Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION: TOGETHER THEY RUN - SERMON SPICE

My favorite line in that little clip is where it says, “Without ____________, _________ couldn’t run.

“Without ____________, _________ wouldn’t run Together they run: one has the strength, the other has the heart.”

That is a picture of one of my favorite words: “Synergy.”

The official definition of the word “synergy” is “the working together of two things to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects.

Synergy happens when a team works together well.

While the word “great” may not describe their individual talent, when you put them all together, greatness is achieved.

You really see it in the church.

When God’s people come together, through His Spirit, the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts.

The connection that happens in the family of God creates an impact unrivaled in other relationships.

You might sum it up like this: Greatness is all about having the right kind of “connection.”

NEED

Now when I start talking about “connection,” the “Lone Rangers” among us fidget.

They’re into going it alone.

They resist the costly connections and they resist them for any number of reasons.

Some chafe at the humility connection requires.

Face it: if two people are involved in any endeavor, one will usually be the leader and another will follow.

Connection requires mutual submission and there are many who must have it their way or hit the highway.

But you’ll never find “go-it-aloners” who achieve greatness.

Real greatness is a team sport and teams work best when everyone’s ego serves their ultimate objective.

Connection demands humility.

Some don’t connect because it requires humility and others resist connection because it requires patience.

You know, its just a whole lot easier and faster for you to do things your way without having to explain it to anyone else or listen to their hairbrained suggestions.

For that reason, Lone Rangers prefer to work solo.

They just don’t have the patience to listen to anyone else.

Some reject connection because of the humility and the patience it requires.

Others don’t like it because of the perseverance it requires.

Only determined persistence unites people who quickly tire of the slow pace of unity.

That’s why unity is so rare.

It is difficult to forge and so easy to abandon.

Yet it is the connected believer who achieves greatness.

Lone Rangers only do it in theaters.

Am I describing anyone here?

Are you here and, if you’d be honest about it, you qualify as a “lone ranger.”

You’ve been duped into thinking that greatness in Christianity can be achieved alone.

Well if you do, you’d find yourself at odds with the Paul, the Apostle.

He writes in Phil 3:12

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

Great believers are well connected.

First,

DIV 1: A GREAT BELIEVER IS PROPERLY CONNECTED TO GOD

EXPLANATION

Now, I realize when anyone starts talking about being “connected” to God some become uncomfortable.

For one thing it’s a very inexact thing.

Just what does it mean to be connected to God? How do you know if you are or if you aren’t.

For another thing it’s just a little “spooky.”

People who talk about being “connected” to God may seem a little weird at first glance.

Is this “God-connection” really legitimate?

Well, I think you see it right here in these verses.

Notice what Paul says in v 15.

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

Notice carefully what Paul says here.

He’s talking to the Philippians who were, for some reason, having trouble agreeing.

He is urging them to unite around a common goal of knowing Jesus and he says that, if they are determined to unite like this that, if in the process they get off base, God will reveal even this to you.

In other words, in some way, whether through their conscience, or through His word, or through the insight of a brother in Christ, God will make it clear to them how they need to change.

It will be revealed to them.

And notice as well the prerequisites for this revelation: It requires a mindset.

He says . . .

let us, as many as are mature, have this mind.

The mindset that he is talking about is the Christ-centered ambition he spoke of back in v 10 where he told them that he wanted to “know Christ.”

If I am to experience the revelation of God, I must have my mind centered on knowing Christ.

And there’s more.

Not only must I have this mindset, I must also be maturing in my faith.

He says, Let us, as many as are mature, have this mind.

The reason many don’t hear from God is because they don’t have their minds set on Jesus and they are not maturing in their faith.

People often complain that God’s not speaking to them.

They say, “I wish I had the relationship with God that so-and-so has.

I wish God spoke to me the way He seems to speak to them.”

Hey, if that thought ever flits across the screen of your mind, would you ask yourself two questions?

First, “Where’s my head?

What am I focused on?

Who is at the center of my life?

What is it that occupies my waking thoughts?

Second ask yourself: “What am I pursuing?

Am I closer to Christ than I was yesterday?

Do I really want to grow in Him and am I making that growth a reality with the habits I’m pursuing?”

You see revelation is the result of a God-connection that flows from what I think about and the goal I pursue.

And here’s the point: Excellence in the Christian life is directly proportionate to my ability to listen to God.

Great Christians have that sixth sense of the God’s presence that sets them apart from other believers.

They know His voice.

He speaks to them.

ILLUSTRATION

Have you heard about the cell phone ringtone that junior high and high school kids are using to keep teachers from discovering that they are using their cell phones in school?

The pitch of this ringtone, called the "mosquito tone," is too high for people over 25 to hear.

So the kids can still send and receive text messages during class without the teacher knowing.

I’m going to have the guys in the soundbooth to play it right now.

Did you hear that?

Amazing isn’t it?

The mosquito tone was first developed in Great Britain to irritate teenagers who were loitering around convenience stores and keeping customers away by their loud and obnoxious behavior…

Some kid simply figured out how to use that sound as his cell phone's ringtone and—voilà—kids are downloading it by the millions.

How does the mosquito tone go undetected by adults older than 25?

Inside our ears we have tiny microscopic hairs that move with the impulses of incoming sound waves, and those hair movements send electrical signals to our brain.

As we age, those hairs get worn down, actually damaged, so our hearing becomes less sensitive.

We first lose the ability to detect the sounds of high frequencies.

People over 25 can't hear sounds above 16 kilohertz.

(The highest note on a piano is 4 Khz; the mosquito tone is 17 Khz.)

Here’s the point: Believers who have their minds set on Christ and who are pursuing maturity in Christ grow “spiritual ear hair” so to speak.