Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Marcus Bach in his book The Power of Perception tells of how great worth is found in waste.

An old lead and zinc mine had been abandoned for years.

It appeared a worthless worn out pit with all its value exhausted.

But when man developed a new need, a need for Tungsten, the waste deposits from this old mine were re-assayed and discovered to be full of Tungsten.

The ghost mine sprang back into life, and a thriving community grew up because waste could produce worth.

In other words, it was not waste at all, but valuable stuff.

Bach says, no mine is ever totally exhausted, and all waste just waits for man to discover a new use for it.

As men develop the power of perception, they see new values in what they formerly threw away.

Numerous are the examples of how what were once waste products are now valued products.

Nothing is more practical than the art of turning waste into worth and James the brother of our Lord was an expert.

He has the power to perceive the worth in what everyone else tends to call worthless-the trials of life.

What can be a greater waste in life than to suffer trials and tribulation?

We count it all joy when we can escape these worthless types of waste.

But James, with an advanced perception, says you are throwing away your own treasure .

There is great value to be gotten from tough times.

In fact, it is one of life's most precious values-the virtue of patience.

Less you think that patience is a very simple thing, let me point out how it covers a multitude of complex feelings and attitudes.

1.

It means a calm waiting in hope.

This is the patience of the gardener or farmer who plants his seed and then must wait to see the fruit.

2. It means endurance of trial; a putting up with what is not pleasant, such as a nine year old boy who is convinced he can learn to be the world's greatest drummer.

3. It means self-control.

When too many things happen at once, you can still keep your cool and not go to pieces, but persevere through them all.

There are many different degrees of this virtue.

James says to Christians who are struggling with life's adversities-don't waste anything in life-not even your negative experiences, for they contain great potential.

They can be used to produce the costly value of patience.

If you lack the wisdom to see this, ask God for it, says James, for none are so wise as those who have the power of perception that can explore the waste deposits of human burdens, and see how they can be turned into human blessings.

May God grant us wisdom as we try to see what James reveals concerning the value and the vision of patience.

I. THE VALUE OF PATIENCE.

Patience is a hard to win virtue.

It does not come from reading books and hearing sermons.

You cannot teach patience, because it is not taught, it is caught, and it is only caught by getting into the stream of life's trials.

Patience is like a purple heart.

The only way you can get it is by getting wounded in battle.

The great Henry Ward Beecher said, "There is no such thing as preaching patience into people unless the sermon is so long that they have to practice it while they hear.

No man can learn patience except by going out into the hurly-burly world, and taking life just as it blows....and riding out the gale."

We cannot learn patience by this message, but we can learn to appreciate its value.

You have to be thoroughly convinced of the value of patience if you are going to pay the price to obtain it.

Men fight for their country, and for their family, and for the honor of their faith, but whoever heard of fighting against adversity, and all the while counting it a joy because they are thereby gaining the virtue of patience.

We all know it is a wonderful thing to have, but is it that precious?

James clearly implies that it is.

It is so valuable to possess it that those who see its value can even suffer in joy when they know that their suffering is leading them to more patience.

Only a deep grasp of this value will enable any Christian to practice what James tells them to do.

Men can only enjoy suffering that pays high dividends.

Men can suffer long fearful journeys, and hunger and thirst and pain of every description, if the end result is gold.

Men have suffered everything for gold, and just the hope of possessing it drove them to endure agonies beyond our comprehension.

A value less tangible, but just as real as gold, is glory, and again, there is no end to the suffering men and women will joyfully endure for glory.

The world of sports alone is ample evidence of this.

Millions of muscles shriek out in painful agony, yet there is no let up and relief, for the price must be paid for glory.

The point is, people count it all joy to suffer for any goal they are convinced is of high worth.

We fail to be motivated to suffer for the sake of patience, because we have undervalued it, and do not consider it as one of life's precious possessions for the personality.

There is no doubt about it, Paul saw eye to eye with James on the value of patience, for Paul says it is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and in the great love chapter of I Cor.

13, the first positive characteristic of ideal love is patience.

In Rom.

5:3, Paul uses the word in the same way as James does when he says that tribulation worketh patience.

Jesus used this same word when He described the good soil in the parable of the sower as that which holds fast the seed of the word, and brings forth fruit with patience.

There are other texts we could look at, but these are sufficient to convince us that patience is a virtue which is a key

to the fruitful Christian life.

As soon as James opens his letter with a greeting, he launches into the praises of this virtue that is so precious that it ought to make us enjoy our trials.

If we cannot see the value in patience, we will not see the value in the trials that help produce it.

In 1934 the huge Jonker diamond was discovered in South Africa.

It was given to Lazare Kaplan, the patriarch of diamond cutters.

The owner also sent a plan for cutting it, but Kaplan said, had he followed that plan it would have been destroyed.

He spent one year just studying that stone, and planning how to turn it into 12 smaller stones.

Only after great patience in planning did he go to work, and his patience paid off, for he turned that egg size crystal into a dozen immortal gems.

Only recognition of great value could motivate such patience.

Nobody could exercise such patience to produce a ring of little value.

It takes great value to motivate patience.

If you do not see the great value in patience, you will not see the worth of any kind of suffering.

Only a value system which places a high worth on patience can give you the power to perceive value in tribulation.

If you lack such a value system, you will consider all forms of suffering as worthless, and so you will waste a good chunk of your life's experiences.

James says you don't have to waste any experience of life, but can rejoice in its value if you see it develops patience.

What could be more practical than asking God to give you the wisdom to be able to turn all waste into worth.

Those who think like James are incurable optimists.

If even life's rough roads are increasing your supply of patience, then you can rejoice while you groan and moan.

You don't have to like the suffering, but you can't help but like the fringe benefits, if you are building up your patience.

Someone wrote, "Patience is like the pearl among the gems.

By its quiet radiance it brightens every human grace, and adorns every Christian excellence."

In the history of Christian missions, it has been the virtue of patience that made the difference.

William Carey, the father of modern missions, labored 7 years before he won his first convert.

This has been true for many, and you just can't write the history of Christian missions without people of patience.

The second thing we want to consider is-

II.

THE VISION OF PATIENCE.

The person who possesses patience perceives life with a particular perspective.

He sees life from the point of view of the whole and not just the part.

He sees the long run of things, and not just the now of them.

He has a vision that penetrates the cloudy now, and sees into the sunny yet to be.

James has a vision, not just of the present suffering of trials, but of the long range effects of what they can produce in us through patient endurance.

He sees the outcome of it all leading to Christians being made complete, and lacking in nothing.

If the only way to the castle is by means of a rough road, than rejoice that you are on that rough road, for better to be struggling up toward and ideal than walking in ease down a road to no where.

James does not portray the Christian life in a superficial manner.

It is a false hope to tell people the Christian life is the answer to all their problems.

The Gospel is not, come to Jesus and live happily ever after.

The Christian life is often a struggle and a battle, and an uphill climb over many obstacles, but it is worth it all because the end result is a happy ever after with a great sense of satisfaction, because we have come through the trials of life more like our Lord, who made it possible for us to fight the good fight by His grace.

The point is, if this year is going to be a good year of Christian growth, it will not be all blue skies and barbecues.

There will be some struggle and hard decisions that force us to move up or down on the scale of Christ likeness.

James says, don't waste these times, but catch a vision of the value to be gotten out of them.

The patient Christian sees life as a process in which God works out His plan by stages and degrees.

This is a perspective based on wisdom.