Sermon Tone Analysis

Titus 3:1-8

Good morning everyone and thank you for being here today.

I hope you have prepared yourself to receive something this morning.

That you come expectantly to be engaged in the message this morning.

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We are in the 5th chapter of James and last week we looked at James’ harsh warning to the rich.

The church was primarily what the culture at the time would be considered poor.

Due to the persecution of the church, those that may have had wealth have found it taken away or abandoned.

The rich of the time were people who were taking advantage of the poor and gaining excess wealth beyond what they would ever need.

They were entertaining this lifestyle of abundant self-indulgence and following all of their passions and desires.

We discussed that wealth itself is not good or evil but it is the heart of a person and their willingness to glorify God that was the issue.

It wasn’t so much that they had a lot or a little as much as it was that they only thought of themselves and in the process persecuted and took advantage of the poor.

We looked at Solomon who in Ecclesiastes states that he had followed all of his pleasures and all of his passions and desires and came to the conclusion that it was for nothing that in the end he was not satisfied, he was never satisfied with the pleasures of this world.

The things of this world will never satisfy until we become content with what we have then low and behold satisfaction comes.

After the discourse on the rich James turns his attention from the persecutors to the persecuted that he is addressing.

The people of the church.

Let us open to chapter 5 and stand as we read God’s word today.

As James transitions to the persecuted church he tells them to be patient.

Call to Patience

James 5:7 (CSB)

7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be patient until the Lord’s coming.

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The word for patience here is a compound word.

The first part of it meaning long and the second part of it meaning anger.

This means long anger or in other words long tempered.

If you remember back in the 1 chapter we talked about trials that bring endurance or long suffering.

The word in chapter one refers to enduring the trials of life that all people are exposed to.

This broken world we live in has famine, disease, sickness, frailty and in the end death.

There are just the trials of living in the world.

Throughout the entire scriptures there is not one promise that life on this earth will be easy or comfortable.

If you read it you actually find the opposite continually promised.

That trails will come but Christ will overcome them in the end.

Jesus even said:

The long anger or long tempered is connected to people.

Believers will experience a trial that is unique to them and that is the trial of persecution.

Those that profess that there is a God and that there is only one God.

Who confess their belief in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus will face persecution from people who believe otherwise.

The early Church was heavily persecuted.

We see the killing of many in the NT and in history.

Men and women who are persecuted, abused, and even put to death.

Today christian persecution is also on the rise world wide with martyrs, detentions, and church attacks rising year over year.

Since 1992 North Korea has held the #1 most dangerous place to live for a christian.

in 2022 Afghanistan took over the top spot.

Not because North Korea got better but because Afghanistan under the oppression of the Taliban have actively persecuted the church until they are in complete secret.

Nigeria had 4,650 martyrs, China had 3,000 churches attacked.

Of the approximate 195 countries 75 of them are defined as “high levels of persecution”.

Where do you think we land on the list?

That is a debate, due to the prominence of the United States it is looked at but unlike the countries on these lists that exhibit levels of persecution that parallel the ones in James’ time we in the US just don’t experience the same levels.

One organisation called International Christian Concern even included the United States in its religious freedom Hall of Shame list for the first time in 2016, citing “constant attacks in the media” and believers being “marginalized through the law.”

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We can be a little detached from what James is speaking of due to the relative ease we have in our country.

But James tells them to be patient.

To be long tempered, slow to anger towards the oppression that they were experiencing.

And how long were they to live this way.

Until the Lords Coming.

This will be the way of the world until Jesus appears again.

As Paul said to Titus

Jesus arrived the first time, bringing salvation.

But he didn’t just save he instructed his children to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age.

In the present age we wait.

Living a life glorifying him, waiting for the blessed hope.

Waiting for the reappearing of our Savior Jesus Christ.

He gave himself to redeem us from the lawlessness of this world and to be cleansed for himself to be possessed by him.

We are to be eager while we wait.

Doing good works.

Not to gain salvation but because that is how he wants us to live in this present age.

James says stay focused on the savior, know that this is the way of the world but we will be called out of it someday to be in a world that is not broken like this one.

He then gives three examples that were to help them see what he was asking them to do.

The Farmers Example

See how the farmer waits.

Many of the people in the church would be very familiar with farming and the process.

Farming was not spread all over the world on the far out skirts of towns.

Many people would be involved at different times of the year and would know what James is speaking of.

When they traveled they would walk among the fields.

Not drive by them at 70 miles an hour without ever a thought.

Remember the disciples being questioned for pulling off heads of grain as the traveled from city to city.

The farmer cast seeds and then works the field.

Patiently waiting.

The first rains would happen in the fall October-November time frame and the farmer, who most likely did not own the land but were tenant farmers, they would do everything in there power for a good harvest.

Working the ground.

Preparing the soil.

irrigating, and other farmer duties.

the early rains would cause the seed to start growing.

for little sprouts to break through the ground.

Then after many months of growth the late rains would come in March or April and the “fruit” would come.

and then after that they would wait until the fruit matured and then harvest would begin and the rewards would be collected.

In the end even though the farmer puts all of this work into the growing of the crops all he can do is participate in the wonderful work of God.

He cannot make the crop grow faster or cause more or less rain to come.

He cannot change the seasons or determine the size of the crop.

He cannot predict drought or pests.

But he can do what he can do while he watches the hand of God grow what only he can grow.

How many of you relate to the farmers experience.

How much work do you put into it to realize that even though you must do you r part you really don’t have all as much control as you would like.

I have worked with two farmers in my life and they were amazing people to watch work.

Jack and Nancy

These two showed what the next part means in vs 8. “Strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming in near.”

The word for strengthen means to “make fast”, “Establish”, “to confirm”.

They are to be resolute in their hearts and to be marked as supported or established in the work they are doing.

To be propped up by the hope of Jesus’ arrival.