Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

So I was driving through town the other day and noticed that the lumberyard here in town was putting up new signs.

What was Interstate Building Supply is now called Midtown Building Supply with a tag line of “Your Building Partner” I am guessing that the idea behind that is that there is something more inviting about having a “Partner” in your building or remodeling efforts then there is in having a place to just buy stuff.

That is good marketing.

Of course the reason that this caught my attention is because last week we began our Summer series on the book of Philippians.

We talked about how the book was first a letter (MAILBOX) sent by the Apostle Paul to the Church of Philippi to instruct them on how to live in line with what they shared in common.

Then we went into the book of Acts and found that there was very little that the founding Church partners had in common.

We met just three of them, but

There was an Asian, wealthy, fashionista who already worshiped Jehovah God

There was a Greek slave girl who was used as a fortune teller because she was possessed by a demon

And a Roman Jailer who fearing the city leaders punished Paul and his missionary team as if they were violent criminals

It is not hard to see that these three started out with very little “in common”, except that we read how each one of them was significantly changed by the power of the Gospel.

That is their link.

That is what they have in common, for all practical purposes it seems that may be all they had in common.

And I suggested to you that the fact that this Church began centered on the power of the Gospel as probably their only thing in common may be the reason that they ended up growing into such a healthy Church.

Remember we

This brings us the question that we are going to be grappling with this summer: What makes a Church a healthy Church?

What makes a Church a healthy Church?

These three

Because every indications is that despite their diverse beginnings the Church in Philippi grew to be a healthy Church.

Paul wrote other letters to Churches and in each one there is a strong corrective and disciplinary tone, except for the book of Philippians where the tone seems to be more of an encouragement to stay the course and keep doing the good and healthy things that I hear that you are doing.

The reason that Paul is hearing what the Church of Philippi is doing instead of seeing it first hand is that they are separated by nearly 800 miles and several years.

10 years have gone by since Paul first followed the leading of the Holy Spirit into the city of Philippi to preach the Gospel there.

He had returned only once that we are aware of in his third missionary journey, but we find him very affectionately writing this encouraging letter to this Church.

He clearly is very proud of their faithfulness.

The Church has been able to focus on the MAIN THING.

And of course the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

We learn of the main thing in the beginning of the letter.

After the address label and formal greeting he writes:

This is their Main thing and where we are getting our title for our Summer series.

The Philippian Church and every Church that would aim at being a healthy Church should center itself around being in Joyful Gospel Partnership with one another.

Joyful Gospel Partnership

These three thing are the bedrock on which a healthy Church is operated and over this coming summer we are going to look at each of them individually as well as how they work together to develop healthy churches.

This morning we are going to begin to look at Paul’s idea of Partnership.

Tension

This morning we

I am excited about how God has already been working upstream to pull things together for the message for this morning.

We are privileged today to have one of ministry Partners here to share with us.

The Valley Family are here with us this morning from Rio Grande Bible Institute in Edinburgh, Texas.

I would like to invite them up to share with us how God is using them in Joyful Gospel Partnership with so many different ministries and ministers around the world.

VALLEY FAMILY SHARING 10-15 minutes

Pray over the Valley Family

Truth

Thank you Valley Family for sharing with us this morning...

What I find so fitting in their presence here this morning is that just like the Valleys live and serve hundreds of miles away from the Mondovi area, we still can share in the same kind of Joyful Gospel Partnership that Paul is talking about.

In fact Texas is about 800 miles away from Mondovi, just like the Prison that Paul was writing from in Rome was 800 miles away from the city of Philippi.

Of course the Valleys live in the southern most tip of Texas so that is much further, more like 1500 miles aways but the point is that Joyful Gospel Partnership is not limited to geographic location.

It is much bigger than that.

And they play a wonderfully supportive role in seeing pastors and Bible teachers go all over the world to share in this Partnership.

Lets take a look again at the beginning of Paul’s letter”

Lets take a look again at the beginning of Paul’s letter”

Why was

Most of Paul’s letters in the New Testament begin with him telling them that this is remembering them in prayer.

For much of Paul’s ministry he was traveling from Church to Church encouraging the believers and strengthening them in their faith and when he was away from them he was faithful to remember them in Prayer.

Why was Paul writing a letter?

because He was in Prison and yet remembering the Church of Philippi affectionately!

Why would this be something that Paul would want the Churches to know?

Because the Partnership of a healthy Church is at it’s core a supernatural partnership.

It both requires AND it offers supernatural involvement.

Nothing against the new Lumberyard, but they are not advertising for a supernatural partnership.

It is a very natural one, rooted in the goal of building or remodeling homes in the physical natural world.

The goal of the Church is not to build a physical building, but to build something supernatural.

While a Church may meet in a building, a building is never a Church.

It is just the place that the a Church may gather, but it is never the Church.

The Church is built of a community of people who are partnered together in the Gospel to do a powerful supernatural work.

One of the distinctions about this kind of partnership is that

Why was Paul writing a letter?

because He was in Prison and yet remembering the Church of Philippi affectionately!

This Partnership is Powerful

This is a repeated theme in Pauls letters to the Churches he helped to plant.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul said...

We Partner together in Prayer

In his first letter to the Church in Corinth he said

The message of the Gospel, the word of the cross, it is a powerful supernatural thing.

We read last week in about how the Gospel worked powerfully in the three founding partners of the Church of Philippi.

We read last week in about how the Gospel worked powerfully in the three founding partners of the Church of Philippi.

God supernaturally opened the heart of Lydia the fashionista to go further than her worship of Jehovah to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

She responded by being baptized and hosting the Church meetings in her home.

God supernaturally worked through Paul to deliver the slave girl from the demon who tormented her, even as she followed him around declaring the truth of the Gospel.

We are not told what happened to her, but we certainly hope that experienced led her to accept those things that she was annoyingly declaring over Paul and his team.

God supernaturally caused an earthquake to open up the bonds and doors of the jail in order to open up the heart of the jailer.

Then he and his whole family responded to the Gospel and were baptized and they rejoiced when they recieved the Gospel.

God caused an earthquake in the jail so that the jailer tho

Joyful Gospel Partnership is a supernatural bond between believers that is greater than any other connection on earth.

Even death itself cannot break this bond.

Think about it.

You will be spending eternity with these people.

For some people that is very exciting prospect, in others that might be a bit concerning, but either way just as Paul did, we should be praying for each other for the supernatural work of the Gospel to take effect in our lives.

Unlike many other Churches that Paul was praying for, he prayed for the Philippian Church “with joy” and why? becauses of [their] partnership in the gospel from the first day until now”.

It was the depth of their Partnership that brought Paul such Joy when he remembered the Church at Philippi.

What did Paul mean when he said “your partnership”?

Well the Greek word there is one you might have heard of.

It is the word

“koinonia”.

We typically see this word translated something like “fellowship” but I am glad that the translators chose to use partnership here.

Too often we limit our understanding of “fellowship” to simple social gathering.

koinonia might involve this, but it is much more.

Koinonia is a sharing of something in common that forms a supernatural bond that goes beyond what we might experience at the typical graduation party or company picnic.

It goes beyond satisfying the physical needs of social interaction to satisfying the supernatural need of spiritual interaction.

This Partnership is Personal