Sermon Tone Analysis

Philippians 1:12-18

Philippians 1:12-18

By: Samuel Sorenson

7/3/2022

Introduction

It’s important to know that God loves you and that He has a plan and a purpose for your life.

Many times, you may ask yourself if you are worthy of His love?

Whatever sins you may have committed in the past that have caused you to be ashamed, many times those sins cause us to feel unworthy of God’s love.

But God loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

John 3:16-17.

There is no sin that you have committed that God cannot forgive, now there are consequences to sin and the mistakes you make in your teens and twenties will affect you in your thirties, forties, and sometimes for the rest of your life.

The important thing to remember is this, that this earth is not our home.

God has given us the gift of eternal life and our eternal home is with Him in heaven.

Revelation 21:4-5 states, 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”5

Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

And He said [b]to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

Did God say I make some things new?

No, He said I make all things new.

However, it does not happen until we are with Him in heaven.

Now there are some things we can choose to make better in our lives.

We can exercise, we can eat healthy, we can choose to saturate our minds with healthy things and not things that will make us feel depressed or angry.

We can choose how we respond to negative behavior.

We cannot necessarily control what happens to us, but being aware of our own actions, we can control how we respond and that friends is life changing.

I had a roommate in Seminary who did not like to exercise.

I tried to encourage him to do push-ups, to lift weights, to do something physical, and he was not receptive to it.

He did try walking and that helped him some.

I later told him that if he did not exercise that his health could degenerate.

I told him this to help him understand the seriousness of living an unhealthy lifestyle.

I was not trying to shame him, or make him feel bad, I was trying to save him a lot of physical pain later on in life.

The choices he makes now will affect his quality of life in the future.

Likewise, many parents try to speak into their kids lives to motivate them and seek out a purpose and plan for how they will be productive to society and be loved and respected by others in their community.

Many times, no matter how gentle we are with our words and how we try to help people they are not ready to receive the advice.

That is where we can pray for them.

We can put it in God’s hands and ask Him to gently nudge them along.

God had a remedy for the world, He refused to leave us in our hopeless sinful condition, He chose to step down from heaven and become a man, live out a perfect sinless life, die a sinners death, and rise again so that whoever believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

I am repeating this statement to you because I want you to see the significance of what Jesus did for us.

If I were to ask you today, do you know of a person who knows and understands their calling in life?

What would you say?

How many people can you think of that are doing what God has called them to do and are content in living that calling out?

I would argue that many people do what they are good at, they do what they know, but many often wonder if that one job is all that there is for them.

Brothers and sisters there are three phases a believer goes through.

The first state is the baby Christian phase, that is the state where a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior and is experiencing all of the enjoyable parts of being born again, baby Christians are eager to learn the bible, they are spiritually hungry and are being fed, they may listen to every sermon that comes on the radio, read every Christian book they can find, and eagerly seek out counselors to help them understand what their calling in life is?

The second phase is the adolescent stage of being a Christian, this is the stage where a Christian has learned and grown some, they may have had some discipleship training, they may have started serving in the church, but many of them are not content with just being a pew sitter in the church.

Many want a place to serve in their local body and to be seen and heard.

They want to live out whatever purpose God has for them on the earth.

The last stage is the mature Christian, this is the stage where a Christian is serving and is actively engaged in their walk with the Lord.

This is the stage where a believer is not satisfied with just hearing the Word preached to them, they want to teach or perform a duty for the Lord.

The Lord may put a calling to go and preach, or to teach a Sunday school class, or to clean the church, or to suffer for the sake of the gospel.

The Lord may put a calling on a believer to do prison ministry and minister to prisoners who have not heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

This is the stage that Apostle Paul was at when he wrote to the church of the Philippians.

God has a purpose for every one of His children.

His purpose is to commune with them, to walk with them, to protect them, to see them live out the purpose He put them on this earth to do.

He wants to see them live out the potential He put in them.

Friends it takes courage to share the gospel, it takes courage to walk up to someone you do not know and ask them about themselves.

We have to get over the fear of rejection, the fear of thinking that people do not like us.

I hate to break it to you but not everyone we cross paths with will like us.

However, there are those who will surprise us, who will listen to us, and who will appreciate us taking the time to get to know them.

So, friends let me encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and hear the voice of love.

The voice that says come to me all who are heavy laden and heavy burden and I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Many of us do not know this but there are two voices competing in our heads the voice of fear and rejection, and the voice of love.

If I were to ask you what does the voice of rejection sound like?

What would you say?

Would you say that it sounds like someone saying no for a date, a job, or a friendship?

Many of us listen to the voice of fear and rejection over the voice of our Lord and Savior and that is not good.

One of the biggest challenges I have had to learn in ministry is to get over the fear of rejection, the fear reaching out to people.

The fear of thinking I may be a bother to them.

You see Jesus took the time to reach out to people to the weary and downtrodden.

He took the time to feed them, to listen to them, to heal them.

Now that He is in heaven, He has enabled His followers with His Spirit so that we the church, can be His hands and feet.

So that we can minister to the weary and downtrodden.

Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus’s last and final commandment was to go out to all the nations and make disciples of them.

With that being said let’s continue our study through the book of Philippians.

Text

Philippians 1:12-18, “ But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, 13 so that it has become evident to the whole [a]palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; 14 and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

15 Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: 16 [b]The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; 17 but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

18 What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

Thesis: My purpose in speaking to you today is for you to understand that in seeking out God’s will for your life, you will find the purpose and satisfaction that God has for you.

Context:

The book of Philippians overflows with joy and thanksgiving.

Paul wrote to the church in Philippi to thank them for a gift.

He reported the joyful news that Epaphroditus, who had brought their gift to Paul, had recovered from his illness and was returning to Philippi.

Paul said that he had learned the secret of being content in any situation, and he told them about his situation in prison.

He expressed joy that more people were hearing about Christ even if some were proclaiming the gospel with bad motives.

Wanting the Christians in Philippi to be unified, he challenged them to be servants just as Jesus was when he “emptied himself” and became a man rather than clinging to the rights of his divine nature (2:1–11).

Paul wrote this letter while in prison, probably in Rome about the year a.d.

60.[1]

Last week we looked at three ways to pray for your church.

To do a quick recap those three ways were,

1) Pray that your love may abound in all knowledge and discernment

2) Pray that you may approve of the things that are excellent.

3) Pray that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ.

Paul is facing hardships in his life but what is his attitude at this point?

Rather than detail the hardships he faced, Paul took a divine perspective.

He recognized that all events could be redeemed for the Lord’s sake, and he took what advantage of that he could to continue his mission.

The primary concern was that the gospel would go forward.

This happened through adverse circumstances, but as long as it happened, Paul could be joyful.

Paul did not specifically mention his imprisonment.