Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

It has been an incredible journey through the book of Philippians the last several weeks.

We began this study back in January and we are finally bringing it to a close this morning.

My prayer is that as we’ve studied this letter, that you have seen the themes of unity, joy, and love throughout and that ultimately, the letter written to the Philippians is about Jesus.

At the end of this letter, we learn even more about the church of Phillipi and the compassion they had for others.

Throughout the history of the early church, churches we read about in the NT were known for something.

Sometimes its a good thing and sometimes its a bad thing.

Romans: We see a picture of a church that was stood out for it’s faith.

Ephesus: Known for it’s hard work.

Corinth: Known for its division and moral laxity.

Laodicea: Apostasy

Thessalonica: doctrinal disputes.

When we look at the Church of Philippi, we see a positive distinguishing characteristic.

The church at Philippi was known for being the example of Christ in the way they showed compassion and stewardship.

Now we know that the church at Philippi was not perfect.

However, they strived to honor the Lord in the way they used their resources to bless others.

As Paul concludes his letter to the church at Philippi, we are going to read him pouring out his heart to the church while teaching them some important lessons as he concludes the letter.

Oftentimes we can look over the ending of a letter and neglect to see the importance of it.

We cannot skip over what Paul is teaching the church at Philippi in these verses because there are some practical application for our lives’ as believers.

I believe that the ending of this letter wraps up much of Paul’s aim in teaching the Philippians thus far.

In fact, there are six things that the Apostle Paul teaches from his closing.

Gratitude (V 10)

Paul gives a last thank you to the believers at the church of Philippi and this time he rejoices in the Lord for other believer’s coming alongside him and helping him.

Paul rejoicing in the Lord encourages these believers because Paul’s ultimate goal in all of his ministry was to magnify the name of the Lord and now he is praising God for the church at Philippi and the sacrifices they have made to take care of him.

While studying this passage, I was taken back by Paul’s words toward the end of the verse: “You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.”

After doing some research, this could either mean that it was due to the church’s poverty or the fact they had no access to Paul for why the gifts they sent Paul may have been delayed.

Paul notes though that they were concerned or cared for Paul and although the gift they sent him might have been delayed, they still had concern for Paul all along.

Last week, it was so incredible to have Karlie Hale with us from One Love Community Church in Cleveland, OH.

If you didn’t know, we have a partnership with the church.

We are sending our second team there this summer, we’ve collected gloves & scarfs for the church, and I’m praying the Lord will open up other opportunities to partner with them.

One of the most encouraging things about Karlie coming was he sharing the stories and the impact that One Love is having on their community and he was genuinely thankful that FBA has come alongside them to help spread the gospel.

That is what Kingdom work looks like.

We partner with brothers and sisters not only in Cleveland, but around the world in order that people may hear the Gospel preached and come to faith in Christ.

We should be grateful to even have the opportunity to partner with other believer’s to spread the Gospel.

Even more than that, we should be thankful for when others bless us.

It can be as simple as saying “Thank You” or writing a “Thank You” note, but if someone has blessed you, make sure to thank them because they are a gift of God.

Believer’s show gratitude in a way that points to the goodness and grace of God.

You can practice this today.

If there is someone in this room that has blessed you or anyone that has blessed you recently.

Go to them today and Thank them.

Express your gratitude to them.

Contentment (V.

11-13)

Contentment (V.

11-13)

Philippians

One of the most quoted verses by athletes is “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Our student ministry went to a conference this past Fall called “Hearts on Fire”

Tim Tebow was the keynote speaker and talked about wearing that verse on his eye black for every regular season game that year.

There’s nothing wrong with an athlete holding to that verse but when you take that verse by itself, it may sound like the verse is saying we can anything we want because Christ strengthens us.

When the team went to the championship, he decided to change to and that night, there were over 94 million people that googled during that game.

It’s a really cool story, and God gets the glory for so many people

I want us to look at this verse as it appears in context because it is referring to something a little different than most people think.

