Sermon Tone Analysis

Open your Bibles to Philippians 4:5-7.

•I will be preaching from the second half of v5 through v7 this morning.

We’re finished with Mark’s Gospel.

And we’re near the end of the year.

•So, for the rest of the year I kind of get to choose from week to week what I’ll be preaching on before we get into another series in January.

•And when I get these kinds of opportunities, I like to preach on topics or passages that I think are timely for our congregation, whether they be about Christian living, ethics, or doctrines with which I think we might be lacking clarity or precision.

•This morning, we will be considering something quite practical.

•Now, don’t misunderstand me, all theology and Scripture is practical.

God gave His whole Word with purpose.

BUT the practicality this morning will be quite easy for all to see and understand.

•I will be preaching to you about anxiety and how to be free from it.

Now why this topic?

A couple of reasons:

1. Anxiety is such a temptation to fallen human beings, that there is hardly a time when a sermon like this would not be beneficial to many in any congregation.

2.

But more specifically for us, I’ve noticed something when I interact with you all.

•As you know, I reach out to the membership of this church, privately through text or email, at least once a month.

And I ask you for your prayer requests.

•And in almost all of them, there is a note of worry.

There is a note of anxiety or despair or fear about something in your life.

•What’s more is that when I get to have good conversations with you, and our talks turn to the future in some regard, worry is often expressed in some way.

•More than that, a significant portion of my pastoral counseling revolves around fear, worry, and anxiety.

(Those are somewhat interchangeable and synonymous.)

Brothers and sisters, we worry.

•Many of you are full of anxiety.

And, praise God, most of you are honest enough to admit it.

•Some of you would resonate with something RC Sproul once said: “I’m not happy unless I have something to worry about.”

•But, my dear brothers and sisters, the Word of God commands us to NOT WORRY.

God Himself instructs to not be anxious.

•And that means that our worrying is sin.

It’s disobedience to God. 

•Sitting around and allowing ourselves to fret about the future, worrying about our problems, having a perpetual pit in our stomachs, carrying around anxiety in our chest, all of that IS SIN. 

•And it’s sin, as we’ll see later, because to do so is to be full of unbelief.

Anxiety is the fruit of a lack of trust in our Heavenly Father.

•And so, brothers and sisters, we must wage war on our worry.

We must attack our anxiety.

And we must wield the weapons that our Lord gives us.

•We must look to the Word to be armed for the fight.

And then we must wage the good warfare with what He gives us to fight with.

This morning I hope to be helpful to you.

And to glorify God by reminding you how much He loves you and how trustworthy He is.

•I hope to instruct you in what to do when you worry.

•This sermon will serve as something of a big, church wide, counseling session.

•And, for all those who will submit to the teaching of the Word of God, I want to go ahead and tell you what He promises to you: Peace.

•If you will obey and submit yourself to what God says in Philippians 4:5-7, He promises to give you peace in the midst of your trials.

•So may God have mercy on us this morning, grant us faith to believe and obey His Word, and give us peace.

Now, if you would, and are able, please stand with me for the reading of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.

Philippians 4:5-7

[5] The Lord is at hand; 

[6] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 

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

(PRAY)

Our Heavenly Father, 

We come before you this morning acknowledging our need for instruction, wisdom, and faith.

Holy God, would you have mercy on us and help us?

Speak to us this morning through your Word, grant us faith to believe you, and change us.

Help us to trust you, to cast our cares upon you, to believe that you will be God to us and help us, and to rest in your love given to us through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

By your Holy Spirit, work in us and sanctify us today as we humble ourselves before the Scriptures.

Glorify yourself in us.

We ask these things in Jesus’ Name and for His sake.

Amen.

1.)This

text is full of hope and comfort.

And I’m excited to share the truth of it with you this morning.

•But before we dive in, let me say something very important: 

•This passage presupposes that those who read, hear, and obey it are CHRISTIANS.

•The final verse says that God will “guard your hearts and minds IN CHRIST JESUS.”

•The peace promised here, the help promised here, the promise that God will hear your prayers, the Lord being near to you, all of that presupposes that you are in a right relationship to God through faith in Jesus.

Hear me: God only promises to hear the prayers of those who trust in Christ.

He only promises to bend His ear to His People.

•He only promises to come to the aid of His People.

•He may listen to the prayers of unbelievers.

But they have no promise of it.

They have no certainty that He will bend His ear to listen to them.

•To be blessed by the Lord, to receive peace from Him, to receive help to get through life from Him, you must first be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

•For it is only through faith in Christ that you are adopted into His Family and made one of His children.

And He dearly loves His children.

But we are not naturally His children.

•God is the Father of all men in the sense that He is our Creator.

But He is not the Father of all men in the sense that they are His children by covenant and promise and affection and love.

•Ephesians 2 tells us that we are naturally children of WRATH.

Children of God’s wrath.

Alienated from God because of our sin and our sinful nature that we were born with.

•And we must be reconciled to God in order to be made His children.

•We are naturally His enemies.

We are naturally hostile to Him and rebel against Him with everything we have.

•And peace must be made between us and God before we can rightfully be called His children.

And that peace comes ONLY through Jesus Christ.

•Only Jesus Christ can make sinners clean and acceptable to God. 

•Only Jesus Christ can take away our sin and guilt.

•Only Jesus Christ can bring about the forgiveness of our sins.

•And He has done this by His Cross.

He has taken the sins of all who would ever believe on Him and has paid for them in His suffering and death.

•He has absorbed the righteous wrath of God on behalf of all who will trust in Him. 

•And He has purchased peace between God and men, by His blood.

For those who come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, no wrath remains for them.

•Why?

Because Jesus Christ has suffered God’s wrath for their sin in their place at the Cross.

•And where there was hostility and enmity, the Lord Jesus has brought those who believe near to God.

Jesus has made peace between God and men for those who believe.

•But apart from Christ, there is no salvation.