Sermon Tone Analysis

Reality Living in a “Reality TV” World:

Survivor: Persevering When Times are Tough

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

August 20~/22, 2004

 

Video intro of reality shows

 

Incredible, isn’t it?

All these Reality Shows.

I wouldn’t have guessed it.

Do you know that there are now ______ reality shows on the air?

Here’s a quick list: Outback Jack, Last Comic Standing, Amish in the City, Growing up Gotti, Newlyweds, SuperNanny, Average Joe, Trailer Park Boys.

There are new ones coming out, too.

TBS is starting a new reality show later this year called “The Real Gilligan’s Island,” where they cast for the same kind of people as the show but really maroon them on an island.

I’m kind of looking forward to that one.

MTV is starting a new one, too.

You may be familiar with the MTV show The Osbournes (show picture), about the aging and mentally compromised rock and roll star and his family dynamics.

Well, there is a brand new reality show coming out about a pastor family called “The McPhersons” (show picture).

Man, is that one going to be good!

These reality shows come in all shapes and sizes, some fairly innocent and others anything but innocent—but they all are popular because they are an escape from reality.

We get to watch someone else’s reality, which means we get to escape our own.

We watch other people face challenges, or get fired, or not get a rose.

But then the show is over, and for us it is back to reality.

How do we face our own very real lives successfully?

This week we are beginning a new series on the book of James called, “Reality Living in a Reality TV World.”

It is a look at how the Christian faith impacts our every day lives.

James is an incredible book of the Bible, probably the most practical.

One of out every two verses in James is a command.

Other books in the Bible have lots of theological concepts or stories, but not James.

He is a bottom-line, type A kind of guy, and if you are a similar personality then you are really going to like this book, too.

James is also an ADD kind of guy, often jumping from one topic to the next without necessarily a logical connection.

Paul is very ordered in his letters; James jumps around.

So, let’s get into this book by looking at the first verse: /1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings./

We learn a lot from these few words.

First we learn about the author, James, who describes himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That itself is significant because James was not always a believer and had an atypical relationship with Jesus.

James was one of Jesus’ brothers.

He grew up with Jesus.

Imagine that.

And the amazing thing to me about that reality is that James never name-drops.

He never even throws in that he is Jesus’ brother anywhere in the book.

He doesn’t name drop.

I would.

You know, “Consider it all, joy, brethren…and just so you know, I am the brother of Jesus.”

He never says, “Yeah, back when Jesus and I were growing up, one time he looked at me and said, ‘James, you are one smooth dude.’”

None of that.

Amazing.

And James was not always a believer in Jesus’ divinity either.

John 7 lets us know that his brothers early in his ministry did not believe in him.

But after witnessing the resurrection, all that changed and James became the leader of the Jerusalem church, where Christianity began.

He would be martyred fairly early on in the early church’s life, but he was a key leader in the early days of the church.

And he writes the book to the twelve tribes scattered.

What is that all about?

Well, the twelve tribes refer to Jewish believers, which is how the church started.

The people that James were writing to were Jewish Christians who had been in Jerusalem but were now scattered all over the place because of persecution against Christians in Jerusalem.

It was that persecution that got Stephen stoned to death, and that forced many Christians to run for their lives.

So, these people were in a very tough spot.

They were homeless, afraid, mostly unemployed, poor, and living as refugees.

And their only crime was choosing to believe in Jesus.

Because of their Christianity, these new believers were now in dire straits.

So, James, their pastor in Jerusalem, writes this letter to all who were scattered, and it is no big surprise that the first thing he talks about is how to handle difficulty.

The people to whom James was writing just had their lives turned upside down.

Imagine being one of them, forced out of your homes and jobs and running around Texas for your life.

How were they to handle that?

How to handle suffering and disappointment and difficulty is obviously great for us to know, too…because we too will face or are facing such times in our lives, when our world caves in and our lives are turned upside down.

Perhaps it is a health issue, or the death of a loved one, or we face unemployment…the kind of trials that James will talk about in chapter one aren’t just the smaller inconveniences of life…in-grown toe nails and that kind of thing.

He is talking about long-term, long haul trials…difficulties that linger for long enough that we wonder if we are going to make it.

A friend of mine here at Fellowship is a psychologist who helps people with chronic pain…the kind that just doesn’t go away in due time or with a pill.

James is talking about chronic trials…those that last a while.

I talked once to one lady who said that she was married to a chronic pain, and I said, “Now, Christy, that’s not very nice.”

Sometimes in our lives it isn’t just one trial but a pile of trials, one after another, that hits us, too.

Kind of like being dunked in the pool again and again and again and again trying to catch our breath.

Maybe you have experienced or are experiencing that.

Whether chronic difficulty or a series of difficulty, the big question that the book of James answers today, how do we persevere?

It’s kind of like the difference between this Stretch Armstrong and this Gingerbread man.

Remember when Stretch Armstrongs came out?

I can remember as a kid putting the Stretch Armstrongs to the test.

We’d tie his limbs on things and then try to pull him apart.

Or one of us would take his hand and another his feet, and we’d pull as hard as we could.

He’s amazing what he can withstand.

Some people are like that when it comes to difficulties in life.

They are like Stretch Armstrong.

Life stretches them with trials and they are so resilient.

They seem to take it in stride.

Others though are more like this Gingerbread man.

It doesn’t take too much pressure to crack them.

A little bit of stress, and they crumble.

The question today is, “how can we be resilient and stretchy and not weak and crumbly?” the Greek word in James one is upomone, which means staying power, or perseverance or resiliency.

How do we get that?

Because life will guarantee its share of difficulty.

If you aren’t facing something now, you will in the near future.

So, let’s look at James 1 and then in James 5 to see how we can handle what life throws at us.

 

1)      A Strange Perspective

 

The first thing we need to become more like Stretch Armstrong in our faith is a strange perspective.

You have to admit, Stretch is cool but he is a little strange…walking around in a Speedo and everything.

But if we are going to have staying power, then we have to develop a strange perspective—meaning not normal or natural.

Here’s what James says:

 

/“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds…”/ Now, that’s a strange perspective.

When you encounter troubles and difficulties, consider it pure joy?

You’ve got to be nuts!

A child being sick, a job loss, losing a spouse, and we are supposed to have joy?

Now, James isn’t denying that bad stuff is bad stuff and therefore hard and something to grieve.