Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

Warren Wiersbe says: “A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified.

A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.”

What really separates the two?

Well, the answer may lie in another saying most of us have heard: “Life is 2 percent what happens to you and 98% how you react to it.”

I’ve seen this played out on life’s stage time and time again.

I remember Dave Shoemaker, an old boss of mine.

He was a rather irreverent unbeliever who was much more of a skeptic than a realist.

You can imagine my surprise when one night, in the middle of a shift, he confessed to me that he used to be a Youth Pastor.

I was blown away when I heard his story: He had entered the ministry very idealistically and begun to reach out to kids in need.

Of course, some of the neediest kids didn’t fit the demographic profile of his church.

Ok, lets just say it like it was: The deacons began to feel threatened when some of the older teenagers from the inner city showed up to play basketball on the church parking lot.

They told Mr. Shoemaker that the kids would have to leave and when they left, so did Dave.

He walked away from church and didn’t go back, shattered by what he saw as hypocrisy.

Now, I will admit to you that Mr. Shoemaker had a big disappointment and that, perhaps, the deacons of that church made a poor, and maybe even selfish decision, but it wasn’t their hypocrisy that caused his skepticism: it was his reaction to it.

Life is 2 percent what happens to you and 98 percent how you react to it.

Contrast Dave’s reaction with that of a 14 year-old girl.

Nancy Ortberg gave her story.

It seems Nancy worked as a registered nurse for about ten years.

One of her earliest patients was a young girl of about 14 who had been in a dirt bike accident.

She met this young girl in the physical therapy department.

The girl was in a whirlpool bath.

Nancy read her chart before she went down learned that as a result of the accident, her leg had been amputated below the knee.

Nancy says she couldn't imagine what it must be like to be a 14-year-old girl with part of your leg missing.

When she arrived, Nancy introduced herself, and the two of them made some small talk.

Through the course of their time together, Nancy learned that she was a follower of Christ, although she really didn't say much about that.

Nancy says, however, that she was not prepared for her spirit, however, when she lifted her freshly amputated leg up above the bubbling water for Nancy to see and said, "Look at how much I have left!"

The girl excitedly told Nancy that since the doctors were able to amputate below the knee, it was much easier to fit a prosthesis.

She wondered how long it would take to heal so that she could get started with that.

Nancy heard most of what she was saying, but She wasn't really paying much attention.

Her mind was fixed back on the "look how much I have left!"

Her gratitude seemed really genuine.

It wasn't denial or a Pollyanna mentality.

She knew she was missing a good part of her leg, and she wouldn't have chosen that.

But she was so very thankful for this bit of good news.

Her spirit made Nancy’s spirit soar that day.

Nancy had two good legs.

You see, “Life is 2 percent what happens to you and 98% how you react to it.”

NEED

And there really are many reactions to trouble.

You’ve seen them.

You’ve probably done them!

When trouble comes, some people turn into great pretenders.

They act as if nothing’s wrong.

They may have just experienced devastation, but they are in denial.

They’re kind of like a NC State Wolfpack team back when Jimmy V was the coach.

That night, nothing was going right for the pack and they were down by 20 points.

Jimmy V called a timeout and said to the team, “OK boys, we got ‘em right where we want ‘em.”

Hey, folks, that’s not confidence, that’s denial.

And that’s exactly what some people do when they face trouble.

They pretend its not there.

By the way, that is not a mentally or a spiritually healthy thing to do, just in case you’re wondering.

Faith is not the same as denying reality!

Some people become great pretenders in the face of trouble, while others become great “escapers.”

They think they can overcome trouble by outrunning it.

These are the kind of people who don’t have enough money to pay their bills each month, so they just put it on a credit card.

Then when that doesn’t work, they pay off their credit cards . . .

with another credit card!

They try to outrun their trouble and it doesn’t work.

Others become great actors.

OK, not really actors, we call them Drama Queens (and, yes, Drama Kings).

These folks magnify their problems.

They get some sick masochistic pleasure from the sympathy that their exaggerated trouble brings them.

You probably couldn’t get them to admit it, they act like martyrs for one reason: so that they can receive the attention that exaggerated trouble temporarily brings.

My question this morning, however, is how should a Christian react to trouble.

Let’s face it: That’s a pertinent question for 2009!

I don’t remember feeling as uncertain about the financial future we face as I do today.

We used to not even be able to say “trillion” dollars.

Now the congress is throwing around that term every day as if it were chump change!

We face trouble!

Some of you have already experienced it, and I am pretty sure that things may get even worse before they get better.

So, in a year like this, where many of you are struggling, it makes sense to ask: How should a Christian react to trouble?

I want to show you an incredible passage of Scripture that talks about this today.

Turn to Romans chapter 5, verse 1

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Christians are told a pretty incredible thing here.

We are told that our reaction to trouble is to be so different form those in the world around us.

We are not to deny our problems; we are not to escape our problems and we are not to magnify our problems, we are to rejoice in them!

That’s what v 3 says.

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations.

The word glory is speaks of “what one is proud of, claim to glory, event on which excessive confidence is based.

In short we are told to “celebrate” our trials.

You see, the most incredible truth in this passage is that the source of your hope is in the very trouble you and I are trying to avoid.

When we really understand what God is up to in our lives, we are brought to the place where we actually begin to understand the value of tribulation.

Wow! Talk about a paradigm shift!

Talk about an incredible truth!

The very hope we need lies in the very trouble we’ve been tryin to avoid.

Ok, I know I just lost some of you.

You’re saying, “Why, Rusty?

Why should I be willing to boast about my troubles.

Seems to me that’s mental problem territory to me.

The only people I know who boast in their problems are folks who are three fries short of a Happy Meal.

How is it possible for a sane person to do that?

Well, since I am firmly committed to the accuracy, sufficiency and the power of Scriptural truth to our lives and since Romans 5:3 says that we “glory” in our tribulations, let me give you a couple of reasons right from these 3 reasons you can rejoice in your trouble.

First of all, you can rejoice in your trouble

DIVISION 1: WHEN YOU SURRENDER TO GOD’S PURPOSE

EXPLANATION:

HOPE: THE ENDING POINT

What you see beginning in verse 3 is a cycle that has a definite ending point.