Sermon Tone Analysis

“*WORLDVIEW RE: CIRCUMSTANCES*”

                     (A Series on the Book of James)

 

Westgate Chapel 10~/31~/04                                     James 1:9-11

 

Proposition:      The Spirit-led life changes our worldview, especially in matters of material circumstances.

! i.    introduction

!! -     FOR much of the full first half of his life, Joseph, in the Old Testament, looked like he had very little to brag about.

!!! ~*     Raised in a totally dysfunctional family.

!!! ~*     Intensely disliked by his eleven brothers.

!!! ~*     Almost killed by some of his brothers and then thrown into a pit by them out in the fields.

!!! ~*     Instead of killing him, they then sold him to some slave traders passing by on their way to Egypt.

!!! ~*     Bought at the slave auction by an official of Pharaoh’s court named Potiphar.

!!! ~*     Worked hard as a slave for his master and proved himself to be trustworthy…even though he had nothing of his own and no future other than as a slave.

!!! ~*     Falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of sexual harassment, and thrown into prison…disease-ridden and filthy beyond our understanding.

!!! ~*     Worked hard in the prison and proves himself trustworthy…even though he had nothing of his own.

!! -     IN the world’s eyes, Joseph is a pitiful loser….judging

from his circumstances Joseph is in a dead end going nowhere!

!!! ~*     So, he didn’t complain!

He was still a loser.

!!! ~*     So, he didn’t fight back!

He was still a loser.

!!! ~*     So, he worked hard for whatever boss he had….He was still a loser.

!!! ~*     So, he loved and honored God all through his hard times…but when you looked at his circumstances, Joseph was still a loser, rotting in jail (Genesis 40:23).

!! -     SWITCH Old Testament books and stories with me this morning….all

the way from Genesis to Daniel.

!! -     IN this story, the character I want to bring to your attention is a king!

But not just any king.

The king of an empire that controlled the whole world.

!! -     JUDGING from this king’s circumstances, he is on top of the world.

!!! ~*     More trophies for military victories on his walls than he had walls.

!!! ~*     Assyria…conquered, and taken captive.

!!! ~*     Israel…conquered and taken captive.

!!! ~*     Egypt…conquered and taken captive.

!!! ~*     Everywhere you turned in his kingdom you saw the spoils of battle….from

mind-boggling wealth to the brightest minds and advisors from each of the conquered cultures.

!!! ~*     He has it all…and no one big enough in all of the world to contest his leadership.

!!! ~*     His name is Nebuchadnezzar.

!! -     IN the world’s eyes, Nebuchadnezzar is a winner!

Just examine the circumstances all around him…Nebuchadnezzar lacks nothing and is literally king of the world.

!! -     DANIEL 4:22 says of Nebuchadnezzar,

!!!       “…*you have become great and grown strong, and your majesty has become great and reached to the sky and your dominion to the end of the earth*.”

!! -     TWO bigger than life Bible characters from the Old Testament…about whom the apostle Paul writes,

!!!       “*Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come*.”

(1 Corinthians 10:11)

!! -     WHAT is the example that Joseph and Nebuchadnezzar are to us in these two stories?

!! -     WHAT is the instruction we gain from their lives?

!! -     IT is this!

!! -     THERE is a secular worldview that makes its judgments and arrives at its conclusions by evaluating visible, measurable, external circumstances…because that is all this worldview admits as evidence.

!! -     BUT there is a Biblical worldview that pays almost no attention to circumstances because they are fleeting and temporal.

!! -     A BIBLICAL worldview rejects circumstances as the measure of reality, and instead embraces the kingdom of God and His priorities as the measure of Life.

!! -     2 CORINTHIANS 4:18 says,

!!!       “…*we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal*.”

!! -     ALL of those painful years that it looked on the outside like Joseph was a loser, that he had nothing and was nothing….God was preparing him for a place of prominence in the fulfillment of God’s plans for God’s people.

!! -     JOSEPH’S external circumstances bore no resemblance to God’s ultimate purposes for his life.

!! -     AND when the time was right, this loser became second in command over all Egypt and the savior of God’s people and plan to redeem humanity.

!! -     BY sharp contrast, Nebuchadnezzar, who was by all external measurements, the king of the world, within days of Daniel 4:22, and even after being warned of the dangers of arrogance by the prophet, still ended up eating grass in the fields like a madman.

!! -     HE lost it all!

His palace.

His servants.

His wives.

His wealth.

His throne.

The respect of his subjects.

!! -     IN a matter of days, every external element Nebuchadnezzar had based his life on was gone.

!! -     NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S external circumstances bore no resemblance to God’s ultimate plan for his life.

!! -     FOR today, and for James 1:9-11, Joseph and Nebuchadnezzar are examples that instruct us.

!! -     PLEASE turn with me to James 1:9-11.

!

ii.   for those in the church who have little

!! -     JAMES is a mirror, showing us the image of the Spirit-led life.

!! -     IT is not a list of principles to incorporate into our lives.

We couldn’t do it if we tried.

!! -     BUT, as born again Christians we have the Holy Spirit in residence in our lives.

!! -     AS Spirit-baptized believers we have been immersed into the power of the Spirit…something that the Bible teaches clearly is subsequent to salvation.

!! -     JAMES is one of the first epistles written to many of the very Christians who had been baptized in the Spirit at Pentecost…but were now scattered throughout the Roman Empire by persecution.

!! -     SO, James lifts the mirror of God’s Word up for them to look into….to

compare what their lives look like to the Spirit-led life.

!! -     AND the image in the mirror, from James 1:9-11, concerns the world’s preoccupation with judging by externals…specifically the externals of how much money and how much stuff you have.

!! -     REMEMBER, it is being conformed to the world that sets your heart and mine up for deception.

!! -     SO, in verse 9, James writes,

!!!       “…*the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position*.”

(NASB)

!! -     THE first thing I want you to notice is that James is talking about Christians that would make up some of the population of the local church.

They are “brothers.”

!! -     THIS is written to Christians and about Christians living the Spirit-led life.

!! -     THE second thing I want you to see is that the Greek word for ‘humble circumstance’ literally means “lowly, insignificant, weak, and financially poor.”

!! -     SO, James says, as you look around you in the church, and arrive at conclusions about one another based on external measurements, you will likely find those who appear to be insignificant because they are financially poor.

!! -     RESIST that conclusion!

!! -     IT is based on a secular worldview.

!! -     THEIR value has nothing to do with externals….

!!! ~*     With their annual salary.

!!! ~*     With the fact that they drive a ’72 Buick station wagon.

!!! ~*     With their clothes from Goodwill.

!!! ~*     With the fact that they can’t afford to eat out.

!!! ~*     And that their hair will never be featured on the cover of Instyle magazine.

!! -     THE world looks at them and counts people like that out as insignificant…of little or no consequence.

!! -     THAT is how Joseph was viewed by those around him in the prison, including the ones he helped.

!! -     WHAT is the Biblical worldview about the brother or sister in Christ that appears to be of low station in this life?

!! -     JAMES holds up the mirror and says,

!!!       “…*glory in [your] high position.*”

(1:9)

!! -     THE word, glory, in verse 9 means rejoice!

!! -     WHY rejoice?