Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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The words “are we done” can have different meanings based upon the different settings in which it is used.
These words can be declared with somewhat of a confidence that all the options have been explored or all the tasks have been completed.
The classic Aesop Fable of The Milkmaid and Her Pail is a classic example of this thinking.
A Milkmaid had been out to milk the cows and was returning from the field with the shining milk pail balanced nicely on her head.
As she walked along, her pretty head was busy with plans for the days to come.
"This good, rich milk," she mused, "will give me plenty of cream to churn.
The butter I make I will take to market, and with the money I get for it I will buy a lot of eggs for hatching.
How nice it will be when they are all hatched and the yard is full of fine young chicks.
Then when May day comes I will sell them, and with the money I'll buy a lovely new dress to wear to the fair.
All the young men will look at me.
They will come and try to make love to me,—but I shall very quickly send them about their business!"
As she thought of how she would settle that matter, she tossed her head scornfully, and down fell the pail of milk to the ground.
And all the milk flowed out, and with it vanished butter and eggs and chicks and new dress and all the milkmaid's pride.
Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
The thoughts of completion ended up being a hindrance to her completion.
The same words can be asked with irritation because one can only see problems and no more options.
The story is told of R.U.
Darby and his uncle who traveled from Maryland to Colorado to mine a promising gold mine.
The beginning efforts were very successful, but their work suddenly came to a stop when the gold vein seemed to disappear.
“ So they decided to walk away from it, and sell it for whatever they could sell their equipment for.
They found a man who bought junk for pennies.
The ‘junk’ man bought all their machinery and equipment for a few hundred dollars.
The Darby’s took the next train back home to Maryland.
Mr. Junk Man decided to bring in a mine engineer (a specialist) and look at the mine and do some analysis.
Well it didn’t take long for this specialist to discover what the Darby’s had done wrong, where they had made their mistake.
It turns out as he explained to the junk man; the Darby’s had overlooked or were unaware of “fault lines.”
He further explained that according to his calculations, the huge gold vein would be found again just three feet away from where the Darby’s had stopped drilling!
Needless to say, they started drilling in the place the specialist had indicated and … The Gold Vein was Found Exactly Three Feet Away!”
Success and Problems can both be blinders to the fruitful work that God intends to bring about.
A little backdrop of Philippians
Acts 16 gives Paul’s initial encounter in the city
This church had shared with Paul financially in many endeavors even after he left Phillipi.
When they hear that he was in prison, they sent Epaphroditus with a gift to encourage Paul.
While there Epaphroditus gets sick.
The church at Philippi hears about his sickness, but doesn’t know the extent of it.
Upon receiving the gift from the Philippian church and hearing about the health of the church, Paul decides to send Epaphroditus back to the Philippian church with this letter.
His heart is full of joy over the gift of love from this dear church, but he also has concerns of some things that he has heard about the church from Epaphroditus.
Enter Paul’s prison cell and imagine the smiles that come across his face or the possible shaking of his head and the tears in his eyes as he ponders how loving the people of Philippi have been to him once again.
Imagine the furrowed brow and the sigh as he ponders some of the situations in which false leaders are trying to lead them astray and brothers and sisters in the church are not getting along
This brief letter has the refreshing scent of joy and contentment.
The joy over their kindness has not led to a prideful satisfaction but rather to a desire for more of it.
Their problems have not led to sulking but to loving warnings and confidence in God’s work.
As we open this letter written almost 2000 years ago, we see God wisely addressing our similar needs.
We get confident in successes and disoriented in our problems and disagreements.
How would you expect a letter in this situation to began?
What keeps satisfaction from stagnation?
What guards discouragement from sinking into despair?
- Prayer
What do we notice about the working of prayer?
In order to guard against prayer just being a generic prescription for all situations, observe the skill of prayer.
(Picture of a skilled doctor)
What do you notice first in the prayer?
Circumstances are overpowered by the fragrance of Christlike fruitfulness (v.v.
3-4)
It has a perspective that remembers others
There is a choice of thankfulness
There is a abounding eagerness (“All)
There is an overpowering joy (this comes up all throughout the book)
Illustration: Exhausted, tired worker coming into home and finding his exhaustion overpowered by the smell of delicious food.
Transition: So we get the fragrance of Christlike fruitfulness coming out of a life in prayer but what specifically is Paul thankful, eager, and joyful about?
Let’s consider this and then pause for what that looks like in our prayerful interaction with God.
Isolation is broadened to participation in God’s work (v.v.
5-6)
Isolation has a view as to how things are benefiting oneself.
Partnership sees the cause bigger than oneself, and views others as essential in the task.
The Philippian church had taken care of Paul many times since his first arrival in Philippi, and they still haven’t stopped when Paul was in prison.
Participation is not just monetary.
He speaks later of them participating in prayer.
Later he will speak of the gift of participation in suffering.
An isolated view only sees today.
Paul sees God at work on a much larger scale.
He sees a tenacious God who does not give up.
He sees God who will complete the good work that He starts in people.
He sees the exalted day of Christ as that which culminates all the rest of the little days.
The in between time is not filler.
It is an unfolding of His work.
Paul does the delicate work of man’s participation and recognition that God is the producer of all.
Application
Is this just positive thinking, and trying to find the good in life?
Surely Scripture teaches us many facets of prayer in which we come and spill our our woes and confusion to God.
However prayer is also that trusting expression that chooses to express our submission and trust in what God is doing.
Part of the growing process is God expanding our expectation?
When we go hunting we ask: “Did you get a moose?”
When a child goes to a party, we ask: “Did you have fun?”
When we do a task, we ask: “Did you get it all done?”
The success is gauged by the specific result expected.
God is creatively working to bring about a fountain of graces in our lives.
Prayer is stopping to see God at work and asking for his multi-facted graces to abound in our lives and others
Prayer is such an important time to stop and thank God and pray for those we get to participate with in His work.
So much of our lives are filled with competition and comparison.
Prayer is so essential in seeking the big goal for the day of Christ.
It is so easy to think that God’s work is all dependent on us rather than seeking to take part in any way in preparing people for the day of Christ.
Illustration of kid on a tug of war rope wining about the work.
He can look at the end and see the big guy on his team and look to his teamates with encouragement, and press on in the tugging.
Transition: Now consider a third affect of prayer.
The heart is being put in rhythm with the actual love of Christ (v.v 7-8)
Paul says that is right for him to have the thinking of confidence, thankfulness, joy etc.
This task of defending and proclaiming the gospel is what he is about.
But he is not about this alone.
They are partaking in the work with him.
Later he will speak of the essential work of their prayers.
But this is not just business partners.
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