Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Life can difficult.
There was a tragic shipwreck.
The only survivor washed onto the shore of an uninhabited island.
Helpless, he cried out to God to save him.
Every day he’d scan the horizon, looking for a passing ship, hoping someone would rescue Him.
But nothing happened.
Eventually he succumbed to the truth that this island was his home.
With the few possessions he had, and from what he foraged for, he built a small hut, to shelter him from the weather.
One day, after hunting for food, he came home and found his small hut on fire.
He watched helplessly as the dried palm leaves, produced thick clouds of black smoke into the sky.
He was broken.
Grief filled his soul.
He didn’t have it in him to rebuild.
He was done.
Early the next day, a ship came to the island and rescued him.
He asked how they knew he was there.
One of the crew members said, “We saw your smoke signal in the sky.”
The lone survivor found joy in the previous day’s tragedy.
How do you respond to tragedy?
You may not find yourself on a deserted island.
But you will encounter trials.
How do you respond?
This morning we will be in James 1:2–4.
James will give us 3 responses to trials that Christians must be prepared for.
Please open your Bibles to James 1:2–4.
Read James 1:2–4.
Let’s look at Joy in Trials.
James says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,”
Don’t read this - Joy in Trials
In Acts 5, the apostles were arrested for preaching Jesus Christ.
They are brought before the Jewish leaders and questioned.
They are told not to preach in Jesus’ name.
They then are beaten and released.
The apostles leave the counsel, and in Acts 5:41 “So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”
They left rejoicing.
How did they do that?
How did they suffer, how were they beaten, and then leave, rejoicing?
How do they think of being beaten as something that you must be worthy to receive?
This was something that on some level they found joy in.
II Corinthians 12 Paul begins boasting of his weaknesses.
He talks about having a thorn in his side.
He had an opponent that was attacking him.
Day in, day out, this thorn, this person was not just a hindrance, he was harmful.
Paul was in agony over this person.
And Paul repeatedly prayed to the Lord to remove this thorn.
“Get this person out of my life.”
“I’m miserable with him.”
Perhaps, you’ve prayed something like that before, regarding a situation in your life.
A person.
Health.
A condition.
There is some trial in your life, and your prayers are consumed by this trial.
“Lord, please get rid of it for me.” is your prayer.
Well, at the end of the passage, Paul rejoices because through his trial he learned of God’s grace.
He said, in II Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Ultimately, he rejoiced, because in his weakness, he relied on Christ, and lived on the presence of God.
That suffering, drew him closer to the Lord.
Another example of joy in suffering, is Eric Liddel.
Eric Liddel is most famous for the movie, Chariots of Fire.
He ran the 400 meter dash in the 1924 Olympics, setting a world record that stood for 12 years.
The movie talks about his refusal to run on Sundays.
It tells the drama of the stance that he took.
What most people don’t know about Eric is what happened after the Olympics.
He went to China and became a missionary.
When World War II broke out, Japan was an unstoppable military force moving into China, and conquering much of the main land.
The Japanese rounded up prisoners and put them in internment camps, concentration camps.
The prisoners there were slowly starved, and violently treated.
Eric Liddel was put in one of these concentration camps.
There he would end up dying.
He never let up.
He never complained about his situation.
He had a quiet spirit that found joy in the Lord, and it was demonstrated in his life.
Even though he died in that prison his fellow prisoners saw someone who rejoiced.
They described him as:
Having an unruffled spirit.
A constantly smiling face.
Always cheerful.
It was said that, “Every day to him was … precious.
He threw himself into it to make others feel better about the situation all of us were in.”
What’s the common denominator in these examples?
Joy.
Facing hardship, facing trials, facing disappointment - the response was joy.
How do we get there?
Many Christians don’t live joyful lives.
They look more like those in internment camps with Eric Liddel, but they don’t look like Eric Liddell.
Many Christians live lives that are defeated, and lethargic.
It’s amazing how fast we plummet into depression when things happen.
Starbucks forgets to put an extra shot in your coffee, and it’s as if you’ve been defeated already.
You’ve missed the rapture.
The Tribulation has begun.
Woe is me, for I am undone!
How do we find joy?
Before we talk about finding joy, let’s look at the circumstances of life.
What is in store for you?
I like to know, what am I getting into?
James says, to be joyful, “when you encounter various trials.”
Notice how that’s written.
James doesn’t say, “Consider it all joy, my brethren if you encounter trials.
It’s when you encounter trials.
They are certain.
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