Sermon Tone Analysis

Overall tone of the sermon

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Tone of specific sentences

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Anger
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Anger
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*/ /*
!! Philippians 1:9-11
* *
*Introduction:*  I'd like to start off with a brief survey about goals.
Where would you like to be in, say, a year?
Five years?
Ten?
Not in your job, your housing, or any other material area.
Where would you like to be in your /spiritual/ life?
I'm going to give some descriptions, and you raise your hand if you'd like this to describe you.
(You may want more than one of these, so don't wait 'til you hear all of the choices).
I'll give the description, then I'll ask you to raise your hand if you'd like this to describe you:
 
• This Christian is a person of integrity.
What you see is what you get.
There is no hypocrisy, no secret sin or worldliness.
They are the same when they're in the 7-Eleven as they are in Sunday morning church.
They are really as spiritual inside as they look on the outside.
• This Christian is morally unassailable.
No matter what the temptation that tries to trip them up, they will not stumble over it.
And their life is an example to others, so that other people will not stumble because of their lifestyle.
In a word, they are /stable/ in their Christian walk.
• This Christian acts, talks, and seems to even /think/ exactly like Jesus.
When you look at their life, you see the life of Christ shining through.
They are a loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle, good, faithful, humble, temperate person.
People are /drawn/ to them because they have something others need.
Now, the final question.
And don't raise your hand.
Just really think about this one:
 
/Am I prepared to do whatever the Bible asks in order to grow  that kind of Christianity in my life?/
 
~* This is /exactly/ what Paul wanted for the Philippians.
In vs. 10-11 of our text we read these descriptions.
He prayed that they would be:
 
            *1.*
Sincere (/eilikrineis/): "that which being viewed in the sunshine is found clear and pure; spotless, sincere, ingenuous".
- In the process of firing pottery, sometimes cracks would form.
Unscrupulous merchants would fill the cracks with dark wax, totally undetectable after it was painted, unless you held it up to the sun.
The light would reveal the flaws.
The best merchants stamped their pottery /sine cera/ ("without wax").
*2.*
Without offense (/aproskopoi/): "not stumbling or causing others to stumble".
*3.*
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ.
~* Now, Paul didn't just pray for a supernatural, sanctifying "zap" to transform them overnight.
He prayed for the things that were necessary for them to reach that lifestyle.
*• v. 9:* /"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more . .
."/
 
- Paul prayed that the love of the Philippians would grow.
- Now, we know that this love, this agaph, is not just a fuzzy notion.
It is the defining characteristic of Christianity.
*John 13:35*, *1 John 4:7-8*
 
*Illus:* When you see people in orange robes and topknots handing out roses in the airport, you know whose disciples they are.
When you see guys in short-sleeved white shirts, neckties, and black name tags, you know whose disciples they are.
When you see true, Biblical, love—love that gives of itself sacrificially to meet the need of the cherished object, expecting nothing in return—you know whose disciples they are.
- It is the defining characteristic because it is the outworking of God's activity in us.
*Gal.
5:22*
 
• So, what Paul is praying for, basically, is for them to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ, their dependence on His activity in and through them.
*Phil.
1:6*
 
- He is praying for them to become more Christlike, more developed in their Christian growth, more /mature/.
• How did he want them to grow?
 
- /"that your love may abound"/ – the word is perisseuh, "to be over and above, to be superfluous, to exist in full quantity".
Strong's translates it, "To superabound".
- It's in the present subjunctive, so it carries the idea of linear, durative action – "that ye may live in a state of superabounding"
 
- And not just /that/ -- apparently they were already superabounding in their Christian life, because his prayer was that they would superabound, overflow, "still more and more" -- to a greater and greater degree!
 
- But, like a flood can bring terrible damage when it leaves its banks, love must not run "out of bounds".
That can be dangerous.
So Paul's prayer was that their love would grow inside the proper boundaries:
 
            *1.*
Knowledge  *Rom.
10:1-2*
 
- This is a word that refers only to spiritual things in the Bible, not to facts & figures, math, history, science, etc.
 
- It refers to an awareness of spiritual reality that all men possess, but only Christians possess /accurately/.
In other words, ALL men are aware of the reality of spiritual truths, that they exist.
*Rom.
1:28*; *3:20*
 
- But only through submission to the work of the Holy Spirit can we come to the /truth/ about spiritual realities.
*1 Tim.
2:3-4*, *2 Tim.
2:24-25*
 
- So he wants them to grow in their accurate understanding of the things of God.
And the root deals with knowledge that is gained by experience.
- How important is this?
It seems to be something Paul prayed for many, many churches.
*Eph.
1:15-18*, *Col.
1:9*; *2:2*
 
- So, if we have to grow in our knowledge, our accurate understanding of the things of God, how do we do this?
*2 Tim.
3:14-17*
 
            *2.*
All judgment
 
- The Greek word here is /aisthesis/, from which we get our word /aesthetics/.
Aesthetics is the area of philosophy that deals with the perception of beauty or what we would call good taste.
- The Greek word referred to perception, /discernment/.
- It's the idea of perceiving with the senses, including what we might call our "moral sense".
*Heb.
5:13-14*
 
- They have their "senses exercised to discern both good and evil".
- Contrary to what Oprah would have you believe, we ARE to make judgments.
*Matt.
7:1*
 
- He can't mean not to make /any/ judgments whatsoever, because not judging requires that we judge that judging is wrong!
 
- Besides, in *v.
6* we /have/ to judge!
 
- From the context, we are not to judge /hypocritically/ – we are not to judge by one standard and expect to be judged by another.
But we are to make judgments about right and wrong!
 
- /God/ makes value judgments.
*Gen.
1:25*, *Dan.
5:27*
 
~* Why did Paul want their love to grow inside these boundaries?
What outcome did he have in mind?
*• v. 10:* /"That ye may approve things that are excellent . .
."/
 
- You may have a translation that reads something like, "try things that are different".
That's pretty weak.
- There was a specific behavior that Paul wanted to see in their lives, and it would only come with maturity "in knowledge and in all judgment".
He wanted them to "approve"
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