Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Good morning.

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those and turn with me to Philippians chapter 2.

How are all of you doing this morning?

Good?

Today we have landed in an incredible passage in our sermon series through ’m really excited to be teaching this morning because of this.

If you are joining us for the first time let me just catch you up to speed before we jump into our text this morning.

The title of this sermon series is Living is Christ.

We are looking at how for the life of a disciple of Jesus… Jesus is their life.

We get this title from last week’s text where Paul says in chapter 1 verse 21,

21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

If you were with us last week for house church we unpacked this a little bit.

If we are Jesus’s then we win whether we live or we die.

If you remember, Paul is in prison and he is using his imprisonment as an opportunity to share the gospel and disciple the guards who are literally chained to him.

Paul says that if we remain on this earth then that means that we are able to live on mission and see people changed by Jesus.

We are able to see God do incredible things through the most unlikely people.

We talked about this last week.

Paul is chained to Roman guards and at the end of the book we learn that some of them may have believed in Jesus.

When Paul closes this letter to the Philippian church he says...

22 All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household

God can and does save the people that we least expect him to.

If we were with us last week we considered the question: Who in you sphere of influence do you believe, either consciously or subconsciously, is too far gone that they will never believe the gospel?

And then we talked about how God is the one who does the saving so we can trust him to do great things through the preaching of his gospel.

Paul says in 1:21 that not only is living with Christ a win for a believer but so is dying because that means that we will be with the Lord forever.

When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, he said to Martha,

“I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.

26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Even when we die we will live!

How great is that?

So this morning we are in Philippians chapter 2 verses 1-11.

And we are talking about two incredibly important topics for the life of the church and this is so necessary for our own church because we are so young.

We are looking at the themes of Unity within the body… the church… and Humility.

We are going to see why unity is important and how humility is directly related to that.

and then we will talk about Jesus our ultimate example of humility.

So if you have your Bibles open to look with me starting at verse 1.

And I am reading from the Christian Standard Bible...

2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

CHRIST’S HUMILITY AND EXALTATION

5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God,

did not consider equality with God

as something to be exploited.

7 Instead he emptied himself

by assuming the form of a servant,

taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man,

8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death—

even to death on a cross.

9 For this reason God highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow—

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth—

11 and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Prayer

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t.

“What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus.

“These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”

“Which channel do you want?” asks Linus.

Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”

I know this isn’t the first time that I used Charlie Brown for an illustration but they are so good.

In a Peanuts cartoon Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t.

“What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus.

“These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”

“Which channel do you want?” asks Linus.

Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”

Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002).

If we want to be effective in our context and if we want to be pleasing to Lord Jesus then we must be united as a church.

I don’t know if any of you guys have ever experienced a church split.You guys would not believe the things that churches fight over and people will cause division over.

Thom Rainer works with a lot of churches around the country.

On his website he gives a list of 25 crazy things that churches fight over and some even split over.

Listen to a couple of these...

1. Argument over the appropriate length of the worship pastor’s beard (I think I saw a verse in Scripture that indicated it is to be no more than 1.5 inches longer than the pastor’s beard.).

2. Fight over whether or not to build a children’s playground or to use the land for a cemetery (I’m dying to know the resolution of this one.).

3. A deacon accusing another deacon of sending an anonymous letter, and deciding to settle the matter in the parking lot (The church could have sold tickets to this event and raised a lot of money.).

4. A church dispute of whether or not to install restroom stall dividers in the women’s restroom (I’m calling unfair on this one.

The men should have their stall dividers too.).

5.

A church argument and vote to decide if a clock in the worship center should be removed (I think this one is a timely argument.)

6.

A 45-minute heated argument over the type of filing cabinet to purchase: black or brown; 2, 3, or 4 drawers (This one is an official cabinet meeting of the church leadership.).

7. A fight over which picture of Jesus to put in the foyer (I just want to know who took the pictures.).

8.A petition to have all church staff clean shaven (No church planters are allowed.).

These stories are funny but they are real.

When I was a little kid I was apart of a small church over on the westside.

This church has experienced so much disunity that they have split multiple times.

It’s a wonder that they are still there.

And this is where we are in our text.

If you remember Epaphroditus came to see Paul and Paul writes this letter to the Philippian church to be delivered by Epaphroditus.

Paul was concerned when he learned from Epaphroditus that the Philippian church was showing signs of disunity.

So we are going to look at Paul’s response to him hearing about the church in Philippi showing signs of disunity.

Why is unity so important for the church?

1. Unity keeps Christ at the center.

Ephesian 1:10b, Paul says,