Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

The last few days I have been on full time dad duty with my wife being on a trip with her mom and some friends in NYC.

Spending time with my son Isaiah has been a blast but it has also been tiresome at times.

Friday, the Walmart that is closing on campus had the entire store marked down to 50% off everything.

I figured it wouldn’t be that crowded but I sure was wrong.

I pull up and there is barely a parking spot, all the shopping carts were gone, and you could barely get in the store.

So I finally found a shopping cart, loaded Isaiah and was determined to head into the storm and get something for 50% off.

The shopping trip was going well until Isaiah decides to grab the fishing rod from the buggy and slap me in the face.

With so many people around, he not only slapped me in the face but started swinging it around and hitting others as they went by.

The shopping trip was going well until Isaiah decides to grab the fishing rod from the buggy and slap me in the face.

With so many people around, he not only slapped me in the face but started swinging it around and hitting others as they went by.

Any parent knows there comes a time when you have to break down and take something away from a kid but your very nervous because that kid is going to pitch a huge fit.

So I took the fishing rod away and luckily Isaiah didn’t scream too loud.

I think about that moment and it reminded me that there are going to be many times in the course of his life that I am going to have to take something away from him or steer him in a direction he isn’t currently going because according to Scripture as a father, I am called to shepherd my son and point him to Jesus.

If you had the privilege to come to the parenting conference our church hosted last year, we had a guy named Tedd Tripp come and share with us about how to shepherd a Child’s heart, in fact there is a book titled “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” and one of the things that Tripp writes is that as parents or shepherds, we must apply the Gospel to our child’s hearts carefully and consistently.

The Apostle Paul does this with the church at Philippi.

He shepherds them carefully and consistently.

As we look in this morning, we are going to look at the Apostle Paul giving the church sound advice on how to walk in a way that pleases the Lord.

I’m going to ask you to turn there in your Bible’s this morning.

Philippians

We only have a couple weeks left of this study through the book of Philippians and as we near the end, Paul concludes this letter with some extremely helpful advice for the church at Philippi.

Paul is addressing the church when it comes to struggles they are dealing with but he addresses the church in a way a shepherd would tend to their sheep.

Paul is firm but loving at the same time because his ultimate aim in this letter is to point the church to depend on Jesus.

Paul’s ultimate aim for the church at Philippi in these verses is unity.

Paul desired for these people to remain unified but also continue to strive for unity because so often, flesh gets in the way and there will be arguments and division, but in order for this church to maintain health, they had to settle their differences and become unified in Christ.

I want us to notice Paul’s language in V 1.

Notice he says’ “my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown.

Paul loved these believer’s so much that he continuously longed to be with him.

It’s interesting to note that Paul’s ministry was filled with trials and suffering and thinking of the amazing things that the church at Philippi was doing.

Not only did it encourage Paul that this church was doing well but he longed to be with them again.

The phrase Paul used to describe the church was that the church at Philippi was his joy and crown .

This referred to Paul finding joy in knowing the believer’s at Philippi and having them as partners in the Gospel.

The crown speaks of the reward that Paul would receive in heaven because of the fruit and the growth of the Philippians.

Paul gives a clear introduction to his idea about Unity, now he gives some extremely practical guidance for the church to remain in unity and link arms with one another for the sake of loving Jesus and leading others to know and love Jesus as well.

So I hope you’re taking notes this morning, I want to break these verses down into four parts concerning unity and the clear instruction that Paul gives regarding a unified church.

1.

A united Church stands on the promises of God.

V.

1.

A united Church stands in the Lord.

V. 1 “Stand firm thus in the Lord my beloved”

1.

A united Church stands on the promises of God.

V.

One of the most important truths we read in this entire passage are Paul’s words for the church to stand firm in the Lord.

The city where the church of Philippi was populated with military families and there’s a good chance Paul was giving this illustration of standing firm in the Lord the same way soldiers stand with one another in battle.

Paul exhorted this church to stand firm and not give in to disunity, turmoil, or wrong values.

Think with me for a moment the importance of a group of soldiers at war together.

