Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

I want to begin this morning by talking about food.

I want you to think of your favorite food that you order on a regular basis when you go to your favorite restaurant.

Now, what are the ingredients that make up your favorite food?

What if one of those ingredients were missing?

It would change the entire taste of the food right?

It’s hard to narrow it down but one of my favorite things to eat are Chicken Wings.

But, one of the things I love about Chi

Now, Blue Cheese is either one of those things you like or hate.

There isn’t really an in-between.

But I love Blue Cheese.

For me, Blue Cheese is essential for enjoying my favorite food.

It’s a key

What is the key ingredient to a successful Church?

What is the key ingredient to a successful Church.

What does it take for a church to be successful in l

Is it having state of the art facilities or programs?

Is the key ingredient to a successful Church having unlimited resources of money?

Is the key ingredient to a successful church having a certain number of attendees weekly?

Is the key ingredient

It’s amazing that by not including one ingredient in something you make can change the entire

Background

Background

We are taking the next several weeks to walk verse by verse through the book of Philippians.

I am very excited about this study.

Praying through Scripture and praying about what to preach as we enter 2019, I kept coming back to doing a study on the book of Philippians.

A study verse by verse of Philippians is different from a topical study that we often do.

While topical studies are not necessarily bad, there are many benefits of studying a book verse by verse.

A few of them include:

1. Studying a book of the Bible verse by verse helps us look at the entire counsel of God.

I have been guilty at times in my walk with Christ to go to certain passages I like or even understand.

Going verse by verse through a book will help us not skip over anything but study the entire book of the Bible and be able to understand God’s word in context.

2. Studying a book of the Bible verse by verse helps us to tackle the hard verses.

I have been guilty at times in my walk with Christ to go to certain passages I like or even understand.

Going verse by verse through a book will help us not skip over anything but study the entire book including the difficult passages.

3. Studying a book of the Bible verse by verse helps us to understand God’s word in context.

There are many people led astray because they take one or two verses out of context.

They build an entire idea around one or two verses and if those verses were read within context of the entire book, the reader could have avoided taking the verse out of context.

As we study Philippians each week, my prayer is that God will help us understand this wonderful book and allow us to see exactly how we can apply the truths we read about to our life.

The title of this sermon series is Philippians: Unity, Humility, Joy.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to see the idea of these three things throughout this letter.

Philippians: Unity, Humility, Joy.

Background:

Before we get into the meat of the passage, I want to give a brief background to the letter of Philippians.

The apostle Paul penned this letter to the church at Phillipi under the inspiration of God.

We know that Paul was imprisoned at the time he was writing this letter as V. 7 he calls the believers in Philippi partakers or partners in the gospel even while he is in prison.

The church at Philippi was very special to Paul because it was the first church he helped plant in present day Europe.

The main theme we see throughout the book is encouragement.

The apostle Paul encourages the believers to live and grow their new life in Jesus Christ.

We know that compared to other churches we read about in the New Testament, that the church at Philippi was pretty healthy, but Paul did not want the believer’s to sit back and relax but keep pressing forward because the Gospel is too glorious to simply sit still and not live out and share with others.

The title of this sermon series is Philippians: Unity, Humility, Joy.

As we walk verse by verse through this amazing book, we are going to see these three ideas emphasized and I pray this study will be an encouragement and also a challenge to us as individual believers but also to our corporate body of believers as we press forward in 2019 and make disciples for the glory of the Lord.

This morning, we are going to break down V. 1-11 and we can break this passage down into three parts: Salutation, Thanksgiving, Prayer.

Salutation:

After reading the salutation in V. 1-2 We learn three things about the book of Philippians.

The Authors: Paul and Timothy: We know that Timothy was Paul’s disciple and he was very well known at the church at Phillipi.

One of the main reasons that he is mentioned here is because he was on the team that helped start the church at Phillipi and Paul was going to send him to the church shortly after writing this letter.

The Audience: The Saints at Phillipi together with overseeers and deacons.

Paul was writing this letter to the “Saints” also meaning those set apart by God and becoming more like Jesus Christ.

He was also addressing the overseers and deacons which would have referred to offices in the church at that time.

The Audience: The Saints at Phillipi

The Greeting: Grace and Peace to from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Greeting:

Paul begins this letter with a solid Gospel truth.

Notice that he lists Grace before Peace.

This is the idea that once someone experiences grace through Jesus Christ, they can then experience peace in a way that nothing else can bring.

From the greeting we know that Paul is going to continuously remind the believers at the church at Phillipi of the grace and peace they have in God through Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

V. 3-8 Paul gives his Thanksgiving for the church and makes a warm statement about how thankful and grateful he is for the church at Phillipi.

Let’s read V 3-8 again:

Paul pours his heart out to the church in these verses and shows true love and joy for the people in this church.

V. 3: Paul is making his prayer with joy.

V. 7: Paul holds the people in his heart.

V. 8: Paul yearns for the church at Phillipi with the affection of Jesus Christ.

As we study Philippians it’s important to note that this letter was written out of complete love from Paul and his desire was for the readers to know his heart and know that everything he was about to write them was out of a true love and joy he had for them because of their partnership in the Lord.

His joy came from knowing that the believers at this church loved the Lord and they were growing in their walk with Christ.

Prayer

After his Thanksgiving in 3-8, Paul then moves on to prayer.

I want to spend the majority of our time this morning on these three verses because the Apostle Paul’s prayer gives us the key ingredient to a successful church.

Let’s read V. 9-11 again and we will find out.

These verses answer the question: “What is the key ingredient to a successful church?”

We find the answer to a successful church in V. 9.

Looking at V. 9, The ingredient is “Love.”

The key ingredient for a successful church is love.

We can learn so much from Paul’s prayer to the church at Phillipi and it all starts with Paul’s petition for the church to “Abound in love”

If we want to see God do incredible things at FBA and be used by God to reach this world with the Gospel, we must abound in love or another way to put it is to continue and have excessive love for Jesus First and each other second.

So from Paul’s prayer, we learn three things about a loving church and Paul gives these three pieces of wisdom to the church at Phillipi if they want to continue being effective with the Gospel.

1.

A loving church models humility.

1.

A loving church models humility.

We see love in the context of “Agape” love in this passage and refers to an expression of love.

Our first love as Christians is Jesus Christ because we know that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone and we are hopeless and helpless without the love of God through Jesus.

Love is also practiced among believers because God intends for His children to love one another.

Listen to the words of

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.