Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAYER

The Situation

people are not getting along

if anyone was falling asleep during the reading of this church in Philippi, anyone nodding off, they would have sat up at this point.

Paul is naming people.

Is he gonna name me?

he does not take a side

he doesn’t point out that they were being selfish

One stole from the other, talked behind their back or was rude.

nothing

but these are what we would call good people.

They are just to sensible people, who serve the church well, love Jesus who are having a disagreement.

They are just to sensible people, who serve the church well, love Jesus who are having a disagreement.

And Paul ask the leader of the church in Philippi (we are not sure who it was) and the church to help these women figure it out; in community.

He then unfolds a manual of sorts to steer clear of the kids of things that would get us off the life that God has invited us into.

In our relationships and within out own minds.

So HERE is the framework for what we are going to talk about today.

Don’t just live like a citizen of heaven think like one.

To live like one makes us in to what Jesus would call whitewashed tombs; beautiful and clean on the outside but full of dead mens bones on the inside.

Not only does it lack authenticity but it also steals life from you.

Don’t just live like a citizen of heaven think like one.

Our minds are complex:

Fill if connections.

Blahblahbma

Don’t just go through the motions

Our minds are complex with 12-14 billion cells communicating with each other, through 10s of thousands of tendrils, sending changing impulses.

Our minds are unparalleled computers.

Now our minds are complex:

Fill if connections.

Blahblahbma

There is more electronic equivalent in one human brain than in all the radio and television stations of the entire world.

Our minds are complex:

Fill if connections.

Blahblahbma

A Jesus wants it.

Christ wants to rule it.

That kind of power in the wrong hands can be dangerous to ourselves and others!!

Paul is inviting us into a life where that mind is ruled by Christ.

So we are not just citizens who look the part.

We think the part!

People in Philippi knew what it meant to conform.

Christians in Philippi especially knew what I meant to live under laws imposed in them.

Paul would say that as a citizen if heaven.....that is not an option.

To truly experience the life promised by Christ we must have the mind transformed by Christ.

Right!?

So it is not simply a matter of our obedience but our joy!

And if you don’t, there will be quarrelling.

If you don’t there will be anxiety

So how do we do it.

I. Rejoice (v. 4)

Rejoice Paul really!

It’s hard in Philippi!

Rejoice?

Paul do you know the difficulties I face in my life?

You wont make him flinch!!

He sees it coming and repeats himself.

YES! Paul says, “I will say it again.....REJOICE!!”

Major theme for Paul.

Phil

This is not just theoretical with Paul.

It is not the Bobby McFarren “Don’t Worry Be Happy”

It is not Pherrell Williams saying

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

Clap along if you know what happiness is to you

Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do

What?

Great song.

Makes absolutely no sense!!

Paul is not sipping coffee @ Cafe Roma, writing on his Mac, headphones on, and unaffected by reality.

He is in prison, in chains, watching enemies and dangers attack churches he planted and in fighting and not knowing whether he would live to see another day; naming the rats in his cell.

REJOICE!

I will say it again....rejoice!

If I’m honest this defies my thankless complaining nature.

This week, as usual, the Spirit of God was like a magnafine glass on my life, saying and how is this going for YOU STRELAU?

I am amazed at how much I complain.

How much of my conversation with other people is about how irritated I am with a situation or a person.

Don’t worry its never about you, or may family or the people I work with....

What is amazing in all the writing of Paul, is the complete lack of complaining about his situation!!

There is never a “man have I told you about how hard it is here!”

When he DOES mention difficulties, he tends to turn it to a positive!!

I’m in chains FOR THE GOSPEL.

I’m in prison, BUT it has allowed me to witness to the Roman guards,

That is a default of joy.- a mind overtaken by the truth and reality of the Gospel in his life.

Not in what he attained- he is in prison.

Not by his friends; most of them abandoned him; not his possessions, he has nothing.

That’s why he is qualified- and he doesn’t allow for loopholes.

When should I rejoice?

ALWAYS!

He would say- joy is the most basic and constant orientation of the Christian life, the fruit and evidence of a relationship with Jesus.

It was the song of OT psalmists as they would understand the love and power of God

;

The apostle Peter, also not a stranger to suffering for the Gospel, agrees with Paul when he says,

I Peter

I Peter 1

So the OT writers, Peter, Paul, Jesus invites the church, you and I, Christians everywhere to embrace a defiant “NEVERTHELESS”

Regardless of the situation, I will rejoice.

Not in ignorance, not in blissful denial, of very real trial and pain, but in a robust acceptance of the bigger picture and all that Jesus has accomplished, the world can throw its trouble and WILL throw its trouble NEVERTHELESS I will rejoice.

Not in my circumstance but in Christ and what He has done; and who I am in him.

Because he is not a shifting target.

Because of what Christ has done we may rejoice, we will rejoice, we must rejoice, for we rejoice in the Lord…always.”

In 1897 - Johnson Oatman Jr.