Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO

For a while it felt like when I was asked to be part of a wedding it was solely to officiate.

Don’t get me wrong Ioved it but I wanted to have fun and enjoy time with my friends rather than always running the show

So when I was asked to be my friends best man I was elated.

I planned an epic bachelor party that started with a escape room.

Have you ever done an escape room?

This one was extremely elaborate and included a full floor with multiple rooms.

We were trying to find out where money was hidden and each room had more and more elaborate puzzles.

At one point we found a small statue and one of the guys was convinced it held the answer.

We kept moving forward till eventually we got stuck.

The staff spoke through a speaker asking if we needed a hint.

The time was ticking and we weren’t sure we’d make it.

He mentioned that the statue could help.

We devolved into chaos as the giant timer kept ticking down and we were making no progress.

Finally the guy spoke up again.

I am sure he felt bad for us.

He said simply, “Change the way you look at it.”

Sure enough when we turned it upside down we saw that it had the same shape on the base as the odd shaped indention on an end table.

It was a key that opened a hidden safe.

We were so busy thinking it was the answer to a riddle or a clue leading somewhere else.

We had to change the way we were thinking.

Today we are starting into the final chapter of Philippians.

Paul is giving his final words and his call to the Philippians is that they too would change the way they were thinking.

He starts by challenging them toward unity.

He even calls out specific leaders who seem to be at each other.

He then calls them from the heaviness of the circumstances they are living in that would have them drowning in anxiety.

The Philippians had plenty to be anxious about.

Rejection, resistance, recession and relationships.

This young church plant had faced severe rejection being accused of advocating anti-Roman practices and now would face judgement and scorn

That lead to resistance to the gospel.

Paul himself is the model of where the Philippians obedience could lead them.

He is in prison facing death because of his faithfulness to the gospel.

What was going through their mind?

Would they receive the same kind of resistance.

Maybe we haven’t face rejection and resistance like this.

But maybe we have felt ostracized for our faith.

Maybe it’s been eye-rolls or something more painful like a cut-off friendship.

They also were feeling the reality of a tight budget.

We know from other parts of the New Testament that the church in Philipi was tight.

Paul actually said they had extreme poverty.

Do you worry over finances?

Your resources and budget may be at an extremely tight place, you’ve got no margin to absorb unforeseen emergencies.

Maybe you are looking at how retirement isn’t as secure as you were hoping it would be.

When you wonder where next month’s rent check or your children’s college tuition or the doctor’s payment will come from, you need God’s antidotes to anxiety.

Money is an equal opportunity anxiety producer.

And so is relational strain.

Resistance, Rejection, Recession and Relationships.

This chapter starts with the reality that some of their leaders who had once labored side-by-side for the gospel were at each other.

Are relationships the source of your sleepless nights?

Perhaps your spouse seems distant or every conversation degenerates into criticism and arguments.

You fear that your marriage itself may be crumbling.

Or maybe it’s your kid, who was so open and loving and trusting just months ago, is becoming increasingly defiant, or sullen and secretive.

What is going on behind that dour, expressionless face, inside her mind and heart?

Maybe you and a friend had a disagreement and the initial silence has grown into weeks and months and you wonder if you lost someone over something so small.

If strained relationships cause you stress, you, too, need God’s antidotes to anxiety.

Here is the big idea Coram Deo

Big Idea: Replace anxiety with joy & reason.

How do we do that?

Well mercifully this section of scripture is immensely practical.

It starts by yearning for peace.

I. Yearn For Peace (4-7)

Philippians 4:4–7 (ESV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In the midst of the anxiety inducing times the Philippians were in Paul calls them to be reasonable.

To take their anxiety and lay it at Jesus’ feet as they yearn for peace.

We live in an anxious age.

Increased tension with volatility in politics.

An increased frustration with the state of the world.

Confusion on identity, pressure from even a very young age.

Not to mention that everything is so expensive and Christmas is just a few weeks away.

Y’all this isn’t a throw away line in a sermon.

We need help.

I think we can all admits that we have struggled with Anxiety at some point.

I’ll confess leading this church, having a child, I have had nights where I lay and can’t get my brain to turn off.

It can feel crushing.

And before we go to Paul’s words.

I want you to know this is not a dismissive word from a clueless person.

This isn’t a quick, “Well have you prayed about it?”

Paul has been through the ringer and he knows what it is like to carry anxiety.

He knows what it is like to live with the pressure of how is he going to afford to live.

He carries the weight of not just one but multiple organizations.

Churches he has helped to plant across the world.

He carries the pressure of so many looking to him for hope and help.

So when he talks about anxiety he isn’t simply saying, “Just try harder.”

So what does Paul say?

It starts with Joy

He says to Rejoice in the Lord.

To "rejoice in the Lord" is to resist the instinct to focus on visible pleasures and problems.

It is to concentrate our minds deliberately on treasuring the Jesus, to focus thought on his majesty and mercy, his purity and power, to "see and savor the glory of God in the face of Christ" until our hearts are profoundly persuaded that he really is all we need in every situation.

Joy in great gifts of Jesus – Forgiveness, justification, acceptance, adoption

▪ Indwelling presence & comfort of HS, assurance of love of God / In His hand

Paul is saying change the way you think.

That’s how this starts.

Set Christ before you.

We are going to come back to this a bit later.

But this is where we start and where we end, by dwelling on Christ.

With the framework of joy Paul then moves to the idea that we should