Sermon Tone Analysis

James 5:

PRAYER

Ill:

It was a momentous cool falll day in 1990- Lalainia and I standing behind by parents in my father’s upstairs office, my father sitting at his computer, my mother proudly placing her hand on his shoulder, we all waited with bated breath ad my father hit connect, and we heard the beautiful sound that would change our lives forever.

eeeeeeeee, EEEEEEEEEE, ch bong bong bong bong.......oooooooooooooooooooo

The internet, the world wide web, giving us everything all at once, teaching us about the world, letting us communicate with people from far off lands and sucking our lives of time!!!!!

It experienced two emotions that day 1) excitement over the whole thing

2) and coming in quickly was impatience- all of a sudden it seemed like every move my father made as we stood on the cusp of the entire world was soooo slooooooow, move faster, explore more quickly!!!

In our day and age you feel it, and I feel it, we are rushed.

We want to get places quickly, even if we are not late!

When we first got the internet in our house---Some of you have grown up with wifi and internet and thought it was created on the 7th day, but there was a time it was not around.

I can remember the day clearly:

We want our food fast....because we can have it fast!

We were in the computer room - ..

And if our technology, heaven forbid, should put us in a situation where it is not giving us what we need right now, we lose out temper.

We are impatient.

And sometimes this transfers over to how we deal with each other.

If they do not move at a pace in conversation, or in relationship, we leave you behind, we cut you loose.

James throws a wrench into our modern practice of impatience.

_____________________--

A little background, and this is important to James message to us.

James was the half-brother of Jesus

James knows Jesus

in , James and the family go to grab Jesus in the midst of his ministry, they think “he is our of his mind” (not a paraphrase).

And they are like um....Jesus, we have brought some friends and family members and we’ve each written a letter about how your behaviour has effected us.

Mom do you want to start.....?

It was an intervention they were lets go, maybe get you some help, because you think you are GOD!!

But then were get to post death and resurrection and James starts referring to HIS BROTHER ad the Lord, and you need to know that for Greek Speaking Jews, when they said Lord, they meant the all powerful, personal God of the OT!!

OK, so think of your siblings,.....what would it take for you to call them GOD??

Think about it!

Something significant took place!

He literally worships him.

He becomes the elder of the church in Jerusalem!!

The chief proclaimer of Jesus (his half brother) as God; resurrected!

And died for it.

Consider it!

Something about the resurrection, changed the entire worldview of James.

His identity completely changed, because of the resurrection!

His very life, found meaning in who Jesus was and what he did.

Here in James letter , he has hit a handful of things about what life ought to naturally look like.

And here he says, this is what patience looks like, in light of who Jesus is.

Now how many here this morning would rather we skip this topic??

My too

Has there ever been a time in the history of mankind where we have been less patient?

We are an impatient entitled bunch!

Just me?

I. Gives us 3 illustrations:

A. FARMER -

mood rings- it has no mind of its own- it is dependant on its surrounding and its circumstance,

James is saying is your heart like that.

Or like a wind sock, are you simply moved back and forth by the wind, light wind,

wrong order at starbucks- we become like ......were all good having a nice conversation with the person behind us at Starbucks but hen then barista gets our order wrong and were like... like “Hulk smash”

Amazon—what you cannot have it hear tomorrow?

James says you want evidence that the Spirit of God HAS you.....be patient!

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

(v.7)

v.7)

But so many of us lack patience!

We have been bred by our culture to be restless , complainers.

James is saying that patience is not something separate from being a Christian..my faith is over here and patience is something I will work on some day....

Paul doesn’t think so—he say

This is an aspect of the fruit of the spirit that ought to manifest itself in our lives if we belong to God.

now we have hit on this a little bit.

But notice that it is the fruit of the spirit not the fruits of the spirit; which may seem like a small deal, but the point is that they come together!

Gal.

5:

some will say, I’m good, Im goos with being joyful, loving people.

I am NOT patient but that’s ok because I am so good in these other areas, and PATIENCE is just one of the fruits of the spirit.

NO, they are all connected.which

means that they come together.

Each one effects the other, where we are not loving, we will not be joyful, we will not have peace, patience.

Where we are not joyful, we find it difficult to love.

are not joyful, we find it difficult to love.

If we are not patient we will not be loving, joyful, have peace, be kind, ------people just become objects in the way of us getting stuff faster.

OK, so patience is important.....now your saying under your breathe....”fine, we need patience, get on with it!!”

So how do we get it.

James says let me give you 3 examples.

the farmer v. 7, prophets v. 10, and Job, v. 11

vv.

7

See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

(v.7)

The name of the game for the farmer is PATIENCE!

hurry up and wait!

plant it and wait!

forget what we see for farming; huge tractors, irrigation equipment,

they spread the seed and wait......and wait..

looking at the sky, it is not reliant on them anymore

notice it says the “early and late rains”

I. Patience doesn’t rush

you cant rush it, you have to wait for time to play out.

In Palestine, they would get their first rains and the majority of their rain from December to February, but those weren’t the only important rains.

There were other rains just before they would harvest in April and May.

Which needs to fall-

Imagine the farmers life.

The rain falls, then he sits and waits.

Growth is slow.

Without patience, imagine the farmer planting the seeds, then looking at the sky and going....

“alright, (clap clap) lets do this!!

I’ve done my part hurry it up!”

And if that is how a farmer lives his life he will not last as a farmer.

He will either not grow anything and harvest to early our of impatience or he will go crazy yelling at the clouds.

James says.....be patient like a farmer..