Sermon Tone Analysis

9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.

10 But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.

11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed.

In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

As Neil shared last Sunday, when we experience trials, we respond in different ways.

We often will respond in ways that make us feel secure:

Attempt to ignore them and hope they will go away

Focus on tasks that we can control rather than focusing on the massive trial we cannot

Withdraw into isolation

Surround ourselves with people and noise

Everyone handles things differently, yet all of us are searching for the same things: security and peace from the storm we are facing.

Sometimes trials are the best things that happen in our lives.

Maybe your trial this morning is your biggest gift - it causes us to reach a place where we desperately need God and depend upon Him.

In this temporary life, there is nothing greater that we can achieve than this.

We must recognize that our trials do not determine our identity

Poor and Broken - Self-Pity

In humble circumstances, our identity is in Christ and we should find hope.

Ex: Reach a point in life and begin seeing missed goals and benchmarks and have a mid-life crisis.

Rich and Successful - Self-Promotion

As rich going through trials, take pride in them trusting in God.

Illustrations -

What defines us is not what we go through, but who our Father is.

Some people have pride and others are diminished because of circumstances.

In all, we must learn to focus on and depend on God recognizing our identity in Him

Ex: Pride because your kids turned out good and you begin looking down your nose at other families.

All of us are one choice away from destroying our lives.

Our children are one choice away.

We need God, not just pride in our parenting strategies.

Trials are Indiscriminate to All

When trials occur, all differences go away other than the reality that we are struggling together.

Example: 9/11 unity - Democrats and Republicans, various ethnicities, rich and poor all became Americans together because of the shared pain and focus for healing

Verses on identity in Christ:

We must measure our trials in light of eternity

How does this trial measure in light of spending an eternity with Christ?

Light bills

Test for students

When in trials how often do we jump on Facebook instead of going to God.

We compare with everyone else and feeling insignificant or proud.

Comparisons with others is always bad rather than recognizing our identity in Christ.

We often lose sight of the purpose and meaning of life as we allow the temporary to cloud the eternal.

Everything we build apart from God will fade away.

As we attempt to find solutions to our storm and explore solutions that we can control, we often want an explanation from God in our storm.

Illustration: Miscarriage, questioning God and remembering His own sacrificing.

He isn’t abstract.

He has also experienced pain.

If we will adjust our sight from things that we can control to placing our life under His control, we will receive a revelation of God in our storm

How can I embrace my identity in Christ through the trial:

Remember that all will fade away.

Everything is temporary.

The purpose of it all is to discover God and develop a relationship with Him.

Spend time discovering him through His story and time talking to Him

With the support of your small group, share the areas you struggle in getting your identity from and encourage one another weekly to maintain focus on Him being praised versus living life for self-promotion or in self-pity because of false identity in temporary things