Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

So if you were not with us last week you are probably wondering what is going on up here on the stage.

It kinda looks like someone got started on a project and then just forgot to clean up after themselves, but there is method in this madness.

Last week I showed you my brand new grill and talked about all the wonderful things that it promised to do, but as all of the parts remained seperated even as they were together in the box they were powerless to accomplish any of those things.

So the title of that message was “Assembly Required” and we talked about how that also describes a healthy Church.

We have to be assembled.

We have to come together in the way that our designer planned before this thing called Church will have the impact that is was designed to have.

We also said that this “assembly” was not just to be here inside of this box, but we also had to think “outside the box”.

We found this fleshed out in where Paul speaks of how he longs to hear that the Church there in Philippi is both “standing firm” in the faith of the Gospel and “striving side by side” for the faith of the Gospel.

If we are to be accomplish what we were designed for then we must assemble together in both Gospel Faith and in Gospel Ministry.

Tension

So to further illustrate what this looks like in the world of grills my son Eli and I set out to put this grill together.

(New Slide) Anyone who knows Eli knows that he loves to build with legos and I figured this would be kind of like a life sized logo project, complete with instructions.

When we opened the box, we found that the many parts were separated from each other in several different ways.

In some cases is was just distance.

They was nothing really blocking these pieces from each other, it just that they found themselves tucked in different sides of the box where there was this big space between them and there was nothing to draw them close together.

In other cases there were these walls that were places between the pieces.

These seemed to be there to protect the pieces from coming together in a way that would scratch, scar or damage the pieces if the box was being moved or jostled around.

Presumably put there so that these pieces wouldn’t be too so close to one another that they might scar or damage each other in the midst of times when things got rocky for the box.

They were protected from that kind of thing by these little walls that were built up between them.

We found other pieces packed together in tight little clusters.

Sometimes they were strapped together or they were inside smaller boxes that separated from the rest of the parts in the bigger box.

Some of those little groups were so tightly bound together that I had to use a knife to get them apart in order to connect them together with the rest of the grill.

you know something, those boxes were fastened so tightly that they probably didn’t even know that there even was a bigger box that they were a part of.

Finally we found that when we took out the many pieces to look at them, it was much easier to see where some of them belonged than others.

We just weren’t sure where some of the pieces fit in.

We recognized things like the wheels, the hood, grill grates and knobs but then there were these little screws and springs that we had to look up in the directions to make sure that we put them in the right place.

base, the cover, the grill plates and the knobs that everyone knows where they go.

Those are what we see when we look at a grill.

But there were other things that make up the working parts of the inside of the grill that most people might not even notices as belonging to the grill.

But without these working parts, the grill will never function as it was designed.

Tension

l the other pieces were outside b the other pieces when thingthe individual pieces would not were just on the opposite ends of the box and physical between these pieces, just space

In some cases, they were small groups of parts that were assembled in smaller boxes inside the big box.

They were connected together with each other, but they were still separated from the rest of the grill.

If they could talk, then they might tell us that they were already assembled

By now I hope that you have gotten the sense that I am not just talking about a grill anymore, because my guess is that most of us have seen similar disconnections in the assembly of a Church.

.

Looking back on our experience of assembling this grill, I can see similar things in the assemthe same kinds of things that creep up in Churches in such a way that they become useless versions of what they were designed to be.

Things like just allowing there to be distance between you and someone else because you never took the time to just walk across the room and get to know someone new.

someone else at Church instead of intentionally reaching out to them.

Or after experiencing a rough season in Church life, where things really got moving and jostled about, you have built up some protective walls so that you won’t get hurt or damaged like you once did.

Or looking around and feeling like you are on the outside of a group of insiders who claim to be your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Finding yourself on the outside of the group of insiders or

Or believing that the only roles that really matter are the up front roles in the Church, those of us who never make it up to the front of the stage really aren’t needed, it doesn’t really even matter if I play my part, I am just here to watch and listen to them.

One of the questions that we are tackling this summer is what makes a Church a healthy Church?

and today we will discover that Healthy Churches full of different people after the same thing.

The truth is that Healthy Churches are assembled of all kinds of people playing specific roles to accomplish the same goal.

