GROWTH QUESTION #1
Who would like to share a highlight, praise report, or testimony from this week?
MAKE YOUR PAIN COUNT
MEETING AGENDA
- OPENING PRAYER – Ask one person to open the meeting in prayer.
- GROWTH QUESTIONS – Ask everyone the Growth Questions.
- ATTENDANCE – Take attendance through the DG Attendance System.
- TODAY’S LESSON – Go over this week’s DG lesson.
- GIVING – Encourage everyone to give on the App.
- CLOSING PRAYER – Ask for prayer requests and pray.
GROWTH QUESTION #2
What did you learn from this week’s sermon?
GROWTH QUESTION #3
What was your most important accomplishment this week?
James 1:2-5 (NLT) - 2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let your endurance grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. 5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
introduction
- James is writing to believers who are scattered, suffering, and under pressure — and the very first thing he talks about is trouble.
- Notice James says “when troubles come your way,” not “if.” Trials are not a possibility; they are a guarantee.
- The question is never whether we will experience pain. The question is what our pain will produce.
- Pain is inevitable, but WASTED pain is optional!
- This passage shows us that God never wastes our pain — and He doesn’t want us to waste it either.
TRUTH #1
YOUR TRIAL IS AN OPPORTUNITY, NOT JUST AN OBSTACLE!
James 1:2 (NLT) – Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
Romans 8:28 (NLT) - And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT) - 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold…
- James says to “consider” it an opportunity. That word means to make a deliberate choice about how you see your situation.
- Joy is not a feeling about the pain — it is a perspective about what God can do THROUGH the pain.
- Trouble: (peirasmos) a trial, a testing, an experience that proves what something is made of.
- The world sees trials as interruptions. God sees trials as invitations.
- Notice it says troubles “of any kind.” No trial is excluded — financial, physical, relational, spiritual. God can use ALL of it.
- The enemy sends trials to take you OUT. God allows trials to raise you UP.
- You can’t always choose your circumstances, but you can always choose your perspective.
Romans 8:28 (NLT) - And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT) - 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold…
- Fire doesn’t destroy gold — it purifies it. Your trial isn’t destroying you; it’s refining you.
INTERACTIVE QUESTION
Why do you think it’s so hard to see trials as opportunities while we’re in the middle of them?
TRUTH #2
TESTED FAITH PRODUCES ENDURANCE!
James 1:3-4 (NLT) – 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let your endurance grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
- Faith that has never been tested is faith that has never been proven.
- Endurance: (hypomone) steadfastness, staying power, the ability to remain under pressure without giving up.
- Endurance is not developed in comfort — it only grows under weight.
- Muscles don’t grow without resistance.
- Endurance doesn’t grow without trials.
- James says “let your endurance grow.” That means we have a part to play — we can either cooperate with the process or resist it.
- Some people go THROUGH trials. Others GROW through trials.
- God’s goal is not just to get you out of the trial — it’s to get something INTO you through the trial: maturity, character, and completeness.
- Notice the end result: “perfect and complete, needing nothing.” Your pain, surrendered to God, is producing something in you that nothing else could.
Romans 5:3-4 (NLT) - 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
Job 23:10 (NLT) - But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.
- If you quit in the middle of the trial, you forfeit what God was forming at the end of it. Don’t waste your pain by quitting early!
INTERACTIVE QUESTION
Can you think of a time when going through something hard made you stronger? What did that season produce in you?
TRUTH #3
GOD GIVES WISDOM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRIAL!
James 1:5 (NLT) – If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
- Right after talking about trials, James talks about wisdom. Why? Because in a trial, the thing we need most is to know what to do.
- Wisdom is not just information — it is knowing how to respond God’s way in your situation.
- God doesn’t just want to comfort you in your pain. He wants to COUNSEL you through it.
- Notice how James describes God: GENEROUS. He doesn’t ration out wisdom — He gives it freely to all who ask.
- “He will not rebuke you for asking.” God will never shame you for needing help.
- You don’t have to have it all figured out.
- You don’t have to pretend you’re okay.
- You just have to ASK!
- Many believers suffer without wisdom simply because they never ask for it.
- Pain + God’s wisdom = growth. Pain without God’s wisdom = just pain.
- The same God who allows the test will personally coach you through it!
Proverbs 2:6 (NLT) - For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Psalm 32:8 (NLT) - The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”
INTERACTIVE QUESTION
When you’re going through something hard, what do you usually do first — vent to people, try to fix it yourself, or ask God for wisdom? Why?
CONCLUSION:
- Your trial is an opportunity — choose the right perspective.
- Tested faith produces endurance — let the process finish its work.
- God gives wisdom generously — all you have to do is ask.
The enemy wants your pain to make you bitter. God wants your pain to make you BETTER. Don’t waste it. Surrender it. Make your pain count!
CLOSING QUESTION
What is one trial you’re facing right now that you can surrender to God this week — and what would it look like to ask Him for wisdom in it?
GIVING
Generosity brings abundance.
Proverbs 11:24 (NLT)
Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.
Encourage everyone to give their tithes and offerings.
PRAY
QUESTION #1
Who are you praying for to be saved?
QUESTION #2
Who can you invite to the next meeting?
QUESTION #3
What are your prayer requests?