me. Lord, it might not be making sense to me right now, but I know you will give me joy in the midst of my pain. You're going to give me joy in the midst of it all."

Often God uses these trials to change us. Did you hear that? We always want to change the circumstances. I mean, "Oh, change her, change him, change them, change my boss, change it." Have you ever occurred to you that God is using this to change you? To grow you up? Often God uses these trials to display our trust in him in the midst of those tough times.

And that is why verse 4 says, "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything." What's that mean? It means don't fight God's perfect working in you. Allow the testing process to run its full course. Why? So that you may receive maximum benefit. Listen, if you give up, if I give up every time there was a test, I would never have graduated.

Well, how do you do this? How do you do this? Again, the scripture gives us the answer of verse 5, by asking God for wisdom in these times of testing. Hear me out, please, this is important. If I give you a secret code, and I said this is a secret code to a safe that is full of resources that's going to help you in every way, wouldn't you grab it from me? I mean, come on now. It's natural, right? Yeah, give it to me.

In tough times of life, in the testing times of life, in the trials of life, you can display the evidence of faith. How? By asking for God's wisdom. You see, God's wisdom will give you the strength that you need. God's wisdom will give you the power that you need. God's wisdom will give you the resources, all the resources that will help you pass through the test with flying colors. God's wisdom is like that wide-angle lens that will help you see in the tough times things you could never see otherwise. God's wisdom is that defogger that defogs your lens when you're going through rough, tough times.

But listen, God's wisdom does not fall from the sky like rain. No, no. James said you have to ask for it. As a matter of fact, there is a qualifier for the way you ask for it. He said you've got to ask for it. You've got to believe that he's going to give it to you. Not may or possibly that he will, that you have faith that when you trust him to give it to you, he will do it. How do you ask for wisdom in the middle of your crushing circumstances? Verses 6, 7, and 8: "But when you ask, or when he asks, he must believe and not doubt."

When I ask for God to give me wisdom, and I'm fluctuating between wanting to go it alone and doubting whether he's going to give it to me, and I go from one extreme to the other, I'm constantly fluctuating from one thing to the other, I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to experience it. You get God's wisdom when you have complete confidence that he keeps his word, that he never goes back on his promises. And that is why half-hearted commitment, part-time allegiance will not take you anywhere.

And then James goes on to say, in fact, that's why in verses 9, 10, and 11, he explains to us that trials in life is a great leveler of the human race. It's a great lever. The rich go through it and the poor go through it. Illness and disease show no partiality. It hit the rich and it hit the poor. But when a godly Christian suffers, whether he's rich or poor, and cling to the promises of God, and trust that God will give them wisdom in the middle of it, they will pass through the test. They both pass through the test.

Now beloved, I don't think it comes as a surprise to many of you, if not all of you, that earthly possessions sometimes cloud our vision. Wealth often claims our affection. But that is why when trials hit, those with earthly possessions must remember that those earthly possessions can be a snare. That's what James is saying. What happens is this: we worry about losing the things we have, the accumulations, and we forget our spiritual priorities.

And that is why James said in times of trial, the rich should glory in what? His riches? No. The rich should glory in the fact that he's got enough money he doesn't have to worry about? No. Or that the rich should glory in the fact that they don't need anybody, they're self-satisfied, they're self-contained? No. He said when the trials hit, the rich should glory on his or her dependence on God, that he's the only one who get them through tough times. Material possessions are temporary, but our relationship with the Lord is for eternity.

Question: why should we consider it all joy when we go through these trying times? Verse 12: "Blessed is the man or the woman who perseveres under trial." Why? "Because when they've stood the test, they'll receive the crown of life." God not only strengthens you through it, not only gives you wisdom to get through it and pass, but he's also going to give you a crown for going through it.

I said earlier that the early church would look upon our Christianity and they just wondered if we really are talking about the same thing. I want to give you an example from history. In the first 300 years of Christian faith, the church went through tough times. They fought heretics and heresies about the nature of Christ, the divinity of Christ, the fact that Jesus is the only way. What we're going through today is not new. And the church leaders were so concerned that people are being misguided and misled and not believing the truth of the authority of the scripture.

So they gathered all the leaders of the churches from all over: Egypt, North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, all. You see, the church was spread everywhere. All of the leaders of all these churches together together in a small town called Nicaea. It's in modern-day Turkey, from where we got the Nicene Creed. They wrote this to help the church not to fall into the heresies and the false teaching that was going on.

But here's what I really want to tell you about that council. There were 300 delegates that have attended the Council of Nicaea. 300. Only a dozen of them, 12 of the 300, came with whole bodies. All of the rest of them, all of these Christian leaders, came in tortured, burned, mutilated for their faith in Jesus Christ. Some came with one eye missing. Some came with one hand missing. Some came with one leg missing. Some came with burnt marks on their bodies. All in attempt to force them not to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Trials can be your teacher, not your undertaker. Wherever you are, whatever trials you're going through, whatever stage you're in, whether you're about to give up or about to give in or about to, or you're standing firm and he said, "For how long can I stand, O Lord?" Remember this: count it joy. When you trust his wisdom, he will give you joy in the midst of it all. He will give you victory, ultimate victory. And so put your heart to the Lord and say, "Here I am, I need you. Strengthen me."

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining international Bible teacher and author Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way audio. If you've got faith questions, you can explore yours, no matter what they are, with the Leading the Way pastor or counselor. You can start that conversation by filling out a brief contact form. Go to LTW.org/Jesus.

And if you're looking for practical guidance about how you can grow to experience a more victorious Christian life, you'll want to make it a point to listen to each episode of The 12 Evidences of Faith from Dr. Michael Youssef. But if you do miss any messages, remember you can always catch up at LTW.org. Listen to the podcast, or find this message and messages on a wide range of biblical topics on the Leading the Way app.

Guest (Male): Introducing the Leading the Way mobile app, redesigned with a fresh look and powerful features to help you go deeper in God's word. Easily connect with Dr. Youssef's trusted Bible teaching anytime, anywhere. Write down what God is teaching you and return to your sermon notes whenever you need. Questions? My Faith Assistant gives you instant scripture-based answers. Need prayer? Connect with pastors and prayer partners who care. Search hundreds of Dr. Youssef's trusted teachings and find biblically sound answers by topic.

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Guest (Male): That website again to get connected is LTW.org. Or you can do a quick search in your device's App Store. All right, that's all for today. Please do accept this invitation to join Dr. Michael Youssef once again next time when he explores The 12 Evidences of Faith right here on Leading the Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is dragged away by his own evil desire and enticed. And after the desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin when it's fully grown gives birth to death. Beloved, temptation does not come from God. It comes from the enemy of your soul.

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