Series: March Forward & Stand Firm

Title: Standing Firm with Steadfastness

James 1:2-4

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Steadfastness (hypomonē) the characteristic of a man who is unswerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings; constancy

A few observations from this passage:

Steadfastness comes from the testing of your faith. 

There are several men and women in the bible who have demonstrated steadfastness. 

But in the book of Acts chapters 6 & 7 there is a man named Stephen who exemplified the steadfastness that we are wanting to imitate. 

What makes the story of Stephen unique is that he just seems to be an ordinary person serving at tables and administering the daily distribution to the poor and widows.  It was not a glamorous job, but it was essential, nonetheless.

In addition to having the necessary traits to fill that role, which included being a man of a good reputation, full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom, Stephen was also full of grace and power.  “He was doing great wonders and signs among the people.” But it seems He was content in doing the work as it allowed the disciples to continue to preach the good news.

One day as Stephen is going about his business, some members of the synagogue falsely accused him of speaking blasphemies against Moses & against God.  He was then brought before the council of scribes and elders to stand trial. He found himself in a very precarious situation as He knew that just mentioning the name of Jesus, would enrage these synagogue leaders.  After all it was these same leaders who were responsible for having Jesus crucified. 

But even knowing this, Steven was unwavering in his faith He remained steadfast. He declared to his audience what the Lord had put upon his heart knowing that he could be killed for doing so. 

Stephen did not deviate from his purpose; he endured one of the greatest trials a Christian could endure as he faced death. With his life on the line His soul remained anchored to the hope that is found in Christ Jesus.  Stephen wassteadfast in his faith as he declared the mysteries of God and exposed the synagogue leaders for the hypocritical sinnersthey were.  The result was that Stephen was stoned to death. 

But as he is being stoned to death, He sees a glimpse of the glory of God and of Jesus, and that glimpse was enough to sustain him to the end.   His dying words echoed the words of Christ as He took His last breathe “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” That comes from a man who is anchored, that comes from a man whose cornerstone is Christ, a man who is steadfast, committed to the end, immovable. This is a great picture of steadfastness.

Steadfastness does not come overnight.    Steadfastness is developed over time when you have encountered various trials and have come out on the other side of those trials still holding firm to your faith in Jesus.  If your faith has not been tested, then you do not have steadfastness.

Placing your faith in Jesus is the only thing that will bring you triumphantly to the other side of your adversity. For He is the corner stone of our faith. 

1 Peter 2:6

⁶ “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

He is the cornerstone, an unshakable foundation for those who trust in Him.  Besides being a cornerstone in whom you build your life upon, He is also described as an anchor who keeps your soul sure and steadfast. 

Hebrews 6:19-20

¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The fact that Jesus has become our high priest or a mediator between God and man, a lawyer if you will, who intervenes on our behalf, should bring a great feeling of security to a weary soul who has been tattered by various trials much like an anchorwhich secures a ship that is harboring in rough seas. 

Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) vessels are mainly built to handle anchors for oil rigs, tow them to location, and use them to secure the rigs in place.

During a storm, that building is going to remain if it has a good foundation.  When the seas are roaring that ship is going nowhere if it is anchored securely.   So, it is with a person who is steadfast.  A steadfast person resolves to not be shaken when various trials come their way.  They don’t abandon their hope in Christ.  They don’t quit, but keep hoping, and keep trustingthat the Lord can bring them through. 

We can be steadfast because of the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.  It is an immovable hope.  It is a sure foundation on which you can build upon.  He is a steadfast anchor for the soul.

Let’s look back at our opening text for the second observation about this passage. 

James 1:4

⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Steadfastness is a continual work in us which will bring about perfection. 

First, we read steadfastness comes through various trials over time, now we read that steadfastness is to have its full effect to bring about perfection in our lives.  Therefore, we can be assured that there are plenty more trials to come.

Because how many of you are perfect?

So, if the goal of steadfastness is to bring about perfection and none of us are perfect, it only makes sense that more trials are needed to bring this about.

Will we ever attain perfection?

Look what Paul says in his letter to the Romans

Romans 7:18

¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

And to the Church at Philippi:

Philippians 3:12

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Paul, the apostle who wrote nearly half of the New Testament understood the fact that in this life we will never attain perfection.  But that does not mean we should be careless in our pursuit of holiness.  Paul admits that he is not yet perfect, but he presses on to make perfection his own. 

Though we will never be perfect in this life due to our sinful nature we press on to make it our own. 

However, in God’s eyes we are perfectly loved and perfectly forgiven because of the perfection of His Son Jesus and because He was a perfect sacrifice, not by our attempts to perfect ourselves.