Paul’s goal in these three verses in to teach true contentment.

He is responding to the gift the church of Philippi had sent him but he wants them to know that his ultimate contentment is in Christ.

Notice Paul’s statement in V. 12: I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.

Whether in the great times or whether in the hard times, Paul has learned to place his contentment where it should be and that is Jesus.

What an incredible idea, because in all honesty, when I go through a trial and a difficult situation, I do not look at it as a blessing at the time.

However, there have been difficult circumstances in my life that have caused me to depend more and more on Christ and because of that I am a stronger believer.

Listen, you might be going through a tough time right now.

Whether it’s at work or family or friends or just life in general.

Find your contentment in Christ.

You may be beyond blessed right now.

Maybe you’re coming off the best week of your life.

Don’t trust in yourself or your own abilities.

Find you contentment in the Lord.

God often leads us to places of blessing and places of difficulty to bring us to a place where we can trust Him above all.

We’ve all had different paths in this life.

We’ve all struggled with different things and we’ve all been blessed with different things but we must come to agreement that God is on His throne and we can all find our ultimate satisfaction and contentment in Him.

So this leads us to 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

When we look at that verse in context, we do not see that we can do anything in regard to a sport, a talent, you fill in the blank.

What we see is Paul saying that he has learned to be dependent on Christ in the good times and the bad times.

God may not give you what you want but that’s ok, because He always knows whats best and He is working out his Will in your life through the good times and the hard times.

Reliance upon Christ grows stronger and stronger with our life’s situations, whether that be when everything is positive and encouraging or when everything seems tough and you feel like quitting.

My encouragement for you today from this verse is.

“Don’t give up.”

Satan will try and make you feel defeated and try and steal your joy but Paul teaches in this verse that Christ is our strength and He is always working in and through us no matter what.

Listen to

What an incredible promise we have this morning.

God will never leave nor forsake us.

His promises hold true for us today and he will always be with us even when we may feel he is not.

So Paul teaches these believers contentment.

Let’s look at the next concept we see Paul describing and that is Partnership:

Partnership (V 14-16)

Partnership (V 14-16)

Partnership (V 14-16)

These verses highlight the special relationship that Paul had with the church at Philippi.

Early on in Paul’s ministry when he left Phillipi, although the church was young, they partnered with him by supporting him in advancing the Gospel and planting other churches.

The church could have easily been upset with Paul for leaving but instead they had a Kingdom mindset and supported Him as he left to do true Kingdom work.

FBA has several ways we partner with others that are taking the Gospel to areas that have not been reached with the Gospel.

Cleveland, OH as I mentioned before, Leslie & Jeff Vanvactor in Honduras, The cooperative program is in our budget to give to and it supports missionaries all over the place.

It’s encouraging to be part of a giving church but we must never grow content with what we do but look for new ways and new opportunities to partner with others.

One of the commentaries I was reading on this verse gave a warning though that it’s so easy to throw money at partnerships, but praetorships are more than a financial sacrifice.

It’s interesting but many churches are moving to the idea of being a “Partner” instead of a “Member.”

I’m not saying it’s wrong to call those that join a church a member because that is what we do at FBA but the idea of a partner is someone who is involved in the work of the church in partnering with others instead of having the mentality that they are at a church to only benefit from the ministries offer and not get involved.

There’s a church that has a really cool saying “Membership means Ministry.”

That’s the idea that if you are a member, you are expected to be involved and use your gifts and talents to serve the church in some type of capacity.

When we have a discover FBA class, we go over the idea with new members that we expect all of our members to be involved in ministry at FBA and use their gifts to serve the Lord.

That is not just a feel good thing.

It’s a Biblical concept.

teaches the importance of using our gifts to serve the body and that the body of Christ is made up of a variety of people with a variety of gifts and the body is ineffective when the parts are not working properly.

We cannot have the mentality that someone else will do the work and we will sit back and relax.