Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Tim Keller story about carrying the rock for jesus and carrying the rock for yourself.

Rejoice

For Paul it is no trouble to remind his brothers and sisters in Christ to rejoice in the Lord.

A better way to understand this verse is Paul does not hesitate to write them again reminding them to Rejoice in the Lord.

For Paul it is a joy to remind this church that is dear to him to rejoice in the Lord.

In the midst of suffering the best action a person can take is to take the position of rejoicing.

Stability in the Christians life comes from rejoicing in the Lord.

Think back to Timothy and Epaphroditus.

Paul rejoiced in what God did through both of these men.

Timothy drove Paul to rejoice in the Lord because of his proven worth, and his genuine care for the church.

Epaphroditus as a source of rejoicing because he was willing to serve the cause of Christ even when it nearly cost him his life.

Paul is rejoicing in God who showed mercy to allow these men to become who they were.

Paul was not rejoicing in what these men did devoid of the source of their strength.

Rather because their source of strength was the Lord, Paul rejoiced that God was working in these men as they were serving the purposes of Christ.

The rejoicing that Paul is stressing finds it source in the Lord.

Paul was looking beyond the circumstances and the effort of the individual men and seeing who was the source of their movements, strength, and endurance.

What I find difficult with an idea like rejoicing is my lack of familiarity with rejoicing.

It is often awkward to express joy in what God is doing.

It can feel fake at times.

But ultimately this is what we all need.

We must exercise our rejoicing muscles so to speak so that it is no longer awkward, or difficult.

I envision at this moment Jesus making his way to Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

Palm branches, and cloaks all being laid on the ground before he passes and every declaring, “Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!”

It was the people rejoicing in God and in His Messiah!”

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest!”

How do we cultivate this habit of praise and rejoicing.

Praise and rejoicing after all can be spontaneous but more often than not should be a regular habit.

From looking at this text of Philippians the first step I see is looking for God at work in all situations and circumstances.

Remember in this letter how Paul is rejoicing in his imprisonment because the gospel is being spread throughout the whole imperial guard.

Paul is separated from his friends on trial for a crime he did not commit, and still finds a way to see God at work in this miserable situation.

Where is God at work around you?

Where can God use you to bring glory to his name?

How can you rejoice when nothing seems to go right?

How can you rejoice in God when interruptions come your way?

Where is God at work when things are going well?

Who do you see God working in?

When is the last time you rejoiced with that person by telling them how you see God at work in their lives?

Perhaps now writing a few notes down about where God is at work would be a good exercise.

Making plans to share them with someone today so that your joy might spread.

The second step I see is to put into practice the mind of Christ, humility and sacrifice for the joy of it.

I admit that the hardest behavior for anyone to cultivate is true humility and sacrifice.

But if we truly consider others more important than ourselves and we look out for the interests of others before our own, joy will come.

Joy will come in the self sacrifice because you are behaving like Jesus.

And joy will come to the one served because you are being the hands and feet of Jesus.

I have a hard time asking for help, anyone else?

And yet when I asked a few guys to help me carry on the task of patching my driveway, they humbly served and I cannot tell you the joy it brought to my heart.

Anyone else have a story similar to that.

Where you served and you were blessed with joy and so was the one you were serving.

How do we cultivate the attitude of rejoicing, we sacrifice and humbly serve like Jesus so that others can experience Jesus.

If you say you don’t have the time for putting others first, I would challenge how much you can grow to be like Christ.

Finally, we do everything for the glory of God and not my own glory.

The “why” we do something is more important than doing that something.

Who do we want to be praised at the end of the day, me or Jesus?

What do we expect to get out of sacrificing and humbly serving?

For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross.

The joy of honoring his heavenly father, the joy of completing his God given task.

Notice scripture does not say Jesus died so people would praise Him.

Jesus laid down his life to prove the pharisees wrong.

Jesus did all he did so Satan could finally be silenced from all his antagonizing.

Jesus humbled himself before the father to the point of death on a cross and because Jesus honored the father, the father gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and tongue confess Jesus is Lord.

Do we serve so we will hear well done from the people we serve or from the God we serve?

Do we serve to have a favor to cash in later, or do we serve knowing Jesus cashed it all in for us?

Rejoicing is the way to saturate our lives in the gospel.

We rejoice in God and what he has done.

This is the remedy to our culture.

Our culture tells us to achieve so that we can be valued.

We should work hard and do right so we can earn our due rewards.

But rejoicing in Jesus and what He has done changes our lives to know that we cannot be good enough we cannot earn enough, we will never be satisfied.

“Our hearts remain restless till they find their rest in Thee, O God!”

And all around us we hear the false hope given by people driven to accomplish.

In our jobs, hobbies, relationships it is not wrong to seek accomplishments, but it all comes back to motives.

In religion a drive to accomplish is horrifyingly bad.

The false hope of working hard to earn from God will leave all of use burnt out, disappointed, and potentially walking away from the faith.

The False Hope of Works

The False Hope of Works

Paul warns against working hard to earn God’s favor.

That there is a minimum requirement of conduct to enter heaven.

In Paul’s day it was the Judiazers who would come to gentile towns like Philippi and tell them Jesus is not enough, you have to have Jesus plus Circumcision.

Paul cals circumcision a mutilating of the flesh.

He calls them dogs and evildoers.

Our ears are not attuned to hear how vial Paul’s language is at this point.

Dogs were not lovable, huggable pets and companions.

They were regarded as they most despicable and miserable creatures around.

they would eat anything including their own vomit.

So calling religious leaders dogs was kind of like the worst your mama joke going.

Not only that Paul calls these leaders who depend on works evildoers.

They work evil because they turn people away from Christ and towards their good deeds like circumcision, and obeying the law more than the law of Christ.

They are harming people tricking them into something that is Jesus plus.

Jesus plus anything ruins everything.

Jesus plus circumcision was saying you can trust Jesus but there is a list of rules to follow as well and depending on how well you follow the rules determines how much God will like you.

Oh and to be seen as one of God’s people there is a special sign each of us has, yes you heard me right we must circumcise you to prove you love God.

Not only this put in the pagan cultures of the gentiles who mutilated their flesh in order to gain favor from the gods they worshipped.

the best picture of this is Elijah and the prophets of Baal in the OT.

The prophets of Baal were praying and attempting to have Baal light the alter on fire through their prayers and they ended up cutting themselves.

This is mutilating oneself to gain favor with a deity.