Sermon Tone Analysis

*How Should We Live?*

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Philippians 2:12-16  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for /His /good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world 16 holding 1fast the word of life, so that in athe day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not brun in vain nor ctoil in vain.

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#. *How do we live when no one is around to see us?*

Philippians 2:12  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

 

*a) The outward life- *The material world, worldly prestige, personality, power, influence, make it up.

Fruitless.

The way of the hypocrite

Matthew 6:5-6 (NASB95) \\ 5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men.

Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees /what is done /in secret will reward you.[2]

*b) The inner life- *Fruitful

This English translation originally appeared in "Spiritual Progress \\ or Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul from the French of Fenelon and Madame Guyon"; Printed in 1853; Edited by James W. Metcalf.

IT is not astonishing that men do so little for God and that the little which they do costs them so much.

They do not know Him; scarcely do they believe that He exists; and the impression they have is rather a blind deference for general opinion than a lively and distinct conviction of the Divinity.

They suppose it is so, because they do not dare to examine, and because they are indifferent in the matter, their souls being distracted by the inclination of their affections and passions for other objects; but their only idea of Him is of something wonderful, far off and unconnected with us.

They think of Him as a stern and powerful Being, ever making requisitions upon us, thwarting our inclinations, threatening us with great evils, and against whose terrible judgment it behooves every one to be on his guard.

Such is the inward thought of those who think seriously about religion, and their number even is small enough.

"He is one who fears God," say they; and in truth such an one fears only, but does not love; as the child is in awe of the master who punishes him, or as the servant is in dread of the blows of one whom he serves from fear, and of whose interests is he utterly regardless.

Would he like to be treated by a son or a servant as he treats God?

It is because God is not known; if He were known, He would be loved.

/God is love,/ says the apostle John (1 John iv. 8, 16); he who loves Him not, does not know Him, for how could we know love without loving it?

It is plain, then, that all those who have hitherto only feared God, have not known Him.

 

*2)     **Do we live with a sense of the Holy?*

Philippians 2:16…work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

*The attitude of salvation:*

*a) The casual attitude*- It is in the busyness, indifference, and apathy of the day.

It will kill you.

Why?

Because you have an adversary who is seeking to rip you off, demolish, humiliate, to shame, and to destroy you…does that constitute a casual attitude?

*b)The Biblical attitude- *

* *Work out*- (kat·er·*gad*·zom·ahee) The verb signifies working at, and finally accomplishing, a task.

To overcome[3]

* *Fear*- Strong’s /phobeomai/  -fear, dread, terror.

1a that which strikes terror.[4]

* *Trembling* - /tromos/ means with fear and trembling, used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfill his duty.[5]

*Lord of the Rings Clip “Return of The King” They are surrounded by Orks, it is  the last battle.*

*3)     **Do we live with a sense of the presence of God in our lives?*

Philippians 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for /His /good pleasure.

*a) To we have an inner life?*

·         Have we asked Jesus into our lives?

·         Have we asked for the Baptism of His Holy Spirit?

·         Are we consistent in our journey with Jesus?

* *

*b) How do we develop an inner life?*

·         Acknowledge and welcome His presence in our lives on a daily basis.

·         Read the word not in a textual academic approach but, in a relational approach?

What’s the difference?

·         Have times of meditation through out the day.

·         Anticipate His presence

·         Develop solitude

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*(JEN- You can leave this part out on John of the cross and resume on p.4)*

* *

St. John’s teaching on the transition from ordinary prayer to contemplation can be distilled into the following points: \\ \\ By ordinary prayer St. John meant any kind of prayer that we can do by our own efforts aided by God’s grace.

He called this meditation.

In it we make use of our natural faculties, that is, our senses, imagination, intellect, memory and will in order to pray.

* John also gives a precise meaning to the word contemplation.

It is a kind of prayer that we cannot do whenever we want, for it does not depend on the natural working of the faculties.

It is a prayer given by God in the depths of the heart so it is called infused contemplation, or mystical experience.

The goal of the Christian life is union with God, and contemplation is a mysterious experience of that union.

\\ St. John also gives us a schema of the evolution of the life of prayer.

The beginning of our serious interest in the life of prayer, or conversion to God, is often marked by a period of sensible consolation.

God feels present to us.

We feel a warm glow in our spiritual exercises, a glow that pervades our feelings and thoughts, indeed, all our natural faculties, and serves the good purpose of drawing us from the things of the world to the things of God.

* But eventually this sense of God’s presence falls away.

This can happen gradually or suddenly, and we are left in darkness.

It can feel like God has abandoned us, and in our anxiety we wonder if we have committed some sin to bring about what appears to be a terrible state of affairs.

And most of all, we want things to be back the way they were.

This could be called *the dark night of the senses* in the wider meaning of the term, and is a common experience in those devoted to the life of prayer.

"The sensory night is common and happens to many." (14)

"...it is at the time they are going about their spiritual exercises with delight and satisfaction, when in their opinion the sun of divine favor is shining most brightly on them, that God darkens all this light and closes the door and spring of the sweet spiritual water they were tasting as often – and as long as they desired."

(15)

"This usually happens to recollected beginners sooner than to others, since they are freer from occasions of backsliding and they more quickly reform their appetites for worldly things.

A reform of the appetites is the requirement for entering the happy night of the senses.

Not much time ordinarily passes after the initial stages of their spiritual life before beginners start to enter this night of sense.

And the majority of them do enter it, because it is common to see them suffer these aridities."

(16)

·         It is important to distinguish between what can be called the dark night in the strict sense, that is, a dark night coming from the beginning of contemplation, and a dark night in a more general sense, which is a growing inability to meditate as before.

If these two nights were identical John could have simply concluded his treatment here and not have gone on to describe the signs that are necessary in order that we can be sure that we are entering into the night of contemplation.

But a few lines later he goes on:

"Because the origin of these aridities may not be the sensory night and purgation, but sin and imperfection, or weakness and lukewarmness, or some bad humor or bodily indisposition, I will give some signs here for discerning whether the dryness is the result of this purgation or of one of these other defects.

I find there are three principal signs for knowing this.

·         "The first is that as these souls do not get satisfaction or consolation from the things of God, they do not get any out of creatures either."

(17)

·         "The second sign for the discernment of this purgation is that the memory ordinarily turns to God solicitously and with painful care and the soul thinks it is not serving God, but turning back because it is aware of this distaste for the things of God." (18)

·         "Since the sensory part of the soul is incapable of the goods of the spirit it remained deprived, dry, and empty, and thus while the spirit is tasting the flesh tastes nothing at all and becomes weak in its work...

If in the beginning the soul does not experience (no siente) this spiritual savor and delight, but dryness and distaste, it is because of the novelty involved in this exchange."

(19)

*4)     **Do we live our lives in Christ with joy?*

Philippians 2:14 Do *all things* without grumbling or disputing;

 

a.

Aren’t I entitled to live a life of happiness?

*b.     *Do I see the Lord in *all things?*

*5)     **Do we live with a value on the word?*

Philippians 2:16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain

 

* He is the word of life

* Hold onto the promise- If His word is true, if He is not a liar, bank on the promises of God.

 

6) *Do we have an expectant hope?*

Philippians 2:16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain

 

*a)     **False hope vs. True hope*

·         *False hope- *Based on a lie, Auschwitz- you get to take a shower

·         *True hope- *Based in reality, based on substantial evidence and testimony.

*b)     **Do we live with the spirit of expectation?*

Philippians 2:16  holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not brun in vain nor  toil in vain.

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1 Or /forth/

a Phil 1:6