Sermon Tone Analysis
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Let’s read our theme verse for the series together.
James
This morning we are going to talk about a subject that is throughout the Bible, but is largely missing from conversation today.
It is not a fun thing to talk about, but it is very necessary.
If we don’t have a biblical understanding of this subject, then we will miss what God is doing in our lives.
Many people don’t respond well to it.
We seek to avoid it.
We definitely want to shorten it if we have to go through it at all.
We instinctively know that it is inevitable.
We are going to experience it at some point to some degree in our lives.
Some of you are experiencing it right now.
You are in a place where life is taking more than it is giving.
You are suffering.
Today, we are going to talk about how suffering is valuable to our lives.
Often the Bible compares spiritual training to physical training.
One of the sayings that I hear often in exercise and fitness classes is “trust the process.”
You have to stay with it and you can’t quit.
I have been serious about my physical condition for about two years or so.
I can’t tell you the amount of people who start the regimens, only to quit three weeks later.
Things got hard.
They got a little sore and they stopped.
They thought the pain wasn’t worth it.
Let me tell you, when I first started, it was hard.
It is still hard.
It is never easy, but the results of the training are great for me.
As I progress, I continue to increase the difficulty.
Growth comes through the difficulty.
1. Suffering is valuable.
Our spiritual life of faith is very much like physical conditioning.
Faith grows in times of difficulty and in times of suffering.
Many times we seek to get out of the difficulties of life or at least shorten them; however, the blessing is on the other end of the suffering.
By removing, shortening, or avoiding troubles; we are really hurting ourselves and stifling the growth.
Of course, this is not to say that we go looking for problems, that would be crazy.
God allows these things to happen for our growth.
You see, suffering has value.
1. Suffering is valuable.
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The word Paul uses for afflictions is the word thlipsis.
It means tribulations and refers to the pressures, hardships, and sufferings.
The word is about the distress brought about by circumstances.
(Rogers, p. 324)
θλιβω (thlipsis) - tribulations - “The word refers to pressures, hardships, and sufferings, the distress brought about by circumstances”
I think we have all been there in our lives.
We have work pressures, school pressures, and family pressures.
We experience hardships.
We are distressed by the events that happen to us and all around us.
The interesting thing about what Paul says is that we are to rejoice in our afflictions.
Doesn’t that seem counterintuitive?
Doesn’t that seem backward?
I don’t rejoice when my boat is broken.
Actually, my boat was totaled by the insurance company last week.
How can I rejoice when my fence blows down or part of the steeple falls off the church?
How can I rejoice when bad things are happening?
We have an InstaPot™.
How many of you have an InstaPot™?
How many of you use your InstaPot™?
Well, as far as I understand an InstaPot™, it is a pressure cooker.
The pressure builds up in the cooking chamber to cook the food faster.
My wife makes yogurt, stews, and all kinds of things in it.
I use it to make chicken broth.
If I were to make a broth through the traditional method, it would take 10-12 hours on the stove.
Using the InstaPot™, the broth is done in less than 3 hours.
The pressure shortens the process.
The pressure is what brings about the change.
nstaPot™.
How many of you have an Instapot?
How many of you use your Instapot?
Well, as far as I understand an Instapot, it is a pressure cooker.
The pressure builds up in the cooking chamber to cook the food faster.
My wife makes yogurt, stews, and all kinds of things in it.
I use it to make chicken broth.
If I was to make a broth through the traditional method, it would take 10-12 hours on the stove.
Using the Instapot, the broth is done in less than 3 hours.
The pressure shortens the process.
The pressure is what brings about the change.
InstaPot™.
How many of you have an Instapot?
How many of you use your Instapot?
Well, as far as I understand an Instapot, it is a pressure cooker.
The pressure builds up in the cooking chamber to cook the food faster.
My wife makes yogurt, stews, and all kinds of things in it.
I use it to make chicken broth.
If I was to make a broth through the traditional method, it would take 10-12 hours on the stove.
Using the Instapot, the broth is done in less than 3 hours.
The pressure shortens the process.
The pressure is what brings about the change.
Likewise, in our lives, the pressures, afflictions, and sufferings have a purpose.
It is the hard times which produce strong people.
If all you ever had were good times, you would be a weak person.
It is because of the difficulties of life that you are made strong.
Parents, I want to talk to you for just a moment.
Don’t rob your children of the hard times in their lives.
If you rob them of the struggles, they will not be strong.
I know that you want them to have a better life than you did, but remember how you arrived at the place you are.
It was the struggles in your life that made you strong.
If you take away all of their problems, they will not grow up to be the men and women of God that they need to be.
I watch parents who baby their children and unfortunately, so many times, they live to regret it.
They will learn more through their failures than they will through their successes.
True freedom includes the freedom to fail.
We have forgotten that principle.
God allows us to struggle so that we will grow.
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