The truth is that Healthy Churches are assembled of different kinds of people playing specific roles to accomplish the same goal.

who play different roles in line with the same goal.

We are not to be as concerned about which role that we play, as we are concenred that we are but more are we playing the role that God designed us for.

There was not a piece in that box that was not needed to make the grill.

Some were really big and took up most of the box and some were the smallest little screw, spring or pin but each one is needed to make the grill work as it was designed.

The same thing is true of the Church.

So the question that we each have to ask ourselves is: What “different role” has God given me to play in this Church, and how does it work to accomplish our “same goal”.

What role has God called me to play in His Church, and is it working to accomplish the shared goal of His Church.

What is the different role has God given me to play in His Church, and how does it work to accomplish our same goal.

Turn in your Bibles with me to , p 981 in the Bibles in the chairs, I’ll pray and we will look into this question together.

Our concern should not so much be which role is it that we are called to play, but more are we playing the role that God has called us to play in this thing that He designed called His Church.

Let’s look into this

How is that for incorporating Bar B Que Grill language?

1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 12:21-

Tension

Tension

Truth

Truth

So as we did last week, I would like to read through out text for today first and then we will break it down into big sized pieces (I could go all day people).

The first thing that we have to handle about these verses is the word “if”.

In this instance, there really are better English words that could be used here to get to the meaning that Paul intends but since he uses the word commonly translated as “if” that is what we see most prominently in our translations.

The problem with the word “If” is that the connotation with the word bring our mind to the idea of doubt.

As if Paul is suggesting that these things might be there, or they might not.

That is not the case, however.

Paul is certain that these things are a part of the Philippian Churches experience and that is why he leans on them to motivate the Church into his next instructions.

It probably would help us to hear more as if he is saying “since” or “because” you have experienced even a taste of these good things, that should be enough to move forward into the unity you will need to experience them fully.

So what are they experiencing as a Church, what are the things that Paul is so certain is among them that he uses it as leverage for his next instruction?

Lets take a look at them more closely.

So lets again at these four things as they are assumed realities in the Joyful Gospel Partnership that is found in any healthy Church.

If there is any Encouragement in Christ

All of that is just to say that Paul knows that these things do describe the experience of the Philippian Church and he is calling on them to remember them and to take their next steps in the affirmation that their presence should give them.

We should not move out from these things quickly however, because they could provide us with the same

1.

Encouragement in Christ

Remember “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name but his title.

It is the Greek form of the Hebrew word “Messiah” so the very first thing that Paul points to is the fulfillment of the Messianic promise in the Gospel.

The reality that we were so lost in our sins that we no hope of ever being right with God and so God promised to send the Messiah through the line of Abraham into the world to save His people.

That Messiah came, and his name is Jesus THE Christ.

He died and rose again so that we too can rise again into new life with God as He intended when He created us.

That is why each week I bring us back to the Gospel message.

It is not just something for the unbelievers need to become believers, it is also something that believers must remind each other of on a regular basis.

The remembrance of the magnitude of what God has given us in Christ should be the greatest source of encouragement that we have ever experienced.

Which begs the question, When was the last time you thanked Jesus for the gift of your salvation?

There is power in remembering that gift and giving thanks for it.

fuel our faithfulness and obedience to him.

it is something that we each need to be reminded of regularly because our faithfulness in obedience to Christ is fueled by our rememberance of how much we have been given in his sacrificial act on the Cross.

??Martin Luther and preaching the “Gospel”

2. Comfort from God’s Love

The Greek word for “love” here is the word “agape” which we have head many times is the special word that the New Testament writers designated to indicate the love of God that works in and through his people.

We can see this love reign in the three stories that we know of the Church of Philippi from .

For Lydia, the “agape” love of the Lord opened her heart to the Gospel that Paul preached and then she in turn opened her home in “agape” love to Paul, his missionary team and later the Christian Church of Philippi.

For the little girl whose spirit was being abused by a demon and whose mind and body was being abused by her slave masters, the “agape” love of God came in to release her from that bondage and set her free to tell her story and live a life of true “agape” love.

For the jailer who was about to take his life because he was certain that the men that he was ordered to “keep them safely” has escaped.