We are saved by faith in Christ, and His righteousness is imputed to us as our righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (imputed perfectionism)

²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

If Christ’s perfect righteousness has been imputed to us our righteousness, then why do we need steadfastness to produce in us perfection?

Perhaps the refining process of gold may be able to help. 

Gold and other precious metals must be refined to achieve the highest purity it can attain which brings about the greatest value.  In bible days, the refining process included heating up the precious metal till it became molten or liquid-like.  Note that it is gold, before going into the refining process. 

With temperatures reaching between 450° to 750° C (840° to 1,380° F) the precious molten metal is then stirred and skimmedto remove any impurities or dross that rose to the top of the molten metal.  After it cools, the result is pure gold. Its value is significantly more than before the refining process.

At the moment that we become a Christian; we are saved.  However, there are still some things that need to be removed from our lives to become more like Christ.  The trials that we endure on a day-to-day basis can be likened to the fire that is used in the refining process.  From time to time the Lord will “turn up the heat” if you will in order to draw out the dross from our lives. 

Therefore, Steadfastness is a continual work in us which will bring about perfection.  The bible does also talk about this future perfection that we will attain in the live to come.

Revelation 21:3-4 (future perfection in the age to come)

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

If God will dwell with man, then that means that every imperfection that we currently have will cease because He is a perfectand Holy God. We will experience no more pain, mourning, the former things will pass, we will be perfect. 

But meanwhile, remain steadfast during your trials, knowing that God has you right where you need to be.  He is refining you.  He is using those trials in your live to produce steadfastness, which will lead to a future perfection.

When Steadfastness has had its full effect on our lives, we will lack nothing.

How could it be that when steadfastness has its full effect on our lives that we will lack nothing?

We have already established that steadfastness is brought about over time after having come out on the other side of various trials by holding on to our faith in Christ Jesus.

• It would seem to me that trials bring about our lack.

For example, if your family is struggling to make ends meet, then that certainly is a trial and would certainly appear to be lack. 

• Or if you are struggling with sin in your life and you keep falling into the same trap of the enemy time and time again, this is certainly a trial and would indicate a lack to control

• Or if you are trying to build a church, during a pandemic, after a hurricane has destroyed your city, it is certainly a trialand if you look around it would certainly appear to be lack Lack of resources, lack of people interested in fixing their own property. 

So how can Steadfastness bring about abundance so that you do not lack? 

I would answer that by saying that God commands a blessing on your life as you begin to take steps towards steadfastness.

For example,

My family and I evacuated for hurricane Ida.  Some people stayed and said they would never do that again.  All we could do as it pummeled through our hometown was pray and watch the news.  We knew it was bad and had heard reports of all the destruction.  We were a bit reluctant to come back, because where we were was beautiful and unaffected by the storm. 

That’s when steadfastness kicked in.  We knew that God had a purpose in all this, and part of His purpose required Me and My family to come back though it was tempting to remain where we were.  The first step was to travel back. 

Even before we had taken that first step, God had commanded a blessing.  We were contacted by several groups and churcheswanting to help.  UNTO was one of those groups who brought tons of supplies for those in need.   5 Semi Trucks to be exact.

Being steadfast required us to take that first step of obedience.  Then when we arrived, we were just overwhelmed by what we saw.  The east side of Houma looked like a bomb went off destroying everything in sight. 

(trees were down, all the telephone poles were down, power was out, houses were either ripped apart or totally gone, there were few gas stations operating) It just seemed like a total mess with no hope in sight.

How tempting it was to pack it all up and go back to where we evacuated to. 

But the definition of the word steadfast

Steadfastness (hypomonē) the characteristic of a man who is unswerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings; constancy

We came up with a plan and took the next step. We said we were going to serve our community until the funds run out.  With our savings and such we projected that we could make it to May of 2022.  We said yes to anyone who wanted to bring donations knowing that the burden would fall on us to distribute it.  We labored and gave sacrificially.  Many of you also labored with us during that time. 

The Lord commanded a blessing yet again.  We thought we would have to shut it all down, but the Lord has supernaturallyprovided for every need and beyond.   We can honestly say that we did not lack.  If fact 2021 was our best financial year in our existence. 

It was a trial, a great trial, yet we did not swerve from His deliberate purpose for our lives, we remained loyal in our faith to God.  We did not blame God, but we trusted in His provision.  He commanded a blessing so that we did not lack.  If that happened in the natural how much more in the life to come.

Steadfastness comes from the testing of your faith. 

Steadfastness is a continual work in us which will bring about perfection

When Steadfastness has had its full effect on our lives, we will lack nothing.