In order for the soldiers to accomplish the mission, they must be unified.

If the soldiers are not unified, they will be defeated.

The same goes for the church.

A church that is not standing in the Lord but wastes time on fighting, bickering, and gossip will not be effective in accomplishing the mission God has for it.

The opposite should be true of God’s people.

God’s people should strive side by stand while everyone is standing on the promises of God.

This idea brought back to memory a hymn I remember singing growing up.

The second verse in thy hymn says’

“Standing on the promises than cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living Word of God I shall prevail, standing on the promises of God”

When a church stands together on the promises of God, a church prevails against evilness and darkness.

May our constant prayer as a church body be “Lord, may we stand firm in You.” Father, may we strive side by side with our brothers and sisters so that we can be effective.

Lord, we stand on your promises and nothing else.”

In order for a church to stand unified, a church must recognize that standing unified in the Lord is the only thing that will ignite a church to be effective in the battle.

It’s like I told someone just this week, We may disagree on secondary issues but if our main thing is Jesus and honoring Him, then we can put aside our differences and move forward to effectively minister to others in name of Jesus.

What’s amazing is that Paul isn’t giving them orders to March but he’s giving them orders to stand.

Paul has been talking constantly in this letter of standing on the promises of the Lord.

As a believer, or as a church, if we are standing on anything besides the Lord, we will fail.

So the first truth we read from Paul addressing church unity is that a unified church stands in the Lord.

2. A united church shows gentleness toward one another in order to point to Jesus.

2. A united church shows gentleness toward one another.

After studying this letter in depth, we have seen several instances of Paul telling the church to strive for unity.

Chapter 1:9 Paul’s desire was to see the church of Philippi’s love about more and more.

Chapter 2: Paul had urged the church to be of one spirit and one purpose.

Chapter 3: Paul wrote for the church to join with others in imitating him.

Chapter 4, Paul specifically addresses a situation going on in the church that is causing division.

The drama is being caused between two women: Euodia and Syntyche.

Studying the passage, there is no way of knowing the exact conflict or disagreement these two women had but Paul calls them out in this letter to work out their differences.

The argument between the two women must have been serious enough for the church to let Paul know about it.

So he addresses it.

Paul urges them to “agree in the Lord.”

This encourages the women to have the same attitudes and values that Christ had.

We talked about humility and Christ’s example of humility by taking on the cross.

If these women would apply that to their lives’ and their situation, no matter what it was that was dividing them, they could get past it by looking to the cross.

When it’s all said and done, God desires his children to work out their differences.

Having conflict with another believer or having conflict in the church is not honoring to the Lord.

Not being willing to work out a difference stems from a prideful attitude that needs to be repented of.

I pray that if you have anything against a brother or a sister in Christ, that you do everything you can to work it out and honor the Lord.

For that is a reflection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We can forgive whatever someone has done to us when we compare it to what Jesus forgave us on the cross.

The cross enables a life that forgives wrongdoing because the cross shows us the ultimate example of forgiveness.

Every single sin you have or will commit was laid on Jesus on the cross.

You are totally forgiven.

When we think on that type of forgiveness, forgiveness should be at the center of our relationship with others.

Paul not only addresses the situation between these two Christian women, but he goes on to say in V. 4-5.

I want us to pay close attention to the phrase “let your reasonableness be known to everyone”

Another way to translate reasonableness is gentleness.

So Paul is encouraging the church to strive for unity by showing gentleness to one another.

When Christians model gentleness, they point to a loving and merciful savior.

With this gorgeous weather the Lord has blessed us with the last few days, I’ve taken several walks.

I love the outdoors and any chance I get to be outside, I take it.

One of my favorite things to do it walk around my neighborhood.

The other day, I loaded up Isaiah in his stroller and took my dog on a walk.

My walk was a little different than normal because I got stopped by two neighbors and a 30 minute walk turned in to a 3 hour walk after talking to my neighbors about various topics.

This was the first time I had talked to either of these neighbors but I kid you not that both of them talked to me about how much they despised the neighbors that lived around them.

They talked about the drama and arguing that they had with their next door neighbors.