Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Scratch Sheet

Church online

Wk 2 - Misquoted

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In our culture, suffering is viewed as bad.

Something to be avoided at all cost.

So much of our lives are geared around avoiding suffering.

Automatic car wash

Robot vacuums & lawn mower

Smart home (lights, hubs, thermostats, etc)

Hiring a landscaper, maid

Hiring a maid

We can now even have our TacoBell or McD delivered!

As if the high fat and astronomical caloric intake wasn’t enough, we now won’t even get up and walk to the car so we can drive through the Drive through.

Getting fast food used to meant I got 15-20 steps in—both ways.

Now, just click a couple of buttons.

Feel Good God

Through his extensive study of youth and religion in America, sociologist Christian Smith coined the phrase “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” to name the prevailing religious belief of youth in America.

Each of the terms captures a popular, but not orthodox, belief about God and spirituality:

Each of the terms captures a popular, but not orthodox, belief about God and spirituality:

“Moralistic” - meaning that “God wants me to be a good person and not a jerk”

“moralistic” (meaning that “God wants me to be a good person and not a jerk”), “therapeutic” (meaning that “God or religion should help me feel good”), and “deism” (meaning that “God is a concept to decorate our lives with but not an agent who really does anything”

“Therapeutic” - meaning that “God or religion should help me feel good”

“Deism” - meaning that “God is a concept to decorate our lives with but not an agent who really does anything”

Albert Mohler, Briefing 5/22/19, - Secularizing America: The Worldview Divide in the American Electorate is Not Just Political, It’s Also Theological

Max Boot (The Washington Post, May 8th) - “Among the 21 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, virtually every ethnic, religious and sexual identity is represented.

There’s a gay man, six women, three African Americans, a Chinese American, multiple Catholics and Protestants, even a Hindu.

(Hindus are 0.7 percent of the population.)

But there is one conspicuous absence: Not a single candidate publicly identifies as an atheist.

That’s not to say they are all religious believers.

But if they aren’t, they are keeping it to themselves.”

Among the 21 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, virtually every ethnic, religious and sexual identity is represented.

There’s a gay man, six women, three African Americans, a Chinese American, multiple Catholics and Protestants, even a Hindu.

(Hindus are 0.7 percent of the population.)

But there is one conspicuous absence: Not a single candidate publicly identifies as an atheist.

That’s not to say they are all religious believers.

But if they aren’t, they are keeping it to themselves.

A 2015 Gallup poll found that more respondents would refuse to vote for an atheist for president (40 percent) than for a Muslim (38 percent), gay (24 percent) or Jewish (7 percent) candidate.

A 2015 Gallup poll found that more respondents would refuse to vote for an atheist for president (40 percent) than for a Muslim (38 percent), gay (24 percent) or Jewish (7 percent) candidate.

Yet people who profess no religious identity (“nones”) are one of the largest and fastest-growing demographic groups in the United States.

According to the Pew Research Center, 22.8 percent of Americans are “nones,” slightly fewer than the number of evangelical Protestants (25.4 percent) and slightly more than Catholics (20.8 percent).

Of particular interest today is the “therapeutic” idea of God

There are plenty of passages in Scripture that reinforce God and his plans for blessing His people materially and spiritually.

But the issue, once again, is that these promises are abstracted from the gospel as known through Jesus Christ

“God (abstract) will bless you (abstract) if you ________.”

This has created disillusioned Christians who quickly fall away as soon as trials or suffering enter their life.

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This is the danger of the prosperity gospel

I thought God was supposed to make my life better… easier…

I’ve said the prayer — still broke

I’ve said the prayer — my relationship is still a mess

We throw around verses like:

philip

Paul said this while in prison or under house arrest.

Because of your generosity—your suffering—God will supply all your needs.

Same Jesus said:

Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, then come follow me.

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Count the cost.

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Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

()

Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.

But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

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I believe in these verses.

We can’t remove them from the greater narrative.

The bigger picture.

The whole of Scripture.

>>> Does God want to bless you?

More than we can comprehend.

Does God want to give you a rich and satisfying life?

He made it His personal mission to do so.

Does God exists just so you can simply feel good?

Not really.

Joy in Suffering

James says, contrary to the therapeutic view where God exists to make me feel better, we should consider trouble and trials as an opportunity for great joy.

As the passage in James points out, trials and tribulations will come to us even if we are Christians.

James is clearly writing to believers as he uses the term “brothers and sisters.”

God’s plan for us is not that we will avoid suffering and be happy-go-lucky all the time if we follow him, but God’s plan is that even through our suffering, he is working to produce character, perseverance, and Christian maturity, and he is ultimately forming us in the image of Christ.

As the passage points out, these trials and tribulations will come to us even if we are Christians.

James is clearly writing to believers as he uses the term “brothers and sisters.”

Common term.

Not making a distinction between unbelievers & believers.

When you face a trial, consider it as an opportunity for great joy.

How can he say that?

God’s plan for us is not that we will avoid suffering and be happy-go-lucky all the time if we follow him.

Instead, God’s plan is that even through our suffering, he is working to produce character, perseverance, and Christian maturity—ultimately forming us into the image of Christ.

James did not say that a believer should be joyous for the trials but in the trials.

Trials should be faced with an attitude of joy.

Trials should not be seen as a punishment, a curse, or a calamity but something that must prompt rejoicing.

Furthermore they should produce “pure joy” (lit., “all joy”; i.e., joy that is full or unmixed), not just “some joy” coupled with much grief.

When surrounded by these trials, one should respond with joy.

Most people count it all joy when they escape trials.

James said to count it all joy in the midst of trials

James did not say that a believer should be joyous for the trials but in the trials.

When surrounded by these trials, one should respond with joy.

Most people count it all joy when they escape trials.

James said to count it all joy in the midst of trials

Trials, rightly taken, produce the sterling quality of endurance.

This is no new revelation.

It is a simple reminder.

James wrote, because you know, literally “knowing through experience” (ginōskontes).