Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Loose Change Offerings: Over the next several weeks, we will be taking loose change offerings to be a Christmas blessing to Mrs. Kelsey (Tanzania) and the Catalan Family (Philippines) as they are sent out of our own church.

Thanksgiving Praise Service: We will have our mid-week service this coming Tuesday night at 7:00 PM.

We will have church planters, the Bradley family, with us.

They are on deputation to New York City.

We will also observe the Lord’s Supper.

Please keep one another in prayer as many have been/will be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Scripture Reading

2 Timothy 1:1-4 and 2 Timothy 1:15.

Title of Message: Strengthen the Chain

Message

I trust to keep the message brief this morning.

(I know that I shouldn’t make such a statement but…)

As I begin the message this morning, I need to make a disclaimer and place an advisory label on the message:

This message is not intended for any specific individual, specific group of people, or specific family.

Any names and situations are purely for illustrations sake.

Names have been changed in order to protect the innocent.

Good.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can begin the message.

And, I want to begin the message with this statement:

I am thankful for my church family!

Paul, in 2 Timothy 1:3 was thankful for Timothy.

Paul was thankful for the church family in Rome:

Paul was thankful for the church family in Corinth (in spite of its problems):

Paul was thankful for the church family in Ephesus:

Nationally, Thanksgiving is observed this coming Thursday.

Are you thankful for your church family?

How thankful are you for your church family?

If you are thankful for your church family - for this church family - what are going to do about it?

Illustration: Red Rover - Choose 8 individuals and create 2 teams to play Red Rover.

The object of the game?

Find the weakest link!

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link!

This is why I read the second set of verses from 2 Timothy chapter 1:

Why did Paul specifically call out Phygellus and Hermogenes?

Charles Spurgeon wrote:

Probably these were leaders who ought to have acted differently and to have stuck by the apostle.

But when he was in prison, and likely to be put to death by Nero, many who had been his former companions forsook him and were ashamed to own him—for which we also are ashamed of them.

Even before I came across that from Spurgeon, the thought came to me that it was likely that Paul specifically called out these two individuals because he was shocked by their behaviour; Paul probably thought, “These two would have been the last two that I would have ever thought would have, when things gots difficult, turned their back on me!”

When Paul needed them the most, they were nowhere to be found!

We could say, then, that these two individuals were the weakest links in the chain.

A church is only as strong as its weakest link.

Each individual and the relationships that they have with one another are the links that make up a church family.

If you are thankful for your church, what are you doing to strengthen the individuals within the church?

What are you doing to strengthen your relationship with others within the church and the relationships that others have within the church?

Allow me to give you the Biblical truths - you’ll need to fill in the application - of how you can strengthen the chain that is known as South Charlotte Baptist Church!

As I give you these Biblical truths, ask God to point out an individual and a truth that you can act upon this coming week!

Love One Another

This command, to love one another, occurs at least 16 times in the New Testament!

Prefer One Another

Be of One Mind

Build Each Other Up & Encourage One Another

Care for One Another

Serve One Another

Bear One Another’s Burdens

Be Kind to One Another

Forgive One Another

Be Patient with One Another

Teach and Admonish One Another

Comfort One Another

Exhort One Another

Exhort:

To incite by words or advice; to animate or urge by arguments to a good deed or to any laudable conduct or course of action.

Be Hospitable to One Another

Be Humble Toward One Another

Confess Your Faults to One Another

Pray for One Another

Church Family, This week, what will you do?

To whom will you do it?

Strengthen the Chain