Sermon Tone Analysis

*Reaching Out Together* \\ \\ Philippians 1:27-1:27 \\ \\ Reaching Out Together \\ \\ Welcome to our 2nd week of 40 Days of Community!

During the next 40 days, we are doing two things: deepening the sense of community within our church family, reaching out to the community around our church family.

We’re learning to build stronger relationships in our church and reach out in relationships of love to those around our church.

And the reason we’re doing this is because the Bible says we’re better together.

\\ \\ Last week, we looked at why we need each other, and that is foundational for everything we are looking at the next six weeks.

\\ In each of the next six messages we’ll be looking at how to deepen our relationships so we can fulfill God’s purposes.

\\ \\ One of those purposes, one of the reasons why you exist – is to share God’s love with others.

God wants you to share His love with other people, with your friends, with your family, with the people you work with, and to show his love to those who don’t know Christ yet – who are not yet in His family.

\\ Now why does He want us to do that?

\\ God wants us to share with others the Good News that Jesus died for them and that by trusting in Jesus alone, they can have a relationship with God.

\\ \\ Now, why do we need other people to share this Good News?

\\ Can’t I do this by myself?

Why do I need others to help me share the Good News?

That’s what we’re going to look at this morning.

God wants you to share His Good News, yes.

But He wants you to do it with other people.

\\ \\ Look at Philippians 1:27.

It’s there at the top of your outline.

\\ Let’s read it aloud together... \\ “You are standing together, side by side, with one strong purpose to tell the good news.”

\\ Now circle ‘standing together’ and circle ‘to tell the good news.’

That’s what we’re looking at today.

How do we do it together?

\\ How do I share with my friends that God loves them?

And how do I do it in a partnership with other people?

\\ Look at Philippians 1:5 \\ Paul says this: “You’ve been my partners in spreading the good news about Christ.”

\\ \\ Circle that word ‘partners.’

\\ \\ We’re going to look at 7 ways to partner with other believers, with other people in the family of God, to help reach your friends, your relatives, the people you care about most with the Good News.

And we are going to look at it in an acrostic.

We will be spelling the word ‘PARTNER’ so that we will know how to partner together to share God’s love with others.

\\ \\ So, how do we partner together to share the Good News?

\\ Here’s how we do it: We ‘PARTNER’ together.

\\ \\ ‘P’ stands for PRAY TOGETHER \\ \\ And the first thing you do is you ask others to pray with you for those in your life who haven’t stepped across the line, who are still considering the claims of Christ, who don’t really know God in a personal way yet.

You ask others to pray together with you.

\\ You can’t force anybody to make that decision.

\\ But you can pray for them.

\\ And prayer can melt a hard heart.

\\ Prayer can warm up a cold heart.

\\ Prayer can activate and arouse an apathetic heart.

\\ Prayer can change a stubborn heart.

\\ You see, people can reject your arguments.

You can provide all the right logic and arguments as to why someone should trust in Jesus and follow Him, but people can still reject Him.

\\ But, when we pray...There’s tremendous power in prayer!

\\ Prayer goes straight to the heart.

Ask others to pray with you about the people you know who don’t yet know Jesus.

Well, what are we supposed to pray about as a group?”

\\ \\ Well one of the things is given to us in Colossians 4:3.

Look at it in your outline... \\ “Pray for us that God will give us the opportunity to tell people His message.”

\\ You see this over and over again that Paul asks for others to pray for him as He share’s the gospel – the Good News – with others.

\\ Paul saw the need for others to pray for him.

\\ If the Apostle Paul needed pray, don’t we too?

\\ We pray for opportunities to share with others who don’t yet know Jesus – our friends, loved ones, family members, people we care about.

\\ And, you know what?

As we pray for opportunities, guess what happens?

Yep.

All kinds of opportunities open up.

We just have to be aware of them.

And so we pray.

We pray that God would open up opportunities.

And we pray that we would be aware of those opportunities.

\\ \\ Will you write this down?

\\ ‘Prayer makes me aware.’

[Repeat] \\ \\ When you start praying for your family, then you start seeing the needs of your family.

\\ When you start praying for your friends, you start seeing the needs of your friends.

\\ When I start praying for your coworkers, you start getting concerned about your coworkers.

Prayer makes you aware! \\ \\ And so, here’s the first action step is sharing the Good News: Make a group prayer list, and then share it with each other.

\\ I want you to ask everybody in your small group, “Name one person that you would really like to know the Lord but they don’t know the Lord yet.”

And we’ll all share those names, and we’ll make a list of six names or seven names or ten names or whatever.

And then, start praying for each other’s friends or each other’s family, and everybody starts praying.

And people you know and love will begin having a lot of people praying for them.

\\ Won’t that be great?

There’s power in prayer!

\\ \\ So the P in ‘PARTNER’ stands for prayer.

\\ Next, ‘A’ in ‘PARTNER’ stands for... \\ \\ APPEAL TO COMMON INTERESTS \\ \\ Before you can share the Good News with anybody, you have to establish a relationship with them.

\\ Before you can reach them, you must relate to them.

\\ So you find out, ‘What do we have in common?

What do we like to talk about?

What do we have… common experiences?

Common interests?

Common needs?

Common hurts?

Do we like to fish?

Do we like to golf?

Do we like to cook?

Do we like to shop?

Do we like to sleep?

Do we have kids?

Are we interested in soccer, baseball or basketball or whatever?’

\\ \\ So the second step, if you’re getting your group to reach out, is to discover the common interests in your group.

\\ \\ Again, the Apostle Paul is a good example for us here.

Look what he says in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23.

Let’s look at it together... \\ You will be able to reach people that I cannot reach, many times, because of the common interests you share with them.

\\ It could be hobbies your interested in.

\\ It could be the life situation you are in.

\\ It could be the background that you’ve had in life.

\\ \\ You have things in common with others.

\\ Look for the common ground.

\\ You like football?

Invite your friends to watch the game with you.

\\ You like to cook?

Invite your friends over to learn how to cook a new dish.