Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

What is one characteristic that Christians should be known for?

Partnership in the Gospel.

We should be tied together focusing on how the gospel impacts our lives and needs to impact the lives of those around us.

Partnership beacons us to travel and help missionaries and churches reach their communities for the gospel.

Partnership in the gospel is why we gather each and every Sunday.

We gather to teach the gospel, we gather to worship the God who rescued us.

The truth is family is partnership and we have been adopted into a great family.

Partnership in the Gospel

Paul begins his closing by rejoicing in the partnership and sharing he had with the Philippians in the ministry.

It wasn’t just that the church at Philippi sent money or Epaphroditus, but they truly shared in his troubles.

The bore some of the burden with Paul.

How did they share?

They were what Paul considered partners.

The word koinonea is used once again, just as it was in the beginning of the letter.

Philippians 1:3

This word partnership means to share to have in common.

Having things in common or having a partnership is not one sided.

They cared for Paul and Paul cared for them.

Why did Paul write the letter to them? he cared about what they were experiencing and wanted to encourage them.

How did the Philippian church care for and partner with Paul?

They sent him a gift and a person to communicate the deep concern they had for Paul.

What does partnership in the gospel look like for us?

It means we rejoice and pray and support one another.

When I hear of the good things happening because a young girl in our church is sharing the gospel with classmates, I rejoice.

I praise God for the people who have invested in her, I praise God for her parents.

And we celebrate her faith.

If you have not heard the story, Hallee Inman was able to share the good news of Jesus with her classmates when they began asking questions.

We celebrate when we hear of others in our church using the gifts they have to bless others.

We celebrate and share the joy of seeing Steve Hancock use a movie about Steve McQueen to share his faith with other men.

We celebrate and are partners when we see our partners in the gospel go to El Salvador, or go to Houston because we partner it is us going.

Do you see yourself as a partner in the work of God? Will you allow yourself to rejoice when we hear of the good things people are doing because we are in the same family?

Can you be encouraged by the ministry work others do as opposed to being critical of yourself?

Will you allow God to increase your faith and increase your involvement in the sharing of the gospel?

Paul was grateful for his friends who supported his work from the beginning.

Paul’s focus is not on the gift but on the partnership and the fruit of the gospel that benefits them both.

One key thing that we can learn about partnership from Paul is how we must respond.

Paul in these closing verses is thankful for the church not solely because they gave him a gift, but because of their growth in the gospel that allowed them to sacrifice for the mission of God.

Paul is grateful for the church because they are behaving like Christians, because there is a spiritual maturity coming.

How have you seen people in this church grow in maturity in Christ?

Have you rejoiced in their progress?

Would you be willing to encourage them with a kind word?

You see there are three types of people typically found in a church.

First, there is the Christian person who is so unrestrained in their praise of people it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they control others by extravagant flattery.

Second, there are those Christians who are firmly committed to the belief that if any believer does any good in any way, it is nothing other than the product of what God is doing in them and through them and they end up offering very few praises.

Third, there is the christian who offers their thanks to God in front of other people, who gives God the glory and the believer in progress encouragement.

Paul was grateful for his friends who supported his work from the beginning.

Paul’s focus is not on the gift but on the partnership and the fruit of the gospel that benefits them both.

Seek Spiritual Fruit in Giving

Paul makes the point that he is seeking the fruit that increases to your credit according to verse 18.

This could be read, “What I desire is that more be credited to your account.”

The word fruit in a financial sense means “advantage, gain, profit.

Paul is speaking like an investment banker.

Paul desires continuously increasing profits, daily compounding of interest.

Paul’s focus is on their spiritual development and on the church in Philippi storing their treasures in heaven.

Paul desires the one bank account that matters to grow.

Colossians 3:1-2

or perhaps

Paul wants the people of Philippi to realize the gift helped but more than the gift Paul is seeking growth in spiritual fruit, a storing up for themselves treasures in heaven.

How does one do this?

When we practice what the bible preaches is when we store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.

Life transformation because of the gospel is storing up your treasures in heaven.

I don’t know if you are like me, but I focus mostly on the opportunities I missed or failed to bear fruit.

What we need is the positive of the gospel continually in our ears, and on our minds that we might bear fruit and fruit that will last.

I equate this to a sports figure or performance driven person.

When you make a mistake and it gets in your head to the point that it affects another part of your game or performance.

Like at the olympics and an ice skater misses a jump, and then that sticks with them so that they miss the next, and the failures compound.

Instead of feeling like a failure, pause and remember the gospel that you are accepted based on what Christ has done.

You can bear fruit because the spirit lives in you.

You are not defined by what you have done, but by what Christ did and what God is doing in your life.

I think of pruning in scripture.

In order for a tree to bear better fruit, it must be pruned.

our failures and missed opportunities should be reflected on as times of pruning so that we learn to bear better fruit.

In the words of Alfred, “what do we fall down sir?

So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.”

Perhaps it should be said so we can learn to let God pick us back up.

Right Giving Pleases God

The gift and the heart behind the gift lead Paul to declare that the gift sent is a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Think of how many times gifts give on the alter of god are declared unacceptable, and un pleasing to God.

One example of sin corrupting the people of God causes this declaration:

Amos 5:

or what of

Isaiah 1:

or the most infamous of all

Paul is declaring a truth we all want to hear, your gift is good.

What you have done pleases the Lord.

Put yourself in the shoes of the Philippians as they would have heard this word.

In the same way, the Philippians are poverty-stricken (), persecuted (1:28–30), and divided (2:14; 4:2), but God will nevertheless meet their needs out of his limitless resources (4:19).

Not simply despite these hardships, but through the Philippians’ obedient handling of them, God is working in them to guide them safely to salvation (cf.

2:12–13).

This is the ultimate need of God’s people, and this is the primary sense in which to understand the promise of 4:19.

They gave though they had need because they worshipped God.

I want to stress this point, the only logical reason to give money away when you are in need is God.

The call to sacrificially love as he loved.

The act of giving is an especially important topic for us.

Money is something we worship and use and seek after more than most things.

Giving done biblically is always in response to acknowledging God has given us everything, that the gospel is true and we are his because of his sacrifice, therefore he determines what we should do with our money, not us.

In our culture we use the phrase my money, my hard work, my, my, my...

All that we have is from God so the giving of those gifts is an exercise in worship, and trust, honoring God.

Why don’t people give?

They don’t believe.