Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

A- Getting God’s perspective

Life Is like a Football Game

Have you ever watched a football game on television and seen players talking on the telephone?

What are they doing?

Talking to mom? Ordering a pizza?

The quarterback throws an interception, goes off the field, picks up a phone, and starts talking to someone.

Who in the world is he talking to?

Of course, he’s talking to someone in the press box, usually an assistant coach.

Why is he talking to a coach in the press box?

Two words: vantage point.

The coach in the press box is one hundred yards from the field.

From there, way above the field, he can see the whole field at once.

He can see the weaknesses in the opposition’s defense.

He can see what each player is doing on each play.

So, after an interception, the coach calls the quarterback on the sideline and says, “Let me tell you why that cornerback intercepted your pass and what to do differently the next time.

Next time, run with the ball rather than pass it.”

Now the quarterback may say, “That will never work in a million years.”

How does the coach respond?

He says, “Trust me.

From up here I have a much better vantage point of the whole field than you can possibly have down there in the midst of play.”

In the press box of life, God looks down on our circumstances.

God is trying to do for us exactly what the assistant coach is trying to do for that quarterback—give us the big picture.

The apostle Paul grasped the big picture very well.

As he wrote Philippians 1, he was about to be tackled for a twenty-yard loss.

Under Roman house arrest, chained to a big burly Roman guard, he was waiting trial on a capital offense before none other than the mad man himself—Nero.

Yet we find Paul rejoicing.

How can he be doing that?

How can be full of joy in the midst of adversity?

The answer?

Vantage point!

Like a master quarterback, he’s on the phone to God in the press box.

He sees his circumstances from God’s perspective.

Therefore, he has a clear understanding of what is going on on the field and why these things are happening to him.

Getting God’s big picture, vantage point, on your problems and adversities can help give you a sense of joy and peace.

Philippians 1 will challenge you to rejoice in the midst of adversity by seeing God’s perspective.

Then like Paul you can rejoice in troubling circumstances.

Life Is like a Football Game

Have you ever watched a football game on television and seen players talking on the telephone?

What are they doing?

Talking to mom? Ordering a pizza?

The quarterback throws an interception, goes off the field, picks up a phone, and starts talking to someone.

Who in the world is he talking to?

Of course, he’s talking to someone in the press box, usually an assistant coach.

Why is he talking to a coach in the press box?

Two words: vantage point.

The coach in the press box is one hundred yards from the field.

From there, way above the field, he can see the whole field at once.

He can see the weaknesses in the opposition’s defense.

He can see what each player is doing on each play.

So, after an interception, the coach calls the quarterback on the sideline and says, “Let me tell you why that cornerback intercepted your pass and what to do differently the next time.

Next time, run with the ball rather than pass it.”

Now the quarterback may say, “That will never work in a million years.”

How does the coach respond?

He says, “Trust me.

From up here I have a much better vantage point of the whole field than you can possibly have down there in the midst of play.”

In the press box of life, God looks down on our circumstances.

God is trying to do for us exactly what the assistant coach is trying to do for that quarterback—give us the big picture.

The apostle Paul grasped the big picture very well.

As he wrote Philippians 1, he was about to be tackled for a twenty-yard loss.

Under Roman house arrest, chained to a big burly Roman guard, he was waiting trial on a capital offense before none other than the mad man himself—Nero.

Yet we find Paul rejoicing.

How can he be doing that?

How can be full of joy in the midst of adversity?

The answer?

Vantage point!

Like a master quarterback, he’s on the phone to God in the press box.

He sees his circumstances from God’s perspective.

Therefore, he has a clear understanding of what is going on on the field and why these things are happening to him.

Getting God’s big picture, vantage point, on your problems and adversities can help give you a sense of joy and peace.

Philippians 1 will challenge you to rejoice in the midst of adversity by seeing God’s perspective.

Then like Paul you can rejoice in troubling circumstances.

Life Is like a Football Game

B- Background

LETTER PROFILE

• Written to the Christians in Philippi while Paul was in prison in Rome.

• The church at Philippi was founded by people whom Paul led to Christ during his first journey to that region.

• Lydia and her family and the Philippian jailer and his family may have been part of this first church (see Acts 16:14–34).

• Epaphroditus visited Paul while he was in prison to give him a financial gift and to encourage him.

Epaphroditus may have been the pastor of the church.

• The letter is written to thank the Philippian Christians for their generous financial and spiritual gifts to Paul and to address some of their practical problems.

CITY PROFILE—PHILIPPI

• A historically Greek city, named after Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.

• Located in the northern part of what is modern Greece, near the coast of the Aegean Sea.

• In New Testament times, a Roman colony (in the Roman province of Macedonia) whose citizens had Roman citizenship.

• It was a fairly large and important gold-mining town.

• Home to many pagan religious influences.

AUTHOR PROFILE—PAUL

• Jewish-born in Tarsus, near the Lebanese border in modern Turkey.

• Roman citizen.

• Prominent, highly educated Jewish religious leader (Pharisee).

• Dramatically converted to Christianity, A.D. 35.

• Primary apostle to the Gentiles.

• Tireless missionary.

• Imprisoned in Rome, A.D. 67, during the reign of Nero.

• Died in prison, A.D. 68.

THE Epistle to the Philippians was written about thirty years after the Ascension, about ten years after the first preaching of the gospel by St. Paul at Philippi.

Christianity was still young, in all the freshness of its first youth.

It had come suddenly into the world.

The world seemed growing old: the old religions had lost whatever power they once possessed; the old philosophies were worn out; the energies of political life had been weakened or suppressed by the all-pervading despotism of Rome.