Sermon Tone Analysis
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Time for a Self Evaluation
Please open your Bibles to .
Read Philippians 3:12-16.
It’s the middle of the year.
We are almost halfway through 2018.
At the start of the year, many people make resolutions or goals for the following year.
People say:
They will lose weight.
Stop annoying habits.
Work out more.
You know the list.
Christians also make goals.
Sometimes its to read your Bible more, grow in certain areas, stop sinning in others.
With 2018 halfway through, how are you doing in your goals?
It’s good to evaluate ourselves.
Paul is doing a little self-evaluating of himself.
Paul doesn’t let external circumstances interfere with his own quest for holiness.
Remember where he is and what’s going on in his life as he’s writing this letter to the Philippians.
He’s in Rome, in house arrest.
He has a Roman guard chained to him at all times.
He’s at the mercy of others providing food, money and supplies to him.
What’s interesting is that even though he has some very real physical demands, he still is concerned about his Christian walk.
He’s still concerned with his personal holiness, obedience and overall walk with Christ.
That’s very telling.
Many times when things happen in our life, the first thing that suffers is our walk with Christ.
Life gets busy and suddenly it’s hard to pray or find time to read your Bible.
The kids get out of school, or a major change in your family takes place, and now it’s hard to find time to go to church.
Just because life is not perfect, doesn’t mean you can slack off in your obedience to Christ.
It’s doesn’t mean you should stop worshipping Christ.
If anything, it should be even greater.
Martin Luther finding himself in a busy period of life once said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”
All that to say, don’t let your life situation, rob you of your worship of Christ, and personal holiness.
So here is Paul, under house arrest, and instead of wallowing in his situation he uses it as a time to examine himself, to see where he is at spiritually.
The first test of knowing where you are is you need to Know Yourself
I love Paul’s honesty in verse 12.
I consider Paul one of the heroes of the faith.
God used Paul to pen most of the New Testament.
Through Paul’s writings, we know so much about God, His nature and His love for His people.
I consider Paul, a very good Christian.
I would love to be like Paul.
Yet, Paul never let any of that get to his head.
As great as Paul was, he was still very aware of his sin.
In he called himself the chief of all sinners.
And here, he describes what he himself is lacking.
Verse 12 he says, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect ...”
He is not a buddha.
He has not reached enlightenment.
He is not perfect.
He sees where he needs to grow.
You are here today, and therefore, I can conclude, that you desire to be spiritual, and to grow spiritually, then the first thing that needs to happen is you need to examine yourself.
This examination has 2 questions.
First, are you in the faith?
That first question must be answered or the rest of this sermon will not be applicable to you.
Maturity means nothing if you are not in Christ.
Until you are born again, none of this will make sense.
In , God takes Ezekiel to the middle of a valley.
In this valley, surrounding him, are bones.
Dry bones.
They are bleached white from sitting in the sun, for who knows how long.
God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”
If I go to a local cemetery and begin preaching to the bodies in the graves, will they learn anything?
Of course not, they’re dead.
What if I had a Powerpoint presentation, and gave each dead body an iPad, so that even the visual learners have a resource?
Would they learn?
The answer is still no.
You can’t teach a lifeless body.
The event continues, God tells Ezekiel to tell the bones to come to life.
And Ezekiel does.
Tendons formed, connecting bone to muscles.
The skeletons began to gain their shape.
Flesh covered their frames.
And then life was breathed into the formerly dead bodies.
And only after God breathed life into them, could those bodies live properly.
And the same for us.
Until you are in Christ, you will never understand truth.
You will never understand your condition.
Paul even says that the reason why he desires to grow is because “Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
If you can answer the first question well, that you are in the faith, then you need to ask yourself the second question, where do you need to grow?
Even Paul, in all his holiness, still saw weakness.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect ...”
There are Christian men alive today, and there are Christian men that have lived through the ages, who I love, but they were wrong in many areas.
I love John MacArthur - but he’s been wrong.
I loved RC Sproul … but he was wrong many times.
And others, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Augustine.
I love these men, yet they were wrong.
And so, if you examine and see yourself lacking, you are not alone.
So where do you need to grow?
Give yourself this examination:
First, are you growing?
You should be able to look at your life now, and see a difference from where you were 5 years ago, or 10 years ago.
And if you can’t see any growth, then that is a sign that something is off.
We shouldn’t be stagnant in our Christian life.
Next, look at what sins you need to attack.
If you are sinning, you are not walking by the Spirit.
says, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
As long as you continue to let sin reign in your life, I promise you, you are not going to mature the way you should.
In it says, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely ...”
Meaning sin acts as a drag or a parachute, and it slows you down in your spiritual growth.
What sins are slowing you down?
And third, ask someone to evaluate you.
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