Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Well, good morning!

If you have a copy of God’s Word, go ahead and open it up with me to Philippians chapter 2…We’re gonna be continuing our sermon series this morning, “Bridge Builders,” walking through Paul’s letter to the church of Philippi.

Listen, we’ve been walking through this letter verse by verse, chapter by chapter…we’ve been in it for 10 weeks so far and we’ll probably have another two months or so before we’ll get to the end.

There’s just so much here that Paul gave his reader and I think it’s super relevant for us today, especially for us here at First Baptist Church.

And if you remember, our theme we’ve really been pulling out is the idea of unity.

Paul’s been charging his Philippian readers to unity.

And not just any kind of unity but unity around Jesus and the gospel.

He’s charged them to make everything about those two things.

That’s been his whole purpose so far…Everything that’s happened to him…it’s been for what according to Paul?

To advance the gospel, right?

His imprisonment…His wrongdoing…His circumstances…He rejoices because it all serves to advance the kingdom of God.

And he charges them to have the same mindset…to make everything about the gospel of Christ.

If you remember, Paul exhorts them at the end of chapter one, to live lives “worthy of the gospel,” right?

And then in chapter two, live lives in line with that of Jesus’s…and then of course last week…he says, “work out your own salvation.”

He says, “Do it with fear and trembling.

Do it by remembering the God that works in you and through you.”

He’s constantly giving them the same imperative but when we really sit back and think about everything Paul’s been talking about there’s one question that comes to my mind, “How do we live as faithful believers…how do we live this life worthy of the gospel....how do we work out our own salvation, in a non-Christian world?

How can we be faithful Christians in a non-Christian world…or even now, in a post-Christian world?”

How do we do that?

It’s easier said than done, right?

Even when we think back to that spiritual workout plan from last week…how do we maintain that?

How do we ensure we keep our motivation?

Listen, I think our passage this morning really gives us the answer to that question.

Now of course…it gives us more exhortations…more imperatives…but it continues with a focus on how we’re to live in a world in which we live.

It’s a focus, really, on mission, a focus on the lifestyle we’re to live as believers, even when we’re living in a world that’s essentially nothing like us.

And so, if you’re there with me this morning, let’s stand together as we read our text.

Paul says this in verse 14, “14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

Thank you, you can be seated…Listen, as we come our passage, I think there’s five things we can really take away from Paul’s command here....five things that are crucial realities for us trying to live Christian lives today.

And so with that, let’s check these out together.

1.) Remember your Identity

First of all, look back at verse 15…Paul calls them what?

He says, “children of God.”

Of course, it comes with some more exhortations …he’s giving them some more imperatives…He says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing,” right?

But listen, he gives them those commands as children of God.

And guys, everything he tells them to do, it flows from that basic reality…that’s just who they were.

They’re children of God.

And guys, that’s the first point this morning.

The first crucial reality for us trying to live Christian lives in a messed up world today is to remember our identity.

We have to remember who we are.

Listen, when we read this phrase that Paul wrote here, we have to remember that not everyone is a child of God.

You understand what I’m saying?

Yes....all people were created in the image of God…and yes all people are in a sense an offspring of God as Acts 17 says…but listen, when we see this language, when we see that idea of being a child of God, children of God, sons and daughters of God, the family of God...guys, that language, it’s reserved for believers.

It’s a phrase used to describe those that belong to the family of God…those that have become His children through faith in Jesus Christ.

Listen, in the Gospel of John he writes that “to all who did receive him (being Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Guys, we have to remember the way in which someone enters into the family God.

It’s by receiving Jesus Christ…its by believing in His name…the name that’s above every name.

It’s by turning from yourself…repenting and turning to the only One that can deliver you and forgive you.

And the very nature we have as His children, it bornes witness to us in our own hearts…through the Holy Spirit....through His indwelling.

You know I think about what Jesus said to His disciples before He ascended to the Father in Acts…He said, “I must go because it’s better for you…the One who comes after Me is even greater, right?

I can’t wrap my mind around this…these disciples, they walked with God…they learned from God…they talked with God…they went fishing with God, right?

He fixed breakfast for them.

I mean how much greater could it have really been?

How much better can you get than Jesus in the flesh?

But yet, Jesus says, “I must go.”

Why?

Because instead of just walking and talking and fishing with God…God now, as His child, He now dwells in me.

I mean do you understand that?

The God of all creation calls me His and dwells in me.

And guys, to be called a child of God, it means that we’re loved by God.

That’s the emphasis John makes in 1 John 3 when he writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.”

He says, “The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

And so, the first element of being a child of God is to remember you’re loved.

He bought you with His blood.

He displayed the most incredible picture of love…by giving His only Son…He did that for you…He did that for me…because ultimately you’re loved by God.

But listen, John also says, “Everyone who thus hopes in him (who hopes in Jesus) purifies himself, even as he is pure.”

Meaning, as a child of God, we have to remember that our hope in being His is that we will be like Christ.

We’ll be like Him when we see Him as He is.

And that hope, it causes us to be different.

It’s a reminder that we’re different.

And listen, you might be sitting there thinking, “You got all that from that little phrase?

‘Children of God.” Yea! Do you understand what it means to be a child of God? Paul writes that here as a reminder to them.

Remember who you are…remember how you got that title.

Remember that you belong to a new family.

Remember that you have a new Father.

Remember that God, the Creator of everything, the name above every name, remember that He calls you His.

Guys this is important.

And listen, going back to some of the things Paul’s already discussed so far…the way we behave doesn’t determine who we are, but who we are determines how we behave.

That’s Paul’s point here.

We can’t work out our own salvation…we can’t live lives worthy of the gospel…we can’t adopt the same mindset of Christ…without remembering who we are…because it’s that reality that gives us the power to be who we are in this world.

How many of y’all have seen the movie Lion King?

Listen, there’s a point in that movie where Simba’s struggling with his decision to take up his rightful place as king and he sees his dad and his dad says, “Remember.....Remember who you are.”

And if you remember, what happened?

That realization, it drove him to begin behaving like a king.

Remembering his identity caused him to take charge of his responsibilities.

Guys, the same’s true for us today.

When we remember who we are, it leads us to a certain lifestyle…which is exactly why Paul says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing.”

Don’t be like this world!

And guys, too often, we find ourselves in disputes and we complain and we grumble…we don’t like the direction of the pastor or we don’t like what someone in the church did or said…and we starting fighting among one another.

And guys, Paul says, “Don’t do that.

Don’t do that because it doesn’t fit who you are as children of God.

Don’t do that because it doesn’t show this world who you are.

It’s tarnishes your witness.”

Remember who your identity.

Remembering our identity, it reminds us that we’re blameless…we’re innocent…without blemish, as Paul writes here.

It means we’re above reproach or without reproach.

That’s what it means to be blameless.

Meaning, morally we understand what it means to walk with God in this world.

The word “innocent,” it has to do with our internal purity.

It’s more about the heart and our convictions.