Sermon Tone Analysis

Christmas Trials

Joseph

the census

the inn

These are not casual events in the lives of Mary and Joseph.

These were very hard things that they had to endure.

And endure they did.

Mary and Joseph have something that many people do not have today.

Yet is biblically supposed to be a norm for all christians.

What did they have?

Resilience.

Resilience is defined as a persons ability to “bounce back” after hardships or trials or loss.

Imagine a car without shock absorbers.

Now all cars drive on roads, but not all roads are smooth, in fact most simply are not, most roads are rough, uneven and have the occasional pothole.

Driving a car without shocks on a any normal road will be a painful horrible experience.

You will feel every single bump and every single pothole will be painful and the entire trip will be a miserable experience.

In order to enjoy the trip in any way, it is vital that the car have shock absorbers.

Now life is a lot like a car driving down the road - Life is hard, the road is long, uneaven, rough and filled with unforseen potholes - Thats the nature of life.

Now: Resilience is your brains shock absorbers.

Resilience is what will allow you to travel on life difficult road without it becoming a miserable, painful experience.

Thats what Mary and Joseph had - they faced potholes and uneven roads, but they had resilience.

with resilience it is not possible to lead a joyful and productive life.

Fragility:

Resilience is the opposite of fragility.

When something i fragile - it means that it is easily broken.

Thats why you see stickers that say: Fragile: Handle With Care.

When a person is fragile it means that they are easily broken, that just about everything upsets you.

And is almost everything upsets you will not be a victorious Christian.

Jesus told us that occurrences are destined to come - its the nature of the road, but he told us not to be upset by every upset, disappointment or hurt that we face.

Remember: What is resilience?

The ability to bounce back from lifes inevitable pains, disappointments and trials.

Look at this:

How do we “press on”?

How do we Endure?

By being resilient.

How do we develop resilience?

Well its not overnight, but its also not very difficult, mary and joseph were not season believers who had been serving God for decades, they were both young, with Mary being probably a teenager.

But it is a daily battle;

1: Get Perspective

Take a step back and reassess the situation, keeping God in the picture.

2: Count your blessings

3: Toughen Up

Life hits from all directions: Health, Finances, Family, the future.

In order to deal with these things you will need Faith in combination to Mental Toughness.

Mental toughness comes through experience and the earlier on in life you get tough the better.

We live in what is called the “Snowflake” generation.

Everyone bodies special and unique, but everyone is also fragile and weak.

There are so many factors involved in this step.

Overprotective parents are first on the list to blame.

Parents to cuddle and try to protect their children from all pain and suffering are NOT good parents.

Schools where everyone gets a participation trophy are also to blame.

Did you come first jonny?

no? then tough luck.

School dont teach kids how to handle loosing.

Political Correct speech is also a terrible thing, because what it means that people are so fragile that certain words or phrases hurt them - so what, when i grew up - sticks and stones....

So called “hate Speech” laws, or punishment for using certain words because some people are hurt by them, or parents overprotecting their children, these are all attempts to smoothen out the road and make the road less bumpy.

But thats the wrong path, because the road is unpredictable, instead of trying to sooth out the road through censorship, eac person should be responsible for their own resilience.

You can call me by any name and i will drive over that pothole without even feeling a bump - because by God’s grace i am resilient.

other people will sue you and take you to court, because they are fragile and cannot handle life.

4: Have Faith

Resilient is being mentally tough but it is also about trusting God.

Through he should fall, His residence (ability to bounce back) is from God.

Let me tell you a story:

There was a person, they lived a blessed life, they life was so good that they failed to yield and trust God everyday, instead they started to trust themselves.

They never read, studied or meditated on Scripture - they had sufficient answers and solutions.

They never spend real quality time in Preyer, Praising, repenting, requesting and yielding to God.

And then one day, the road stopped being so smooth, it became hard and bumpy, and because they had neglected their faith, the journey became unbearable.