Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

-If you are a true Christian, Jesus your Lord desires that your life reflect both your faith in Him and His life in you.

…Both your faith in Christ and the evidence of the life of Christ in you witness to the Grace and Love of God to those around you. …It is through the Church that God is shown to the world, and the Church is made up of each one of you who are born again.

…So God calls you to live with Christian character and attitudes and qualities.

…In the verses before us we have three of these Christian qualities.

…They are joy, gentleness, and peace.

The book of Philippians is filled with exhortations by the apostle Paul to the saints at Philippi about having a good attitude.

In chapter one he talks about his own attitude of desiring to magnify Christ whether by life or death, and in chapter twp he encourages the brethren to have the mind or the attitude in them that was in Christ.

Listen now to what he tells them in Philippians 4:4-9: “Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice!

Let your gentleness be known to all men.

The Lord is at hand.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

In this text, the apostle gives some specific advice on how to maintain an attitude well pleasing to God.

Have you ever wanted a do-over… a restart.

My wife has recently picked up crocheting.

It’s the first time she’s ever done it seriously, and it takes a lot of practice.

She had to restart a headband a dozen times before she got it just right.

Or perhaps you have said something really stupid and just wished you could have a do over?

Well, it’s the new year.

A time for new beginnings.

Lots of people have been resolving to do something over.

I go to Colaw fitness and the past week has been insanely busy… it’ll clear out soon I imagine… Or perhaps you needed a do over for something a little more serious.

My biological grandfather Paul died of alcohol poisoning after years of abusing my grandma… at the end of his life he wanted a do over… but it was too late.

See, when we want a do over, it means that our happiness has been taken away.

We tried something to make us happy… but it didn’t work out… so we want something new!

Today, I want to show you from the Bible, very simply just verse by verse how you can experience deep, meaningful, true, lasting, happiness in your life.

Let’s pray.

-All three of these Christian qualities are an expression of faith and trust in God.

…Joy, gentleness and peace are not natural qualities but qualities that result from trust in a Sovereign and Loving God.

…Joy, gentleness and peace are the fruit that a person reaps when they are willing to put the direction, protection, and outcome of their lives fully into the hands of an all powerful, all knowing, all loving, ever present and on the job, Father.

…These Christian qualities are not rooted in the soil of positive thinking and self-effort but in the supernatural work of God in the heart and in the mind.

…These Christian qualities do require determined and repetitive choices and actions on our part.

…These Christian qualities require obedience to God’s commands, they require giving our lives back into God’s control over and over again as we try and take control back from God, they require prayer and thanksgiving, they require concentration of the mind on certain things and excluding other things.

…The formation of these Christian qualities in our life requires hard work on our part but that work is toward a deeper trust in God.

…Our trust in God grows as we understand Who God is and what His purposes are.

…That is why we need to know God through reading His Word and through prayer.

Joy

He says that we need to have an attitude of joy.

“Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice!” (v.

4).

Sometimes we use the words joy and happiness pretty much as synonyms, but there are times when it is important to make a distinction.

Happiness in primarily an outward emotional reaction to pleasant circumstances, but joy is a deep, inner characteristic that continues to exist even in unpleasant circumstances and in fact serves to sustain us through those bad times.

That's why Jesus could say, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

In fact, we often define the word translated “blessed” as meaning happy or fortunate.

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2but his delight is in the law of the LORD ,and on his law he meditates day and night.3He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.4The

wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;6for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Exposition

-This morning we only have time to have a brief look at how God can replace anxiety with peace through prayer and thanksgiving.

We all experience trials, difficulties, and problems in life that make us unhappy, and there is nothing wrong with feeling unhappy in such situations.

But as Christians, we can still rejoice even when we are sad.

Remember, Paul said, “Rejoice…always.”

But how is that possible?

We can rejoice always “in the Lord.”

Paul helps us understand what this means in Romans 12:12 when he says, “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.”

No matter what happens to us in this life, Christians can rejoice in their hope.

Did not Jesus say, “For great is your reward in heaven”?

Children of God can get through whatever tribulations we face because we have hope.

Charles Wesley put it this way:

Rejoice in glorious hope!

Our Lord the Judge shall come,

And take His servants up to their eternal home.

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,

Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

Okay, let’s ponder and reflect on what this means.

“Blessed is the man…” Blessed seems like a pretty key word from the very beginning.

It’s somewhat of an unfortunate translation.

If you’re not a Christian, you may think, “What does blessed mean?

That sounds like a really Christian word, but I’m not sure what it means.”

What it really means is happy.

Open your Bible’s please to

-Anxiety is increasing even among God’s people.

…God wants His children to live in the peace of God and not in anxiety.

…Anxiety is a confession of unbelief.

…Anxiety is a loud admission that we are not trusting in God but that we are trusting in our own resources.

…Anxiety is sin.

Gentleness

Paul also says that we need to have an attitude of gentleness.

“Let your gentleness be known to all men.

The Lord is at hand” (v.

5).

The King James Version uses the word “moderation.”

The New King James footnote gives the alternate translations of “graciousness or forbearance.”

McKnight says that the word "means meekness under provocation, readiness to forgive injuries, equity in the management of business, candor in judging of the characters and actions of others, sweetness of disposition, and the entire government of the passions."

A form of the same word is used in Titus 3:2, “to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men” where it is translated “gentle.”

Now, at this point you’ll hear Christians say, “Actually, the world has happiness, but we have joy.”

That sounds like happiness is some flighty, fleeting emotion and joy is some deep reality devoid of feeling.

The problem is that just doesn’t square with the Bible.

The Bible actually uses both joy and happiness, oftentimes interchangeably.

Both are emotional; both are deep and wide-ranging.

1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

-Anxiety is over concern with present and future circumstances.

…We can worry over our finances, our future, our health, our children, our jobs, and many other things, but God says we are not to worry over anything.